CHAPTER 302: CHAPTER 217: LET THEM KNOW WHO RULES THIS SEA!

Before the annexation of Hokkaido, Japan’s territory looked like a tiny seahorse.

Honshu Island was its body, Kyushu Island looked like its poop, Shikoku Island was its egg, the Ise Peninsula was its tail fin, the Boso Peninsula its pectoral fin, and squeezed between Ise and Boso Peninsulas, the Izu Peninsula was... well, shaped like its you-know-what... (an organ unapproved by the censors)

If seahorses even have that, or if you anthropomorphize them, the location of the Izu Peninsula does kind of remind you of that thing.

Anyway, the Izu Peninsula isn’t all that big—about five or six times the size of the Chita Peninsula—but it’s quite a unique shape, with Jumogawa Bay to the west, the Pacific Ocean to the south, and Sagami Bay to the east. It just juts straight out into the ocean, all stiff and upright, giving off strong, virile vibes—just looking at it makes you think of virility.

Originally, this area was ruled by a branch of the Muromachi Shogunate—Horikawa Gongfang (a branch of the Ashikaga clan). In 1491, Horikawa Gongfang’s Ashikaga Shigetoshi died, his son Ashikaga Chachamaru inherited the title, but his brutality sparked a civil war. At that time, Houjou Sawayama (Ise Moritoki) of the Ise clan took the chance to rise.

In 1493, Houjou Sawayama, with just over ten Household Retainers and a hundred or so Lang Faction, launched a sneak attack on the residence of Horikawa Gongfang, capturing it in a single day, kicking out Ashikaga Chachamaru, and becoming the actual ruler of Izu. That was the start of the later Houjou family’s domination over Kantou.

By the time Houjou Sawayama’s son Houjou Ujimasa took over, he moved his main castle to Odawara Castle in Sagami Province (present-day Kanagawa Prefecture), and used this as a center for expansion. As the cradle of the Houjou family, and with the geographical advantage of being surrounded on three sides by the sea, the Izu Peninsula became a solid rear base. During Houjou Ujimasa’s reign, the Izu Peninsula, together with Sagami, Musashi, and other areas, formed the core territory of the Houjou family.

As for the Houjou family’s navy... About eight years ago, when the Houjou family was fighting the Satomi family over the Boso Peninsula, their navy got torched by the Satomi navy.

Since then, the Houjou navy hasn’t been able to recover. Even though the Houjou family tried rebuilding a few times, against the massive advantage of the Satomi navy, they got nowhere and completely lost control of the nearby seas.

For example, the naturally sheltered Shimoda Port on the Izu Peninsula is said to have fallen into decline, and barely any merchant ships dare to trade there. These days, the Houjou family’s commerce relies almost entirely on land routes through the Imagawa and Takeda families—this is one of the reasons they were so eager to join the Three Kingdoms Alliance.

Now Harano is leading the Wanjin fleet, and as soon as they leave Jumogawa Bay, they bump into the Satomi navy—or if you prefer, Water Thieves.

This small, barely few-dozen-koku fast ship, relying on its speed and agility, kept weaving back and forth not far from the Wanjin fleet, while Harano quickly sent an envoy to negotiate.

This time it was the same envoy as last time, but the Water Thieves clearly weren’t as polite as the Samurai, and Harano’s deterrence didn’t work so well on the Satomi, so when the envoy stuck his neck out and spoke too stiffly, he pissed off the little ship’s captain, who beat him up, tossed him into the sea, and only spared his life because they still needed someone to pass a message.

This envoy’s name was Yasui Hei (just named after the new "Equality Order"), and he returned to the "Chita" ship all bruised and soaking wet, but wasn’t bothered at all. He relayed the message: "My lord, those sea clams demand that we immediately go back to the Jumogawa area. They say the Houjou family are enemies of the Satomi family, and any assistance to the Houjou will be seen as a provocation—basically they think we’re here to support the Houjou family, and they’re really unfriendly. I tried explaining, but they wouldn’t listen."

Harano nodded lightly, comforting him, "Good work. Don’t worry, you won’t suffer for nothing."

"It’s nothing, my lord. It’s my honor to serve you." Yasui Hei showed no attitude toward Harano at all, grinning like a big old dog—after all, if Harano hadn’t been handing out disaster relief over on the Chita Peninsula, half his family would’ve starved to death by now.

But he knew his place as a relay boy, and that big decisions like war or peace weren’t his to comment on, so after saying his part he withdrew. Harano immediately turned to Yu Da and ordered, "Drive them off! If they dare to engage, kill them!"

Yu Da nodded in agreement, turned around and signaled the fleet. A Customs Ship weighed anchor as backup, several small boats dashed right at them, and the Satomi ship—no fools either—didn’t try to fight outnumbered, but turned tail and fled east, probably returning to get backup.

At sea, if ships are about equally fast, it’s nearly impossible to overtake the enemy—could take days or even weeks. Harano didn’t bother chasing too far, so when they saw the Satomi run, he just ordered the fleet to continue on to Shimoda Port.

Ah Man watched the Satomi ship flee, and asked Harano, "Are we really going to fight the Satomi family?"

"We’ve got to keep heading east—all the way to the farthest tip of Honshu Island. Sooner or later, yeah, we’ll fight them." Harano didn’t care much. Sea trade isn’t supposed to be easy; the Imagawa family was easy to deal with only because he’d had a war with them before and paid with thousands of lives. But he’d never crossed paths with the Satomi before.

"Fighting at sea, huh..." Ah Man was an old hand, having fought a lot under Harano in past years, but this would be his first proper naval battle, so he was understandably a bit nervous.

Harano didn’t care. In chaotic times, if you don’t even have the guts to fight for what you want, you might as well go sit back and watch the show—forget about profit or expanding your turf.

He’d mentally prepared for this, and directly ordered, "Once we get to Shimoda, try to gather any missing intel on the Satomi navy—just in case we missed something."

You know what they say—"Never fight a battle you’re uncertain about." Harano always prioritized intelligence work. Every time Ah Man asked for funding, he tried to deliver. So before this "selling-expedition" even started, the Life-saving Group had already set out, with even a few scout ships sent ahead and a rough idea of the powers along the route.

As for the Satomi family, the big boss of the sea in Kantou, Harano had already checked them out and figured they’d be manageable in a head-to-head—Kantou’s Water Thieves weren’t nearly as tough as those from the Seto Inland Sea, and according to reports, the Satomi navy only had about a hundred fighting ships, most of which were just little fast boats. With his "Chita," plus new weapons, they definitely stood a chance.

Of course, the Life-saving Group’s operational range was still limited—collecting intel within the Houjou lands wasn’t easy, let alone further east in Satomi territory. The info they did get was kind of stale and couldn’t be fully trusted, so he couldn’t rule out the possibility that the Satomi navy was stronger than expected.

But taking a few hits wouldn’t matter—these days, Japanese naval battles were all about "fire attacks," and the "Chita" ship was armored in expensive copper so it wouldn’t burn easily. As long as nobody died, they could recover faster than the Satomi navy.

The Satomi family had to contend with ground threats from both the Takeda and Houjou families, so they had limited resources to spare for their navy. On Harano’s end, there was no such pressure, so he could just dump resources into building a bigger fleet, and within six months he’d have a stronger armada that would wear the Satomi navy out.

If the Satomi navy was willing to talk, and let Wanjin merchants trade normally in the Izu and Boso Peninsulas, then, seeing as they’d ruled the sea for nearly a decade, Harano would be willing to pay a bit of "protection money"—say, 5% or even 10%. But since they refused to open up the market and wouldn’t let Wanjin do business here, Harano didn’t mind sending a few, a dozen, or even several dozen ships to the bottom, killing the lot of them.

These days, if you want something, you’ve got to fight for it! That’s just how it is!

......

The Satomi navy had issued their warning, but Harano took it as nothing but hot air and pushed on. By noon that day, they’d reached Shimoda Port.

Probably due to its decline, Shimoda’s reaction wasn’t nearly as sharp as Paoquan Port’s—even the beacon fires weren’t lit, as if they hadn’t noticed the Wanjin fleet at all.

Maybe they’d been smacked down by the Satomi navy so often they just gave up, knowing no reinforcements would show up even if they did light the warning fires. They’d just button up the shore defenses to keep Water Thieves from landing in force, and call it a day.

When Harano sent the battered Yasui Hei back as envoy, the Houjou family Samurai garrisoning the port were even more accommodating than the Imagawa lot—didn’t even fart a single extra word before agreeing to a deal with Wanjin and waiving all port fees, even the Customs Ship tax.

Yeah, at this point, any merchant ship in these waters already had to pay the Satomi navy a toll—there’s no way they could bear another layer of fees from the Houjou family in port. The Satomi navy’s junior officers would loot any ship trading with the Houjou family at whim, too. Shimoda was going from bad to worse and barely collected any Customs fees anyway, so waiving them was meaningless.

Plus, the Houjou Samurai were clearly trying to shift trouble eastward—egging Wanjin and the Satomi navy on to fight it out—so obvious they didn’t even bother hiding it. They were even afraid Wanjin might leave before they started fighting, so their attitude was extra proactive.

Most importantly, the goods Wanjin brought were truly top notch: weapons, farm tools, refined salt, fancy cloth, sake... just about everything the Houjou family needed, and cheaper than what the Imagawa and Takeda families sold—plus, they guaranteed enough supply outright. Put some money down, and the Wanjin merchants would promise delivery, with Harano himself vouching for it.

The Wanjin Masters were quite fond of Shimoda Port. The Houjou, desperate to keep hold of their goods, offered sweet deals—they were willing to barter with horses, even good horses and warhorses. Chita and Owari were both short on horses, especially warhorses, and the prices were sky-high—so flipping the goods back and forth, the Masters made out like bandits.

That beat schlepping back rotten oranges, crappy tea, or coarse cloth from Enshu or Shimizu by a mile—a few of the Wanjin Masters now rated the Houjou family as a top priority, thinking that even with a longer run, it was more profitable to come to the Izu Peninsula.

Some Masters even started toying with the idea that trading was better than manufacturing. Wanjin’s state-owned and private workshops were already locked in cutthroat competition—nobody would even notice if a few of them stopped producing. So why not buy a few ships and specialize in shipping and out-of-town resale? Could make a killing.

The proposal instantly earned wide approval—dozens of Masters jumped in right there, promising to invest. Predictably, too many cooks spoiled the broth, and infighting broke out almost at once. In the end, they split up into a dozen small teams to apply for business licenses from Harano, ready to set up a flock of import-export firms.

Harano thought it was a great idea, approved it on the spot, and decided to set up a "state-owned import-export trading company" too—no way the government was missing out on that cash cow.

Business with the Houjou family was going smoothly, but the Satomi navy wasn’t about to just watch. Less than two days later, a mass of Satomi warships began gathering in the Izu Sea Area.

They meant to give Harano, this outlander, a lesson—to show him who really called the shots in the Kantou seas!

The Mizuno Family, Sou State Pirates, Banshu Pirates, Upper State Pirates, and White Head Pirates are not to be messed with!