Dakang maritime merchant Chai Demei was on the boat, his body recovered seventy or eighty, and the catfish boy invited him to the compass cabin, that is, he withdrew from the cabin, and compared with Hanako, and only Chongwen, Nongji and Chai Demei were left in the cabin. Chongwen invited Chai Demei to sit down and began to inquire about Japan's maritime power.

Chai Demei is a person from Dakang Ningbo Mansion, and he is already a third-generation maritime businessman, specializing in the route of the country. This man is about 40 years old, not tall, his face is dark from the wind blowing at sea, but his eyes are very sharp. I saw a lot of strong winds and waves, and I quickly regained my composure after being rescued. Seeing Chongwen asking, Chai Demei said slowly and logically in an official dialect with a Ningbo accent:

"This country is actually composed of three large islands, the two large islands in the west are linked together, called Honshu and Kyushu, separated by the Kanmon Strait, and the island in the east is Shikoku Island, which faces the two islands in the west across the Seto Inland Sea. ”

He made a gesture of embracing and continued: "It's like holding a child with two arms, Shikoku is the child on the chest, Honshu and Kyushu with both arms, and the back is the country of Zhili, and the rest is the sea, and there is only one Kanmon Strait between the arms.

In the chest of the country and in the sea behind it, there are countless islands scattered. These islanders are very poor and poorly fed, and most of them are strong and good at boating. Once the island is poor and lacks food, it can only go to the sea to plunder in order to earn a life, and the country calls these islanders the water army, that is, the pirates.

These pirates slowly formed a large group, and even if they were the guardian daimyo of the country, the lord and general of the country did not dare to underestimate them. The domestic strife was fierce, the conquest was endless, and some smart people thought of winning over these naval forces for their own use. For example, in the Battle of Tanura 200 years ago, Genji co-opted Iyo's Kono Navy, Kii's Kumano Navy, and Settsu's Watanabe Navy, and finally defeated the Taira clan and established the Kamakura Shogunate. ”

The corners of Nohime's small mouth curled slightly, and he interjected: "That's also because Genji's police Guzhong Matsuura Naval Army fought bravely and skillfully, forcing the main force of the Taira Apo Naval Army to defect, and Genji's great victory." ”

Chai Demei smiled and said, "It turns out that the Mishima Matsuura clan is still the Genji clan, but this is the first time I've heard of it. The details of this battle are unknown to me, an outsider. ”

Nohime said: "Not all pirates are from barbarian islanders, such as the Matsuura clan, whose ancestors are descendants of Emperor Saga, and Matsuura's ancestor Minamoto Yorimitsu served as Hizen Mamoru Mamoru gave rise to the Matsuura Forty-Eight Party. The Black Tartars attacked the country through the province across the sea, and the Matsuura samurai took Hirado, Tsushima, and Isaki Mishima as a base and plundered the country in retaliation. ”

Chongwen smiled: "Oh, in this way, Qu is in Lili?"

Nohime said as a matter of course: "Of course. ”

Chongwen secretly thought that it seemed that this Nohime and the Mishima Matsuura clan must have a deep relationship, but he didn't want to dwell on these details. He looked at Chai Demei and asked, "What happened to these sailors now?"

Chai Demei said: "The strife between the kingdoms has never stopped, and the generals, guards, and nobles on land have to use the navy, and the navy has also used the land power to compete for the island's ships. These naval armies also had ups and downs, their success or failure, and some of them became retainers of the powerful on land, known as the vigilantes, who fought exclusively for their lords. Some dominate the sea and set up customs offices to collect sails and other money, while others go to sea, or smuggle or plunder, and so on.

Because the Matsuura clan of Hizen Province is located on the back of the country, it is very close to the country of Yuli, and it is quite advantageous. All ships of the Chinese country, as long as they leave the Guanmen Strait and enter the Lili or Dakang, will inevitably pass through the three islands. The Matsuura naval army was the most prosperous from this, but the Matsuura clan could only dominate the outer oceans, and it was difficult for him to cross the Kanmon Strait into the Seto Inland Sea.

The Seto Inland Sea is very important, and the country is mountainous and inconvenient to transport by land, so large quantities of goods can only be transported by ship through the Seto Inland Sea. In particular, Kyoto is located at the eastern end of the Seto Inland Sea, and whether it is the goods of Honshu and Shikoku, or the goods of Yuli and Dayasu, they all have to be shipped to Kyoto through the Setouchi Sea.

However, there are thousands of islands in the Seto Inland Sea, and there are naturally many islands, and the government has no choice but to let these sailors set up customs and collect cashiers, wantonly plunder, and only the merchants suffer. The Northern and Southern Dynasties stood side by side, and the 66 wealthy families each supported one side and fought endlessly. No matter how they transported military rations or mobilized troops, they could not bypass the Seto Inland Sea, and the pirates also attached themselves to the land forces and annexed each other, and finally formed several large groups.

The most famous is naturally the Murakami Water Army, who first took refuge in the Kakune clan and persuaded the salt and water army to serve the shogun together. Now that the Kakune family is unified and has opened a government to build a mansion, the Murakami Water Army and the Salt Water Army naturally dominate the Seto Inland Sea. ”

Nohime said, "Not necessarily, the Seto Inland Sea is very vast, and it is impossible for the Murakami family to dominate it alone. To the west of Aki Province, it is the world of the Ouchi Naval Army, and the naval forces of Nomi Island, Kure Island, Hidaka Island, and Uragari Island have all taken refuge in the Ouchi clan, and I heard that the Shirai clan of the Yashiro Island naval army has also become a retainer of Ouchi Yoshihiro. ”

Chongwen muttered in deep thought, "Ouchi Yoshihiro... Ouchi Yoshihiro, I have vaguely heard of this person in Dakang, it seems that he is a general under the command of the Kakune shogunate. ”

Nonghime said: "Have you heard of this person in the Celestial Empire?"

Chongwen said: "Occasionally, I don't know the details. ”

Nohime said: "The Ouchi family was originally the guardian of Zhou's visit to the country, and Ouchi Yoshihiro is the current governor of the Ouchi family, this person is very brave and good at fighting, and he has won the trust of the shogunate. During the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties of the Chinese Kingdom, the Southern Dynasties set up the Zhenxi Exploration Mansion in Kyushu, which was supported by most of the wealthy families in Kyushu. The concubine of the Kakune Zun clan, Kakune Naodong, also relied on these wealthy families in Kyushu to make trouble.

There are three largest wealthy clans in Kyushu, the Shaoji clan, the Otomo clan and the Shimazu clan, and the Northern Dynasty supported by the shogunate tried to win over these wealthy clans and defeat the Zhenxi Prefecture of the Southern Dynasty, but these wealthy clans were the grass on the wall, and they repeatedly swayed between the northern and southern dynasties, causing the shogunate to suffer defeats many times. The shogunate's appointed Kyushu probe Kanegawa Ryōtoshi resolutely invited Yoshihiro Ouchi to enter Kyushu, and only then did he completely defeat the southern dynasty Zhenxifu and conquer all of Kyushu, when Yoshihiro Ouchi was only 16 years old.

The Ouchi clan then helped the shogunate defeat the 11 countries to protect the Yamauchi clan, and the shogunate rewarded Ouchi Yoshihiro for his exploits and named him the guardian of the 8 countries. These eight countries not only control the western part of the Seto Inland Sea, but also control the Kanmon Strait between Honshu and Kyushu, and are the choke point of the maritime trade of the country. ”

Chai Demei said: "He established Yamaguchi Castle in Zhou's visit country, and the proceeds of the Matsuura clan's raids were traded in Yamaguchi Castle, and goods from Quanqi also went to sea through here. I've been there, it's really prosperous, known as Xijing, and it's true.

However, it is not cost-effective for Kangshang to pay too much sail money to the pirates when he goes to Yamaguchi Castle. Kangshang still likes to trade in Hirado, which is a free port, and the Matsuura family does not collect taxes, but only trades with Kangshang. However, the pirates of the Seto Inland Sea enjoyed Yamaguchi Castle and traded with the great merchants of Yamaguchi Castle there. ”

Nohime said: "The most prosperous place in the country is still near the capital, which is the east coast of the Seto Inland Sea, and the largest seaport on the east coast is the castle. The seafood of Kuncheng can only come from the Ouchi clan of Yamaguchi Castle, so Ouchi Yoshihiro actually became the lord of Kuncheng. In order to influence the shogunate with the money of the castle, Yoshihiro Ouchi is stationed in the castle, and General Yoshihiro Kakune has been sick recently, and Yoshihiro Ouchi wants to influence the candidate for the next general. ”

Chongwen said: "That is to say, he has actually bought off the Murakami Water Army and the Yanbao Water Army, opened up the sea route from the sea goods to the capital, and most of the cloth, books, ironware, medicinal materials, and even copper money in the country are under the control of the Ouchi family." ”

Nohime said, "Exactly, the Ouchi family is really the first person below the shogun. ”

Chongwen sighed: "This person is really Lu Buwei of the Qi Kingdom, but I don't know if he will end up with the Lu family." ”

Nonghime said: "But to say that the Ouchi family controls the entire sea surface of the country, it is not possible. ”

Chongwenqi said: "Oh, isn't there anyone who is dissatisfied with it?"

Nonghime said: "This still has to start with the Murakami Water Army. In fact, the Murakami Water Army has been separated after the death of the previous lord Murakami Yoshihiro, and his three sons each have an island, Murakami Yoshiaki is on Noh Island, Murakami is loyal to Lai Island, Murakami is on Injima, and Noshima is only a superficial family governor, and the three families actually do their own thing and do not belong to each other.

Murakami Hidetada, who came to the island, was the son-in-law of the Kono family of the Ise water army, and the head of the Kono family, Kono Tsunao, wanted Kentada to inherit the position of the head of the Kono family, but was opposed by the retainers, so there was a dispute within the Kono family.

The reason why the Kono retainers dared to oppose the lord was because the Ouchi family secretly supported it, and Ouchi Yoshihiro did not want Kono and Kurishima Murakami to become a family, and it was always not a good thing for the neighbors to be too strong. This made Murakami Hidetada very resentful, and if he really succeeded the Kono family governor, Murakami was likely to start a war with the Ouchi Water Army. ”

Chongwenqi said: "If the other two sailors in the village do not support coming to the island, then wouldn't the village be defeated when they come to the island?"

Nohime said with a smile: "Ouchi's naval army can defeat Kurijima Murakami, but if you want to destroy Kurijima, you can't know how many islands there are in the waters near Kurujima, who knows where he is hiding? Ouchi's merchant ships want to pass through that sea, and you don't know where he appeared to plunder from." Ouchi wants the sea route to be unblocked, and a war with Kuruishima is really worth the loss. ”

In Chongwen's head, the situation of the country of Qi slowly became clear, and after pondering for a long time, he suddenly raised his head and said, "No, you always say that the maritime trade of the country of China has to go through the Guanmen Strait. However, since the country of Honshu and Kyushu is a four-country country, then the Seto Inland Sea must still have two ports to the outside world, so why not take these two routes for maritime trade. ”

Chai Demei said: "This is about to talk about several other water armies. The eastern exit of the Seto Inland Sea is called the Kii Suido, and the east bank of the Kii Suido is Kii Province, where there is a Kumano naval army, which is very savage and brave, and neither the shogunate nor the Ouchi family can control it.

In addition, if you want to pass through the Kii Suido, there is also the Awa Suijun of Shikoku, and if you want to enter Osaka Bay through the Kii Suido and finally reach Kunjo, you will have to face the Awaji Island Suiyu, which is no safer than going through the Seto Inland Sea. ”

Chongwen couldn't help but sigh: "It's really a thief everywhere, if you enter the Seto Inland Sea from this sea mouth in the west?"