Last year, in November of the sixth year of the Wanli reign, the coast guard fleet returned and the two sides met again in the waters of the Kizu River estuary.

When they saw the Ming warships that were coming, Kuki Yoshitaka and his navy were all stunned.

It’s so fucking big! So big that it blocks out the sun and the sky!

They thought their ironclad ships were the largest warships in the world, but they never expected that these Ming warships were more than twice as big as theirs!

And one, two, three, four, five... a total of twenty ships came!

Looking at the densely packed gun muzzles on those warships, Kuki Yoshitaka felt his hair stand on end. Only then did he know what a real Coast Guard battleship looked like...

But now that things had come to this, being timid was useless. He could only summon up his courage and shout to his men, "Don't be afraid. They are big, so what? We are an indestructible ironclad ship!"

"Sir, they also seem to be ironclad ships..." his subordinate reminded him timidly.

"What?!" Upon hearing this, Kuki Yoshitaka took a closer look and found that the hulls of those huge warships were shining with metallic luster in the sun, as if they were covered with a layer of iron... oh no, steel armor.

"It must be a lie! Steel is made through repeated tempering. No matter how wealthy the Ming people are, they can't possibly cover such a large warship with steel armor!" Kuki Yoshitaka screamed, "Don't be afraid, it must be painted with silver!"

Regardless of whether they were afraid or not, those huge Ming warships as big as mountains lined up in a horizontal row and rushed forward with full sails.

"Go full speed ahead and meet them!" Kuki Yoshitaka immediately drew his sword and roared the order. Ironclad ships were originally used for rampaging, so let's see whose ship is tougher!

A moment later, the warships of both sides crashed into each other on the sea. Four of those seemingly indestructible ironclad ships were actually overturned. More than 2,000 sailors on the ships instantly fell to the sea with screams.

The ironclad ships that were not hit were enveloped in the dense artillery fire. The two sides were almost face to face, and at this distance, whether it was the Hongwu cannon, the Yongle cannon or the Hongxi cannon, they could easily penetrate the thin iron sheet on the ironclad ship and smash the fragile wooden hull and the even more fragile human body inside.

In less than a minute, the remaining six ironclad ships were shot into pieces and completely lost their combat effectiveness.

Then, the huge Ming warships pulled away from them and rushed forward at full speed again, knocking over the six ironclad ships one by one, causing Kuki Yoshitaka and his Oda navy to sink into Osaka Bay...

It was bad luck for Kuki Yoshitaka to meet the Coast Guard Strategic Fleet stationed in the South Seas and head north to the Jiangnan Shipyard to install steel plates...

As mentioned before, after the converter steel workshop in Tangshan was put into production, the group could finally mass-produce steel. The first thing Zhao Hao thought of was to give his precious battleship a layer of steel armor.

This was not Zhao Hao's wild idea. In another time and space, the British and French navies had conducted many experiments on whether or not to equip sailing battleships with iron armor.

The final conclusion is that the sailing battleship has an extra layer of armor, which increases its displacement. In order to ensure the speed, a gun deck must be removed.

That is, the price of adding a layer of iron armor is to eliminate a layer of artillery. Before the invention of explosive bombs that could pose a fatal threat to oak hulls, it was actually not worth the loss.

But coincidentally, the Coast Guard warships designed by Yang Fan all adopted a watertight compartment design for safety reasons, sacrificing the lower gun deck. So for the same size of hull, the Portuguese can set up three layers of gun decks, while the Coast Guard warships only have two layers of guns!

In addition, since the watertight bulkhead is closely connected to the hull, it plays a role in reinforcing the hull. It not only increases the overall transverse strength of the ship, but also replaces the process of adding ribs, greatly reducing the weight of the hull.

So although the hulls of the Coast Guard look the same, they are more than one-third lighter than those of the Portuguese. In order to keep the hull stable, a lot more ballast iron must be added.

So why not install the ballast iron outside? This was the original intention of Mr. Zhao to sacrifice a layer of artillery in order to use the watertight compartment!

According to Yang Fan's calculations, adding steel plates no thicker than 20 mm to the sides and sterns of the Coast Guard's battleships and cruisers will not affect the speed at all. It will also greatly enhance the strength of the hull and its ability to withstand wind and waves, and greatly extend the life of the wooden hull!

Jiangnan Shipyard tested it on two newly launched battleships and after confirming that there were no problems, Master Zhao immediately ordered the strategic fleet to go to Jiangnan Shipyard in batches for modification.

As a result, just when the first batch of ships had been modified and the second batch had just arrived, news came that the Japanese had also built ironclad ships. The coast guard officers and soldiers immediately went crazy and shouted that they would crush them.

However, the strategic fleet needed the commander-in-chief's order to be put into battle. The report was sent to Master Zhao, who ordered the modification to continue as planned, but did not allow the first batch of ten warships to return to Luzon.

The reason is simple: the typhoon season is here. Although the group has established a relatively complete typhoon warning system, it can basically ensure that the fleet on the route can enter the port in time to avoid typhoons.

However, when warships are fighting, there is no guarantee that they will follow a fixed route as planned. Therefore, unless it is absolutely necessary, Zhao Hao would not allow the strategic fleet he had spent a lot of money to build to be put into combat during the typhoon season.

As a result, it was not until October when the typhoon season was over and the second batch of warships were equipped with iron hulls that Zhao Hao ordered them to go to Osaka Bay to rescue Ishiyama Honganji.

So the eight battleships and twelve cruisers, which had been holding back for a long time, followed by a group of destroyers and frigates, marched towards Japan in a mighty force...

It turned out that they were pushing too hard.

The so-called ironclad ships of the Oda army were nothing more than Ataka ships with a few millimeters of iron added to them. Japan's shipbuilding technology was not as good as that of the Joseon Dynasty, and they only built the same few things over and over again. Therefore, the structure of the ship did not change at all. It was still an ordinary ship with a huge castle on its back, and there was even a castle tower on the castle...

Because of the addition of iron armor, the problem of being top-heavy became more serious, so they could only bully small boats. If they encountered boats that were much larger than them, they would capsize with a single collision.

Seeing that the legendary ironclad ship was so vulnerable, the strategic fleet that came with high hopes was inevitably disappointed. It felt like wearing graduation equipment and returning to the novice village to kill chickens. They could only comfort themselves by saying "one has to use a dragon-slaying sword to kill a chicken."

In order to get their money's worth, they attacked the Oda army that was besieging the Honganji Temple. Because the military flag with the Yongle Tongbao inscription on it was too eye-catching...

Because the distance was a bit far, the fleet did not fire, but instead fired a thousand bombs, burning Oda Nobunaga's camp to pieces.

Unexpectedly, this actually served the purpose of proposing marriage for his eldest nephew Zhao Shizhen.

~~

Oda Nobunaga was shot by Oda City's rockets and fled in a panic. He ran for several miles before he calmed down a little.

Now he finally stopped being so arrogant, knowing that even if he lost all his capital, there was no possibility of defeating the Ming Navy. He immediately and wisely changed his strategy. He offered 100,000 taels of gold to the Coast Guard through the Sakai Trading Company in exchange for peace, and asked for the conditions for an alliance between the two sides.

Sakai Trading Co., Ltd. nominally submitted to Oda Nobunaga, but in fact it was already a subsidiary of the Jiangnan Group. Chairman Sen no Rikyu quickly conveyed Nobunaga's intentions to Mr. Zhao.

Zhao Hao breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing the news, if for no other reason than for his eldest nephew's lifelong event... Zhao Shizhen was already 26 years old and was still a senior member of the pistol team.

He is handsome and talented, a senior executive of the group, and the nephew of Mr. Zhao. He wants to marry his daughter to his wealthy family, and he is ready to break down the door of the old Zhao family. However, this stubborn guy insisted on marrying Oda City, which is simply crazy.

In recent years, whenever Zhao Shouzheng saw Zhao Hao, he would ask, "Uncle, when will I get the city of Oda?" This made Master Zhao avoid him.

But to all conscience, Zhao Hao never thought that he would have to wait so many years before he had the chance to arrange this marriage for his nephew.

Zhao Hao originally thought that after Nobunaga's navy was dealt with three years ago, he should have asked for peace. The Coast Guard Fleet obviously would not land to compete with him, so Nobunaga had no reason to be so stubborn.

However, he still underestimated the ambition of a man in the world, because Oda Nobunaga's ambition was to unify Japan and form a large fleet to conquer the world! How could he do nothing at sea?

Moreover, if we cannot break the blockade of the Coast Guard fleet, how can we conquer Kyushu and Shikoku and unify Japan in the future?

So Oda Nobunaga spent a lot of money and asked Kuki Yoshitaka to build ten ironclad ships. As a result, he attracted the real main force of the Coast Guard...

The bloody reality made Nobunaga completely give up the idea of ​​dominating the sea, so he honestly asked for peace with Master Zhao.

Zhao Hao did not intend to provoke Oda Nobunaga too much, because the strategic direction of the group was to move southward, and Japan in the east was not his focus. Moreover, Japan was still a land country, and no matter how strong its navy was, it would be difficult for it to interfere in the battle for hegemony on the main island.

After the death of Mori Motonari, Takeda Shingen, and Uesugi Kenshin, there was no one left in Japan who could challenge Oda Nobunaga. Zhao Hao asked the Tamra Chamber of Commerce and Sakai Trading Company to take care of Ishiyama Honganji, just to replace the Mori navy that no longer existed and provide support to Ishiyama Honganji, so that Hideyoshi would not surrender in advance, so as not to affect the historical process of the Japanese main island.

It would be more reassuring to let a great hero like Oda Nobunaga die. If everything went well, he would die in three years. If Nobunaga escaped the Honnoji Incident because of Zhao Hao, it would be a loss.

So Zhao Hao only put forward three conditions. The first was to ask for his nephew to marry Nobunaga's sister Oda Ichi.

Second, the Oda family acknowledged the "Three Prohibitions on Foreigners Order" and promised not to rebuild the navy.

Third, give Honganji a chance to survive. On the premise that Akishino promised not to be an enemy of the Oda family, Osaka should be set as a demilitarized zone. No troops should be present in the demilitarized zone, and no military actions should take place.

After hearing the news, Nobunaga agreed to the three conditions without much hesitation.