Ryukyu, Ba Nang.

General Chen Bazhi, commander of the Luzon Northern Guard and general Zhaoyong, stepped out of the flat deck cabin of the Dinghai ship, his thin young face raised slightly, and the six-petaled iron helmet with a spear tassel made the shadow cover half of his face, and raised his eyes to look at the shore.

The young commander made the armor exquisite, the six-petal iron helmet was decorated with the six-armor god, the helmet was hung with red tassels, and the bronze decoration of the spear seat was also carved out of the Zhenwu Emperor; Dressed in a precision forging cuirass covered with a layer of sharpened copper to make the armor not reflective in the sun, the steel neck guard hung with an unbrought demon covering, majestic.

Beside him, there were several samurai of the Niko family, led by Qi Zhengyan and Yokodo Hyogosuke, who were standing with their arms crossed, and the young Qi Xingchang struggled to raise his father's sword in both hands, and looked at everything around him with wide eyes and novelty.

Governor Qi's eyes were especially focused on Chen Bazhi's body, he always heard his father-in-law mention this general, and used it as an encouragement to him, so that he could win the first rank in this battle with the young general.

When Chen Bazhi was still Wei Balang, he was as old as Governor Qi Xing, and stabbed to death his friend who fled to Qingyuanwei with his father-in-law with a spike gun, and later he became the current General Zhaoyong.

This was like a ritual for the young Governor Qi.

In the past, he knew such a ceremony in the Japanese archipelago, and the young samurai was especially important in the first battle after the military service, which could make a good omen for a lifetime of martial luck, and now this ceremony has a firmer belief, that is, like General Chen Bazhi!

In this story, whether it is Chen Bazhi when Wei Balang, or Qi Zhengyan who fled for his life, or Qi Xingchang who listened to the story, no one cares about the friends who died under the spike gun back then.

Who cares about friends, in this troubled world, isn't it the most important thing to live yourself?

"It's a lot like Japan." When Qi Zhengyan led his troops to return to the west, he stopped here in Hong Kong and introduced to Chen Bazhi: "Look at those soldiers on the shore, they look like Japanese people, because the armor is all traded from Japan, and the tattoo on the chest is the banner of King Shang, right, Zheng Ditou?" ”

Zheng Zhen stood aside, and Qi Zhengyan's title for him came from his fiefdom, Pu Tianjian Xie Mingcun. He nodded first, and then explained to a few people: "Ryukyu heavy sea trade, the Ming Dynasty, Japan, Korea, Siam, Luzon, Sulu and other places have trade exchanges, Japanese armor is cheap and easy to make, so the Ryukyu soldiers make Japanese armor." ”

"The weapon is too long because the sword is too long, it is not suitable to use the shield alone, so I purchased a lot of short knives more than two feet long, mixed with the spears purchased by the Celestial Empire, and purchased most of the fire guns and three-eyed guns in the tribute, and when the first king unified the islands, he also asked the emperor to ask for twenty general guns, which were called stone fire arrows by the Japanese people, and made great contributions."

Zheng Zhen's respect makes people feel good, but Chen Bazhi has never been a good person, he can say anything, frowned and asked: "Even if the firearms of the Celestial Empire, why not change the armor and knives together, and the tribute is allowed to change the firearms, but not the armor?" ”

The general laughed, but it wasn't true. I Ryukyu since the Sanshan era tribute to the Heavenly Dynasty has been 200 years, regardless of shipbuilding, armor, the art of war are from the Xi Tian Dynasty, the earliest Emperor Taizu ordered Fujian good shipbuilding 36 surnames south to the Ryukyu to pass on the law of the giant ship, there is my Zheng clan, my father encountered the difficulty of the Japanese Kou, the earliest in the Ryukyu also relied on the clan to survive, no one dared to forget the great grace of the Celestial Empire. ”

"But in the Ryukyus, there were also descendants of the Wako, and the Wako looted and the Shimazu trade, and there were three divisions in the country who were close to the Wakoku, so it became like this." Zheng Ji explained: "Ryukyu is close to the Ming Dynasty, but it is also close to Japan, which is also a helpless move. ”

Chen Bazhi bowed his head, raised his hand to pick up the covering armor between his neck, looked at the lines on it, and muttered for a moment, then turned his head to look at Zheng Zhen and said: "It's okay, Japan, it's also very close to Daming - put the boat!" ”

Chen Bazhi did not get off the ship, he and his banner army stayed in the fleet, and only Li Dan and Qi Zhengyan's men and two hundred households disembarked from the ship.

In the words of the eighth master, he stayed on the ship, and when there was a battle, he would send someone to call him.

They didn't take a penny without a war, and they didn't even need Ryukyu to provide food and grass, because even if they were allowed to raise it, they wouldn't be able to afford it.

Although Ryukyu is rich in geography and maritime trade, it is an indisputable fact that the land is barren and lacks food, and even if there is no shortage of meat near the sea, it is difficult to survive with only meat.

Because of the lack of food, the Ryukyuan people often eat cycads, that is, the fruit of the iron tree, which contains starch, although it can be eaten, but if you are not careful, you will be poisoned, because in the Ming Dynasty it was made to make medicine and cure dysentery.

There were only a few thousand soldiers on the entire island, almost equal to the strength of Chen Bazhi's fleet. In addition to the Luzon Northern Guard Banner Army, Chen Bazhi also had Chinese, Japanese, and Western pirates led by Shi He, Qi Zhengyan, and Farikat, with a force of more than 7,000 troops.

So they took the grain ships with them and prepared enough military rations for the Luzon harvest.

Li Dan got off the ship with two priorities, one was to help Chen Bazhi see if the dispute between the princes in the Ryukyu Kingdom had developed to the point of mutiny, and if so, let him exterminate it; If not, the second priority was to express to the Ryukyu ministers that they would borrow the northeastern part of Oshima to build a port to garrison troops and protect maritime merchants.

Chen Bazhi led the army to take root in the Ryukyus, and the maritime merchants who were the protectors could not understand it, and the domestic courtiers in the Ryukyus were not very understanding, but they didn't think much about it, and the biggest misunderstanding was that they only felt that the Heavenly Army had to guard against the Japanese invaders, and they didn't think that Chen Bazhi wanted to fight them.

It's not logical!

There is no need to fight at all, looking at the Greater China circle, Ryukyu is the most well-behaved among all the tributary countries, so far in the Ming Dynasty, Japan has paid tribute more than 10 times, Korea has paid tribute more than 20 times, Annam has paid tribute more than 50 times, and people have paid tribute to Ryukyu this year - just 100 times!

More than an overseas tributary state.

Although the tribute of the Ming Dynasty sometimes carries a bit of relief significance, it depends on how to say it, let the little brother on the island have a famine all day long, and no one can care about it, not to mention that this little brother is still so well-behaved.

Only Chen Bazhi knew why Chen Mu asked him to bring troops here, the main target was not Japan, but to fight for maritime supremacy and prevent the Spaniards who came back to find a field.

Because Chen Mu didn't know whether the Spaniards would come from the east or the west, after all, war had been declared, if from Xiyi came around Japan from the east, the first to be attacked without prevention would be the north and south Zhili and Zhejiang, after all, war had been declared, and Xiyi would not just stare at Luzon.

If the war really wants to spread to the country, Chen Muke will be extremely guilty.

This is the main reason why the adopted son led the fleet into the Ryukyus.

Chen Bazhi drew a circle on the chart, if the Philippine governor reported to Madrid at the beginning of the war, the Spanish fleet should have set off by now; If someone is sent back after the war is over, then the Xiyi royal family should also receive the news and is in the preparation stage for the war.

Under Chen Mu, none of the Nanyang generals thought that the Spaniards who were rampant all over the world would directly bow their heads and admit defeat - they were all waiting for a naval battle that would establish the hegemony of the Ming Dynasty!