After more than a month of intensive preparation, when Shang Zhong came to Jilong Harbor with the first batch of deposits, 20,000 taels of gold and 100,000 catties of pig iron, pretending to be a group of maritime merchants, Wu Daofu and his fleet headed towards the east.

Unlike before, in order to clear the pirates in the Ryukyu Seas, Wu Daofu needed to go around and sweep around, this time Wu Daofu's department, which had a clear goal, found the right direction, and went directly to the main island of Ryukyu, without any delay on the way.

After seventeen days at sea, the fleet finally saw the horizon of Ryukyu Island, and after a guide sent by Sho Chung led the people along the island, they returned and reported to Wu Daofu's men and horses: "This is Kume Island, and if we go about ten miles east, we will reach the main island of the Ryukyus, and we will land near Toyomi Castle in the south of the main island, and someone will bring armor and iron cannons to the hero's ship." ”

When they arrived here, Shang Zhong and the others finally put their minds at ease, and promised Li Tian early to raise their weapons, and they also decided to hand them over to Wu Daofu and them in advance, in order to increase Hongtang's combat effectiveness.

"That's good, where are your people transporting supplies, and will there be any accidents?" Wu Daofu said indifferently, even if there was no such armament provided by the Ryukyu Kingdom, Wu Daofu and the others would have absolute confidence in expelling the Japanese people stationed on Ryukyu Island.

"There should be no problem, although the Japanese have been monitoring the movement of our royal family, but this time we directly entrusted this batch of materials to a firm that has a good relationship with us, and asked them to transport it on our behalf." Shang Zhong's face was serious, and he said with a little excitement.

It can be said that the Hongtang sent 4,000 team members to aid the Ryukyu Kingdom, thinking about the great merit brought by the victory, and in the future, the descendants of Shang Zhong and his descendants will soar, just around the corner!

Toyomi Castle is a castle established by the Nanshan Kingdom in the southern part of the main island of the Ryukyus in the former Sanzan period, thanks to the blessing of the trade route, the economy and scale of Toyomi Castle are also passable, and tens of thousands of Ryukyuan people live in the city, but because of the shortage of manpower, the Japanese people did not garrison samurai in this city, and only a few dozen wandering samurai existed in the city.

This is also the reason why the king of the Ryukyus Shoning imitated the place where the materials were delivered.

According to the advice given by Hong Zhengkai, Wu Daofu himself asked Xiao Xiurong and their staff to formulate a more detailed plan based on the actual situation, Wu Daofu aimed their first battle on the main island of Amami where the Japanese sailors were located, intending to destroy their sailors first and cut off the other party's way to retreat.

Since the war with Satsuma Bo began, Li Tianyang naturally hoped to weaken Satsuma's strength as much as possible in the early stage of the war, and eliminate the Japanese samurai they were stationed on Amami Goto and Ryukyu Island.

Two months ago, Wu Daofu and the others easily defeated the Japanese coalition led by Kayama Hisataka and fled, although because of the darkness of the night, let Kayama Hidaka and his main fleet escape, but presumably after this battle, many pirates and Ryukyu people who were not in harmony after seeing the strength of Hongtang and the incompetence of the Japanese sailors will disperse and find their own way out.

Therefore, in the eyes of Wu Daofu and Xiao Xiurong, at this time, they led the fleet to attack the location of the main Japanese people on Amami Oshima, and they had absolute confidence in both confidence and strength.

With the information provided by Shang Zhong and the sporadic information that Yamamoto Fifty-six knew, Wu Daofu probably knew that at this time, there were about 1,000 Satsuma Japanese people stationed on Amami Oshima Island, and even if the pirates who were left behind by the Japanese people last time did not disperse, it is estimated that there would be no more than 1,000 pirates at most.

Even if you add these miscellaneous soldiers of pirates and the like, the soldiers on Amami Island are only in their early two thousands, compared to the four thousand soldiers of Hongtang, and the comparison in combat strength, Wu Daofu and they don't believe that they will lose.

After waiting for a long time in the sea near Toyomi Castle, a caravan escorted more than ten truckloads of supplies along the coastline into Wu Daofu's line of sight, and it was another two hours of delay, Wu Daofu and they sent this batch of supplies to the warship, and then soon Wu Daofu and they went in the direction of Amami Oshima in the darkening sky, bypassing the main island of the Ryukyus and heading towards Amami Oshima.

When we arrived at Amami Oshima, it was already noon the next day, and when we were on the way, the eight hundred pairs of fine iron armor given by King Shangning yesterday had been armed by Wu Daofu into the hands of the forward melee team.

To tell the truth, this is the first time that Hongtang's soldiers have worn this kind of one-piece iron armor, from top to bottom with chain mail made of fine iron sheets, this weight alone is more than twenty catties, not a strong person really can't wear them to fight, its defense ability is naturally self-evident.

Hongtang pig iron materials are scarce, there is no chance to equip Hongtang's soldiers with such equipment, and according to the foreknowledge brought by Li Tianyang from later generations, unless there is that kind of real body armor, under the development of muskets in the future era, equipment such as iron armor and steel helmets will gradually fall behind and withdraw from the war scene.

But now that Pingbai has obtained eight hundred pairs of iron armor, Wu Daofu doesn't mind letting the Hongtang soldiers who fight in close combat have one more layer of defensive equipment, and it is good to have fewer losses.

After all, the protagonist of this land battle is the 800 musketeers who have been trained for more than half a year, and Wu Daofu and they will not send the forward army to close combat until the last moment. Therefore, although these forward warriors were inconvenient after suddenly having such an iron armor, they did not affect Hong Tang's entire combat power.

But not to mention, this set of new equipment was worn on the tall and majestic Hongtang soldiers, so that the Hongtang soldiers were all mighty and murderous.

The only pity is that this set of equipment of more than 20 catties is really heavy, and it has a great impact on the movements of the Hongtang warriors. For more Hongtang soldiers who are fighting on the sea, such a piece of equipment is not only not easy to maintain, but also has limited use in naval battles, and it also hinders everyone's swimming skills when swimming and surviving at sea, which is not suitable for Hongtang to use.

While arming the team, Wu Daofu and the others prepared to send an advance ship to Amami Oshima, which is not far away, to reconnoiter the intelligence in Amami Oshima. However, Wu Daofu and their big team came over, although they also had some sense of secrecy, and they came straight to Ryukyu Island, but it was inevitable that they were still followed by many small tails, and there were also many gossip about Hong Tang's expedition on the sea, maybe this Japanese also got this news.

(End of chapter)