"Gunboats?"

In Kyoto, Oda Nobunaga disbanded the forces of the various countries that had been assembled to deal with the possible expansion of the war caused by the naval battle of Osaka Bay, and stayed at the imperial palace for several days to listen to the situation in the world.

At Kinkakuji, he listened to the information of his retainer Takigawa Kazuki about the naval battle of Osaka Bay.

Nobunaga did not take part in the battle himself, and although he had gathered a large army, the battle had been quickly won by the Takigawa army before his various armies could be assembled in Osaka Bay.

"It's a gunboat, that's what the people of the Ming Kingdom call Chen Mujun's warship, their warship is huge, equipped with a large number of big barrels named General Zhenshuo, and it no longer relies on iron cannons and bows to win, and Xiaozao's ship is vulnerable." Takigawa Kazuyi raised his head with a serious expression and said, "The subordinates are incompetent, they won the land battle but lost Osaka Bay, the rumors of this battle are not true, and the Oda clan has failed." ”

Oda Nobunaga first heard the news that his legion had won in Osaka Bay and expelled the enemy, and now it seems that it was just a lie unleashed by Takigawa Kazuyi to pacify the countrymen, and at this time he held the battle report with a shallow scar on his hand, and it was clearly written that there was not a single ship belonging to the Oda clan in Osaka Bay until the Ming army retreated.

Before retreating, the Ming Bunes, hidden in the bay of Awaji Province, docked at Sumiyoshi Port, adjacent to Ishiyama Honganji, where they unloaded a huge amount of grain and grass and took a large amount of goods from Ishiyama Honganji.

It was a bargain, and it lasted all night in the Gyeonggi region controlled by the Oda clan, until dawn the next day, when the Ming navy landed on board, drove away all the ships docked on the shore, and burned those that could not, and when the large ships carrying the goods had left, a dozen gunboats left the bay in a row surrounded by hundreds of ships.

"Shame!"

Takigawa Kazuyi clenched his fist tightly on his knees, gritted his teeth and said, "They obviously lost the battle!" ”

It was a battle in which both sides believed they had lost, with the Oda Clan's navy being crushed to the river by a large number of enemy ships, and the Takakigawa army being crushed by the Takigawa army on land.

Takigawa Kazuki failed to blockade the port, and Ryujun Woong's troops failed to plunder Gyeonggi.

But they all fulfilled their mission to a certain extent, Takigawa Kazuki defended Gyeonggi, and Takatoshi Woong delivered baggage to Honganji Temple, which was deprived of food.

"Honganji didn't send troops during the war, what did the monk think? How big were the gunboats of the Ming Kingdom? ”

Oda Nobunaga did not kneel, he himself was higher than most Japanese people of this era, and at this time sitting on the chair offered by the missionaries of Nanban Temple, he was half a body taller than the kneeling others, and his body was not strong, but his complexion was very white.

The owner of the shelf next to the seat, furnishing the Komatsushima teapot from Yakushiin and the orange blossom of Tsuneyu Oilya, which are famous all over the world, is frowning slightly, with slender eyebrows and half-open eyes making up a thoughtful expression.

When he was thinking, he would unconsciously pinch the shallow scar on the palm of his hand.

It was the scar left by the holding of the red-hot iron, and it still did not mean to fade after many years, and I am afraid that he would carry this mark for the rest of his life.

The scar originated from a lawsuit, in which a ritual called 'fire invitation' is used in Japanese civil lawsuits, in which when people have an argument, the public burns a piece of soldering iron, and both parties to the lawsuit grab the red-hot soldering iron and prove their innocence by enduring the pain.

At that time, the defendant was Nobunaga's brother Ikeda Tsuneko, that is, a subordinate cronie, who broke into the house of the accuser Jinbei at night to steal property, and Jinbei went to the castle to pay tribute, and his wife met the enemy with a scabbard at home, repelled the defendant, and launched a lawsuit after Jinbei returned.

The soldering iron was held by the Guardian, and the defendant released the iron, but the justice of the fire was prevented by Nobunaga's milk brother.

Nobunaga found out about this and said that if he could catch the soldering iron, he would convict the defendant, and the scar on his palm was left at that time.

"Twenty ken, five of the twelve big ships are longer than twenty, and seven are shorter than twenty ken, all of them have the general Zhenshuo, and the sound is like thunder in the sky, and it can usually hit the cannonballs outside the five towns." Takigawa Kazuyi's face became more serious as he spoke, and said, "When they retreated, a farmer had picked up an iron cannonball half a mile from the coast. ”

The length of a room, town, and li is a unit of length in Japan, with a room of 1.6 meters, a town of 60 rooms, and a mile of nearly 4,000 meters.

Nobunaga's eyes widened, his mouth slightly open under his sparse beard, and then he slowly gritted his teeth and swallowed his saliva, twisted his eyebrows and asked, "So far away, how powerful is General Zhenshuo?" ”

Good question! Even if this question was asked to Chen Mu, Chen Mu didn't dare to say that his cannon could throw shells four miles away!

"The power is very great, when the monks and soldiers escorted the grain and grass back to the city, our legion swamp team and real pot team all launched an attack on the port, only three or five cannons broke up the general formation, every shell will run rampant in the formation, and our army's big barrel can only break the sails of the Ming boat."

Nobunaga didn't speak, but slowly leaned his head back against the backrest, and sighed long: "Sure enough, it's the Ming Kingdom again, the ancient, traditional, strong and conservative Ming Kingdom." ”

In the mind of Nobunaga, who was extremely intelligent, he already had a vague picture of the situation in East Asia, and he once believed that the Ming Kingdom was old and weak, and that Japan, which would dominate the world by force, would be able to form a huge fleet and attack the four seas.

Now it seems that the people of the Ming Kingdom are feeling the crisis because of the arrival of the Southern Barbarians?

Nobunaga suddenly asked his side something that had nothing to do with the war: "Can the merchants and Nanban merchants in Kyoto and Sakai still sell Nanban iron cannons?" ”

Shinyuki shook his head slowly, and was about to say something when Nobunaga got up and walked out of the temple side hall.

Yushiba Hideyoshi, who was standing in the temple courtyard, saw Nobunaga walking out quickly, and hurriedly fell down, secretly looking at Nobunaga's every move like a god in his heart, and when he saw Nobunaga, he seemed to be a little unhappy, and pressed his forehead on the ground and asked in a low voice: "The lord seems to be unhappy!" There are dancing monkeys waiting here! ”

Nobunaga ignored it, walked into the courtyard and breathed in the air with his nose fiercely without moving, only then did he feel the oppression in his heart slowly dissipate, and turned to Hideyoshi, who was still prostrating himself on the ground, and said, "You are already a general, you don't need to use these tricks to fool yourself anymore - but monkey, do you know overseas?" ”

Hashiba Hideyoshi raised his head, his beard was so sparse that it was not visible on his not outstanding face, coupled with his short stature, he looked like a courtier, in fact, this guy who still thought he was just a peasant was already a hot general of the Oda clan, and he asked blankly: "Overseas, the lord is talking about - Kyushu?" ”

Nobunaga smiled dumbly and said, "It's not Kyushu, it's overseas, what are you overseas!" ”

"It's just the sea, right? There is a small Kyushu, a small North Korea, a small Ming Kingdom, a small Tianzhu, and a small hometown of the Southern Barbarians. Hideyoshi stammered a little when asked by Nobunaga, licked his dry lips and hesitated: "The lord's domination of the world, isn't it starting from Kyushu and dominating the world?" ”

"Hahaha!"

Oda Nobunaga raised his head and laughed, his loud voice came far away from the temple courtyard wall, swept away the depression in his heart, and pointed to Hideyoshi, who was bowing down, and said: "You are really an interesting monkey, go and prepare, you go to Settsu to build a castle, let Niwa Nagahide build a castle in Omi, we have to guard against an attack from the sea from the little Ming Kingdom!" ”

"There will be a way to defeat them!"