Katayama Kanbei is very busy these days, either catching thieves or arranging the disposal of the corpses of homeless people who died in and around the town.
Early this morning, the rice store owner came to report that there was a thief at home last night. Katayama asked him what he had lost? The owner of the rice store said angrily that nothing was lost, but that a lot of yellow and white things were thrown on the door of his home and in the yard.
Deserve it! Katayama secretly applauded, but he still had to take his men to the scene to investigate. After holding their noses and watching the scene, when they asked the surrounding neighbors, everyone was confused. Katayama Kokoro said how hated the rice store owner must be.
Since the Sendai Clan restored the "Price Purchase Law", everyone from top to bottom has been busy looking for ways to make extra money. It’s not enough if you’re not busy with this. If you don’t have money to buy rice, the whole family will have to drink the northwest wind. Of course, officials can take bribes and sell private goods, but ordinary people can't.
It is said that the price of rice yesterday has risen to 120 cents per liter. Now let alone the townspeople, many samurai were also anxious. Everyone was filled with hatred, 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 things 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 Kanbei Katayama: "Someone came back from the dock just now 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 him. 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 government office 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 official hall 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 seriously: "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 in confusion, can our family catch up with this? By the way, shouldn't the barbarian ships 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 look at me, I look 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 barbaric ships come from, their size, and their purpose, so that we can report them to the higher authorities as soon as possible."
The town leader asked Katayama Kanbei to investigate first. I can't take the lead in this kind of thing. If the barbarians want to come ashore, do you think I will see them or not? It is safest to report to each 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 minister fails to meet privately without waiting for notification, he will be blamed by the shogunate in the future, and he will be the first to be unlucky.
"Ha ha!"
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 ran 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. I saw a large ship like a hill parked there on the sea four or five miles away.
OMG! Katayama Kanbei had never seen such a big ship before. He made a mental estimate 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..." Kanbei Katayama looked at the two big red characters and was stunned.
In the mythology of the island country, there is indeed a god who is worshiped as the God of Thunder. "Kojiki" says that after Izanozun, the founder of the world, killed Kagutsuchi, the god of fire, with his ten-fist sword, Kagutsuchi's blood fell from the hilt of the sword and gave birth to three pillar gods. One of them was Jian God of Thunder. According to legend, the origin of sumo comes from Takemi Raijin.
"Katayama-kun, do you think this is the shogun's newly built giant boat?" Katayama Kanbei turned around and saw a feudal lord approaching.
Ordinarily, this feudal lord's guess is not unreasonable. It is said that in the twelfth year of Kanei, the third generation shogun Iemitsu explicitly prohibited the lords of the feudal lords from owning warships of more than 500 koku in the updated "Samurai Laws". As a result, the Tokugawa family turned around and built a 55-meter-long one. The internal building is as high as three stories, equipped with 200 oars and 400 sailors. The giant Anzhai ship-Azaka Maru is used to intimidate the feudal lords.
Although the Anzaya Maru was too big and eventually ran aground and disintegrated, the Shogun built it after all. Maybe the mountain-like boat in front of you was newly built by the General. The two big characters "Thunder God" on the bow seem to be proof.
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 turning to the 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.
"Maybe the mast was knocked down?" a feudal lord guessed.
"This...is 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 oars are used to control navigation.
"What nonsense are you talking about!" someone yelled. The general is so screwed, why don't you come over to attack Date's house during your good days? By the way, aren't we just trying to show some respect when attending duty reports? This isn't considered treason!
While everyone was discussing, a sudden change occurred.
"Woo~~~Woo~~~" Two huge long roars came from the sea. Thousands of men, women and children 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.
In the end, 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 could not 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 they 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!"
Never mind what the big ship is coming for. In this chaos, there may be casualties among the townsfolk 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 around. In the end, the shore was empty. They all put down their binoculars and turned to look at Liu Sheng.
This was the guy who blew the whistle just now. Two long blasts indicate that the ship is entering 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.
After a few hours, 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." Zhao Xin said.
As dawn approached, Liu Sheng and Wang Yuanfang took Katsu Kaishu, Liji and Huji, who had changed their clothes, to the cabin below, started the assault boat and drove slowly towards the south of Matsushima Town.
More than twenty minutes later, the assault boat quietly docked on the beach one kilometer south of Matsushima Town. Sheng Haizhou and the others jumped from the boat into the knee-deep sea water, walked to the shore and bowed slightly to Liu Sheng and Wang Yuanfang, and soon disappeared on the beach.
After dawn, Kanbei Katayama, who had been guarding the port all night, yawned and hurried home after waiting for someone to change his shift.
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 Katayama Kanbei 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 family, meaning to go in and talk later.
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 home last year.
"Master, you are back."
Katayama Kanbei glanced at his wife, and without saying a word, he led Katsu Kaishu and the others into his yard.
