Yixun Yanagawa led a squadron to the front.

Soon, they passed Muroto Maple in the southeast of Shikoku Island.

The sky was completely dimming. In this era, there was no navigation system or a common shore lighthouse system. Even the Daxia Navy, which had steam power, did not dare to sail at night on the Japanese coast where islands and reefs were everywhere. However, Yikyu Yanagawa still did this.

Being able to do this naturally depends on a full reliance.

First of all, over the past decade, they have steadily explored the entire coastline of Japan. The so-called exploration, the latitude and longitude of important reference objects, and the distance between the two reference objects, have been clearly explored. It is clear that they will naturally not miss obvious markers like Muroto Maple.

In the past, when Dodo was still controlling the entire Shikoku Island, he built a lighthouse at Muroto with the assistance of the Oxia Kingdom. At present, although Dodo's remaining troops were surrounded by Tokugawa Rai-kun near Kochi Fort, they still retained the lighthouses on the sea such as Muroto.

With the lighthouse of Muroto Kaede as a guide, Hanhai Army's ships can control the ship based on this, based on the navigation clock and compass, and then follow the routes needed to travel to Takamatsu Castle to the north when passing here.

As a capable navy, after arriving at Muroto Kaede, the fleet had multiple choices.

First, sail along the coastline, effectively avoiding obstacles based on the distance and time between the reference object and the next reference object. At this time, the Han Haijun ship naturally had spotlights similar to searchlights in later generations, but they were still formed by focusing and other treatments. The effect was completely incomparable to later generations. Therefore, time, rudder position, and navigation chart became the only reference.

In such night colors, reducing the speed becomes the only choice.

The second is to continue to reach the outer sea for a certain time, and then sail northward along the eastern coastline of Shikoku Island at a certain distance. In this world, at this night, the Daxia Kingdom is the only one who can do this.

Then, you will drive eastward at a certain angle. In that case, you will arrive at the Wakayama Bible, which is close to the eastern part of Shikoku Island at a fixed time.

The distance between this route is about 300 miles. In East Asia at this time, if there is no navigation clock, stable ship speed, and accurate navigation chart? It is a complete dream to "go east" to reach Honshu Island and reach within the scheduled time.

But Hanhai Jun can do this, and this technology is completely crushing, whether it is against the water power of Asia or Europe?

Of course, if you encounter sparse islands and reefs on the ocean, for example, from Chaozhou through Dongsha Island to Luzon, and the Spanish sailing ships were heated by the Pacific Ocean to America through southern Japan, they could still route unscrupulously even at night? At that time, as long as you keep the rudder position of the ship roughly at a fixed angle? Because you are aiming at a vast continent, if you are not too lucky, you will always encounter land.

Even so? Whether it was from the Ming Dynasty to Luzon, or from Spain to the Americas, when they arrived at their destination - the so-called destination? That is, the mainland, as for the specific location? Almost no two times the same? The gap is thousands of miles apart. There must be hundreds of miles apart.

But the Great Xia Kingdom can do whether it is during the day (using the sun) or at night (using the stars), plus the sextant, and quickly calculate the location. If it is full of dark clouds, you can only use the navigation clock, ship speed, navigation chart and experience to roughly determine it.

Yanagawa Ikihiko was a Wakayama man. When the fleet had just crossed Muroto, he had the idea of ​​going eastward to Wakayama. He passed the Tanabata below the Wakayama family, where his father was a down-and-out samurai.

He quickly gave up the idea. It was unwise to drive to the sea at night, because at this time there would never be any enemy on the sea in the night - except for those two famous routes.

But Yikyu Yanagawa was soon disappointed.

Shortly after they left Muroto Kaede, large areas of light appeared on the sea in front.

According to the navigation chart, at this time and at this location, there is no inhabited island in front of you, so there is no possibility of lights. Moreover, Shikoku Island, which is regarded as a remote area at this time, will fall asleep not long after the residents here will fall asleep, and there is no extra money to buy lamp oil.

The lights are still the same, which means at least a fleet of ships.

This night, the answer is about to emerge in this sea area.

It could not be a fleet under the shogunate general, nor could it be a fleet that was heading south from Hokkaido, because the lookout hand on the main mast lookout for Yanagawa Yikki's fleet had a signal light, but the other party did not respond.

There is only one possibility. The Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese who are still doing business with the shogunate - but even the three of them are generally impossible to appear here at night under normal circumstances. In this way, there is only one answer.

Not long ago, the Portuguese fleet that participated in the besieging Dodo tribe, the fleet commanded by Alfonso, the Far East commander of the Kingdom of Portugal. They appeared in this sea area, needless to say, received a letter of help from Tokugawa Rairu Kochi Castle. Most of the shogunate also provided conditions that they could not refuse. Otherwise, at their level, it would be unlikely that they would have been sailing in this sea area at night.

Yixing Yanagawa guessed it well. When Zuzepu's fleet broke into Kochizu, Tokugawa Rairu immediately reported to Tokugawa Mitsuto, the second-generation vassal lord of Ozawa who was stationed in Takamatsu Castle in the Sanki vassal. After learning about it, Tokugawa Mitsuto must have notified the shogun and the Alfonso fleet who were staying at the port of Wakayama.

In the night, there was a bow of a Garen ship about 500 tons, and Alfonso, who was forty, looked serious.

Originally, he didn't have to fight like this, but the conditions provided by the shogunate made him unable to refuse - at this time, Japan, as the core link of the Western barbarians' general triangular trade, had almost irreplaceable status, and even the Ming Dynasty.

The so-called triangular trade is the use of spices monopolized in the Southeast Asian region, plus some rice and rare wood, and sold them to the Ming Dynasty. They obtained raw silk from the Ming Dynasty, which was comparable to gold and silver at this time, and then sold the raw silk to Japan, and obtained silver from them, and then obtained porcelain, silk-porcelain from the Ming Dynasty. The silk patterns are all based on the religions and scenery that Europeans liked by negotiations with customers before.

Finally, when I returned to Europe, spices, porcelain and silk were three extremely profitable products. I crossed the Strait of Malacca, followed the southern part of South Asia and the African continent, and finally arrived in Europe. Although this trip was extremely dangerous, as long as I successfully arrived in Europe, the gross profit would be at least five times.

Among them, they do almost no business, and Japan, which provides markets and currencies, is crucial.

When the shogunate asked Alfonso to dispatch a fleet, he mentioned that as long as he rushed to the coast near Kochi Fort overnight and repelled Zuzepu's fleet, his Portugal's share in Japanese trade will reach the same level as Zheng Zhilong and the Dutch in the coming year.

This condition was too attractive to the Portuguese, not to mention that the shogunate also offered a condition that he dared not refuse. The shogunate placed a large number of orders to the Bugalau artillery factory in Macau. If the Portuguese completed this order, it would be equivalent to the profit of the triangular trade of three years.

Such conditions cannot be refused by the Portuguese who are now defeated by the Dutch in the Far East, and are left with only one Macau and a very small number of Nanyang islands. In addition, Alfonso is very familiar with the sea area of ​​Japan, so he agreed after much thought.

Alfonso had a selfish intention to agree so quickly.

The current governor of Macau is about to be in succession. If he achieves such good results in the Far East, he will most likely become the new governor.

But in the night, after a gust of cold wind blew from the north, Alfonso, with messy hair, looked very serious.

There is no need to observe carefully. On such a night, such a sea area can still sail freely and make that hateful sound on the empty sea surface where there is only the sound of waves.

Daxia Kingdom!

Since the ships of the Daxia Kingdom have maintained high frequency navigation in this sea area and even the entire Japanese coastline, there is nothing wrong with meeting them this night.

However, Alfonso, who had been in the Far East for more than 20 years, knew that things were not that simple.

Ten years after Dodo and Hauge broke into Japan, both the shogunate and the Dutch, the Portuguese understood one thing.

Duoduo and the others did not take the initiative to enter Japan. With their ability, even if they had this intention, they could not do it. Then, the pusher behind them was about to emerge.

As the largest force in East Asia today, as long as you have a little political sensitivity, you will know what this means.

In fact, in recent years, the Portuguese lived much better than in history, especially in the previous battle of Iki-Ujiu, after the Dutch fleet was completely wiped out by the Daxia Kingdom.

Otherwise, in the original history, before the Qing Dynasty completely unified the country, the Portuguese in Macau barely endured it in the "hungry and cold".

In a word, Japan is the concern of the Portuguese, but there is a prerequisite, that is, not to offend the Great Xia Kingdom.

But now the arrow is on the string, can you still do this?

He was thinking that all the lights in front disappeared - no no, no, not all, but all the lights hanging on the mast on the boat disappeared, and there was lights faintly inside the hull, but these lights appeared and had no sense of existence at all on the vast sea.

An ominous premonition surged into Alfonso's heart. On the dark sea, the rumbling sound of the other party was like a monster hidden in the sea.

“Lights out…”

Before Alfonso finished speaking, a shocking roar came from around them.

At the end of August of the third year of Dongxing, a night battle at sea was launched in the southern waters of Japan, and the devil's sea area of ​​later generations began!

The whereabouts of the Portuguese in Japan were naturally clear about the Great Xia Kingdom, and it is self-evident that they appeared here at this time. Therefore, it is the only choice to wipe out all of them and let them disappear in this sea area.

"boom……"

"boom……"

Driven by steam power, Hanhai military ships can change directions anytime and anywhere with the superior firepower on the sideways to carry out ruthless attacks on the enemy on the surface.

At this time, the artillery equipped with Hanhai Army warships also made certain progress.

Due to the advancement of smelting and forging technology, artillery can fire shells of the same weight as before on the premise of lighter and shorter, and the reliability of flint fuses is greatly improved. Like fixed-loading paper shells, the cannon's drug induction packages, the artillery's drug induction packages, the artillery shells, and the launching drugs are fixedly equipped, which is faster.

(PS: When continuing to use black gunpowder, no matter what height you increase the ratio and quality of the black gunpowder, the kinetic energy it generates is always limited, but the steel smelting technology at this time is far from the end. Therefore, it is easy to make the cannon lighter and lighter under the premise of generating the same large kinetic energy)

Also, at this time, the weight of the giant artillery weighing 32 pounds on the largest flagship of the Hanhai Army was the same as before, but the kinetic energy generated when the cannon was more than 20% higher than before, that is, at the same distance, the killing effect they produced was increased by 20%.

"No. 1 bomb! Ten copies, next wave, No. 2 bomb, five copies of hot bomb each, prepare!"

"Now the waves ahead are about one meter, the recovery time is about three seconds. In the next wave, the angles of all gun positions will be adjusted at one degree!"

“…”

In the cabin, the lights were brightly lit, and the lights could only leak through the gaps in the small gun positions. The long shooting orders came one after another, and the gunners were sweating but in an orderly manner. The city was busy in the cabin filled with the smell of gunpowder and the smell of salty sea water.

For the Hanhai Army, it is impossible for the enemy to extinguish all the lights. From the Hanhai Army with guns installed, as long as the enemy is still in sight, they cannot escape their attacks.

At this time, the shells on the opposite side also hit the Hanhai Army's fleet intermittently. However, for the Hanhai Army fleet, which was completely powered by steam at night, there was almost no one on the first deck except the lookout. Therefore, if the shells they completely resigned to hit the main mast, they could only be destined.

The battle lasted about two hours. Due to the superb mobility of the Hanhai Army, the opponent had to keep catching the north wind at all times and deal with the increasingly higher waves at all times. After two hours, the battle was all over.

Four enemy ships were sunk, and one of them exploded violently, but the hull was not damaged, but there were almost no sailors on the ship, so it turned into a ghost ship, drifting deep into the ocean under the blow of the north wind.
Chapter completed!