"Thunder God, Thunder God." Tuka muttered it twice silently, thinking that the explosion on the deck just now had nothing to do with thunder.
Seeing the confusion in the other person's eyes, Zhao Xin patted Tuka on the shoulder and said, "You will know in a few days."
At this time, Liu Sheng and Ding Guofeng could not wait to take over the huge black bear skin.
The surface of this leather is extremely complete, with not a single wound visible; its fur is shiny and feels thick and soft.
"This is really good stuff!" Liu Sheng exclaimed.
"Shall I find some refugee women to make you a bearskin hat to wear?" Zhao Xin said with a smile.
Liu Sheng said hurriedly: "No, it would be a pity to make a hat out of such a good piece of leather. It's better to keep it in the house as a decoration."
Zhao Xin stood up with a smile, walked to the pile of goods and took a look. At this time, an object shining with golden light came into his eyes.
"Gold nugget? I'll go!" Zhao Xin rubbed his eyes vigorously. He didn't expect that the gold he had been dreaming about could be seen here, and it was also a large piece of nugget gold.
He stretched out his hands and lifted it up, "Good guy, it weighs at least twenty kilograms!"
"Like this? I gave it to you!" Tuka came over at some point, patted Zhao Xin on the shoulder, and said nonchalantly.
"Tuka, where did you find this?"
"This, I got this from a small island in the north in exchange for leather."
"What's the name of that island?"
"Let me think about it. There are several islands there, and we call them Kuril." Tuka stroked his beard and muttered while recalling. "I remembered. The island is called Urupu, and there are a lot of them in the river on the island.
Red trout.”
After hearing this, Zhao Xin guessed that Tuka might be talking about the Thousand Islands, but he didn't know where exactly.
(Urupu, later known as Defu Island. According to later detections, there are approximately 1.6 billion tons of oil, 1,867 tons of gold, 9,284 tons of silver, 3.97 million tons of titanium, 273 million tons of iron, and 117 million tons of sulfur around the four northern islands.
, 36 tons of the rare metal rhenium. In addition, the North Pacific fishing grounds, including the waters surrounding the four northern islands, are also world-famous fishing grounds.)
Liu Sheng took the gold nugget from Zhao Xin, weighed it, and said to Zhao Xin: "It's really heavy. Ask him if he still has it?"
Zhao Xin then asked Tuka: "Tuka, do you still have this thing? I will exchange it with you for food and iron, and you can tell me a condition."
Tuka thought for a while and said: "We have to go to the tribe in the north to get this thing. Do you still have this kind of wine?"
Zhao Xin blurted out: "You can have as many as you want."
After saying this, he immediately realized that he couldn't deceive others in this matter, otherwise he would be different from those black-hearted island businessmen. Thinking of this, Zhao Xin said to Tuka: "Two pots, five bottles of wine, and two bags of flour
, do you think it’s okay to replace it with such a heavy one?”
After saying that, he asked Pingtai to get a bag of flour weighing fifty kilograms and a cooking pot.
After Pingtai and the two sailors brought the flour and pot over, Tuka first stepped forward and picked up the amount of flour with his hands, expressing his satisfaction; then he picked up the shiny stainless steel cooking pot and used his hands to
After knocking it, I am more satisfied.
However, the Ainu chief showed great surprise at the pot lid made of glass, holding it up and looking around.
Tuka's actions also attracted the attention of the tribe members who were eating and drinking around them. A cooking pot was passed back and forth in their hands, especially the bright pot body that reflected their deformed appearance, which attracted the attention of all the Ainu people.
What I saw was amazing.
As for the pot lid in Tuka’s hand, no one took it. Just kidding, it’s the patriarch’s treasure!
Zhao Xin saw an Ainu holding the cooking pot tightly and refusing to let go, so he asked Ping Tai to go to the warehouse to get twenty more cooking pots.
Don't grab it, everyone has a share!
The group of people kept busy until dusk before dispersing. It is said that these Ainu people with Mongolian and European ancestry are really good at drinking. It may be because of the cold climate in Ezo. Every Ainu person present
They all had to drink at least a bottle and a half of high-strength liquor.
Finally, each of the group returned to the boat carrying a paper box with a cooking pot and two bottles of wine. Zhao Xin made an agreement with Tuka that they would come back tomorrow morning to pick up the exchanged grain, bows and arrows, and cotton armor.
, and a hundred bolts of silk of all colors.
When it came to trading with the Ainu people, Zhao Xin didn't think about making money, and the unexpected gold he got actually far exceeded his expectations. As for the large amount of leather goods, he used it when he went south to Nagasaki.
It was just a stepping stone to win over Qing Dynasty businessmen.
In order to guard against a possible sneak attack by the Matsumae clan at night, before going to bed, everyone arranged to take shifts at night and fell asleep in a hurry.
Early the next morning, Zhao Xin did not wait for Tuka and his tribe to come to pick up the goods. He had a premonition that something might happen, so he ordered the fifty soldiers who had been guarding the cabin to get ready, and distributed knives and spears;
The few soldiers who had been hunters were also equipped with bows and arrows.
At noon, an Ainu man with a wounded face rowed a boat and hurriedly came to Zhao Xin to report the news. The people of the Matsumae clan sent more than a hundred people from the plain (Sapporo) last night, bringing Tuka and others
All the tribesmen were detained and interrogated severely. The pots and liquor they had brought back yesterday were all confiscated.
Zhao Xin asked the person who came to report if he knew where Tuka and the others were being held.
The Ainu who reported the news said that he escaped from there, not far from the seaside, and he could lead the way.
Zhao Xin continued to ask the person, are the more than 100 people who came here warriors? The person who reported the news said that he was not sure; so Zhao Xin changed the question, how many people hold spears and how many people hold swords?
The Ainu who reported the news hesitated for a long time and couldn't explain why.
Zhao Xin looked at the Ainu in front of him who spoke fluently in the island country. He rolled his eyes and said with regret, "Your clan leader still had a lot of goods that he didn't take away yesterday. This is really troublesome."
The messenger blurted out: "Where is the thing?"
Zhao Xin chuckled, roughly understanding what was going on. He immediately asked the messenger to wait a moment, and whispered to a sailor next to him: "Keep an eye on him! We must not let him wander around."
"What's going on?" Seeing Zhao Xin return to the captain's cabin, Liu Sheng and others asked one after another.
Zhao Xin said calmly: "Tuka and the others may have been arrested." After saying this, he gestured to the messenger on the deck with his chin. "This guy is probably a spy who was sent here to lure us into the bait."
When Liu Sheng heard this, he immediately cursed and said: "Are you planning an ambush again? Are you bothered? They have no other tricks?"
"As long as people think it works," Zhao Xin said with a shrug.
"With their few small boats, even a fool knows that they can't attack them. That's why they want to lead us to the land." After Ding Guofeng finished speaking, he stretched out his hand and squeezed hard.
Zhao Xin shook his head when he saw it and said: "It's not enough to annihilate us. It's enough to drive us away. It's better to close the country."
"Then what do you think we should do?" Liu Sheng asked.
Zhao Xin chuckled: "The leader said, 'If you don't fight the reactionary things, they will not fall.' So we still have to fight, and we must beat them painfully."
An hour later, Liu Sheng, Ding Guofeng, Zhao Liang, and Pingtai arrived on the deck after putting on their equipment.
The messenger was shocked when he saw that Liu Sheng and the other four were wearing bulging clothes and a large helmet with a transparent mask on their heads.
Except for a short man who held a samurai sword, the other three were just carrying a strange black iron object behind their backs. They didn't even hold a knife. As for what was exposed from the dense pockets on their bodies, it didn't look like anything.
It's a weapon.
Before leaving, Zhao Xin explained to the messenger that he did not have a boat here, so he could only send these four people to follow you ashore to investigate and see if Tuka could be rescued first.
After saying that, he took a piece of silk from the sailor behind him and gave it to the messenger, saying thank you very much for coming to inform us. You can take this piece of silk first, there are many more on the ship, wait until Tuka and the others are safe.
, I will reward you heavily.
When he said, "There are many more on board," he deliberately emphasized his tone.
The messenger took the silk and stroked it a few times, his face full of joy.
After the five people walked down the gangway and got into the boat, the messenger untied the cable, paddled the boat, and sailed towards the coast.
Zhao Xin looked at the boat going away, and then said to a sailor behind him: "Go and let the soldiers get on the deck and prepare to get on the boat."
The sailor touched his head without knowing why, bowed and said "yes", then hurriedly turned around and left.
Ten minutes later, when Yachiro and other fifty soldiers, led by Deng Fei and Hu Ji, came to the gangway with weapons in hand, a patrol boat had already stopped below.
"Lord, should we all get on the ship now?" Hu Ji walked down the gangway and asked Zhao Xin, who was standing at the end of the gangway.
"There's no rush, let's wait until they get ashore before we move."