At eleven o'clock in the evening on the seventh day of the first lunar month in the thirty-fourth year of Taihe, we were in the Tianzi No. 6 room on the fourth floor of the Hongyunlou Inn in Nagasaki County, Fengyuan Kingdom.
Daming Yayan, a friendly person from England named Libot, is restlessly waiting for the news.
The atmosphere in Nagasaki Port tonight was a little different. Fengyuan and the merchants who usually liked to complain about the Ming Dynasty suddenly disappeared today.
They must have gathered to discuss things they couldn't keep themselves from knowing.
So Li Bote asked his companion, a young man named Wang Wei of Daming Yayan, to go out to find out the news, while he waited patiently in the room.
Suddenly, there was a very violent knock on the door. Li Bot was startled, and quickly ran over to open the door. He opened his mouth and spoke in a very standard Daming Yayan:
"Who is outside?"
As a result, when the door opened, seven tall and powerful government officials stood outside, two of whom were escorting their companion Wang Weir.
There was also a leading servant who raised his finger and pointed at Li Bote and shouted loudly in Daming Yayan with a strange accent:
"We are officers of the public security office of Nagasaki County in the Ming Dynasty. Today we received a report from the common people that there are two white ghosts here who are acting suspiciously. Now it seems that it is indeed true.
"Our county captain has been kind enough to give you two choices. One is to serve as a labor force after castration, and the other is to get out of our Ming Dynasty Nagasaki County immediately."
Li Bote was confused when he heard this request. He had a good chat with King Fengyuan a few days ago, but why did he become a suspicious white ghost today:
"I and Wang Weir are not suspicious persons. We both have residence permits signed by Mr. Chang Shi personally. I will go and show them to you now..."
The official didn't move after hearing this, and watched as Li Bot ran back to the room, took two small documents, and handed them over nervously.
The official took it immediately, took a look at it, and then tore it into pieces with his hands:
“Okay, now you don’t have a residence permit!”
Li Bote was dumbfounded. It's okay for Ming officials to be unreasonable. Why are you, an official from a vassal state of Ming Dynasty, so unreasonable?
Then Li Bote immediately realized the seriousness of the problem. The tall official in front of him was definitely not an ordinary person, or the situation had changed drastically.
The medium-sized vassal states of the Ming Dynasty have a long history, and their status is almost equivalent to that of the prime minister of a small country, or the deputy colonial governor of a large country.
Ordinary county government officials would never dare to tear up the documents they signed, and they still did it so openly. This may have been directly instructed by Chang Shi himself.
Libot is also a smart person, and he immediately started trying to change his perspective, trying to persuade and obtain information at the same time:
"You gentlemen, please don't be like this. We have something to talk about. I just paid a visit to His Majesty King Fengyuan a few days ago and had dinner with Mr. Li Hongbin, the chief minister.
"There must be some misunderstanding here, so can you please inform me so that I can ask His Majesty the King or Mr. Chang Shi for clarification..."
The guard hooked his hand at Li Bot, and Li Bot subconsciously took a step forward.
As a result, the guard immediately took action, grabbed Li Bote's arm, and twisted it hard behind his back:
"You have no choice now! Third brother, go prepare a knife for me!"
Libot suddenly screamed:
"Ah... don't be like this, gentlemen, please stop. I know my mistake. I'm leaving. I'm leaving now. I'm leaving Nagasaki immediately..."
In fact, the guard was just trying to scare Li Bot, and did not actually ask for a knife to castrate Li Bot on the spot, so he handed him over to the other two yamen guards at this time:
"Send him to the dock immediately and get on the nearest boat to Tianzhu. Before the boat leaves the shore, he is not allowed to contact or communicate with anyone! Do you understand?"
"clear!"
The six officers roared in unison, escorted Li Bote and Wang Weir out of the inn, got into the carriage prepared in advance, and headed straight for Nagasaki Pier.
The officer held a special fire sign, and when the dock officials saw it, they fully cooperated.
They tied up Li and Wang tightly, threw them into a guest room, and arranged for four people to guard them on site.
It was not until 2 o'clock in the evening, after the ocean liner bound for India officially left the port, that Li Bote and Wang Weier partially regained their freedom.
Finally, I no longer had to be detained on site with my hands and feet tied, but instead I was placed under house arrest in the guest room.
Li Bot, who was pale, moved his stiff limbs a little, looked at Wang Weir, who was also weak next to him, and switched back to English:
"Something big must have happened in Fengyuan Country, and it's a big thing related to our United Kingdom, and this kind of thing can only be related to the Ming Empire..."
Wang Weir's expression was very ugly:
"If we can allow King Fengyuan, ministers, and even business elites to directly sever ties with us, is it possible that the Ming Dynasty finally agreed to 'withdraw the vassalage'?"
Most of the pronunciation spoken by Wang Weier is in English, but the word "withdraw the vassal" is the correct pronunciation of Daming Yayan.
Due to the dual strength of the Ming Dynasty in culture and national power, Ming Yayan is a required course for the upper class in European countries, as well as for intelligence and literary and artistic personnel.
Even when communicating in their own native language, they will occasionally pop up a few Ming Dynasty elegant words, which can make them appear to be literate enough.
They take it for granted that some special Ming Yayan words cannot be translated into European Pinyin, and not translating them is the most correct translation.
Moreover, there are a large number of these words, including not only political and cultural words such as emperor, prince, chief minister, withdrawal of vassal, Qingjun side, titles at all levels, various honorifics, etc.
It also includes unique economic words such as "manager", "shopkeeper", "share", "body share", and "company".
Even if there are words with similar meanings in their languages, they are often regarded as not "accurate" enough, and they are proud to express themselves in the correct pronunciation of the elegant dialect of the Ming Dynasty.
Li Bote nodded lightly with a bleak expression:
"I think the possibility is very high, because I can't imagine anything other than 'withdrawing the vassal', which can instantly bring the relationship between us to a freezing point."
Wang Weir became even more worried:
"Then what should we do? We should report it to the United Kingdom immediately, but we are now 'in jail' and have no way to contact the outside world..."
Li Bote is not particularly worried about this matter:
"The United Kingdom also has 'details' in the Ming Dynasty. If it is really such a big thing as 'withdrawing the vassal', His Majesty the King and the Chief Minister will know about it soon..."
Wang Weir breathed a sigh of relief:
"I hope... God bless the United Kingdom, but if the Ming Dynasty really starts to withdraw from the vassal, the anti-Ming alliance must take the initiative to 'negotiate peace' with the Ming Dynasty."
When Li Bote heard this, his expression that had just relaxed a little became serious again:
"Yes, peace must be negotiated. After the news of the withdrawal of the Ming Dynasty spreads, our companions in other Ming Dynasty vassal countries will definitely be thrown out like this.
"Then the Ming Dynasty and most of its vassal states will become 'monolithic', and it will be really difficult for us in Europe to have a chance to win."
Wang Weir added with a sad face again:
“Not only vassal states, there are also small countries that want to become vassal states but cannot, and there are also so-called neutral countries that reluctantly side with the anti-Ming alliance.
"Their confidence may be directly shaken. For example, the four countries of 'Anxi' may 'betray', and the war can no longer continue."
Libot's expression became even more ugly:
"The Ming Dynasty is too powerful, and this war was a mistake."
Wang Weir showed a smile and said a little excitedly:
"No, if peace can be negotiated now, as long as Ming Dynasty can sit down with us to negotiate and then sign a peace treaty recognized by both parties, that will be our victory in Europe!
“Even if some of the land captured in the war is transferred in the peace treaty, it will be an unprecedented victory for our entire Europe!
"Because as long as Ming Dynasty signs a peace treaty with us, it will put us Europeans on the status of civilized countries, and we Europeans will no longer be 'barbarians'."
Li Bote understood what Wang Weier meant, but his expression did not change at all:
"So, all Europeans put aside hundreds of years of hatred and stood together, fought against the Ming Dynasty for more than ten years, and sacrificed the lives of millions of young people, just so that the Ming Dynasty would no longer regard us as barbarians?"
After hearing this, Wang Weir smiled bitterly and spread his hands:
"if not?"
