Japan, Goto Islands.

The Tokugawa shogunate's 300 feudal domains, the Goto Islands belonged to a small feudal domain with a stone height of only 15,000 stones, the Goto Domain, this archipelago is located off the coast of Nagasaki, only three hours away, and it is located in a key area, but the feudal domain can also mobilize 600 soldiers with its stone high theory, which is not a big threat to the fleet of the Oriental Trading Company.

The fleet was moored in the bay north of Fukue Island, which was deep enough to accommodate 30 large ships of the Vostok, and the high mountains on Fukue Island were good places to anchor ships from the west and south.

The residence of the lord of the Goto domain was located to the west of Fukue Island, and the anchorage of the fleet was deliberately avoided to indicate harmlessness.

Li Zhaoji sat under the awning, stepping on the delicate sand, enjoying a delicious lunch with Zheng Sen, Wei Zhiyu and others.

Delicious fish soup, grilled oysters, stewed chicken, and various vegetables are not as expensive as they are, but they are loved for their freshness.

This is a send-off banquet for Wei Zhiyi, and after the banquet, Wei Zhiyu's small fortune boat can pull anchor and set sail for Nagasaki.

"The lord of the Goto Domain is called Goto Moriji, but he is not in Fukue Castle, I heard from the townspeople, this feudal lord is free and sick, and only took over the position of the feudal lord last year, in order to raise troops, after winning the throne, he took the opportunity to go to Edo and did not come back, and the feudal government was all in the hands of his younger brother Goto Morikiyo.

This is where we met the Acting Lord, who accepted our gift ......... Chen Huaiyu sat next to Li Zhaoji and introduced to everyone the situation of his trip to Fujiang City.

Li Zhaoji asked, "Brother Chen, what do you think of this person?" ”

Chen Huaiyu thought for a while: "It's quite a bit talented, now the life of the Goto Domain is not good, the feudal government is chaotic, the finances are tight, this person is interested in reforming this, but it seems that he is still in the process of grasping power, and because of this, Goto Shengqing's attitude towards us is quite friendly." ”

The Eastern Trading Company had no ambitions for the Goto Domain, but wanted to anchor here for the time being and complete the trade in a more cautious and safe manner, so it did not approach the castle of the lord of the domain, but asked for supplies.

Goto Morikiyo also promised to supply, but did not allow the fleet of the Oriental Trading Company to enter the port directly, but sent the food, firewood, and timber needed by the fleet to the ships of the Oriental Trading Company, and the two sides agreed to go only one ship at a time, and only once in three days, Li Zhaoji expressed his understanding of this, after all, the Tokugawa shogunate closed off the country and strictly prohibited trade between the feudal clans and foreign countries.

The scale of trade between the two sides was very small, and Li Zhaoji was in the supply, so he finally agreed to Chen Huaiyu's proposal and only sent a third-level treasurer to take care of this affairs.

"The supplies brought from Fujiang City today are given priority to Brother Wei's people, let's rest for a few days before going to Nagasaki." Li Zhaoji commanded.

Wei Zhiyu already knew that Li Zhaoji was anxious for justice and righteousness, and thanked him at the moment, Li Zhaoji asked with a smile: "Brother Wei, I heard from the people below that this morning, there seems to be a dispute on your ship, and you also used a knife to see red, but the barbarians below are restless, do you want me to arrange some manpower for you?" ”

Wei Zhiyu smiled at the moment, got up and picked up the wine glass to face Zheng Sen and Li Zhaoji and saluted respectively, he said: "I was about to apologize to the big shopkeeper and Zheng Gongzi for this matter, and I will punish myself three times first." ”

After three glasses of wine in a row, Wei Zhiyu said: "Last night, for some reason, two of Zheng Gongzi's subordinates got on my ship by mistake, this morning, the ship checked the manpower, and found that there were more people, most of my subordinates were Annan barbarians, and they couldn't understand the language, and one was careless, and Zheng Gongzi's subordinates clashed, causing someone to be injured, which is really a sin." ”

Zheng Sen held the wine glass in his hand, and when he heard this, he was quite surprised, he never thought that this matter had something to do with him, so he asked Shi Lang: "Shi Lang, do you know about this?" ”

Shi Lang's face was calm, and he said: "I also heard before the banquet that the two of them drank wine, and they were on the wrong boat last night, and they couldn't wake up with a hangover, and because of the language barrier, there was a conflict. The humble position has been arranged for someone to dispose of it, and the medicine money will be compensated to the person in charge of Wei. ”

Zheng Sen nodded slightly: "Shopkeeper Wei, I'm really sorry for .........." ”

Wei Zhiyu greeted him, but said coldly in his heart: "Your Zheng family wants to deal with Li Da's shopkeeper, but I won't let you get your wish." ”

It turned out that the Zheng family got on Wei Zhiyu's ship, but it was not a misunderstanding, but Shi Lang's arrangement.

Li Zhaoji was determined to anchor the five islands and not go to Nagasaki, Shi Lang hoped to send the news to Zheng Tai, who was in charge of the matter in Nagasaki, but the fleet anchored itself, and Li Zhaoji handed over his saber to Tang Mu, who used him as a military judge to manage the camp.

Shi Lang sent people to sneak out twice, but was stopped by Tang Mu, and he also wanted to send someone to Chen Huaiyu to take the opportunity to get out of Fujiang City, but he was also recognized.

Repeatedly failed, Shi Lang could only send someone to sneak into Wei Zhiyi's fortune boat, but he didn't know that Wei Zhiyu had a grudge against the Zheng family, not to mention that Li Zhaoji had already told him, that is, he had already taken precautions against this hand, and after discovering it, he deliberately used someone to use a knife to clean up the Zheng family.

Li Zhaoji and Zheng Sen sent Wei Zhiyu to set sail and returned to the pergola.

"Brother Wei's ship went to Nagasaki and separated from us, because Brother Li was worried that he would get involved in your trouble." Zheng Sen asked lightly.

Li Zhaoji smiled: "Whether I am in trouble or not, I don't know, what does Zheng Gongzi think?" ”

Zheng Sen said: "Whether there is or not, it has nothing to do with me, if there is really trouble, I will also protect you from the whole body." ”

Zheng Sen's attitude towards Li Zhaoji is extremely complicated, on the one hand, he admires Li Zhaoji very much, on the other hand, he is in filial piety, and he can't disobey his father, but now that his own life is in the hands of Li Zhaoji, he is somewhat involuntarily unable to help himself, so he can only see what Li Zhaoji does and what he encounters, and then he can take action.

Chen Huaiyu said with a smile on the side: "With Zheng Gongzi's words, our trip will definitely go smoothly." ”

Chen Huaiyu was extremely surprised that Li Zhaoji took Zheng Senqiang with him, in his opinion, with the Zheng family's sister-in-law as a hostage, the Zheng family must be a rat trap and dare not play tricks.

Li Zhaoji asked Chen Huaiyu: "Brother Chen, Brother Wei's ship has gone to Nagasaki, we should also take action." In order to ensure safety, I am going to send a ship to Nagasaki with all kinds of goods in the cabin, and explore first, to find out the situation in Nagasaki, and second, to see the market prices.

What does Brother Chen think of my arrangement? ”

When Chen Huaiyu heard this, his head couldn't help but rise, when he first met Li Zhaoji in Guangzhou, he was the heir of the Guangdong gentry who was played by Li Zhaoji, a maritime merchant, but with Fujian's purchase of the water order flag and becoming the trade representative of the Guangdong gentry, his status in the fleet of the Oriental Trading Company rose.

But in all matters of trade, Li Zhaoji never avoided himself, even Guo Xu, a rising star in the Oriental Trading Company, also had to live below himself, which greatly satisfied Chen Huaiyu's vanity.

But after thinking about it for a while, Chen Huaiyu's face changed slightly: "Does Shopkeeper Li want me to lead this ship to Nagasaki first?" ”

Li Zhaoji laughed and waved his hand again and again: "Brother Chen is the son of everyone, shouldering the expectations of the gentry of Guangdong, how can he be in danger?"

I mean, I'll send one person to Nagasaki to represent the Oriental Trading Company, but Brother Chen will also send one person as his deputy to investigate. ”

Chen Huaiyu was relieved at this time, and secretly said in his heart that he had thought too much, and Li Zhaoji categorically did not dare to let himself be bait.

"Who is Shopkeeper Li going to send?" Chen Huaiyu asked, and he couldn't help but look at Tang Mu, who was eager to try behind Li Zhaoji.

Li Zhaoji said: "Tang Mu is more than brave, inexperienced, and it takes skilled traders to be competent, but among my shopkeepers, who are good at buying and selling, they can't use the army, but this trip may also be dangerous.

Therefore, I want Guo Xu to lead the Hongyan there, but in terms of business, Brother Chen has to bother to choose someone. ”

Chen Huaiyu also felt that what Li Zhaoji said made sense, he said: "I let Chen Si'an go, what does Shopkeeper Li think?" ”

Chen Si'an is the son of the Chen family, and he usually takes care of the shops outside for the Chen family, Chen Huaiyu came out to do business in his early years, and thanks to Chen Si'an's leadership, he is a very capable henchman.

Li Zhaoji high-fived and praised, and said: "Brother Chen is really attentive, thank you Brother Chen." ”

Night falls.

The bonfire that had gradually been extinguished could not illuminate Guo Xu's expressionless face, he seemed to be stunned, as if he was looking into the distance, but the wine in his hand continued to devour his little rationality.

Bang dang.

A piece of firewood was thrown into the bonfire, and the thick firewood could not be lit for a while, and Guo Xu, who choked on the smoke and ashes, couldn't help coughing.

"Why did you let the firewood be filled, I was waiting for the fire to go out." Guo Xu saw Shi Lang throwing firewood and asked coldly.

Shi Lang sat by the campfire, watching the embers devour the new firewood, and the flames grew larger, and he said, "The fire on the ground can be extinguished, but what about the fire in your heart?" ”

Guo Xu didn't pay attention to it at all and said, "This has nothing to do with you, General Shi." ”

"I heard that Li Zhaoji sent you as the advance team to lead the Hongyan to Nagasaki to explore the way, but it's a pity, it's a pity that the Hongyan is such a good ship." Shi Lang shook his head constantly and said with great regret.

Guo Xu looked at Shi Lang when he heard this: "In this way, your Zheng family does have the intention of harming us." ”

Shi Lang spread his hands: "I didn't say it." ”

Seeing that he was pretending to be unfathomable, Guo Xu handed the wine jug to Shi Lang and said, "General Shi, in this way, my trip is more auspicious than lucky." ”

Shi Lang shook his head slightly: "Maybe, unless you are willing to do me a favor." ”

"I'll do you a favor and save my life, it sounds like a joke." Guo Xu said.

"The steward of the Zheng family in Nagasaki is Zheng Tai, I can write a letter, you go to Nagasaki this time, take it for me, and you can keep you safe and smooth." Shi Lang said.

"Aren't you afraid, I'll take your letter and hand it over directly to the big treasurer?" Guo Xu asked.

Shi Lang said: "You won't, the big shopkeeper of your family is not an ordinary person, in his opinion, the trade with Nagasaki is too big, which is why he obviously guessed that the Zheng family would deal with him in Nagasaki, and he would take the risk to come."

He was willing to take risks in order to succeed in trade. And he deceived my son-in-law and used it as the last hole card. Therefore, if he knows the contents of my letter, he will only treat it as if he does not know. ”

"Why?"

"As long as you don't know, then you can continue to trade, if you make it public and tear your face, it's over." Shi Lang said, handed a letter to Guo Xu, Guo Xu opened the content, and his heart was really like this.

Shi Lang looked at Guo Xu's solemn face and said, "But what about you, telling the truth will not let you get a little reward, on the contrary, it will make you lose your future." ”

Shi Lang drank all of Guo Xu's wine and said, "Think about it, why would I give you such an important letter?" If there is no correspondence between us, how can I trust you so much, and you must not forget that you still owe me three hundred taels of silver, which is not too big or too small. ”

After the First World War on Langgang Island, Guo Xu damaged the goods of the Guangdong gentry in order to save Wei Zhiyu's goods, so he did not get a reward, he borrowed Shi Lang's three hundred taels of silver to distribute to his subordinates, thinking that it was an incentive to have a handle in Shi Lang's hands.