"You're a real businessman." Seeing that he was so bold, Matsuura Takanobu was a little admired, "Aren't you afraid of being punished by the shogunate for violating the ban?" ”

"If the lord doesn't want to trade with us, I'm afraid he won't agree to meet us, right?" Zhou Pu immediately asked, "Your clan doesn't want to import our goods, so naturally you have to find goods to export to us, and now copper is the most profitable, so we want to import copper from the feudal lord, and when this business opportunity passes, we will buy other goods." ”

"You want to trade with us for a long time?" Takanobu Matsuura frowned slightly, looking incomprehensible.

"If the lord agrees, we are willing to maintain trade with your domain forever." Zhou Pu immediately replied, "Although Nagasaki is good, after all, it is under the direct control of the shogunate, and sometimes it is not very convenient, and it has to rely on other channels. ”

"You ...... Is there a businessman with a special doorway? Matsuura Takanobu's expression became more solemn, and he stared at Zhou Pu tightly, "Do you also have a way in Dahan?" ”

"If you want to say that there is, there is." Zhou Pu was noncommittal. "If the feudal lord is willing to do such a business with us first, we must have many opportunities to cooperate in the future."

Then, the room suddenly fell silent, and Takanobu Matsuura closed his eyes as if thinking about something big.

"Good...... I can help you find copper, and I can help you export it from Hirado Port. After a while, he suddenly reopened his eyes, and then looked at Zhou Pu. But correspondingly, in order to maintain this trade, you also have to import a commodity into us. ”

"Domain Lord...... Want to import goods from us? Zhou Pu was stunned for a while, didn't this feudal lord just say that he didn't want to import goods from Dahan, why did he suddenly change his words.

"Well, I do want to buy something from you." Takanobu Matsuura remained silent, "And it's a commodity that only a well-established businessman like you can handle." ”

"What do you mean by a feudal lord?" Zhou Pu was still very puzzled.

"The power of your big man's fire gun is very amazing, and it is meticulously crafted and very accurate." Takanobu Matsuura said in a very calm tone, "I want to import a batch of firecrackers from you, and the cost will be deducted from the copper. ”

"What?" Zhou Pu became more and more surprised. "The lord of the feudal clan is a firebolt...... This is a product that the shogunate forbade ordinary daimyo to import? ”

The firearms of the Han Dynasty are very sophisticated, and because of the large production and the short distance, the price is also very cheap compared to Western firearms, which has also become a commodity that is sought-after in Japan, but in order to prevent the daimyo from taking advantage of this, the shogunate also strictly forbade the daimyo to import firearms.

"Yes, I want a firecracker." Takanobu Matsuura remained silent, "You are all businessmen from Middle-earth, and you all came to Japan for money, so you won't have so many scruples." ”

"If you want to talk about scruples, there are indeed them, but ...... If the feudal lord really needs it, it's not like we can't find a way. After a while, Zhou Pu hesitated to answer, as if he was very scruples. However, the number will not be too much, and it will take a while, after all, we will need time to raise it. ”

Although he was very embarrassed on the surface, his heart was already happy, and he didn't expect that this visit would be smoother than expected. Matsuura Takanobu promised to cooperate with the smuggling of copper, and he also wanted to import the firearms of the Great Han, which shows that he did not have that kind of fear from the bottom of his heart for the shogunate, and it should be very promising to instigate them to oppose the shogunate like the Shimazu family.

"Well, I'll wait to see your sincerity." Matsuura Takanobu stood up, "But you have to give us a deposit first, we can't work in vain." ”

"If you have a deposit, we'll send it to your domain soon." Zhou Pu replied immediately.

"Okay, you go back and prepare the deposit." Takanobu Matsuura stood up from his feet and left the room without looking back.

…………………………

In the twilight of the afternoon, Zhou Pu and the others left the castle tower of Hirado Castle and re-boarded the Dutch merchant ship, preparing to rush back to Nagasaki.

"I wonder why adults are so polite to the Matsuura clan?" Just as they were about to return to Nagasaki, Togo Shigekata, who was staying by Zhou Pu's side, couldn't help but ask. "The Matsuura clan is nothing more than a small domain, there are not many samurai in the territory, even if they join our side, they won't help much in the end, and the adults will only increase the risk we face if they join the line."

"Kyushu has a very wide area, and although your domain is powerful, there is no guarantee that you will be able to control the entire island soon, so in order to achieve the mission, I still need to find some additional helpers, which will be beneficial to both of us." Zhou Pu politely replied to him, "Although the Matsuura clan is not strong, they have been entrenched in Kyushu for many years, and if you can borrow their strength, it will be a boost to pacify Kyushu." Besides, the Matsuura clan had a deep enmity with the shogunate, and they would be happy to cooperate with us if they were guided well—and judging by the results of our visit to them today, our trip was worth it, and they had other ambitions. ”

He knew that although the Togo Shigekata was nominally arranged by Shimazu Yoshihiro to protect him, in fact he was also tasked with surveillance, and anything he said to the other party could be reported to Shimazu Yoshihiro himself, affecting the cooperation between the two sides. Therefore, he has always respected this retainer who is proficient in swordsmanship, and never looks down on him.

At the same time, the reason why he actively sought contact with other wealthy clans in Kyushu was also to not rely too much on the Shimazu clan, if the Great Han only had the Shimazu clan available after attacking Kyushu, it would not be a good thing for the Great Han, nor would it be a good thing for himself. He had to find people to rely on or support, and use them to weaken the influence of the Shimazu clan now and in the future.

"The Matsuura clan has other ambitions, and I'm afraid it's not good for us, sir." Dongxiang Shigekata still kept a straight face, and it seemed that he was still not persuaded by Zhou Pu, "If the adults really want to bring the Matsuura clan in, how should they repay them afterwards?" Kyushu is not big. ”

When Zhou Pu had a secret talk with Shimazu Yoshihiro, the condition given to Shimazu Yoshihiro was that after the Han pacified the shogunate, the whole island of Kyushu except Nagasaki would be given to the Shimazu family. Due to their position, they naturally did not want other wealthy clans in Kyushu to participate in the division of Kyushu Island, which they originally regarded as their belongings, and they wanted to take away even the territory of the Matsuura clan.

Of course, Zhou Pu could see the young man's thoughts, and in order to ease the atmosphere, he smiled slightly, "You don't have to worry, our big man keeps his promise, and he will not regret the conditions he said, even if the Songpu clan is also involved, the territory promised to your clan before will definitely not be less." ”

"What do you mean, sir?" Togo Shigekata was even more puzzled.

"If the Matsuura clan really participates in our great cause of overthrowing the shogunate, then it is naturally a meritorious hero, and meritorious heroes need to be rewarded, but they do not have to be rewarded in Kyushu. After the war, if the Matsuura clan has made a meritorious service, the imperial court of your country can re-reward them and send them to other places...... Other wealthy daimyo who helped the Great Han can also do the same, and only then will there be more and more people who will join us and oppose the shogunate, right? ”

Togo Shigekata pondered silently for a moment, and finally nodded lightly and didn't ask any more. After the shogunate came to power, the transfer of feudal titles and changes to various daimyo was very frequent, and many powerful daimyo were moved to their territories, so the method mentioned by Zhou Pu was not unreasonable in his opinion. The Matsuura clan was sent to other places after the war, and even if the fiefdom was expanded, it would no longer have any negative impact on the Shimazu clan's Kyushu Island.

"We can't thank you enough for being able to remember your promises." At this moment, Jiang Xia Mingxian next to him also spoke, "The batch of firearms sent by the lord before, the lord has already received it, and he is very satisfied with the quality, it is indeed a Seiko product of the Great Han." But...... The lord of the feudal clan felt that the number was too small, and wanted the adults to add another batch as soon as possible and send it over as soon as possible. ”

After reaching a tacit understanding between the two sides, Zhou Pu smuggled a batch of weapons from the current collection of the Han Merchant Hall to Shimazu Yoshihiro at the request of Shimazu Yoshihiro at the request of Jiang Xia Mingxian and others, and Shimazu Yoshihiro was very satisfied after testing these weapons, and then equipped them to one of his most trusted retainers and samurai teams, but in order to continue to expand the army, he also wanted to get more weapons from Zhou Pu.

"It's not easy to transport weapons, we've already given most of the weapons in our collection to your domain, and we need to wait a while before another batch can be shipped to your domain." Zhou Pu shook his head slightly, "Please also ask the lord to wait a little longer." ”

In fact, now the Han merchant ships have been smuggling a large number of weapons into the Nagasaki Merchant House, and there are already a lot of stores in the Merchant Hall, but Zhou Pu doesn't want to give all the weapons in the Merchant Hall to the other party now, so he excused himself.

"Time is precious, please bring the weapon over as soon as possible." Jiang Xia Mingxian accepted Zhou Pu's explanation, but continued to urge, "There are too few weapons now, and it is not enough to even arm all the feudal lords' personal entourage, the feudal lord is about to purge the opposition forces in the domain, if there is no weapon you sent, I am afraid it will be delayed for a long time." ”

Shimazu Yoshihiro wanted to suddenly raise troops to eliminate his own opposition in the Satsuma domain before he could help the Han advance into Kyushu, but now it was imminent, so he gave priority to the weapons he had obtained from the Dahan Merchant House to his cronies and retinue, ready to launch at any time.

"I know, I'll urge them when I get back." Zhou Pu nodded, "I don't know how many people your clan will be able to mobilize at that time?" ”

The question asked by Zhou Pu was straight to the point, so Dongxiang hesitated a little before answering.

"It depends on how well the feudal lord purgies the opposition forces in the domain, after all, if you don't work together first, you can't prepare all your troops for battle, otherwise you will alarm the shogunate in advance and cause unnecessary trouble." He didn't seem to want to show weakness in front of Zhou Pu, so he spoke quickly, "If everything goes well and the feudal lord can purge the rebellion, he will probably be able to gather three or four thousand people in the summer." ”

"If all goes well, can we only gather three or four thousand people?" Zhou Pu was a little surprised and asked rhetorically, "Why so few?" ”

He was indeed a little strange, it was clear that Shimazu Yoshihiro had a fief with a claimed property of nearly 700,000 stones, and the population was at least hundreds of thousands, so why could he only show such a small number of people when he participated in major events.

"The soldiers are not expensive, and the war depends on the elite soldiers, not just the number of people, Lord Zhou must also understand." Togo Shigekata looked a little embarrassed, "The Shimazu clan has been fighting for many years during the Warring States period, and has accumulated many retainers and samurai who have rich war experience and have led troops to fight for many years. Now that Japan has been peaceful for many years, most of the previous veterans have withered, and due to the regulations of the shogunate, we can't train troops on a large scale, so we can't get enough samurai to lead the troops in a hurry. If we are given a year or two, we may be able to prepare 20,000 or 30,000 people, but it will not be easy for us to prepare 3,000 or 4,000 men between now and the summer. ”

"I see...... I understand. Zhou Pu nodded and accepted the other party's seemingly reasonable explanation. Hurry up and prepare, and when the time comes, the more troops you can muster, the better. ”

In fact, there is another important information that Togo Shigekata did not reveal as he did. The Satsuma Domain claimed to be 700,000 stone high when it inspected the land, but in fact, the real output was only about 300,000 or 400,000, because the Satsuma Domain was close to the sea and often had to suffer from natural disasters, and the rain was more than in other places, so agriculture was not developed, and the population that could be fed was much smaller than in fact, and he was unwilling to disclose the embarrassing situation in the domain to Zhou Pu.

"Of course, we will do our best to prepare, after all, it is our lives and our lives." At this time, Jiang Xia Mingxian also spoke, "It's just that if we only do our best, the big thing will not be done after all, and it will ultimately depend on the outcome of the battle between the Han and the shogunate." If the Great Han can't defeat the shogunate in one fell swoop, then wouldn't we be busy in vain......"

He is a descendant of the naturalized people of the Ming Kingdom, and he has served in the Satsuma domain for three generations, and he has long regarded himself as Japanese, so he doesn't feel anything wrong with saying this.

"Why?" Zhou Pu faintly felt that some of the other party seemed to have something to say.

"Lord Zhou, to be honest, we recently received a piece of news, a not very good news." Jiang Xia Mingxian kept staring at Zhou Pu, "The shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu plans to raise troops to Shangluo next year, and now they have mobilized troops within the Heavenly Territory, and they are expected to be able to gather a large number of troops in a few months." Although it was not because we discovered our scheme, it did cause us a lot of trouble as a result......"

"What? How could there be such a thing? Zhou Pu's eyes widened slightly in shock.

"My lord, we're not going to joke with you." Jiang Xiaming replied word by word.

No wonder the two retainers of the Shimazu family looked so strange today, it turned out that they had received such bad news and their hearts were shaken.

Tokugawa Iemitsu wanted to raise troops to Kamiraka and demonstrate to the imperial court and all the daimyo in western Japan, and judging from the tone of these two people, it should be the scale of the outpouring of the nest, at least the number is scary enough. It is conceivable that by the time the Great Han marched to Kyushu and Honshu Island, the shogunate must have assembled a large number of troops in advance, and whether it was to advance to Kyoto and Kyushu, or to hold on to the old nest of Edo and Sekigahara, it would bring greater trouble to the Great Han's army. Especially since this time the army sent by the imperial court was only one brigade......

This bad news must be conveyed to the imperial court immediately, so that they can find a way to deal with it as soon as possible.

For a moment, his mind was spinning, and he didn't even speak.

But soon he noticed that the two men next to him were secretly observing him, and their eyes were a little flickering.

It's not good, you can't show it! He thought to himself.

The Shimazu family was not fully involved in the first place, and now they are secretly looking for a way out, and if they behave at a loss, God knows if they will be shaken by this, or even give up altogether. If you really give up, I'm afraid you will also have to worry about your life.

Thinking of this, Zhou Pu forcibly suppressed the panic in his heart, and instead showed a sneer on his face, as if he was laughing at the shogunate's move. "That's our luck! That's great! ”

"What's so good about that?" Togo Shigekata didn't understand what he meant, and hurriedly asked.

"Isn't it a good thing that the sooner the shogunate gathers its troops, the more they will come to fight our army?" Zhou Pu swept to the side with an extremely confident demeanor, full of confidence between Gu Pan, "Do you two know what our leading general was most worried about before I came?" ”

"What?" They really asked according to Zhou Pu's meaning.

"What worries us most is that the shogunate army is slow to assemble and cannot fight our army quickly! If we can't do it quickly, it will not be good for us. Zhou Pu deliberately raised his voice and became more infectious, "Our leading general believes that it is easy to defeat the shogunate army, but it is very troublesome to maintain the rear supply of the large army, if the war drags on, not only will the pressure on the rear increase, but also the morale of the officers and soldiers on the front line will also be affected - after all, they are fighting in a foreign country. Moreover, after all, our army is an expedition to a foreign country, and it is not easy to disperse to various places to clear it. So what he was thinking about was how to stimulate the shogunate, so that the shogunate could gather a large army and fight a decisive battle with our army as soon as possible, as long as the main force of the shogunate was defeated in the decisive battle, then they would no longer be able to resist in the future, and they could wipe out their remnants by relying on the daimyo who had risen up in various places...... So, you see, isn't that great news? God help me! Tokugawa Iemitsu is a man who is self-righteous and arrogant, and after he has assembled his army, he will definitely seek a decisive battle with us at all costs, and then the Han Heavenly Soldiers will let him be wiped out. ”

"Can the Han army really overwhelm the shogunate's all-out troops?" Togo Shigekata asked again, "Lord Zhou, although the shogunate army is not as well equipped as your army, the number is always there-"