The night gradually enveloped the inside and outside of Kamakura Port. Piles of samurai organized by the local samurai outside Kamakura Castle to help unload the peasants lined up and returned to their villages. Each team is led by one or two spirited samurai at the front. The Japanese peasants, who had been tired for a long time, just tame and lined up in neat formations, following one after another.

The monks in black robes lit the white lanterns hanging inside and outside the temple one by one. The temple's various halls and meditation rooms are brightly lit. From the inside, there is the laughter of women and children, and the smell of fried fish. There were also some Japanese wandering girls with heavy makeup who came to the Gaode Temple, and they were invited by the Jingguang monk of the Gaode Temple to entertain the Chinese guests......

A temple with women, children, and fish, and inviting wandering girls and geisha to entertain guests! It really made Wen Tianxiang and the Great Monk of Nine Lights a little dumbfounded, but the Yongxin monk of Shaolin Temple was not strange - most of the monks and nuns in the north and the monks and nuns of the White Lotus Temple were married and ate meat!

The explorers from China were temporarily placed by the Hojo family in Kotoku-in, near the dock. A head man named Hojo Time (the deputy official of the Kamakura shogunate, a senior official) came from Kamakura Castle to entertain them, and arranged for the samurai to gather the peasants to help unload the goods.

Wen Tianxiang also freshened up, cleaned up his face, and changed into a neat robe and a Dongpo scarf. Under the guidance of a monk of the Gaode Temple, he walked into a spacious hall. In the hall, the candlesticks are high, and the low dining table is arranged in a hollow shape. Two quite young and beautiful Japanese women held a musical instrument and watched Wen Tianxiang arrive and bowed deeply.

There were already a lot of people sitting in the hall, Zhou Xiaoqi, Meng Qi, Nine Lights Monk, and Yongxin Monk. and Daoxing, the director of the Japanese general altar of the Heavenly Taoist Sect who has been stationed in Japan for a long time, has already arrived. He was chatting with Shizumitsu of Gaode Temple, the head of Hojo, and a middle-aged monk in his fifties whom Wen Tianxiang had never met—this monk didn't know what it was about. actually sat side by side with Ren Daoxing on the main seat in the middle.

Seeing Wen Tianxiang come in, everyone politely got up to greet them. Gaode Yuan Jingguang even invited him to a small table next to Ren Daoxing with a smile on his face. Here is the Japanese arranged for him, the Great Song Dynasty Doctor. The Privy Council undertook the decree, and Mingzhou proclaimed the position of the envoy.

The low table was full of Japanese dishes, except for a small fried yellow fish, Wen Tianxiang had never seen anything else, and they were all used with vermilion lacquer tableware, which looked very exquisite. The Jingguang monk smiled undiminishedly, and took the lead in Suke: "Please!" ”

……

The wine has passed three rounds, and the dishes have passed five flavors. When it was really the time when the guests and hosts were happy, they sat side by side with Ren Daoxing. The old monk with the Dharma name Daolong suddenly smiled and asked Wen Tianxiang, "Mr. Wenshan, can the little monk inquire about your beliefs?" ”

"Faith?"

"Buddhism is still ...... Heaven? ”

"I follow the way of Confucius and Mencius!" Wen Tianxiang is colorful.

"Oh, you're a Confucian." Monk Daolong glanced at Ren Daoxing, then turned his head and asked Wen Tianxiang, "In the Song Kingdom, the way of Confucius and Mencius is still the right way to learn?" ”

"Self-evident learning!" Wen Tianxiang said.

"Oh, that day the Taoist ......"

"It's just a fledgling business, and there aren't many believers!"

"...... of the Great Song Dynasty"

"I don't think so."

Disagree? Monk Daolong was stunned, what kind of attitude is this? Although there are not many followers of the Heavenly Dao Sect. But the www.biquge.info of people's pen fun pavilion seems to be very high! King Ming, who occupied Liaodong and controlled Goryeo, was the head of the sect. The Hojo family, which controls the power of Japan, is already believed by many big people. Even the Hojo family Tokumune and the shogunate were struggling with whether to believe it or not. As for the six Polo themes in the north and south, they have already taken refuge! And the royal family who followed the two Six Pola probes and took refuge was even more than hundreds! Can this momentum be disbelieved?

"So what's going on with Mingzhou Exploration?" Monk Daolong was silent for a moment and then asked. "The poor monk has never heard of the Mingzhou Continent when he was in the Great Song Dynasty."

This monk traveled from the Song Dynasty to Japan to preach the Dharma more than ten years ago, when there was no Heavenly Taoism in the Song Kingdom. There is no legend of the Beiming and Mingzhou continents.

"This ...... It was proposed by the head of the Tiandao Sect, Chen, who put forward the 'theory of the circle of the earth' and the 'theory of the Mingzhou continent' in the dialectics of Putuo Mountain. It's just hard to tell the truth from the fake. ”

"The exploration of Mingzhou is to prove the theory of the circle of the earth and the theory of the Mingzhou continent?" Monk Daolong asked.

"Exactly!" Ren Daoxing replied for Wen Tianxiang, "His Royal Highness King Ming wants to establish a port in Japan and Ezo, it is for Mingzhou...... Mingzhou is vast. 100 times more than Japan, 1000 times richer than Japan! ”

"Oh......" Daolong nodded with a deep groan. For the Heavenly Taoism and the Northern Ming Dynasty entered Japan with great fanfare. It is impossible to be vigilant in Japan. If there is really any Mingzhou, it would be fine, if the legend of the Mingzhou continent is nothing. That's really worrying......

"I wonder how much time it takes to explore Mingzhou? Will the four big ships going to the Mingzhou continent return their way? ”

Zhou Xiaoqi, who was actually in charge of the expedition, took the question and replied: "It takes 45 to 90 days to set off from Japan to the mainland of Mingzhou...... In addition, we have to stay in Japan for a few days to buy some items. If you can reach the Mingzhou continent in 50 days. However, the four exploration ships will not return the same way, because the current of the ocean flows eastward near Japan, and we have to look for the current flowing west from the south to return. And not all four exploration ships have returned, but only one, and the other three will continue to explore in Mingzhou, looking for a way to Tianzhu. ”

The sailing ship must sail across the Pacific Ocean with the current, otherwise if there is no wind or headwind on the way, the boatload will starve to death!

"I see...... "Monk Daolong's brow furrowed. Listening to Zhou Xiaoqi's words, it was as if they had already been to the Mingzhou Continent!

"Then won't it take a long time to go to Mingzhou?" Hojo suddenly interjected in a stiff Chinese, "Go to Mingzhou for 50 days, go around Mingzhou for 50 days, and return for another 50 days...... It's going to take about half a year! How should I live without a woman for half a year? Do you want to help you find dozens of young women to follow? ”

"Okay, good......" The great monk Yongxin is eating salted fish while talking to a Japanese woman with heavy makeup - in Chinese and Japanese! may have drunk some more wine, but when he heard that the head of the Hojo people actually nodded again and again, he felt that it was wrong when he said it, and quickly changed his words.

"Ah...... This, of course, poor monks don't like women! Well, but there were more than 200 sailors on board, all of them young men of good blood...... This may be a few years, and maybe he will have to be stationed on the Mingzhou Continent. How can there be no woman? ”

Seems to make sense! This problem, the staff of Beiming actually also considered, the troops stationed in Mingzhou for a long time must have women to follow, or family members, or military prostitutes. However, it is not easy to put it into practice. Because there are still more men and fewer women in the Northern Ming Dynasty, many scholars are still playing singles......

Hojo said again: "If you need it, the lower official can pick dozens of young women in the Zhixing Land, but you need to arrange a few retainers to escort you along the way." ”

Escort? Do you want to follow along?

Zhou Xiaoqi set his eyes on Ren Daoxing. Ren Daoxing smiled and nodded. These days, the people of the Hojo family have been inquiring about the Meishu continent. Plainly and secretly, he just wanted to send someone to follow him to take a look. You can agree to this! After all, Japan is the springboard to Mingzhou in the future, and this cannot be avoided -- if you want to bypass Japan, the sea ships will have to go nearly 5,000 miles more. It also takes 12 days to reach a speed of 5 knots, and 24 days if the speed is reduced to 2.5 knots. This meant that sailing ships would need to carry at least 12 more days of supplies, which would greatly reduce the number of passengers and cargo. In addition, if you are based in a port in Tohoku Japan, the ships of the Hokumei can also dock and wait for the wind. You can choose to travel when there is a westerly wind and the weather is good.

So sooner or later, the Japanese will know that there is a continent full of gold! But knowing too much is not a good thing for a scattered Japan!

……

The stay of the four ships including the Meishu in the port of Kamakura took five days. In the past five days, Wen Tianxiang, Yongxin Monk, and Nine Lights Monk visited Kamakura Castle and were invited to Kamakura Castle. There are no nutritious activities, just eating, watching Noh dramas, and discussing Buddhism.

Zhou Xiaoqi and Meng Qi and other expedition members seized the time to ship all kinds of goods and supplies purchased by the Heavenly Taoist Sect in Japan. These include baked naan, Japanese sake, salted fish, pickled vegetables, medicine, fuel, and more. But the most important thing is two things, a knife and a woman!

The former is a commodity for the natives of Mingzhou - the arms trade is always the most profitable trade, there is no one! Chen Dexing is a master of the arms trade, and his principle of arms trade is: do not sell the best, only sell the most expensive!

The Bronze Cannon is currently not for sale! And the wrought iron knives made by Japanese blacksmiths can sometimes be sold for more expensive than bronze cannons! Because Chen Dexing knew that the Mayan civilization and Inca civilization in Mingzhou could not smelt iron, but they would mine and smelt silver and gold. Among them, the Incas could smelt copper, and the Mayans did not even have copper.

For them, then, this Japanese rib knife, which is less than half a foot long, is a priceless treasure that is more valuable than gold - so it must be sold for more than gold!

And the dozens of Japanese country women sent by Hojo Shidai were the key elements for Beiming to open up the first colonial base in Mingzhou. It is not only to solve the physiological needs of the Ming officers and soldiers stationed in Beiming. Moreover, it can prevent the Ming soldiers from intermarrying with the local indigenous women -- if there is an intermarriage, it will inevitably cause the Han production technology to be quickly mastered by the Mingzhou natives, which will be quite unfavorable for the Ming Dynasty to further colonize Mingzhou in the future. (To be continued......)