Shurijo Castle Palace, main hall.

"The prince has come thousands of miles to suppress the widows, if there is a place where Xiao Wang can serve, Xiao Wang will definitely go all out." King Shang Yuan invited Li Yuntian to the first seat, sat sideways on the seat at the lower head, looked at Li Yuntian and said respectfully.

Shang De and other high-ranking civil and military officials of the Ryukyu Kingdom bowed to the side, secretly stretched out their ears one by one to listen to Li Yuntian's answer, and they all wondered if Li Yuntian was coming for the Japanese who were entrenched in the northern part of the Great Ryukyu Island.

Because the Great Ryukyu Island and the Japanese Kyushu Island are across the sea, so the Japanese people of Kyushu Island have gathered in the northern part of the Great Ryukyu Island over the years, and the Ryukyu Kingdom has sent troops to drive it away, but the strength is not strong and has not been able to drive it away, so that it continues to grow, which is a headache for the Ryukyu Kingdom.

Unlike the Japanese on Ryukyu Island and Qiongzhou Island, many of the Japanese on the Great Ryukyu Island have the background of local Japanese forces, among which the forces of the Satsuma Domain of the Japanese Kingdom are the leaders, and there is a wharf called "Vaulting Horse Port" in the north of the Ryukyu Kingdom, which is controlled by the people of the Satsuma Domain, and now the Vaulting Horse Port has become the base camp for the Japanese to gather.

"Not long ago, a group of Japanese invaders attacked the Songjiang Mansion in the south of the Ming Dynasty, and the king received news that the Japanese were entrenched in the waters around Kyushu Island and Ryukyu Island, so he specially brought troops to encircle and suppress them." Li Yuntian pondered for a moment and replied to King Shang Yuan quietly.

Obviously, Li Yuntian did not tell the truth to King Shang Yuan, the group of Japanese who attacked Songjiang Mansion came from Vaulting Horse Port, he did this firstly to see how King Shang Yuan reacted to this matter, and secondly, to cover up his purpose of coming to Ryukyu Island this time and wanting to set up an overseas military base for the Ming army on Ryukyu Island.

Li Yuntian believed that King Shangyuan and his ministers must have heard about the attack on Songjiang Province by the Japanese invaders, after all, Ryukyu Island was so big, and the news of the looting of Songjiang Province by the Japanese invaders in Jumping Horse Port would definitely reach the ears of King Shangyuan and the high-ranking officials of the Ryukyu Kingdom.

Suspecting that the powerful people of the Ryukyu Kingdom were secretly colluding with the Japanese in Vaulting Horse Port, Li Yuntian could take this opportunity to secretly observe the reactions of the civil and military officials of the Ryukyu Kingdom present to determine who was having an affair with the Japanese invaders.

Sure enough, after Li Yuntian's words were spoken, the face of a minister with a national character face at the scene suddenly changed, and then he recovered, and stood there silently, this scene was fully seen by Li Yuntian, who was secretly observing.

"Is the attack on Songjiang Mansion in the south of the Ming Dynasty related to those Japanese robbers on our island?" After getting Li Yuntian's answer, King Shang Yuan was secretly taken aback in his heart, he never thought that Li Yuntian was really coming for those Japanese robbers as Shang De said, so he pretended to be stunned and asked the ministers who were standing on the side.

The ministers at the scene immediately glanced at each other when they heard this, and then they all remained silent, Shang Yuanwang's question is really difficult for them to answer, rather than falling into a suspicion of not reporting it, it is better to remain silent and wait for the changes.

"Your Highness, the minister got a news yesterday, the Japanese who are entrenched in the Vaulting Horse Harbor in the north of our island have recently made a generous move, and a few days ago they had gone out to sea for more than 20 days, and now it seems that the matter of Songjiang Mansion in the south of the Ming Dynasty is likely to be done by them."

Seeing that no one came forward to answer King Shang Yuan, Shang De bowed to King Shang Yuan after a deep sigh and said, "The minister is sending someone to investigate this matter, and there should be a result soon." ”

As the regent of the Ryukyu Kingdom, Shangde had to come forward to play a round for King Shangyuan, and skillfully shirked the responsibility of "not reporting the knowledge", and at the same time shirked the responsibility of "suppressing the unfavorable Japanese".

Since the Great Ryukyu Island was one of the gathering places of the Japanese on the sea, the countries on the Ryukyu Island were required to suppress the Japanese since the Hongwu period, and after the Zhongshan Kingdom destroyed the Shannan Kingdom and the Shanbei Kingdom successively and became the Ryukyu Kingdom, it took on the responsibility of suppressing the Japanese under the edict of the Great Emperor.

It is a pity that the national strength of the Ryukyu Kingdom is limited, so it is tired of dealing with the Japanese who have landed on the Ryukyu Island from time to time, especially in recent years, several daimyo of the Japanese Kingdom Kyushu Island have infiltrated the Ryukyu Island, which has overwhelmed the Ryukyu Kingdom.

After several wars with the Japanese who landed in the northern part of the Ryukyu Island, the Ryukyu Kingdom, which suffered heavy casualties, had no choice but to abandon the Japanese in the port of Vaulting Horse, and the two sides were now in a delicate balance.

Although the Ryukyu Kingdom was at peace, the coastline of the coastal capital of the Ming Dynasty and the Korean State was unlucky, and there were often raids by piping pirates from the port.

Now, the Wakou of Vaulting Horse Harbor has alarmed Li Yuntian, a dignified and loyal king, this matter is enough for those high-ranking officials and dignitaries of the Ryukyu Kingdom to have a headache, and if the Ming Dynasty is held accountable for this, they will all be blamed.

"Vaulting Harbor?" Li Yuntian's brows suddenly furrowed slightly when he heard this, and he looked at Shang De and asked in a deep voice, "The Japanese invaders occupy a port?" ”

"Lord, do you know that our country is small and weak, and those Japanese are not only pirates who are rampant on the sea, but also have inextricable links with the Ming Dynasty of the Japanese country."

Shang De knew that Li Yuntian was dissatisfied with this, so he smiled bitterly and bowed down to explain, "The country has sent troops to clean up many times, but unfortunately the strength is weak and finally collapsed, and the casualties are heavy. ”

"I see." Li Yuntian's face softened slightly when he heard this, nodded and asked Shang De, "Do you have any evidence of the Jumping Horse Harbor raid on Songjiang Mansion now?" ”

"Lord Yu, recently, there have been a lot of goods in the market in the Shuri area, and the merchants who have attracted them are vying to buy, and as far as the officials know, there have been no merchant ships to transport the goods of the Ming Dynasty during this time."

Shang De thought about it carefully, and then said to Li Yuntian with an affirmative expression, "Lord Wang, the lower officials can now conclude that those goods were snatched from the Songjiang Mansion in the south of the Ming Dynasty. ”

"King of the Ryukyus, please order the seizure of those goods of unknown origin in the market, and they are most likely the stolen goods looted by the Japanese from Songjiang Prefecture."

Li Yuntian saw Shang De's affirmative look, and then said to King Shang Yuan with a stern expression, "Those merchants who have purchased stolen goods can not be held accountable if they return the stolen goods truthfully, but if they are lucky, then this king will be dealt with on the charge of complication!" ”

King Shang Yuan naturally did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly ordered his subordinates to go to check the improper Ming goods in the market, and the Ming army sailors would assist them in seizing the goods to avoid unnecessary trouble.

After all, the merchants who can engage in commercial transportation by sea are not idle people, and they are usually armed escorts, which means that each merchant has dozens or even hundreds of subordinates with weapons, and Li Yuntian is worried that the soldiers of the Ryukyu Kingdom will not be able to calm the scene.

Li Yuntian came to the Shuri Palace this time out of courtesy to visit King Shangyuan, so after greeting King Shangyuan for a while, he got up and said goodbye, and did not live in the residence that King Shangyuan prepared for him in the Shuri Palace, but chose to live on the Mingyang.

The reason for this, in addition to Li Yuntian's somewhat unsuitable habits to the life habits of the Ryukyu Kingdom, is mainly from the perspective of security, because the Shuri Palace is the royal city of the Ryukyu Kingdom, Li Yuntian is inconvenient to bring too many guards to station, and there are a large number of Japanese on the Ryukyu Island, so he decided to live back on the Mingyang.

King Shang Yuan gave up after retaining for a while, and personally led people to send Li Yuntian to the dock, and then transferred a large number of Ryukyu soldiers to guard the port to prevent anyone from being unfavorable to Li Yuntian, which made the port full of patrolling Ryukyu soldiers, making the atmosphere in the port a little tense and depressing.

On the Mingyang, Li Yuntian paced back and forth on the deck with his hands behind his back, his brows furrowed slightly, as if he was thinking about something.

"Xianggong, just now the spies came to report, and the matter was as you expected, after Xiang Yunhai went home, he summoned a few ministers to discuss the matter, and then sent someone to hurry north, it seems that he wants to report to the widows in Jumping Horse Harbor!" Lei Ting walked over and said to Li Yuntian with a smile.

Xiang Yunhai is the minister with a different demeanor that Li Yuntian noticed in the main hall of the Shuri Palace, one of the three officials of the Ryukyu Kingdom, the three officials of the Ryukyu Kingdom are equivalent to the three divisions or three dukes of the Ming Dynasty, and they are the highest official positions in the Ryukyu Kingdom after the regent.

The three officials, also known as the law division, are the highest ruling body of the Ryukyu Kingdom, because the Ryukyu Kingdom is too small, so there is no such thing as the Ming Dynasty to set up six ministries and other ministries and other yamen, the three officials are enough to manage the Ryukyu Kingdom.

The Ryukyu Kingdom had three officials, with the title of "So-and-so Kinbo", who supervised three offices: "Eijiban" (managing state property and the management of mountains and rivers), "Tsukiku" (managing the payment of money and travel expenses to servants), and "Takeshika" (managing taxes and cashiers of the national treasury).

Moreover, unlike the three princes of the Ming Dynasty, who were enshrined by the emperor, the three officials were elected by the royal family and the superior nobles of the Ryukyu Kingdom.

It is worth mentioning that members of the royal family only have the right to vote, not the right to be elected, which is somewhat similar to the Ming Dynasty's restriction of the imperial family from politics.

Candidates for the Three Priests had a strict rule that they must be upper-class people born in the Shuri region, possess high moral cultivation, and be proficient in literature, ethics, economics, and statecraft, which is somewhat similar to the imperial examination system of the Ming Dynasty.

In the Ryukyus, there were four families and three officials of the Weng, Ma, Mao, and Toomi clans, so they were called the "Five Famous Families" along with the Xiang clan, which was separated from the royal family.

Xiang Yunhai was born in the Xiang family, a branch of the Ryukyu royal family, and is an out-and-out son of the royal family, but because his surname is "Xiang" instead of "Shang", he is not a royal family, and can only be regarded as a high-class scholar.

The division of the Ryukyu royal family refers to the children of the royal family who use the surname "Xiang", and since they cannot use the surname "Shang", they are distinguished from the royal family with the surname "Shang".

In the Second Shang Dynasty, Shang was the surname used by the kings and princes of the royal family of China, and the rest of the royal family used the "Xiang" clan that was not assigned by the "Shang" clan.

In other words, in the Ryukyu Kingdom, only the son of the king could use the surname "Shang", and if he was a prince of the Ryukyu Kingdom, the grandson would change to the surname "Xiang" and become an official rank of "Shiji" next to "Prince".

Therefore, the Xiang clan is a proof of royal lineage in the Ryukyu Kingdom, and is the head of the five famous families, and often holds important positions in the royal palace.

It is worth mentioning that the surname "Shang" is the surname of the Ryukyu royal family given by Emperor Xuande in the fifth year of Xuande, and it has been handed down since then, which shows that the Ming Dynasty was closely related to the Ryukyu Kingdom at that time.