"Hey, don't limit your thinking." Young Master Zhao stood at the bow, pointing out the situation with great enthusiasm, "The conditions of this bay are very good. We can simply build an artificial dam on the basis of the natural offshore dam to turn the lagoon into a closed inland lake. Then, we can build a breakwater outside the artificial dam as a dock. In this way, when ships dock outside the lagoon, they don't have to worry about the bow or stern."
"There is another great benefit to doing this. After the lagoon is isolated from the sea, it can be protected from saltwater backflow and become a real freshwater lake. The plains on both sides can be fully utilized." After a pause, Zhao Hao smiled and said, "It's not a big project, and it's not difficult. You should be able to do it yourself. It will definitely be a huge profit after it is completed."
"Oh my, it really kills two birds with one stone, young master is amazing!" Yan Wu said with admiration, "Mayor Sun must be very happy, he is almost worried to death about the saltwater backflow."
"Hey, why didn't Sun Dawu come?" Zhao Hao then remembered Sun Dawu, the servant he sent to be the mayor.
"Hey, don't mention it. He is very seasick." Yan Wu explained for him with a smile.
"Is that so?" Young Master Zhao thought to himself, then how did he get here?
~~
The fleet slowly sailed into the lagoon. Young Master Zhao stood at the bow and saw that the lake was about 10,000 mu, very vast. The lake and mountains were very beautiful. Three large rivers flowed down from the two major mountain ranges in the north and south, continuously pouring into the lagoon, which enabled the lagoon to resist the invasion of seawater and keep the lake water in a freshwater state.
But Yan Wu told him that when the fresh water is insufficient during the winter dry season, seawater will flow back during high tide. Especially during the astronomical high tide, this so-called saltwater tide is particularly serious, causing great harm to the water used by people and livestock, agriculture and fisheries along the coast.
Mr. Zhao nodded to show that he understood. He was very confident in his method because that was how the Japanese did it...
At one o'clock in the afternoon, the fleet docked at the Water Police Station Pier on the south shore of the lagoon.
There were colorful flags flying and drums and gongs beating at the dock. There must be nearly ten thousand people coming to welcome the arrival of Master Zhao.
Young Master Zhao was indeed quite excited. He had not seen so many people since leaving the security area.
But this is normal, because the capture of Iwami Ginzan does not need to be carried out, so the main focus of the garrison is on the 'capture of Sado Island'.
Before that, the garrison area had occupied four Japanese islands one after another, but the model they adopted was to defeat the local daimyo and then order him to order the islanders to move away. This way they didn't dirty their hands and didn't get involved in cause and effect, so it was naturally easy and enjoyable.
But the situation on Sado Island is different. It is almost a small independent kingdom. Although it is nominally subordinate to Uesugi Kenshin on the other side of the strait, it is not bound by any force due to various historical reasons.
Because the Honma family occupied the island, they once took in Uesugi Kenshin's father, the defeated Echigo guardian Nagao Tamekage, and sent troops to Echigo Province to assist Nagao Tamekage in the battle.
In the end, Nagao Tamekage defeated the Kanto army and succeeded in overthrowing the superior. Because of the Honma family's contribution to the war, Nagao Tamekage also rewarded them with the territory of Echigo. Also because of this relationship, Nagao Kagetora's son, the current Kanto Kanrei, the Dragon of Echigo, Uesugi Kenshin, has always been courteous to them and did not recruit them to fight. The two sides only maintained a nominal master-servant relationship.
Obviously, it was impossible to use Kenshin Uesugi to move the Honma clan away from the island. Moreover, the Dragon of Echigo, known as the "God of War", was not comparable to those small fry on Kyushu Island, and was even far inferior to the Mori clan. If Master Zhao wanted to force him to surrender, he would have to take his son hostage as well.
But Sister Uesugi has no children... If Master Zhao wants to force her, he will have to practice internal skills for another ten years.
Fortunately, humans are inferior animals. If there is no external threat, they will fall into internal strife. There are less than 20,000 men, women, old and young on Sado Island, but they are divided into three factions and fight endlessly.
First, the two branch families attacked the main family. After the main family was crippled, the two branch families also broke out into civil war. This is directly like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms... Of course, the Uesugi sister on the other side of the strait also contributed to this situation. Whenever one family was about to be wiped out or another family was about to win completely, she would send people across the sea to mediate. The purpose was to maintain the balance of the three families, so that these guys who were proud of their achievements would continue to bleed and eventually perish.
To this end, she also instructed the Honma tribe members who moved to the Noto Peninsula to continuously persuade their fellow tribesmen on the island to settle ashore. With this two-pronged approach, she finally succeeded in reducing the island's population from 60,000 60 years ago to less than 20,000.
Therefore, I really have to thank Kenshin Uesugi for the successful completion of the "Sado Island Strategy".
The attack plan was actually very simple. It was to let the Tango navy of the Amago clan retreat to Sado Island, and then the task force would pretend to be pursuers and chase them to Mano Bay, first burning all the ships parked at the dock, and then starting to bombard Wadawara Castle.
The Japanese always like to build their cities by the sea, and most of the stone walls are made of rubble. This name is always high-quality, but it is actually just a pile of rubble built by scrambling and stacking rubble against the mountain.
How bad is this pile of rubble? Whether it is a catapult or an ordinary soldier, they can pull this pile of rubble out of the mountain. Even if it is left alone, it will collapse on its own after a long time.
Of course, wealthy daimyo would use cut stones to pile up walls, which was of course much better than "piling up rubble". At least they could withstand attacks from arrows and projectiles, and could not be easily dismantled, but they were still vulnerable to cannons.
However, the Japanese had no artillery, and with their cunning character, they would naturally find ways to cut corners and build the city just enough to be impenetrable by the current weapons. How could they design redundancy? What a waste!
But then again, they didn't have the city-building technology of the Ming Dynasty, and they were poor, so poor that they only had money. They could only use this cheap city-building method and try to build complex maze-like three-dimensional fortifications. Even if the attackers entered the city, they still had to face tortuous roads and endless crossfire, and eventually died of exhaustion in street fighting.
Therefore, we cannot say that this design idea is wrong. What is wrong is that the Ming Dynasty's fleet did not abide by martial ethics and did not physically attack the city, but only used artillery for long-range attacks.
How could these crude castles made of large and small volcanic rocks withstand the bombardment of Yongle's cannons? After a few rounds of volleys, they collapsed and collapsed. The guards on the top of the city were naturally all killed, and it is unknown how many people inside the city were killed...
The improved version of Oda City's rocket dragged a beautiful tail flame, setting fire everywhere in the city, turning Kawaharada Castle into a living hell.
The Wadawara clan had several thousand men in total, and they were completely frightened by this terrifying attack. How could they even think of fighting back? The head of the clan, whose head was smashed, quickly sent people to comfort the army, explaining that you had attacked the wrong people, and that the unknown navy had gone to Zatai Castle in the south.
So, the task force turned south and bombarded the Homma clan's Zatai Castle, burning all of its ships...
The Honma family was already struggling under the attack of the two branches, and they didn't have the courage to settle accounts with the overwhelming fleet of the Celestial Empire. They could only send people to comfort the troops and tell them that they had already withdrawn to the Xiaomu Bay in Yumo City...
As a result, the Homma family also suffered. And because they received the news in advance and organized more than 20 small boats and fishing boats to go out to sea to resist, they suffered the most losses. Not only were all the ships sunk, but the thousands of men who went out to fight were either fed to turtles or taken prisoner.
In addition to the damage caused by the bombardment of Yumao Castle, almost half of the men in Yumao's family were killed. It was freezing cold at the time, and escaping into the mountains would only lead to death. The leader had no choice but to open the city and surrender, offering an eagle as a token of his submission.
The task force ordered all of them to be naturalized and relocated to Jeonra Island on the grounds that the islands here could be easily exploited by Japanese pirates.
The Yumo family was already a fish on the chopping board, and could only board a transport ship heading south under the supervision of two thousand fully armed marines.
Then the fleet withdrew...
But the agency's spies never left Sado Island.
As expected by the General Staff, without the balance of power from the Hamo family, a fierce war soon broke out between the remaining two families. The main family, which was badly bullied by the two branch families, immediately launched a blitzkrieg against the Wadawara family, whose castle was severely damaged.
At this time, there were only ten days left before the task force withdrew.
There was no way. The cities of both sides were only fifteen miles apart. Standing on a high place, one could see the miserable situation of the other side. It was difficult to resist taking action.
As a result, the two sides engaged in a fierce battle in Wadahara, and the main family, which was more numerous and powerful, won a tragic victory, captured Wadahara Castle, drove the Wadahara clan to the Noto Peninsula, and reunified Sado.
Unexpectedly, not long after, the task force returned under the banner of revenge for the Wadahara family... In fact, they only went to Zhenyuan Island, where they completed the cleanup of the entire island and quickly built a simple dock to make some preliminary preparations for the upcoming establishment of the Zhenyuan Island Water Police Station.
The Honma family had killed 1,000 enemies and lost 800 of their own. They were already seriously injured. Seeing the terrifying demon king return, how could they still have the will to fight? The head of the family could only open the city and surrender to show his submission.
When the garrison also issued a "wasteland immigration order" to them, the Honma family was completely dumbfounded. They realized that the three families had fallen into the calculations of others step by step. But it was too late to understand. Now there was no helper, and they were half-crippled. How could they withstand the elite of the Ming Dynasty who were armed to the teeth?
Moreover, the Wadahara family became a vassal army of the Ming Dynasty fleet. If they resisted, the Wadahara family would definitely instigate the Chinese to kill them all.
The elders could only comfort themselves, saying that Xingang was said to be the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and now we have become the superior people, which is better than being savages on this island. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's surrender of the forces in the Celestial Empire's sphere of influence is a super dominant force...
So the Honma clan obediently boarded the transport ship of the security zone under the supervision of the Marines, carrying the elderly and children, and bid farewell to the newly unified Sado Island in tears.
Of course, there are also many who cannot bear to leave their homeland and have fled into the mountains. We can only hope that they can survive the cold winter of the Little Ice Age...