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Section 5: The Alliance Under the City

Zheng Yu was unwilling to go, but he did not dare to disobey, so he could only take a boat to Satsuma reluctantly. As a result, the boat sailed to the Tugala Islands and was robbed and captured by pirates who claimed to be the seven islands. Because he could not buy and sell Ryukyu slaves in Japan, the bow of the boat sold him to Zheng Zhilong. He became a "little man" of a shopkeeper, and he was considered a confidant.

After Zheng Zhilong's group was defeated, Zheng Ju was captured again. Because he was a Chinese in Ryukyu, he was very rare, so he was selected and sent to Linggao. After purification, he was selected as a "special labor force" and was trained by Jiangshan as an "external intelligence agency for training.

After hearing the explanation translated by Zheng Yan, Zhao Yanhao disdainedly interrupting the long speech of the official Cai Naba.

"I am the Taizhong official under the command of the Great Song Dynasty, and the envoy of the Zhongshan Kingdom of Ryukyu, and the envoy of the upper country," Zhao Yanhao said as he pretended to bow to the south, and then waved to the Ryukyu officials, "You are so arrogant, how dare you speak rudely here!"

After saying that, Zhao Yanhao waved his hand, and the sailors lifted the cannon suits of the 130mm main gun on the bow. The dark and fine steel gun made a point straight at Naha Port under the adjustment of the sailor.

Cai Ze's face turned pale. The cannon's tube was so thick that the scoundrel really bombarded Naba Port. Even if the King of Ryukyu could spare his life, the Japanese officials who were practicing in the past would probably cause the matter to Satsuma. If the Satsuma State Department blamed him, he would have to chop his head.

"The envoy of the upper country calmed down," the bully quickly changed his attitude. "The villain has no eyes to recognize Mount Tai..."

"Don't say politely, give these two letters of nationality to the King of Ryukyu and the King of Zaifan," Zhao Yanhao ordered Zheng Ju to hand over the two letters of nationality to the Lord of Naha. "If you dare to hide them privately, then we will go directly to Kagoshima and talk to Tadahoshi Shimazu about life and ideals."

Zhao Yanhao was in a very happy mood when he saw off the trembling and pale-faced official Cai Zehou. In Lingao, he was just a soy sauce veteran who was "afraid of his superiors". After coming to Ryukyu, not only were there many naturalized people who could send him to show off his "official power", but the Ryukyu people were at least very afraid of him.

"No wonder they are all struggling to be foreign veterans. When doing trade, they will emit a turtle-like aura from the bottom of their feet. They just hope that they will not look at the halo of characters on the top of their heads..." Zhao Yanhao thought about a certain English work he had read on the night before traveling through time. "Depending on the posture, the Senate will have a lot of Perry. I don't know who can drive the black ship to the coast of Uraga."

Early on the third morning, Cai Ze boarded the Fengyu Shi, and this time he respectfully presented a gift list with various supplies written on it, including rice, soaked wine, wind pigs, live chickens, various fruits and vegetables, and some additional cotton and ramie fabrics, and even some banana cloths that Zhao Yanhao had never heard of.

"Can banana leaves still weave cloth?" Zhao Yanhao was very curious.

"Chief, every household in Ryukyu has to plant bananas," Zheng Ju explained respectfully. "As for how to weave it into cloth, it's more troublesome. It seems that you have to peel off the outer skin of the banana petiole to extract the fibers, and then dye the woven fabric. Chief, I'm very sorry, I just heard of it and have never seen it with my own eyes."

"How much fiber can banana leaves extract? How many trees do you need to cut down?"

"Report to the leader, it takes about 200 banana trees to make a banana cloth suit..."

"It's really not environmentally friendly. I'm with Lao Wu who is in charge of forestry." Zhao Yanhao muttered. However, the clothes worn by the veterans are made of cotton cloth or Dutch linen made from India and Songjiang. It's a good choice to buy some lightweight banana cloth to make special casual clothes, so he decided to solemnly write the words "banana cloth" after the purchase list.

In fact, banana cloth is also produced on Hainan Island. It is one of the local specialties exported by Li people's villages. However, it has not been formed in scale and is only available by chance in the market. Zhao Yanhao didn't know that he also had this thing.

After Cai Ze sent the gifts, no official staff of Ryukyu came for more than a week. However, some brave Ryukyu people came to sell things in small boats, selling sweet potatoes, firewood, vegetables, fish and shrimp, cloth and other not valuable agricultural and sideline products. Some Ryukyu people even brought some brown sugar over - except for the color, the ingredients of brown sugar and brown sugar are roughly similar. The method of making brown sugar was introduced by a Ryukyu official called Ma Pingfang more than ten years ago. Ma Pingfang also introduced cotton and promoted sweet potatoes. It was hailed as the "Five Greatest Men of Ryukyu" in later generations.

Although later Ryukyu people have a very high opinion of him, brown sugar was also the most important foreign trade product in Ryukyu in its original time and space, and in the Satsuma rule, the Satsuma vassal controlled the trade of brown sugar. Zhao Yanhao was not interested in the agricultural products introduced by the "Ryukyu version of Shennong" who was still making use of his remaining energy in the court. Wen Tong also hoped to sell the sugar from Leizhou to Ryukyu and Japan, and to buy these semi-finished products that were not much different from brown sugar back to Linggao. The value is not high.

When Zhao Yanhao ordered the sailors to take out Songjiang cotton cloth and Leizhou white sugar, he almost heard the heartbreaking voices of these Ryukyu people. However, Zhao Yanhao still asked the sailors to exchange the Ryukyu noodles and black sugar in the hands of the Ryukyu people with a small amount of cotton cloth and white sugar. He always brought some specialties back to the elders, right? These Ryukyu people were grateful to each other and went back with the cloth and sugar.

Zhao Yanhao actually wanted to exchange rice for specialties: the Senate issued silver coins in Guangzhou, and the silver inventory was not large, so foreign trade was generally not allowed to flow out. The rice was given by the King of Ryukyu. Zhao Yanhao felt that he might not be able to eat it for the time being, so he planned to sell it directly to buy some specialties. However, few people collected rice. After inquiring, they found out that in order to collect more rice, Ryukyu handed over to the Satsuma clan, except for the royal family and senior gentry, civilians were forbidden to eat rice. Most civilians ate mixed grains, and even used the fruits of cycads as food. Because they dared not eat it, no one except some gentry dared to collect rice.

"The Ryukyu Kingdom did more than the puppet Manchukuo." Zhao Yanhao was very unfair for the Ryukyu people. However, the private trade with Ryukyu was not that important. The main targets of this operation were the Ryukyu royal family and the Satsuma family behind it. Therefore, Zhao Yanhao's slogan to rescue Ryukyu people was actually shouted loudly for the Senate, but it was not useful for the time being.

When the Ryukyu people came to do a small business, Zheng Ju reminded Zhao Yanhao that there might be a Satsuma family among the crowd on the shore. At least Zhao Yanhao saw a Japanese samurai with a moon-degree head in the telescope and sneaked around the crowd on the shore. However, he was not very concerned about the Ryukyu miniature work that was used to go on the ship to do business by the Japanese. The Ryukyu people could only line up to go to the deck, and after the transaction was completed, they were "invited" from the ship. Zhao Yanhao didn't think that the Ryukyu people could see any name, but he still allowed most of the crew to stand on the deck to guard it to show the military power of the Senate's "Celestial Kingdom".

However, the Ryukyu official stopped replying, and Zhao Yanhao was a little impatient to wait. This was too low efficiency! Just as he and Xu Liang, Zheng Ju, and the captain of the Special Investigation Squad, and a naturalized citizen named Li Renjun were studying how a few people marched armedly at the gate of Shuri City to get a meal with the King of Ryukyu, the sailors in charge of the lookout post ran over to report - several small boats rowed towards the Wind.

Zhao Yanhao picked up the telescope and looked at several small boats. He found that in addition to the Ba-shaped flag of the Ryukyu Kingdom, there were also flags with black-backed white-branched cross-patterned flags on the boat. Zhao Yanhao played a lot of Warring States games, but he quickly recognized the owner of the flag: the Satsuma Fan Shimazu family.

"What is coming is finally here," Zhao Yanhao tried hard to calm his mind and made a deep expression. "Please ask the Sammo State Department and the messenger of the King of Ryukyu to board the ship."

Zhao Yanhao probably will never forget the funny scene of a slim and a short and thin old man dressed in a monk standing on the deck in this life.

"I am Xi'an, whose name is Min Fanyuan in the Han Dynasty, and he was a relative of Ryukyu, an imperial tea ceremony, and a visit to the envoy of the Song Dynasty." The old monk with a shiny forehead in his seventies folded his hands together and said in a Fuzhou-like official language.

Zhao Yanhao nodded and replied.

Then the old monk introduced the old samurai who was in his fifties: "This is Yurong, the envoy of Satsuma, who is the envoy of Satsuma." Yurong Yamada pressed his hands on his thighs, and then bent down slightly to signal to Zhao Yanhao.

After Zheng Yan's translation, Zhao Yanhao finally understood what Xi'an meant.

"Don't be arrogant if you can't speak official words..." Zhao Yanhao almost cried.

Then he calmed down his emotions, cleared his throat, and argued to Hian in Quanzhou in Osaka accent, "Xian's relatives do not need to be too polite. Both of them are Japanese. We can talk to Hian in Japanese."

"ほんま?" Qi'an was shocked - he didn't expect that this young man knew his background. Qi'an's long-dead father was Sakaigang's fortune teller. When he was a child, he told him: "It must not be a weapon here, but going to the south will inevitably lead to wealth and glory." Then he followed a tea ceremony with an unknown disciple of Chirikyu, Katsuyuki, and later crossed the sea to Ryukyu. Ryukyu was immersed in culture by Chinese and Japanese cultures, and there were some enthusiasts of Japanese tea ceremony, but he was not proficient. As soon as he came, the two swords in the Japanese tea ceremony became the academic authority of Ryukyu tea ceremony and served as the king's "Imperial Tea Ceremony". During the Ryukyu conquest, he was responsible for dealing with the Satsuma clan and served as diplomatic envoys many times, so he was named "Professional" as the highest noble title of non-royal family.

"How do Australians know that I am from Sakai Hong Kong?" Xi'an thought anxiously, "You actually understand the dialect of my old hometown?"

Zhao Yanhao didn't learn Kansai accent specifically, but he just thought it was fun to watch Japanese dramas and comics. In addition, he had studied in Osaka, so he specially learned the most commonly used dialects in the Osaka Izumi area, but he didn't expect it to be useful here.
Chapter completed!
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