The sound of the piano is rippling and the singing is soft, making people feel like a spring breeze. The occasional deliberately elongated "oh eh" can shock people's spirits.
Outside the window, the grass is green and the flowers are red, and the sea breeze is gentle. Several Japanese businessmen in kimonos were sitting in the mansion where Zhuge Weidao met Tokugawa Qiaki that day. They were drinking tea and quietly listening to a woman playing the piano and singing in the hall. They were all smiling. The fragrance of tea floated faintly in the hall at the same time.
The sound of the piano and the singing stopped suddenly, and the woman looked languid and nodded slightly in greeting.
This time at Zong Yixi's house, all the Japanese businessmen who were originally doing business in Nagasaki... Oh, they are not "loyal merchants" who are loyal to the emperor and patriotic, they are all comprador profiteers who are greedy for money! The "loyal merchants" are now serving the Ming martyrs in Nagasaki. Only those who usually smuggle in the industrial products produced by the Ming Dynasty and wrap them in "Made in Japan" wrapping paper (of course this wrapping paper is also produced by the Ming Dynasty), Compradors who pretended to be Japanese products, and those who bought girls from poor farmers in Japan, trained them and then sold them to the Ming Dynasty or other unscrupulous profiteers, so they did not dare to stay in Nagasaki where they "respected the king and rejected the foreigners" and went to North Korea. The Choryang Japanese Museum on the ground comes.
Oh, that Zong Yixi is not such a profiteer. He is a samurai, and he is also a foreign vassal of Korea, a country of etiquette. It is impossible for him to engage in such a shameless business. The good business of their clan, apart from the Choryang Japanese Hall, is to train female warriors who are good at singing, dancing and proficient in martial arts, and then introduce them to nobles of the Ming Dynasty and North Korea, or to wealthy businessmen in Japan as "retainers".
Those female warriors usually come from down-and-out samurai families. The family was so poor that they had no choice but to be sent to Tsushima Fuchu Domain... And every time the famous samurai family is destroyed, a large number of samurai daughters will be lost. For the Zong family, this is a good opportunity to “purchase goods” at a low price!
At the moment, many people from the Satsuma Shimazu and Choshu Maori feudal clans in Japan have been involved in the "Honoring the King and Fighting the Ming" incident in Nagasaki. Although the shogunate has not yet ordered a crusade against Nagasaki, nor has there been any action against Satsuma and Choshu. Chang Erfan will take punishment, but that will happen sooner or later.
So Zong Yixi today contacted the representatives of the imperial merchants who served the Sa and Chang Erfan... First, he established a relationship. When the Sa and Chang Erfan were confiscated by the shogunate, he could purchase goods at a low price. .
Thinking of this, Zong Yixi pointed at the snow-white woman playing the piano, and said to Umeda Hannosuke, the royal merchant of Satsuma Domain who was present: "Umeda-kun, this is my adopted daughter Yui... don't look at her. She can only be considered mediocre in appearance, but she is good at playing music, chess, calligraphy and painting, and she is also proficient in martial arts, especially kendo and aikido. The Daikoku family in Edo is already planning to hire her as a guard."
Umeda Hannosuke is a fat man who always looks amiable and makes money. Of course he also knows what Mune Yoshihiro's "female warrior" does? He glanced at the woman named Yui. She was just a demure and quiet girl. Her knowledge of kendo and aikido was probably just a gimmick.
But Umeda also knows what Zong Yixi means when he says this to himself? He thought that the Satsuma Domain was about to end... In fact, Umeda also felt that the Satsuma Domain was a bit in doubt, but he was always from Satsuma and couldn't appear too depressed at this time, otherwise there would be too many people asking him for debts. .
Just when Umeda was about to force a smile, there was a rush of footsteps outside the door, and then he saw the sliding door move slightly. A middle-aged female warrior was already kneeling outside, lowering her head and saying to Zong Yixi: "My lord, Daming. The Beiyang Fleet is back!"
Hearing this, Zong Yixi was fine, but Umeda asked nervously: "How many ships have come back? Is there the Hanwu Emperor?"
The middle-aged female warrior was startled, then raised her snow-white face to look at Zong Yixi.
"Concubine Ma, tell me." Zong Yixi didn't take it seriously and directly asked the female warrior to answer Umeda's question.
"Ha Yin...a total of eighteen ships have returned, and the Hanwu Emperor is among them."
Zong Yixi laughed after hearing this, then pressed his hand on the floor and stood up. Then he said to Umeda: "Okay, there is business coming from Caoliang Pavilion... I have to go and make arrangements." Ichiban, no more company."
There are tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty on board the eighteen battleships, and their spending power is very strong!
Although the fleet will not all take a holiday after entering the port, only half of them will go ashore, and half of them will come to the Choryang Japanese Museum to spend money. Zong Yixi can also make a lot of money!
Umeda also stood up immediately and said to Sogihi: "Lord of the feudal lord, I want to go to Busan Castle."
"Going to Busan Castle?"
Umeda looked worried: "Now that the war is in chaos, and the villain is alone outside, the family will be very worried, so I want to send a telegram back to say that I am safe."
There is no telegraph office or telephone office in the Choryang Japanese Museum. If you want to send a telegram, you have to go to the Chosun Telegraph Office in Busan Castle.
"Oh," Zong Yixi nodded, "Umeda-kun, it's okay if you want to send a telegram, but the North Korean telegraph office in Busan City is managed by people from the Beiyang Fleet Intelligence Department of the Ming Dynasty... You have to pay attention. One thing, don’t let people mistakenly think that you are talking about military matters!”
"Of course, of course... I just want to give my family peace of mind."
"Okay, that's no problem." Zong Yixi waved to the woman playing the piano, "Yui, take Umeda-kun to the telegraph office in Busan City."
"Hayin!"
...
The Umeda telegram was just to report that the family was safe... there was only a short paragraph saying "Oro, I and 18 others have arrived in Busan, have a safe trip", but this telegram was forwarded to Shimazu Sairyo in Nagasaki City When you hold it in your hand, it becomes "climbing Jueying Mountain"!
"My lord, my lord, climb Jueying Mountain!"
In the Shimazu Jinya in Nagasaki, after a burst of hurried footsteps, the sound of Komatsu carrying a sword came from outside the door to the ears of Shimazu Qi Liang, who was carefully wiping a sword.
The so-called Huai Jian is a dagger hidden in one's arms. Because samurai carry tachi and ribashi with them, they no longer have a third hand to hold the sword in battle. Therefore, this sword is usually not used for fighting, but is prepared for hara-kiri...Shimazu Sailiang originally thought that he would never need to use a sword in his life, but now it seems that he must be prepared.
Now he is being pushed step by step by the Tokugawa family to the point of "respecting the king and fighting the Ming". This is tantamount to risking his life. If he plays well, he may be able to negotiate a good price with Ming, but if he plays badly... just use the sword. Got it!
But he knew that he was playing with his life, so he had to play... because he had already involved himself in the previous Ji Yin Waterway Incident! Because of Charlie Elliot's exposure, the Ming Dynasty has requested to investigate him (actually there is no such thing)!
And this investigation might wipe out the entire Shimadzu family. So now he had no choice but to take a desperate risk. With the tacit approval of the shogunate, he took some of his men to "hijack" the airship and ran to Nagasaki to worship the king and fight against the Ming Dynasty - this was a rebellion to the shogunate!
If the goal is achieved and Japan gets a better "condition for being a dog", then his life and the Shimadzu family may be saved. Even worse, he could go into exile in England.
Otherwise...he is Shimadzu's sinner!
However, considering the disparity in strength between the Ming Dynasty and the Nagasaki martyrs, Shimazu Qi Liang also knew that the consequences of fighting against the Ming Dynasty would be disastrous... If he wanted to win, oh, or to make a "recruitment", The only option was to use the newly established airship force to sneak attack the Jueyingdao base.
If the main force of the Ming Dynasty's Beiyang Fleet could be paralyzed, then the Ming Dynasty should give Japan a decent "dog price"!
Of course, that may also completely anger Ming Dynasty and bring an even greater disaster to Japan.
But even so, the Shimazu family will get the opportunity to live in exile in India because of their outstanding contributions to the British Empire... In this way, the Shimazu family and their retainers will be Indians.
Thinking of this, he put away his sword, then stood up and said to his boss, Komatsu, with the sword: "Okay, the time has come, let's go to the fifty-year airship field!"
"Hayin!"
