After spending more than a month in the Jilong Karmanu camp, Shang Zhong, who was very anxious, finally met Li Tianyang, the true leader of Hongtang, in early February.

People who meet Li Tianyang for the first time will always be shocked by Li Tianyang's too young face, and Shang Zhong is no exception. Although Li Tianyang has been in a high position in recent years, and he has also cultivated the majesty of many high-ranking people, the slender velvet on the corners of his mouth still betrays his age.

"Dear Lord Hongtang, Xiaguan is the imperial guard of the Zhongshan Kingdom of the Ryukyus, and on behalf of the king of Xiaguan, I would like to salute you." Shang Zhong did a good job of hiding the shock in his eyes, and saluted Li Tianyang with a humble and solemn expression, with a strong Beijing accent in his movements and voice.

"I'm sorry, Shang Guard, this time is the Spring Festival, so there are too many trivial things in our hall, and I didn't have the opportunity to meet you until today, so don't be surprised." Li Tianyang smiled and faced the middle-aged man in the hall very politely.

"If you are there, I know that the hall master has a lot of things to do, and I won't delay your affairs." Although he was anxious in his heart, Shang Zhong was still very polite to Li Tianyang on the surface

When they met for the first time, Li Tianyang and the others naturally didn't get straight to the point, and the two chatted in the reception room with or without a match, trying to close the distance between each other through a short period of time, until Li Tianyang felt that the conditions were ripe.

"I also heard Uncle Wu mention the intention of Shang Guard, to be honest, our Ming Dynasty was also poisoned by the Japanese invaders of this country decades ago, and in our hearts, we are disgusted with the Japanese people, so we empathize with everything that happened in your kingdom, and we are also very worried and sympathetic to you." Originally, Li Tianyang didn't have a good impression of the Japanese people, so the expression on his face was very sincere, and he was also very moved in Shang Zhong's eyes.

"Thank you for your concern, the country is unfortunate, the shame of our soldiers, it is a sin not to be able to share the sorrow of the king, and it has caused my lord to suffer a great shame, it is really damned!" Speaking of the Japanese people, this is like a sharp knife piercing Shang Zhong's heart, making his eyes scarlet.

More than ten years ago, when the Satsuma general Kayama Hisadaka led the Japanese people to Ryukyu Island, Shang Zhongzheng was in his early twenties, and he was still a hairy young man with strong blood.

When the Japanese people were killed in Shuri, in the face of the sharp iron cannon in the hands of the Japanese people, Shang Zhong, who was holding a long knife and wooden shield, although he had a warm blood, but his colleagues were not good, and the general had no eggs, and he was killed by twice as many Japanese people as he lost his armor, and finally sent the capital and the king to the hands of the Japanese people, which became a great shame for Shang Zhong in his life.

"I am not afraid of the jokes of the hall master, until now the king and the people of our country are still under the obscenity of the Japanese people, and they have not been able to get rid of it. This time, with the expectations of our king, I found you, the hall master, and I am in class hoping that the hall master can send troops to help my country get out of the control of this wolf! The more he spoke, the more excited Shang Zhong's emotions became, and in the end, he roared out.

"This matter ......" Li Tianyang had a look of embarrassment, both sympathy but also full of worry and fear: "Our Hongtang is just a civilian business gang, saying that we want to help Shang Guard your kingdom, even if we have the heart, I am afraid that we don't have the ability." ”

"Hall Master Li is modest, the month before yesterday, I sent more than 100 warships with the Japanese thief Huashan Jiugao to fight the Hongtang under the command of the master of the Battle Hall, but the final result was that the old thief of Huashan Jiugao was defeated and fled, and your Hongtang losses were very few, and the hall master said that you were not enemies of the Japanese people, but it did not match." Li Tianyang's expression and what Shang Zhong had seen and heard in Jilong Harbor these days made Shang Zhong feel that Li Tianyang was sitting on the ground and starting the price, and he might not be able to negotiate: "In terms of remuneration, please rest assured that Hall Master Li needs to support your family, if a real war breaks out, death and injury are inevitable, and you must also compensate the brothers who died and were injured in the battle." As long as you open your mouth, we may not have anything else in the Ryukyus, but we have accumulated a lot of wealth over the past few hundred years, and we should be able to give a reasonable pension. ”

"This reward is one thing, but this battle is another, don't look at the Japanese we fought at sea last month fleeing in all directions, but if we really want to get on land, then we really don't have the confidence to be able to win in front of the Japanese people." Shang Zhong's verbal promise made Li Tianyang's eyes suddenly brighten, and then he quietly regained his calm.

From Shang Zhong's mouth, it was not difficult for Li Tianyang to hear that a thin camel was bigger than a horse, so he was even more reluctant to let go easily, and thought that he could pry some other benefits from Shang Zhong's mouth: "This Japanese land battle, there is an iron cannon made of imitation of the Westerner arquebus, within a hundred feet, the power is enough to penetrate the iron armor. A poor and white non-governmental organization like our Hongtang does not even have all the pig iron equipment, so what equipment can we use to fight their iron cannons on land! ”

Typical there are no three hundred taels of silver here, if it is really as Li Tianyang said, then it is impossible for them to have so many cannons in the naval battle the month before last to beat the fleet of the Japanese people to the ground. But knowing that Shang Zhong really didn't dare to pierce Li Tianyang's lie, he could only rely on his tone and comfort him with kind words: "This hall master can rest assured, although our kingdom has been under the surveillance of the Japanese people all these years, the connections accumulated by our country for several generations are not something that they can guard against. In the past few years, our king has quietly prepared 500 pairs of iron armor made of fine iron through various channels, and if you promise to help our kingdom, as soon as you go to Ryukyu Island, we will immediately send this batch of iron armor to you as a token of gratitude. ”

Shang Zhong is also shrewd, he doesn't want to be coerced too much by Li Tianyang, this is not passive and active, and the trading location of the iron armor is arranged on Ryukyu Island, if Li Tianyang is greedy for these iron armor, then it is bound to send a large fleet to the island, even if the Hongtang people do not contribute to the work, then Shang Zhong and them, as the head snake, will always have a way to let Hongtang and the Japanese fire together.

Although there is no gunpowder smoke in this battle of lips and tongues, Danshuikeng also tests people's endurance more, Li Tianyang and them have used various means to achieve their goals since they entered the main topic. From the noon meeting with Shang Zhong, to the end of the two of them each dispersing with relatively satisfied faces, it took most of the day to finally finalize a basic verbal agreement that Hongtang would send troops and the price that the Ryukyu Kingdom would need to pay.

(End of chapter)