Father can be an enemy to the country

And in order to maintain the monopoly of Hakata Port, they also absolutely support the "no board" maritime ban policy.

In this way, neither the Northern Dynasty nor other rich people can engage in smuggling and can only trade with Hakata honestly. Who dares to speak loudly in front of them? Ashikaga Yoshimitsu also has to be polite to them!

Not to mention the huge benefits brought by exclusive trade, it is simply making money sitting on the ground.

The two people who were reluctant just now have suddenly become staunch supporters of "nothing goes into the sea"! So he expressed his position on the spot that the Northern Dynasty must accept the maritime ban no matter what! Otherwise...otherwise we won't trade with them.

Without the monopoly of Hakata Port, they didn't even have a card that could control the Northern Dynasties. How could they not support Lao Liu?

It wasn't until this moment that they truly surrendered to Ming Dynasty.

~~

After Shao Er Dayou returned, he immediately conveyed the wishes of His Highness the King of Chu to the Northern Dynasty.

Of course, this kind of thing was not something that General Shiba Yi could decide, so he quickly reported it to Muromachi.

When General Shiba Yi was out, Hatakeyama Motokuni, who was writing for him, saw the letter and hurriedly reported it to the general.

However, he did not find the general in the imperial palace. After asking, he found out that he had gone to Lake Biwa again.

Ever since he returned from defeat in the Kanmon Strait, the high-spirited Ashikaga Yoshimitsu seemed like a new person. He was no longer as meticulous as before and had to take care of everything. Instead, he left all the big and small matters to Hatakeyama and others, and spent all day with a group of shipwrights, focusing on studying shipbuilding.

The huge battleships of the Ming army that covered the sky and the sun caused a serious psychological shadow on him. He did not have the courage to cross the narrow strait until he built a battleship that could rival the Ming Dynasty.

He drew the appearance of Ming Dynasty warships on paper and asked shipwrights summoned from various places to imitate them. He promised that whoever could succeed would be rewarded with high officials and generous salaries.

With such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the shipwrights naturally did not want to miss it, and they all enthusiastically expressed their willingness to give it a try!

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu asked them to try out a prototype ship at Lake Biwa on the edge of Kyoto. He also allocated two thousand troops to them at their disposal, and they also cut down the big trees by the lake. Anyway, they all belong to the imperial family, so if you don’t cut them off, it will be in vain.

He himself would go to Lake Biwa every two days to watch them build boats, which would last him a whole day...

I just went there yesterday and went again today. Hatakeyama Motokun didn't know whether he was anxious to build a ship or simply addicted to watching it.

I had no choice but to ride over again.

When we arrived at Lake Biwa, it was already noon, and we saw the general setting up a throne on Tang Bridge. While eating, he looked intently at the shore not far away, where hundreds of workers were busy and working non-stop. to build a huge ship hull.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu looked at it with gusto. The natto, kombu and seaweed soup that accompanied the meal were not touched, and he even finished two bowls of rice.

"General." Hatakeyama Motokuni called twice before he came back to his senses.

"Moto is here." Ashikaga Yoshimitsu glanced at him, then continued to look at the shipbuilding site and asked, "What's the matter?"

"The prince of the Ming Dynasty replied." Hatakeyama Motokuni said in a low voice.

"Oh?" Ashikaga Yoshimitsu reluctantly looked away and took the letter from Hatakeyama Motokuni.

After reading it, he slammed the letter on the table in annoyance. "It's really too much of a lie! If we agree to these conditions, we will never be able to regain Kyushu!"

In fact, he did not value sea power. What he valued was crossing the strait and regaining Kyushu. Regardless of whether they 'don't go to the sea' or surrender to the Ming Dynasty, their dreams will be shattered, which is extremely difficult for him to accept!

"If we don't agree, not only will the 20,000 troops not be able to come back, but the Ming army will also threaten to continue attacking our country." Hatakeyama Motokuni reminded the angry general.

"The Ming army can ride on warships and attack most of our territories at will. It is really difficult to defend."

"When this general's battleship is successfully built, everything will be fine!" Ashikaga Yoshimitsu waved his hands as if to embrace his own life-saving straw, and said emotionally: "As long as this 'First Maru' is successfully built, The general will send all the craftsmen involved in the construction to various countries and order them to build ships with all their strength, so that in a short period of time, a navy comparable to the Ming army can be built."

As he spoke, he clenched his fist heavily and gritted his teeth and said: "At that time, I will let those people of the Ming Dynasty have a good taste of the power of this general!"

"But General, even if we build the warship, what about the artillery?" Hatakeyama Motokuni is also good at pouring cold water on him.

"..." Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's expression froze. This was another big problem, and it seemed to be ten times more difficult than building a ship.

After all, the Japanese can still build ships. At least in his perception, they just want to make the ships bigger. As long as you put in the effort, you will definitely succeed.

But the Japanese really don't know how to make guns and cannons. In fact, artillery is not a rare thing. It has been spread to Japan with the Yuan Dynasty and pirates. For many years, they have wanted to imitate the gourd, but they have been unable to imitate it.

Because Chinese firearms in this era were all made of copper or iron. Japan can't even cast copper coins and iron coins well, so how can they imitate them? Do you understand that they don't have the ability?

Their technology was so backward that they couldn't even make bronze. They had to export copper materials to the Song Dynasty at low prices, import bronze, and then bring in Song craftsmen to help them cast bronze bells at high wages.

But since the death of the Great Sui, from the Yuan to the Ming Dynasty, a trade embargo was imposed on Japan. Japan directly guarded Tongshan but did not have bronze. The technology brought by the craftsmen of the Song Dynasty had long been lost.

For more than a hundred years, in order to make a bell that could ring, Japanese monks had to go to Korea with Japanese pirates to rob it, and used knives to force Korean craftsmen to make it for them.

Now that Goryeo's craftsmen have been transferred to the Tieling area, they can't be caught at all, so Ashikaga Yoshimitsu has no idea of ​​casting bronze cannons.

As for iron cannons, cast iron cannons are a more difficult technology than bronze cannons. If you can’t make bronze cannons, why would you want to make iron cannons? If you forcibly build it, it's guaranteed to explode. On the battlefield, there is no need to fight with opponents, and any number of gunners can be blown away.

Oh yeah, and gunpowder, they don’t even know how to produce it. In fact, the formula of "one sulfur, two nitrates, three charcoals" has long been passed down by the Song Dynasty who can give anything, but they don't know how to make nitrates, so what can they do?

And there is no place to copy homework. Because the Koreans next door don’t know how to stick sticks, they can only cry and shout every year to beg the father of the Yuan Dynasty or the Ming Dynasty for a reward of gunpowder.

You don't know anything, but you can build a hammer cannon?

Thinking of this, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu felt bad all over. He could only numb himself and said: "Build the big ship step by step. At least we can connect to the side. Then we won't be helpless to fight back!"

As he spoke, he glared at Hatakeyama Moto Kunido: "It is your responsibility to contact the lords of various countries for shipbuilding!"

Hatakeyama Motoguchi also burst into tears. This is a job to worry about getting scolded! Is this the price of telling the truth?