nucmednet Chapter 276 The Bloodshed Caused by Wooden Clogs (1)
Chapter 276 The Bloodshed Caused by Wooden Clogs (1)
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A few days later, Li Fei returned to Suzhou, and the "Yangming" was brought along, docking at Liujiagang along with the "Yuanhang".
At the same time, Su Mingkang and others had also prepared 500,000 catties of raw silk. Everything was ready except for the final step.
According to the agreement between the two parties, several major silk merchants joined forces to transport the raw silk via inland waterways to Liujiagang for loading onto ships. The 500,000 catties of raw silk was almost half a year's total output of Suzhou. Dozens of large and small awning boats were used, stretching for several miles, creating a spectacular scene. Many people watched the excitement from the shore.
Chang Wei also hid in the crowd, his eyes filled with malice as he stared at the cargo that should have been his. He now knew that the madman who committed the crime at Leyunlou and the wealthy Guangdong merchant who had intercepted the hundreds of thousands of kilograms of raw silk were the same person. Given such a large sum of money, it was understandable that the Suzhou prefect was hesitant to arrest him, having undoubtedly received substantial bribes. But knowing this didn't save him; his godfather, overwhelmed by impeachments, had sent word from Nanjing to abandon this scheme of getting something for nothing and to avoid further trouble. Without his godfather's protection, he was powerless.
After the fleet arrived at Liujiagang, the cargo was loaded onto two clipper ships, and Liu Ye kept his promise and paid more than 500,000 taels of silver, thus completing the transaction.
Su Mingkang and the others were in high spirits after making money, and warmly instructed Liu Ye: "Brother Liu, when you return in triumph, don't forget our promise. There are still hundreds of thousands of kilograms of goods waiting for you in Suzhou."
Liu Ye smiled broadly: "Definitely, definitely. I plan to do this business long-term. I'll have plenty of opportunities to deal with you all in the future!"
With Su Mingkang and others seeing them off, Liu Ye and his group boarded the ship and set sail.
The Yangming and Yuanhang were very fast, and after entering Japanese waters, they arrived at the Goto Islands two days later.
According to Li Fei, Japan's main trading ports were Hirado and Nagasaki. Trade could be conducted at either port, and both places had a large number of Ming Dynasty merchants. Hirado was also where Zheng Zhilong made his fortune.
Liu Ye thought for a moment and said, "Then let's go to Nagasaki."
The Zheng family wielded too much power in Hirado. It seemed Zheng Zhilong even had a Japanese wife who was also a local of Hirado. Before confronting the Zheng family head-on, he didn't want Zheng Zhilong to know too much about his background, including his raw silk business. Moreover, Liu Ye remembered that the Japanese shogunate would soon issue a national isolation edict, retaining only Nagasaki as a port for foreign trade. It was better to plan ahead and cultivate his connections in Nagasaki as soon as possible.
Upon arriving at Nagasaki Port, the two uniquely designed fast boats did attract the attention of the port's fishermen, but did not cause much of a stir or draw a large crowd. In the seventh year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign, before the shogunate issued the national isolation edict, trade in Nagasaki and other places was more prosperous than in the port cities of the Ming Dynasty. Western sailing ships were numerous and the locals were already accustomed to them.
After landing, Liu Ye was deeply intrigued by the unique 17th-century Japanese landscape. In his later years, he visited several tourist cities in Japan, but the commercial districts of Tokyo and other places were not fundamentally different from major cities around the world. However, the ordinary people in kimonos passing by made him feel as if he had entered a game world.
It must be said that Japanese games highly recreate the customs and culture of Japan during the Warring States period. Liu Ye felt a strange sense of familiarity when looking at the ancient Japanese people, as if he had become the protagonist in the game.
Liu Ye knew nothing about Japan at the moment, so he entrusted the task of contacting the local townspeople to Li Fei, who was familiar with the area, and Li Fu, who was shrewd and calculating. He then took Liang Xiaoming and the guards and went shopping in a swaggering manner.
Liang Xiaoming had never been to Japan before or after his time travel, so he was very curious about the Japanese architecture and pedestrians. He said to Liu Ye, "It seems that all the Japanese people, regardless of gender, are shorter than the Chinese. Their clothes are also very strange. What kind of shoes are they wearing? They make a squeaking sound when they walk."
Liu Ye laughed and said, "You don't know this, but in this era, the average height of Japanese people was shorter than that of Han people in the Ming Dynasty. They were all short and stout, so they wore shoes to make themselves look taller. The shoes they wore were called wooden clogs, which were used to make themselves look taller."
This is a classic example of talking nonsense with a straight face. Wooden clogs were introduced to Japan from China. The two teeth on the sole were for preventing slipping when walking in the rain or mud, and were definitely not for increasing height.
Although Liang Xiaoming didn't know the origin of these shoes, he could tell Liu Ye was joking, and replied disdainfully, "You're talking nonsense again. I may not be knowledgeable, but I'm not stupid..."
Just then, a group of people dressed as samurai passed by and overheard the two men's conversation. One of them shouted, "Baka!" and drew his samurai sword, pointing it at the two men.
Liu Ye, who had been smiling, became furious upon hearing the familiar Japanese phrase. He stared intently at the samurai, glaring at him angrily.
The samurai was a head shorter than him and had no choice but to look up at him. Feeling overwhelmed and enraged, he pointed his katana at him and rattled off a long string of words.
Lin San, who was on guard duty, could not allow someone to point a knife at Liu Ye. He took the Patriot rifle wrapped in oilcloth, flicked and deflected it, hitting the samurai sword squarely. The samurai's attention was on Liu Ye, and he was completely unprepared. With his hand going numb, the samurai sword slipped from his hand, spun a few times in the air, and stuck in the ground.
This caused a commotion. A series of clanging sounds erupted as the group drew their knives and surrounded the two men. The guards reacted quickly, rushing forward to separate the warriors, removing their rifles from their shoulders, untying their tarpaulins, and revealing their bayonets.
The two sides faced off, with the Japanese samurai numbering only about ten, while the guards who had come ashore numbered more than twenty.
The leading samurai showed no fear, his eyes flashing with a fierce light as he stared at Liu Ye and said in broken Chinese, "You must admit your mistake, apologize to us, and take back what you said!"
Liu Ye smiled dismissively and replied, "You mean that 'shorty' thing, right? What if I don't apologize?"
The leading samurai roared excitedly, "You insulted us! I swear to Amaterasu, I will cut off your head!"
Liu Ye scoffed: "A shorty is a shorty. People should know their own limitations. You need to face reality, huh?"
His height of nearly 1.8 meters would be quite ordinary in later times, but in ancient times when malnutrition was common, he stood out from the crowd. The difference was even more obvious compared to the average height of the Japanese in the Ming Dynasty. The samurai looked at the other man's height, then glanced at the height of his companions, and sensed Liu Ye's deep malice. He shouted "Baka!" and swung his sword at him.