After a sumptuous lunch at sea, the captains, boat captains, and their police commissioners, police instructors, and police supervisors boarded sampans and gathered in the large conference room on the top floor of the flagship's stern to attend the operational meeting of this "punitive operation."

More than a hundred police officers filled a spacious conference room, whispering to each other in front of a huge map of Japan on the wall.

"This Japanese temple is full of evil spirits and there are many turtles in shallow water." Haierdi looked at the small pieces of paper covered with maps, densely packed with family crests and names of forces, and felt like he was suffering from claustrophobia.

"Yeah, there must be two or three hundred of them, right?" A man named Xin Fei next to him was the captain of Ship 202.

He, the Haier brothers, as well as Captain Rong Sheng of Ship 203, Captain Xiang Xuehai of Ship 204, and Captain Xue Hua of Ship 205, were the "helmsmen" or captains of the six warships of the Qi Family Army.

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Marshal Qi went north to fight against the Tartars. The Ming army did not have a special navy, so the six men had no place to use their skills. They spent several years in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Dusi Guards, but they were all frustrated. As a result, they were recruited by Jinke Wang Rulong one by one and took up the responsibility of the Coast Guard.

According to the regulations, the captain of a medium-sized ship should be awarded the rank of junior police inspector with one silver star. However, Master Zhao specially approved the six of them to be awarded the rank of intermediate police inspector with two silver stars. For this reason, Master Zhao, who paid special attention to regulations, also set up a special position for them, called "training captain", and let them be responsible for teaching and guiding the other captains.

Therefore, the captains present were all younger brothers and could only listen to the nonsense of these old drivers.

"Which Japanese pirates were there at the time?" Rongsheng asked Xiang Xuehai, who had a good memory.

"The most are from Higo, Satsuma, and Nagato." Xiang Xuehai immediately listed them all, "The next are from Osumi, Chikuzen, Chikugo, Hakata, Hyuga, Settsu, Iki, etc. Oh, and there are also Buzen, Bungo, and Izumi..."

These were the confessions obtained when the Japanese pirates were interrogated. It's amazing that he could still remember them so clearly after all these years.

Most of the captains had heard of these place names, but at the time they felt that they were separated by oceans and extremely far away, and even if they wanted to take revenge, they could not reach them.

Who would have thought that after leaving Qi's army, he could finally fulfill his long-cherished wish and come to the home of the Japanese pirates to kill and burn people. Isn't the encounter in life magical?

The captains compared the place names on the map and found the forces entrenched there one by one:

"The Matsuura family, the Uku family, the Sou family, the Shimazu family, the Omura family, the Otomo family, the Oki family..."

They targeted more than twenty daimyo, local lords, and other powerful forces, and shouted, "Destroy them all, leaving no one alive!"

"Yes, blood debt must be repaid with blood! The Japanese slaves must be killed before they dare to go out to sea for hundreds of years!" The captains were so excited that their voices almost blew off the roof of the ship.

There is no need to mobilize for this battle!

Just thinking about the fact that they can finally reach the Japanese pirates' hometown this time, everyone will be eager to rush over!

Suddenly, a command came from the door of the conference room: "Stand at attention!"

Everyone shut up instantly, stood up, and saluted to Master Zhao who strode in.

Wang Rulong and Ma Yinglong, the police commissioner of the Coast Guard, followed Zhao Hao. Ma Yinglong also served as the head of the garrison area, a senior police inspector with three silver stars, and also served as the police commissioner of this "punitive operation".

Both of them looked unhappy, obviously annoyed by the noise in the meeting room.

"At ease." Zhao Hao smiled and waved to the police officers.

With a clatter, the police officers stood at attention.

Zhao Hao smiled and said, "The commander-in-chief of this operation is your captain. I am just here to listen."

After saying this, he sat down on a chair by the window. Zheng Ruozeng and Zhao Shizhen followed him and sat in the gallery.

Because he was attending a combat meeting, Mr. Kaiyang was still wearing the robe without a police rank, and even Zhao Shizhen changed into a police robe with three silver stars. He was appointed by Zhao Hao as the equipment chief of the garrison area. Just for his contribution of delivering artillery thousands of miles away, no one would be jealous of him becoming a senior police inspector at such a young age.

After Master Zhao sat down, Wang Rulong walked to the stage, bowed to Master Zhao, then turned around and started scolding the audience.

"They're all fucking confused, all so arrogant and impetuous! Do you know that arrogant soldiers will surely be defeated?" Wang Rulong was spitting and scolding a group of police officers.

"Did you know that the two Mongol expeditions to the east were both defeated in Northern Kyushu?!" He pointed at the map of Japan behind him with a wooden stick and said sternly, "Why, just because you won a few small victories, you think you're better than Kublai Khan?"

The police officers all took it obediently, but Haierdi, Xin Fei and several other training captains were even more embarrassed, as Lao Wang was criticizing them.

Zhao Hao listened quietly at the side. It was the first time he saw Wang Rulong scolding his subordinates. No wonder he was called the 'living king of hell'. He looked like he wanted to eat people. It was so scary.

However, the reason why the Mongols were defeated in Northern Kyushu was largely because Kublai Khan wanted to consume the surrendered army of the Southern Song Dynasty and the strength of Goryeo. The Han people and Goryeo people knew this very well, so how could they be united with the Mongols?

Moreover, the preparations for the war were extremely inadequate. The Mongol navy actually used flat-bottomed sand ships. Those were used in inland rivers near the sea, not in the open sea. Otherwise, even if they encountered the so-called "divine wind", they would not have suffered such a heavy loss. Master Zhao had learned from the lessons of the Mongols and this time used only the Fujian and Guangdong ships suitable for the open sea. The original ten armed sand ships were left at the base to look after the house.

But no matter what, the Japanese did defeat the Mongols, even though they were dismounted Mongols, and even though they were lucky enough to encounter a typhoon in winter, twice. But it was enough to prove their own strength, which should not be underestimated.

Not to mention the Japanese who have been tempered by the Warring States Period...

~~

After criticizing his men to pieces, Wang Rulong asked Ma Yinglong to give a summary of the military situation.

Ma Yinglong also served as the head of the garrison area, responsible for military intelligence. In the past few months, he had really put in a lot of effort, including but not limited to interrogating Japanese prisoners to get detailed information about Japan and Kitakyushu; sending scout teams to monitor any movement in Kitakyushu; he had even bribed some "Tang people" active in Kitakyushu to spy on intelligence on the shore.

The so-called Tang people are Ming Dynasty sea merchants and refugees who sailed to Japan. Most of them were recruited by Wang Zhi. At its peak, there were more than 100,000 men, women, old and young. But after Wang Zhi's death, most of them followed his men and went their separate ways, and the short-lived Song Dynasty disappeared. But there are still many people who are unwilling to return to China and stay in Japan to run ships and do business. They are called "Tang people" by the locals.

With this connection, it didn't take much effort for Ma Yinglong to get in touch with several Tang people through Wu Ji's old friend. Without a backer, their lives were very difficult, so they naturally wanted to have the support of the Ming Dynasty again, and without saying a word, they all became non-staff intelligence personnel of the Secret Service.

With the information provided by these knowledgeable businessmen, Ma Yinglong's understanding of Japan immediately improved, and he was naturally confident when making the report.

"Just as the captain said, Japan is not as small and backward as we thought before. In fact, their population is very dense. Although there is no exact number, it is definitely more than 10 million, more than double that of the Joseon Dynasty! Moreover, they get married early, have children early, and have a short life span, so young and middle-aged people make up the majority of the population. And everyone is a soldier, so the total military strength of the country can reach one million!"

Zhao Hao curled his lips slightly. He didn't quite believe this number, but it was always right to be lenient with the enemy.

Sure enough, the police officers in the conference room were surprised. There were so many soldiers in the Japanese pirates' lair, and they only had more than 3,000 people. How many nails could they hammer with their bodies made of iron?

"Japan is a long and narrow island country with many coastal forces and naturally a large number of naval forces." Ma Yinglong also picked up a wooden stick and pointed at the many blue labels on the map.

"Such as the Hirado Navy, Tsushima Navy, Goto Navy, Murakami Navy, Wild Bear Navy, Tango Navy... and so on. Although these naval forces cannot match our fleet because of their poor warships and lack of artillery. But this time we are fighting away from home and fighting near the coast. There is no guarantee that we will be attacked by fire or boarding in extremely unfavorable circumstances. We only have more than 3,000 people and cannot afford the loss!"

The police officers finally showed a solemn expression. They saw that Japan was the exact opposite of Tamra. The coastal terrain was extremely complex and if they were not careful, they would indeed lose the opportunity.

"Fortunately, Japan is divided into 66 countries, and some of the princes are fighting each other. As long as we don't over-stimulate them, they will definitely not unite and face the outside world together." Seeing that they finally took the enemy seriously, Ma Yinglong changed the subject and said, "On the contrary, we can take advantage of the contradictions between them and cleverly use their strength to achieve our strategic goals."

"This requires that we strictly obey orders in this battle and not be free to act." Wang Rulong interrupted, "Whoever dares to advance, don't blame me for being ruthless!"

He patted the golden sword at his waist and said to Ma Yinglong, "Old Ma, go on."

"Okay." Ma Yinglong nodded, picked up a wooden stick, pointed to the map behind him and said, "Let's talk about the current Japanese court first. Their king is called the emperor, and he has no say in anything. He is just a decoration, so let's not talk about it."

Zhao Hao thought that the current emperor was indeed miserable, extremely poor, but at least his words were still useful, and he could speak for people from time to time to earn some money. If you want to say that he was really miserable, you have to look at the 17 articles of the "Laws for the Imperial Court and the Court Officials" promulgated by Tokugawa Ieyasu before his death during the Edo period. That was the legal way to turn the emperor into a decoration.

The Law clearly stipulated that the emperor could only study literature and was not allowed to interfere in state affairs. The appointment of court officials, the emperor's clothing and robes, and the emperor's tours all required the consent of the shogunate. Moreover, the shogun had the right to interfere in the marriages of the royal family and could even force members of the royal family to become monks in the name of religion.

Being able to institutionalize the virtual monarch, the old turtle is indeed quite pathetic. Young Master Zhao was impressed, but then he was stunned. Am I envious of him?

This idea is very dangerous, young comrade!

ps. I took my son to see giant pandas today, and I also had a rest for my panda eyes. But I still have two updates, so I will continue writing...