Katayama Kanbei is very busy these days, either catching thieves or leading people to bury the bodies of homeless people who died in and around the town.
Early this morning, the rice store owner came to report the crime, saying that there was a thief at home last night. Katayama asked him what he had lost. The rice store owner angrily said that nothing was lost, but that a lot of things were spilled on the door and in the yard.
Yellow and white things.
Deserve it!
Although Katayama secretly applauded, he still had to go to the scene with his men to investigate. When he pinched his nose and looked at the scene and asked the neighbors, everyone was confused. Katayama told him how many people the rice shop owner had to recruit.
Hate it.
Since the Sendai Clan restored the "Law for Buying Rice," everyone from top to bottom has been busy looking for ways to make extra money; otherwise, if they don't have money to buy rice, the whole family will have to suffer from the northwest wind. If the officials have money, they will secretly sell private goods, and the common people will not.
No more.
It is said that the price of rice yesterday has risen to 120 cents per liter. Now let alone the townspeople, many samurai are also anxious.
During the Edo period, rice was the staple food for urban civilians for three meals a day. As the mainstay of the family, men's daily food intake was one liter of rice; and many people's daily wages were enough to buy one liter of rice. Nowadays, a day's wages are only
How can you live if you can only buy two ounces of rice? So the rice shop owner became the target of the townspeople to vent their anger.
Walking all the way back to the official hall, Katayama explained the matter to his subordinates as he walked. While the two were talking, they saw that there were suddenly more pedestrians on the street, and these people were all walking quickly towards the port.
Katayama's subordinate Meimei hurriedly stepped forward and stopped a hurried person on the side of the road and asked: "What happened?"
When the man saw that he was an official, he quickly bowed and said to Katayama Kanbei: "Just now someone ran back from the dock and said that a huge ship that had never been seen before came to the sea, as high as a mountain."
Katayama Kanbei was about to ask again when he heard rapid footsteps coming from behind. He turned around and saw a feudal lord walking towards him quickly.
After the feudal lord walked in, he said to Katayama: "Katayama-kun, I want you to go to the palace immediately. Something big has happened!" After saying that, without waiting for Katayama's response, he hurriedly left.
Katayama looked thoughtfully at the feudal lord who was walking away quickly, and murmured: "Something big happened? A big ship?" Suddenly, what Katsu Kaishu had said flashed through his mind, and he turned to look in the direction of the port.
Could it be that they are here?!
On the way back to the government office, Kanbei Katayama saw more and more townspeople coming out of their homes, all of whom were going to the port to see the strange things. When he returned to the government office with his men, he saw that many of his colleagues had already arrived.
Standing on the steps of the official hall, Matsushima Machi looked at the feudal lords below and said with a serious expression: "Half an hour ago, I received a report from the fishermen on the beach that a barbarian boat was parked on the sea outside the port."
Everyone looked at each other, how can our family catch up with this? By the way, shouldn't the Yifune always go to Nagasaki or secretly go to Satsuma Domain? What are they doing here?
Some of the more imaginative feudal lords were secretly guessing: "Are these barbarians coming to buy abalone? But all the abalone has been shipped to Nagasaki."
So you looked at me, I looked at you, no one dared to speak first, and finally everyone's eyes fell on Katayama Kanbei, who was responsible for catching theft and fire prevention.
"Ahem, Katayama-kun, you are responsible for investigating and finding out where the barbarian ships come from, their size, and their purpose, so that we can report them to the higher authorities as soon as possible."
The town commander asked Katayama Kanbei to go and inquire about it first. The town boss himself couldn't take the lead in this kind of thing. If the barbarians were to come ashore, do you think I would see them or not? It would be safest to report them level by level and wait for notification.
You must know that the Sendai Domain is not Nagasaki, and the shogunate strictly prohibits the feudal clans from contacting foreign barbarians privately. If the town official meets privately without waiting for notice, he will be blamed by the shogunate in the future, and he will be the first to be unlucky.
Katayama Kanbei guessed that the so-called barbarian ship was probably Katsu Kaishu and the others, and he also wanted to confirm it with his own eyes. So he took two of his men and trotted all the way to the beach.
He didn't intend to join the crowd at the port, so he found a hillside and asked his men to disperse the few people watching the fun on the hillside before he stepped forward to check.
At this time, many people had gathered on the pier of the port to watch the excitement. Many people even climbed up to the roof of the warehouse and looked around. On the sea, many fishing boats were turning around and rushing back.
Everyone was stunned by the huge thing on the sea. They saw a big ship like a hill parked on the sea four or five miles away.
Oh my god! Katayama Kanbei had never seen such a big ship before. He made some mental calculations and found that the ship must be about three to forty feet long.
At this time, the hull of the big ship was facing the port. The top of the hull was white and the bottom was blue. The two large red characters on the bow caught Katayama's attention, "Thunder God."
"This is..." Katayama Kanbei was stunned when he looked at the two big red characters.
In the mythology of the island country, there is indeed a god who is worshiped as the god of thunder. The "Kojiki" says that after Izanagi, the founder of the world, killed the fire god Kagutsuchi with a ten-fist sword, Kagutsuchi's blood flowed from the hilt of the sword.
When it fell, three pillar gods were born, one of whom was Takemikan Raijin. According to legend, the origin of sumo wrestling came from Takemikan Raijin.
"Katayama-kun, do you think this is the shogun's newly built giant ship?" Katayama Kanbei turned around and saw a feudal lord approaching.
It seems that this feudal scholar's guess is not unreasonable. It is said that in the twelfth year of Kanei, the third generation shogun Iemitsu explicitly prohibited the feudal daimyo from owning warships of more than 500 koku in the updated "Samurai Laws"; as a result, the Tokugawa family turned around and
He built a giant Anzai Maru, a 55-meter-long ship with a three-story internal building, 200 oars, and 400 sailors, to intimidate the feudal lords.
Although the Anzaya Maru was too big and eventually ran aground and disintegrated, the Shogun had built it after all. Maybe the mountain-like ship in front of you was newly built by the Shogun, as evidenced by the two big characters "Thunder God" on the bow.
.
After listening to the discussions of several feudal lords around him, Katayama looked carefully again and saw a snow-white mast standing on the raised bow of the ship; and on the other side of the ship was a tall snow-white building with what appeared to be
There is also a row of windows.
At this moment, the sun was already heading west, and the sunlight shone on the tall building on the side of the ship, reflecting a dazzling light.
"Wow~~~" The crowd watching the excitement at the port suddenly burst into exclamation.
"Why does this ship have no sails? Have you seen the sails?" Katayama asked the people around him while looking around.
"Perhaps the mast is lowered?" a feudal lord guessed. When the island country's own Kansai ship or Benzai ship stops, the sails will be lowered and the mast will be lowered.
"Isn't this going to be a cannon fire?" The feudal lord suddenly shouted in panic.
The characteristic of the warships of the island country is that they use both oars and sails. During naval battles, the masts are lowered, the sails are removed, and the sails are completely controlled by oars.
"What nonsense are you talking about!" someone yelled. The shogun is really screwed. Why don't you come over to beat the Date family in a good life? Although the Sendai clan is a foreign daimyo, don't we just talk about some arrangements when giving orders?
Face, this is not considered rebellion!
While everyone was discussing, a sudden change occurred.
"Woo~~~Woo~~~" Two huge long roars came from the sea. Thousands of men, women and children who were watching on the shore suddenly exclaimed, and everyone was so frightened that they couldn't help but retreat.
"The sea monster is coming ashore!" a man suddenly shouted.
As soon as he finished speaking, some people were so frightened that they ran into the town.
As a result, some people thought it was not chaotic enough, so they ran and shouted: "It's not a sea monster coming ashore, it's about to fire!"
This time it was even more troublesome. The crowd was immediately frightened and fled in all directions, mixed with the panicked screams of women, the cries of children who couldn't find their adults, and the screams of old people who were knocked down.
Standing on the hillside, Katayama Kanbei and several colleagues looked at the chaos at the port in astonishment, and were also stunned. However, Katayama, who was slightly mentally prepared, quickly reacted and said to the feudal lords around him: "
Quick! Let’s maintain order!”
Don't worry about what the big ship is coming for. In this chaos, there may be casualties among the townspeople watching the excitement.
On the Thor, Zhao Xin and others were observing the dock of Matsushima Town with telescopes.
"I'm going~I'm going~~I'm going!" Several people holding binoculars saw the chaos on the pier and ran in all directions. In the end, the shore was empty. They all put down their binoculars and turned to look at Liu Sheng.
It was this guy who blew the whistle just now. Two long blasts meant that the ship was about to enter the harbor.
"I'm used to it, I forgot about this." Liu Sheng said with an embarrassed smile.
"Lord, how about I go ashore first to find Katayama Kanbei?" Katsu Kaishu said.
"Well, you can go ashore at night." Zhao Xin nodded and said.
A few hours later, the sky gradually darkened. At this time, in addition to the vague torches, several bonfires were raised on the opposite port, and some people with weapons could be vaguely seen standing around the bonfires.
"It seems that those two whistles scared them all. Now we are in trouble." Zhao Xin stood on the side of the ship, looking at the fire on the shore, and said helplessly to Deng Fei beside him.
"What should we do tonight?" Deng Fei asked.
"It's our turn to be on duty. Let's all take a shower and go to bed." Zhao Xin said.
As dawn approached, Liu Sheng and Wang Yuanfang took the changed clothes of Sheng Haizhou, Liji and Huji to the cabin, started the assault boat, and drove slowly towards the south of Matsushima Town.
More than 20 minutes later, the assault boat quietly docked on the beach one kilometer south of Matsushima Town. Katsu Kaishu and three others jumped from the boat into the knee-deep water, walked to the shore and waved slightly to Liu Sheng and Wang Yuanfang.
After bowing, he quickly disappeared on the beach.
After dawn, Kanbei Katayama, who had been guarding the port all night, was waiting for the person who came to change his shift. He yawned and hurried home.
The chaos at the port and town yesterday afternoon made him very worried about the safety of his family. But just as he was about to go home for a visit, he received an order to be on duty at the port.
Katayama turned around a street corner and walked into a familiar alley. As soon as he knocked on the door of his courtyard twice, he heard a familiar voice coming from behind him.
"Katayama-kun, long time no see."
The startled Kanbei Katayama turned around and saw Katsu Kaishu and the two of them standing at the entrance of the alley, bowing to him.
"You?!" Katayama turned around and looked around, and found that no one else was passing by. Then he took two steps closer and asked in a low voice: "Is that boat yours?"
With a smile on his face, Katsu Kaishu just nodded, and then stretched out his hand to gesture to the Katayama house, meaning that we would talk after entering.
At this time, Katayama's wife, who heard a knock on the door, opened the courtyard door, looked around, and found that her husband and three other people were talking about something. The leader seemed to be a young man who had visited the house last year.
"Master, you are finally back."
Katayama Kanbei glanced at his wife, and without saying a word, he led Katsu Kaishu and the others into his yard.