"Don't think about it, Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince, you can suffer like this, what can't I bear?" Zheng Sen still held his head high, "The prince said, this is to serve the country, as long as the errand is completed, the country will have a reward, right?" At that point, I'll be able to go back home in style. When my father sent me to the capital, he said that he wanted me to study with the prince and learn how to be a hero, I ...... If I can contribute to the country, I will be a hero, right? At that time, Daddy ...... Daddy will be very happy too."

"You...... You are honest and filial, okay, since this is the case, then it is decided. The prince smiled, "You should have done nothing during this time, don't tell anyone about it, I will inform you when it is time to leave, and we will go over together." Other than that...... During this time, you can also re-study Japanese, after all, I haven't used it for many years, I'm afraid it's a little rusty. ”

"Uh-huh! Don't worry, prince, I'll review when I go back! And I'll never tell anyone about it! Zheng Sen couldn't stop nodding in agreement, and the young man's enthusiasm was fully revealed.

After his wish was granted, the prince's mood also became very good, and he raised his head again to look at the mountains and mountains in the distance, but his thoughts had drifted beyond the clouds.

"Zheng Sen, your father is a big hero, a big hero." After being silent for a long time, the prince suddenly sighed, "Do you sometimes think that your father is too powerful, for fear ...... Afraid that he will not do well, and he will not be worthy of him, nor will he be worthy of inheriting the family business? ”

Zheng Zhilong crisscrossed the world, so that all maritime merchants, including Westerners, had to avoid his edge, he was indeed a great hero, and his father deserved to be named his marquis.

So...... Will his son have the same pressure in his heart as himself?

This was the first time the prince had confided his heart, and he was expecting an answer, because he was too lonely and had to bear too much.

Zheng Sen was startled at first, and then slowly lowered his head.

"Yes...... Prince, there is. I...... I'm afraid that I won't be able to do my father's career, and I'm afraid that I will lose my father's reputation, and I'm very afraid. Therefore, I want to be a big hero like my father, expand the territory of the country, make contributions, and let everyone in the world know that my father has a good son like me! ”

Although the Marquis of Huiji has a lifetime of achievements, it may not be impossible to surpass, but to be a hero like his father, to lay down his brilliant career, it seems impossible, even if he goes to the limit in this life, I am afraid that he can only barely inherit the career of his father, let everything he left behind run steadily, so that his ideas can be put into practice.

"I'm the crown prince, you must think that I can do whatever I want, and I can do whatever I want, but how can it be so easy...... I'm just as scared as you are, I'm afraid that I won't be able to live up to my father's expectations, I'm terrified. The prince's voice trembled slightly.

But soon, he regained his composure, and then gently squeezed Zheng Sen's arm.

"You'll be better than your father. Do it well, work hard to make contributions to the country, I will make you famous, let you be a general and a marshal, no one can bully you and look down on you! ”

I can't overtake my father myself, but I can watch another person surpass his father, and that's fine. The prince thought to himself.

It's another nice sunny day.

At the pass of the New Year's Festival, the capital will always be a little more lively than usual, since the early morning, people from all walks of life have set foot on the street to enjoy the lanterns, watch the acrobatics, buy things, etc. The bustling streets of the capital are crowded with people, and everywhere is very lively, and there is a peaceful atmosphere of its own. In the street, shops and restaurants are lined up one after another, some people are in a very good mood, spend a few small money to run to the restaurant to reserve a seat to pour themselves a drink, looking at the street in the distance, is it to follow the sound of silk and bamboo chanting and singing.

However, in this cheerful and prosperous atmosphere, there are always some noises, and some people are drawn by worldly things and cannot feel the joy of the New Year.

"Is Mo crazy in China?" With a muttering to himself, Yanagi Motosai strode through the street. His footsteps were so great that all his followers could barely follow him, even with all their might.

This is a middle-aged man with a big beard, a rough appearance but not tall, his steps are very powerful, his stride is steady, even if he is in a bad mood, his eyes are still alert, and he is obviously a very capable person.

However, although he was dressed in Han clothes, he was not Han, not even Chinese, he was Japanese. To be exact, they are members of the Yagyu clan of Yamato Province (a local name in Japan, equivalent to a county in ancient China).

He was officially appointed by the shogunate to stay in the capital of the Han Dynasty as an envoy of the Japanese state.

The Yanagi clan has always been a famous swordsman family in Japan, his grandfather Yagyu Soyan studied swordsmanship under Toda Ichitosai of Tomita Ryu and Shintori Shinjuro of Shindangliu when he was a teenager, and later worshipped the swordsman Kamiizumi Nobutsuna of Shin Yin Ryu as a teacher, and finally inherited Shin Yin Ryu and became a famous Japanese swordsman.

Almost forty years ago, in the third year of Bunroku, Yagyu Soyan met Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had not yet become a shogun, and was greatly admired by Ieyasu, and later after Ieyasu unified Japan and established the shogunate, he asked Yagyu Sogan to make him the shogunate's swordsmanship guide (that is, an instructor), but Soyan refused on the grounds of his advanced age, and elected his fifth son, Yagyu Soto, to be the official, and since then the Yagyu family began to become a member of the Tokugawa shogunate, and got the family character of the flagbook.

After serving as the shogunate's swordsmanship guide, Yagyu Motosai's uncle, Yagyu Soju, won the trust of successive shoguns through his swordsmanship and fame, and he was always used in favor of Ieyasu to Hidetada and then to Iemitsu. Now that he has been appointed by Tokugawa Iemitsu as Daimesuke, he is in charge of internal intelligence and supervision, and is responsible for monitoring the domestic anti-shogunate forces and the Tokugawa family's relatives, so it can be said that he is already an important minister and not just a swordsmanship instructor.

In the pre-Ming Dynasty, the shogunate took great care of maintaining trade with China, and although the shogunate implemented a policy of closing the country to the outside world, it still attached great importance to maintaining trade with China in the pre-Ming Dynasty because of the great turmoil caused by the two factions fighting each other for trade rights.

In the pre-Ming era, the Ming court had never paid much attention to foreign exchanges, coupled with the raging Haikou between Zhengde and Jiajing, and the great war in Korea during the Wanli period, official contacts with Japan were even more prohibited. After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the situation was different, because the Han court paid great attention to commercial interests and also had the will to maintain Sino-Japanese trade, so at the initiative of the Han Dynasty, the two countries decided to send representatives to each other, with the Chinese representative stationed in Nagasaki and the Japanese representative stationed in Tianjin.

The reason why there were no envoys stationed in the capital was because the shogunate was not the Japanese court after all, and the Japanese shogunate felt that it was inappropriate for the Han court to send envoys whether they were stationed in Kyoto or Edo, so in the end, after discussing them, the shogunate decided to simply send representatives to each other in the port - anyway, these offices were originally set up to deal with trade matters.

In Japan, there has always been a fear and admiration for the huge China, and Sino-Japanese trade is of great significance to the shogunate, so after the matter of sending representatives to each other was decided, many forces within the shogunate participated in the competition for the candidate for the representative of the station, and after a fierce competition, Yanagi Motosai, who was born in the Yagyu clan, got this position because of the shogun's trust in the Yagyu family.

Yanagi Motosai also regarded this appointment as his own honor, so he decided to repay the general's kindness in the best way he could, he practiced Chinese hard as soon as he came to China, and he was also attentive and meticulous in his work. Relying on the blessing of the Buddha, there have been no problems in his work in the past few years, and the trade between the Han and Japan is quite smooth.

But the good times were short-lived, and not long ago, Sino-Japanese trade went a big way—and the blame lay with the shogunate.

In response to the urgent request of the Netherlands, the shogunate transferred all the copper that could be exported to the merchant ships of the Dutch, and to China, the agreements that had been made and those that were not yet decided had to be postponed, and it was expected that the normal supply would not be able until after next year.

When the incident happened suddenly, please try to win the understanding of the Chinese court and avoid destroying the diplomatic relations between the two countries - when he saw this brief instruction from the shogunate, Yanagi Motosai was so angry that he almost turned his back on it.

Copper is the bulk of Sino-Japanese trade, but also extremely important materials, China coinage, gunsmithing, shipbuilding and machinery are indispensable copper, so suddenly cut off the export of copper to China, will certainly cause a very serious reaction from the Chinese court, how can you rely on a few words to "win understanding"?

He immediately replied to the country, asking that while the Han court was not angry, the export of copper should be restored as soon as possible, and the wounds caused by this sudden decision could be repaired, but because the correspondence between the two sides took too long, he received a reply from the country that he said that most of the copper had been loaded on Dutch merchant ships and could no longer be changed suddenly.

If it weren't for the fact that the shogunate often introduced some very strange and blind policies because of short-sightedness and internal strife, Yagyu Sosai would almost have suspected that this was the shogunate's deliberate intention to be unfavorable to China.

But if he didn't think so, it didn't mean that others didn't think so, and if the Chinese court thought that the shogunate was deliberately trying to make things difficult for China, the problem would not only be a trade issue, but the consequences would be very serious.

Yes, Yagyu Sosai was very afraid of the big man, afraid that this sudden move would anger the big man and lead to unpredictable consequences.