Prince of Tsushima: Terror of the Golden Sea
Chapter I
April 4th, 1127 VTE, the Golden Sea, aboard the Salsang
It is a foggy April day on the Golden Sea. Uesugi Tsunehisa stands on the bridge of his flagship, the 58 Gun Frigate Salsang. The 20-year-old megalomanic is searching for a Black Fleet convoy operating in the Golden Sea. While it is not his first time in command of a ship, this is his first time he is in command of a fleet searching for its prey. Upon taking the throne two years ago, the prince has awaited this day keenly, where he can start to forge his own legend. His arrogance and brash decision to dare to attack a convoy head on was shocking to both the court and the admiralty alike. They pleaded for him to not make such as foolish move. He remembers two particular pleas quite well and is dwelling on them
"The Black Fleet will utterly crush us, my Prince, I beg you to reconsider."
"You bloody fool, you have no chance of ever defeating the Black Fleet. This is such a typical move of brash move that I expect from you and will bring ruin to our realm with this utterly ridiculous and mindless decision of yours!"
The latter rebuke came from his hated younger twin, Kunihisa. "I'll show that bastard. He will choke on those words, by Nagi." he thought to himself. Suddenly someone runs up the stairs and a monotone voice spoke up next to him "Master, the Sinsokhan has reported that she has found the convoy we are looking for. They are really close; your Highness and we are coming right upon them soon enough. According to them. there is 2 Frigates, 2 Corvettes and 6 Merchantmen heading south."
"Thank you, Jong. Signal the fleet to assume wedge formation and full sails immediately."
"Yes sir!" Jong says enthusiastically before delivering the orders. Tsunehisa starts walks down the deck slowly and starts to think about the coming situation. He had no doubt in his mind he would win, indeed that was expected, but he was interested to see how well the fleet performed in its hunt.
The Tsushimite fleet was composed of one Great Frigate, two Light Frigates and 4 Warsloops. The wedge formation called for the warsloops to form a wedge in front of the Line of Battle, from which they would strike and break up the enemy formation. While the warsloops were causing chaos, the Line formation would head straight into the center and blow out the enemy ships from the bow and aft with their heavy cannons. As the fleet assumed formation, the lead Warsloop Daedamhan spotted the Black Fleet convoy, and the Salsang almost immediately after. The fog had obstructed and hid Tsuneshisa's movements and while the convoy was alert, it failed to spot the scouting efforts by the Sinsokhan earlier. Now, the hunter had caught his prey and was ready for the kill. After ordering the firework to be launched, ordering the attack to commence, Tsunehisa rushed back to the bridge and took out his jeweled binoculars to keep watch.
The deadbeats were caught completely off guard by the signal and rushed into action immediately, opening fire on the approaching warsloops at will. The warsloops did not fire back and continued to press rapidly forward into close range. The Black Fleet was used to these kinds of actions but wasn't used to speed of this warsloops at all. Two of the warsloops rammed both of the Corvettes and unleashed their Dragon's Breath flamethrowers on to them. Tsunehisa remained calm and fixated as he ordered the pilot to make way directly for the center, between the two Frigates. Another warsloop was battered heavily by the Black Fleet's guns and had to break off its attack. No matter, as the noose had just been tied around the convoys neck.
The deadbeat frigates fired on the Salsang, doing good damage to the ship but when the Salsang got between the two frigates, it unleashed hell on them. Grape and solid shot, fired into the aft of the first frigate nearly disabled it completely and killed the Deadbeat Lieutenant Commander Auvidicia. The second frigate's deck was cleared by grape shot as well. Now, Tsunehisa ordered the launching of two flairs, which gave the smaller frigates the order to board the enemy frigates and take them out. The Warsloops had also just managed to destroy the two corvettes and now were on to their second objective, capturing the merchant men. "Hard to port, let's take these spring chickens!" order Tsunehisa.
As the two small frigates boarded the deadbeat frigates, they found the decks deserted and threw grenades down the stairs. As it turned out, the Deadbeats were planning to all come up at once from underneath, above and from the bridge and the grenades killed many below deck. Still, a vicious melee on deck now broke out between the Deadbeats, fighting for their pride and the Tsushimites. But this wasn't a fight that the deadbeats could win, and they would end up surrendering both of their 44-gun frigates.
In the meantime, the merchants were tracked down and forced to surrender. The Battle was over. For the cost of 55 killed and 88 wounded. Tsunehisa sunk two corvettes, captured two Black Fleet frigates and 6 merchantmen. It was a stunning victory. That night, while sailing home, Tsunehisa enjoyed a fabulous dinner with legendary Moriji Wine with his concubine he brought along. The eccentric Prince ignored the old sailor's tales about how having a woman on board was bad luck because of his great sex appetite. Where was that bad luck now?
Two days later, the Prince arrived back at Myeongyang, with both of the frigates and the merchantmen filled with all sorts of goods. The people could hardly believe it, most thinking the Prince would not return alive but here he was and had brought an unbelievable haul. A massive crowd gathered around the docks, waiting for their Prince to step forth onto land again. Tsunehisa, waving from the deck, shouted "Tsushima! Nagi has given us a great gift today! Let us rejoice and celebrate this great victory together!" The crowd broke into massive cheers, and as Tsunehisa descended on to land, he was rushed and lifted atop the crowd. In one move, Tsunehisa had gone from a young upstart to the pride of Tsushima. His legend that he wanted however, was just starting and would grow greater over the years.
Chapter II
August 1st, 1128 VTE, Myeongyang
It had been a profitable year for Tsunehisa. He has successfully had raided at least 3 more Moriji Convoys with total success, and had now captured 3 more corvettes and 34 Merchantmen. The Black Fleet, however, was not pleased at this growing ulcer known as Tsushima. After probing towards Tsushima in May with a decently sized force, and meeting stiff resistance, the Black Fleet had come to the belief that this little rock was not worth risking many lives over and instead went the diplomatic route. Admiral Wexus sent a message to Tsunehisa asking to come to terms with him. Tsunehisa, agreed with some conditions that Wexus come with only 3 Frigates. The Deadbeat reluctantly agreed, and arrived in Myeongyang on July 25th to open up the negotiations.
Tsunehisa, however, had other plans and for 5 days showed him and his men around the island, showing off the glory of Tsushima and making it a point to show him the coastal fortifications. He treated the envoys as honored guests, all of which was part of his plan. By the time actual negotiations started on July 31st, Tsunehisa was fully prepared to get as much as he could out of the Admiral.
The negotiations themselves went rather well. Wexus realized in part thanks to the tour that the Island was truly a fortress that would prove to be a struggle in any event that negotiations broke down. Furthermore, he saw the big picture of this and how it could hurt his nation long term. He was all to eager to appease this megalomanical "Prince" and be on his way back home. The terms that they agreed on were the following:
Moriji would pay a tribute of 20,000 Talents to Tsushima each year.
A ransom of 100,000 Talents would be paid in exchange for the prisoners captured.
Tsunehisa would target other pirates in the Golden Sea if practical, in exchange he would be given full reign over areas west of the Serene Republic.
Recognition that Tsunehisa was the "Lord of the Golden Sea" (Which means nothing in reality.)
A secret clause regarding the cannibals that the Deadbeats so long struggled against, where Tsunehisa would consider them to be an enemy should war break out between Moriji and them again.
Overall, it was a good deal for both sides. Tsunehisa got a lot of gold, and a lot of prestige at being able to claim that he had brought one of the strongest navies in the world to their knees, while Moriji was able to pay him off and get him to assist their nation if needed. The Treaty of Myeongyang was an excellent start to Tsunehisa's ambitions, but he only looked for greater things to come if he wanted to fulfill his own ego. To the west, lay some appetizing targets. He did not want to fight the Serene Republic yet but much wealth could be gained from raiding and even attacking these states in full. The Shuzi, in particular were tempting, given their love of gold and silver. With the money aquired from the raids and the tribute, he sought out to grow his fleet in size and strength even larger before launching his most ambitious attack yet.