"The prince will definitely do this, he not only wants to tell us that he didn't mean to deliberately send us to death, but also wants to estimate the strength of the Satsuma samurai from the battle between them and the Satsuma samurai."

Facing Masao Kawabe's question, Keiko Yamaguchi bowed her head slightly, and a smug smile appeared on the corner of her mouth, "He is unpredictable, but this time I must have guessed his mind." ”

The leader of the scar-faced Japanese is named Domoto Saburo, although both his name and clothing are standard Japanese attire, but Yamaguchi Keiko and others all know that he is the Ming clan, and now he is the head of those Ming people under Yamaguchi Keiko.

Because Domoto Saburo was not a Japanese man, Keiko Yamaguchi could keep a distance from him, and privately Kawabe Masao and others regarded Domoto Saburo, a Japanese from the Ming Dynasty, as a Ming army recruited by the Ming Dynasty.

For the first time in such a long time, it was the first time that Yamaguchi Kai and the others had seen Keiko Yamaguchi's face like frost, although he was only smiling slightly, his smile was extremely bright, which made everyone feel very surprised in their hearts, and they couldn't help but glance at each other.

Great Ryukyu Island, Shuri Port.

Located on the western coast of the southern part of the island of the Ryukyu Island, Shuri Port is the only port for foreign trade in the Ryukyu Kingdom, with a prosperous market and a rich life, and is only a stone's throw away from Shurijo Castle, the royal city of the Ryukyu Kingdom.

The island of Ryukyu has a subtropical climate, which makes the Shuri area blessed with many palm and betel nut trees, green Ryukyu pines, and colorful flowers, and when paired with the blue sea and white clouds, the scenery of the southern region is beautiful.

Shurijo Castle is not to mention the Morimon Gate, which was regarded as a national treasure by the Ryukyu Kingdom, but was built during the reign of King Shangqing, the fourth generation of the Second Sho Dynasty of the Ryukyu Kingdom, and was built based on the torii of the Ming Dynasty at that time, and was built by mixing the architectural style of the Tang Dynasty with the traditional techniques of the Ryukyus.

On this morning, Shuriport was busy as usual, with large and small merchant ships from the Nanyang, Korea, and Wa kingdoms filling the docks.

"Look, what's that?" Suddenly, a young coolie standing on a merchant ship unloading cargo seemed to have noticed something, pointed to the sea level in the distance and said to the people around him in surprise.

When people heard this, they looked in the direction of the young laborer's finger, and saw small black dots appear on the sea level in the distance, heading for Shuri Port.

"It's a seabird!" One of the coolies glanced at the little black dots and replied casually that the same effect was for the seabirds hovering in the air in the distance.

"It's not like seabirds, and now it's not a fishing season, so there won't be so many seabirds congregating together." Another older coolie shook his head, denying that the little black dots were seabirds.

"Look at it, get to work, you slackers don't want to be whipped!" Just when people were curiously about to guess what those little black dots were, a five-year-old overseer shook the leather whip in his hand and scolded loudly, "If you can't finish your work today, no one wants to eat." ”

The coolies lowered their heads when they heard this, and unloaded the goods silently, no one wanted to eat the whip of the overseer, let alone have no food to eat at that time.

"Look, those things on the sea look like boats!" However, those small black dots on the sea in the distance also attracted the attention of others on the dock, and not long after, a surprised voice sounded on the pier.

At this moment, the people on the dock were immediately attracted to attention, including the fierce overseer from before, who looked up at the sea.

"Sure enough, it's a boat!"

"So many ships!"

"These ships don't look small!"

……

Then, there was a commotion on the whole wharf, and people gathered in groups of three or five, pointing to the black dots on the sea in the distance that were getting closer and closer, and those with good eyesight could already see the black dots in front of them with the outline of the boat.

When the magistrate in charge of Shuri Port of the Ryukyus Kingdom arrived in a hurry, the wharf was already crowded with people who had come to see the excitement after hearing the news, and the scene was boiling.

"Good...... What a big ship! The magistrate squeezed into the crowd as he got to the front of the crowd and saw what was happening on the sea.

In the distance, a group of ships were slowly heading towards Shuri Port, and although it was still a long way from Shurito Port, the magistrate was clearly aware of the sheer size of these ships, which gave him an inexplicable shock from afar.

"Quick...... Go and report to the royal city, and say that it is a big ...... Da Ming is here. Soon, the magistrate reacted, he was well-informed and naturally knew that only Da Ming had such a large ship, and the direction in which those ships came was also the direction where Da Ming was, so he ordered one of the officers beside him with a bit of a stutter.

"Sue the people of Wangcheng, the envoys of the Ming Dynasty who came seem to have a very high rank, let them deal with it as soon as possible." The magistrate had the impression that he had never seen such a large ship before, and that he had not expected that such large ships would come so many at once, so he did not wait for the officer to get up and leave, and then gave another command.

In the past, the Ming Dynasty sent envoys to the Ryukyu Kingdom, and at most there were only a few sea ships at a time, and although those sea ships were big enough, they were nothing compared to this time.

The magistrate saw that Da Ming had sent so many huge sea ships this time, and he didn't know what was going on, so he asked the people in the royal city to prepare in advance to greet him, and God knew what kind of envoy Da Ming sent this time, and he actually put up such a huge battle.

Ryukyu King Castle, Shuri Castle.

Unlike ordinary royal castles, Shurijo Castle was not built on flat ground but on a limestone plateau about 120 meters high, about 400 meters long from east to west and 300 meters from north to south.

Shuri Castle was the political center of the Ryukyu Kingdom, a place where kings handled military and political affairs, received foreign envoys, and held important ceremonies, and was established by combining the architectural features of the Ming Dynasty, Japan, and the Great Ryukyu Island.

The structure of the castle is similar to that of the Forbidden City of the Ming Dynasty and the Gyeongbokgung Palace and Changdeokgung Palace of the Joseon Kingdom, which shows the close exchanges between the Ryukyu Kingdom and Asian countries at that time.

"What? Da Ming sent an emissary? "Shuri Castle, the royal palace, the king of the second Shang dynasty, King Shang Yuan, was discussing with his ministers, and he was taken aback when he heard the news, and no one would have thought that the Ming Dynasty would send someone here at this time.

"Your Highness, according to the report sent by the local official of Shuri Port, the size of the sea ships sent by the Ming Dynasty this time is unprecedented, and the number is also unprecedented, and the minister estimates that the identity of the envoy who came this time is noble, otherwise the Ming Dynasty will definitely not use so many large ships."

At this time, a middle-aged man sitting at the head of King Shang Yuan groaned for a while, and said in a deep voice, "The minister thinks that His Highness should go to the port to greet him in person, and he has done his best." ”

This middle-aged man was Shotoku, the cousin of King Shoen, and was also the highest-ranking official in the Ryukyu Kingdom, the regent.

According to the Ryukyu system, the regent was only held by the children of the royal family, managing ceremonies and disaster prevention affairs, which was equivalent to the prime minister of the Ming Dynasty who was abolished by the Hongwu Emperor.

"Come, follow this king to the port to meet the envoys of the Heavenly Empire." King Shang Yuan couldn't help but bow his head slightly when he heard this, and then got up and commanded in a deep voice, he also wanted to know what kind of distinguished person Da Ming had come this time.

Shuri Port.

Because the size of the ships of the expeditionary fleet of the Ming Navy was too large, Shuri Port could not accommodate too many ships at one time, so most of the ships stopped outside Shuri Port, and several ships escorted the Meiyang into the port slowly.

At this moment, the ships parked on the dock had all moved to other places in order to make way for this huge fleet at sea, and the people on board stood on the deck from a distance and watched, one by one, they seemed to be in high spirits, they had never seen a fleet of such a size.

"This ship is so big, it's like a mountain!"

"You see, that ship has the Yellow Dragon Flag, I heard that this can only be hung by the emperor of the Ming Dynasty."

"Could it be that His Majesty the Emperor has come to our Ryukyus?"

……

When the Ming Yang and other ships entered the port, the people gathered on the dock pointed to them with great interest and chattered, they had never seen such a large fleet, and the ships were like mountains moving on the sea.

"Surrounding adults, who is the envoy who dares to come this time?" After the Ming Yang docked on the dock, several military attachés stepped down from the deck, and the Shuri Port magistrate, who had already been waiting at the dock, hurriedly greeted him and asked with a smile on his face.

"King Zhongwu was ordered by His Majesty the Emperor to clean up the Japanese who were causing trouble on the sea, and this time he passed through your country and came to meet the king of your country." The leading military attache was Li Zixi, who first arched his hand diagonally upward, and then took a letter of visit from the military attache on the side and handed it to the magistrate.

"Loyalty...... King Chungmu? The magistrate was dumbfounded when he heard this, and looked at Li Zixi dumbfounded, "Dare to ask your lordship, but you have calmed down...... Jiaozhi, and defeated the Yuan soldiers, who is the king of loyalty? ”

After the ban on the Ming Sea, the Ryukyu Kingdom, which had to conduct tributary trade with the Ming Dynasty every year, has actually become a transit point for maritime trade between the Ming Dynasty and the outside world, and the tributary merchant ships of the Ryukyu Kingdom not only travel between Shuri Port and Fuzhou City, but also go north to Japan, Korea, and south to Annam, Luzon, Siam, Aceh, Java and Malacca, etc., all over the South Seas.

Therefore, Shuri Port was a very well-informed place, and merchants who came from the north and south to do business brought news from all over the world, so the magistrate knew about Li Yuntian's deeds.

In fact, when the Ryukyu fleet that paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty came back last year, it had already brought the news that the Ming Dynasty had a king with a different surname, but this magistrate never expected that the person who came to Ryukyu this time would be a high-ranking and powerful Ming minister like Li Yuntian, so he couldn't react for a while.

"Exactly, I hope that Your Excellency will send someone to report to the King of the Ryukyus as soon as possible." Li Zixi saw the stunned look on the magistrate's face, so he replied quietly.

"Go and inform His Highness the King." When the magistrate heard this, he immediately came back to his senses, and ran away with Li Yuntian's letter of visit in both hands, of course, such an important matter had to be handled by the chief official of his place in person.

The news that King Zhongwu of the Ming Dynasty had come thousands of miles to the Ryukyu Kingdom spread on the docks in an instant, and then caused a sensation among the people.

Although many people in the Ryukyus don't know who King Zhongmu is, this is the highest-level official who came to the Ryukyu Kingdom in the Ming Dynasty, and he is the same prince as the King of the Ryukyus, which makes everyone feel extremely excited and want to see what this prince of the Ming Dynasty looks like.