When I finally arrived in Hirado, Japan's first window to the Western world, walking through the noisy streets of this place, I felt so strong. However, it should be noted that Hirado at this time was not as prosperous as described in "Taiko Rishiden", on the contrary, it could only barely squeeze into the bottom of the first class in various towns and cities across the country, and it was not even a fifth compared to Sakai Town, which is still the Sakai Town before I took over.

Due to the constant war, not many people can actually come here from central and eastern Japan, and it is not easy to bring back the large quantities of supplies that have been bought from here. Therefore, those who can come here are some big businessmen with more backgrounds, and basic users are unlikely to come here.

In order to obtain greater profits and buy cheaper Japanese products, Portuguese and Dutch merchants with strong maritime power drove to on their own, and Hirado was more used here to supply and radiate the Kyushu market. However, compared to the system and management that had been established in Sakai Town, it was more exploratory and experimental, so that I saw more British, French, Danish, Venetian and even Norwegian merchant ships than, but the scale was generally small.

A group of us walked on the streets here, walking and walking, maybe a street that was originally straight slowly turned a corner, and the shops on the side of the road were also large and small without a charter, which shows the randomness of the construction. I walked forward with a slight frown, and Tora Chiyo and Shinhachiro were shopping in high spirits.

"The Matsuura family here is really incompetent, and a thriving port is actually managed like this!" Sakurai Sakichi still has some management vision, and whispered beside me.

"Hmm......" I snorted noncommittally and continued to walk slowly forward.

The Matsuura family is a medium-sized wealthy family with a long history in the western part of Hizen, and there have been no outstanding people for many years, but there are no losers. As some people who know the times, they surrendered to the Ryuzoji family after the defeat of the Shao Er family, and now they have surrendered to me without a fight. These are some ordinary people, and the governor is also on the front line of Chikuzen right now. In the long run, they are not suitable for running a place like Hirado, but I don't treat them too badly.

It's a problem, but it's not what I'm thinking about right now, it's a problem that's too small to be small, or not at all. The fleeting back on the road was not seen by others, but a hurried glance made me have a hazy and familiar feeling, and I always felt strange in my heart.

I just glanced at it in a hurry, and intuitively it was a tall, stout samurai, dressed in gray or teal. It stands to reason that this is just an ordinary wandering samurai, but why do I always feel a little uneasy?

"Who is that person?" I kept asking myself this question in my head, but it didn't come to any effect because there was so little information. In the end, I had to give up, and it was useless to think about it.

"My lord, how about you take a look at this?" Shinhachiro greeted me from a shop, and Tora Chiyo was standing beside him.

It's a Portuguese merchandising, a two-storey European-style building that stands out from the crowd among its neighbors, but in order to adapt to oriental customs, the street side has been designed with a whole movable gate, so that it can be operated in an open way. I stomped in slowly, and there was a lot of variety of goods here.

"That's a good thing, isn't it?" Shinhachiro asked, holding a helmet in his right hand, and there was a pair of half-body armor on the shelf next to him.

The armor was made entirely of thick iron sheet, and the helmet was towering and had a front-to-back "cockscomb", with a narrow cornice underneath, but a pointed point at the front and back. As for the body part, it is just two pot-shaped iron pieces at the front and back that are fixed with belts to protect the torso.

This is the standard armor of the Spanish spear infantry, which must have been seen in many parts of the world in this era, but it is not suitable for use in Japan, and the Japanese usually wear it with a thin and short body, so you don't want to fight. And as a collectible, it's a bit ordinary, even though the guys in the store rub him very shiny.

"This samurai lord is really discerning, and our boss paid a lot of money to get this armor!" A young senior clerk standing next to him walked over and said exaggeratedly, and at the same time, the expression on his face was sincere enough. Although he is a European, he speaks Japanese quite fluently and is very eloquent.

I ignored him and picked up a European-style ornamental sword. You must have your own opinions in the store, otherwise even if you have more money in your pocket, you will not be able to spend it.

The current era of great discoveries and voyages in Europe is the time of vigorous rise, and the glory of knights is no longer glorious. The sword in my hand has replaced the heavy and clumsy two-handed heavy sword as the protagonist of today, representing the relaxed and enterprising style of this era, but at the same time, more traces of industrialization cannot be concealed, although it is gorgeous, but it is only the "art" of mass production.

After looking at it for a while, I have a general understanding of this store, and there are many things that are of good quality, but there is a lack of high-quality products, and it can only be oriented to the general wealthy class.

"Do you like something like this? What's the use! "Shinhachiro was very puzzled when he saw what I was holding in my hand, and in his opinion it was a joke to fight with such things.

"Yes! I think so too! I smiled and put down the bayonet and turned to walk out. I'm going to buy a piece or two in Hirado, but the goods here are a bit unsightly.

"Seeing that you, a samurai, are a big deal, such a single small thing naturally can't meet your needs!" The young clerks have excellent professional standards, and they are still not anxious, dry, give up, or discouraged in the face of setbacks. "We also have a lot of military supplies in our store, and we have a lot of them. Not only in Kyushu, but also in and eastern China, there are many noble daimyo who are asking us for goods, and the supply and quality of goods are definitely not a problem. If you have special requirements, we can also buy goods from Nanban to you, which will definitely make you satisfied! ”

"Oh, what do you have here?" His words intrigued me and I stopped halfway there. Everything I needed was solved in Sakai Town, and I had never dealt with a merchant in Kyushu, so I don't know what the situation is like here.

"Please take a look here!" He walked briskly to one of the counters in the back, which was tightly covered by a dark green tweed. The counter is slightly tilted outward, a bit like a vegetable vendor's stall, and there is nothing special about it.

"Whew!" The clerk pinched the two corners of the tweed and lifted it upwards and shook it, revealing the things that had been placed inside. It was a dozen iron cannons arranged in three series, from long to short.

I walked back step by step, my eyes almost stuck in the iron cannons. Several people around him also became serious all of a sudden, and no one expected this sudden situation.

the outermost and longest one in my hands, I turned to look closely at the light outside the gate, the blue sheen on the iron pipe and the fresh paint on the wood said it all, and I looked down and asked with my nose, the barrel was covered with butter. This gun is not the most advanced of all the samples, on the contrary, it is the most common, but because of this, it has become the most practical standard equipment.

I was a little touched by the fact that Hirado was so chaotic in the hands of the Matsuura family, and that firearms were also sold on a large scale in Sakai Town and Ishiyama, but they would never appear in the local stores. I have always controlled the wholesale of iron cannons, an important ordnance, in the hands of more than 20 first- and second-class suppliers, and all foreign merchants who are in large demand have their own special brokers to be responsible for receiving them. If anyone like Hirado could buy and sell regardless of their status, then I don't know what the consequences would be!

I could ignore this situation in Hirado before, but I can't let it go in the future, and no matter how tight my intelligence network is, it will be impossible to keep an eye on all the forces, big and small. Buy 10 today, buy 20 the day after tomorrow, it adds up to a lot, if you don't notice, maybe you don't even know how to die that day. Now I even have some suspicions that the cannons that wanted Oda Nobunaga to die were flowing from Kyushu.

"You are an expert, we are definitely not picky!" Seeing that I was interested in their products, and that it was probably a big business, the clerk couldn't help but be a little excited.

"What's the price?"

"45 pieces, if you buy more, you can negotiate again!" He replied.

The price he quoted was not expensive, and it was even slightly cheaper than Sakaimachi, but it made me even more worried, indicating that the spread might be even larger.

"Can you really provide a lot of these cannons? If you work hard for a long time, there are only forty or fifty, and it will be meaningless! I said this worriedly, deliberately.

"You just have to rest assured, I have exactly 200 pieces in stock here that I want to get rid of!" It wasn't the clerk in front of him who said this, but a slightly old voice coming from inside.

"How are you?" The two of us were stunned for a moment, and then we both asked the same question.

Out of it came a small dry European thin old man with a small cane with a golden head, none other than Juan Brown, the largest Portuguese merchant in Japan. Gomez, I don't know how he ended up here. He obviously didn't expect me to be here, and in such a way, so he seemed equally surprised.

"It's been a few months since I've been in Kyushu, and this is something that everyone knows!" I reacted first, it seems that this is also a stronghold of his. However, since it is him, things may be easier to handle, and he may be able to repair some of the loopholes that have been caused before.

"I came to Kyushu just to meet you, but I haven't been approved!" He walked up to me with a kind but somewhat foxy smile.