New Shun 1730

As they were about to arrive in Nagasaki, Liu Yu went on the deck and handed over the command of entering the port to Lin Yunwen.

The four students who followed him also hid Western objects such as sextants, and each was equipped with a Miao knife to follow.

Nagasaki Port is a long and narrow port. Since the Portuguese came to make trouble, forts were built at Tomachi, the key point of entry into the port, and at Nishima on the other side.

The Kuroda family of the Chikuzen Domain and the Nabeshima family of the Hizen Domain took turns sending troops to garrison here. Loose forts can also be seen in some nearby places. Nagasaki, as the window of the country's seclusion, has become almost a fortress.

You can see Dejima where the Dutch live in the distance. Dashun's switch policy also affected the trade policy of the Dutch East India Company. Originally, under the switch, the Netherlands had to obtain cotton from India for trade. Now after the switch, the East India Company began to trade with India. He didn't care much about trade and instead worked as a porter between China and Japan.

Dutch houses and warehouses can be seen, but no boats.

Lin Yunwen also followed Liu Yu, and Liu Yu asked.

"Master, the Dutch ships must leave the harbor before October. They cannot stay too long. The store owner changes once a year. Our ships can spend the winter here, but if there is no trade letter, we have to leave quickly. "Otherwise they will be bombarded."

Liu Yu looked at the dark forts all around and wondered: "You can't come here, so why don't you think about going elsewhere? Are you so honest? Don't smuggle?"

Lin Yunwen chuckled and whispered: "My master is joking. How can anyone who goes overseas to do business be honest? More than ten years ago, a Japanese scholar named Arai Shiraishi issued a new order, prohibiting trade without a letter. At that time, I heard that some people did not get the letter plate, so I naturally thought of smuggling. Some ships pretended to be blown away by the wind, and they went to Kokura and other places and had to cross the Shimonoseki Strait. "

"But the Japanese opened fire directly. There were more than 20 ships with no weapons at that time. They were bombarded by the Japanese and all fled one after another. After that, there was a fight between Jiangsu and Zhejiang merchants and Fujian merchants. The two sides informed each other in order to get Trade tokens. Another thing is that the most valuable thing to the Japanese is copper and silver, and it is difficult to sell anything else. The people are poor and it is difficult to sell them through smuggling."

Only then did Liu Yu realize that he had really underestimated this group of businessmen. It seemed that as soon as the new Zhengde order came out, these businessmen were thinking of making a big deal.

I have to say that this trade credit card system is really too vicious. It can not only instigate businessmen from different regions to fight among themselves, but also use the letter cards as bait to obtain a steady stream of intelligence. This Arai Shiraishi is quite a character.

"In all the years you have been traveling in Nagasaki, you have never seen any other Westerners except the Dutch?"

"I've seen it twice. Once, a Portuguese missionary came secretly to preach, but was caught. Another time, the British entered Hong Kong under the banner of the Netherlands, but trade was banned, so they had no choice but to leave. Other Westerners are rare. The ban on Christianity has been very strict in recent years. The Dutch do not believe in the old religion, but the Japanese and Spaniards are not allowed to come. "

The ban on Christianity in Japan was indeed strict, but the Spanish and Portuguese were indeed fanatical in their missionary zeal.

Knowing that if they were caught, they would die, missionaries continued to rush to Japan one after another, wishing they could be burned at the stake. Martyrdom to heaven.

The Dutch are lucky enough to be Protestants, and they only care about making money and are not keen on proselytizing.

Although the British are also Protestants, the British were set against the Dutch in the late Ming Dynasty. In Southeast Asia, the British had to look at the Dutch's face.

At that time, the British also had commercial offices in Japan, but at that time China was closed to the outside world. The British could not get Chinese goods at all and could only buy and sell iron bars, lead bars, and woolen fabrics. However, once the Warring States Period ended, iron rods and lead rods could no longer be sold.

There are still British people who work as samurai in Japan, such as Miura Anzu, the prototype of "Nioh", but this does not change the cruel reality that British goods cannot be sold in Japan.

During the Ming Dynasty, Britain always wanted to open a window for trade with China, and spent a lot of money with the Dutch on this.

Zheng Zhilong's predecessors, such as Li Dan, Yan Siqi and others, claimed that they had particularly strong connections and could definitely get business matters done.

The British and the Dutch actually believed it, and gave them a lot of money over and over again. However, Li Dan and others said today that they encountered a typhoon and failed, and tomorrow they said that they encountered pirates and were robbed. They asked for a total of about 40,000 yuan. The hard work of two extra taels of silver lasted until the British couldn't stand it any longer in Japan and withdrew from the store with the IOU.

It is estimated that the British really did not know that the Ming Dynasty had its own national conditions, and they actually thought that such a big thing could be accomplished with 40,000 taels of silver. I don’t want to think about how much 40,000 taels of silver will be left after passing hands along the way to the capital...

The fact is that Li Dan, Yan Siqi and others are very clear-headed: If they really do trade, what will they, the second-tier dealers who monopolize the supply of goods, earn? Not only did he not do anything, he also secretly hid the trade credentials of the Dutch government to Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty.

It is estimated that this time it is because of Dashun's open trade policy. The British also thought of the second-tier dealers between China and Japan, so they pretended to be Dutch to explore the way?

Japan will definitely not accept Spanish and Portuguese people, so don’t worry about it. Unless one day Spain and Portugal no longer believe in Catholicism.

Turning sideways and looking at the forts near Nagasaki, Liu Yu probably had an idea in his mind, and asked: "How much power does Nagasaki have?"

After asking, I thought I had asked the wrong question. How could Lin Yunwen know about such things?

However, Lin Yunwen gave a direct answer.

"The power is not small. In addition to these soldiers, if there is an emergency, the Nagasaki Bugyo can also directly mobilize soldiers from nearby fiefs. In addition, people from several fiefs are stationed in Nagasaki to communicate directly with the fief lord and the Nagasaki Bugyo."

Liu Yu was stunned and asked curiously: "How do you know such confidential matters?"

"Does the master think this is a confidential matter? In fact, it is not. Everyone who comes here often knows it. Under the magistrate, how much gifts each person should give, which ones must be given, which ones do not need to be given, and which ones need to be given in secret... All these things are known. How can I not know these things asked by the master?"

After saying this, he quietly looked back at the place where the horses were locked up and whispered "The matter of buying horses was originally handed over to the Tsushima Domain. The people of the Tsushima Domain went to Korea, and Korea said that all the good horses were from Dayuan. They were thousands of miles away and could not get them at all. The Tsushima Domain knew that the Koreans were talking nonsense, but they could only accept it with a pinch of their noses, so they asked the court officials to come to Nagasaki, hoping that the Nagasaki Bugyo would come forward to get horses. The Nagasaki Bugyo gave a notice that if they could get an uncastrated war horse with high enough shoulders, they would get a trade token."

Liu Yu smiled and said, "That's right. The Koreans were beaten by them once, and they are still scared. They still have a bottom line, and they don't even sell horses."

When Lin Yunwen heard the word "bottom line", his heart skipped a beat, thinking that Lord Liu's bottom line was a bit low, and he dared to sell war horses.

"Master, the court officials of each domain have a special "wind storytelling" to organize incoming ships. Wind story means rumors. Our ship is asked by those court officials. The Dutch must write in advance and submit it after arriving."

The cause of this matter is the trade competition between the Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish.

Basically, the Dutch say bad things about Spain and Portugal all day long. Today, they say that the Portuguese first preached and then conquered, and tomorrow they say that the Spanish enslaved people in America. Of course, most of them are just facts.

In the last year of the Wanli reign of the previous dynasty, the Dutch and the British worked together to cheat the Portuguese. Maybe someone informed the British that they caught Portuguese missionaries smuggling on a Japanese ship. They immediately took this opportunity to completely cut off the Japanese-Portuguese trade and monopolized Japan's control over foreign news.

Since then, when Dutch ships entered the port, they had to write a "wind story" and submit it to the Nagasaki Bugyo. This kind of wind story was only circulated in the small circle of the shogun to facilitate understanding of the external situation and was top secret.

However, just like the Qing Dynasty, the small circle knew a lot about the Western world, but it was useless.

The small circle knew about the French Revolution, so they thought it was the French White Lotus Sect, and they suppressed it severely. They also sent Napoleon an ivory carving from the Fenyang Palace to "encourage" Napoleon to "follow Guo Ziyi and protect the Tang Dynasty from usurpation" and wish Napoleon many sons and grandsons, and a bed full of scepters; the small circle of the shogunate also knew a lot about the West. Even shortly after the French Revolution began, the shogunate had already known that the Netherlands was forced to stand with France.

This kind of secret that can only be circulated in a small circle includes not only the Dutch, but also the Chinese, after all, only ships from these two countries can come to Nagasaki for trade.

Fortunately, when Chinese ships arrived in Nagasaki, they did not need to submit the storytellers directly, but there would be special news services to inquire.

Most of them were nonsense, asking where the ship came from? Was there an earthquake in China recently? Was there a famine? Was there anything wrong with the border? Basically, these sea merchants didn't know much. They were scholars, farmers, merchants, and businessmen. Due to their status, merchants did not have such a tight intelligence network.

Sometimes, in order to please the Japanese, merchants often made up stories. As time went by, the Dutch storytellers were still taken seriously, but the Chinese storytellers were not taken seriously.

However, Liu Yu knew that he would be taken seriously when he came this time. Because he brought things that those merchants could not bring.

The ship docked, and soon several Japanese boarded the ship. Lin Yunwen whispered a few words to the Japanese, and then led the Japanese to see the war horses in the cabin. The Japanese got off the ship immediately.

"Master, the matter has been done. I guess Nagasaki Bugyo will ask in person later. I am just a captain, and I guess he won't ask me. Even if he asks me, I know what to say. It's just that this place is not like Shenzhou. After all, it is on someone else's territory. The so-called strong dragon can't suppress the local snake."

Liu Yu nodded and said, "Don't worry, I know it."

He called Shi Shiyong, who had been hiding in the cabin, and brought four students including Mantou as guards. Soon, the Japanese side sent someone to invite Liu Yu.

He got off the boat in a swagger, surrounded by people on both sides, and led by several Japanese people to a mansion. The owner of the mansion was "Tang Tongshi", which means Chinese translator. He introduced himself as Mei Sanshilang.

After entering the house, Liu Yu took a few glances and guessed that there might be an important person listening behind the screen, but he didn't know what level.

Mei Sanshilang didn't ask where it came from or where the ship was loaded, but asked directly: "Why did you bring a war horse?"

Liu Yu was also not pretentious at all.

"Because the war horse can be exchanged for a trade letter. The trade letter can make money. In addition to the war horse, I also brought a bow-taking warrior who is good at riding, shooting and hunting eagles."