After saying this, he stuffed wine glasses into the hands of the officials of Litu's fleet and asked his attendants to pour sake for the officials of Litu's fleet. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 After everyone finished drying the sake in the wine glass, Miyanoshiro Naomitsu asked loudly, "Are these two ships sold to the merchants in the port, or to the Satsuma Domain?" ”

Li Tu nodded and said, "Sell it all to the Satsuma Domain, Your Excellency Miyanoshiro can give me a good price!" ”

Hearing Li Tu's words, Miyanoshiro Naomitsu was full of joy, laughed heartily again, waved his sleeves and said: "Lord Li Bo came as promised this year, and we Satsuma Clan dare not be rash!" We will give you the best price. ”

After receiving Li Tu and his party on the dock, Miyanoshiro took Li Tu and the others to the door of the samurai house that had been lent to the Zaixing last year, stating that the house was still for Li Tu's use.

After resting in the house for a day, Li Tu went to Naomitsu Miyagi and went with him to visit the lord of the Satsuma domain. Everyone was familiar with the road and rode to Tsurumaru Castle. In the hospitality room of Tsurumaru Castle, Shimazu Tadashi, the lord of the Satsuma Domain, received Li Tu and his party.

As soon as they met, Shimazu Tadashi said enthusiastically: "Congratulations to Master Li for being promoted to the position of the owner, the young hero of the owner, extraordinary!" ”

Li Tu arched his hand and said, "Thanks to the iron cannon that the feudal lord sold us last year, I defeated the pirates with the skill of firearms and was promoted to the lord of the ship!" ”

Xue Yiming added: "The firearms sold to us by the feudal lord are really useful, we relied on firearms to defeat the pirate Chen Shengning, and also snatched a lucky boat. ”

Shimazu Zhongheng laughed and said, "Then congratulations to Master Li Bo for his prosperity and prosperity!" The trade of Li Bo's two ships was also a happy event for our domain. Our domain's finances were tight, and Lord Li was willing to sell two ships of goods to our domain, which really greatly alleviated the financial shortage of our domain. I want to thank Master Li. ”

After thinking about it, Shimazu Tadashi asked again: "Is Lord Xiao retired?" ”

Li Tu nodded and said: "Lord Xiao Bo is old, he can't stand the pain of drifting on the sea, and he is worried about the danger of the pirates' swords, so he retired with peace of mind and no longer ran to the sea, and handed over the ship to his subordinates. ”

Shimazu Zhongheng smiled, nodded and said, "Lord Xiao is really a cautious person!" ”

Li Tu smiled and said to Shimazu Tadashi, "This visit to the feudal lord is because we are going to buy iron cannons and bombs for a newly captured ship. ”

Shimazu Tadashi nodded and replied, "Yes, just trade at last year's price." ”

Li Tu arched his hand again and said, "I still want to ask the feudal lord to buy a few cannons!" ”

As a traverser, Li Tu knew that future naval wars would increasingly rely on artillery. Although the maritime powers of East Asia were not yet widely equipped with artillery in this era, in Europe, Britain had already defeated the Spanish Armada with artillery and mobile ships. The naval warfare of the future is the world of artillery.

The only place where Li Tu could buy artillery was the Satsuma Domain.

But after all, artillery is the most important weapon of the country in this era, and the Satsuma clan did not sell artillery to Li Tu so easily, and Shimazu Tadashi also had to observe Li Tu's performance.

When Shimazu Tadashi heard this, he groaned for a while, and then said, "Master Li, I will leave for Edo to attend the service in a few days. In recent years, the shogun has been increasingly tightening the terms of trade as a result of the widespread talk in Edo Castle that trade is an obstacle to the country's capital and calls for the country's seclusion. ”

Shimazu Tadashi said with a solemn face: "This trend is getting stronger and stronger, I'm afraid that in a few years, my Satsuma Domain will not even be able to dock foreign ships." After a pause, Shimazu Tadatsune said, "This time, the shogun will bring foreign traders with him when he wants to give an account to the various feudal domains with trade, and the shogun will personally meet and talk to each other in order to decide the future of the country's lockdown policy. ”

It was a system during the Tokugawa shogunate period in Japan that required the princes of each region to go to Edo, where the shogunate was located, to live and see the shogun every once in a while. For most of the feudal lords, this time was once every two years. This year, it's time for Tadashi Shimazu to go to Edo.

The shogun had to decide whether or not to lock the country, and this year he wanted to meet with the maritime merchants of various countries, so that the merchants could be brought with him when the feudal towns were visited.

Shimazu Tadashi looked at Li Tu and said, "Is Lord Li willing to go to Edo to meet the shogun and declare the benefits of trade?" ”

Li Tu thought for a while, arched his hand and said, "May you wish!" ”

#####

Li Tu rode a horse with two eyes and a general to mix in the team of "Qimoto", and accompanied Shimazu Tadashi to Edo.

Li Tu didn't expect that there would be so many people and horses that the Satsuma Domain's staff members had brought out. As far as 2,000 people could see, including the samurai wearing the Haori embroidered crest of the Cross Maru family crest, the ashigaru, and the retinue, stretching from the Otemon Gate of Tsurumaru Castle to the end of the road.

The ranks of the officers and the officers marched forward according to the marching posture of the battle: the first to set off was the vanguard of three horses; Two kilometers behind were the first three ranks of samurai armed with iron cannons, bows, and poles; Behind it was a team of lower-ranking samurai and attendants, who were responsible for carrying luggage, cleaning roads and lodgings; Next is the core team of 250 people, which is divided into a personal guard with the "flag book" as the core and an offensive main force under the command of a family elder. Shimazu Tadashi sits in a Japanese-style sedan chair called a "driving cage" and walks in the middle of the pro-guards; At the back of the line was a supply team led by an elder.

This mighty procession walked on the road like a great army. When the people of the Satsuma clan saw this procession, they all knelt on the side of the road until the procession was gone.

As a guest, Li Tu took the translator and Xu San and rode next to Shimazu Tadashi's palanquin. He secretly said that it is no wonder that the finances of the Japanese feudal domains are tight, and how much silver does it cost to drive this vast and gorgeously dressed team to Edo for half a year?

The team of attendance and explanation walked for ten days before they walked out of Kyushu Island and arrived at the mountain ****.

On this day, the team traveled to Tajima Province and set up a camp in a lodging field to rest and rest. Tadashi Shimazu found Li Tu and spoke to him.

"Master Li, are you still used to it along the way?"

Hearing the translator's translation, Li Tu replied: "The sea is used to being bumpy, and riding a horse on land is nothing. After thinking about it, Li Tu asked curiously: "Domain lord, how much does it cost to pay for such a large team of attendees?" ”

Shimazu Zhongheng looked at Li Tu and said, "One back and forth, the journey takes four months, and it takes 20,000 yuan." After a pause, Shimazu Tadashi said again: "This is not counting, the bigger expense is the payment of the samurai left behind in Edo, which costs more than 60,000 yuan a year." Because of these expenses, the feudal government could not make ends meet. ”

Li Tu secretly marveled in his heart and asked, "Is this the case with all the domains?" ”

Shimazu Tadashi nodded and said, "This is the case with all feudal domains!" Because of the attendance and explanation, the feudal towns of the world are poor and Edo is rich. However, this was an important system of the shogunate, and the feudal clans had to implement it with great fanfare, for fear that the operation would be rudimentary and the family would be lowered! ”

Li Tu thought for a while and said, "Edo's general is a good means!" A single attendance made all the feudal clans weak and powerless to rebel. ”