"Woo~~Woo~~"
Twenty minutes later, when the Thor passed the Yemuxia Lookout, two long whistles sounded from the ship. At this time, the entire Nagasaki Port was alarmed.
The small fishing boats outside the port looked at the approaching giant ship, and they all swung their oars and ran to the shore. Hundreds of people poured out of the Tomachi and Nishiba barracks at the entrance of the port to stop and watch. But then, the watching soldiers and warriors were called back by the sound of drums in the military camp, and the din of people shouting and horses rang out from the military camp.
Since being designated as a foreign trade port for the Tokugawa shogunate, Nagasaki Port has had foreign ships arriving almost every day. Although the Dutch three-masted galleons have not been seen recently, the Qing sand ships often come. But which country does this boat with a white top and blue bottom belong to? Moreover, the length of this boat must be forty feet by visual inspection.
There was no cargo on the Thor at this time, and the six-meter-high side of the ship made onlookers on the shore marvel and marvel.
At this time, on the fan-shaped artificial island in the harbor, two Dutchmen who stayed behind ran to the roof of their residence with monocular binoculars and sat on the roof to watch. The guards responsible for guarding the "Netherlands House" stood downstairs angrily, shouting at them to come down.
In the Dutch-style building on the westernmost side of Dejima, the Dutch merchant director was observing the Thor through a telescope at the window.
"My God! Where did this ship come from?"
When the Thor sailed to the south of Nishima, two small morning boats sailed out from the military camp docks of Tomachi and Nishima on the left and right. There were still 200 meters away from the Thor, and the people on the boat shouted "Stop the boat" loudly.
Zhao Xin ignored it at all. He asked Liu Sheng to drive the boat to the southeast side of the Tomachi Military Camp Pier, slow down and anchor.
Seeing that the two small morning boats of our own had not intercepted each other, a customs boat docked at Xibo Pier hurriedly sailed out and approached the Thor.
"Sir! Your Excellency!" The officer on duty at the Nomoga Observation Post ran out of breath into the official hall, rushed into the house, and lay on the ground to report to Nagasaki Chief Toda Shimon (from the fifth position, Izumomomo) : "Sir, a giant boat of unknown nationality has entered the port. It seems to be here to knock on the door."
"What?!" The forty-six-year-old Tokugawa Hatamoto was shocked.
"grown ups!"
"grown ups!"
There was a sound of running on the floor under the porch outside the house, and two samurai from the Nabeshima family and the Kuroda family also ran in.
"Sir, the foreign ship has passed the port entrance, and we have sent an early ship to intercept it..."
This Izumo Mamoru is a very famous figure in history, but it's not a good name. After his death, the residents of Nagasaki town lined up to urinate on the grave of Toda Ujimo of Oonji Temple, which led to the Nagasaki governor who took over to issue an order "No urinating in the cemetery." You have to be hated by others to be like this.
Toda Clan asked anxiously: "How are the troops preparing to attack the Second Division?"
The two offices in charge of the Nabeshima family and the Kuroda family were called "Oki Rōban offices" because they were located at the mouth of Nagasaki Port. And because the two places were rated to garrison nearly a thousand troops, it was also called the "Thousand-Man Station".
"..."
"say something!"
"This domain has gathered one hundred and fifty people." The warrior of the Kuroda family lowered his head and replied.
"What?! Where are you?" Toda Shimon turned to look at the samurai of the Nabeshima family.
"This domain has gathered one hundred and seventy people."
Toda clan almost fell to death after hearing this.
The long period of peace and quiet caused a serious shortage of troops at the Second Division. Not to mention the full force, many samurai's armors were rusted to death.
As for weapons, don't mention it!
The samurai who rushed to Erbansuo would never say that many weapons were secretly sold for food...
But the most terrible thing is the famine at dawn. Since the previous year, no Dutch ships have arrived, and the Nagasaki trade was suddenly in trouble, unable to pay the dues to the shogunate. The lives of the soldiers and samurai in the two divisions were also in embarrassment.
"Aren't you going to force me to have a caesarean section?" Meng Toda cried secretly in his heart. He quickly said to his subordinates: "I will serve you with pen and ink."
After a quick glance, the two troop transfer letters were quickly written. Mobilize the Omura clan and admonish the Haya clan to send troops!
The Omura clan has a stone height of 57,000 koku; the Isahaya clan, a branch of the Nabeshima family, has a stone height of 10,000 koku; the Nagasaki administrative office has a height of 1,500 koku, with thirty cavalry and fifty warriors under its command. According to the shogunate's request for sending troops, 10,000 dan was required to send 250 troops, and one yuan was added to only reach 2,000.
Not many troops?
However, the Uraga Office, which was responsible for the garrison of Edo Bay in these years, only had 14 members of the 18th Cavalry under its command. Together with the guards stationed at Futtsu Takeoka, the total number was 40.
"My lord! My lord!" A samurai from the Nabeshima family came to report. "Sir, the foreign ship has been forced to anchor at the southeast side of Tomachi by our side!"
"Okay!" Toda Shimeng slapped his thigh to stop the ship. If he drove all the way to the port and stopped, he would really have to have a caesarean section to apologize.
He immediately said to the official at the Yemuxia Lookout Station: "Take fifty people and go to the boat immediately to negotiate."
"Ha ha!"
In the courtyard of Tangren Yashiki, Shen Jingdan was having a drink with a group of businessmen from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Ever since this person arrived in the first month, he has been dragging him away in the name of delivering goods.
There is no way, it's still daughter Shen Xuan's business.
In early March, he had already packed all the goods and was about to take his daughter back to China. A friend named Cheng who happened to come to Nagasaki from Suzhou to do business told him that the salt merchant Wang family had not given up and were sending people all over the world. Looking for my daughter! I heard that even the government was alarmed.
Shen Jingdan knew as soon as he heard that he couldn't go back for the time being, so he had to stay with his daughter. As for his own Yinshi sand ship, he entrusted the financial officer on the ship to act as the bowman and take the merchants back.
When will this day end! Shen Jingdan sighed secretly while drinking. He heard from Midori Jun that there was a famine in the northeast of the island country, and many people starved to death. Now there was a famine in Nagasaki Town due to lack of food, and he heard that many people had contracted infectious diseases due to hunger. Moreover, the prices of grains and meats supplied to Tangren Yashiki have also increased a lot.
Daughter Shen Xuan couldn't leave the house all day long, and she felt very depressed. But if you want to leave this Chinese house, you won't be able to get out unless there is something important. It has been more than three months, and even the castle town has become irritated, let alone the palm-sized China Yashiki area. Shen Jingdan can now tell clearly how many blades of grass there are at the door of Tushen Hall.
Fortunately, Lu Jun can often find some domestically sold words from the bookstores in the town to relieve Shen Xuan's boredom and pass the time. From time to time, the two of them get together to think about some island women's hairstyle patterns, headwear, etc., so that they can get through it. three months.
While he was feeling depressed, he suddenly heard someone behind him smiling and saying, "Boss Shen, we meet again."
Shen Jingdan looked back and saw that it was Lao Huang, the businessman who came with him last time. He asked in surprise: "Old Huang, why are you here? Come and sit."
After greeting everyone at the banquet, Lao Huang sat down and smiled and whispered: "You are allowed to live with Boss Shen, but you are not allowed to come with me, Lao Huang?"
"Okay, you came to make fun of me, and I will drink three drinks as a penalty."
Lao Huang laughed and said immediately: "Speaking of which, I would like to thank Boss Shen for this. Thanks to my brother's care, the sales of the goods I helped my little brother sell last time were really good. So I want to take advantage of the opportunity to buy another batch before the May Festival. The cargo, this time came with the bow of a Zhapu boat."
While the two were talking, a young businessman quickly walked into the private room and said to everyone: "Have you heard? A huge foreign ship has come up from the port outside."
ah? The seven or eight businessmen at the table were stunned. They had nothing to do and had been drinking and listening to music since the morning to pass the time. There was the sound of silk and bamboo in the room, drinking and boxing, laughing and playing with the beautiful woman, but the two whistles were not heard at all.
Everyone hurriedly said: "Tell me what's going on."
When the businessman who reported the news saw how anxious everyone was, he picked up the spear instead. He sat down calmly and waited for Qingcheng who was standing aside to pour him a glass of wine and then picked up his chopsticks to pick up the food.
"Hey~ Look at this guy, he's even holding a bridge."
The businessman known as Xiao Cheng then said mysteriously: "When we got off the boat just now, we saw the Japanese soldiers and samurai on the pier were all in a mess. I looked around and saw that the sailors around me were also like those officials. , Shiwu looked in the same direction."
Xiao Cheng said this and slapped the table. "Then I looked back and guess what I saw?"
Everyone was attracted by his storytelling tone and stopped to look at him. As a result, he changed the subject and turned to Shen Jingdan and asked: "Boss Shen, how big is the largest ship you have ever seen?"
Shen Jingdan thought for a while and said: "The Galen ships of the Red-haired and English people are probably the largest. They are more than ten feet long and can hold more than five thousand stones..."
Lao Huang waved his hand to interrupt Shen Jingdan's words and scolded Xiao Cheng with a smile: "You Xiao Cheng, you are still in a daze (pretending to be). Let me tell you the truth, what did you see?"
Xiao Cheng deliberately lowered his voice and said, "Have you ever seen a forty-foot ship?"
Everyone at the banquet suddenly laughed and cursed: "Nonsense! How can there be such a big ship in the world! You guys are fine, so we people are just having fun."
"Do you think I'm telling a joke? That boat is parked on the sea outside the west barracks!" Xiao Cheng stood up and pointed outside and said loudly, refusing to admit defeat.
Everyone in the private room was immediately furious. They stood up and walked out. Shen Jingdan also followed the crowd.
Everyone went all the way to the Tianhou Temple in the southwest corner of the Yashiki area, climbed to the third floor, opened the windows and looked out at the sea.
"There!" exclaimed a sharp-eyed businessman.
Shen Jingdan and others looked in the direction of the man's finger and saw a huge ship moored on the sea northwest of Tin Hau Temple. On the bow of the ship, which was white above and blue below, two huge blue Chinese characters were particularly eye-catching. .
"Thunder God?" Everyone stood stunned on the spot.
(End of chapter)
