Zheng Hongkui Ambassador Zheng can finally take a breather. He has a lot of work during this period! First, supplies of up to 10,000 koku were prepared for the stowaway ships who did not know when and how they entered Uraga Port - in Japan at the beginning of the Edo period, this was a very large amount!
Moreover, the items on the list sent by the Cabinet Office are diverse. They are not only food, fresh water, sake, tea and other necessary items for navigation, but also include many daily necessities and thirty flower girls. They are also required to be young, strong, well-behaved and obedient. Can do farm work, preferably a virgin... Is this to be a boat prostitute or a daughter-in-law?
After finally buying the flower girl as requested, the imperial court sent a high-level delegation to Japan. The leader of the delegation was the former chief minister of the cabinet, the American Gong Wei Zaode!
That was the prime minister for thirteen years! Although he has stepped down now, he still has countless disciples and former officials. Zheng Hongkui is not willing to offend him, so he is very busy again. And just when he was busy welcoming the Weizhaod envoy, another big bird ship of the Oriental Fleet that temporarily docked in the port sent him the latest order from the Cabinet Office - to try to seduce Japanese dignitaries to go out to sea on the Flying Ship. ...What is this for?
Zheng Hongkui was confused by the order from the Cabinet Office, but an order is an order after all and must be implemented!
Fortunately, the task of seducing Japanese dignitaries was easier to accomplish, because Zheng Hongkui's old friend Tadaki Sakai came to Uraga Port with Tokugawa Mitsukuni. In addition, Japanese dignitaries have been very interested in the changes that have taken place in China in recent years, so if they have the opportunity to visit the first ship of the Ming Dynasty Navy, Mr. Sakai will not miss it.
However, what Zheng Hongkui did not expect was that in order to arrange for Mr. Sakai to board the ship, he actually had a long argument with David Jones, the Dutch captain of the Flying - this Dutchman was a prude Protestant and firmly opposed to Japan. The unique public order, so the beautiful and beautiful young people like Sakai Tadayoshi and others are not allowed to board the Flying Ship... The men are as beautiful as flowers and do not violate the military regulations of the Ming Navy, so why are they not allowed to board the ship?
But after arguing for a long time, it was still useless! Although the Dongyang Fleet was founded by Zheng Hongkui's nephew Zheng Jiangong, this fleet is not named Zheng after all!
So after arguing for a long time, all I could do was get angry. In the end, Tadayoshi Sakai relaxed and stopped using his nickname. Mr. Sakai is not picky about food, and he can accept pretty girls and their nicknames. So I took a group of flower girls and a bearded samurai uncle on board the ship to investigate.
According to the plan, it would take three or four days for the Flying Ship to return, so during these three or four days, Ambassador Zheng could finally relax a bit, so he sent people to Edo to find two of the most popular taifu (high-class traveling girls). Come here, all girls are sixteen or seventeen years old, they have just debuted, they are fresh and delicious, yet still charming...
Lao Zheng was very satisfied after seeing it. He was about to close the door and have a good time. Just when he was about to tell the two little girls to undress and take off their clothes in front of him, one of his subordinates knocked on the door outside: "Jue Sir (Old Zheng is Ke Nan Ping Haibo), Sir... the Flying Number is back!"
"Wait... don't take it off!" Lao Zheng stopped the two wandering girls who were taking off their kimonos, and stood up to open the door for his subordinates.
The attendant outside the door was sweating profusely. He had jogged all the way from Uraga Port Pier and was still breathing!
"What's going on?" Lao Zheng looked at the man and asked.
"The Flying Ship is back..." the crew member said, "It has docked at the port!"
"How is that possible?" Lao Zheng couldn't believe it. "Did you see it clearly? Is it really the Flying Number?"
"You can't be wrong... The Flying Ship also sent people down, saying that they would carry supplies onto the ship immediately, and also, let..." When the staff member spoke, his eyes only looked at the people in the room. Two Japanese travel girls.
Zheng Hongkui understood what he meant, and hurried out of the room, closed the door behind him, and walked quickly to the study, followed by the staff member. When he arrived in the study, Zheng Hongkui frowned and asked: "When you see Mr. Sakai, Captain Jones and Mate Hao?"
"I haven't seen it!" the attendant said: "Sir, the people on the Flying Ship said that you can only see them in person!"
"What?" Zheng Hongkui was stunned, "So arrogant? You also have a sixth-grade official status, so you have no problem meeting the emperor..."
"Sir, look at this!" The staff member said as he handed over a white envelope with both hands. The envelope was empty, but had the "Cabinet Office Seal" stamped on the surface.
As soon as he saw the envelope stamped with the "Cabinet Office Seal", Zheng Hongkui said nothing and went out quickly!
Ambassadors to foreign countries are "cabinet civil servants", that is, civil servants directly under the jurisdiction of the Cabinet Office, so the Cabinet Office can bypass the Foreign Affairs Department of the Ministry of Rites and give orders directly to the ambassador.
Zheng Hongkui called a few followers, rode on the Japanese pony kept in the ambassador's residence, and headed straight to the dock. When he arrived at the dock, Zheng Hongkui discovered that the shogunate's followers in Uraga Port were heading towards an elderly man who looked very young. The imposing Japanese samurai nodded and bowed. Judging from the family crest on the samurai's clothes, he should belong to the Sakai family, but Zheng Hongkui had never seen him before - Mr. Sakai liked handsome men and disliked old men with unshaven faces. And this man looks to be over sixty... What is his generation? Could he be a figure of Tadakatsu Sakai's generation?
Zheng Hongkui hurried forward to greet him. Seeing him coming, the official at Napu Hegang quickly stepped aside and said to him in Chinese: "Ambassador, you are here... Lao Zhong asked you to get on the Flying Number. I don't know what happened." What’s the matter? You’re actually back in Hong Kong at this time!”
you do not say! It was getting dark... Zheng Hongkui looked at the sky and then at the Flying Number - it was indeed the Flying Number! Then I looked at the old man from the Sakai family. He looked familiar. I had seen him somewhere before, but I couldn’t remember...
"Ambassador, please!"
The old man didn't speak much. After he finished speaking, he made a sign of respecting guests, and then led the way. Zheng Hongkui and Uraga Minato glanced at each other, then stepped forward together, preparing to board the ship. But Mr. Sakai turned around and said, "I only want Ambassador Zheng to come on board and talk!"
The principle of Uraga Port is not enough to get on the ship to meet Mr. Sakai... This is really a big deal!
Zheng Hongkui had no choice but to smile bitterly at Zong Xing before following the old man on the Flying Number.
And when he stepped onto the deck of the ship, he suddenly realized something was wrong!
This ship is not the Flying Ship!
The Flying is an original Dutch ship. Although it was sold to the Ming Dynasty Navy, Dutch-style decorations can be seen everywhere on the ship. However, this medium-sized Galenic warship, which looks exactly like the Flying at first glance, has nothing Dutch-style. The decorations are all in southern Fujian style...at first glance, they are products from Zhengjia Shijing Shipyard!
In addition, there were many foreigners on the Flying Ship, but not a single foreigner was seen on this ship. They were all Orientals!
Obviously, this is a copycat version of the Flying Number!
Several men in red military attache uniforms were waiting for Zheng Hongkui on the deck. When they saw him coming up, they bowed to him and saluted. One of the leaders also reported his family background: "Toyang Fleet, Captain Chen Shangchuan of the Henan has met Ambassador Zheng."
This is the Henan number!
Zheng Hongkui understood immediately!
How could you not understand? This is about to be smuggled to the Americas... I originally thought that an inconspicuous boat would be used for this kind of smuggling, but I didn't expect that the Navy actually dispatched a brand-new warship with a load capacity of 800 tons and a capacity of forty cannons!
This is about armed smuggling!
Chen Shangchuan spoke again at this time: "Ambassador, are the supplies and women ready? When can we board the ship? Time is tight, we must hurry up! In addition, can the pursuit of Uraga Port be sent away? Under his nose It’s not very convenient after all to do things!”
Zheng Hongkui nodded: "The woman is ready... There are 30 people in total, and they can come at any time. Uraga Port's Zhi Zhi is easy to deal with. I will invite him to the embassy for food and drink immediately, but he has to carry 10,000 shi of supplies. The ship is not easy and requires a lot of strong workers.”
"No need to invite people," Chen Shangchuan said, "There are people on board!"
