Outside Uraga Town, Japan.
This port town is the gateway to Edo Bay. It is located on the east coast of the Miura Peninsula and is close to the Uraga Waterway. It has been an important port in Japan since ancient times.
If you look down from a high altitude, the eastern end of the Miura Peninsula extending towards Edo Bay looks like it was struck by the Pangu giant with an axe, and a crack appeared in the sky. When placed in the sea, it formed an excellent haven. The bay is Uraga Port.
There is also a hilltop east of Uraga Port Town called Kannonzaki. There is a very conspicuous fort on the hillside facing Edo Bay. Standing on the forecastle of the Flying Ship, Wei Zaode held up a telescope and observed the fort that was probably used to block the entrance to Edo Bay from a distance. After watching for a while, he finally put down the telescope and asked an officer standing behind him, who was in his thirties and wearing a red military attaché uniform, with a dark face, and said: "Mr. Hao, Japan only repaired one side of the bay entrance. Fort?"
"Yes, they built a fort on one side of the bay entrance...the firepower cannot cover the entire bay entrance, so it is just a pretend fort. The purpose is to fire cannons to warn ships that forcefully enter Edo Bay. Can't hit. The Japanese cannons are not good. There are few large-caliber cannons cast in one piece. Most of them are large forged matchlock guns, which cannot be used against battleships.
That's why they built the fort so conspicuously, just to show off! "
Wei Zaode knew that Ming warships often broke into Japan's coastal waters - fighting! If you get anxious, you don't care if it's off the coast of Japan, let's talk about it later!
But he didn't understand why the Japanese wanted to build such a pretentious fort?
"Since it's useless, what's the point of repairing it?"
"The prince does not know. Although these artillery can't hit our and Spanish warships, they can be heard and looked very lively... It can let the Japanese samurai and people know that the shogunate is working hard to protect the country. . Although this cannon is aimed at the outside world, it affects the morale of the people at home."
Wei Zaode nodded lightly and said with a smile: "It's not easy for the rebellious officials and traitors of the Tokugawa Shogunate... If they were willing to surrender to the Celestial Empire, how could it be so hard?"
"I'm afraid this won't be easy..."
Wei Zaode smiled and said, "Mr. Hao, just watch, I have my own way to make the Tokugawa shogunate surrender!"
Deputy Hao didn't believe that Lord Wei could coax the Tokugawa family into surrendering, but he still smiled and complimented: "That's right, if Prime Minister Wei takes action, can little Japan surrender to our dynasty? "
This Deputy Hao, whose only name is Feng, belongs to a military household in Shandong, and his family has a hereditary position as a military household in Dengzhou. However, he failed to inherit the hereditary official position and caught up with the Jiashen Revolution. Later, Zhu Cihong fled to Dengzhou in the service of Emperor Chongzhen, and used the pie of "going to the south of the Yangtze River to make a fortune" to incite the military households of the Seven Guards of Denglai to join the army. Hao The peak followed southward.
Because his family has been in the navy for generations, he joined the Yangtze River Navy when it was established. Later, the Shanghai Naval Academy (now called the Naval Academy) opened. Because he was young, had read books, and was not stupid, he entered the Naval Academy to learn navigation and gunnery.
After graduation, he has been serving in the Dongyang Fleet. He has been promoted step by step from a junior officer. He has participated in seventeen naval battles with outstanding performance, so he has now become the first mate of the Flying Ship - this position is to be promoted to the captain of a first-class battleship. Must go through before.
The so-called first-class battleship is a Galenic warship with a load capacity of 800 tons built in imitation of the Flying Ship. Currently, the Henan has been built, and there are six 800-ton warships under construction including the Fujian, Jiangnan, Jiangbei, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Shandong.
In addition, the Ming Navy also has 600-ton second-class battleships, 400-ton third-class battleships, 200-ton fourth-class battleships, and first-class armed ships modified from the Wanshi Big Bird Ship. Four classes of naval warships.
Since the Ming Dynasty had focused on developing the army in the past many years, the number of ships in the Dongyang Fleet under the direct jurisdiction of the Navy Department was not very large. There were only eight warships of each class, and the five classes added up to a total of forty ships. Among them, the first-class warships Six more ships were left unfinished.
Therefore, the total number of combat ships of the Eastern Fleet of the Ming Navy is only forty-four.
In addition to the Eastern Fleet, the Ming Dynasty now has three major fleets: the Beiyang Fleet, the Yangtze River Fleet, and the Nanyang Fleet. Among them, the Beiyang and Yangtze Fleets are almost "shell fleets". The Beiyang Fleet has dozens of sand ships with a load of two to three hundred tons. The Yangtze River Fleet is just a bunch of "turtle ships", not to mention going to sea, even to the east of Jiangyin.
The Nanyang Fleet is not under the jurisdiction of the Navy Department, but under the jurisdiction of the Dongning Jiedushi Department. It is huge in scale!
However, there are not many Western-style Galenic soft sailing ships. There are only eight five- to six-hundred-ton soft sailing ships. However, there are many Wanshiniao ships, as many as hundreds!
These ten thousand stone big bird ships are not professional warships, but armed merchant ships. In addition to giving appearance to the Dongning Army, they also serve as a bridge between Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Ningbo, Shanghai and other ports and Annam, Siam, Jinou Army, and Jinghai Navy. They transport millions of stones of rice into the Ming Dynasty every year, and they also transport a large amount of Siam teak and Annam teak - these teak are important raw materials for the shipbuilding of the Ming Dynasty navy!
In addition to doing business, the Nanyang fleet's combat skills are also wild. Most of the officers had never attended a naval academy, so they could not operate a schooner and could only play with a big bird boat.
Because their big bird ships need to haul more cargo, they cancel the lower gun deck and usually only have four gun positions on the top deck (two forward, one to the left, and one to the right). Perhaps to scare people, Zheng Sen ordered many 20-pound short-barreled guns from Anping Iron Works.
This kind of ship and this kind of firepower, in the eyes of the Spanish fleet commander de Velasco and the ambassador to the Ming Dynasty Caballero, are just like the Japanese forts, they are just a show-off.
In the entire Ming Dynasty, the truly effective navy, that is, the thirty-odd Western-style sailing ships of the Eastern Fleet were worthy of a battle!
The most threatening among these thirty-odd Western-style soft sailing boats is the 800-ton Flying Boat!
Just as the Flying Ship slowly sailed into Uraga Port, De Velasco and Caballero were standing on a 500-ton Galen that had been moored in Uraga Port and was flying the Spanish red cross flag. The people on the poop of the ship watched intently.
"Damn Dutch beggar!" De Velasco, who had returned from a "tour" on the Mongolian grasslands, cursed.
This "Flying" is simply a nightmare for Spanish naval officers and soldiers in the Far East!
Not only is the ship strong and powerful, but the captain and sailors who operate the ship are also powerful, the backbone of which are all veteran Dutch sailors!
Caballero asked: "Are there any ships to keep an eye on it?"
"Yes!" De Velasco said, "There are two 150-ton Chinese bird ships without flags outside Edo Bay... They are both light and fast, commanded by our people, hired Sailors from Korea and Manchuria.”
Spain's Pacific Trading Company (actually the Far East Fleet) purchased many small bird ships and spread them around Japan like a net, closely monitoring several major ports.
"Then keep an eye on it!" Caballero said, "If this ship goes eastward and enters the black tide zone, then we have to send a clipper immediately to notify the Governor's Palace of New Spain!"
"Yes, I know what to do!" De Velasco asked, "When will the New Spain arrive?"
The New Spain is a thousand-ton Galenic warship that was once the flagship of the New Spain fleet and has been deployed in the Caribbean.
Because of de Velasco's repeated requests, the Governor-General of New Spain agreed to transfer this 1,000-ton ace warship to the Far East together with several other 800-ton and 600-ton warships to specifically attack the Flying Ship. !
Caballero laughed: "Come on, they will reach the Far East in three months at most... Commander Garcia de Toledo Mendoza will personally lead the fleet here !”
