The cold murderous aura that flashed in Zheng He's eyes made Ji Yan take aback and feel a little chill down his spine, and then he suddenly thought that although Zheng He has always been very kind and kind to them as scholars, Zheng He's growth experience can be said to have crawled out of the pile of dead people, and this kind of effort determines how he can be a character like Maitreya Buddha.

Ji Yan settled down, and then said:

"The reason why Xia Guan thinks this way is because Xia Guan has just arrived in Ryukyu and met a merchant from Qingzhou Mansion in Shandong."

Zheng He asked, "Is it one of the two merchants you invited to my camp?" ”

Ji Yan replied, "Exactly." This merchant is also a victim of the Ryukyu gang of Japanese pirates, they had been robbed of a batch of priceless glass by the Ryukyu gang of Japanese pirates a few months ago, so the lower official specially met with them in the Ryukyus to learn about the information of the Japanese pirates, the Japanese information is not much, but they know the purpose of the trip of the adult fleet, at that time the lower official pinched his fingers, and it was only ten days before the lower official knew about it, and the merchant went to sea from Shandong but heard about it. Extrapolating from the time, didn't these merchants know earlier than the lower officials? Therefore, Xia Guan felt that there was something strange about this matter, so he asked this merchant privately on the ship to Japan, and he said that he had heard from their Shandong Maritime Chamber of Commerce, and later Xia Guan asked the Quanzhou merchant arranged by the Lord, and he said that he had heard from the Quanzhou Maritime Chamber of Commerce earlier that the Adult was going to sea to deal with the Japanese Invaders. ”

Ji Yan cleared his throat and slowly uttered his reasoning.

At first, the lower officials also wondered if there were traitors among these merchants, but then after thinking about it, these maritime merchants had no sources, and even if some of them colluded with the Japanese invaders, this collusion would never still be publicized in the Maritime Chamber of Commerce. Second, if the thief and I get the news at the same time, Shandong and Quanzhou are thousands of miles apart, and the thief will definitely not be able to take a walk at the same time in Shandong and Quanzhou. Therefore, the magistrate concluded that someone must have learned the destination of the envoy more than 20 days before the interpreters of our journey, and then this person took advantage of the hatred of these maritime merchants for the Japanese to spread the news and disturb our hearing and hearing. ”

Zheng He did not follow Ji Yan's words to ask or answer, because Ji Yan's words made him fall into memory.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year this year, the emperor rewarded him with the surname "Zheng", and since then he has been renamed Zheng He, and at the same time promoted him to the eunuch of the four ranks, and his status in the inner court is second only to the eunuch, and then he was ordered to go to Taicang and Ningbo to supervise the shipbuilding, organize the fleet, select the attaché, and after being ready, go to the sea to find the whereabouts of the missing Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunwen.

However, an accident disrupted this plan, that is, the incident of the Japanese invaders landing in Songjiang and Suzhou in February, which caused Long Yan to be furious, and Zheng He visited the coastal prefectures and counties of Zhejiang and Jiangsu, believing that the repeated disturbance of our rear by the Japanese was a potential big trouble, so he took advantage of the reason for the Japanese invasion that the Emperor Shangshu hoped to send an envoy to Japan first, and then go to the West after the Japanese invaders.

About a month before and after, the saint was allowed to play, and then he began to arrange Ji Yan and other interpreters to set out to find out the news.

If the news leaked out of Nanjing, no, it is even possible that someone leaked the news as soon as he wrote the note, in this case, it was indeed too late for Ji Yan and others to spread to the maritime chambers of commerce in the coastal provinces earlier.

Ji Yan also came to his own conclusions:

"Therefore, the lower officials concluded that it was not the private merchants who leaked the true destination of this mission, but from within the imperial court."

In fact, Ji Yan originally wanted to say that Lord Zheng He, there may also be internal ghosts among your cronies, but he hesitated for a moment and did not say so, only said that the possible internal ghosts came from within the imperial court.

Zheng He didn't say anything or react, as if Ji Yan was not in the account at the moment, and he had been in a state of silence with his head bowed since just now.

And Ji Yan could only stand quietly in place, waiting for Zheng He to speak.

About a stick of incense has passed.

Zheng He raised his head, looked at Ji Yan, and asked:

"Before you came to report to my fleet, you were on an errand in the capital Jinyi Guard, didn't you?" ”

Zheng He did not continue to discuss the topic of "internal traitor" with Ji Yan, and suddenly threw out this question at this moment, and stared at Ji Yan tightly, as if he wanted to see through his whole person.

Ji Yan didn't know why the topic suddenly turned to him, and replied a little weakly:

"If you go back to your lordship, yes, before Xia Guan, I worked as a translator in the Yamen of the Jinyi Wei Experience Division in the capital, specializing in dealing with the relevant documents and communiqués of the vassal state."

Zheng He was still staring at Ji Yan, and asked again:

"What is the name of Lord Shangguan when you went through the errand of the division?"

Ji Yan was stared at a little hairy in his heart, tried to calm his heartbeat, cleared his throat, and replied:

"Xiaguan's boss at that time, named Liu Xun, was a member of the experience department."

Liu Xun ...... Jinyi Wei ...... ......"Zheng He began his trademark thinking about the problem while pacing back and forth again, only this time he was also chanting Liu Xun's name, as if trying to find a memory of the name.

Zheng He muttered to himself for a while, as if there was no result, he collected his thoughts for a while, stood in front of Ji Yan again, and said with a smile:

"Ji Tongyi, you're tired of traveling, let's go and rest first. If you hadn't broken the Ryukyu Yakuza this time, this errand would have been difficult. When Captain Mei comes back with the prisoners, you will go with me for interrogation. ”

With that, he turned his head and shouted outside the tent:

"Wang Xi!"

As soon as the words fell, a little eunuch trotted into the tent, it was the little eunuch who had just led the way for Ji Yan and the others, it turned out that his name was Wang Xi.

Zheng He said to Wang Xi:

"Ji Tong Yi is tired, you take him to the tent to rest, and he will be served."

Wang Xi's body almost arched into an ingot, and replied with a smile: "The slave maid takes the order." After saying that, he turned his face to Ji Yan, still bowed, raised his right hand, and said, "Master Ji, please." ”

Ji Yan followed Wang Xi out of the big tent.

Because the area of this beachhead is limited, Zheng He's camp area is not large, Ji Yan felt that after walking a few steps, he arrived at the place, and turned over and entered the tent only to find that there was no one else.

Ji Yan asked: "I think there can be five or six people in this tent, why are the beds empty, but what about the others?" ”

Wang Xi's whole face was toothless at the moment, and he replied with a smile: "Master Ji doesn't know, this camp is for all the interpreters, but the interpreters who came before all said that they didn't want to live here, and went to live on the ship, so you live alone, quietly!" ”

Ji Yan was a little crying and laughing when he heard this answer, he had already guessed that it was the other interpreters who felt that their faces were dull, so they were embarrassed to live here, but this Wang Xi was old on the left and quiet on the right, which made Ji Yan feel that he had lived an old life in a nursing home in advance.

Ji Yan didn't bring any luggage in order to hurry quickly, so he didn't know what to do while sitting on the empty camp bed, originally he planned to meet Feng Che and ask them what happened to them in the Satsuma Domain, but Feng Che and they lived on the ship, and it was almost dark now, so it was estimated that he wouldn't be able to see them today. Ji Yan looked at Wang Xi, who was obediently standing beside him, and thought of something, so he asked Wang Xi: "Do you know how to fish?" ”

Wang Xi replied: "I can't fish for slaves and maids, but there is a river on the edge of my hometown in Hebei, and when I was young, my father often took slaves and maids to fish." ”

Ji Yan came to be interested: "Fishing? How to fish? ”

Wang Xi hunched his waist and explained to Ji Yan: "The river near the slave's hometown is not wide, so the slave's father took the slave and maid and stood in the river first, as soon as this person stood in, the fish were naturally scared away, and then the slave and maid stood still, motionless, waiting for a half-pillar of incense kung fu, motionless, this fish is forgetful, and he forgot that there are still human legs standing in the river, so he swam over slowly. You have to catch it hard, or the fish will be caught in vain as soon as you get out. ”

Ji Yan sounded interesting, so he pointed to the sea outside the tent and asked, "Can you catch fish like this in this sea?" ”

Wang Xi scratched his cheeks and replied, "The slave and maid have never fished in the sea, but the slave and maid see that the waves are not very strong, so they ......."

When I was in the Ryukyus, I didn't eat much because I had an errand, let alone a ship to Japan, although there was often seafood, but there were no condiments to match, and the second was that it was more troublesome to make a fire, so the fire was not too strong, and the fresh water was relatively tight, so they kept eating very sloppy. At this moment, Ji Yan was full of thoughts about having fresh fish soup to drink at night, so without waiting for Wang Xi to finish speaking, he got up and ran out, and greeted Wang Xi as he ran: "Let's go, accompany me to catch fish." ”

At this moment, on the shore of the sea, the waves are carrying foam to beat the stones on the shore, these thousands of years of day after day washing, so that the small stones on the seaside are very smooth and show a variety of circles, the sun has set, there is only a trace of afterglow left to illuminate the western sky, a red sunset burns the junction of the sea and clouds, beautiful. Not far from the sea, you can still see a Ming Dynasty fortune boat, without any flag, slowly heading in the direction of Osaka Pier.

The two ran to the beach one after the other, Ji Yan took off his shoes and socks, pulled up his trouser legs and walked into the sea, although the sea water in April was still a little cold, but it was no longer biting.

Wang Xi also followed and stepped into the sea.

Ji Yan hunched his waist, looking at the knee-high sea water constantly lapping his legs, he suddenly thought of a very serious question, can he swim?

He has been busy doing this and that, but he forgot to try this question that may be related to his life and death, and he has no impression of whether he can swim before the crossing, and he definitely hasn't swam after the crossing anyway.

So Ji Yan decided to make a bold experiment.

He continued to walk in the direction of the sea, until the water level was close to his buttocks, only to hear Wang Xi shouting behind him:

"Master Ji, the water ahead is too deep, don't go any further, it's dangerous ahead! Count adults! ”