Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 76 Thor Arrives in Port
Katayama Kanbei has been busy these days with his feet not touching the ground. Every day he is either catching thieves or leading people to bury the bodies of refugees who died inside and outside the town.

Early this morning, the owner of the rice shop came to report the case, saying that there was a thief in the house last night.Katayama asked what he lost?The owner of the rice shop said angrily that nothing was lost, but that a lot of yellow and white things were spilled on the door of the house and in the yard.

Live it!

Although Katayama secretly applauded, he still had to take his men to the scene to investigate.After watching the scene pinching his nose and asking the neighbors around, everyone asked three questions, and Katayama said that the owner of the rice shop must be hated.

Since Sendai Domain restored the "method of buying rice", everyone from top to bottom has been busy looking for ways to make extra money; otherwise, if there is no money to buy rice, the whole family will have to drink the northwest wind.Officials have money to smuggle smuggled goods, but ordinary people can't do it.

It is said that the price of rice yesterday has risen to 120 cents a liter.Now let alone the townspeople, many samurai are also anxious.

During the Edo period, rice was the staple food of urban civilians three meals a day.Men, who are the backbone of the family, eat one liter of rice a day; and many people's wages are enough to buy one liter of two-meter rice.Right now, one day's wages are only enough to buy two hemispheres, so how can we live?So the owner of the rice shop became the target of the townspeople to vent their anger.

Walking all the way back to the official hall, Katayama explained things to his subordinates while walking. While the two were talking, they saw that there were suddenly more pedestrians on the street, and they all walked quickly in the direction of the port.

Katayama's Mu Ming hurriedly stepped forward and grabbed a hurried person on the side of the road and asked, "What happened?"

Seeing that it was an official, the man hurriedly bowed to Katayama Kanbei and said, "Someone came back from the dock just now and said that a big ship that I had never seen before came from the sea, as high as a mountain."

Katayama Kanbei was about to ask again when he heard hurried footsteps behind him.He turned his head to look, and saw a vassal walking towards him quickly.

After the vassal entered, he said to Katayama, "Katayama-kun, your lord asked you to go to the official hall immediately, something has happened!" After speaking, he hurriedly left without waiting for Katayama to respond.

Katayama looked thoughtfully at the vassal who walked away quickly, and murmured, "Is something serious? A big ship?" Suddenly, what Katsu Kaishu had said flashed in his mind, and turned to look in the direction of the port.

Are they here? !

On the way back to the official hall, Katayama Kanbei saw more and more townspeople coming out of their homes, all of which were going to the port to see the strangeness.When he brought his men back to the official hall, he saw that many of his colleagues had already arrived.

Standing on the steps of the official hall, Matsushima-cho Fengsong looked at the vassals below and said solemnly, "Half an hour ago, I received a report from the seaside fishermen that a barbarian boat was parked on the sea outside the port."

Everyone looked at each other, can this family catch up with this?Speaking of which, shouldn't the barbarians go to Nagasaki or secretly go to the Satsuma Domain? What are you doing here?
A few fiefdoms with bigger brains were secretly guessing: "Is this barbarian going to buy premium abalone? But the abalones have all been shipped to Nagasaki."

So you look at me, I look at you, no one dared to speak first, and finally everyone's eyes fell on Katayama Kanbei, who was in charge of arresting theft and fire prevention.

"Ahem, Katayama-kun, you are responsible for investigating and finding out where the Yi boat came from, the size of the boat, and what its purpose is, so we can report it to the top as soon as possible."

The town followed a roll call and asked Katayama Kanbei to investigate first.This kind of thing can't be done by yourself, if the barbarians want to go ashore, do you think I will see or not?It's safest to wait for the notification after the level-by-level report goes up.

You must know that the Sendai domain is not Nagasaki, and the shogunate strictly forbids the feudal lords to contact foreigners without permission.

Katayama Kanbei guessed that the so-called Yichuan was probably Sheng Kaishu and the others, and he also wanted to confirm with his own eyes.So he took two of his men and trotted all the way to the beach.

He didn't intend to join the crowd in the port, so he found a hillside and asked his subordinates to disperse a few people who were watching the fun before stepping forward to check.

At this time, a lot of people watching the lively had gathered on the dock of the port, and some people even climbed on the roof of the warehouse and looked around.On the sea, many fishing boats are turning around and rushing back.

Everyone was stunned by the behemoth on the sea.On the sea four or five miles away, a large ship like a hill was parked there.

My goodness!Katayama Kanbei had never seen such a big boat before, so he estimated in his heart that the boat should be about [-] to [-] feet long.

At this time, the hull of the big ship was facing the port, the upper white and the lower blue hull, the two red characters on the bow caught Katayama's attention, Thor.

"This is." Katayama Kanbei was stunned when he looked at the big red characters.

In the mythology of the island country, there is really a god who is worshipped as the god of thunder. According to the "Records of Ancient Events", after the pioneer Izanagi killed the fire god Kagutu with a sword of ten fists, the blood of Kagutu fell from the hilt of the sword, and three pillar gods were formed, one of which was Jian God of Thunder.According to legend, the origins of sumo come from the god of thunder.

"Katayama-kun, do you think this is a new giant boat built by the general?" Katayama Kanbei turned his head and saw a vassal approached.

Ordinarily, this vassal's guess is not unreasonable.It is said that in the 12th year of Kanyong, Iemitsu, the third general of the third generation, explicitly prohibited the daimyos from owning warships of more than 55 shi in the updated "Samurai Laws"; The building is as high as three floors, equipped with [-] oars, and a giant Anzhai ship with [-] sailors, the Anzhai Maru, used to frighten the feudal lords.

Although the Yasaka Maru was too large and eventually ran aground and led to disintegration, the General had built it after all.Perhaps the mountain-like boat in front of him was newly built by the General, and the two characters "Thor" on the bow seemed to prove it.

Katayama listened to the discussions of the surrounding vassals, and looked at it carefully again, and saw a snow-white mast standing on the bow of the ship; There is also a row of windows.

The sun was now in the west, and the sun was shining brightly on the tall buildings on the side of the ship, reflecting a dazzling light.

"Wow~~~" The crowd watching the lively at the port suddenly exclaimed.

"Why doesn't this ship have a sail? Did you see the sail?" Katayama asked the people around him while looking around.

"Maybe the mast was brought down?" a vassal guessed.When the island country's own ship or eloquent ship is docked, the sail will be lowered and the mast will be lowered.

"Isn't this about to fire a cannon?" The vassal suddenly shouted in a panic.

The characteristics of the warships of the island countries are the use of oars and sails. During naval battles, the masts are lowered and the sails are withdrawn, and the sailing is controlled by the oars.

"What nonsense are you talking about!" someone yelled.General, this is a bit of a twist, don't you come to beat Date's house on a good day?Although Sendai Domain is a famous name, but we are not talking about arranging the face when the staff is explaining it, this is not a treason!
When everyone was discussing, a sudden change occurred.

"Woo~~~woo~~~" Two huge long bells came from the sea, and thousands of men, women and children on the shore suddenly exclaimed, and everyone was so frightened that they couldn't help but back away.

"The sea monster is going ashore!" a man suddenly shouted.

As soon as the words fell, some people were so frightened that they ran into the town.

As a result, some people thought it was not messy enough, and shouted while running: "It's not that the sea monster came ashore, it's about to fire!"

This time it was even more troublesome. The crowd was frightened and fled in all directions, mixed with the panicked screams of women, the cries of children who could not find adults, and the screams of old people being knocked down.

Katayama Kanbei and a few colleagues who were standing on the hillside looked at the chaos in the port in amazement, and were also stunned.However, Katayama, who was a little mentally prepared, quickly reacted and said to the fiefdoms around him: "Quick! Let's maintain order!"

Don't worry about what the big boat is coming for, in this chaos, there will be casualties among the townspeople watching the fun.

On the Thor, Zhao Xin and others were using binoculars to observe the pier in Matsushima.

"I'm going~ I'm going~ I'm going!" A few people with binoculars saw the chaos on the pier and ran around. In the end, the shore was empty. They put down their binoculars and turned to look at Liu Sheng.

It was this guy who sounded the whistle just now.Two long beeps indicate that the ship is about to enter the port.

"I'm used to it, I forgot about it." Liu Sheng smiled embarrassedly.

"My lord, why don't I go ashore to find Kanbei Katayama first?" Katsu Kaishu said.

"Well, you go ashore again at night." Zhao Xin nodded and said.

After a few hours, the sky gradually darkened.At this time, in addition to the shadowy torches, several bonfires were raised on the opposite port, and it was vaguely seen that some people were standing around the bonfire with weapons.

"It seems that the two whistles frightened them all, now it's troublesome." Zhao Xin stood on the side of the ship, watching the fire on the shore, and said helplessly to Deng Fei beside him.

"What about tonight?" Deng Fei asked.

"Take turns on duty, wash and sleep." Zhao Xin said.

As dawn approached, Liu Sheng and Wang Yuanfang brought Katsu Kaishu, Liji, and Huji who had changed their clothes to the underside of the cabin, launched the assault boat, and drove slowly towards the south of Matsushima Town.

More than 20 minutes later, the assault boat quietly docked on the beach one kilometer south of Matsushima Town.The three of Sheng Haizhou jumped from the boat into the knee-deep water, walked to the shore, bowed slightly to Liu Sheng and Wang Yuanfang, and quickly disappeared on the beach.

After dawn, Katayama Kanbei, who had been guarding the port all night, yawned and rushed home after waiting for the shift changers.

The chaos in the port and the town yesterday afternoon made him very worried about the safety of his family, but as soon as he wanted to go home to take a look, he received an order to be on duty at the port.

Katayama turned a street corner and walked into a familiar alley. Just after knocking on the door of his courtyard, he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Katayama-kun, long time no see."

The shocked Katayama Kanbei turned around and saw that Katsu Kaishu was standing at the entrance of the alley with the two of them, bowing and saluting him.

"You?!" Katayama turned his head to look around and found that no one else was passing by, and then he took two steps and asked in a low voice, "Is that boat yours?"

Katsu Kaishu had a full smile on his face, but nodded, and then gestured towards the Katayama family, meaning to go in and talk.

At this time, Katayama's wife, who heard the knock on the door, opened the courtyard door and looked around, and found that her husband and three people were talking, and the leader seemed to be a young man who visited the house last year.

"Master, you are back."

Katayama Kanbei glanced at his wife, and without saying a word, led the three of Katsu Kaishu into his yard.

(End of this chapter)