Two days later, Zhao Xin arrived at Uncle Sun's house alone.
Zhao Xin, who originally had some ideas, immediately backed down. Again, the old man is getting older.
After meeting him, Zhao Xin found that the other person's physical condition was not as good as he said on the phone. Not to mention the eighteenth century, even going to the farm he bought in the north would not work. If something happened, he would be in trouble.
A lot of trouble.
He bluntly rejected Uncle Sun's request. He didn't stay for a minute longer and left directly.
After leaving Uncle Sun's home, he told Wang Yuanfang about the situation on the phone.
Wang Yuanfang wished that the old man would stop calling him, and felt relieved after hearing this.
Zhao Xin told him that he would leave for the north in two days and that Zhao Liang and Wu Siyu would both go there.
Liu Sheng was the only one watching over the refugees, and Zhao Xin was really worried.
The most critical thing now is the inspection and subsequent modification of the cargo ship, and time is urgent.
Zhao Xin planned to leave with the refugees immediately after the seawater around Bear Island thawed in early March. He did not know how Hunchun or Ningguta would react when they discovered that a hundred armored soldiers had disappeared during this period.
After experiencing a continuous battle from morning to night and killing dozens of Qing soldiers with his own hands, Zhao Xin's temperament had changed a lot without realizing it. He hadn't realized it yet, but Zhao Liang
and Wu Siyu both noticed.
Perhaps because there was blood on his hands, Zhao Xin's eyes became a little sharp, and he already had a sense of killing and decisiveness.
When Wang Yuanfang saw Zhao Xin for the first time, he felt something was wrong. He was different from Liu Sheng and others. He had been seconded to perform some tasks when he was in the army, and he had seen blood.
"Mr. Zhao, what happened over there?" Wang Yuanfang's intuition told him that he had been unable to contact Zhao Xin in the past few days, so something might have happened.
"Qing troops have arrived on the island." Zhao Xin said calmly.
When the three people heard what he said, they were all very surprised and quickly asked what happened.
Zhao Xin told the three of them that you should go back and ask Liu Sheng for details. After sending the three of them back, he would rush to the south to handle the follow-up handover procedures for the cargo ship. Then he would take the five people who had completed the exit procedures.
go back.
So, Zhao Xin went back and forth like this, busy non-stop.
On the 30th day of the first lunar month of the fourth year of Tianming (the forty-ninth year of Qianlong's reign), Nagasaki Port.
A nearly seventy-foot-long Nanjing sand ship (one foot in the Qing Dynasty was about 3.2 meters) was parked on the sea outside Nomujia on the Nagasaki Peninsula. The anchor was lowered and the sails were lowered. On the outside of the bow were written three large characters in white paint: sink.
Yihe.
The owner of the ship, Shen Jingdan, went from below the deck to a cabin in the cabin, looked around for a while, then knocked on the door softly a few times, and after the door opened, he stepped into the cabin.
"Ah Quan, we have arrived at the Japanese country. Officials from the execution office will board the ship later for inspection. You must remember what I said before, never make a mistake." After entering the door, Shen Jingdan turned to the person facing him from behind.
Said in a low voice.
Four candles were lit in the cabin. Under the bright lights, a woman wearing a blue quilted robe and an otter skin hat, dressed in business attire, sat beside the bed. There was a small table on the small table next to her.
A mirror and some paint pastels.
The woman turned around and saw a small oval face, charming and beautiful.
After listening to Shen Jingdan's words, the woman bowed and saluted and replied: "Dad, I understand."
Shen Jingdan frowned and said, "Why did you forget it again?"
The woman quickly stood up, held her throat, tried it a few times, then changed her voice like a young man, bowed and said: "Remember."
"Yes." Shen Jingdan nodded, stroking his beard and said, "Be careful later. Once you enter the club, you don't have to worry."
After finishing speaking, Shen Jingdan repeated in a low voice the details of how the officers of the execution office boarded the ship and how to deal with critical moments. The woman listened and nodded and repeated. After the instructions, Shen Jingdan asked the The woman used the paint on the table to cover her face carefully, then left the cabin and returned to the deck.
More than half an hour later, a small boat sailed from Nagasaki Port and docked next to the sand ship. An official from the Nagasaki Office came up to the deck from the rope ladder lowered by the sand ship. This person was the observer at the Nomu Gaga Lookout Post. .
After the official greeted Shen Jingdan, the ten water diversion boats that followed had tied the cables to the bow of the sand ship and began to take the No. 10 sand ship to the port of Nagasaki.
It was just after midnight, and after the Yin-10 docked at the pier, the Tang Dynasty interpreter, Chinese Nianxingsi, Su Ding, and Fu Ding who were already waiting at the pier boarded the ship together, preparing to start the entry procedures for the Tang ship.
After the ship docked, more than 60 people including the financial officer, fire chief, chief officer, helmsman, gunner, and handymen were waiting on the deck. After a while, another person came up from the cabin below. There were more than a dozen businessmen, including the girl Ah Quan who had dressed up as a man.
After questioning the owner of the ship, Shen Jingdan, the observer from the observance office confirmed that everyone on the ship was present. He ordered the Tang Dynasty interpreter to hang a wooden sign on the mast, and then began to read the content on the wooden sign in Chinese.
What he read out was the "sectarian ban" promulgated by the shogunate, which was the shogunate's relevant regulations prohibiting the introduction of Catholicism. The shogunate must first read out the sectarian ban on all Qing and Dutch merchant ships entering the port.
Although everyone in the crowd was really impatient, no one dared to show it. They stood and listened to the announcement. Afterwards, the interpreter from the Tang Dynasty began to ask Shen Jingdan about the number of people on the ship and when and where it departed from the Qing Dynasty. sail.
Shen Jingdan replied: "It sailed from Shanghai on the seventh day of this month. There were 130 cargo owners and shipwrights on board, and there were no false reports."
Then he took out the prepared letter plate and paired it with the copper certificate (permission document for purchasing copper), the ship's loading catalog, the crew list and the pre-written "book catching request document" (obeying the shogunate's prohibitions). A letter of guarantee and a report recording the recent situation in the Qing Dynasty and among the people. This is not an act of espionage and is recognized by the Qing court. Please ask a Tang interpreter for visual inspection.
After finishing their work, the observers from the execution office took out a copper plate from a wooden box and placed it on the open space on the deck. Many sailors and merchants who were already very familiar with this procedure lined up to step on the copper plate.
When it was the turn of the girl Ah Quan, she pretended to be walking like a man, walked up to the copper plate, paused for a moment, stepped on it, and then stood back among the group of businessmen.
She had already seen clearly before setting off that the copper plate was engraved with a cross. What they had just done was a "step painting" done by the shogunate to prove that there were no Catholics on this sandboat.
After the "painting" was completed, the ship owner Shen Jingdan and a group of merchants accompanied the observers from the execution office into the cabin to check the catalog of goods and the actual goods one by one. After counting each item of goods, the observer took out the stamped The seal is affixed to the cargo package.
At this time, the two sailors and handymen on the ship had already covered the enshrined Guanyin Bodhisattva statue with red silk from the cabin. They followed the others off the ship and boarded the dock, waiting for Shen Jingdan and a group of businessmen to disembark.
After the inventory of the goods was completed, Shen Jingdan and the merchants disembarked from the ship and landed. Led by Shen Jingdan, they formed a line behind the two servants carrying the statue of Bodhisattva. Accompanied by the Chinese Nianxingsi and Su Town officials, they passed through the Tang Dynasty. From the pier, walk to a large rectangular courtyard facing south and north on the hill on the south side of Nagasaki Port.
This is the designated residential area for Chinese merchants in Nagasaki Port, also known as Tangren Yashiki.
Ah Quan was walking in a long queue, following a businessman, and in front of her was Shen Jingdan. When she passed the red Tang Dynasty Yashiki gate, she saw two big houses on the right side of the gate. These are Shen Jingdan told her before about the "Yi Mingbu House" responsible for supervising the residential area of Tang people and the "General Department House" where Tang people's interpreters live.
On the left side of the gate, there was an empty space. In the empty space, Ah Quan saw a wooden cage with an unkempt man in it. There was also a clothing store and some vendors selling vegetables and fish.
After the group entered the second gate from the outer courtyard, they saw a very wide square. Shen Jingdan led everyone from the left side of Tushen Hall directly opposite to the end and then turned right. At the end of the road was the Guanyin located in the southeast corner of Tangren Yashiki. Hall.
After arriving at the Guanyin Hall, the servants first enshrined the statue of Guanyin carried on the altar next to the statue of Guanyin, and everyone in turn offered incense and kowtowed.
Until then, the entire process of the ship entering the port has been completed.
After everyone finished offering incense, they left. The handymen and sailors on the ship all ran to the square in front of the Tushen Hall at the entrance to the second gate. Some went to drink and have fun, play dice and gamble, and some went to the stage to watch the show.
Ah Quan followed Shen Jingdan out of the Guanyin Hall and went directly to the longhouse on the south side of the residential area. The shogunate built more than 20 Japanese-style two-story row houses here to provide accommodation for shipowners, merchants and sailors on cargo ships. .
The area inside each townhouse is very large. The upstairs is where the ship owner, businessmen and senior sailors live on the ship, and the downstairs is where ordinary handymen live. More than 20 buildings can accommodate more than 2,000 people at the same time, and they stay here every year. The number of visitors is close to 10,000.
Ah Quan followed Shen Jingdan to the second floor and came to the door of a room.
"Ah Quan, you live here." Shen Jingdan opened the shoji door and pointed to the room and said to Ah Quan.
After Ah Quan entered the door and looked around, she found that it was a suite with two rooms inside and outside. The window of the inside room was the wall of the living area.
"Dad, I want to go out for a walk. When I entered the second gate just now, it was so lively there." At this time, without the supervision of Japanese officials, Ah Quan relaxed.
"What's good there is just some vulgar sailors and handymen drinking and gambling there. Just stay here for a few days and wait for the incident to pass. I'm sure the Wang family won't bother you anymore." Shen Jingdan looked at it. He looked at his daughter and said dissatisfiedly.
"I'll ask Lu Jun to bring some water later. You have a rest first. I'll talk about other things in detail when I come back." The Lu Jun that Shen Jingdan was talking about was the Japanese concubine he was looking for in Nagasaki. .
"Dad, are you going out?" Ah Quan asked.
"Well, I need to talk to someone about something. I'm leaving first." After Shen Jingdan finished speaking, he turned and left.
Ah Quan returned to the house, closed the barrier door, walked to the inner room, sat on the tatami, looked around, and took in the new environment.
Ah Quan, surnamed Shen, single name is Xuan. Ah Quan is her nickname.
The reason why Shen Jingdan wanted to secretly bring his precious daughter to the Japanese country was actually due to a debt he had with the salt merchant Wang family. The cause of this debt was because of the "trust card".
Since the fifty-fourth year of Kangxi (1715), more and more Chinese merchant ships came to Japan to sell copper, and the outflow of a large amount of copper caused the price of domestic copper to drop upside down. The shogunate stipulated that the number of merchant ships coming to Nagasaki to sell copper every year was thirty. The annual limit is three million kilograms. Cargo ships entering Nagasaki Port must have a sign, otherwise they will not be allowed to enter.
Due to the huge profits from selling copper, letter cards have become a hot commodity. Since the eighth shogun Yoshimune, the shogunate has actively introduced Chinese culture and has made pre-order requests for various books to Nagasaki. As a result, the letter cards cannot be obtained. Traders then tried their best to serve the shogunate, hoping to obtain the temporarily issued "commendation letters".
Yangzhou businessman Shen Jingdan is one of them.
This man brought a large amount of raw silk and books to Nagasaki three years ago. He thought that the shogunate would be very satisfied and would send him a letter.
According to the regulations of the shogunate, all books shipped on merchant ships need to be transported to Shuntokuji Temple or the temple immediately after the ship docks, and content review begins without delay.
Unfortunately, the shogunate's Book and Property Bureau discovered a copy of "Scenery of the Imperial Capital" among the books shipped by Shen Jingdan.
This book is actually a travel guide to Beijing in the late Ming Dynasty. However, during the book review process, I found that the book included an introduction to the Catholic Church and Matteo Ricci’s tomb in the Xuanwu Gate of the capital.
This is a big mistake. The shogunate strictly prohibits the introduction of anything related to Catholicism. What do you mean by getting a copy of this book now?
So from Nagasaki to Edo, after more than ten days of investigation and correspondence, the Chinese government in Edo finally decided that the entire ship's cargo was prohibited from trading, and the ship immediately returned to the country. The ship was prohibited from entering the port for trading that year.
Shen Jingdan's work was in vain and he suffered heavy losses.
However, he did not give up, and later found the Wang family, a salt merchant, and borrowed a large amount of funds using the property and boats in his hometown as mortgage. He continued the business the next year, with most of the boatloads of raw silk plus books.
As a result, not only was no banned book found this time, Shen Jingdan also got the letter tag he dreamed of, and returned to Yangzhou with a full load. After receiving the money from the sale of the goods, he went to Wang's house to pay back the money, but trouble came.
Mr. Wang, a salt merchant, always wanted to curry favor with He Shen. So he said to Shen Jingdan, I don’t need the money, just treat it as a small favor for your brother. But I have been a salt merchant for so many years, and I have always wanted to be a salt ambassador. .I heard that you have a daughter who is as beautiful as a flower in your family. She is just around the age of hairpins. How about I come forward and recognize her as my goddaughter, and then dedicate it to He Zhongtang. Once I fall in He Zhongtang’s eyes, I will take the seat of salt ambassador. A prosperous family is just around the corner, so why bother traveling to sea to earn this hard-earned money?
Shen Jingdan felt numb when he heard this.
Although he also wanted to establish a relationship with Zhongtang, Shen Xuan was not his biological child, but was entrusted by his old friend to raise him on his behalf many years ago. If this was sent to Heshen's house, it would reveal clues about his life experience. How many of his The head is not enough to chop off.
So he promised Mr. Wang, the salt merchant, that he would discuss it at home and give an answer after seven days.
After Shen Jingdan returned home, he discussed it with his family repeatedly and decided to pretend that Shen Xuan died of an emergency to deal with Mr. Wang. He first quietly opened the joints and found the corpse of an unknown woman who had just restrained himself from the yizhuang to pretend to be Shen Xuan. , and then secretly sent Shen Xuan to the No. 10 sand ship docked in Shanghai.
Unexpectedly, Mr. Wang got the news from somewhere and sent people to trace it all the way to Shanghai County. In desperation, Shen Jingdan had no choice but to find a group of small cargo owners and hurriedly organized a group of traders in the name of going to Japan for sea trade. After receiving the goods, he secretly brought Shen Xuan to Nagasaki.
He hoped that after a year and a half passed, Mr. Wang would not be able to find Shen Xuan and would no longer be entangled in this matter.
(Note: In the middle and early Edo period, all Chinese shipowners transporting books to Nagasaki for sale must submit a recognizance document. The document must state that the contents of the books shipped meet the requirements of the shogunate. Otherwise, they will be punished and the entire cargo of the ship will be prohibited from trading. , immediately load the ship and return.
The "Scenery of the Imperial Capital" cited above is an example.
There is a samurai family (Mukai family) that has been passed down from generation to generation, and serves as the "Book and Monument Reform Service", responsible for reviewing imported books.
After receiving the books shipped by the Tang Dynasty ship, the assistants and secretaries of the "Book and Property Reform Service" will review the contents of the books according to the catalog order provided by the ship owner. First, they will copy the preface and table of contents of the books to prepare for the explanation of the contents of the books. After completion, submit the memorandum to the Book and Property Improvement Reporting Office for review, review of the memorandum, etc.
The book change officer or his assistant then begins to review the content of the book page by page, paying attention to whether there are any forbidden words. At the same time, he should also pay attention to whether there is any paper peeling off, red dots, orpiment and eyebrow markings.
Once a banned book is discovered, it will be reported immediately; even if there is a slight doubt about the text, it must be reported to Nagasaki.
And if necessary, you should also write a "general statement" that summarizes the content one by one. If there are no taboo sentences in these books, they are ordinary books, so there is no need to write out the summaries one by one. You only need to simply mention the whole book and explain the recorded matters. That’s it, including the remaining pages.
The notice must state that "there are no prohibited contents in the above-mentioned imported books," and the Nagasaki Council will allow them to be sold based on this identification.)