New Shun 1730

Several large granaries have been built on Liugong Island. It is a bumper year and it is in a good location with Liaodong in the north and Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the south. As long as there is money, it is not difficult to store grain.

He has made up his mind, so he asked Kang Budai to do it. According to the storage of 150,000 shi of rice, wheat and beans, he will find a way to make up for the deficit of more than 100,000 taels before recruiting soldiers and trading with the French.

I thought that I could let my confidant do the first trade in Japan, but I was afraid that it might not be done, so I had to go by myself this time.

In addition to Shi Shiyong, who could exchange a trade letter card, Liu Yu also selected two Mongolian stallions with good shoulder height, which were not castrated, and prepared to exchange for another one.

Now that the typhoon has passed, it is a good day for sailing. Once the golden wind dissipates and the north wind comes, you can try to sail directly from Shandong to Nagasaki.

From the records of some missionaries and Dutch books, we can know the latitude of Nagasaki. The longitude is not very meaningful here. It is surrounded by Korea and Japan. If it can still float in the ocean, it can only be regarded as a strange fate.

The goods handled by Lin Yunwen and the Fuchuan he bought did not stay in Weihai Port, but in the south of Shandong Peninsula. The emperor greeted the Jiedushi of Jiaoliao and the Zhengzongquan of Jiaoliao Town, and they did not care about Liu Yu's ship.

Seeing Liu Yu swaggering and leading two horses to the ship, Lin Yunwen's eyes were straight.

The Japanese gave a trade letter as a temptation. This temptation was too great, but the war horses were strictly checked. Although the customs and the sea patrol also accepted bribes, they also knew which ones should be accepted and which ones should not be accepted. I have never seen horses shipped directly to Japan.

Especially horses with such high shoulders, there are few in the south, and the north is strictly checked. Lin Yunwen thought, others are not allowed to sell but you can sell, how can you not make money?

Liu Yu was accompanied by four young men, including Mantou and others.

Now there was only one captured expedition ship as a training ship, so people could only be divided into two groups. Even if the sailors on the ship were reserve officers, one expedition ship could not accommodate so many people.

Mantou and others had completed the first batch of internships on board for several months. During this period, they had to study theoretical courses and wait until the craftsmen built another expedition ship for training next year before they could board the ship again.

Taking advantage of this gap, Liu Yu said that he would teach the theoretical courses and picked four trusted people to go to Japan together, only treating these four people as guards.

The sailors on the ship were recruited in Ningbo and other places. They just followed the ship, neither carrying goods nor responsible for navigation. As long as they were paid enough, they were a group of people who exchanged their lives for food.

They had stayed here for more than a month. When they saw Liu Yu at this time, they knew that the real owner had finally come. Everyone knew that Lin Yunwen was just a clerk or a head anchor.

As for the goods on the ship, it had nothing to do with these sailors. The novel thing was that I actually saw a war horse. I just thought in my heart that this ship owner was really capable.

After getting on the ship, the owner didn't care about the things on the ship. It was very troublesome to enter the port and then leave the port. This ship was not anchored, so it would take at least a day to prepare before going out to sea.

Liu Yu was also very courageous. He called Lin Yunwen and told him about his idea of ​​taking advantage of the north wind to sail directly to 32 degrees north latitude without jumping islands and then turning to Nagasaki.

Lin Yunwen was so scared that his face turned pale. He hurriedly said, "Master Liu, sailing on the sea is not a joke. Westerners may be able to use such longitude and latitude techniques, but we don't know them. Let's follow the needle song. First, set sail from here to Ningbo, then from Ningbo to Ryukyu, and then go to Japan in Ryukyu. How about that?"

Liu Yu weighed the sextant in his hand and smiled, "Don't worry, I'm not talking nonsense. Many Dutch people have been to Nagasaki, and some missionaries have been martyred in Nagasaki before. I compared seven or eight books, and the latitude records are almost the same. This is not wrong. Besides, does the first person who sailed across the sea also have a needle song from his predecessors? Now the weather is fine, just go this way."

He only knew the latitude of Nagasaki, but it was difficult to determine the longitude of Nagasaki. Moreover, there was no marine clock or astronomical calendar, so he could only use a Chinese-style "scale clepsydra" or "lotus clepsydra" timer.

This thing uses the siphon principle, which is very clever. It is said that it can be used to time on a carriage, which can prevent inaccurate timing caused by bumps to the greatest extent, but the error every day due to bumps on the sea is also five or six minutes.

Before the emergence of marine clocks and astronomical calendars, these things were better than nothing.

Liu Yu had a good idea of ​​sailing directly from Shandong to Japan. There are basically no reefs in the Yellow Sea. By comparing the latitude of Nagasaki recorded by missionaries and the Dutch, it can be determined that it is basically around 32 degrees and a half.

Take a direct route at 15 degrees south by east, and as long as there are sun and stars, turn when the time comes. Now that the typhoon has passed, the wind direction can be basically determined and is not changeable.

Lin Yunwen complained in his heart, but he could do nothing about it. He could only bite the bullet and ask, "How confident are you, sir?"

Liu Yu laughed and spread his hands and said, "When the Westerners sailed around the world, he was as confident as I am. Those sailors, won't be surprised?"

Lin Yunwen's face twitched. He didn't know how confident the Westerners were when they sailed around the world, but he guessed it shouldn't be high.

Flying directly from Shandong to Japan, this is really unthinkable. Fortunately, there is no strong wind in the transition season between autumn and winter, so I can only try my luck.

In desperation, I had to say, "Don't worry, sir, the sailors don't understand this, just let you do it."

"That's it. Go ahead, I'll tell you when it's time to turn."

Lin Yunwen sighed, and went to get firecrackers and other things, and lit them on the deck.

He also brought the offerings to Xu Jingyang, one of the four great gods. Xu Zhenjun fought against dragons and snakes and settled storms. Therefore, the Cantonese worship Mazu, and the people of Jiangsu and Zhejiang worship Xu Zhenjun.

After the offerings were placed, Xu Zhenjun was invited to use the offerings. He knelt there and kowtowed to the statue of the god. He took out the compass next to the statue, and said loudly: "Xu Zhenjun taught that the wind should not be dominated on the day of the dragon boat meeting. Today is a good day, and it is suitable to set sail."

The sailors shouted in unison, and Lin Yunwen held up the compass and ordered to take the needle direction. He recited the prayer for the wind to send him off, and the big ship left the port.

The wind was also very respectful along the way. The four young men who followed Liu Yu were just like when they were on the expedition ship before. They watched the stars at night and measured the speed of the ship during the day, and rarely interacted with those sailors.

Lin Yunwen still called Liu Yu "sir" in private, but called Liu Yu "master" in public.

It took only six days for Lin Yunwen to change his course. After sailing for another three days, someone with sharp eyes saw a big island.

Lin Yunwen held up a telescope and looked for a long time. The more he looked, the more frightened he became. As a person who can recite the needle route song before sailing, it is inevitable that he is knowledgeable and has a super good memory. When he sees the mountains and the coastline, he can know where it is.

The big island in the distance looks like Japan's Goto.

He is familiar with Goto. There is an order from Nagasaki that any ship going to Nagasaki can only go from the south, not from the north of Goto. Anyone going from the north of Goto will be disqualified from trading and the trade token will be revoked.

In just nine days, he could actually sail from Shandong to the vicinity of Goto? Even with a favorable wind, this is too fast, right?

Without the needle route formula or remembering landmarks, just looking at the stars, he can know when to turn?

The more he looked, the more frightened he became. The more he thought about it, the more scared he became. He always felt that there was some ghost talk in it, which was really hard to understand.

After sailing for a while and confirming that this was Goto, Lin Yunwen hurried to find Liu Yu.

"Master, Goto should be ahead. After Goto, there are reefs. If you want to go to Nagasaki, you can't sail directly."

Liu Yu smiled and said, "Yes, you are familiar with this section, so you are naturally responsible. Our method can only be used in the ocean. Things like entering the port still depend on you."

After a little flattery, Lin Yunwen felt comfortable and said, "Entering the port is not difficult, but the difficult part is the Japanese inspection. Every ship entering the port must have someone to ask. For us, it is called 'Tang Fengwen'; for the Dutch, it is 'Lan Fengwen'. The Japanese ask everything, maybe after the country is closed, they can't know what is happening outside without this."

As early as a few months ago, Lin Yunwen had already told the details of entering the port of Nagasaki, and Liu Yu had also made up enough answers.

Since the new order of Zhengde, Japan's isolation has become increasingly serious, but it knows that it must understand the outside world. Nagasaki was left as a window for foreign trade, and only trade between China and the Netherlands was allowed. Every time a ship came, it would ask something.

The ship owner had not learned the confidentiality regulations, and he said everything that should be said and shouldn't be said.

The Japanese were good at this kind of intelligence gathering, and there were also a group of great scholars who crossed the sea to the east during the chaos in the late Ming Dynasty. The questions they asked were also quite tricky, and a lot of content could often be inferred from some details.

In general, Japan's attitude towards Dashun was hostile and cautious.

During the Chongzhen period, when the Chuang army revolted, Japan was also overwhelmed by various "Ikki". In their view, Dashun's success was Ikki, and they were very disdainful of this regime that rose up in Ikki.

Especially after hearing that the Dashun regime opened up trade, allowed Westerners to preach, and learned Western knowledge, they believed that Dashun was changing from Xia to Yi, while Japan was changing from Yi to Xia, which was orthodox.

In addition, the Southern Ming Dynasty kept sending people to ask for reinforcements. Later, Dashun abandoned Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, and some people of Zhuzi Neo-Confucianism also went to Japan or Korea, and they certainly didn't say anything good. Now Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism is flourishing in Japan and has a great influence.

However, given the special environment in Japan, Mencius, who advocated that the people are the most important, is not mentioned. As nobles, Japanese colleagues have a famous saying in the industry: Farmers are like sesame seeds, the more they are squeezed, the more oil they produce.

In addition to these hostilities, there are lessons from the Wanli period of the previous dynasty. Japan has to be cautious about this big country around it, and even the oppression of Ryukyu has been reduced a lot, allowing Ryukyu to be a two-sided regime and try not to provoke Dashun to avoid conflicts.

Because of this, when the Japanese Tang Feng asked, he might ask all kinds of weird questions and infer all kinds of things from the details. Lin Yunwen's worries are also here, worrying that the questions asked by the Japanese are too tricky, or there are loopholes.

Liu Yu thinks that Lin Yunwen is a standard guilty conscience. There is a thief in his heart, so he feels guilty, but Liu Yu has no thief in his heart: Yes, I am not an ordinary person, but I have brought you warriors and war horses, do you want them or not?