After surviving all kinds of big and small things during this period of time, I feel happy physically and mentally without regrets! For the first time, he used his own efforts to accomplish several major things, and he felt as if he had grown and been reborn overnight. But to be honest, he still feels quite bottomless in his heart, as if the success of things is due to luck.

Maybe God didn't want to let the unrepentant swell like this, and the team of people he sent out to Kyushu Island to do business sent back the news, the person who seized the batch of muskets of the Chamber of Commerce seemed to have a deep background, and the other party seemed to be soft and hard, and after checking it all the way, it seemed that there was also a dirty relationship between the forces and the forces......

After several negotiations, there was still no result, and all the methods except force had been used, but the other side was determined and refused to let the muskets go.

If you don't regret it, you can't help but find me, and in the end, you still have to let me make up my mind. After much thought, I decided to go for myself.

These weapons are not very valuable, but as Su said, if in the long run, everyone will step on the head of the sea and run to pinch it, then what business will we have?

This time, I decided to go with no regrets, and the blade sea is still under the management of Shu. I'm going to meet this fussing guy for a while and see who's doing it!

When we went to sea, this time we were in Arashi's fleet, accustomed to the speed of a hybrid clipper, and then on this century-old flat-bottomed boat, we suddenly felt unbearable. But after thinking about it, what I am facing at the moment is not urgent, so I should have come out for sightseeing.

Thus the mood was much calmer, and Kite, Mo, and Lakshin, who had rushed back, had only come ashore a moment before they had gone out to sea, so they continued to board the boat and explained to me in detail the results of their investigation.

"Sir, I can be sure that this matter has something to do with Hideyoshi Hashiba." The kite frowned slightly and said softly.

I took a sip of the "milk tea" prepared according to my recipe with a wooden pipe, chewed the fruit pieces sucked up from the bottom of the milk tea cup vigorously, and asked with a smile, "Oh! Tell me more! ”

The kite pouted, meaning that we were talking about something big, but I was holding the milk tea "not doing my job"! The little nose wrinkled into a cute ripple, and then smiled, "Our cargo landed at the port of Zota in Kagoshima Prefecture, which is the domain of the Shimazu family."

As he spoke, Kite stretched out his hand and pointed to the southernmost location of Kyushu Island, and continued: "Since Shimazu Yoshihisa inherited the position of family governor, he has unified the island of southern Kyushu with lightning speed, and directly confronted the Otomo family in the north. In order to strengthen his own power, Shimazu Yoshihisa has always maintained close ties with the Oda family. ”

After speaking, Mo Kou continued: "Now that Nobunaga has been assassinated, it is an indisputable fact that the scheming Shimazu Yoshihisa has turned to his most optimistic Hashiba Hideyoshi after careful consideration."

After speaking, he took out a piece of paper, which was densely packed with the contents of the call, and when I took it and looked at it carefully, it was a conversation between the deacon of Zota Port and the envoy of the Shimazu family.

The gist of it is that Hashiba Hideyoshi suspects that there is a close business relationship between the Kazukai Shokai and Shibata Katsuie, and the goods are mainly arms and intelligence! Although there is no definite evidence, spies embedded within Shibata Katsuke have recently reported that the number of firearms in the Shibata army has increased significantly, and the source is unknown.

After repeated deliberations, Dongying did not have the ability to produce muskets so quickly, and the most likely thing was that they were foreign. And looking at the records of all aspects of customs entry and exit recently, the largest trade volume is the Blade Sea Chamber of Commerce.

Although it is also possible that other chambers of commerce bypassed the nearest border and landed directly at Kanazawa Port in the Hokuriku region and transported the goods directly to Shibata Katsuie, it is still not ruled out that the major suspicion of the Blade Sea Chamber of Commerce is still not ruled out.

Therefore, Hideyoshi Hashiba repeatedly told Shimazu Yoshihisa that after having the opportunity to block the goods of the Blade Sea Chamber of Commerce, he must intensify his examination, delay the delivery for various reasons, and find out the specific whereabouts of the firearms.

In fact, at this point, the matter is completely clear. On the surface, this is a commercial dispute, but the reason behind it is caused by the mutual tilting and vigilance between forces.

It can be said that the previous investigation of several of them was very effective, and I have probably figured out the inside story of the matter, and now I am facing the problem of how to solve this matter.

Judging from Shimazu Yoshihisa's performance, he has made up his mind to make a fuss about this batch of muskets from our Chamber of Commerce, in other words, he has no intention of being nice to us. But what should I do?

The route of negotiation has been blocked, or in other words, it is very difficult to open this road, and as far as the situation stands, it is the most effective and difficult road, so I do not plan to make further contact with Shimazu Yoshihisa for the time being.

To put it more thoroughly, if I go to him like this to consult, it is tantamount to begging for someone to be low, and if he comes and disappears from the door, will I be inferior everywhere from now on? A local tyrant on an island, you can argue with me? Should I bow to you for a little bit of goods?

That's impossible! It couldn't be before! Not now! It will never be possible in the future!

But take it back directly by force? It doesn't seem to be a good option either. Although the combat effectiveness of their naval forces is not worth mentioning, the land battle is quite strong.

The four famous Shimazu brothers, in addition to the eldest brother of the family governor - Shimazu Yoshihisa is known for his intelligence, Shimazu Yoshihiro, Shimazu Iehisa, and Shimazu Tokihisa are all fierce generals in land warfare, especially Shimazu Yoshihiro, who was called "Onishimazu" and "Onishi Manzi" by the people of the time, and is a peerless military general on Kyushu Island, comparable to Otomo's retainer "Thor" Tachibana Michiyuki.

So, it would be absolutely unwise to fight them on land.

Of course, I have a deeper consideration, and that is that for the time being, I don't want to expose the relationship between me and the fleet led by Chen Kui, now known as the "Ghost Fleet".

In other words, there is still a relationship between us that needs to be protected, and it must not be made public now. Otherwise, the power of our Sakai Chamber of Commerce in Sakai Port will definitely be uprooted, and such a long effort will be burned.

So the current situation I am facing is that it cannot be soft or hard; Can't fight, can't reconcile, so how to deal with it?

It's not too far from Honshu to Kyushu. After leaving the dry wood beach, we crossed the western Pacific Ocean for a short distance south of Shikoku Island and arrived at the southern tip of Kyushu Island. In order to avoid the eyes and ears of the Shimazu family, and to gather more information, I did not land at Zota, but chose Tanegashima Yokoto, which is across the strait from Zota.

When you think of Tanegashima you think of it, you think of the place where the first rifle from Europe was first introduced to Japan, and Tanegashima is probably the reason why it became famous in the past. In Kadokurazaki, the southernmost tip of Tanegashima, there is still a "Rifle Transmission Monument". Today, Tanegashima has become the base of Toei's space program.

I came here for the musket, but I landed at the memorial site where the first musket was introduced to Toei, and I have to say that it was a wonderful fate.

Tanegashima is not populated, but almost every household is associated with muskets. In other words, Tanegashima has formed a very complete musket production industry chain, and in such a palm-sized place, more than 40% of the best quality muskets in the entire Dongying are produced.

However, due to resource limitations, compared with the Ming Dynasty, which had a large land and abundant resources, the number was still not worth mentioning.

I went around their musket village a few times to inquire about the situation in the name of *, and only then did I know that their order had been scheduled for March of the following year, so it was no wonder that Hashiba Hideyoshi could conclude that Shibata Katsuya's muskets were all shipped from outside.

Sitting at the hotel in Tanegashima Akaogi Port, I listened to the conversation between the customers of the hotel as I sipped sip of local sake, Kuki Masataka, Kite, and Rakshin.

Today is the third day of our arrival in Tanegashima, and we are a maritime merchant and bold enough to invite everyone to a few drinks, so we have already mingled with everyone in the hotel.

And I gradually learned that the most people in this store are drunks, and from time to time someone is "invited" out of the store by the grumpy hotel owner Hu Asheng, but there are always people who come in an endless stream. It is not surprising that the guests are from different classes on the island, and that one of the people sitting at the next table is the owner and the other is a beggar.

After all, it's the only entertainment venue on Tanegashima Island, and it's sure to be a men's favorite. If you don't look up on an island and don't look down, whoever drives someone out will also lower your own reputation, right?

And Mo and I also reached a consensus, because everyone who is engaged in intelligence knows that there is very little information that can really be obtained from the enemy's internal meetings, documents, or other formal channels!

Most of the sources of information are at the dinner table, in the bar, in the toilet, in the hotel. As the saying goes, "spies are around, leaks are instantaneous", it is often in this kind of casual place that people's casual words will sell the most valuable information.

Of course, it also takes some luck. After all, it's not always the case that you happen to run into an important person who is drunk, and this person happens to have the information you want to know. Not to mention, he's still going to get drunk or not, just in the excitement of saying what you want.

So I chose this place to come prepared, I divided my henchmen into two tables, pretended not to know each other, sat at two tables opposite, and drank their own wine. In this way, we can not only maintain a certain depth of tactical detours, but also gather a wider range of information we need, right?

After three glasses of wine, my face was bright red, and my eyes stared straight at me, as if they could drip water.

I was a little embarrassed by her, so I could only talk about his business things. At this moment, the shopkeeper Hu Asheng walked up to me with a plate, put down a plate full of natto, leaned down and whispered to me: "The one who just entered the door and sat at the second table is the local Wu Youwei Gate!" ”

It is the name of the consul of Toei, who is in charge of the administration of a place, and it is also the highest-ranking official in Tanegashima that I can now contact through normal channels. That's why I've been here for three days, and I've finally waited for this desired person.

I took another sip of sake, and was thinking to myself about how to get on the line with this Wooemon Gate. Just as he was hesitating, suddenly there was a violent movement from the side of the hotel! Fighting?

When I looked up, it was Lan at the table who grabbed a man's wrist, threw him to the ground, stepped on his back with one foot, and asked viciously, "Do you want your hand anymore?" Say! ”

I forgot to glance at the side in confusion, and the nine ghosts said to me: "These drunks have been staring at Lan all the time, and it is estimated that they drank some wine at this time, and went up to do their hands and feet, but they were beaten by Lan!" ”

I nodded, I wish it were. Glancing around, the drunkard seemed to have a lot of background, and as he was knocked down, seven or eight drinkers stood up at once, rolling up their arms and sleeves, as if they were going to come up to help.

When I looked again out of the corner of my eye, Wu Youweimen had already put down his wine glass, and looked fixedly at the drunken gang who were making trouble opposite, as if he wanted to say something, but he still didn't speak, probably because he saw Lan subduing the big man with a shot, and it was inconvenient to speak for a while!

Seeing this state, I secretly laughed in my heart, I was really sleepy and met the pillow, presumably Lan They also had this idea, so they suddenly made a move, and knocked this guy to the ground as soon as they came up.

Hmph, life is like a play, it all depends on acting skills! Today, let me use my gorgeous acting skills to accept the favor of Tanegashima - Lord Wooemon in a dignified manner!