Of course, he didn't know that his colleagues in Kyushu had fallen into a delicate situation at this time.

Just a few days after he left, Liu Jing, who was still in the Kyushu Merchant House, suddenly accepted the summons of the old Naito Tadashige again.

Puzzled and nervous, he immediately put aside other things and went to the Nagasaki government office that afternoon to meet the old man.

The former Nagasaki pursued Takenaka Shigeyoshi, who was discovered by the shogunate for corruption, but now he has been taken and sent to Edo, and it is said that he will not be able to escape the disposal of a seppuku this time. Because of the arrest of Shigeyoshi Takenaka, the old Naito Tadashige has been purging his cronies and officials in Nagasaki recently, so when he came to the official office today, he found a lot of fresh faces, and these people were lukewarm when they saw him, and there was no longer the enthusiasm of those people at the beginning.

He waited for a long time in the Houjian room, until he was already a little impatient, and a waiter with a straight face came to the Houjian room to summon him, and then he followed the other party to the room where Naito Tadashige was.

As soon as he entered, he found Naito Tadashige sitting in a chair working on official documents, and when he saw him, he still didn't squint, but waved his hand slightly and motioned for him to sit down.

Due to the frequent exchange of merchant ships from the West and the Han Dynasty, it was greatly influenced by the outside world, and it was very different from the rest of Japan. Not only is the architectural pattern of the city Western-style, but even the furnishings in the government offices have a lot of foreign colors, such as the Western chair that Tadashige Naito sits on, which is not usually used by the Japanese.

Liu Jing was not in a hurry, sat down according to Naito Tadashi's instructions, and quietly waited for the shogunate elder to speak.

"I'm sorry to keep the ambassador waiting." It wasn't until Naito had finished processing all the documents on the table that he put down his pen and then looked up and smiled at Liu Jing.

Then, he stretched again, and then leaned back, "Hey, I've been really busy lately, and there are so many things waiting for me to deal with, which is really a headache." ”

"Your Excellency, you've worked hard." Liu Jing saluted him respectfully.

"Everyone works hard, all for the sake of national affairs!" Naito Tadashige sighed first, then laughed again, "But to be honest, this Nanban tool is really interesting, and it is very comfortable to use...... They'll really enjoy it, but it's a pity that I'll only be able to enjoy it here. ”

"When you go back to Edo, you can take it with you?" Liu Jing asked with a smile. "Maybe I can show it off in front of my colleagues."

"That's not good, I can't be different in Edo, I can't be different, or a lot of people will speak ill of me." Naito Chushige smiled bitterly, and then immediately changed the subject, "Forget it, it's time to get down to business...... Lord Liu, I called you over today because I have some important things to ask you. ”

"My lord, may I ask?" Liu Jing was a little curious.

"Since Edo has not yet appointed a successor to Shigeyoshi Takenaka, I have been handling the affairs of Nagasaki lately. Although it was a headache at first, I finally have a clue now. Naito Tadashige suddenly smiled slightly, "We have also found out, before Takenaka Shigeyoshi has extorted gifts from merchants of your country and even adults himself, and some money and gifts have been squandered by him, so there is no recourse, but we have cleaned up and sealed the gifts that can be recovered, and when the time comes, please take these gifts back, we can't keep these illegal gains." ”

"This ......" Liu Jing was very stunned.

I didn't expect that there would be something to return after the house was raided? It is true that he has never heard of this unprecedented strange thing before, and there is no such rule within the Japanese shogunate, it seems that this is Naito Tadashige's personal will.

You really value me, it seems that my mind is very clear...... He sneered inwardly.

"Thank you, sir!" He quickly regained his composure and hurriedly thanked the other party, "As soon as my lord came, he changed the atmosphere of Nagasaki and allowed our grievances to be redressed, which can be called virtuous!" ”

"The responsibility for this matter is on us, and now I am only remedy, so how can we talk about wisdom?" Naito Zhong shook his head heavily, "Lord Liu, this is just one of the things, and there is one more thing I want to ask you." ”

"Excuse me?"

"Ever since I started taking over Nagasaki, some things have gotten weird." Naito Tadashige unhurriedly pulled out a few pages of the book from the pile of papers on his desk, and then threw them in front of Liu Jing. "According to the records of the port, the merchant ships coming from your country have dropped significantly compared to before, and the cargo volume has also dropped a lot, what is the reason for this?"

"This ......" Liu Jing hesitated slightly, after all, he had thought that he would be asked about this kind of thing beforehand, so he immediately adopted his previous statement, "This is because ...... Because there is a trade dispute between our two countries, and there is some dissatisfaction with it at home, we are also worried about the restrictions on the trade of merchant ships. Besides, the export of copper has not yet been restored, and the adults want to restrict trade between the two sides."

"Yes—it seems that your country does have anger in its heart, and that makes sense." Naito nodded and accepted the statement, "But it was not our intention to forcibly restrict trade between the two countries. ”

"You can't blame us all for this point, right?" Liu Jing smiled bitterly, "We don't want so many twists and turns in the trade between the two countries." ”

"Now that it's happened, there's no point in pursuing it before, right?" His implied irony, Naito Tadashi pretended not to hear it, "My lord, the most important thing now is to solve these problems, and the sooner the better." Dare to ask what I told the adults before, but now there is a result? ”

He said that he naturally wanted to go to the Han Dynasty to negotiate with the Han court, of course this matter was not feasible, Liu Jing just casually reported it to the country, but how could he tell him the truth.

"I've already reported it to the country, and it's probably still discussing how to deal with it, so please wait." Liu Jing replied in a low voice, "I think there will be results soon." ”

Perhaps because this answer was very unsatisfactory, Naito Tadashi's brows furrowed, and his gaze at Liu Jing became much sharper.

Liu Jing suppressed the tension in his heart and sat as calmly as possible.

"Then there is one more thing, please give me an explanation as well!" Naito Tadashige was silent for a moment, then suddenly picked up another piece of paper and spread it out, "According to the report of the merchant ships from the Netherlands, they were harassed by pirates many times on the way to Nagasaki, and many of their fellow ships were forced to return to Japan, and they finally ventured to Japan - it is for this reason that our trade with the Dutch is now also greatly affected, and even more, according to the description of the merchants on the Dutch merchant ships, before they came to Nagasaki, they saw a constant shuttle of merchant ships and warships of the Han Dynasty on the open sea, and the destinations are all in the Goryeo region...... May I ask you, my lord, why do merchant ships stop patrolling outside our borders, and warships do not stop watching our country? ”

This question pointed to the point, but it made Liu Jing speechless for a while.

Although the Han Dynasty has been strictly guarding the secrets, and the relevant sea surface has also been blocked, no matter how tight the net is, there will be fish that will slip through the net, not to mention the vast and boundless sea? No matter how much the navy disguised itself as pirates to attack them, some Dutch merchant ships broke through the blockade and came to the port of Nagasaki, and then told the shogunate what they had seen and heard.

"Your Excellency...... The matter ...... The matter ...... Listen to me! Liu Jing's forehead was already sweating, and he was extremely nervous.

"Oh? Want to explain? All right...... Explain. Naito Tadashige sneered, "Ambassador, I came to you today to hear your explanation." ”

Liu Jing knew that he was in a very dangerous situation, where the shogunate could deal with him in any way, and there was no way for him to avoid his doom if he could not give a convincing explanation.

"Recently...... Recent...... Isn't it not good for our two countries? Therefore, the Yamen of China's Ministry of Commerce issued an instruction to ...... Ask for a temporary reduction in the scale of trade with Japan......" Liu Jing reluctantly calmed down, and then explained in a hiss, "But since the goods have already been produced, it is not good to pile them all up in the warehouse, and we still want to resume trade as soon as possible, and we don't want the dispute to continue for a long time. If you can't sell it, you should first store it in the warehouse of the Korea Commercial Center, so that after the trade relations between the two countries return to normal, you can sell it to your country as soon as possible, after all, Korea is very close to your country. ”

Naito Tadashige listened silently and noncommittally.

"And then?"

And then ...... And then there's the battleship thing, right? Liu Jing looked at the other party cautiously, "Actually, this matter is also simple, the sea has been quite unquiet recently, and piracy is very rampant, so for the safety of commerce and trade, we have to send additional warships to escort the merchant fleet, and many warships have been sent to clear the pirates, so that the sea can return to peace...... Presumably, the battleships that these Dutch saw were the ones we used to carry out the above tasks. ”

"Clearing out pirates? I'm afraid it's more than that, right?! Naito still sneered, "When there was a dispute over trade between our two countries, piracy suddenly became rampant, and then trade immediately shrank sharply, and even the trade of the Dutch was greatly affected, isn't there any mystery in this?" I think there are a lot of strange things in it, and no matter how you look at it, it will make people think, think that these pirates are deliberately released by your navy, right? ”

"Your Excellency...... Where do you start with this? Liu Jing was shocked and looked very hasty, "We attach great importance to the trade between the two countries, and we ...... How could we do such a thing? Isn't that a loss for everyone? ”

"yes, I wonder why some people have to like to do things that hurt everyone rather than do things that benefit everyone?" Naito Tadashige stood up, and then walked to Liu Jing's side, "Ambassador Liu, now that the matter is over, you don't need to say some beautiful things to fool us, please tell us, is it that your country's Ministry of Commerce or the imperial court thinks that if we use this way to cut off trade, we will have to give in, and then bow down to your imperial court?" ”

Because there was a fire in his heart, his words were unceremoniously. In his opinion, the deeds of the Great Han are strange no matter how you look at them, and there are all kinds of signs that they deliberately reduced the volume of trade between the two countries, and also interfered with the normal trade between Japan and the Netherlands.

Why would they do it? Naito thought about it again and again, and finally decided that the only possibility was that the Han court wanted to blackmail the shogunate in this way, forcing the shogunate to submit and agree to all their terms of trade.

It has to be said that this practice did make the shogunate a little difficult, and many industries that originally relied on imported raw materials - such as the silk weaving industry - suddenly fell into a situation where production was unsustainable because of these measures of the Great Han, and the business was unstable, the economy was unstable, the economy was unstable, and the society was unstable, which was really uncomfortable.

However, this discomfort did not hurt so much that it brought the shogunate and Naito Tadashige himself to its knees, but it aroused their anger, and in their opinion, the Han Dynasty was dealing with trade issues by radical means, and even affected the trade between Japan and other countries, which was really too deceitful.

Moreover, in their view, China's exports to Japan, although vital to Japan, have not risen to the point of lifeblood; However, Japan's exports to China have completely grasped the lifeblood of the other side, and in any way, Japan should have an advantageous position in the trade between the two countries, at least it should not be conceeded by its own side.

Therefore, it is reasonable for him to decide to fight back against Dahan's measures in a tough way, and to summon Liu Jing to scare him.

"Don't wronged us, sir! How could we do such a thing! After Liu Jing listened to the other party's words, he found that the other party had made a wrong judgment, so he pretended to be very flustered to defend himself, but he was determined in his heart.

"The facts are already in front of everyone, what's the use of adults not admitting it?" Naito Tadashige still sneered, "Forget it, I also understand the difficulties of adults, you can't admit this kind of thing directly, but...... Please don't lie to me by telling any more useless lies, so as not to add shame to me. ”

"My lord......" Liu Jing hesitated for a long time, and finally lowered his head and stopped arguing.

Naito naturally took his appearance as a default and confirmed that his conjecture was true.

"Very well, it seems that the ambassador finally has nothing to say." He sighed again, then walked back to the seat he had just sat down again, "We are each our own masters, and there was nothing to say about this matter originally, but your imperial court did this, didn't you care about the safety of your lords?" If the general is angry, I am afraid that even if you are an official, it will be difficult for you to protect yourself. ”

"This is the arrangement of the imperial court, what can I do in Nagasaki? It's nothing more than ********, and even if you are in danger, you have nothing to say. After being silent for a long time, Liu Jing replied, "Besides, this matter has come to the point where it is now, and I also think that it is not only the responsibility of our big man, if it wasn't for the big turmoil before, how could there be the next thing?" ”

"Does it still make sense to hold accountable now?!" Naito asked with a frown, "The important thing is to solve!" Get things sorted out sooner! Didn't the adults themselves say the same? The Han court is still looking forward to resuming trade as soon as possible, and so many goods piled up in Goryeo must also make your country very uncomfortable, so why waste everyone's time and not settle the dispute sooner and let everything return to normal? Why do you have to do it this way? Do you think that if we do such a thing, we will compromise? This is simply naïve! ”

He was so stormy that Liu Jing didn't dare to speak at all, but Liu Jing knew that since the other party was willing to call him over, it wouldn't be just to scold him in person.

"My lord is right, it's not a good thing to lose both sides after all, in my opinion, it's better for the two families to reconcile as soon as possible." He sat back up, "From my standpoint as the envoy of Nagasaki, of course I hope that the commerce of the two countries will flourish and that both merchants and civilians will benefit, but there are some things that I cannot control...... I can only resign myself to fate, and if the adults blame me, I have nothing to say. ”

"If you haven't done what you should do, how can you give up easily? Mr. Liu, you said it yourself, you want to maintain the relationship between the two countries, and now that the situation has come to this point, shouldn't we find a way to remedy it immediately? Do we have to let the relationship between the two countries fall to the bottom? ”

Naito did not want the two countries to fall out from the bottom of his heart, and although what he had done was excessive, he believed that the current situation could be remedied, as long as the trade issue could be resolved. In his opinion, there is no natural contradiction between the two countries, and some existing problems can be resolved through consultation, and he was sent to solve these problems. On the contrary, if he really tries to turn the tide and let everything return to normal, then he will definitely be praised by the general.

And all this requires the cooperation of this Han official.

"Your Excellency...... Do you think there is a way to turn around now......" Liu Jing asked suspiciously.

"Absolutely! There is nothing that cannot be done in the world, but it just depends on whether you have the determination to do it, as long as you have determination, are you afraid that you can't do it? Naito Tadashi shook his head, "Lord Liu, your safety, honor and disgrace, as well as your future in your country's imperial court, are actually the same as ours, only when the trade between the two countries becomes long-term and larger, will the adult be more valued and trusted, can't a smart person like the adult see such a thing?" ”