Shibata Kakuzo and his party of three carefully followed Katsu Kaishu; Rikichi held the pistol in his jacket pocket and followed slowly.
As Katsu Kaishu pushed open a door in the cabin and entered first, Shibata Kakuzo and the other three people who followed behind him suddenly felt their eyes light up.
In the cabin of about seven square meters (one square meter is equal to 3.3 square meters), bright light shines from the roof, and three one-foot-sized portholes are covered with tulle curtains.
There was a huge rectangular table in the room, and opposite the table sat two tall people with short hair and wearing strange clothes. Both of them had oriental faces, no beards under their cheeks, and looked very capable.
"Everyone, please take a seat." After Sheng Haizhou finished speaking, he walked to the other side of the table, stood behind the two of them, and continued: "This is my lord Zhao, and the Thunder God is my lord's boat. This is Mr. Liu is my lord’s deputy.”
Upon hearing this, Shibata Kakuzo and the others quickly bowed to Zhao Xin and Liu Sheng and introduced themselves.
"You three don't have to be formal. Please sit down. Drink some water first." Zhao Xin said with a smile.
After discovering that the "lord" across from them also spoke a strange but very fluent island dialect, Shibata Kakuzo and the other three had no intention of drinking water, and their foreheads were filled with questions.
After sitting down on the chair, Shibata Kakuzo pretended to look at the surrounding furnishings. After thinking for a while, his face sank and he asked Zhao Xin very seriously: "Excuse me, why did you bombard Matsushima Town and kill the feudal clan yesterday?" Samurai?! Why did you come here today to block our Ishinomaki Port shipping route?!"
"Our time is limited and we don't have time to chat with you." Zhao Xin showed a sneer on his face and said to Sheng Haizhou behind him: "Tell them our conditions!"
"Yes, lord!" After Sheng Haizhou finished speaking, he picked up a stack of paper from the table.
This is a notification statement written by Zhao Xin in advance. What he meant was to directly read out the situation and conditions to the other party. If they listened, it would be easy to comply. If not, they would just fire as a deterrent.
Anyway, the round trip from Beihai Town to here only takes four days at most, so the Thor would drop by if he had nothing to do to see who could bear it.
"You...!" Shibata Kakuzo felt the other party's contempt, and couldn't help but became furious. His fists hidden under the table were clenched, and he wanted to immediately draw a knife and kill the three people opposite him.
"Hey! Little devil, be honest!" Liu Sheng looked at Shibata Kakuzo opposite, raised his hand and picked up a black Marlin 1894 lever rifle. The gun is less than one meter long and has a magazine capacity of nine rounds.
"Asshole!" Shibata Kakuzo saw the other party pointing the black hole of the gun at him, and immediately stood up and slapped the table angrily, and his hand touched the handle of the knife at his waist.
"Master samurai, I advise you not to draw your sword, otherwise you will die ugly." Rikichi, who was standing at the door, took out the pistol in his jacket pocket and said to Kakuzo Shibata.
The business owner and tax collector who accompanied Shibata Kakuzo were at war with each other at first sight, and quickly got up to smooth things over: "Shibata-sama, you must not get angry! Have you forgotten to fulfill the purpose of sending you here?"
This is the effect you want! Shibata Kakuzo couldn't help but admire his own wit. He chose the right two companions. Who doesn't know how to pretend to be a grandson? The problem is to pretend to be a grandson in a polite and polite manner. This is called wisdom.
So Shibata put his hands down from his waist with an angry look, snorted and sat back in his seat.
The owner of the shop quickly said to Zhao Xin and Liu Sheng in front of them: "I am the owner of Katsuyama Shuzo, Katsuyama Denzo, and I am the accompanying deputy envoy designated by the Lord. Please don't be offended. There will be a ship for you later. We present you with the fine wine brewed by me, and please accept it, adults."
(The owner of Shengshan Store cheers, we finally have a name!)
(This "Katsuyama Shuzo" is real. It has opened a brewery and shop in Sendai Domain since 1688. By the way, his Junmai Daiginjo is still very famous; don't be too quick to "Dassai" , that is a famous brand that only appeared in 1990, it is pure hype.)
"Are you from the Tang Dynasty? Are you from the Qing Dynasty?" The tax official stood up suddenly and asked.
"Yes and no. We are Tang people, but not Qing people. Please remember this." Zhao Xin explained lightly.
After hearing this, the tax official sat down slowly with a puzzled expression.
Zhao Xin turned to Katsu Kaishu and nodded. Katsu Kaishu bowed and saluted. Then he looked at the stack of paper in his hand, cleared his throat, and began to read: "First, because the Sendai clan maliciously sent troops to ambush our personnel. , causing damage to our ships, we require the Sendai Domain to compensate for 10,000 taels of gold."
"What?! Bastard!" Shibata Kakuzo stood up and roared.
Ship damaged? Your ship is made of iron from top to bottom, what damage did you suffer? Even if I hit it with a big tube, it would just take off a piece of paint!
Leaving aside the matter of the ship, nearly three hundred samurai of the Sendai clan died for their country! Do you still dare to ask us for compensation? !
Zhao Xin smiled. He looked at Shibata Kakuzo opposite and roared, and then said lightly: "How about you start a war?"
"I..." Shibata Kakuzo wilts immediately. He really doesn't want to open any pot.
"Second, release Matsushima Town Tongxin and Katayama Kanbei who were captured by you, and return them to us; and pay compensation of five thousand taels of gold."
Shibata Kakuzo no longer cared about being angry, he decided to listen before expressing his opinion.
"Third, we must not be prohibited from transporting refugees onto the ship. For every hundred healthy adult refugees, we are willing to exchange three stones of polished rice, or the same weight of wheat."
"Huh?" Shibata and the others couldn't help but be stunned.
"Fourth, starting today, if the Sendai clan, including the Edo shogunate, launches an attack on us, we will blow up Ishinomaki Port, Matsushima Port, and even Sendai Castle until you completely surrender."
"Devil! Absolutely the devil! Buddha and Bodhisattva, please transform into the Angry-Eye King Kong and punish these people!" Shibata Kakuzo was so angry that he clenched his teeth and wanted to pounce on him and kill him.
"Fifth, in order to prove the power of our artillery, our artillery will fire four times into the uninhabited area of the sea in the port at 2:00 this afternoon to prove it!"
"Bang, bang!" After two sounds, the owner of the winery, Katsuyama Densan, knocked his chair to the ground. Shibata Kakuzo suddenly stood up and knocked over the chair under him; but the tax collector lowered his head in thought.
"Asshole! You can't do this!!" Shibata no longer bothered to pretend to be angry at this time, he shouted anxiously.
Zhao Xin leaned back in his chair, glanced at Liu Sheng with a smile, turned to Shibata Kakuzo and said: "You can let the homeless and beggars die helplessly, why can't we do the same?"
"Those people are all 'inhumans'! They are untouchables!" Shibata Kakuzo shouted.
"This samurai master, I am also a pariah." Liji said coldly to Shibata.
"And me!" Huji walked in from the door.
"We all are!" A dozen sailors shouted angrily outside the conference room door.
"You, you want to rebel?!" Shibata Kakuzo stared at the crowd pouring in at the door, pointing at Li Ji and others.
Zhao Xin sneered disdainfully: "You can't even support yourselves, who has the time to waste time with you? Go back and tell Ishinomaki Port and the people in Sendai City that I will only give you two days. If within two days, If there is no reply, I will blow up Ishinomaki Port! See you off!"
...
"What a disaster, what a misfortune!" In the Ishinomaki Port Official Office, Mr. Shibata almost fainted after listening to the report of Shibata Kakuzo and the others.
"Speaking of which, why am I so unlucky? I've only been here in Ishinomaki Port for a year, and I haven't made much money yet. A disaster is coming!" Mr. Gogyo covered his head and couldn't help but lament in his heart.
"Hurry! Go and report the news to the feudal city!" Fengxing suddenly woke up. He couldn't handle this matter at all, so he should leave it to the adults in the feudal city to handle it.
After the warrior in charge of reporting the news retreated, everyone in the official hall continued to sigh.
"Sir, my subordinate has something to say. I don't know whether to say it or not?" The tax collector from the tax office had been silent since he came back, but now he suddenly spoke.
"It's already here, if there's anything else you shouldn't say. Say it quickly!"
"Haha. Sir, the third thing mentioned by the people on the boat..."
"Huh?" Fengxing was stunned. He was so angry just now about the compensation and the afternoon cannon fire that he didn't even pay attention to the third point.
"Hey~~ You mean, they are going to take the refugees out to sea? Are they planning to exchange them for rice?"
"That's right, they said they would exchange it for polished rice or wheat of equal weight." The tax official said with certainty.
"The villain heard it very clearly. They did say that." The winery owner Katsuyama Denzo quickly leaned over and added.
Fengxing suddenly calmed down, sat down slowly, and fell into thought.
How much is fifteen thousand taels of gold? It was nothing to Sendai Domain. Besides, this matter can still be discussed. There are so many abalone, sea cucumbers and shark fins in the warehouse, which are all worth a lot of money! This thing is not about having as much as you want.
That Katayama Kanbei is nothing, just a small sympathy, just give it to them. His wife and children are all on that boat, so arresting him alone is of no use.
But the matter of rice replacing people... is very exciting!
Nowadays, the mountains and forests outside the port, along the roads and even inside and outside the towns, are full of landless refugees. Even if these people return to the countryside, they will have no land to farm. This is all the burden of this domain. If these people can be exchanged for rice, it will be a great achievement.
Besides, what would happen if Edo knew about this? Is the general planning to use his own grain reserves to open a warehouse for relief? What a joke! The rice on the market in Edo refers to Sendai Domain and Ishinomaki Port. Even if adults knew this, they would pretend to be dumbfounded. They are just a bunch of untouchables. I didn’t expect that they could be exchanged for food...
Thinking of this, Fengxing asked Shibata Kakuzo with a serious face: "Have the people on the ship said where they will bombard in the afternoon?"
"It's said to be the no-man's land on the sea inside the port." Shibata Kakuzo lowered his head and replied.
"Yes." Fengxing thought for a moment and then said: "Notify all cargo ships and fishing boats in the port that they are not allowed to go to sea within two days without an order from the government. They will all be parked at the dock. Inform the town that no one is allowed to go to the dock this afternoon. If you wander around on the street, you will be punished with a fifty rod and a fine of one hundred."
"Yes." Everyone left immediately and started to get busy. Some people went to write notices, while others were busy riding horses to inform every household in the town.
Shibata Kakuzo left the official hall without saying a word and stood at the door in a daze. Denzo Katsuyama followed him, and when he saw Shibata's appearance, he also guessed a bit. To be honest, when they left the Thor in the morning, the scene really frightened him.
...
Speaking of Shibata Kakuzo and the other three, after Zhao Xin issued the eviction order, they walked to the deck in disgrace and were about to get off the gangway when Liu Sheng stopped the three of them behind them.
The tax collector could listen and speak some Tang dialect, so he stepped forward and bowed and asked, "What does this gentleman want?"
Liu Sheng said with a smile: "Nothing else, just to open your eyes. Don't think that you can do anything with a knife."
"You!" The tax collector was furious when he heard this. The samurai sword represents the soul of the samurai. How could he insult him casually?
Liu Sheng gestured to Hu Ji who was standing beside him. There were seven or eight porcelain bowls at Hu Ji's feet, all taken from the ship's canteen. Seeing Liu Sheng's signal, he picked up a bowl and threw it towards the sea.
"Bang!" A gunshot sounded, and the porcelain bowl was smashed to pieces.
Torayoshi continued, throwing all the bowls on the floor one after another.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" Liu Sheng shot one by one, breaking all the porcelain bowls.
All the sailors on the deck cheered together. Except for Shibata Kakuzo, whose face was ashen and whose legs were trembling, there were three people.
Shibata Kakuzo could see clearly that the opponent's iron cannon could actually fire continuously. The man just pulled an iron ring under the gun body, and he could fire continuously and hit the target.
He thought that when he was pretending to be angry in the cabin just now and wanted to draw a knife, the other party used this iron cannon to point at him. If it all hit him...
Shibata Kakuzo suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, and was blown away by the sea breeze, almost fainting on the deck.
