The Revolt of the Three Feudatories: All-in at the start in Beijing

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In the west, the strait between Tsushima Island and Geoje Island in North Korea is calm and still, with not a single wave on the surface. Only when a gentle breeze blows can it create small ripples.

On Tsushima Island, facing Geoje Island, numerous artillery emplacements were deployed at the most easily accessible landing point, effectively dominating all the high ground.

These gun emplacements were all repaired just two months ago, using granite transported from Honshu Island. They were built in three layers, with ten iron cannons mounted on each layer, totaling thirty cannons, including twelve heavy cannons weighing over a thousand kilograms.

These cannons were secondhand goods sold to Nagasaki by the Dutch thirty years ago. The cannons still bear the mark of the East India Company, but they are already somewhat rusty.

But Shigehiro Soga didn't mind. On his first day on Tsushima Island, he personally checked the cannons, firing one shot at each one. The quality was still guaranteed, and they were all usable.

Soga Shigehiro was sitting on a bamboo chair on the top floor of the fort. He was about ten years old and less than 1.6 meters tall, which was considered average height among Japanese samurai. However, he had broad shoulders and a thick back, and when he sat there, he looked like a tree stump.

He wore dark red guzos, with iron plates covered in paint. He wore a crescent-shaped helmet with a pair of bull horns in front of him. He had two swords at his waist, a tachi and a wakizashi, with fish skin wrapped around the hilts.

"My lord, the Han army will not come." Just as Soga Shigehiro was dozing off, his deputy, Yamamoto Kazuo, who was practicing his sword on the open ground below the fort, suddenly stopped and asked a question.

Kazuo Yamamoto was around thirty years old, standing at a height of 1.65 meters, which was considered tall in Japan. He had narrow shoulders, long arms, and wielded his sword extremely quickly.

His armor was black, and the iron plates were thinner than those worn by Soga Shigeyasu. The Japanese sword in his hand was drawing streaks in the air.

Soga Shigehiro did not look up upon hearing this, keeping his eyes closed, though his brow furrowed slightly.

"Sō Yoshimasa thought the same thing before. He thought Tsushima Island was impregnable, but we took it with a surprise attack. Now his head is hanging on the dock of Izuhara Port. We have taken Tsushima Island before the Han army. The Tokugawa shogun said it was a great victory, but I always feel that things are not that simple." Soga Shigeyasu's voice was very deep, as if he was talking to himself.

Upon hearing this, Yamamoto Kazuo shook his head, sheathed his sword, and then walked up to the gun emplacement. He took out a dry cloth from his waist and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"It's true that Muneyoshi is a great daimyo, but what kind of people are under his command? They're all wandering samurai, ronin, and wild warriors who can't even get enough to eat. Three thousand wild samurai put together and call that an army? When the Tokugawa shogun sent us, he brought regular samurai!"

As Yamamoto Kazuo spoke, he sat down on a stone bench next to Soga Shigehiro, poured himself a bowl of cold tea, took a sip, and added, "Besides, there are now more than 10,000 troops on the island, guarding Kusuma Island. What do you have to worry about, General?"

Soga Shigehiro finally raised his head and glanced at Yamamoto Kazuo. "Do you know how many soldiers the Han Dynasty has?"

Yamamoto Kazuo's hand, which was holding the bowl, paused in mid-air. He then chuckled and shook his head: "I don't know. All I know is that Han Chinese are afraid of death. No matter how much more I say, it's useless."

"You know too little about the Han people. They are not afraid of death. Back then, Lord Taige sent 200,000 troops into Korea, but they suffered a great defeat!" Soga Shigeyasu said, a hint of emotion in his eyes.

"General, you know too much about the Han people." Yamamoto Kazuo put down his bowl, his hand naturally returning to the hilt of his sword. He was still young and didn't know much about the war from back then.

"I heard that you studied Chinese with the Dutch in Osaka and even read the books they brought over. But you can't trust what's written in books. If the Han people were really that powerful, how could they have been ruled by the Manchus!"

"What a pity, General, that you are unwilling to head north. Otherwise, we could have experienced the warriors of the Central Plains!"

Soga Shigehiro opened his mouth, but before he could answer, hurried footsteps sounded on the stone steps. A foot soldier tumbled and crawled up the gun emplacement, losing his straw hat and losing half of his hair.

"Lord Soga! To the north! To the north over the sea!"

Upon hearing this, Soga Shigehisa was the first to stand up. His leg knocked over the bamboo chair, which fell to the ground with a thud.

"Speak properly, what sea?"

"Ships!" The foot soldier pointed tremblingly to the north sea. "So many ships! All ships!"

Kazuo Yamamoto's teacup stopped in mid-air. He put down the bowl, stood up, and walked to the crenellations on the north side of the fort.

Soga Shigehiro was already standing there, holding a monocular telescope in his hand. The telescope was Dutch-made, and the lens was polished to a fairly clear finish, but the copper hoops had developed green rust.

The first thing that appeared in the telescope was a flag, a red flag with a black dragon on a red background. The sea breeze was blowing the flag, making it look like a dragon soaring.

A flagpole was planted atop the mast of a galleon, an enormous vessel with three decks, its hull clad in iron sheets. The broadside gun ports were open, the muzzles protruding from each square opening, their dark barrels pointing towards Tsushima Island. The ship's waterline was low, indicating it was fully loaded.

There were more ships behind this one. Soga Shigehiro readjusted the focus of his telescope and scanned the telescope to the left and right.

Thirty galleons were positioned in the center, with three hundred medium and large Fujian ships arranged in three columns on either side, all with their side gun ports open.

Soga Shigehiro stopped counting when he reached the thirtieth galleon, because the number of Fukushima ships stopped his fingers.

"Sir, how many are there?" Yamamoto Kazuo didn't have a telescope, so he could only shade his eyes with his hand and look north. He squinted and, after making out the number of sails, slowly slid his hand down from his forehead and placed it on the hilt of his sword.

"Thirty galleons." Soga Shigehiro handed him the binoculars, his voice still muffled, but his pace slower than before. "Three hundred Fujian ships. In total, three hundred and thirty."

Kazuo Yamamoto took the binoculars and looked through them himself. He looked very carefully, then put the binoculars down, his face turning pale.

"Three hundred and thirty ships." Yamamoto Kazuo repeated the number. He had just been saying that the Han people dared not come, but now those ships had already reached the waters off Tsushima Island.

He licked his lips, his hand gripping and releasing the hilt of his knife repeatedly. "Two hundred men on one ship—"

"No need to count the people," Soga Shigehisa interrupted him. "You count the cannons. A Fujian ship has at least ten cannons on its side, a galleon has at least thirty on its side, and with three hundred and thirty ships, there are no fewer than five thousand iron cannons."

Yamamoto Kazuo remained silent upon hearing this, for he had never seen so many cannons in his entire life.

After all, the entire shogunate only had a little over two hundred cannons, yet they were enough to suppress the daimyo of Honshu Island.

Soga Shigehiro turned around and shouted at the trembling foot soldier, "Quickly, pass down the order: the entire army, move into the gun emplacements. Be ready to engage the enemy at any time."

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