After lying on the ground for a quarter of an hour, Xiao Xiangui came back to his senses and stood up with a sad face. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The two of them walked back to Kitada Lodge. Xiao Xiangui seemed to have lost his soul, walking behind with one foot deep and one foot shallow, Li Tu could only follow him to slow down. It was supposed to be a two-quarter hour journey, and the two walked for half an hour, and only half of the walk.

Seeing that he was about to enter the port town, Xiao Xiangui suddenly muttered:

"I'm going to dismiss the shipwrights and sailors!"

Li Tu was stunned when he heard this, and asked, "What?" ”

Xiao Xiangui looked at Li Tu and said, "I'm going to disband the shipwrights and sailors, and the Zaixing won't be opened." ”

Li Tu frowned and asked, "You don't want to be a maritime merchant anymore?" ”

Xiao Xiangui shook his head and said: "Don't do it, if you meet Chen Shengning, your life will be gone, what else do you want to do with the maritime business?" ”

Li Tu asked again: "Then how do you go back to Zhangzhou?" ”

Xiao Xiangui hesitated for a while and muttered, "I'll take someone else's boat back." ”

Li Tu sneered and said lightly: "Are you afraid that pirates will rob the ship and dare not open the ship, take someone else's ship, and others will not rob you?" ”

Hearing this, Xiao Xiangui's shoulders shrugged, and the whole person drooped down like a deflated ball. He is a timid person, he has gains and losses in everything, and he naturally knows the risks at this level.

When you get to the sea, the white expanse is full of sea, which is a good place to kill people and sell goods. Which of those armed maritime merchants who run the sea is a good match? Wandering on the sea, all of them are ruthless characters who kill people without blinking. Xiao Xiangui carried more than 40,000 taels of silver on the boat, if he was favored by the shipowner, it would be the end of death and no wealth.

Xiao Xiangui took someone else's boat, with a few retinues at most, and there was no force at all to protect more than 40,000 taels, totaling more than 2,000 catties of silver. If you are lucky, you may not be killed, but if you are weak and weak, it is extremely difficult to keep the silver, and it is very likely that it will be swallowed up by the shipowner.

Li Tu looked at Xiao Xiangui and said indifferently: "I think my own armed forces are not enough to protect my own silver, so I disband my own armed forces, this is really a different idea." ”

When Xiao Xiangui heard Li Tu's words, he suddenly felt cornered, and said with some annoyance:

"So, what then?"

Li Tu looked at the town not far away, and said resolutely: "If the armament is not enough, it must be strengthened!" ”

Xiao Xiangui muttered, "How to strengthen? The Zaixing can only carry so many people, what kind of outfit will it use to hire people? ”

Li Tu shook his head and said, "What I'm talking about is arming the existing crew. ”

Xiao Xiangui was stunned when he heard this, and asked, "How to arm?" ”

Li Tu replied indifferently: "Use firearms!" ”

As a traverser, Li Tu knew that the seventeenth century was an era when hot weapons gradually eliminated cold weapons. Whether it was the Japanese Warring States melee in the East, the Wanli Dynasty-Japan-Ming War, the Chongzhen Dynasty Liaodong War, or the continuous wars in the West, arquebuses and artillery played an increasingly decisive role.

An arquebusier, trained for a few months, can kill a single hit on the battlefield and kill a warrior who has been practicing martial arts for more than ten years. As soon as the artillery passed, the castle that had been captured for several years of siege was about to surrender.

The era of thermal weapons has arrived.

But in the East Asian Seas, the change has been slower. The heavily armed Western colonial empire, whose tentacles had just reached the East, did not invest much resources here. Although the local maritime merchants in the East also plundered and fought against each other, they still stayed in self-employment, and did not reach the level of equipment that relied on the country to fight like in the West.

The fortune ships of the Ming maritime merchants generally only employed warriors, and were not equipped with firearms against the enemy.

And Li Tu, as a traverser, wants to be the first person to eat crabs, and he wants to equip Xiao Xiangui's ship with firearms to deal with Chen Shengning.

Although Xiao Xiangui has been running the sea for three years, although he has also seen the cannons on the Franc plane, he has never seen the sharpness of firearms, and he was skeptical of Li Tu's words for a while. Blinking his eyes, Xiao Xiangui asked, "If you have a firearm, can you defeat Chen Shengning?" ”

Li Tu nodded and replied, "Exactly!" ”

In Xiao Xiangui's eyes, Li Tu reveals differences everywhere, and his knowledge and determination are even better than those of himself who have been running the sea for more than two years. Seeing that Li Tu said so resolutely, a glimmer of hope appeared in Xiao Xiangui's heart.

As if grasping a life-saving straw, Xiao Xiangui hurriedly asked, "Then where do we get firearms?" ”

Li Tu replied in a deep voice: "Let the Satsuma clan make it for us." ”

Xiao Xiangui was stunned, and asked, "The Satsuma Clan will agree?" This is the first time we have been to Wabotsu this year, and we have never even seen the lord of the domain. ”

Li Tu looked into the distance and said calmly: "Naturally, I will agree!" ”

#####

Returning to the Satsuma Domain, Xiao Xiangui visited Naomitsu Castle of the Imperial Palace, and expressed his intention to visit the lord of the Satsuma Domain.

As Li Tu expected, after Naomitsu Miyashiro told the lord of the Satsuma domain, the lord of the Satsuma domain immediately replied and was willing to meet with Xiao Xiangui and his party.

Early in the morning two days later, Naomitsu Miyajo prepared his horses, personally led the way, and led Xiao Xiangui, the owner of the Zaixing Ship, Xue Yiming, the general Sun Min, and Li Tu, the second shop, to ride to Tsurumaru Castle, the residence of Shimazu Tadatsune, the lord of the Satsuma Domain.

Although Li Tu had ridden a horse before the crossing, it was all in parks or tourist attractions, and the riding time was short. It was a sixty-mile road from Wabotsu to Tsurumaru Castle, and the people rode horses for five hours. Tumbling up and down on the saddle for a long time, Li Tu only felt the soreness of his hips being pulled apart.

On the way, chatting with Miyanoshiro Naomitsu, Li Tu knew that the Shimazu family of the Satsuma domain had more than 700,000 stone of stone height, more than 400,000 people under his rule, and had jurisdiction over Kagoshima and Ryukyu, with a land rent income of 400,000 stone a year, and more than 400,000 taels of silver, which was a typical feudal lord.

Li Tu also heard Namiya no Castle Naomitsu say that the Satsuma clan had to go to the house of the Edo shogun, that is, the ruler of Japan, every year to visit the house of the Japanese shogun, and also to help the Japanese shogunate build a large number of buildings, and the financial situation was relatively difficult.

The Japanese horse was short, only one man tall, but it had considerable stamina, and carried everyone all the way to the foot of Tsurumaru Castle.

Tsurumaru Castle was built near the town of Kagoshima, and the population of the castle town was thriving. Naomitsu of Wabozu took the lead in the city, and everyone rode through the town, and pedestrians on the road avoided the eaves of the houses on both sides. Li Tu sat on his horse and looked down on the Japanese people in the town, but he felt a little majestic.

Li Tu made up his mind to go to sea, so he is so respected today. This kind of feeling is something that farmer Li Tu has never felt in his life.

When the group rode to the outer gate of the moat of Tsurumaru Castle, they found that there were already seven or eight samurai lined up to meet them.

Seeing Li Tu and his party coming, the samurai who greeted him shouted in Japanese that Li Tu did not understand, bowed in unison, and welcomed the guests of the Zaixing.

Naomitsu Miyagi jumped off his horse and handed the reins to the samurai who greeted him. A samurai came up and grabbed Li Tu's bridle, and Li Tu jumped off his horse and walked into the castle with Miyagi no Miya.