Section 6: The Secret Treaty in the East China Sea (Part 1)
Zhao Yanhao looked at Xi'an and was very surprised, and then glanced at Yuei Yamada - this old general who had participated in the Sekigahara War and sold his scabbards to help Shimazu Yoshihiro return home. Seeing that Xi'an was quite uneasy, he became alert.
Putting his hand on the sword "Tamba Moriyoshi" given to him by Yoshihiro Shimazu - the old man Yamada was as stubborn as all Satsuma people. Although he asked to hand over the samurai sword, the old man kept mumbling in Kagoshima dialect for a long time.
, refused to let go, Zhao Yanhao had no choice but to let him go - Zhao Yanhao felt that he would definitely not be able to fight with a submachine gun.
After being embarrassed for a moment, Xi An calmed down and said a few polite words to Zhao Yanhao in the dialect of his hometown. Zhao Yanhao also said a few polite words, "The wind is beautiful and the sun is beautiful," and then he invited the two people whose combined age was over 130 years old.
The ten-year-old man went to sit down near the bow deck of the ship - because the two envoys arrived suddenly and there was no preparation on the Waverider, Zhao Yanhao ordered the sailors to bring out the round table and benches in the cabin and set them up.
Xi'an sat on the bench very uncomfortable. He originally thought it was a Zen bed, and planned to take off his shoes and sit cross-legged on it. However, he found that the envoy from Australia and Song Dynasty sat down directly on the couch, and he suddenly felt embarrassed again.
However, the old monk quickly recovered from the awkward atmosphere, and then looked around very quickly - there were ropes, sails, and unknown navigational equipment everywhere, and they looked very orderly.
Several soldiers dressed in white-like feather-like clothes held strange iron cannons with daggers in their hands, standing upright nearby on guard. Behind him was a tall, black chimney - he was watching from a distance at the dock a few days ago.
It was still spewing black smoke and white steam from time to time, but for some unknown reason in the past two days, there seemed to be no movement. So he was more curious about the polished black and shiny cannon on the bow - he noticed the cannon
It was mounted on a peculiar gun mount. There were no wheels under the gun mount, but there were two black iron rails. On the side of the ship next to the gun body, a row of round black cannonballs were neatly placed in the slots on the side.
Although Xi'an lived in troubled times for the first half of his life, he never had the opportunity to see the legendary "National Collapse Cannon". However, referring to the stone fire arrows deployed in Sanchong City before, this seemingly more terrifying weapon was called the "Jiecollapse Cannon".
"It's not an exaggeration.
While Xi'an was looking around, he saw the Australian opposite raised his hand to signal, and then a girl wearing a short skirt that just reached her knees, leaving her calves exposed, walked away holding a silver tray.
Come over and place the two green things on the tray in front of them.
Xi'an took a closer look and saw that they were two fresh sweet potato leaves, which was not surprising, but there were a few refreshments that he had never seen before on the leaves. The envoy from Australia and Song Dynasty politely signaled that he and Yamada would be honored.
Tasting the tea fruit, Xi'an picked up a piece of yellow rectangular snack and took a bite. It was soft and delicious, and the sweet and cloying feeling spread throughout his mouth.
Xi'an was savoring the taste of the snacks when he saw the girl on the side holding a bone china tea bowl as white as jade that he had only seen from the head of the Shimadzu family. She was carefully pounding the tea in the bowl with a tea pestle that was also as white as jade.
Light green tea cake. On the charcoal stove nearby, a silver iron teapot (teapot) made a whirring sound. The Australian envoy picked up the teacup, took the tea bowl from the girl's hand, poured boiling water into the bowl, and scattered the tea powder.
Milky white foam appears and the aroma is overflowing.
The envoy from Australia and Song Dynasty put the tea bowl on the silver tray. His attitude was neither arrogant nor arrogant, but he brought the tray to Yamada Yuei sincerely. Yamada Yuei looked at the girl's exposed snow-white neck with a bit of lust - until Zhao
Yanhao brought the tea bowl in front of him, and the old man was quite flattered and wanted to kowtow to thank him for the tea - but Zhao Yanhao refused because he didn't want to return the gift and kowtow back. Yamada Yuei took the tea bowl with both hands and placed it in his palms clockwise.
After turning half a circle, he took a big sip of tea and made a satisfied and grateful "squeak" sound. Then he turned the tea bowl again and handed it to Xi'an's hand.
Xi'an also turned the tea bowl half a circle and drank up the remaining tea. Then he picked up the white paper on the table and pressed his thumb against the white paper to carefully wipe away the tea stains on the tea bowl. Xi'an spoke highly.
Tea bowl, squinting at the exquisite patterns on the bone china - the golden iron fist on the red glaze is shining with brilliant starlight, which is the national emblem of the Senate. I can't help but admire it: "Good tea, good tea sets."
"In the Song Dynasty, the sea and the sky were used as teahouses, and boats and ships were used as teahouses. I really admire you for your magnanimity." Xi'an complimented a few words.
Zhao Yanhao smiled and nodded repeatedly, and then started chatting with Xi'an. The most talked about topics were Osaka where he studied abroad - the five-story pagoda and Prince Shotoku statue of Shitennoji, the great castle of Osaka Castle, the Tenjin Festival of Tenmangu Shrine...
... Xi'an seemed to have regained the memory of his travels in his youth, and he couldn't help but be surprised - for some reason, this envoy from Australia and Song Dynasty seemed to know the two Osaka battles very well, compared to him and Yamada who had never been to the Osaka battlefield.
Eidu understands that except for the fact that he keeps mistakenly calling the traitor Sanada Nobushige "Sanada Yukimura", there seems to be no problem, which is staggering.
"Could it be that Akashi Chunden fled to Australia?" Xi'an guessed wildly, "This could solve the mystery of a public case."
However, in comparison, Zhao Yanhao and Yamada Yuei's post-tea topics were not so rich - he vaguely remembered that the perverted old man sitting in front of him who looked at his maid with a lewd look had appeared in a certain game.
At the end of the scene, everyone around him was not over 70, which made him very contemptuous. Zhao Yanhao praised Yamada Ariei's righteous deed of selling the scabbard to the savior and then left him aside - the main reason was that Yamada Ariei's mouth was said to be in Edo
The Kagoshima dialect, which was used as a codeword in the era, caused great psychological damage to Zhao Yanhao.
Seeing that the real master was being left alone, Xi'an quickly said: "I'm sorry for speaking so bluntly, but it has disturbed the tea party of the two envoys." Then Xi'an proposed to get down to business and discuss how to trade with Ryukyu and Satsuma clan through "canonizing" Ryukyu.
topic.
"I wonder what the Satsuma Minister has to say?" Zhao Yanhao asked.
"The head of the family agreed." Yamada Yuei's answer was very straightforward.
Zhao Yanhao did not expect that the Shimadzu family would agree so quickly. In fact, when Shimazu Tadahashi (now renamed Jiajiu) just received the "Certificate of Credence of the Song Dynasty", he hesitated a few times. Although he was unwilling to let himself go from the bottom of his heart.
The vassal had another nominal suzerain, but this group of Australians obviously couldn't be offended - he knew the strength of Zheng Yiguan, the sea lord who was originally engaged in Japanese trade. Except for his own few Bencai ships that were engaged in Nanyang trade, other
The small boat was destined to be crushed. However, Zheng Yiguan was easily killed by the Australians in his hometown, leaving only a few brothers and orphans and widowed mothers scheming, and his trade with Japan was completely destroyed by the Australians.
People took over and it became almost a monopoly.
In addition, Shimazu Tadahashi had long heard that Zhou Xingru, a Chinese businessman from Nagasaki, had partnered with an Australian to open a store called Nintendo, specializing in selling all kinds of rare Australian goods. Zhou Xingru could only make some leftovers from the Zheng family.
All of a sudden, money was pouring in. Shimazu Tadahashi often saw Australian products, from bone china tea sets to crystal mirrors, from iron farm tools to textile products. These profitable treasures all amazed him. However, this was a big surprise for him.
This is not a good thing. The Australians imported a large amount of Matsue cloth, Indian cotton cloth, Dutch linen cloth and even sugar, which really had a big impact on the Shimadzu family's income - the Shimadzu family's main source of foreign trade income is various local and Ryukyu products.
Textiles and brown sugar from the Amami Islands were seized by the Shimadzu family, which made the Shimadzu family's economic situation even worse due to natural disasters and man-made disasters.
However, what made Shimazu Tadahashi make up his mind was the shogunate decree that just came from Edo a few days ago - shogunate Tokugawa Iemitsu revised the "Samurai Laws" and changed the attendance report to customization - requiring the daimyo of each domain in addition to
His wife and children were imprisoned outside Edo, and every year he would bring a large number of followers to Edo to see the shogunate at his own expense. When Shimazu Tadahashi heard this sad news, he burst into tears - he was the first to criticize the Tokugawa shogunate.
Although he does not need to go to Edo for the time being, he seems to be able to hear his son Mitsuhisa in Edo cursing himself as the instigator - after taking over the domain, he will spend 100 days every year carrying several people with him.
Hundreds of people are traveling at their own expense, so everyone has to worry about it.
Another news that worried him also reached Kagoshima: the shogunate issued a third lockdown order. This time the lockdown order was not like the last time it reiterated that only book ships were allowed to conduct foreign trade, but it completely stipulated that Japanese living abroad
People are prohibited from returning to the country, and ships other than Chinese and Dutch ships can only dock in Nagasaki. Shimazu Tadashi has judged through many years of political sense that the shogunate is likely to completely lock down the country. What's worse is that a large amount of the Satsuma Domain's income has been lost.
If the shogunate completely bans foreign trade from the Zhuin Ship, the Satsuma Domain will be financially bankrupt and collapse. Of course Shimazu Tadahashi is not willing to see this, so he discussed it with his retainers and decided to make two preparations: First, in
The second is to continue to deceive the shogunate and continue to trade with the Ming Dynasty in the name of Ryukyu.
At this time, the arrival of the Australians brought a life-saving straw to Shimazu Tadahashi. Whether it was the Ming Dynasty or the Song Dynasty, they all claimed to be China. The shogunate originally turned a blind eye to the Ryukyu tribute, and Shimazu
The Jin family decided to further deceive them, thinking that the Chinese envoys had come to confer the title again, and brought good news about increasing the number of tributes. Although it was not reasonable no matter how you thought about it, you could only deceive yourself and others when the situation came to this.
So Shimazu Tadahashi sent his confidant and favorite general, Desujito Yamada Yuei and Kian to Ryukyu. He paid close attention to this veteran general who had saved his father Shimazu Yoshihiro's life and trained a strong army like "Desui Soldier"
He gave some warnings and promised to officially promote him to the position of family leader after the negotiation was successful.