Sendai Port in a broad sense is actually a large port area including the four ports of Sendai, Shiogama, Ishinomaki and Matsushima. It is also called Shiogama Port Area. It is a maritime transportation artery that various inland cities in the northeastern region of the island nation rely on.
Among these four ports, the most important is undoubtedly Ishinomaki Port.
Beginning with the Matsumae Domain in Hokkaido, including the Hirosaki Domain, Kuroshima Domain, Morioka Domain (under the jurisdiction of Hachinohe Domain, Shichinohe Domain) and even the Shirakawa Domain, a close domain of the Tokugawa family, the import and export of foreign trade goods relied heavily on Ishinomaki Port. The rice and various types of seafood (warmons) sold to Edo by each clan were put on ships from Ishinomaki Port and sent to Edo along the eastbound route.
The most important thing is that over the years, more than 70% of the rice sold in Edo Castle came from the Sendai Domain; and the shogunate opened a coin foundry in Ishinomaki to make Kanei Tongho.
Locking Ishinomaki Port is equivalent to locking up more than 80% of the island country's foreign trade in the Tohoku region. And Edo City, with a population of one million, must have no rice available.
Some people say that there is also Osaka? Don't be ridiculous, the rice that Osaka transports to Edo in a year is less than 5,000 koku, which is only enough for Edo to meet 1/200 of its needs in a year.
So, do you know why Zhao Xin went to Ishinomaki Port? It’s not because of the abalone and shark fin...
It was early morning on the fourth day of April in the fourth year of Tianming (1874).
After three long whistles were heard from the sea, brave fishermen discovered that the giant thunder boat parked on the sea drove away to the northeast. The "Devil from Hell" was finally gone, and the residents of Matsushima Town finally breathed a sigh of relief after hearing the news.
How far is it from Matsushima Town to Ishinomaki Port? Thirteen nautical miles, if the boat speed is fast, it will arrive in less than an hour.
Therefore, many people who rushed from Ishinomaki Port to Matsushima Port to watch the excitement the day before yesterday were dumbfounded this morning to see the mountain-like ship blocking the outside of Ishinomaki Port.
Buddha and Bodhisattva! The devil is coming!
The news that more than two hundred warriors of the Date family were wiped out yesterday morning had already reached Ishinomaki Port in the afternoon. Dozens of cargo ships docked in the port had all lowered their sails and huddled on the pier, daring not to set sail. If we were robbed by a barbarian ship on the way, we wouldn't have much room to cry.
(Zhao Xin rushed back to the boat and shouted, hand over all the shark fins and abalone, but no rice! Illusion, hallucination...)
Thanks to the Tokugawa family's "The Laws of the Samurai", the Date family's navy only had a few seki ships of no more than 500 koku and more than 20 small morning boats in Ishinomaki Port. So when Ishinomaki Port Chief heard that the alien devil ship that bombarded Matsushima Town yesterday was coming, the folding fan in his hand fell to the ground with a "clack", and he was trembling with fear.
This is not Songdao. A large number of goods enter and exit the port every day. If something happened to Ishinomaki Port, the Date family would definitely have him disemboweled first, and then whip the corpse a hundred times, a hundred times; and then continue whipping him in Edo...
"Sir, let the navy be dispatched! I would like to lead the warships out to sea to drive away the barbarian ships." Two feudal lords who did not know whether to live or die asked the executive officer for instructions.
"Go, go! Get out!" Ishinomaki Minato almost fainted from anger. The news that came yesterday shocked him so much that he was speechless. Not only did more than two hundred samurai die in the battle, but the demon ship turned half of Matsushima Town into ashes with one shot. How to fight this?
Moreover, I haven't given any instructions yet. If I get too scared and start provocations, I will end up with a caesarean section (plus whipping of the corpse, this is for my own sexual pleasure).
"You... don't look, it's you, Mr. Shibata!" Fengxing picked up the fallen folding fan and pointed at the samurai sitting on the outermost side.
Shibata Kakuzo, who was in his thirties, felt that something was not good in his heart when he saw Lord Shibata calling him.
As a mesuke (secret agent) directly under the feudal clan, Kakuzo Shibata was sent to Ishinomaki Port to monitor whether there were any illegal activities in collusion with the Tokugawa family or other foreign clans, and to report directly to Lord Ishikawa of the feudal clan. Report.
By the way, the Invisible Man has done a good job in the past few years, so why was he named?
"Haha. Please give me your instructions." Shibata Kakuzo felt helpless and had no choice but to show an attitude of going forward.
"You find two people to go to sea with as your entourage and see what the barbarians want to do. It's best to meet the barbarian shipowners and ask them where did the feudal clan offend them?" Although Ishinomaki is timid, he is not Fool. He was worried about who he would send at this moment; since Shibata Kakuzo was sent by the general manager of this domain, let him go first, and everyone would bear the responsibility together if something happened.
"Ah?!" Shibata Kakuzo felt thunder rolling above his head. Good things didn't come to me, but this kind of bad luck happened to him. Could it be that the Bodhisattva blamed me for not going to the temple to burn incense recently?
"What? Shibata-dono, don't you want to go?" A sneer appeared on Ishinomaki Minato's face.
"Haha. I obey."
Shibata Kakuzo thought for a while. Since the word "Thunder God" was written on the barbarian boat, maybe the people on the boat could speak Tang dialect. So he asked Lord Fengying to appoint two deputies to accompany him.
One is a tax collector who has studied the Four Books and Five Classics in the Hondo Official Academy; the other is the owner of a business in Honmachi. This person often travels to Edo to do business, and has also gone to Osaka to run the maritime business.
Ishinomaki Minato agreed readily.
Soon, Shibata Kakuzo and his party boarded a small morning boat on the pier. Nine sailors have been arranged on the boat in the early morning. One of them is sitting at the stern of the boat. He is beating the drum under him and shouting the trumpet; the other eight sailors are rowing the oars vigorously.
On the Thor anchored three nautical miles outside Ishinomaki Port, Liu Sheng looked at the small morning boat coming out of the port with a high-powered telescope, and said to Zhao Xin with admiration: "You were right, they sent someone here. "
Zhao Xin said with a smile: "Sendai Clan cannot afford the consequences of Ishinomaki Port being blocked. It will only happen sooner or later."
Wang Yuanfang looked at the small morning boat through the telescope and asked Zhao Xin: "How will we deal with it later?"
"Take them to the conference room on the ship and ask them to prepare refreshments. Be polite first and then fight." Zhao Xin said.
As a result, everyone on the Thor had to wait for more than two hours. Having said that, I really can’t blame Ishinomaki Port for enforcing the rule. In the Edo period, the maximum speed of a small morning boat was one nautical mile per hour. If we really need to arrange a ship closure, we have to move the large tube placed at the bow of the ship off the ship, which is too troublesome.
The tea in the conference room was re-made three times before the small boat approached the Thor.
"Everyone on the boat, listen up, please bring the boat over here." Zhao Xin's voice came out from the loudspeaker on the boat.
As soon as he finished speaking, the turntable platform on the ship deck began to rotate, and the thick chains and steel wires were slowly lowered from the side of the ship along with the gangway, and finally stopped close to the water.
Shibata and the three other sailors on the small morning boat were all frightened. Fortunately, there were protective panels on both sides of the boat, otherwise someone would have been frightened and fell into the water.
After walking back and forth along the gangway to the deck, Shibata Kakuzo felt his legs were weak and couldn't help but slumped to the ground.
He didn't expect the boat to be so big. He turned around and looked at the foreigner from the merchant house. He looked pale and shook his head. Shibata knew that he had never seen such a boat.
Touching the ground beneath him, Shibata Kakuzo discovered that the ship's deck was actually made of large iron plates, and he couldn't help but secretly marveled. After he stood up forcefully while holding on to the railing beside him, he found that the tentacles of the railing he was holding on were cold, and they were obviously made of iron. ; Looking up, the tall white ship building in front of him made him feel dizzy. This is higher than the castle guard of the feudal city!
He turned his head and looked away, and two huge objects not far away caught his eye.
"Is that the big tube that blew up half of Matsushima Town? Isn't it too big?" Shibata Kakuzo suppressed the shock in his heart and must not show it on his face.
Only three thick brackets were seen supporting the entire gun body, with some sacks pressed on it. Shibata Kakuzo visually judged that the large barrel was probably more than a foot long, and the muzzle, which did not look thick, was facing the stone. In the direction of Zhuangang; an extremely tall and sturdy man, with several men, was stuffing a cylindrical object with a pointed end into the barrel of the cannon.
Shibata Kakuzo noticed that the person holding the black pillar looked very strenuous. It was obvious that the thing was extremely heavy.
If all this made Shibata and the other two people feel novel and shocked, what shocked him the most was that all the people on the deck had oriental faces, and there was not a single foreigner in sight; and the few people talking around him were actually fucking With a fluent Mutsu accent!
Who are the people on this boat? ! !
Shibata Kakuzo's fear is justified. Because in the territory of Sendai Domain at this time, the cruel annual tribute collection of the Date family has made the farmers resentful, and the Ichikaku (peasant riot) has reached the verge of breaking out.
Since the disaster broke out the year before last, even though there was a large-scale harvest failure in the territory, the Date family has not exempted the feudal clan from paying annual tribute at all.
In the view of the Date family retainers, if a village is exempted from the annual tribute, then all villages in the domain will come to request exemption. If grain cannot be collected centrally at this time and a rationing system is implemented, a large number of people will starve to death. This is not an example.
The county magistrate initially implemented a slight reduction in the annual tribute for paddy fields, while for dry fields, the annual tribute for every taels of gold was required to be twelve taels of rice (two taels and one stone, totaling 130 kilograms). This annual tribute is actually the same as the current market price of rice, which is soaring. In other words, the tax rate has reached 100%.
What kind of land do farmers have to cultivate? After the harvest, not even a grain of food will fall into your hands. But if you don’t plant the seeds, it won’t work. If you go against the grain, the county magistrate will send people down to arrest people in minutes. Do you want to go to jail? You are so beautiful that you don’t have to live in jail.
The two people who came to greet Shibata Kakuzo were Katsu Kaishu and Toshiyoshi. The two of them said nothing, watching coldly as the three people in front of them looked around at the Thor like fools.
Li Ji felt that this was a beauty.
As a farmer, he never imagined that one day he would be able to stand proudly in front of a samurai master and treat him like a fool.
It wasn't until Shibata Kakuzo and the others turned their glances to Katsu Kaishu and Katsu Kaishu that the three of them bowed and saluted.
"I am Kakuzo Shibata, a subordinate of Ishikawa-sama, the general manager of Sendai Domain. These two are..."
(The helpless tax officer and business owner sighed secretly, we don’t deserve names...)
Sheng Haizhou's face was stern. He did not introduce himself or Liji, but said seriously: "My lord has been waiting for you in the cabin for a long time. Please come with me."
"Oh my God! This person actually speaks fluent Kanto! Who are they?!" Shibata Kakuzo turned around and looked at the two people behind him, both of whom looked surprised.
