Qinghe Hengxiu said that he was already quite polite, and he was afraid that he had already been labeled as a fool behind his back, and he saw Zhengheng's signal, and said again: "My family's strategic goal is to expand westward, but any ordinary person can see the situation of my family." Ouchi Yoshinaga, the minister doesn't know if he has figured it out, but his retainers will inevitably sue him. Ouchi Yoshinaga sent spies to provoke civil strife in my family, which is already a matter of topic, and it is not enough to worry about it, but why pick this time? ”

Qinghe Hengxiu's brain was making money quickly, and he stepped forward and said: "The minister has been thinking about it for a long time, and he has come to the conclusion that Ouchi Yoshicho can't wait, he wants to immediately raise troops to fight with my family, so as to decide the victory, and then calmly turn around and defeat Ouchi Yoshitaka." ”

Zhengheng nodded slightly, he also had the same idea about Hideki Ueki's laziness in Sai Ida Castle, Hideki Ueki was not enough to worry about the clown, I was afraid that Yoshicho Ouchi, Mori Takakei, Takeyoshi Murakami and others would not be able to wait for Date to finish resting.

Zhengheng chuckled lightly and sneered: "Self-confidence is good, arrogance is not good." We should deal with Maori Yuan and Nizi Qingjiu, which time is not trembling, cautious, but if there is a negligence, I am afraid that the family has already died. ”

Noyama Masahima pondered for a moment and said: "Ouchi Yoshinaga is also a top figure among the forces of the Western Kingdom, if you add Mori Takakei, especially Murakami Takeyoshi, in the Seto Inland Sea, with the thin strength of the salt-saturated water army and the small fleet of Ako County, it is really difficult to resist the attack of the Mishima Murakami and Yashiro Island water army, it can be said that there are crises everywhere, and the lord must not be underestimated." ”

Murakami Buyoshi will always be a hurdle that the Date family can't bypass, and the Mishima Murakami Navy gallops in the Seto Inland Sea. The territory of the Date family can be said to be attacked by the navy at every turn. Fortified everywhere means difficult to defend everywhere. Only by destroying it completely is the day when the Date family will truly take off.

Now, the Date family is the king and hegemon on land, but they can't use the soldiers to attack the chaotic Niko Haruhisa in the Boqi Kingdom, and they can't go to the Inhata Province to defeat Yamana Yutoyo, all because they are worried that once the soldiers and horses in the territory are emptied, the castle towns and villages along the coast will be attacked by the Murakami water army.

Referring to the matter of the navy, Zhengheng looked at Ge Lang Hengxin, who was sitting in the middle, and Ge Lang Hengxin had been building a naval base in Chisui County for half a year. Although they would report back every month and a half, everyone was still ambiguous about the progress of the navy, so they asked, "How many available ships does my family have now?" How many qualified sailors? ”

Ge Lang Hengxin didn't dare to respond to the story, although he was the highest acting official of Ako County, but he was not the only one in Ako County who was a direct retainer of the Date family, and immediately said: "Yes, the Ako County Navy Base now has twenty-four ships, one hundred and three ships, and one thousand seven hundred and forty-three sailors. This is not counting the salt-saturated water army and the police of Kasaokama Castle? He wanted to bring the Salt Salt Army and the Kasaoka Castle Police Force under the control of the Ako Prefecture Navy Base, but of course he knew it was impossible.

Off the ship. It was built to intercept merchant ships that refused to pay tolls, with an emphasis on speed. By the Warring States period, such ships were widely used in naval warfare. The boat is usually rowed with 40 to 50 oars, and the guards around the boat are not as thick as those of the Ataka boat, but have a thin design, sometimes made of bamboo, so that they are as light as possible and have excellent mobility.

Xiao Zao, is a small ship, the oars of the early ship are less than the ship, generally 14-30 oars, the defense is relatively weak, mainly close to the battle, there is quite good mobility.

At present, the world's naval warfare is still dominated by hand-to-hand combat, and there is not much difference between the knowledge of naval warfare in Japan and the knowledge of naval warfare in Europe, the only difference is that European ships have begun to develop in the direction of artillery giants, while in Japan due to a series of problems such as resources, they are moving slowly in a larger and stronger direction.

Zhengheng suddenly remembered the Ataka boat, a ship carried forward by Murakami Bukitshi, and suddenly asked, "How is our Ataka ship now?" ”

Katsura Hengxin replied respectfully: "The gap between our army and Mishima Murakami is concentrated in the number of ships and sailing experience, Mishima Murakami as a force that has been rampaging the Seto Inland Sea for hundreds of years, has more than 800 large and small ships, of which the Nojima family has nearly half of the ships, if you want to catch up with Mishima Murakami in the number of ships in a short period of time, it is really a difficult thing to do, not to mention that with a ship, there must be a number of sailors and captains, and a single sailor who operates a large and small oar, it will take a lot of time and energy to perform. ”

There was a pause.

Katsuro continued: "Since the lord gave the order to build a ship type that exploits its strengths and avoids its weaknesses, and gives full play to the advantages of my family's firearms and hand-to-hand combat, building a larger and stronger ship type has become the only option for our army to defeat Mishima Murakami. However, due to the lack of shipwrights, his subordinates could only retreat to the second, using the original Guan Ship, for the Guan Ship hull to increase, from the original thirty or forty people to swing the small oars forward, increased to 100 people, about eight zhang one foot, about two zhang six feet wide, with seventy-two small oars, the ship can have a hundred fighters and eighty sailors, and can also be equipped with thirty firearms, the attack power is greatly increased. ”

In fact, Zheng Heng also has no experience in exploring the types of ships, in the era in which he lived in his previous life, wooden sailing ships have long since receded into the dust of history, all the people running on the sea are steel guys, and the warships galloping in the sea even have the high-tech product of nuclear power.

In the 16th century, you suggested that even if you wanted to build a steam-powered ship, you had to ask people if they knew about such a novelty as the steam engine. In real history, the idea of building a steam engine was proposed in the late seventeenth century, which led to the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century, and until the beginning of the twentieth century, it remained the most important driving force in the world. But if you ask a 16th-century Oriental, they will only treat you as an outlier, and certainly not on a cross and kebab like in Europe, and they will ignore you.

In his previous life, Zhengheng was an otaku who lived in the coastal area, and he saw a lot of ships, but when he really asked him to build a ship, he could only sigh with admiration, and the steam engine was just a vague concept, nothing more.

The advantages of the Ataka ship are obvious, at least it has more than 100 combatants, and the largest ship is now only one or twenty people, of course, if it really enters the naval battle, as long as the necessary sailors are left to operate, other sailors can also join the battle, and the number is only between thirty and forty people.

Zhengheng paused and asked, "What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Ataka ship?" ”

Ge Long Hengxin responded: "The advantages and disadvantages of the Ataku ship are very obvious, compared with the commonly used Sekibune and Kozao, the Ataku ship hull is longer, wider and higher, the armor and upper cabin are strengthened, the hull is widened, and the load is about 300 to 500 stones, and after enhancing the stability and defense, it is inevitable that the speed is far less than the Sekiki, so the Ataku ship needs to be escorted by the Otaku ship and the small morning boat, and after approaching the opponent's ship, use the advantage of the Ataku ship to crush the opponent's boat, or the sailor will board the ship to fight, Our army naturally has the upper hand. ”

Zhengheng said: "Well, how many Anzhai ships do my family own now?" ”

Ge Long Hengxin said a little embarrassed: "Lord, due to the urgency of time, there are only two Ataku ships currently on trial, and three Keels are being built in the dock, and five Ataku ships of 400 stone can be built within the year, and more boatwrights and docks will be needed." ”

Zheng Heng is not good at technology, in this era of manual construction of everything, if you want to build enough ships, you have to build enough docks, gather and train more shipwrights, obviously the Date family is no longer possible in a short period of time.

Zhengheng nodded slightly: "It seems that the matter of the Ataka ship will not be able to play a role in dealing with the war against Mishima Village, Tanba, it seems that you still need to make a hard trip, go to the salt-filled islands, and use their ships and sailors." There is also Kakuto Hengxin, the number of Ataka ships is not too much, roughly between ten and fifteen ships is enough to dominate the Seto Inland Sea, and some experienced old shipwrights are selected from among the shipwrights to focus on the study of sailing ships that can sail on the sea, and the fortune ships of the Ming Kingdom and the sailing ships of the Nanban are all studied. ”

Miyahara replied: "The minister understands! ”

Ge Lang Hengxin listened to Zhengheng's orders, and his eyes lit up, as an island country, the Wa Kingdom has a special affinity for the sea. At that time, there were two kinds of ships used in the Wa Kingdom, one was the ships that used manpower to move the oars to travel and fight in the Seto Inland Sea and the coastal seas, Sekibune, Kozao, and Ataka boats, and even the ironclad ships that were boasted by the Wa people, all of which were in the sky, but were rarely used in the coastal seas. The other is the sailing ship that sails on the sea, which is mainly used to travel between the Wa Kingdom and the Ming Kingdom.

Zheng Heng struggled for a while about studying the sailing ship, whether it caused the wolf to jump out of the cage, but he quickly dispelled this concern. Although due to Emperor Jiajing's stupidity and the misdirection of the ministers, the coastal defense was very empty, resulting in frequent pirate attacks, but in the next ten years in the southeast coast, Hu Zongxian, Qi Jiguang, Yu Da Chief and other famous generals emerged, defending the stability of the empire's maritime frontier.

It is really a difficult thing for Zheng Heng to unify the western country and Kyushu region in more than ten years, even if he can complete this impossible task, it is impossible to let the sea robbers run rampant. For the unified government, if the benefits of normal trade were greater than those swept by the pirates, why risk annoying the Ming Empire to do thankless work. (To be continued......)