While Yan Shu was busy for his own business, at this time, in Odawara Castle, where the guardian daimyo of Sagami Province, Miura Takaren, the guardian of Yokohama belonged, was located, a banquet was being held that would connect with him.

"Your Excellency Fujiwara, drink." A lean man said with a smile.

Fujiwara Yoshijo, whom he called His Excellency Fujiwara, was fat, raised the wine bowl and took a sip, and said with a smile: "Mitsubishi-kun, this is a yellow bar from Huaxia, and you can feel that it is different from sake when you taste it." ”

"Your Excellency, this is the rice wine of Shaoxing, Huaxia, which is the best in the local area." Mitsubishi-kun, who is known as Mitsubishi-kun, said.

"It's not easy to bring such a good sake from Nagasaki all the way over, and this bottle can't help but be bumpy. It's not safe to go by sea. Fujiwara Yoshijo said.

"Your Excellency, it is naturally inconvenient to transport these bottles from Nagasaki, so these bottles are transported very carefully so that they do not break. But now, if you want to drink the best rice wine of the Ming Dynasty, you don't have to send it from Nagasaki, there is one in Kanto. Mitsubishi said with a smile.

Fujiwara Yoshijo was stunned for a moment, and then said, "You mean those merchants who came with the sailors of the Ming Dynasty?" ”

"That's them. Your Excellency, these merchants of the Ming Dynasty have a lot of goods in their hands, all of which are in demand, and if they are eaten by hand, they will be sold for several times the profit. Mitsubishi said.

"Of course I know that, but now the government in Kyoto has stipulated that foreign merchants can only go to Nagasaki to do business, and not anywhere else." Fujiwara Yoshijo said.

"Your Excellency, Sagami is not the direct domain of the Imperial Minister, so why should you follow the government's rules so much? An open bazaar like the one is certainly not going to work, but you can quietly buy all the goods from the merchants of the Ming Dynasty in private and sell them quietly. Mitsubishi said.

Fujiwara Yoshijo remained silent, just drinking and not talking. But Mitsubishi's smile grew brighter and brighter.

After a while, Fujiwara Yoshijo, who had enjoyed some fine wine and food, left drunk without leaving a word of accuracy. Mitsubishi Xiangyi's younger brother Mitsubishi Xiangyi said: "Today's meal was in vain, and I didn't get permission. ”

"Xiangyi, where is it for nothing? I think this thing is going to be eyebrow-raising. Mitsubishi said.

"Brother, he didn't say a word accurately, how can he have eyebrows?" Mitsubishi, a novice in business, asked.

"Didn't you see him listen to me, why did he continue to drink and eat without hesitation? This shows that Lord Miura of Sagami Province has even expressed some intention about this, so he eats with such confidence; If Miura-sama had no intention of this, he would never dare to do so. Mitsubishi said.

"Then why didn't he say it right?" Mitsubishi asked.

"If a business is negotiated once, it must be negotiated repeatedly; Besides, which of these ministers is not greedy, if he only has a banquet once, he agrees, how can we entertain him many times? Mitsubishi said.

"These officials are too shameless and greedy." Mitsubishi Xiangyi called.

"There are also officials who are not shameless and greedy, but they are rare, there are few in Kyoto, and I haven't seen one in Sagami Country." Mitsubishi said.

"Xiangyi, this time my father asked me to take you out to experience you, and in a few days, when the official start of the negotiation will be, you will be the main one." Mitsubishi said again.

"What? I'm afraid I won't be able to talk about this. Mitsubishi Xiangyi was a little happy and said with some panic.

"No matter how bad you talk about it, business can't be bad. Such a good business is nothing more than how much share it is. And now the government of Kyoto is negotiating with the Ming Dynasty about the opening of the sea in Yokohama, and the agreement reached in these two days is only used before the opening of the sea, and it will inevitably change when the sea is officially opened, so it is just a temporary agreement, and it is nothing if the share is smaller. ”

"Besides, it's just a matter of sharing profits with Sagami country, and our Mitsubishi family is not muddy, and there is the government of Kyoto behind it, so they don't dare to go too far." Mitsubishi said.

"Alright then, brother." Mitsubishi said.

……

……

After Fujiwara Yoshijo left Mitsubishi Ashifuki, he immediately ordered the carriage to drive to one of the Miura family's mansions. The driver tried to persuade, 'Master, you have drunk a lot of alcohol, and I am afraid that it is not appropriate to go to Miura's house like this now.' But when he looked back at Fujiwara Gatshiro, he saw that his face was very sober, and there was no drunkenness in the slightest.

After a while, the carriage came to the door of a mansion, and Fujiwara Yoshijo got out of the carriage and walked in without notice.

He walked along the winding path of the courtyard very familiarly, and after a while he came to the outside of a pavilion, opened the door and entered.

At this time, a sturdy man in the pavilion was drinking with a maid who accompanied the wine in his arms, the maid was already half-naked, and the man's clothes were not neat. On the other side sat a young maid on her knees.

One or two feet in front of the man, several geisha are performing the song and dance "Narujin".

He saw Fujiwara Yoshiki walk in and said with a smile, "You're here, sit down and have a drink." ”

Fujiwara Yoshijo knelt on the tatami mat and said with a smile: "I won't drink the wine, I've already drunk a lot just now, and I should be drunk if I drink it again." ”

"Oh, in that case, you all go out." The man's face changed suddenly, and he said to the maids and geisha performing songs and dances beside him. But they were not surprised, and simply cleaned up, and the half-naked maid got dressed, and bowed and withdrew.

The sturdy man also got dressed, his expression was serious, and he said to Fujiwara Yoshijo, "What did Mitsubishi say about it?" ”

"Your Excellency Miura, he didn't say much, he just said that he could earn several times the profit by obtaining goods from merchants in Yokohama." Fujiwara Yoshiki replied.

"Hmph, Mitsubishi is also slippery like this. You continue to grind with him to see who can grind whom. Said a sturdy man named Keigo Miura.

"Your Excellency, why don't we come forward to buy these goods ourselves, and we have to cooperate with the Mitsubishi family?" Fujiwara Yoshiki asked puzzledly: "Let the Mitsubishi family go through it once, and you have to share the profits; There are also a few merchants under my Fujiwara family, and they all have a son as the adopted son of our family to become a merchant who can become a samurai, so there will be no problem. ”

"The problem is not here, but the reaction of other daimyos. Yokohama is located in my Sagami country, and other Kanto daimyo can't get it, so how can you not be jealous? My Sagami country has a small population and a small area, and if I swallow this money alone, it will be like a child holding gold to the market, how can I not arouse the covetousness of other big names? ”

"At that point, my family's only way out was to ask the government for help. The Mitsubishi family is the government's royal businessmen, and when they make money, the Ashikaga family will make money, so how can they not help when the time comes? If they don't intervene, how will the Ashikaga family help? ”

"And how to distribute these goods is also Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, the three of them are more experienced, and your businessmen can't compare." Keigo Miura said.

After listening to Keigo Miura's explanation, Fujiwara Yoshijo suddenly realized and said, "My subordinates thought too little about it, and they didn't think of this. In the next few days, I continued to deal with Mitsubishi as instructed by you. ”

Keigo Miura nodded, said a few more words to him, and let him go down.

In the next few days, Fujiwara Yoshiki continued to come every time he was invited, but he didn't say it accurately, but Mitsubishi was calm and didn't say much.

But someone couldn't hold his breath, and Yang Jingxiu, a merchant from the river, found Mitsubishi Xiangfu and said anxiously: "Brother Xiangfu, it has been eight days since King Yong'an ordered us not to trade directly with you Fuso people, and the weather in Yokohama is humid again, and some goods should be broken if they are not sold." ”

Yang Jingxiu used to be a businessman who ran the route from Jiangsu, Zhejiang to Nagasaki, but this time he saw an opportunity in Yokohama to make a fortune here. Because their family cooperated with the Mitsubishi family in Nagasaki, these merchants who came to Yokohama to do business knew that Mitsubishi Sofu had come to Sagami Country and asked him to sell things to the Fuso people as a representative. Yang Jingxiu was interested in forming the Yokohama Chamber of Commerce in the future and became the president of both officials and businessmen, so he agreed to come down and communicate with Mitsubishi. Who knew that there had been no movement in the past eight days, so I could only come and ask.

Mitsubishi said helplessly: "Brother Jingxiu, the adults of Sagami Country have always disagreed, and there is nothing I can do. ”

"So what to do?" Yang Jingxiu asked anxiously.

"Why don't I introduce you to meet Fujiwara Yoshisama, who is in charge of this matter, and you can talk to him personally?" Mitsubishi said.

"Okay, okay." Yang Jingxiu said immediately.

Mitsubishi smiled secretly in his heart: he could save a bribe, and said: "I will have a banquet for Fujiwara Yoshiro tomorrow night, and you remember to come to my mansion here in the afternoon." ”

"You must remember that we have more rules in Fusang than in Daming, and you can only call him Your Excellency; I also know that you understand Japanese, but you still speak in Chinese, don't use Japanese, and the wrong words of the province have angered Fujiwara Kashiro-sama. I'll be your translator. Mitsubishi admonished.

These exhortations are all due meaning, and Yang Jingxiu also agreed to them one by one. Anyway, I know Japanese, so I'm not afraid of him deceiving myself.

But Yang Jingxiu was stupid when it came to the banquet, because he could barely understand the Japanese spoken by Mitsubishi and Fujiwara Yoshiki. Japanese is different from Chinese, and the Japanese spoken by the upper class of society is very different from the Japanese spoken by the lower class, and he can only understand a few pronunciations, but because there are many homophones, he is not sure that these pronunciations are what he thinks they mean.

After a while, Mitsubishi said to him, "My lord said that he is also responsible for this matter in Sagami country." ”

Yang Jingxiu immediately understood, took out twenty taels of gold and said, "How can you let the adults take responsibility for nothing?" ”

Mitsubishi mumbled with Fujiwara Yoshiki again, and Fujiwara Yoshiki smiled and took the bag of gold from him.

When he left, Mitsubishi Xiangfu said to Yang Jingxiu: "Your Excellency has approved the purchase of your goods, but there are these conditions,......。 ”

Although Yang Jingxiu didn't know what they had just said, he felt that he had been cheated by the businessman's intuition. But he had no choice but to accept Mitsubishi's offering.

Anyway, this price is much more than their capital, so they won't lose money, not to mention that they made a lot of money by selling it directly to the Fuso people a while ago. Yang Jingxiu thought. He then agreed to Mitsubishi's conditions.