It is early winter in the 20th year of Yongtai. Sun Yixie, Huang Donglai, and Wei Qian, who had been sailing at sea for ten months, finally landed at Nagasaki Port.
At this time, the entire Kyushu Island was under the Shimadzu's sphere of influence, and Nagasaki Port, located in the west of Kyushu, as a port that included the trade activities of China, Japan and Portugal, was undoubtedly the strategic center of the Shimadzu.
Here, you can buy European tobacco and guns, as well as exquisite inventions such as telescopes that were rare at the time. You can also buy Dazu fabrics, artworks, and seeds of some rare crops. Of course, , there are all kinds of Japanese things here.
The most important thing is that in this chaotic world
During Japan's Warring States Period, since the shogunate's control over daimyo in various places was basically in name only, Nagasaki Port did not even have to pay overseas trade taxes to the shogunate.
This unique port allowed the Shimazu clan to achieve considerable economic, cultural, and military development, and also made Kyushu a land that other daimyo did not dare to touch rashly.
On this day, the boat Shuang Xie and Wei Qian were on docked in the afternoon, and then they stayed in a hotel opened by local people under the leadership of Eunuch Wei.
During dinner, the hotel owner enthusiastically recommended some special services to them in fairly good Chinese. He also said... There are technicians from China, Japan, Europe and Africa, and the prices are fair, regardless of age or age.
As a result, before Sun and Huang could speak, Wei Qian, the eunuch, actually agreed. So, in the evening, two girls with their faces and necks painted white, wearing peach blossoms and kimonos, came to the door of the three people's room.
The three of them lived in a nine-tatami-sized Japanese-style room, which is equivalent to a room with nine tatami mats put together. Since most people in this hotel sleep on the floor, this is already a quite luxurious room. Even five or six people can stay here.
After the two girls entered the house, they closed the door and sat down on their knees. Wei Qian exchanged glances with one of the girls holding shamisen, and the other party started playing without saying a word.
Then, the other girl spoke.
"Excuse me...are you Eunuch Wei?" Although his voice was controlled to be very soft and sounded no different from a female voice, Sun Huang still recognized this person at once.
The "girl" is actually a man pretending to be a man. Therefore, almost out of instinct, the two of them immediately looked at the speaker and the person playing shamisen next to them.
"Girl's" throat.
"Exactly." Eunuch Wei responded, and then gestured to Shuang Xie beside him with his eyes.
"These two are Sun Sang and Huang Sang." Eunuch Wei was of no use.
The title "Young Hero" is to prevent the other party from inferring more information. Sun and Huang understood this instantly, so they definitely wouldn't mention it themselves.
"Although I have received your password, to be on the safe side, can I see your badge?" the man disguised as a woman asked again.
from his mouth
The "secret code" was undoubtedly prepared by Eunuch Wei before he entered the store. The method is not complicated. I just picked up a few roadside stones somewhere not far from this store and placed them in a corner according to a certain method.
The streets in those days were not as good as they are now. At that time, there were stones, branches and other things everywhere on the roadside, and there were a lot of them. Most people would not take a look at a few small stones placed in the corners.
But for those who know the meaning of the code, after seeing these stones, they will know that the person they are waiting for has arrived and has settled in the nearby store.
Some people may ask after seeing this, what if the stone code on the ground is accidentally destroyed by unrelated passers-by or animals before it is seen by the contact?
Damn, I'll put it up again tomorrow. Let’s also talk about the situation in the store... The owner of the hotel they stayed in naturally accepted money from these two contacts, but he didn’t know what they were up to, and he wouldn’t ask more questions... anyway. There are a lot of espionage activities in this port, and this one is no different. Asking fewer questions is safer.
"Okay." After hearing the other party's request, Eunuch Wei did not hesitate. He just responded calmly and handed the other party a waist badge he was carrying.
The other party took the badge, looked at it carefully for a few seconds under the light, and then respectfully presented it back to Wei Qian.
"It's our first time meeting you, Kogoro..." After Kogoro handed back his badge, he bowed his head and saluted, and then turned his head slightly to gesture to the person behind him who was using shamisen to complete their conversation.
Brothers of "Sound Cover",
"This is my younger brother Kenta, please take care of me." Here, the Japanese said
When "brother" is used, it probably refers not to the biological brother, but to the younger brother.
"Brother", if you have seen that kind of
Japanese dramas with "Yakuza" themes should have an impression, their
"Big brother" is often used when introducing one's younger brother to outsiders.
The name "Brother-in-law". As for why Kogoro only mentioned his first name and not his last name when introducing himself and his younger brother, it's actually very simple... they didn't do it at all.
In fact, most civilians in Japan at that time did not have surnames.
"surname" and
"Shi" is only for the ruling class or declining nobles. The latter still have the so-called child name before they reach adulthood, and
"name" and
There is also a difference in "family name". Of course, I won't go into detail on this, lest you think I'm stupid. In short, in order for the civilian class to obtain a surname, they generally had to first become the warrior class, and then the ruling class would award them.
When you see this, you may also understand that what has appeared in the previous article
"Terashima Yasuhei" and
This is the case for "Taro": Although Terashima is just a lower-level samurai in a weak and small feudal kingdom, he is still a samurai class after all, so he has a surname; while Taro is just a child of a commoner, so he only has a name.
There is also the Onmyoji who is very close to Brother Sun.
"Hayato Kamo" is the queen of a famous family. Even though his family has fallen into decline, his family name has not been lost.
Back to the text... At the moment, there is no doubt that Kogoro and Kenta are the so-called Japanese traitors, making money by serving the Imperial Court.
They usually have their own channels to get in touch with Zou, so this time they have learned in advance about Eunuch Wei and
"Sun Sang",
"Huang Sang" wants to come here for a visit and is ready to respond. However, the specific mission of these three people will definitely not be known to the two Japanese traitors by the imperial court, so Eunuch Wei needs to stay in Nagasaki, and he will establish another alliance with General Zhao Qi from Ningbo. An intelligence line to report on the mission.
"Well... Kogoro, our family will stay here for a while. It may be inconvenient to stay in a hotel. Can you arrange a clean place for our family elsewhere?" After the other party finished the introduction, Eunuch Wei started directly. Made a request.
Some people may wonder why the other party checked Eunuch Wei's waist card, but Eunuch Wei did not ask the other party to produce some kind of token or prove his identity as a Japanese traitor in some way?
In fact, if you think about it for a while, you can understand - it doesn't make sense. Since the other party can rely on the secret code left by Eunuch Wei to contact them, and also knows about the waist card, it means two possibilities: first, the other party is the real contact person; second, the other party has caught the real contact person. The contact person forced him to confess everything he knew, and then pretended to be the contact person.
If it's the former situation, there's nothing to say, it's time to get things done. And if it is the latter situation, then Wei Qian has no reliable way to verify the authenticity of the other party... because the other party has already asked everything the real contact person knows, then if there is anything on the contact person They must have gotten all the tokens. If you ask him to show them, he will definitely have them. It's just unnecessary.
The key point is that these Japanese traitors have never gained the complete trust of the imperial court and do not know much core information. They just take money to do things, so they are nothing to worry about if they are replaced.
There are only two things that the counterfeit can do, either to obtain information from Eunuch Wei, or to assassinate these three Dashu agents on the orders of a certain master.
Both of these things were impossible to do in front of Eunuch Wei. If they really are fakes, they will be exposed when they try to do these two things.
"Okay, I'll arrange it for you." Kogoro thought for a few seconds, then agreed, and then asked again,
"Then don't Sun Sang and Huang Sang need a place to live?"
"No, they two can't live together." Eunuch Wei replied,
"They will leave for the east tomorrow. You'd better prepare what they need tonight."
"Understood." Hearing this, Kogoro didn't ask any questions, he just replied,
"It will be done."... Afterwards, they talked about other trivial matters and arrangements that were not too important. After the shamisen played two different songs, the meeting was over.
After Kogoro and Kenta left, Sun Yixie asked Wei Qian, "Father-in-law, you are letting us leave tomorrow, are you in such a hurry?" Lan
"Ha..." Eunuch Wei laughed,
"You two are royally appointed, do you think you are here to have fun?" He answered in a sinister tone.
"How about you really go ask a few girls to drink wine with you, and then rest in this shop for ten or eight days to wash your hands of the world?" In fact, it is understandable that Mr. Wei is anxious, because he met him before The pirate incident resulted in the loss of more than a dozen crew members, including the bowman, on the ship they were on. Although the remaining crew members finally succeeded in sailing the ship to Nagasaki, the journey was slower than normal. A lot.
An overseas mission like this shouldn't be delayed for a long time. Changes will occur over time. It would be good for everyone to finish the job and return home as soon as possible.
"Okay, tomorrow is tomorrow." Sun Yixie said,
"Eh? But... Eunuch Wei, is it really not inconvenient for you to stay here alone and not speak Japanese?" He was setting a trap. It was best to pull back and forth and let Eunuch Wei speak for himself. out
"How about I go with you two?"
"Haha... I won't bother you anymore." Eunuch Wei saw through Sun Yixie's littleness at a glance and smiled at that time,
"According to what I knew in advance and what I observed during the time before and after I stayed at the hotel, at least in the Nagasaki Port area, there are quite a few people who can speak our dialect, and Kogoro must have considered that our family does not speak it. As for the Japanese language, the place he arranged for me will probably have a landlord who knows the Mandarin of each country." When he said this, he paused again.
"I think you should worry about yourselves."
"Well..." Seeing that the trick was gone, Sun Yixie looked at Huang Donglai again.
"Brother Huang, what my father-in-law said makes sense... When we go on the road tomorrow, not only are we not familiar with the place, but we can't even understand the language here. What should we do?" Lan
"Ha!" Huang Donglai looked quite relaxed and joked,
"Brother Sun... oh no, Sun Sang, don't you always talk about hometown dialects such as 'which way or more' and 'neni'? Why do you come here to ask me what to do?" "
"Get lost! Your hometown is Osaka!" Sun Yixie said unhappily.
"I didn't even tell you where your hometown is, so you just reported Osaka yourself, right?" Huang Donglai said with a smile.
"Damn it! I knew it even if you didn't tell me!" Sun Yixie's tone became even louder at that time.
"Ha... forget it, let's be serious." Huang Donglai saw that Eunuch Wei next to him had already cast suspicious eyes on them, so he stopped talking at the right time and continued,
"I actually thought about this when I left the capital, so I studied the 'Twelve Noble Truths' again a few days ago, and successfully understood a new Taoist technique called 'Ke Xun Defamation' during the trip. This problem of language barrier can be solved.”
"It means that as long as you use this or other slander to buff me, I can understand each other's speech with the Japanese, right?" Sun Yixie also understood quickly.
"That's right." Huang Donglai said,
"When the other party listens to you, what he hears is Japanese. When you listen to the other party, what he hears is Chinese." Lan
"Oh, is it so convenient?" Sun Yixie said,
"Is there a time limit for this Taoist technique?"
"It definitely doesn't matter to me. After all, I have Tao power, and the consumption required to maintain this technique is extremely low. You..." Huang Donglai paused when he finished speaking, and at the same time looked at Sun Yixie. After looking around for a while, his eyes rested on the wrench in the latter's hand.
"Hey, yes, I will inject a small amount of power into your finger and seal it. This will be enough for the buff on you to last for seven or eight days."
"What about seven or eight days later?" Sun Yixie asked.
"Wouldn't it be better if I recharged it again in seven or eight days?" Huang Donglai said.
"Hiss...yes, yes..." Sun Yixie frowned and muttered,
"Then what if we are separated for some reason and cannot meet up for the time being, and I happen to catch up and lose the buff at a critical moment?"
"Then you can figure it out yourself." Huang Donglai said confidently,
"How can there be so many possibilities?" What they said to each other was somewhat similar.
Eunuch Wei didn't understand the word "buff", but he still understood the general meaning.
Originally, when Lan heard that Huang Donglai could use Taoism to overcome language barriers, Eunuch Wei wanted him to do it for him, but then he heard that there was a time limit, that it needed to be maintained, etc., so he gave up the words that came to his lips. Swallowed it back.
In this way, the three of them chatted for a while, then turned off the lights and took a rest. Tonight, in order to let Shuangxian sleep for a long time,
"A peaceful sleep on the land", Eunuch Wei hardly fell asleep and had been doing the night watch work; he also said hello to Sun and Huang and asked them to sleep peacefully. Anyway, he had no other choice but to stay. There are too many other things to do, and I have plenty of time to rest, so it doesn’t matter if I stay up one more night today.
One night passed, and early the next morning, the innkeeper delivered several bags to their door. The contents of the bag were naturally prepared by Kogoro and Kenta overnight. They were mainly a few sets of local clothes, boots and other practical items needed for disguise.
Also, there was a note. There was only a place name and a person's name on the note. Obviously, this was the name of the place before the tracing.
Clues to the "Tribute Mission". At around nine o'clock in the morning, Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai finally got up after a comfortable night's sleep and felt much more energetic. They changed their clothes and went out to have breakfast with Eunuch Wei.
During this period, the two tried to talk in Japanese with some roadside shopkeepers, which proved that Huang Donglai's newly learned Taoist skills were indeed effective, but... I don't know why, maybe because Huang Donglai was not proficient in this technique for the first time. , anyway, when Sun Yixie spoke, the other party sounded like he had a strong Kansai accent, but Huang Donglai didn't have this problem when he spoke himself... Of course, it doesn't matter as long as they understand him.
At about ten o'clock, Sun and Huang, who had eaten and drank enough, went back to the hotel, picked up their luggage, said goodbye to Eunuch Wei, and then headed east, embarking on their trip to Japan.
