On the third day after Wu Weizhong led the team to set off, Ma Guijiu, who was transferred to Busan for training, and deputy commander Lou Nan led the second batch of fleets to set off towards Tsushima Island.
The day after Qi Jiguang set off from Maguilounan, he took five thousand officers and soldiers and set off by boat, also heading towards Tsushima Island.
Although it is early spring now, not the season when typhoons occur frequently in summer and autumn, the weather is often not so absolute. Historically, typhoons have also appeared in this area in the first month. Therefore, Qi Jiguang still encountered typhoons in order to avoid bad luck for his army. That is to say, multiple batches of armies were divided into multiple routes to conquer the Japanese, instead of marching together.
The first batch led by Wu Weizhong, a fleet of more than 500 warships and tens of thousands of people, successfully arrived at Tsushima Island the next day.
Although there are many ships and many people, most of them are Korean mercenaries and Yiding such as Jurchens and Saurons recruited in Liaodong. The real main regular southern soldiers are only 6,000 troops.
Tsushima Island is very close to Busan and Hirado, so it can basically be reached in one day.
Because of this, Tsushima Island has always been a strategic location for Japanese conquests or Japanese invasion of Korea.
In this era, the lord Zong of Tsushima Island submitted to both the Shaoer clan of Japan and North Korea, which was equivalent to being a daimyo of Japan and a general of North Korea.
The reason for this is that the Zong family can neither offend Japan nor Korea.
However, the Ming Dynasty had already made North Korea agree to use Busan, Jeju, and Tsushima as places where the Ming Dynasty would garrison troops.
Therefore, Tsushima Island has been regarded as the place where the Ming Dynasty garrisoned troops.
It was only because the Ming Dynasty had been conducting sea crossing and landing training in Busan that it did not directly send troops to Tsushima Island.
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty has only now officially begun to invade Tsushima.
The Zong family built a golden stone city on Tsushima Island, which was the political and economic center of Tsushima Island.
But after Wu Weizhong and others arrived at Tsushima Island, the Jinshi City on Tsushima Island had been deserted.
Because these Japanese lords had known in advance that the Ming army was going to conquer Japan from Korea, they adopted the strategy of strengthening the walls and clearing the country and shrinking the front line. They had no intention of facing a decisive battle with the Ming army on Tsushima Island, which had no rear support.
"The Japanese are indeed cunning and know how to fight against our Celestial Empire."
Wu Weizhong also couldn't help but say something after learning that there was no food in Tsushima's Kinshi City, and that all the wood in the houses had been burned, and there were no vegetables.
"As long as there is no divine wind, it will be fine. Looking at this vast sea for a long time makes people really dizzy!"
Song Yingchang resisted the urge to vomit again, and lay on the railing with all his limbs, like an octopus, and started talking.
He now regretted following Zhang Shenxian on board the ship.
Song Yingchang originally planned to take Zhang Shenxian on board the ship to gain military merit. In this case, if the battle against the Japanese was successful, he would not only recommend Zhang Shenxian for fighting off the evil wind, but also assist Wu Weizhong in landing.
Song Yingchang knew that the reformists were in power in the Ming Dynasty. Both civil and military affairs valued merit over moral reputation. Whether it was because of Jin Xuezeng, who was promoted to chief envoy by introducing extra grain and was now the governor of Jiangsu, or because he went south with Hai Rui. The example of Lü Kunchao, a former Shandong chief envoy who participated in politics and was promoted to the governor of Fengyang because of his meritorious service in promoting the unified payment of grains between officials and gentry, shows that in order to be promoted, it is impossible without merit.
Therefore, he resolutely decided to take a gamble, risking being caught in the evil wind and being buried in the belly of a fish, and boarded the ship with Wu Weizhong to conquer the Japanese, in order to let the court know that he was a civil servant who knew how to fight and cooperate with military generals.
But Song Yingchang didn't expect that not long after he got on the ship, he would be the most vomiting person on the ship.
However, none of the military attachés, soldiers and Zhang Shenxian on the ship vomited much.
Therefore, Song Yingchang felt a little regretful.
Qi Jiguang was afraid that the Japanese expedition officers and soldiers would get seasick, which would affect their combat effectiveness after landing, so he asked Wu Weizhong and others to conduct long-term sea training for the Japanese expedition officers and soldiers in Busan, so that all the officers and soldiers would not get seasick, or at least the officers and soldiers who would not get seasick could be screened out.
Nowadays, those who can go to sea with Wu Weizhong are not seasick and have long been accustomed to the vastness of the sea, so they are not like Song Yingchang.
Seeing Song Yingchang's behavior, Wu Weizhong suggested, "Why don't you just stay in Jinshi City to rest for a while?"
Song Yingchang thought for a moment and then waved his hand and said: "No, sir, you can reach Hirado in just one day after passing Tsushima Island. I have to persevere and strive for the opportunity to kill Japanese slaves by then!"
Seeing this, Wu Weizhong did not dissuade him any more. He only left 500 Ming soldiers and 2,000 court soldiers and part of the food and grass on Tsushima Island, and used it as a transfer station for additional troops and food and grass in the future.
Then, after Wu Weizhong let the army stay on Tsushima Island for one night, he set off for Hirado on the second day, the 21st of the first lunar month.
There was still no strong wind along the way, only a small breeze blowing on my face, and it was as cold as a knife.
After all, it was early spring when typhoons were not active. The Ming Dynasty also made sufficient preparations for the expedition against the Japanese. It also bribed Japanese guides who traded between Hirado, Tsushima, North Korea and other places, so it also knew when the typhoons were not active. .
In addition, today's Ming Dynasty is no better than in the early Yuan Dynasty, because trade with Japanese is very frequent, and the maritime conditions in this area have already been clearly understood.
After Wu Weizhong and his party arrived at Hirado Port, they saw a large number of Japanese warships lying across the river.
These Japanese warships are mainly Guanzhou, a medium-sized warship, and Shaoli's Anzhai ship.
Anzake is a large warship that can fire cannons. Some of the Anzake are also wrapped in iron armor, which is the type of iron-armored warship used by Oda Nobunaga's Kuuki Yoshiron in the battle against the Maori Navy. However, because of the high cost, the number is not high. There are only about three ships at this time, concentrated in the outermost part of the port.
The Japanese country also attached great importance to the Ming army's conquest of Japan. Not only did the three overlords of Kyushu, Shimazu, Otomo, and Ryuzoji, have to cease war and make peace, and unanimously deal with the Ming Dynasty, they also concentrated all the navies of the three parties to control their family fortunes. The warships were all brought out, and even at this time, Yoshihiro Shimazu, a famous general of the Shimazu family who was good at naval warfare in Japan, personally led the Shimazu navy to Hirado Port to assist the Matsuura clan's Matsuura navy and Sose clan's navy in Hizen Kingdom. The army fought against the Ming army.
Wu Weizhong squinted at these densely packed Japanese warships. He did not directly order an attack. Instead, he waited for his sentinel's wave boat to come back and report the layout of the enemy's warships. Then he told General Tong Ziming:
"The Japanese put their big ships outside to attack and defend, and then they could lure me into their trap so that they could surround us and attack us. You and I will switch positions and sit here personally until the enemy ships come. , only use artillery to attack it, don’t bother to pursue it, otherwise we will kill you! I will personally lead your fleet to cross and land."
The boy raised his hands and said yes.
So Wu Weizhong switched with Tong Ziming and went to Tong Ziming's warship.
At this time, Shimazu Yoshihiro of Japan actually led more than 300 warships to rush towards the location of the Ming army's flagship, and he even rushed ahead in a ten-foot-long Anzhai iron-clad ship.
Here at the Ming Army, Tong Zi Mingze immediately ordered the cannon to fire as soon as these warships approached.
Then, under the cloud sail, rows of dark cannon muzzles spit out tongues of flame, and when the waves rolled up, these cannonballs were launched.
The range of Ming army warship artillery can reach several thousand meters, and when hundreds of warships fire their cannons at once, it is natural that rain of iron pours down from the sky. Amidst the sound of thunderous drums in winter, many Japanese ships were hit. Splintered wood flies.
As for the Japanese ship, its maximum range of artillery is only a few hundred meters, which is equivalent to ordinary French iron cannons. Moreover, the ship itself cannot install multiple layers of artillery on the hull. Only the middle pavilion is offensive, so it is not close to the Ming Dynasty. If a military warship is within a few hundred meters, it can only be beaten passively.
Shimazu Yoshihiro's face was naturally very ugly when he saw this. Although he had guessed that the Ming army's main warship would be difficult to deal with by seeing the fifteen or sixty-foot-long double-gunned ship, he did not expect that the Ming army's main warship would be difficult to deal with. The warship is not only big, the key is that the artillery is also so powerful.
Peng!
After Shimazu Yoshihiro saw that the armored Anzha ship he was riding on was hit by several shots and the central pavilion was hit once, he had no choice but to order a retreat in advance and gave up the idea of engaging the Ming army in a battle.
However, when retreating, Shimazu Yoshihiro still looked back, and when he saw that the Ming army's warships had not caught up, he immediately looked shocked.
