When Ashikaga Yoshimitsu heard Zheng He's words, he knew that the comer was not good, and his face was embarrassed at first, but it was fleeting.

Of course, he has the edict and seal letter of the Ming Emperor rewarding him as the "King of Japan", but it was rewarded by Emperor Jianwen, and he is now facing Zhu Di's envoys, and he is not stupid enough to figure out the stakes in this.

Therefore, he immediately changed his words: "It is General Ben, who has been a little deaf in recent years, and often forgets the broom when he speaks, and forgets the broom when he speaks, and I hope that your Excellency will not take it to heart." ”

In fact, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu is now in his early forties and in the prime of life, so he just explained to find a step for himself, Zheng He knew that this matter should not be chased and beaten, and when he changed his words, he stopped continuing to delve into it, and was ready to cut directly to the point.

I only heard Zheng He say slowly: "This envoy's visit this time is when I heard that your country has a famous Satsuma Domain, located in a corner of the four islands of Japan, does not obey the king's orders, does not respect the law of etiquette, does not convert to religion, and now the thieves who are rampant overseas and disturb our border are also secretly funded by the commander, so the Holy Lord specially ordered and led tens of thousands of elite soldiers to cross east, in order to help His Excellency the General to exterminate this thief, I don't know what His Excellency the General wants?" ”

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was really surprised when he heard this, his jaw was about to drop, he had long been puzzled, he didn't think too much about why the Ming Dynasty envoys brought such a huge fleet and tens of thousands of officers and soldiers this time, but he didn't expect Zheng He to directly propose to help Japan exterminate the Satsuma Domain.

Especially in recent years, although it has nominally been under the rule of the shogunate, its family has secretly expanded its power overseas, especially in the Ryukyu South Seas. Although he had heard of these things for a long time, and it was indeed a problem in his heart, but the mountain was far away, and the place was still nominally obedient, so it was impossible for him to mobilize the people to crusade.

However, it is even more impossible for him to use the army of the Ming Dynasty to eliminate the power of the Satsuma Domain, and if he does so, then the other daimyo will not be in fear and want to rise up against him, then it is estimated that his nominally unified Japan will not be long before it becomes a divided Japan.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu had a cloudy face at this time, and said: "Your Excellency is laughing, a few wisps of thieves, how can you use the Lao Ming army to drive, and when I send someone to clear it in the future, I will definitely give an explanation to the great tomorrow." ”

Zheng He was slightly displeased, and corrected Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and said: "It is not a small trouble for thieves to disturb me, in February this year, a group of thieves from your country was so bold that they landed in my Suzhou and Songjiang mansions at night, killing more than 20 officers and soldiers, causing thunder and anger. ”

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu sighed, pondered for a moment, and then said with a sad face: "Zheng Zheng made this very good, and this general also thinks it is true, and is willing to share the worries of His Majesty the Emperor, but this thief is hiding secretly, and this general will need some time to investigate before he can reply." ”

Zheng He didn't reply directly to Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, he picked up the tea on the table in front of him and put it in front of his mouth, but as soon as his lips touched the tea, he immediately took it away, frowned and put the tea cup back on the table, it seems that this Japanese tea is not quite right.

Then he seemed to understand Ashikaga Yoshimitsu very well, and said distressedly: "This matter is really tricky. ”

An imperceptible smile flashed across the corners of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's mouth.

However, Zheng He's expression had recovered for a moment, and he continued: "This matter is indeed tricky, fortunately, my Son of Heaven is majestic, Your Majesty, our mission captured some thieves before the trip, and prepared to hand them over to His Excellency the General, and make good use of them, and take this opportunity to fight the thieves and thieves." ”

When Ashikaga Yoshimitsu heard this, the expression on his face could be said to be full of meat, eight vegetables, and five flavors. He asked, "Your Excellency said that you have captured the thief, how many?" How to catch it? ”

Zheng He said expressionlessly: "There are twenty-three in total, eleven people were captured in our Zhoushan Islands, this group of thieves is the bandit who landed in our country in February to kill our officers and soldiers, and the other twelve people were captured in the northern country of Ryukyu Island, and at this moment they are in the camp of our envoys outside Heianjing. ”

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu continued to give Zheng He a problem, and said: "This matter is very good, so that Your Excellency can hand over this group of thieves to our country, and I will definitely punish them severely." But how can these two gangs of thieves get rid of the scourge of the pirates? ”

Zheng He lowered his head and was silent, and after a while, he raised his head and said casually: "In the country of my Heavenly Empire, there is a legend that monkeys are most afraid of seeing blood, so the monkey tamers often kill the chicken in front of it first, so that this beast can see the strength of blood, and only then can it be gradually edified." Today's plan is to use the blood of these twenty-three thieves to educate the rest of the thieves. Zheng He said this, and hoped that His Excellency the General would reply cautiously. ”

When Zheng He said this, his tone was still calm and indifferent, and it seemed to be done casually, but his words were already sharp.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu is also a heroic figure, how could he not understand what Zheng He meant, he frowned, gritted his teeth hard, and muttered for a long time.

After a while, he said with a wicked smile:

"This general has understood the meaning of the envoy, and is willing to share the worries of the Ming Emperor, your Excellency can rest assured that this group of thieves will be handed over to this general, and this general will definitely let them deter everyone, and prevent thieves from disturbing Ming."

After saying that, he turned his head to a Japanese official sitting behind him and said, "Tomorrow in the capital, I will invite the princes sent by the major famous families in the city, especially the eldest prince of the Satsuma Domain's Lai Island family, he must go." The twenty-three thieves handed over by the envoys of the Ming Dynasty were punished with retorts, and let the princes watch the punishment. ”

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu said this to his own officials, but at the same time, he also said it to Zheng He.

"Your Excellency General is well aware of the great righteousness, and is deeply grateful, and when this envoy returns to Nanjing, he will definitely report to Your Majesty your diligence, courtesy, and sincerity."

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu bowed slightly, and said respectfully: "Your Excellency." ”

Today's matter was finally settled, and after Zheng He and the others said goodbye, they got up and left to go back to the post house.

Ji Yan listened to this verbal confrontation the whole time, and goosebumps rose all over his body, and he was very curious at this moment, what is this punishment?

On the second day, Japanese officials rushed to the post house early in the morning with a group of officers and soldiers, asking Zheng He and others to deliver the prisoners and others to them, and said that General Ashikaga Yoshimitsu also invited the Ming Dynasty envoys and others to go to watch the execution. The captives were handed over to the Japanese officers and soldiers, and they escorted the captives in front, Zheng He led everyone behind, and the group came to the city of Kyoto, on the side of the execution platform that was built overnight on Suzaku Road.

This execution platform is made of wood, more than half a person high, and at this moment there are dense Japanese Heiankyo crowds on one side, who love to watch the excitement as much as the people of our country, and on the other side, one by one, sitting richly dressed sons, should be the sons in Beijing mentioned by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.

On the execution table, there are twenty-three large urns, each of which is larger than a person, but it is an iron tool, and the bottom of this iron urn can be opened, it seems to be a coal or something like that, Ji Yan looked at this thing very much like the copper pot shabu shabu he had eaten, but it was not exactly the same.

I saw that the Japanese sergeant led the twenty-three prisoners to the stage, and they were all stuffed into the urns first, and the prisoners didn't seem to have seen what kind of punishment this was, so they obediently went in.

A man who looked like a Japanese official walked to the stage and read Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's order to everyone, saying it twice in Chinese. That is to say, they were thieves, who went to the Ming Dynasty and Ryukyu and other places to rob and kill people, and were captured by General Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.

After reading the order, the execution was carried out immediately. The soldiers opened the lower entrance of the large urn and lit a fire, which was very similar to a copper pot, with a charcoal fire underneath. However, unlike the copper pot, the prisoners were not in the water, but on the water, and this large urn had a charcoal fire at the bottom, water in the middle, and the top layer was now the widges who were tied up with flowers.

It's actually a steamer!

It's just that it's not steamed buns, it's a living person!

The prisoners finally realized what was going on, and began to shout frantically, while the crowd of onlookers below had obviously never seen such a severe punishment, so they were very interested, and they all watched it with relish.

Ji Yan glanced at the sons of the world sitting in the row. Most of the princes were pale, some of them had already covered their mouths, apparently about to vomit, some wanted to leave, but were persuaded by the soldiers to go back, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu had a life, and they could not leave until the execution was over. Ji Yan wanted to know which one was the son of the Satsuma Domain, but he didn't know this group of people at all, but he felt that someone was looking at them, and he looked at that person, who was looking at the Ming Dynasty envoys with resentment.

The water in the large urn on the execution table was already hot, and the criminals were now red and swollen from the hot steam rising from the bottom, and their bodies began to steam, and they kept struggling, but it was useless, and they could only use their strength to shout and scream.

This scene was so terrifying that Ji Yan couldn't bear to look up anymore, so he quietly twisted his head to the other side.

Zheng He looked at the scene of the execution on the stage in a daze, and said slowly: "I heard that there are two seven or eight-year-old children in the family you arrested?" ”

Ji Yan replied:

"Yes, they are in the camp at the moment, and I plan to let Lin Anhe, a Fujian merchant who accompanied me on the trip to Ryukyu, find a good family for them to adopt."

Zheng He said expressionlessly:

"Well, you have compassion."

Ji Yan promised, couldn't tell whether it was cold or hot, and didn't dare to say more.

Although Zheng He was still looking at the execution table, his eyes were confused, and he seemed to have fallen into a deep memory at this moment, he seemed to be talking to himself, but his tone was turbid, making people tremble when he listened, and he only heard him mutter:

"Compassion, compassion."

Zheng He took a breath and paused.

Against the backdrop of the frantic shouting on the execution table, I only heard Zheng He continue to whisper in a trembling voice: "It can be seen that compassion is not a common thing in this world. Twenty years ago...... My uncle and I were captured by the Ming army...... I was ...... at that time But I'm only eleven or twelve years old......"

Zheng He didn't continue, because Wang Jinghong grabbed his sleeve and pulled Zheng He vigorously, frowning and shaking his head, reminding him not to say any more.

Zheng He was pulled back from his memory by Wang Jinghong, and his expression quickly returned to calm.

He sighed lightly, raised his hand weakly and waved, turned around and said, "Let's go." ””

Ji Yan didn't want to stay here anymore, so he quickly followed.

Zheng He walked in front of him, turned his head slightly to Ji Yan, and asked, "After returning to Beijing, what are your plans?" ”

Ji Yan rushed to his chest with blood at this moment, and replied with his fists clenched: "My subordinates are willing to follow my lord!" ”

When Zheng He heard this answer, he nodded, didn't say anything more, and led everyone back to the post house.