It turns out that the Goto clan's original surname was the Uku clan, and its earliest territory, or home base, was Uku Island.

The Uku clan was not originally a feudal lord, but a merchant ship owner who often traveled here and worked part-time as a pirate. After accumulating some wealth and gaining a certain strength of men, he occupied this island.

When Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent troops to the Koryo Peninsula, because Uku Island is located in the sea and is relatively close to the southern tip of the Koryo Peninsula, Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered the Uku clan to be recruited to serve.

However, the Uku family was ordered to be cautious, gathered many ships, and tried their best to undertake the task of transporting grain and grass. Therefore, he was rewarded by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and was given the power to rule the Goto Islands.

After that, in order to consolidate their rule over the Goto Islands, the Uku clan not only changed their surname to the Goto clan, but also moved the domain office from Uku Island to Fukue Island, the largest island in the Goto Islands.

When Toyotomi Hideyoshi died and Tokugawa Ieyasu raised his troops and launched a series of wars to eliminate the Toyotomi clan's power, the Goto clan originally wanted to support the Toyotomi clan and responded to the Toyotomi clan's call by sending troops

, going to help in the battle.

However, the Goto clan was far away from Osaka, and before they arrived, the war was already over, and Tokugawa Ieyasu's side had already won.

The head of the Goto family at that time saw that the situation was not right, and immediately switched sides, expressed his surrender to Tokugawa Ieyasu, and claimed that he was here to support the Tokugawa family.

Although Tokugawa Ieyasu was doubtful, he did not kill him. Instead, he ordered him to be held hostage in Edo Castle, and then allowed him to return to the Goto Islands and continue to be the daimyo of the Goto Islands.

Later, in order to restrain foreign daimyo like the Matsuura clan and the Goto clan, and also to monopolize the benefits of maritime trade, Tokugawa Ieyasu and his successors issued a seclusion order.

One of the most important ones is to prohibit foreign daimyo such as the Matsuura clan and the Goto clan who rely on maritime trade to continue private trade with foreign countries, and to concentrate maritime merchants from the Ming Dynasty and the Netherlands in Nagasaki Port, which is directly controlled by the Tokugawa shogunate.

trade.

As a result, the Matsuura clan and the Goto clan, which originally relied on sea trade, declined rapidly.

The Matsuura clan had a large territory. After losing the benefits of sea trade, they turned to agriculture and fishing, but they still remained a large clan.

However, the Goto clan was originally a small and poor people. After losing the advantage of maritime trade, which was close to the water, first come first served, they immediately fell into decline. In the end, their situation was worse than that of a rich man in the Ming Dynasty.

As for the situation of the Hirado Domain, Yang Zhen was unable to ask anything from the commander of the Usui Camp who stayed behind on Ukushima.

In the early morning of the 17th when he arrived at Uku Island, Yang Zhen asked about the situation and quickly ordered the commander of the Yousui Camp to send Lin Chongfan to the southern end of Hirado Island.

Yang Zhen asked Lin Chongfan to land at the southern end of Hirado Island and take the land route north to find out what the situation was like around the mountain city Lin Qingye was holding on to in Hirado Port.

At the same time, if he could infiltrate under cover of night, Yang Zhen asked him to tell Lin Qingye and others that they must stand firm and wait for reinforcements, and reinforcements would arrive after dawn.

Not long after Lin Chongfan landed ashore, he boarded the ship again for a night voyage and continued eastward.

Yang Zhen and others also did not stay on Ujiu Island for long. In fact, after Lin Chongfan left, they just went ashore to have a rest, and then quickly boarded the ship again after having a hearty meal of hot food.

In the Atlantic Ocean in July, the sky dawns very early, and just after the first lunar month, the eastern sky is already turning white.

In view of this, under the advice of Yan Shengsan, Qiu Guangyi and others, Yang Zhen gave up the plan of asking everyone to go ashore to have a good rest and then rush to the battlefield after Yin Shi.

Yang Zhen didn't want to turn what was just a surprise and unprepared raid and siege operation into an offensive operation in broad daylight where the enemy and we were clear.

In this way, at three o'clock in the morning on the 17th, Yang Zhen summoned the accompanying generals to make the final mobilization and deployment, and then ordered the entire army to leave the port and sail eastward.

Uku Island is not far from Hirado Island, only sixty or seventy miles away. With a favorable wind, it will arrive in an hour.

In the early morning of July 17, the 17th year of Chongzhen, at the turn of the Yin and Mao period, Yang Zhen's fleet, which was heading eastward for stargazing, first headed to the northeast, then turned to the southwest. After some circumnavigation, it finally quietly arrived at the final destination of Hirado Island.

The entrance and exit waters of a huge bay on the west side of the northern end.

It was already dawn at this time, and a layer of morning mist floated on the sea surface in the breeze. In the entire Hirado West Bay, there was no other sound except the sea wind and waves.

If Yang Zhen hadn't clearly seen from the telescope that the flag flying high in the mountain city on the island in the distance was the most common black flag of the Big Dipper in various naval fleets under Jinhai Town, he would have suspected that Qiu Qiu

Is the route led by Guangyi's subordinates correct?

Although Yang Zhen ordered all naval forces in Jinhai Town to uniformly replace and use the new Big Dipper flag with a red background, he did not make such a request for the loyal and loyal Ming army units.

At the same time, Lin Qingye and the navy team he led had completely separated themselves from Li Chao and Ning Guo, who had shaved their heads and changed clothes. Naturally, it was impossible to fight under the banner of Li Chao Nan's three navy forces.

In this way, Lin Qingye, who did not dare to use the military flag indiscriminately, had no choice but to continue to fly the Big Dipper black order flag commonly used by the naval camp under the jurisdiction of Jinhae Town.

When they landed on Hirado Island this time, although they followed Yang Zhen's request and flew a false flag of "Commander of the Navy of the Qing Dynasty and South Ning Kingdom", this false flag to deceive the enemy really hurt our own army.

After only two days of fighting, Lin Qingye replaced the Big Dipper and the Black Order Flag.

And that morning, what Yang Zhen saw with his telescope on the stern of the Yingzhou through the mist and morning light was the replaced Black Flag of the Big Dipper.

As soon as he saw this flag, Yang Zhen knew that Lin Qingye and his troops were still holding on to the ruins of the former Hirado Mountain Castle.

After a stone fell to the ground in his heart, he lowered his telescope's gaze and looked into the depths of the bay in the mist. He quickly saw the situation clearly.

On the coast deep in the bay, there are a series of gray-white tent camps, while on the sea close to the shore, there is a large black ship with no sails.

After seeing the situation in the bay clearly, Yang Zhen could not conceal the ecstasy in his heart. He immediately shouted and issued an order, ordering the twenty-five 400-material warships in the first echelon to seize the wind and steer and rush into the bay first!

Long before departure, Yang Zhen had already made a pre-arranged agreement on the formation and orders of the fleet during combat.

During the final mobilization in Ukushima, Yang Zhen once again reiterated the method of formation and order.

Therefore, as soon as Yang Zhen's order was issued, the flag officer on the Yingzhou blew his whistle and quickly raised a red isosceles triangular flag with a long tail to the highest mast, which ordered the attack.

Subsequently, all the twenty-four 400-ton warships following the Yingzhou ship suddenly used their oars and sails together and followed the Yingzhou ship into the bay.

The other two hundred warships, as well as a large number of sand ships and sentry ships, naturally fell behind the main warship at this time and followed diligently.

However, just as the fleet rushed into the bay, a loud noise suddenly sounded on the peninsula in the northern part of the bay, and then a plume of thick smoke rose into the sky.

Immediately afterwards, thick smoke also rose from the peninsula to the south of the bay entrance, which was farther away.

"Captain, the Japanese slaves are looking forward to the sea sentry, we have been discovered!"

"Just discover it if you find it. They only found it now and it's already too late! Don't pay attention to the Japanese slaves' sentries. Everything will go according to our predetermined plan!"

Faced with the slightly surprised report from Guo Xiaowu, the commander of the Yingzhou, Yang Zhen didn't care at all, but continued to order the advance to the depths of the bay quite calmly.

Because of the situation he was facing, Yang Zhen had imagined almost the same scenario when he and his generals were deducing the encirclement and annihilation of the fleets of the Western feudal lords on Kyushu Island in the Wano Kingdom.

Moreover, Yang Zhen has already deployed the strategies to deal with such scenarios.

That is, when encountering each other in a narrow road, the brave one wins, taking advantage of one's own ship's large number of cannons, or the strength of the ship's cannons, to directly crush them, and with lightning speed, destroy the enemy's ships anchored in the bay.

The reason why Yang Zhen was not afraid of being ambushed after rushing into the bay was because he had confirmed from Lin Chongfan that this fleet composed of various lords from the western vassals of Kyushu Island did not have heavy artillery.

The reason why Lin Qingye and the others who were surrounded on the island were able to persist until now was because they could rely on a cottage built on the ruins of Hirado Castle. This also proved once again that the Japanese fleet that counterattacked Hirado Island did not

Heavy artillery.

And in view of this, Yang Zhen has reason to believe that among these Japanese slaves, there are not even so-called "national collapse" in the fleet with such famous names as overseas.

Under such circumstances, Yang Zhen was not worried about being ambushed at all. On the contrary, Yang Zhen's only worry was that the Wonu Kingdom's fleet would disperse in a hurry.

After all, the ships of the western lords of Kyushu Island gathered in the Hirado West Bay were so dark that there were not even a thousand but maybe eight hundred, and most of them were small and medium-sized galleys with long, narrow hulls and fast movements.

Once they disperse in a hurry, the large ships under his command, which are relatively small in number and move somewhat slowly, may not be able to catch up.

However, now that he has blocked them in the bay, there is nothing to worry about. He can just follow the plan he made before.

The evolution of the situation in Hirado West Bay was almost as Yang Zhen expected.

From a geographical point of view, this pincer-shaped bay was originally a sheltered harbor.

There is a peninsula on its north and south sides that protrudes into the sea, embracing it and forming a semi-enclosed harbor with a small mouth and a large belly, facing the west.

If there were a large number of forts built on the peninsulas on the north and south sides of it, then this bay would undoubtedly be as easy to defend and difficult to attack as Port Arthur.

However, the Tokugawa Shogunate's national lockdown order and the One Country, One City Order, especially the so-called "Yuanwa Yanwu" operation, made all this impossible.

What's more, this is not where Hirado Port is located. The real Hirado Port is on the other side of this gourd-shaped peninsula.

It's just because there are still more than a dozen undamaged turtle ships stationed in Hirado Port, and five of them are equipped with powerful heavy red cannons.

Therefore, the Japanese fleet that counterattacked Hirado Island did not dare to anchor the fleet outside Hirado Port at night. Instead, it anchored in Hirado West Bay to facilitate their landing from the back and attack Hirado Mountain Castle.

However, what they never expected was that a maritime force from the Ming Dynasty that they had never heard of would target them and turn this natural harbor into a graveyard for their fleet.

However, it is said that after loud noises were made and thick smoke rose from the peninsulas on the north and south sides of the entrance to Hirado West Bay, the Wonu fleet stationed deep in the bay soon became commotion.

Because at this time, the sky was still bright, and although they were still several miles apart, the incoming large number of 400-material warships led by Yang Zhen could already be vaguely seen on the sea.

Especially the huge Yingzhou, with its tall masts and huge sails, has already entered the sight of the Japanese slaves camping on the coast.

Soon, there were all kinds of horn sounds, gongs and drums, and even shouts, which sounded in a chaotic manner.

Yang Zhen was on the stern of the Yingzhou, holding a telescope to observe, and soon saw the Japanese slaves camped on the shore, disheveled and in a hurry, swarming on the ship docked on the shore.

Those who were originally on the ship were hurriedly raising the sails, and then using the oars to rush out to the outside of the large ship group.

But the fleet of Japanese slaves moored in the bay was too big. The ships, big and small, were packed close together and crowded together.

Before Yang Zhen gave the order to fire, they were already in a mess.

If the west wind blows strongly now, and if Yang Zhen has prepared enough fire ships in advance, what Yang Zhen wants to do most now is to release the fire ships and burn them into a sea of ​​fire.

Unfortunately, Yang Zhen's fleet did not carry many things to ignite the fire.

And at this time, there was no strong west wind.

Therefore, Yang Zhen could only order shelling, which he was better at, to solve the problem.

At about three o'clock that day, the fleet led by Yang Zhen had entered the depths of the bay, and the black and chaotic fleet of the Japanese slave country had entered the range of the ship-borne Hongyi heavy artillery.

At this time, Yang Zhen ordered the Yingzhou to turn right to face the enemy on the port side, and then fired the first shot to bombard the Japanese slave fleet.

Almost at the same time, the other twenty-four 400-material warships that followed the Yingzhou into the depths of the bay in a wild goose formation also lined up left and right with the Yingzhou as the center, facing the Japanese slave fleet with their sides.
Chapter completed!