Matsukura Shigeharu's choice was naturally expected by Itakura Shigemasa. The battle to land at Qingniwa Bay was fought like this, and Matsukura Shigeharu and Matsukura Shigeharu could not escape their guilt. Because this adventure is completely a whim decision of His Highness Gongfang!
With His Highness's wisdom, the decision to raid was naturally extremely correct! But why did this correct decision fail? The problem must lie in the execution! Therefore, Matsukura Shigeharu and Matsukura Shiurito, the two fools who actually implemented the wise decision of the shogun, have to take the blame for committing hara-kiri. Now that Matsukura Shigeharu has committed suicide, but Matsukura Shiurito doesn't seem to want to commit suicide, then the only choice is to try to take the blame and meritorious services. .
"Yaoxi..." Itakura Shigemasa nodded. Just as he was about to say a few words of encouragement, several low roars like thunder suddenly came from his ears.
As soon as he heard this "thunder", Itakura Shigemasa's expression suddenly changed...because today is a cloudless and sunny day!
He quickly stood up, even forgetting to take his katana, and ran out of the cabin, running onto the back deck.
On the rear deck of the Musashi, his son Itakura Shigeki and naval adviser Colonel Garcia were standing. Colonel Garcia is an elderly Spanish naval officer with rich experience in naval warfare. He has fought at sea with British pirates and Dutch profiteers all his life.
A few years ago, he followed the Spanish-Portuguese Joint Armada commanded by Spanish Navy veteran Antonio de Oquendo to sail north to the English Channel. In this battle, as many as 77 Spanish and Portuguese warships first launched a fierce battle in the beachhead waters with 13 warships led by Tropp, a very reliable star of the Dutch Navy. As a result, the Combined Armada was once again outnumbered and lost to Tropp's small fleet, and it also retreated very cleverly to the Downs Anchorage, which belonged to the neutral country of Britain. They wanted to use the British cover to rest their troops, repair their ships, and prepare to fight again in the future.
However, the Dutch profiteers did not care about Britain's neutral status and directly sent 30 warships to blockade the Downs anchorage. They also issued a mobilization order domestically. It took more than a month to assemble 105 warships and 12 arson ships, and then rushed into the Downs anchorage. The Spanish-Portuguese Armada was beaten hard at the anchorage. Only 7 of the 77 battleships escaped under the command of Admiral Oquendo...while Colonel Garcia, who was the captain of the battleship at the time, After the battleship he commanded was set on fire by the Dutch, he bravely jumped into the Bay of Downs and swam to British soil with his vigorous freestyle to escape.
Shortly after this battle, the Kingdom of Spain's co-monarchy alliance in Portugal had a noble revolution against Philip IV, overthrowing Philip IV's rule in Portugal, and supported Joao of the Braganza family as king, calling Joao IV the king. World.
Therefore, the Kingdom of Spain lost the remaining Portuguese navy and Portuguese colonies in the Indian Ocean, Malacca and other places, and completely lost the possibility of launching an expedition against the Ming Dynasty... It could only support Japan wholeheartedly to prevent Japan from entering the New World from East Asia. The springboard is controlled by Ming Dynasty.
A naval advisory group headed by Colonel Garcia was sent to Japan by Philip IV to help the Tokugawa shogunate train its navy.
Seeing Itakura Shigemasa coming out of the cabin, Garcia said to him in Spanish: "Come on, it's the Ezo gunboat that is responsible for the border mission that is firing an early warning...According to the number of shellings by the Ezo, There should be a large Ming fleet approaching!"
When he was talking, Matsukura Shigeri happened to be walking onto the back deck. When Garcia saw him, he thought of something and added: "I think... the Ming fleet must be quietly following Matsukura Daiban." The first Izu on board found us!"
Itakura Shigemasa had already learned Spanish, so he could understand Garcia's words, so he turned his head and glared at Matsukura fiercely, "Matsukura-kun, the Ming Kingdom fleet is here...it should be you." The Ming Dynasty fleet was led to Pi Island!"
What? Matsukura Shigeri felt really aggrieved after hearing Itakura's accusation!
What did the Ming fleet say that he caused it? He is in the Army! Can you do this? This was obviously because the navy on the Izu was not careful, and did not notice that the Ming fleet was following behind, and even led them all the way to Pi Island. Now you actually want to shirk the blame, do you, a navy, have any sense of shame?
Of course, these words can only rot in the stomach, even if it is seppuku, it cannot be said outside. Because the Itakura family was born in Mikawa, the lineage of the Tokugawa family, the Itakura Shigemune of the Itakura clan is still the head of the Kyoto family! Matsukura Shigetsu couldn't afford to offend Itakura Shigemasa... Otherwise, instead of one person committing seppuku, the whole family would die!
Seeing that Matsukura Shigeuri had a good attitude, Itakura Shigemasa stopped arguing with him for the time being. Instead, he turned back and asked Garcia, "Colonel, what should we do?"
"Of course they escaped!" Garcia said, "The Ming Dynasty's navy is much stronger than ours... Our largest battleship Musashi is only 700 tons, and their Sanyo ships (Beiyang, Nanyang, Toyo ) has a displacement of more than 1,000 tons, and it was built by a shipyard in Amsterdam. It is also a ship type specially designed for naval battles! If there is an artillery battle at sea, we have no chance of winning."
Garcia only told half of what he said. The other half was that the training level of the Ming Dynasty's Beiyang Fleet was not comparable to that of the Japanese Shogunate Navy... The admiral of the Beiyang Navy had served as the fleet commander of the Dutch East India Company's navy. Official!
The leader of the shogunate navy, Itakura Shigemasa, didn't understand the navy at all and couldn't even operate a ship. He was just a shogunate bureaucrat. Although there is help from the consultant Garcia, can the consultant and the admiral be the same?
In addition, the Ming court opened a naval officer school eight years ago and hired Dutch instructors to train naval officers.
On the Japanese side, because Shogun Iemitsu was worried that the Spaniards would use the Naval Academy to spread Catholicism, the Japanese Naval Academy was only opened four years ago, and the operation was not very satisfactory... because the students enrolled were not children of the banner. They were from the close lords or gendai lords whom the shogunate trusted, and there were no children from the southwestern lords who were familiar with the sea. They may have been good warriors, but they were not good sailors, and some were afraid of the sea.
Itakura Shigemasa was indeed a layman, but he did not believe in Garcia, a Catholic, and instead set his sights on his son Shigemiki.
Itakura Shigeki also studied the navy at the Shogunate Naval Academy and was more knowledgeable than his father.
Zhongju said: "Actually, the narrow waters east of Pi Island are very beneficial to us... Although the warships of the Ming Dynasty are larger and stronger, they are not as flexible as our warships. If it is in the open If we form an artillery battle in a narrow sea area, we will definitely lose. But if we engage in a melee in a narrow sea area, we have a certain chance of winning.
In addition, naval melees often involve gang fighting... Gang fighting is better than hand-to-hand combat! Our Japanese samurai are the best at hand-to-hand combat, and they will never lose to Ming sailors under any circumstances. "
It is still the 17th century, because the power of naval guns is not enough, and naval officers and soldiers still retain many piracy styles, so gang-hopping is still a required activity for the navies of the East and the West - gang-hopping can rob ships! If you can grab an intact boat, give it a try!
Itakura Shigemasa nodded, "Yes... our Japanese samurai are best at close combat, and they will win in hand-to-hand combat on the deck! Colonel Garcia, what do you think?"
Garcia was also a little tempted. He also knew that the samurai were more aggressive in killing people. If they could really fight with each other, they might be able to kill all the sailors of the Ming Dynasty Navy!
He thought for a while and said: "I think we can wait for the Ming Dynasty naval fleet in the waters east of Pi Island... I estimate that they will arrive around dusk and then launch an attack. By then, the visibility at sea will be poor. It will be too high, which is very beneficial to our side. In addition, we can also prepare a few arson ships to disrupt their formation."
"Yaoxi!" Itakura Shigemasa laughed, "Just what to do... We Japanese samurai are going to have a hand-to-hand battle with the enemies of the Ming Dynasty on this blue ocean!"
