The so-called strange ship found by the fleet is the unique ship on Sado Island, the Bon Boat.

As long as you see a bon boat, it means that you have already arrived near Sado.

The fleet immediately pounced on the boat, but before the Japanese fishermen could catch it, they heard bursts of cheers, and an island as green as ink appeared in front of everyone, and a huge mountain peak stood tall in front of them.

Originally, Sado Island was in front of us, but there was a deviation in the course, and it was thought that the fleet would pass between Sado and Honshu Island, so Sado Island should appear on the port side of the fleet, that is, to the west, but because Sado Island is only more than 30 kilometers away from Honshu Island, and the fleet has sailed overnight, it is already far from the coastline, so Sado Island appeared on the starboard side.

This led everyone to think that Sado Island is part of the island of Honshu, after all, since arriving in Japanese waters, from a distance, Japan has always been a series of rolling mountains, with dark green being the main hue.

Li Zhaoji immediately ordered the raising of the trading company's Blue Dragon banner, and the fleet did not show any politeness, even ignoring the Japanese ships outside the port, and directly pounced on the largest port in Sado, Ryotsu Port.

This is the largest port on Sado Island, and it is also the port where gold and silver are produced in Honshu, so it is the richest, and there are many ships moored in the harbor, and all Japanese people are surprised by the sudden fleet, and the people here are not the kind of people in Nagasaki who have a lot of contact with foreigners, and they feel very new to the sudden arrival of trading company ships.

As a corner that is not known to the world, the Japanese officials here will naturally not react quickly, so the fleet directly docked the dock of Ryotsu Port, and when the soldiers in armor rushed out, the Japanese realized that something was wrong.

Haruki was the first to get off the ship, and he felt helpless at the scene in front of him, because there was no resistance, and everyone in the port, whether they belonged to the Sado Office, ordinary merchants, or local natives, all fled, and the noisy port suddenly became empty.

"Shichiro, where is Shichiro!" Lee shouted.

Shichiro Yoshida heard the shout from the Toutou, hurriedly put on his bookcase, and went up to the pier in a panic.

"Be steady, Shichiro, if you fall, you'll die." Haruki grabbed Shichiro so that he wouldn't fall into the sea on the side.

Qilang thanked him, saw the place where the Qinglong flag was hanging high from a distance, and hurriedly ran over, it was a shop, the people had run out, and he smelled the sour smell from afar, it was an overturned vinegar vat, when he walked in, Li Zhaoji was already sitting there enjoying pickled vegetables and hot rice.

"Shichiro, did you see someone robbing you along the way?" Li Zhaoji asked.

"Yes." Shichiro Yoshida said, "I saw Haruki's men pull a few cows away. ”

Li Zhaoji said: "I asked him to collect the left livestock so that they don't get lost, is there anyone else?" ”

"Someone was collecting vegetables scattered on the street and transporting them to the boat." Shichiro said.

When the fleet arrived, it was the market at the wharf, the people ran out, but the goods were not taken away, Li Zhaoji said to Tang Mu: "Tang Mu, you take the law enforcement team and stop it immediately." The dish can be taken, but how much has been taken must be recorded, and when the owner is found, the money must be returned to them. ”

Li Zhaoji can't completely deny this kind of behavior, after all, the big guy has gone through more than ten days of sailing, and it is human nature to want to enjoy fresh food when he goes ashore.

Tang Mu grinned: "Big shopkeeper, is it so troublesome?" ”

"Go, we are not here to rob this island, but to rule this island, and we must ensure order and the submission of the people." Chen Liuzi patted Tang Mu's head and said to him.

Tang Mu nodded: "Yes, yes, I'll go immediately." ”

Shichiro Yoshida knelt down in front of Li Zhaoji and asked, "Big treasurer, what do you command?" ”

"I don't have many people who can speak Japanese, so I need you to bring a few people to do things, it's a thriving port, but we don't know anything about it," Lee said. And we need supplies, we need order, so we need to contact some people.

You take people to all the big houses in the harbor to find out who is inside, and you tell them that as long as they don't resist, I won't kill anyone. Then they were invited, and the owner of the shop, or the servant of the office, or the head of the land, or anything like that. ”

Shichiro Yoshida said, "But the current situation is that the people here may be afraid of your martial power. ”

"So, it's up to you, you'd better let them come willingly, and if they don't want to, arrest them." Lee Siu Kee said.

Shichiro Yoshida nodded: "Well, from the moment the fleet docked at the port, you became the master of this island. ”

"It's good that you understand this, stay safe, Shichiro. I don't want you to foolishly knock on the door of the enclosure and be stabbed in the heart with a sword by a reckless samurai. Li Zhaoji said with a smile, pushing a bowl of freshly served rice to Shichiro Yoshida: "Let's go after eating, only when you have enough to eat, you can work." ”

Shichiro Yoshida devoured his food, then went about his work, and in the afternoon he took Lee Zhaoji to the port office, because Sado and his men had already fled in a hurry when they saw the strength of the fleet.

To the north of Ryotsu Port is the most prolific of the fifty-five gold mountains, and it is clear that the Sado Kaizan will flee there first and organize its men.

In the lobby of the commission, more than 20 locals stood there in panic, Li Zhaoji came in with a smile on his face, originally thinking of serving tea to everyone, but what no one expected was that as soon as everyone saw a person in charge come in, they immediately knelt on the ground.

or begged for mercy, or prayed not to hurt their families, and some people directly held gold and silver to Li Zhaoji, hoping to live.

"Shichiro, you tell them what happened in Nagasaki." Li Zhaoji said to Shichiro Yoshida.

Shichiro Yoshida immediately briefly recounted the Nagasaki incident, and the merchants realized that the Oriental Trading Company had come to Sado to recover their losses after being harmed by the Nagasaki government.

After Li Zhaoji saw that everyone's mood eased slightly, he said: "Rank, I am not a pirate, and I will not loot here." Your lives, your families, and your property will be safely preserved, and if one of my men is violent to you, you can report it to me, and I promise that the punishment he will receive will be far greater than the loss you have suffered.

I have come here to ask the Tokugawa shogunate for my guilt, and to use the shogunate's property to make up for my losses, not to loot your property and harm your family. ”

With Li Zhaoji snapping his fingers, Tang Mu beckoned someone to come up, and two huge boxes were opened. With a bang, all sorts of silver coins and silver nuggets rolled to the ground, causing everyone to let out a neat exclamation.

"The shogunate is my enemy, so the Sado Prefecture is my enemy, and my fleet has come from afar to crusade against them. But I need supplies, I need supplies, and I don't loot because I have money to buy it, and this money is to buy everything I need from you.

And on my ship, there are goods that I have brought, silk, cotton, and all the goods that you merchants like, which come from the South Seas and the Ming Dynasty, and I guarantee your satisfaction. We can also trade, you can sell those goods wherever you want, and from the moment I arrived in Sado, it was a place of freedom, a paradise for businessmen. Lee Siu-kee made his own manifesto.

Yoshida Shichiro faithfully informed everyone present of Li Zhaoji's meaning, and the merchants were very excited, and a businessman who was still holding Li Zhaoji's thigh and crying just now, and wanted to sacrifice his daughter to him in order to survive, immediately said: "My name is Yamagae Kiso, my shop is Yayamamae House, I am from Noto Province, I am engaged in grain trading, I have a lot of rice in my warehouse, I can sell rice to you."

I also have people who can make rice balls. ”

"I have a lot of real estate to station your army, and I only need His Highness to give me a meager rent."

"We catch a lot of fish, all fresh, and we can sell them to you."

Everyone was dazzled by the silver in front of them, and they all gathered around, and Li Zhaoji patted Yoshida Shichiro on the shoulder and said, "Shichiro, these are going to be handed over to you." ”

"Me?" Shichiro Yoshida never imagined that he would be given such a big task.

"I don't have any other choice, I don't have many people here who can speak Japanese. Shichiro, do you know what you have to do? ”

"I'm going to get your troops and sailors hot soup and fresh meals so they can live in the house tonight, right?" Shichiro Yoshida thought for a moment and said.

Lee said: "Yes, but it's not entirely true. You have to hold on to the merchants who are oblivious to their interests and are vying with each other, and then get news from these people about the island, especially the Sado office, the mines, and the local powers. ”

Shichiro Yoshida nodded, and he understood.

Soon, Shichiro Yoshida was surrounded by the crowd, and all the high-ranking members of the fleet were gathered in the back hall of the office, and then they entered a warehouse together, which was cold and not large, with a few boxes on display, which seemed to have been moved.

"Silver, big silver!" One of the captains opened the box and saw the neatly stacked silver bars inside, and cheered.

But he didn't pick up the silver bar, which weighed more than a hundred pounds, after a long day's effort.

All the boxes were opened, everyone began to check, after cleaning up, everyone summed up, Chen Liuzi said: "Big brother, there are at least 200,000 taels of silver here, at least, maybe more." ”

"Yes, but there should be gold here, but there is none. It is believed that when Sado ran away, he moved away because the gold was easy to carry. Li Zhaoji said.

"It must be like this, we came too suddenly, the guards and the righteous team took control of the main street on the one side, and Sado was lucky if he was able to escape." Chen Liuzi said.

Li Zhaoji said to everyone: "Everyone, can I now declare that this expedition has been victorious?" ”

Everyone laughed: "Big shopkeeper, victory, really victory." ”

"I think when I was on Fukue Island, I told you that we would get a mountain of gold and silver, but you didn't believe it, but now that the facts are in front of you, you should believe it." Lee Zhaoji joked about everyone.

Some people bowed their heads stupidly, and on the way, some people did have doubts, and Li Zhaoji said: "This is Sado, the heavenly domain of the shogunate, as far as I know, at its peak, it could produce one million taels of silver and more than 150,000 taels of gold every year." ”

Hiss, everyone gasped.