"Is there anyone in the mall who can shave their heads? Shave my head early, even if you find the Mitsui family instead of the Shimazu family, you still have to disguise yourself as well. ”

"Yes, yes." Liu Jing couldn't help laughing, "But adults are really open-minded, I'm here in Japan, I don't think there's anything wrong, only one thing, it's their head shape...... Cutting half and leaving half is nondescript, which is really a bit ridiculous. ”

"Ugly is ugly, but now that there are big things in the body, where can I manage so much?" Zhou Pu smiled and shook his head, "Besides, some people can even throw away their lives for the sake of great causes, I just lose some hair, what's the matter!" Sooner or later, it will grow, and at that time, it will be up to you and me to decide who will have hair on their heads. ”

"What the adults said is that it will grow sooner or later." Liu Jing also smiled very happily. "By the way, this Mitsui family is really interesting, when they came to us, they were always reluctant to admit that they were civilian businessmen, but they liked to claim that they were descendants of the Fujiwara family, and they were descendants of serious ministers and nobles, I wonder if they have a pedigree, and they said that they have gone through various wars in the inheritance for many years, so the pedigree has been lost, and it is just passed down by word of mouth in the family, but this bloodline is absolutely good, and it has always been insisted on with me...... Adults have never seen them so serious, and it's a shame that they can blow it! ”

"People who like to cling to their bloodlines and are a little more generous like to find themselves a noble ancestor, there are many such people in China, let alone Japan?" Zhou Pu smiled and shook his head, "Isn't Toyotomi Hideyoshi surnamed Ping and Fujiwara?" Is the Tokugawa family really the descendants of the Gen family now? I think the Japanese have a fancy for the origin of the family, and they can't change it for a thousand years. ”

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was originally a commoner, no aristocratic blood, but after the rise to make a fortune, he desperately wanted to cling to his bloodline, and successively found himself Kinoshita, Yuchai two clan names (both surnames are descendants of the Hei family, so when the Ming Dynasty and Japan were at war, the Ming Dynasty called Hideyoshi Ping Hideyoshi), and finally even found the secretary Konoe Maehisa as his father-in-law, and changed the surname to Fujiwara, although he was finally given the surname Toyotomi by the emperor, but it is inevitable that there will be the ridicule of "three family slaves".

"That's right...... I'm afraid that the Japanese can't change their temperament. After hearing Zhou Pu's words, Liu Jing thought so, and then sighed with emotion, "However, in fact, I have traveled around for many years, and I have seen that people in other places are similar to the Japanese, and they are all willing to bow their heads at the feet of nobles with blood. If the prince and general Xiangning have a kind of words, I am afraid that only we Chinese people can say it. Scold...... The former Ming Taizu clearly revealed to the world that he was Huaiyou's cloth, and I never shy away from saying that I was a good son of Xuzhou, and I don't know how much this courage will overshadow Tokugawa Ieyasu. ”

"That's what I said." Zhou Pu nodded again and again.

The new dynasty replaced the Ming Dynasty to seize the world, and as an official, it was politically taboo to praise the former Ming Taizu too much, so although Zhou Pu agreed with the other party's point of view very much, he quickly changed the topic.

Liu Jing didn't say anything big, and after making a plan with Zhou Pu, he immediately called someone to find the person in charge of the Mitsui family in Nagasaki, and then told them his request. Of course, he couldn't tell them his true intentions, but he just said that there was an official in the merchant hall who had just arrived from Dahan who wanted to visit Kyoto and see the monuments, and wanted them to do him a favor.

The people of the Mitsui family were reluctant at first because they were afraid of taking responsibility, and they used all kinds of reasons to shirk it, and even said that "Kyoto has actually been burned to the ground for a long time, most of the monuments have been destroyed, and the current Kyoto has only been rebuilt in recent decades, and there are no monuments worth seeing", but Liu Jing still insisted on this request on the grounds that this official was actually a very strong backer in the country, and the future future was limitless and he could not afford to offend, and even secretly threatened the future status of the Mitsui family in the trade between the two countries. In desperation, after hesitating for a long time, the Mitsui family finally agreed to his request.

Of course, Liu Jing also assured that this official would never cause trouble, and even Zhou Pu met with their people, showing off his hairstyle that was modeled after the moon dynasty that is now very popular among samurai and civilians not long ago, and behaved very humblely, making it clear that he really just admired the culture of Japan, so he wanted to go to the country to see the world.

After several negotiations, he finally got the cooperation of the Mitsui family, and then took advantage of the opportunity for their shop to send someone to Ise Hongo, and followed them on the journey north.

The islands of Kyushu and Honshu were close together, separated by a narrow strait of Kanmon, and from Nagasaki, they quickly crossed the northern part of Kyushu before taking a ferry via Okura to Shimonoseki and landing on the island of Honshu.

Unlike Kyushu Island, which is considered to be a frontier island, Honshu Island is the largest of the Japanese archipelago, and it is also in the most central position.

Over the years, Japan has been generally stable, and the samurai children of the original feudal domains have begun to multiply in large numbers, but the shogunate does not need to recruit so many samurai, and the financial situation of each domain is becoming more and more urgent, so the impoverishment of the samurai class that is not directly led by the shogunate has begun to appear in large numbers, and it has become an increasingly serious social problem. A large number of ronins began to wander around the country, causing very serious social problems, and even the shogunate was suffering from them, and the caravans had to take precautions accordingly.

Because he knew in his heart that the route he was going to take now was likely to be the route he would take with his army all the way north in the future, so he paid close attention to the terrain and customs along the way, and even had to write down some important information in his notes.

Naturally, his behavior was a little strange, but now under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate, the shogunate has been largely stable and peaceful for more than thirty years, and it has long since become a peaceful and prosperous era, and commerce is very prosperous, so no one pays attention to this caravan, let alone his strange behavior.

And the people in the caravan also knew that he had come to Honshu Island to travel, just like those Nanban missionaries back then, so they were not surprised, and only thought that he was taking notes of his travels.

Shimonoseki was part of the Nagato Province in Sanyo Province in ancient times, and is now part of the Choshu Domain, the domain of the Mori family.

The Mori family was once very glorious in the Warring States period, and under the leadership of the former heads of the family, especially the capable and ambitious lords such as Mori Motosho and Mori Terumoto, through the accumulation and unscrupulous expansion over the years, it owned the territories of the Sanyo Province such as Nagato, Shubo, and Yasu, and even part of Kyushu Island, and became one of the largest and most powerful daimyo in the Warring States Period.

At the time of the rise of Oda Nobunaga, the Mori family, who wanted to win the throne in Japan, naturally had a great conflict with him, and the two sides raised swords several times, and the Mori family united with the Daimyo Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo to resist the expansion of the Oda family, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was the general of the Oda family at that time, was called Hashiba Hideyoshi at that time - was the front-line leader of the Oda side against the Mori family.

Because the strength of the Oda clan expanded too quickly, after years of fighting, the Mori family gradually fell into a disadvantageous position, and their subordinates defected one after another, and even the long-time vassal daimyo such as the Ukita Naoke and others also wavered, and instead took refuge in the Oda family. Faced with this extremely unfavorable situation, the family had to temporarily abandon its intention to dominate Japan and instead seek reconciliation with the Oda regime.

At this time, Akechi Mitsuhide launched the Honnoji Rebellion, forcing Oda Nobunaga and his eldest son to death, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was eager to return to the Oda family's fundamental place and seek to inherit Oda Nobunaga's political and military legacy, quickly reached a reconciliation with the Mori family, and then quickly realized the "Great Return of China", led a large army to Kyoto and crusaded against Akechi Mitsuhide, thus seizing the opportunity to inherit all the capital of Oda Nobunaga, and then defeated his biggest opponent Shibata Katsuie in the Battle of Shidake, Officially became another person in the world after Oda Nobunaga.

After Toyotomi Hideyoshi's rapid rise and control of most of Japan, the head of the family at the time, Mori Terumoto, decided to submit to the Toyotomi regime for the time being, and at this time, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was also eager to appease the real power daimyo in various places, and the two sides hit it off.

At that time, Toyotomi Hideyoshi determined a territory of 1.2 million koku for the Mori family through land inspection and security (because the Toyotomi regime was established at the beginning, and he intended to appease the daimyo in various places, so the land inspection was very rough, and the territory of the Mori family actually exceeded 2 million koku), because he had such a huge territory, Mori Terumoto and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was arranged in Kanto and had a territory of nearly 2.5 million koku, became one of the five elders of the Toyotomi family.

However, the good times did not last long, and more than ten years later, Toyotomi Hideyoshi died of illness in the shadow of two failed invasions of Korea, and the heir was Toyotomi Hideyori, a young son who was only six years old and could not govern. In order to compete for power and inherit the political legacy of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, these powerful bigwigs began a very fierce open and secret struggle.

Among them, because of the strongest strength, Tokugawa Ieyasu naturally became the target of public criticism, and a large number of daimyo under the Toyotomi regime led by Ishida Mitsunari began to gather against Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the ambitious Maori family also chose to side with them against the Tokugawa family, hoping to further expand their power.

After the death of another elder and eldest Maeda Toshiya due to illness, there was no longer anyone who could coordinate between the two parties, and Ieyasu himself felt that the time had come to end the dormant and seize Japan, so he no longer had scruples and began to press step by step, and Ishida Mitsunari and his faction refused to back down, and in the end the two sides could only choose to decide by war.

In the Battle of Sekigahara, the Tokugawa family was completely victorious, the Western army was defeated, and the Tokugawa family naturally began to liquidate these daimyo who opposed them, among the elders, Ishida Mitsunari was executed as the first evil, the Ukita Hideya family was forced to flee, and the territory was confiscated, while the Uesugi Keikatsu and Mori Terumoto had to bow down to the Tokugawa family, and at the same time suffered the punishment of reducing the seal, the territory of the Uesugi family was reduced from 1.2 million stone to about 300,000 stone, and the territory of the Mori family was reduced to 360,000 stone, The territory has shrunk dramatically.

Although the territory of 360,000 koku was considered the first among the daimyo established by the Tokugawa shogunate, it was not on the same level as when the family was prosperous, and it was no longer as glorious as it used to be. As a result, the Mori family naturally had a grudge against the Tokugawa family.

This resentment, judging from Zhou Pu's position, should have been exploited in a way, but after coming to Kyushu, after careful consideration, he put the idea on hold for the time being, because he had already found the Shimazu family.

In the Warring States Period, the Maori family was entrenched in Sanyo Road, and the Shimazu family was entrenched in Kyushu Island, and the two sides naturally fought many wars for expansion, and had accumulated a deep hatred over the years.

When the army went to war against Japan, the first priority was to find a foothold for itself, and then it could carry out the next step, so Kyushu Island was the first target, and the Shimazu family was in Kyushu, so they could naturally provide more help for this. As long as Kyushu can be captured, the next things will be easy to do, and when the time comes, it will be a matter of course for the soldiers to recruit the Maori family, so there is no need to rush for a while.

Besides, he still has two "guards" by his side, and it is really not suitable for him to do some extraneous actions.

"My lord, the caravan is ready to leave, so let's stop recording." Just when Zhou Pu was still recording and thinking, Dongxiang Shigefang next to him suddenly urged.

Togo Shigemata and Jiangxia Mingxian were originally specially sent to him by Shimazu Tadashi in order to protect and monitor him, and Zhou Pu went north to Kyoto this time, and they naturally asked to be together.

Zhou Pu thought about it for a while, and finally felt that he still needed to maintain his current relationship with the Shimazu family, and it was really not safe enough to go north alone without two guards, so he agreed to their request.

The caravan was originally very dissatisfied with his behavior of bringing people in private, but as a high-ranking official of the Han Dynasty, it was very normal for him to bring two guards, and the Mitsui family wanted to curry favor with this official, so they acquiesced, and these two people were also silent along the way, rarely interacting with people, and did not cause trouble to everyone.

However, as Zhou Pu guessed, they didn't like the Maori family, so they didn't want Zhou Pu to take the opportunity to associate with the Maori family, so they always deliberately urged Zhou Pu to go quickly, although Zhou Pu would not listen to their arrangement, but the superficial work still had to be done.

"If you work harder now, you will be able to suffer less in the future." After receiving the urge again, Zhou Pu replied with a smile, "Don't forget, after our Han Dynasty conquered Kyushu, in order to suppress the shogunate, we will continue to go north to enter Luo, which means that the route we will take next is likely to be the future battlefield - maybe you will still be a general leading the army at that time, how can you not make some preparations first?" ”

"If you prepare in a hurry, no matter how serious you are, it won't have much effect." Togo Shigekata's expression was still very serious, "Our Satsuma Domain has been fighting in these places for many years, and we have long been familiar with the terrain, as long as we re-establish the army, we can march according to the previous experience, and there is no need to deliberately rush to write records in these few days." ”

There was always a little bit of ridicule in his words, implying that Zhou Pu was in a hurry and was useless. Zhou Pu could hear what the other party meant, but he smiled and didn't answer.

It is precisely because you are so familiar with everything that I have to guard against you as soon as possible, because I risked my life to come to Japan for my own glory and wealth, not for your Shimazu.

"By the way, before leaving, the head of the family has some words that I want to convey to the adults, and we originally planned to wait until the adults arrive in Kyoto to convey them, but after thinking about it, let's explain the situation to the adults today, so as not to hinder the adults' actions in Kyoto." Togo Shigekata suddenly accentuated his tone again.

"What's the matter?" Zhou Pu was a little strange.

"The head of the family has been cleaning up dissenting traitors in the Satsuma Domain lately, so I guess my lord knows it, right?" Togo Shigekata asked rhetorically.

"This thing...... I do know a little. Zhou Pu nodded.

As the preparations deepened, Shimazu Tadashi had already gathered the most loyal people, and in order to further expand his mobilization ability, he began to use the knife against the forces that opposed him within the family, purging a group of disobedient family members, such a move was so great that rumors began to spread in Nagasaki City.

"Even adults already know about it, so it must have spread all over Nagasaki." Togo Shigekata and Jiangxia Mingxian glanced at each other worriedly, "My lord, please urge the country to march into the army as soon as possible, otherwise sooner or later, the official office of Nagasaki will send someone to the domain to inquire about this matter and convey all these information to the shogunate, and then it will not be good." ”

"Please rest assured, my country does not want to delay at all, and now we have been preparing intensively, I have asked the country several times to speed up preparations to send troops as soon as possible, and the imperial court has also agreed to my request." Zhou Pu did not intend to change the original plan in China for the sake of Shimazu Zhongheng, but only comforted the other party. "We will never harm the feudal lord, this kind of thing that makes relatives and enemies happy, how can we be a Han person?"

"Thank you, then, sir." Togo Shigekata bowed slightly.

"Is that what you're asking?" Zhou Pu asked again.

"That's not true, the feudal lord wants us to inform you of something else - now that he has basically completed the purge of the elders and the family, and then told them of his decision. After deliberation, we finally came to the conclusion that the clan could unconditionally support the Han Dynasty's crusade against the shogunate, and was willing to send troops to help the Han advance to Kyoto - however, our feudal clan was very poor in terms of soldiers and finances, and it was difficult to support further advances, so the army of the domain would not advance to the Kanto region. ”