Torches from Moji Castle and Akama-kan on the opposite bank illuminated the sky, casting a golden glow across the narrow strait.

Snowflakes mixed with rain hit Kobayakawa Takakage's gorgeous armor. His face was covered with a layer of white frost, but he was unaware of it and just stared intently at the inside and outside of the strait.

The turbulent tides in the Kanmon Strait made building a floating bridge much more difficult than expected. However, he still managed to build a floating bridge on the sea within three days using 300 small boats he had looted.

He originally planned to take a three-seater, but there were not enough boats and he was running out of time.

Fortunately, there are large armies guarding both sides of the strait, so there is no need to worry about safety issues. It is just that the speed of crossing the sea is a little slower, but it is still several times faster than transporting goods back and forth by boat.

Of course, the main purpose of building this floating bridge was to free his navy from the ferrying mission so that they could concentrate their forces to deal with the invading Ming fleet!

During these three days, Kobayakawa sent people to search for wooden boats everywhere and blocked the Kanmon Strait. I believe the news had already been discovered by the ninjas of the Otomo family and should have reached the ears of the Ming Dynasty people.

Unfortunately, Kobayakawa waited for them for three days but did not see any sign of the Ming Dynasty people, which made him feel a little anxious.

"Could it be that the Ming Dynasty people retreated because of the difficulty?" His naval commander Ichikawa Keikyoshi said, "We have 800 warships and more than 10,000 naval forces in the strait. It is normal that they dare not come in."

"If the Ming people are so cowardly, we have nothing to regret." Kobayakawa reached out to catch the snowflakes and sneered, "Maybe they are planning to launch an attack when we cross the sea."

"But it's raining now, so they are even less likely to come," said Ichikawa Keiya.

"There's nothing we can do. My Ani is super strong but extremely cautious," Kobayakawa sighed, "We have to wait until it rains before we set out."

As he said this he sighed and said, "I hope it will be clear tomorrow morning."

After saying that, he felt that this was inappropriate, so he added: "Of course, it would be great if it continued to rain. We can send the soldiers back safely, and there will be plenty of opportunities for a decisive battle in the future."

~~

On the other side, although Yoshikawa Motoharu had made very careful arrangements, he still heard the sound of hurried horse hooves at dawn.

"Report, lord, the Otomo army is catching up!"

"Ah, so fast?" Yoshikawa Motoharu couldn't help but be shocked. It seemed that as soon as he left the camp, the Otomo family's intelligence network learned about it in advance!

He thought that he could wait until daybreak before being exposed. By that time, the enemy would have gathered their troops and chased him, and he would have already retreated to the outskirts of Moji Castle.

"Do you know who is leading the troops and how many people there are?"

"We saw Tachibana Michiyuki's flag! There are more than 10,000 soldiers chasing us!"

"Everyone behind the palace, stop, we will meet the God of War of Kyushu!" Hearing this name, Yoshikawa Motoharu sighed, drew his sword, and shouted sternly: "Form a formation! Don't let any enemy troops go!"

"Hi!" The eight thousand Yoshikawa troops responded in unison, startling the birds in the mountains and forests and causing them to fly away.

By the time the Otomo army caught up, it was already daybreak. The Yoshikawa army was divided into three teams, with the left and right teams in a goose-shaped formation and the center in a fish-scale formation, ready to fight!

Under the flag of the Tachibana family army with a double snake pattern, six strong servants carried a sedan chair, on which sat the incarnation of the Thunder God, the military god of Kyushu, the undefeated god of war, the soul of Otomo - Tachibana Dosetsu.

Dao Xue did not intend to leave the warrior class and learn to ride in a sedan chair like the nobles, but his leg was injured after the lightning strike. Before, he could have someone tie him to a horse to fight. But as he got older, he could no longer ride a horse in the autumn and winter, so he could only go to battle in a sedan chair.

But the Japanese, who have always been a middle school student, did not think he was stupid. Instead, they thought he was so awesome that he could not be killed by thunder. In addition, he was extremely brave in battle, so they regarded him as the incarnation of the god of thunder. The enemies who faced him were timid before they even started fighting. He also changed the name of his favorite sword "Chidori" that could strike thunder into "Raikiri", and he obviously liked this name very much.

Even when he was sitting on a sedan chair, Tachibana Dosetsu always led the troops into battle. When his troops were at a disadvantage, he would say something sarcastic like "If you value your life, just leave me in the enemy's camp and run for your life!", which would inspire the second-year students in his army and boost their morale, allowing Tachibana's army to turn defeat into victory several times.

Only with such a fearless military god in charge, Otomo Sorin could withstand the attack of 'Mōri Ryōkawa'.

After his men had a short break, Daoxue ordered them to re-form their formation. He himself was the first formation and Takahashi Toshitora was the second formation. They encircled the Yoshikawa army from the mountains and forests and attacked its flank.

At this time, the rain and snow gradually stopped, and the sky cleared up. Dao Xue was very happy because it meant that his beloved iron artillery unit could open fire. He immediately beat the drum himself and ordered his subordinates to advance in three teams in the Crane Wing Formation.

The well-trained arquebus team began to load ammunition while advancing. The Otomo family was one of the first daimyo to own a matchlock, so Tachibana Dosetsu established a special arquebus unit early on and strictly trained the tactics of arquebus collective shooting.

Moreover, military geniuses all have similar visions. Like Qi Jiguang, he invented primitive fixed ammunition to address the cumbersome preparation steps for cannon shooting. He mixed the ammunition and projectiles for one shot and put them into a special thin bamboo tube. He asked the soldiers to make many such thin bamboo tubes in advance, tie them together with straw ropes and hang them on their shoulders.

And gave it a chuuni name, "Triple Speed ​​Thunder Cannon"! Because it can increase the shooting speed by three times.

Seeing that the sky was clear, Yoshikawa Motoharu on the opposite side secretly groaned. In order to preserve supplies, the rear guard troops did not bring any precious cannons, so they could only fight the enemy with bows and arrows.

"Duck, come!" He quickly drew out his sword and ordered his troops to charge immediately. The range of the bow and arrow was far inferior to that of the cannon, so they had to get closer, otherwise they would be shot through by the cannon.

The distance between the two sides was rapidly shortened, and they soon came within the range of the musket.

"Fire!" As soon as the order was given, the artillery team immediately pulled the trigger.

Amid the rumbling sound of cannons, white smoke rose up and the Maori army's leading shieldmen fell down immediately.

~~

At the same time, the rumbling sound of cannons was heard in the Kanmon Strait. It was not the iron cannon that the Japanese claimed, but the genuine 117-caliber Yongle cannon!

The Ming Dynasty fleet finally arrived!

In fact, the thirty Ming warships had already arrived outside Dan-no-ura and launched the attack at dawn.

At this time, the retreating army of the Mori clan had already boarded the floating bridge, so Kobayakawa naturally could not allow the Ming warships to approach the Moji Castle. He had learned from the remnants of the Yashirojima navy that the range of the Ming army's artillery was up to 400 feet. Therefore, as long as the Ming people were not allowed to enter the Dan-no-Urakou, their terrible artillery would not threaten the Mori clan who were crossing the strait.

Ichikawa Muneyoshi had already boarded the ship and personally led the Kobayakawa family's 100 warships into battle.

Dan-no-ura is a trumpet-shaped bay that is wide in the east and narrow in the west. The westernmost point, Pukou, is the cape where Moji Castle is located. The sea surface is only 200 meters wide. The easternmost point, Urao, is a full 4 miles wide. People who are not familiar with the terrain will suffer losses without realizing it.

Of course, his mission now is to stop the enemy ships in Uraraka and prevent them from approaching Moji Castle, so as to buy time for the crossing troops.

The Kobayakawa family has always been famous for its navy. Now that the Mori family dominates the western part of the country, their strength has naturally increased greatly, with a total of 300 large and small warships. However, Kobayakawa did not allow them to fight together, but divided them into three groups to meet the enemy.

Because Kobayakawa also understood the characteristics of the firearms of the Ming Dynasty warships - the Ming Dynasty's cannons that could fire far fired solid shells, had limited accuracy and caused limited damage to personnel and warships.

What can really cause huge damage is the close-range shotgun.

As for the rockets that can burn ships, I think as long as we are quick and throw them into the sea as soon as they fall, they won't cause much trouble, right?

So in Kobayakawa's view, as long as they did not advance rashly and dispersed the formation, there would not be too much loss, and it would not be a problem to stop the enemy for a whole morning.

One morning was enough time for the Mori army to pass through. As for the civilians and servants behind, how many of them could pass through depended on their luck. Besides, Kobayakawa didn't intend to let them all pass through, otherwise what could he use to lure the Ming Dynasty fleet to enter the port?

But when the Ming Dynasty opened fire, he realized that he had underestimated the power of the Ming Dynasty. Seeing is believing. Just hearing about it would make one underestimate the power of the Ming Dynasty!

He was standing on a high place and could see clearly. He saw a cannonball coming from a mile away. It immediately pierced through the guard plate of a Guan ship and smashed eight or nine warriors behind the guard plate, causing blood and flesh to fly all over the place. They looked like they were skewered with candied haws.

"Get down, get down!" Ichikawa Keiho strictly followed the order and was not in a hurry to order the rowing attack. He wanted to delay as long as possible.

~~

On the deck of the poop of Ship 101, it was the first time that Wang Rulong saw a Japanese fleet that was not "rabbit-giving".

He once thought that the Japanese would use a sudden tactic...Oda Nobunaga felt offended.

"Damn it, the Qing people have gained experience from our artillery fire. They even discovered that they can't hit us accurately when we are far away." Wang Rulong spat, feeling offended as well.

"It seems that the kite-flying method is not invincible." Zhao Hao laughed: "After all, fighting is not about killing monsters."

"Hehe." Wang Rulong was not in a hurry to change the formation. He just cursed at the messenger: "Send flags and tell those gunners that they are despised by the Japanese. Let them deal with it!"

Mr. Zhao has been on the ship for a month and a half, and he can't just sit there doing nothing. In addition to training police officers and helping his nephew with strategies, he also did a serious job, which was to train the messengers in flag language. How can you be called a flagship if you don't know how to use flag language?

In fact, the flag language is not difficult to learn, but the difficult part is teaching them pinyin. Out of a narrow-minded nationalist mentality that does not want to belittle himself, Mr. Zhao taught them Chinese phonetic symbols instead of Latin letters...

Anyway, the two can basically be converted to each other, and according to the experience in Taiwan, first-grade primary school students can master this thing in ten weeks of study. So Mr. Zhao decided to promote this set of Chinese character phonetic notation schemes in the primary schools of Jiangnan Education Group starting next year.

Fortunately, the heralds are all smart and clever, and Pinyin is not too difficult to learn, so they can master it in a month.

So the messengers on the neighboring warships read the following message from the constantly changing flag signals of the flagship messenger:

"Gunners, the Japanese look down upon you!"

The gunners immediately blushed and fired every shot with extreme caution, performing at their best!