Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 63 Businessmen from Yangzhou

Two days later, Zhao Xin rushed to Uncle Sun's house alone.

Zhao Xin, who had some ideas at first, immediately retreated.Again, the old man is getting older.

After seeing him, Zhao Xin found that the other party's physical condition was not as good as he said on the phone.Not to mention the eighteenth century, even to the farm that I bought in the north.If something were to happen, it would cause a lot of trouble for myself.

He bluntly rejected Uncle Sun's request, didn't stay for a minute longer, and left directly.

After leaving Uncle Sun's house, he told Wang Yuanfang about the situation on the phone.

Wang Yuanfang wished that the old man would stop calling him, and he felt relieved after listening.

Zhao Xin told him that when he left for the north in two days, Zhao Liang and Wu Siyu would go there.

There was only one Liu Sheng watching from the refugees, and Zhao Xin was really worried.

The most critical thing now is the inspection and subsequent transformation of the cargo ship, and the time is urgent.

Zhao Xin plans to leave with the refugees as soon as the sea water around Bear Island freezes in early March.He didn't know how Hunchun or Ningguta would react when they discovered that a hundred armored soldiers had disappeared during this period.

After going through a continuous battle from morning to night, and personally killing dozens of Qing soldiers, Zhao Xin's temperament has changed a lot before he knows it.He didn't realize it himself, but Zhao Liang and Wu Siyu both noticed it.

Perhaps because of the blood on his hands, Zhao Xin's eyes became a bit sharp, and he already had a taste of decisive killing.

When Wang Yuanfang first saw Zhao Xin, he felt something was wrong.He was different from Liu Sheng and the others. He had been seconded to perform some tasks in the army, and he had seen blood.

"Mr. Zhao, what happened over there?" Wang Yuanfang's intuition told him that Zhao Xin had been unable to contact him a few days ago, and something might have happened.

"The Qing soldiers are on the island." Zhao Xin said lightly.

The three of them were very surprised when they heard what he said, and hurriedly asked what happened.

Zhao Xin told the three to go back and ask Liu Sheng for details.After sending the three back, he had to rush to the south to go through the follow-up handover procedures for the cargo ship.Then we have to bring back the five who have completed the exit formalities.

So, Zhao Xin went south and north like this, working non-stop.
On the 49th day of the first lunar month in the fourth year of Tianming (the [-]th year of Qianlong), Nagasaki Port.

A Nanjing sand boat with a length of nearly seven zhang (one zhang in the Qing Dynasty was about 3.2 meters) parked on the sea outside Yemujia on the Nagasaki Peninsula. benefit and.

The owner of the ship, Shen Jingdan, went from the deck to the outside of a cabin in the cabin, looked around for a while, and then knocked on the door softly a few times. After the door opened, he ducked into the cabin.

"Aquan, we have already arrived in the Japanese country. Later, officials from the Institute will board the ship for inspection. You must remember what I said before, and you must not make mistakes." Shen Jingdan turned his back to the person facing him after entering the door. said in a low voice.

Four candles were lit in the cabin, and under the bright lights, a woman dressed in a blue quilted robe, an otter leather hat, and a businessman was sitting beside the bed, with a small table beside her. Mirror and some paint pastels.

The woman turned around and saw a small oval face with a graceful charm and a beautiful appearance.

After listening to Shen Jingdan's words, the woman saluted and replied, "Father, I see."

Shen Jingdan frowned and said, "Why did you forget it again?"

The woman quickly stood up, squeezed her throat, tried a few times, then changed her voice like a young man, bowed and said, "Remember."

"Yeah." Shen Jingdan nodded, stroked his beard and said, "You must pay attention later. When you enter the hall, you don't have to worry."

After finishing speaking, Shen Jingdan whispered again the details of the officials after boarding the ship, and how to deal with it at the critical moment.While listening, the woman kept nodding and repeating.After instructing, Shen Jingdan asked the woman to cover her face with the paint and pastel on the table, and then left the cabin and returned to the deck.

More than half an hour later, a small boat came from Nagasaki Port and docked beside the sand boat.An official from the Nagasaki Institute went up to the deck from the rope ladder lowered by the sand boat. This person was the observer set up at the Yemoga Lookout.

After the official greeted Shen Jingdan, the ten diversion boats that followed had already tied the cables to the bow of the sand boat, and began to take the Yin [-] sand boat to Nagasaki Port to dock.

Shortly after this time, after Yin [-] docked at the pier, Tang Ren Tong, Chinese Nian Xing Si, Su Ding, and Fu Ding, who had already been waiting on the dock, boarded the ship together, ready to start the Tang boat entry procedures.

After the ship docked, there were more than 60 people on board, including the finance officer, fire chief, chief officer, helmsman, gunner, and handyman, all waiting on the deck.After a while, more than a dozen businessmen came up from the cabin below, including the girl Ah Quan who had already dressed up as a man.

After questioning the owner of the ship, Shen Jingdan, the observer of the institute confirmed that everyone on board had arrived.They ordered Tang Rentong to hang a wooden sign on the mast, and then began to read the contents of the wooden sign in Chinese.

What he read was the "sectarian ban" issued by the shogunate, that is, the shogunate's regulations on prohibiting the introduction of Catholicism.The shogunate first read out the sectarian ban on all Qing and Dutch merchant ships entering the port.

Although everyone was really impatient, no one dared to show it, and they just stood and listened to the reading.Afterwards, the Tang interpreter began to ask Shen Jingdan about the number of people on board and when and where to set sail from Qing.

Shen Jingdan replied: "We set sail from Shanghai on the 130th of this month. There are [-] cargo owners and shipmen on board, and there are no false reports."

Immediately, he took out the prepared letter plate, the copper certificate (authorization for buying copper), the ship's cargo list, the list of crew members, and the pre-written "request letter" (observance of the shogunate prohibition). The letter of guarantee and the report recording the recent court situation and civil situation in the Qing state, this is not an act of espionage, and the Qing court also recognizes it) Please ask the Tang people to interpret it for visual inspection.

When they were done, the observers of the Fengxiong Institute took out a copper plate from a wooden box and placed it on the open space on the deck.Many sailors and merchants who were already familiar with the procedure lined up to step over the copper plate.

When it was the girl Ah Quan's turn, she pretended to be a man walking with big strides, walked to the copper plate, paused for a moment, stepped on it, and then stood back among the group of merchants.

Just before she stepped out, she had seen clearly that a cross was engraved on the copper plate.What they did just now was a "step painting" created by the shogunate to prove that there were no Catholics on this sand boat.

After the "Talking" was completed, the ship's owner Shen Jingdan and a group of merchants accompanied the observers from the Institute to enter the cabin to check the catalog of commercial goods and the actual goods one by one.Every time the observer finished counting a piece of goods, he took out a seal with a seal and affixed it to the package of goods.

At this time, the two sailors on the boat had already covered the statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva enshrined with red silk from the cabin, followed by a group of people waiting to get off the boat, boarded the pier, and waited for Shen Jingdan and a group of merchants to disembark.

After the goods were counted, Shen Jingdan and the merchants disembarked and landed.Led by Shen Jingdan, they formed a line behind the two servants carrying the statue of the Bodhisattva. Accompanied by the Chinese Nianxing Division and the officials of the town, they passed through the Tangren Wharf and walked to a seat on the hill on the south side of Nagasaki Port. in front of the large rectangular courtyard.

This is the designated residential area for Chinese merchants in Nagasaki Port, also known as Tangren Yashiki.

Ah Quan walked in the long line, followed by a businessman, and Shen Jingdan was in front.When she walked through the red gate of Tang Ren's house, she saw two large houses on the right side of the door. These were the "Yi Mingbu House" that was in charge of supervising the Tang Ren residential area and the "Tong Ren Interpreter" that Shen Jingdan had told her before. Office".

On the left side of the gate, there is an empty field.Ah Quan saw a wooden cage in the empty field, with a unkempt man locked in it.There is also a clothing and hats grocery store, as well as some vendors selling vegetables and fish.

After the group entered the second gate from the outer courtyard, there was a very wide square. Shen Jingdan led the group from the left side of the Tushen Hall directly opposite to the end and then turned right.

After arriving at the Guanyin Hall, the servants first enshrined the Guanyin statue they were carrying beside the Guanyin statue on the altar, and everyone kowtowed to incense in turn.

Until this time, the entire process of entering the port is not complete.

After everyone finished offering incense, they all left.The handymen sailors on the ship all ran to the square in front of the Tushen Hall at the entrance of the second gate. Some went to drink and have fun, play dice and gamble for money, and some went to the stage to watch the play.

Ah Quan followed Shen Jingdan out of the Guanyin Hall and went directly to the longhouse on the south side of the residential area.The shogunate built more than [-] Japanese-style two-storey townhouses here, and the shipowners, merchants and sailors on the supply ship lived.

Each row house has a very large area, the upper floor is where the ship owner, businessman and senior sailors live, and the lower floor is where ordinary handymen live.More than 2000 buildings can accommodate more than [-] people at the same time, and the number of people who live here every year is close to [-].

Ah Quan followed Shen Jingdan up the second floor and came to the door of a room.

"Aquan, you live here." Shen Jingdan pushed open the shoji door, pointed to the inside of the house and said to Aquan.

After entering the door, Ah Quan looked around, and she found that this was a suite, with two rooms inside and outside.

"Father, I want to go out for a walk. When I entered the second gate just now, it was very lively there." At this time, without the surveillance of Japanese officials, Ah Quan relaxed.

"What's good there, it's just some vulgar sailor handyman drinking and gambling there. You stay in peace for a few days, and when the matter is over, presumably the Wang family won't bother again." Shen Jingdan looked at her daughter , said dissatisfiedly.

"I'll ask Lu Yun to bring some water in a while, you can take a rest first, and I'll discuss other things in detail when I come back." The Lu Yun that Shen Jingdan said was the Japanese concubine he found in Nagasaki.

"Dad is going out?" Ah Quan asked.

"Well. I want to talk to someone about something. I'll go first." After Shen Jingdan finished speaking, he turned and left.

Ah Quan returned to the house, closed the barrier door, walked to the inner room, sat on the tatami, looked around, and surveyed this new environment.

Ah Quan, the surname is Shen, and the single name is Xuan.Ah Quan is her nickname.

The reason why Shen Jingdan brought his precious daughter quietly to the Japanese country was actually due to a debt between him and the Wang family, a salt merchant.And the cause of this debt is because of the "trust card".

Since the 54th year of Kangxi (1715), because more and more Chinese merchant ships came to Japan to sell copper, the outflow of a large amount of copper caused the domestic copper price to invert. 300 million catties.Cargo ships entering Nagasaki Port must have a letter plate, otherwise they will not be allowed to enter.

Due to the huge profits of copper sales, letter cards have become a sought-after commodity.The shogunate, since the eighth-generation shogun Yoshizong, actively introduced Chinese culture, and for this reason put forward various book pre-order requests to Nagasaki.Therefore, the sea traders who could not get the letter card tried every means to work for the shogunate, hoping to get the "reward letter card" that was temporarily issued.

Yangzhou businessman Shen Jingdan is one of them.

This old man came to Nagasaki with a large batch of raw silk and books three years ago. He thought that the shogunate would be very satisfied, and then issued a letter to himself.

According to the regulations of the shogunate, all books transported by merchant ships need to be transported to Chuntoku Temple or the sanctuary immediately after the ship is docked, and content review should be started without delay.

Unfortunately, the shogunate's book changer found a copy of "Scenery of the Imperial Capital" in the batch of books shipped by Shen Jingdan.

To say that this book is actually a Beijing travel guide in the late Ming Dynasty.However, in the process of reading the book, I found that the book contained the introduction of the Catholic Church and Matteo Ricci's tomb in the Xuanwu Gate of the capital.

This is a big mess. The shogunate strictly forbids the introduction of anything related to Catholicism. What do you mean by getting a copy of this book now?
So from Nagasaki to Edo, after more than ten days of investigation and correspondence, the old middle of Edo finally decided that the whole ship of goods should be prohibited from trading and returned to China immediately, and the ship was prohibited from entering the port for trading.

Shen Jingdan was busy all this time and suffered heavy losses.

However, he did not give up, and then found the Wang family, a salt merchant, and borrowed a large amount of money with the mortgage of the land and boats in his hometown.

As a result, not only did the banned book not find out this time, but Shen Jingdan also got the letter card he dreamed of and returned to Yangzhou with a full load.After receiving the money from the sale of the goods, when he went to Wang's house to pay back the money, trouble came.

Master Wang, a salt merchant, has always wanted to curry favor with He Shen.So he said to Shen Jingdan, if I don't need the money, I'll do it for you.However, I have been a salt merchant for so many years, and I have always hoped to be a salt ambassador.I heard that your family has a daughter who is like a flower and a jade, and the age is Fangji.Why don't I come forward and recognize it as my goddaughter, and then dedicate it to He Zhongtang.Once I got into the eyes of Hezhongtang, I took the seat of Ambassador Yan Zheng, your Shen family is just around the corner, why bother to travel to the sea to earn this hard money.

Shen Jingdan felt numb when he heard it.

Although he also wanted to have a relationship with Zhongtang, Shen Xuan was not his own, but was entrusted by his old friend many years ago and raised on his behalf.If this was sent to Heshen's mansion, revealing the clue of his life, he would not have enough heads to chop off.

So he promised Mr. Wang, the salt merchant, on the surface that he would go home and discuss it, and he would reply in seven days.

After Shen Jingdan returned home, he discussed with his family repeatedly and decided to deal with Mr. Wang by pretending that Shen Xuan died of an emergency.He first quietly opened up the joints, found the body of an unnamed woman who had just recovered from the Yizhuang and pretended to be Shen Xuan, and then secretly sent Shen Xuan to the Yin [-] sand boat docked in Shanghai.

Unexpectedly, Mr. Wang got the news from nowhere, and sent people to trace it all the way to Shanghai County.In desperation, Shen Jingdan had to find a group of small cargo owners in the name of going to Japan for maritime trade, and after hurriedly organized a batch of commercial goods, he secretly brought Shen Xuan to Nagasaki.

He thought that after a year and a half had passed, Master Wang would not be able to find Shen Xuan, so he would not continue to dwell on this matter.

(Note: In the middle and early Edo period, all Chinese shipowners who transported books to Nagasaki for sale must submit documents of confirmation, and the documents must state that the contents of the books to be transported meet the requirements of the shogunate, otherwise they will be punished and the goods on the whole ship will be prohibited from trading. , and return to the ship immediately.

The "Scenery of the Imperial Capital" cited above is an example.

There is a samurai family that has been passed down from generation to generation (the Mukai family), serving as a "book changer", and is specially responsible for reviewing imported books.

After the assistants and secretaries of the "Books to Service" get the books delivered by the Tang ship, they will review the contents of the books in the order of the catalogue provided by the ship owner.The first is to copy the preface and catalogue of the book to prepare for the explanation of the content of the book. After completion, it is to read the memorandum of reading, the memorandum of inspection, etc.

The book changer himself or his assistant then began to review the content of the book page by page, paying attention to whether there were any taboo words.At the same time, pay attention to whether there is paper falling off, vermilion dots, orpiment plus pen and eyebrows.

Once a banned book is found, it will be reported immediately; even if there is a slight doubt about the sentence, it must be reported to Nagasaki.

And, if necessary, one by one, write out a "big picture" that summarizes its content.If there are no taboo sentences in these books, they are ordinary books, and there is no need to write abstracts one by one. It is only necessary to simply put forward the whole book and explain the recorded matters, including the fragments.

It must be stated on the gist that "there is no taboo content in the above-mentioned first imported books", and the Nagasaki Institute will allow it to be sold based on this identification. )
(End of this chapter)