Ming East India Company

While Cheng Keqin's First Fleet was wreaking havoc near Busan, Wang Sanshi and Pang Shipu's fleets in the open sea had rendezvoused and were preparing to carry out Bai Ye's emergency orders.

A few days ago, Wang Sanshi, who was carrying out a blockade mission, encountered a Malaysian aircraft carrier that brought Bai Ye's latest orders.

"Adjust the attack direction, focus all efforts on blockading Jeju Island and seize it when the opportunity arises. If that fails, wait for the arrival of subsequent marines."

Upon receiving the order, Wang Sanshi urgently contacted other nearby fleets, but in this era without radio, only Pang Shipu's fleet successfully rendezvoused with him.

"Mitsushita, this order can't be carried out!"

Pang Shipu frowned as he looked at the order.

"The fleet is now full of sailors and crew, plus some rowing slaves. They're certainly good at naval battles, but once they're ashore, they're like pigs waiting to be slaughtered," Pang Shipu said anxiously.

"Sam-seok, how is the defense of Jeju Island?"

Wang Sanshi handed Pang Shipu a document containing an estimate of the defensive strength of Jeju Island.

"More than a thousand combat soldiers, more than two thousand auxiliary soldiers, five Atake ships, dozens of Seki-ships... With our strength, we can at most destroy the enemy's navy, but landing and seizing the island is absolutely impossible."

"Military orders are absolute, and we must obey them." Wang Sanshi's attitude was very firm.

"But the owner has already said we can wait for the Marines to arrive before taking action, so why should we rush?"

"I think we should blockade this island first, and then wait for the lord's army. This way, we can carry out military orders to a certain extent without taking too much risk." Pang Shipu began to show his "intelligence".

Wang Sanshi answered expressionlessly:

"When I received this military order, I asked someone who had been there before. He said that when he set off, the boss had not yet started emergency mobilization."

"Servant, you come from the army. Calculate how long it would take the Ryukyu side to organize an expeditionary force."

Pang Shipu estimated the time:

"It will probably take at least twenty days."

"So, how do we get from Okinawa to Jeju Island?"

"The fleet is currently scattered across various locations doing business. It will probably take another twenty or thirty days for them to gather together, plus another ten or twenty days for the voyage."

"The ship that came to deliver the message was a fast ship from Ryukyu. Even if we deduct the ten days it took for its journey, the main force of the host will arrive at the earliest in forty-five days."

Wang Sanshi pointed in the direction of North Korea in the distance:

"If we continue to guard Jeju Island with our two oars and sailboats for the next forty-five days, it means that our blockade of southern Korea will be reduced by half."

Do you think this is acceptable to the employer?

Pang Shipu's face turned red, and he was powerless to refute.

Actually, Wang Sanshi had a selfish motive that he didn't say: he wanted to win a major victory in front of Bai Ye as soon as possible to accumulate political capital for himself.

As a garrison soldier who arrived on the island after the Ryukyu Campaign, Wang Sanshi did not receive any "original shares," so although he has been promoted quickly over the years, his foundation is unstable.

After several years of development, a certain degree of class differentiation and seniority-based hierarchy has emerged on Ryukyu Island.

Take the garrison soldiers who had land on the island, for example. The first batch of people who followed Shirano to the island were considered "veterans" and occupied various important positions. Their status on the island was also very high.

People like Wang Sanshi, who arrived on the island later, were considered second-class citizens. Although they were nominally entitled to houses and land, they were actually seen as "taking advantage of others" by the first batch of soldiers who arrived on the island, and their words and actions were full of contempt.

Even though Wang Sanshi is now Bai Ye's first secretary and chief advisor, he still can't escape this discrimination.

This is also why Pang Shipu and others disagreed with him at the previous war meeting. Although Wang Sanshi presided over the meeting, he had to bring up Bai Ye to suppress the crowd when it came to making the final decision.

Even now, although Wang Sanshi is nominally the supreme commander of this operation, in reality he can only consult with Pang Shipu.

For Wang Sanshi, this battle was a complete rout. To demonstrate his power in such a rout, a certain amount of "advanced work" was inevitable.

Pang Shipu said:

"Why don't we sneak onto the island at night and launch a surprise attack? Maybe we can scare them into a rout."

Wang Sanshi shook his head and said:

"No, even after this kind of rout battle, the Japanese can still organize scattered troops to resist deeper into the island. We still need to send a large number of people to watch them, which is essentially no different from a fleet blockade."

"Then tell me what to do! We can't just force our way in!"

Wang Sanshi said:

"Perhaps we don't need to completely annihilate them."

Pang Shipu was baffled:

"Sanshi, stop beating around the bush and just tell me what your plan is!"

"Let them withdraw on their own."

"Withdraw voluntarily? How could that be?"

"We'll make it look like we're going to attack the island, and they'll be afraid their retreat will be cut off, so they'll definitely withdraw on their own."

"Even a fool wouldn't do that. We now have naval superiority and have sunk so many enemy warships. No Japanese person with a sound mind would ever go to sea."

Wang Sanshi said:

"Perhaps I can give it a try."

He then explained the plan in detail to Pang Shipu, whose eyes widened in astonishment.

"Are you crazy? If this plan fails, we'll lose a whole galley!"

"If I am defeated, you will take command of the entire army and continue the blockade strategy. If the boss asks, just say it was all my personal decision, Wang Sanshi's decision..."

Pang Shipu tried to persuade him for a long time, but in the end he couldn't convince him and could only tearfully send Wang Sanshi off with these words:

"Take care of yourself."

Under the cover of night, Wang Sanshi led the Sea Falcon No. 7 away from the fleet, sailing alone towards the waters off Jeju Island...

As dawn broke, the Japanese soldiers on the island had just opened their eyes when they saw a fully armed oar-powered sailboat suddenly appear in the shallow waters of Jeju Island.

The power of the Ming Dynasty's galleys had terrified them during this time, so they abandoned all their ships and fled ashore the moment the galleys appeared.

But what was strange was that this galley did not sweep through the Japanese convoy as it had done before.

Instead, they wandered along the coast until they finally stopped at a place with a flat sandy beach.

In the following days, people came down from the boat in sampans every day, carrying plumb bobs and rulers, measuring something...

During this time, some Japanese soldiers wanted to go and see what was going on, but every time they got within a mile, they heard the roar of cannons from the bow of the galley ships.

The bombardment from the Kövlin cannons on the galleys during this period had instilled a psychological fear in these Japanese soldiers, so they would flee far away at the mere sound of cannon fire...