Episode 112 Prince Shabu

The destroyer "Fukiyuki" lowered the gangway, and two Japanese sailors stood on the gangway, holding flashlights to shine on the small liner below, looking at the heads of the full ship, looking very surprised, and constantly emitting "whoo......sh" from their mouths Oh...... Yo......".

A junior officer came over from behind, and reprimanded them very majestically, and the two sailors immediately let them stand on both sides, bowed their heads and said very forcefully:

"Hey!"

The junior officer held a flashlight and shone it down, while speaking loudly in Japanese, as if asking something.

Prince Ananta doesn't understand Japanese, but he also guessed that he was asking "who is the Prince of Siam". He tilted his head, wiped his pale face, which was stained with sea water and sweat, smiled hard, and said as politely as he could in English:

"I'm sorry, I don't understand your Chinese...... But I would like to say that I am the rightful prince of the Kingdom of Siam, Prince Ananta Mahidun. I went on an envoy to the Ming Dynasty on behalf of the Kingdom of Siam, but I ran into some troubles...... To be precise, some very unjust encounters...... Please, do you speak English? ”

The junior officer on the gangway looked at him for a moment, and then spoke stiffly in English, with a strong Japanese accent:

"My ...... English...... No, your words...... I don't understand. ”

The prince's eyes darkened, and he almost vomited blood. This half-day poss is in vain. But he was cold, hungry, and tired, and he could barely hold on. He accompanied the smiling face, gestured with his hands, and gestured to the shape of a crown on the top of his head, and then simply used his hands and feet, accompanied by Thai, and tried his best to identify himself, gesturing to ask to board the ship. But the junior Japanese officer just wouldn't let him, went down to the gangway, pushed him down with his hands, and spoke Japanese loudly, interspersed with two simple English words:

“ait here！ ait here！ ”

The prince understood that this was to make him wait here first. He turned his face to look at a boatload of Ming female soldiers. They had now lost all their reverence for him, and had looked at him with a very contemptuous gaze. On the deck overhead, there were already a number of Japanese sailors, all holding on to the railings, giggling at his jokes, and at the same time watching the female soldiers on the ship, laughing and laughing with each other.

The prince felt that his pride was hurt, so he stopped arguing, but sat in the boat with as much dignity as he could, waiting.

After a while, the Japanese soldiers on the deck stood up straight and saluted, and at the same time, a young Japanese junior appeared at the gangway.

Speaking in fairly fluent English, he said to the following:

"Who is His Royal Highness the Prince of Siam?"

Prince Ananta quickly raised his face and said with a smile:

"I am!"

That Shao Zuo frowned and looked at him a few times, as if he didn't believe that His Royal Highness the Prince would be such a Hanako. But he still said with a skeptical expression:

"His Royal Highness...... Then please come aboard. ”

The prince was overjoyed, and immediately jumped up the gangway and grabbed the handrail. Pachai behind him was also about to follow, and the Shao Zuo shouted:

"Stop! What do you do! ”

The prince hurriedly explained to him that it was his retinue. Shao Zuo reluctantly let Pa Guess come up.

The young man ignored the prince on the deck first, but climbed the handrail of the gangway, and smiled politely at the female soldiers of the Ming Dynasty on the small liner below:

"Ladies, which of you speaks English?"

One of them, a twenty-six-seventeen-year-old female captain, said very generously in English:

"I speak English."

Then she recounted how the two men had hijacked the ship. The young man turned his face, glanced at the prince with more suspicion and disdain, and then smiled at the female soldiers:

"In that case, do you have enough fuel to go back? If that's not enough, we can give you some. ”

"Of course it's enough!" The female captain exclaimed, "Thank you! ”

Shao Zuo nodded, asked for their boat numbers, and then stood on the gangway, set up a straight posture, bowed slightly, and said to her very solemnly:

"I'm the captain of the destroyer Fukiyuki of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Shosa Oyama. Please inform your government that we are taking this person on board the ship, and at present it is only a humanitarian rescue at sea, and has no other meaning. As for this man claiming to be the prince of the Kingdom of Siam, we still need to verify. I hope your country will not misunderstand. If this person is really the prince of Siam, our country may negotiate with your country through diplomatic channels. You may be asked to testify. I hope you don't mind. ”

The female captain nodded and asked:

"We don't mind. Can we go? ”

"Please."

When the captain saw Shaozuo's gesture, he didn't need to translate, he directly turned the rudder and quickly sailed away from the Japanese destroyer and headed west.

The female soldiers on the ship were chirping excitedly for the rest of their lives. Several of them are muttering:

"That ship doesn't look like the 'Blowing Snow' class...... Did you find any? ”

"That's right...... The name of the ship is also painted like a freshly painted ......"

"yes, yes......"

……

After the prince and Pachai were on board, they were soon "invited" into a closed cabin below deck, and then Captain Oyama nodded to them coldly and said in English:

"Wronged, you guys rest here first. When the meal is served, I will bring you one. ”

Then the hatch closed with a "bang" and was pinned on the outside.

The surroundings suddenly fell silent, except for a small lamp overhead, emitting a dim light.

Pachai was so angry that he almost kicked the door with his foot and cursed. Then he complained to the prince, saying that it didn't matter what he guessed, but how could His Royal Highness be treated like this if he was a prince of the Kingdom of Siam.

The prince sat on the ground, leaning against the bulkhead, but seemed calm. In fact, he was also dizzy from hunger, and his heart was in a hurry. He opened his eyes and saw a string of salted fish hanging above his head, so he reached out and tore off a large piece, stuffed it directly into his mouth, and chewed it with difficulty, showing a pleasant expression. Pachai was stunned for a moment, and immediately learned something, and also tore off a large piece of salted fish and gnawed it hard.

Although the salted fish was dry, hard and fishy, the two of them ate it at this time as if it were a delicacy, and they forgot about each other's rude treatment for a while.

After a while, the prince took a breath and said slowly:

"It's normal. Now they don't believe in my identity at all, what do you expect them to do to us? The important thing now is that we are out of danger and safe...... If you are wronged, you will be wronged...... We've even drilled through the coal piles of the train, what else can this be? My concern, though, is ......"

"Your Highness, what is it?"

"We were worried that we were thinking too optimistically...... It is possible that Japan will not be willing to muddy the waters. ”

As he spoke, he translated the last words that Captain Oyama had just said to the Ming female soldiers on the gangway. Then he said slowly:

"Now that the Ming Dynasty controls the Strait of Malacca, Japan's oil bloodline and other trade bloodlines are equivalent to pinching it in the hands of the Ming Dynasty...... I'm worried...... Unless Japan is really ready to fight with the Ming Dynasty, it may not offend the Ming Dynasty because of us. ”

Pachai listened dumbfounded, and his heart began to hair. He didn't understand the same thing, why His Royal Highness the Prince said this one moment and that another. He didn't understand international relations, but he knew that what kind of attitude Japan would have was directly related to the life and death of the two of them. If it is true, as the prince said now, Japan is unwilling to offend the Ming Dynasty for His Royal Highness the prince and return them to the Ming Dynasty, then they will die and have no place to bury.

But Pachai still forced a smile, and tried his best to comfort the prince, and also comforted himself:

"This ...... Your Highness, after all, he is just a small captain, and what he said is not counted...... Standing on the bow of the ship and saying those few words, can he represent the attitude of the Japanese government? Can't you...... Your Highness, we still have to see what is the attitude of the Japanese government after Japan......"

When Pachai said this, the prince nodded as well, and stopped thinking about the uselessness.

The two of them observed their surroundings. They are not familiar with the structure of the warship, and they don't know which part it is, but this cabin has no windows, and there are dense pipes and wires overhead, and pipes and instruments are also on the bulkheads, and the cabin is full of rice, potatoes, pumpkins, bundles of dried seaweed, and all kinds of dried salted fish, dried squid, and dried octopus hanging above their heads.

Next door seems to be the kitchen, and you can faintly hear the sound of chopping vegetables next door with your ears against the steel plate, and two or three people humming a Japanese fisherman's netting tune together. I could still hear the loud opening and closing of the hatch, and the sailors shouting loudly, carrying something out, like a rice bucket. The sound of the cook agreeing loudly and laughing. Anyway, it's all Japanese, and the prince doesn't understand a word.

After a while, a soothing trumpet suddenly sounded on the ship, and then the whole ship began to play a pleasant Western orchestral music, which was very good. Pachai was surprised to expect Western music to be played on Japanese warships. The prince closed his eyes and muttered:

"We're almost having something to eat...... It is said that this is a tradition of the Japanese Navy, and Western music is played on the warship during meals. ”

Sure enough, after a while, a sailor opened the door and came in, looking like a cook, wearing an apron over his sailor uniform, a handkerchief tied on his forehead, sweating profusely, but still wearing a military hat seriously. The cap ring is embroidered with a few words: Great Japanese Imperial Navy.

The cook looked at them curiously, didn't speak, just put the two lunch boxes in front of them, and then went out anyway, locking the door.

Both of them were so hungry that they didn't say a word, and each picked up a box and ate it. This is a typical Japanese sailor's ration: a piece of fish, two pieces of seaweed, a few pickles, and two rice balls. Although it was not a good thing, the two of them almost didn't eat their tongues as well.

……

In the bridge command room, Xiang Xiaoqiang was holding a lunch box, eating steamed hairtail fish very comfortably, while listening to Captain Zhang Mingyu report the following situation to him.

"Hmm...... Say so," Xiang Xiaoqiang spat out a row of fish bones and asked, "The prince hasn't found any flaws yet?" ”

Zhang Mingyu smiled:

"He shouldn't have found out. We did a good job, and we didn't let him wander around the ship, but locked up in a cabin...... What flaws did he see there? Even the cabin, which we carefully arranged for an hour, piled up with all the things that were commonly used in the galleys of Japanese warships. ”

He laughed again:

"And thanks to the Japanese agents who brought to the adults...... Especially the 'Captain Oyama', hehe, he is really familiar with the Japanese Navy, and he knows that the Japanese ship has to play Western music when eating. I don't even know about that. Our Ming Navy does not have this tradition. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded, and suddenly it sounded again, and asked:

"By the way, the pipelines and instruments in that cabin, what is the text on them? Kanji words...... Is it a kanji commonly used in Japanese? Will it be a goof? ”

Zhang Mingyu breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile:

"Don't worry, my lord, we've already checked this. There are no Chinese characters on the pipelines of that cabin, they are all letter logos, and they are basically internationally accepted. There are several kanji on the dashboard, but it is perfectly understandable as Japanese kanji. The prince didn't know Japanese, he couldn't tell. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang was relieved, nodded, and looked at Xiuxiu again:

"What do you think? Are there any flaws? ”

Xiuxiu also shook her head.

"Okay," Xiang Xiaoqiang put down the lunch box, walked to the porthole, looked at the dark sea outside, and said, "Then we will act according to the pre-plan." This is just the beginning, whether we can succeed depends on how we perform below, and of course, it also depends on the IQ of His Royal Highness the Prince. The most important thing is to make the prince himself think that we are Japanese ships. Then the next drama on land will be easy to play. He was more easily convinced. …… Turn around and head west, it's all set up over there. ”

"Yes."

Zhang Mingyu also stood up, gave the order to go down, and turned the left rudder to the west. Kui Timberwolf...... No, the destroyer, which has now been painted as the "Blowing Snow", turned its hull, turned its bow over the white waves, and headed in the direction of the Daming coast to the west.

……

In the cabin below deck, Prince Ananta and Pachai clearly felt the ship's hull turning and accelerating. At this moment, there was a sound of footsteps outside the door, and then the hatch opened.

Captain Oyama, dressed in a snow-white Japanese naval uniform, snow-white leather shoes, snow-white gloves, and a Western sword hanging from his waist, stood respectfully at the door.

The prince stared at him, and a good premonition rose in his heart.

Sure enough, Captain Oyama stood straight, then bowed deeply, and said respectfully word by word in English:

"Your Royal Highness. I don't know that His Royal Highness the Prince is coming to our ship, it is very rude, it is really a crime that deserves death, I hope His Royal Highness will forgive his sin. ”

Prince Ananta said "um", still leaning on the rice bag, and said lightly:

"So, did you report it to your country? Your intelligence service has also confirmed that the Siamese prince in Nanking has escaped, and I am probably the Siamese prince? ”

Captain Oyama looked embarrassed, bowed his head deeply again, and said:

"This ...... How so? …… I'm so sorry. ”

Pachai next to him was very happy at this time, and he smiled arrogantly:

"What's the matter, are you still going to let your Highness spend the night here?"

Captain Oyama hurriedly said:

"Ah, don't dare. Please go to the ship's officers' dining room for dinner, and then your Highness and your lord can bathe and change their clothes and rest in the captain's room. I'm really sorry, but our ship is a destroyer, and the space is really limited, so I can't prepare a more comfortable room for His Highness and my lordship, I'm really sorry, I apologize, please forgive me......"

Not only Pachai, but Prince Ananta was also so happy at this time. He took out the prince's dignified demeanor, still with an "um", stood up, brushed the seaweed on his body, and strode out of the cabin.

Walking through the narrow aisle and onto the deck, the prince saw all the officers on board standing in a line, dressed in snow-white military uniforms, standing upright and straight, all saluting him. Nearby, there is a row of soldiers, each holding a brass instrument. An officer waved his baton lightly, and the national anthem of the Kingdom of Siam began to be played on the deck.

Although Prince Ananta was ragged and unkempt, he was also greatly satisfied at this time. He walked slowly past the ranks of officers and nodded slightly to them. And every time the prince passed in front of an officer, the officer raised his hand cleanly and saluted, and then put it down cleanly.

Pachai also followed the prince in a serious manner, and also followed the example of His Royal Highness the prince, and nodded to these Japanese officers. The prince now has a feeling: he has been a prince for more than 20 years since he was a child, and only today can he really find the best feeling of a prince.

Just above his head, high on the bridge, Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at him with interest from the round porthole, while eating the steamed hairtail fish in the lunch box with relish.

……

At about twelve o'clock in the evening, when Prince Ananta was sleeping soundly in the private room of the captain's room, he was carefully woken up by Captain Oyama. The captain told him that he had returned to port, and asked His Highness to disembark.

Prince Ananta and Pachai rubbed their sleepy eyes, stood on the deck, looking at the black military port in front of them, the black and tall warship figures in the port, and the black mountains in the distance, and the sea breeze blowing in their faces.

"Which port is this?" He asked.

Captain Oyama said respectfully:

"Your Highness, this is the home port of the Blowing Horn, the port of Nagasaki."

"Oh, Nagasaki ......" the prince lamented as he leaned on the railing, greedily inhaling the fresh sea breeze and listening to the sound of the waves crashing against the concrete embankment, "Nagasaki...... It's a pity that Prince Ben has studied several languages in Asia and Europe, and has been on missions to many countries...... In the end, the language I don't speak is Japanese, but the country I haven't been to is Japan...... I didn't expect that, in the end, when I was in danger, it was Japan that helped me. ”

Captain Oyama stood behind him, looking very moved, and sighed with a "shh

The prince and Pachai got off the warship, then got into a small car, escorted by two military vehicles in front and behind, drove out of the military port area, and drove up the mountain along the winding mountain road.

It was a dark night road, and the prince could not see anything out of the window, except that there was a sentry every other way, where Japanese military police wearing big-brimmed hats and discounted leggings would stop the car. Then a man in a top hat in the front seat would hand out a copy of the document, and the gendarmes would immediately let him go.

Finally, they drove to a luxurious villa on the mountain. The man in the front row got out of the car, then pulled the door open for the prince, bowed and laughed in English:

"Welcome to His Royal Highness the Prince. I'm Shigeru Takahashi from Tokyo. I bring greetings from His Majesty the Emperor to you. ”

Hearing that he had reported to the Emperor of Japan, Prince Ananta was very surprised, and at the same time, the prince's arrogance on his body was immediately put away, and he nodded politely, saying that he was grateful for His Majesty's care.

Shigeru Takahashi led them into the villa. The villa was large, European-style, and obviously heavily guarded, and it was not possible to see one or two spies in black suits and top hats ghostly haunting.

Prince Ananta had already guessed that this Takahashi Shigeru was probably the person sent by the Tokyo Special High School.

In the luxurious and comfortable living room, Shigeru Takahashi sat on the sofa opposite the prince, smoking a cigarette and saying:

"Your Royal Highness, for now...... You're already 100% safe. However, my Government is very concerned about what happened to you, and how much political future you still have in the Kingdom of Siam. You know, that's why we don't dare to invite you to Tokyo right now...... Furthermore. We don't know what you did to the Ming Empire, and what kind of attitude the Ming Empire has towards you...... This involves the relationship between our Great Japanese Empire and the Great Ming Empire, and we have to be cautious...... Of course, you can have a good rest tonight, and we will talk about these things again tomorrow. ”

The prince immediately said:

"No, Mr. Takahashi, how much political future I have in Siam depends on how quickly I return to Siam. If your country can prepare a plane for me to send me back to Bangkok, then tomorrow I will be the king of Siam, then I can promise that the Japanese Empire will completely replace the current position of the Ming in Siam! ”

Shigeru Takahashi looked surprised, and he was stunned for a moment before saying:

"Why, Your Highness the Prince, are you ...... So sure? This is clearly no longer possible. ”

"How could it be?" The prince was a little excited, and said, "Now my father is still sick, and most of the ministers of civil and military affairs in the country support me!" And I'm still the only legitimate prince of Siam! As long as I can return to the country now, I will succeed to the throne! What's impossible about this? ”

Takahashi Shigeru looked at him stunned and said slowly:

"So...... You don't know yet? ”

"Don't know what?"

"Of course, your brother has succeeded him as King of Siam in a coup d'état last night! Now the army and ministers of the Kingdom of Siam have sworn allegiance to the new king! …… Of course, this is all with the support of the Ming Empire. So, I say your political future ......"

Prince Ananta only felt that his eyes were dark, like five thunderbolts, and his brain was buzzing.

Shigeru Takahashi looked at him sympathetically, and then pulled the bell. Immediately, a waiter came in, and Shigeru Takahashi gave an order in Japanese. After a few moments, the waiter returned, holding a tray.

Shigeru Takahashi took out a newspaper from the tray and placed it in front of the prince:

"Your Highness, see for yourself. This is this morning. ”

Prince Ananta saw that the newspaper was headed with the four kanji of "Yomiuri Shimbun". It was a Japanese-language newspaper, but there were a lot of kanji mixed in with the Japanese kana, and he could guess some of the meanings.

He looked at the Chinese characters in the headline on the front page and muttered them, and a cold despair spread through his body.

The prince jerked his head up and looked at the kind-eyed Japanese spy in front of him.

He slowly had a feeling that everything was over for him now...... Power, status, fame, wealth, love...... It's all over.

…… Unless, this powerful country is willing to be the background for itself and support itself, just like Da Ming supported his younger brother. Otherwise, you will be doomed in this life.

Shigeru Takahashi looked at him sympathetically, but there was also a hint of tacit understanding in his eyes.

He stood up and said:

"Then, please rest in peace, Your Highness the Prince. Tomorrow, we'll talk about those things. ”

After saying that, he bowed respectfully, and then turned and went out.

The prince sat on the sofa in a daze, knowing that it was now time for him to beg 100 per cent of the people.

……

The next day, the morning sun shone over the vast island.

Although this villa is halfway up the mountain, it is surrounded by mountains and cannot be seen below. Otherwise, at this time, the prince will slowly discover that the military port under the mountain is not like the port of Nagasaki, but more like the port of Zhoushan; And the warships moored in the harbor are not flying the sun flag, but the Panlong flag of the Ming Empire.