At the signal of Natsuminami, the fleet entered the Uraga Sea along the eastern coastline of Edo Bay, looking for a suitable anchorage. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 InfoDue to the sparse population along the coast, it took nearly 60 nautical miles to find a small fishing village of more than 100 households, and there was an excellent natural deep-water port, so William ordered to anchor here and look for supplies.

Unbeknownst to everyone, including Natsuminami, this humble fishing village was called Koshiba Village, which belonged to the Rokuura Domain of and later became Yokohama, Japan's second largest city. Their route into Edo Bay and the place where they anchored were identical to those of the Black Ship Incident of 1853 by Commodore Matthew Perry.

It was the first time in history that a fleet had arrived in Edo Bay, and it was destined to be a day that would go down in the annals of Japanese history. When the villagers who have lived here for generations heard the news from the fishermen by the sea, they rushed to the shores of the bay to take a look. At this time, whether it was an old man, a strong man or a child, everyone was extremely nervous, and their eyes kept searching the sea not far away. I saw a huge fleet of ships coming from the southwest, each as tall as a mountain, and the villagers had never seen such a majestic sea ship. Some well-informed people say that it is as unattainable as the tallest castle tower in the castle where the samurai lords lived.

With the "Guangdong" with a displacement of 1,000 tons, it was the first to anchor on the shore, and at close range, the visual impact was stronger. The villagers looked at these big ships with more and more reverence, as if they were seeing a god in the sky. Some were already on their knees and praying reverently.

When William sent sailors ashore to ask for supplies from the villagers, he was prepared for a conflict with the local natives - Van Bommel told him from his own experience how terrible it was for the unfriendly aborigines to the sailors who landed - but unexpectedly, the local villagers were very friendly, and could even be described as flattering, and despite the language barriers, the sailors still received enough fresh water, vegetables, fresh fish and other supplies from the villagers through gestures.

After the fleet anchored at Koshiba Village, William suggested to Xia Nan that due to the lack of local hydrological information, if the fleet continued to move forward, it might run aground or run aground, and it was a bit risky to send a ship to Edo to communicate with the shogunate.

Xia Nan took his suggestion and sent the relatively shallow draft of the Wuyi-class "Chengmai" to the destination, and Murong Longcheng, the captain of the "Shandong" who knew Japan well, was responsible for delivering Xia Nan's handwritten letter to the shogunate.

The Rokuura Domain, to which Koshiba Village belonged, was only more than 30 kilometers away from Edo, and a large fleet drove straight to the heart of the shogunate's rule.

Upon hearing the news and receiving Natsu Minami's sharp letter, the shogunate was shocked that Edo Bay was not safe at all, and that this hostile fleet did not notice it and react in time. Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu immediately sent the chief elder (Note 1) Masahiro Abe to Koshiba Village to negotiate with them to test the details and intentions of this group.

Masahiro Abe led his entourage to Xiaochai Village, contacted the Qiongzhou Battalion Fleet, and was taken to the "Guangdong" for negotiations.

Since the shogunate imposed strict restrictions on the construction of large ships after the closure of the country, the largest ship that Masahiro Abe had ever seen in his life was the Ataka ship. When he first boarded the majestic Yongle-class battleship, although the hull was very calm in the undulating waves and did not shake at all, Masahiro Abe felt a little dizzy. It wasn't that he was seasick, but he was shocked by a ship of this size - there was a ship in the world that was as big as the castle tower!

With a hint of fear, he met the main lord Xia Nan, the man who claimed to have defeated Zheng Zhilong, the new sea overlord from Japan to the South Seas.

Due to Zheng Zhilong's reputation in Japan, Xia Nan, who was originally unknown, suddenly became very tall in the hearts of the Japanese, and everyone from the shogunate to the local feudal states talked about the general of this Ming country. For Masahiro Abe, although it was the first time he saw Minami, he had been famous for a long time.

After learning about Masahiro Abe's identity, Xia Nan briefly explained the assassination incident in Nagasaki, and then directly made his request: "...... In view of the fact that I was maliciously attacked by your samurai in Nagasaki, and that my men were killed and wounded, and that one of my important ministers was seriously wounded, I hope that the Tokugawa Shogun will agree to the following conditions, otherwise he will not hesitate to bombard Edo in a battle. ”

"First, hand over the murderer, that is, Shimazu Chiyo, the eldest daughter of the Satsuma Domain, and dispose of it myself. Second, pay one million taels of silver as compensation. Third, in the future, all our warships will be able to dock at any port in Japan anytime and anywhere to obtain supplies. Fourth, anyone sent by our ministry will not be judged by the law in Japan, but can only be handed back to the Ming Kingdom. Fifth, all merchant ships coming to Japan, regardless of the country they come from, must have a tax payment certificate issued by us before they can enter the office. Sixth, 100,000 catties of sulfur are provided free of charge every year. ”

These conditions were carefully worked out by Xia Nan after stopping at Koshiba Village, and compared with when he first left Nagasaki, there were more conditions such as locking up the murderer and asking for strategic materials such as sulfur. Naturally, there is no need to say much about the murderer, Shimazu Chiyo, that madman, can only solve the hatred in his heart with his own blade; Sulfur is the necessary material for the manufacture of black powder, accounting for a large proportion of the proportion of gunpowder, it is relatively difficult to obtain in the Ming Kingdom, only known as the "country of volcanoes" Japan is everywhere, the Qiongzhou battalion regardless of the army or navy, the bullets and shells used have a great demand for this thing, with a stable source of gunpowder materials, there will be no bottleneck in weapons and equipment in the future expansion of the army.

Masahiro Abe originally thought that the other party was just asking for some compensation, and he was also mentally prepared accordingly, no matter how rude the other party was, it would not be a problem to send it with silver, after all, Japan was in the first place. As for the account with the Satsuma Domain, I will calculate it slowly, and I will deal with the troubles in front of me first. Unexpectedly, the other party's request, except for the second one, has nothing to do with his own imagination at all, and can be called a lion's mouth.

He looked at the other party in surprise, I'm afraid he's crazy, right? It's just a fight, and you make so many excessive demands, are the lives of you and your courtiers so valuable?

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Note 1: The shogunate was the permanent highest position of the shogunate, and there were four or five shogunate officials who were directly under the shogun's authority to assist in the administration of the government, and the shogunate officials who were appointed by the hereditary princes who had more than 25,000 koku to eat.