Chapter 622
Chapter 622
The Ming Dynasty and Japan had trade relations. Of course, under the maritime ban policy, trade between the two countries was official, called tribute trade, also known as Kango trade.
Because Japan came to Korea for trade, they needed to hold a kankou.
Only when they came ashore with the permit would the Ming Dynasty recognize their trade as legitimate. Otherwise, everything would be considered smuggling.
The Japanese pirates were rampant, not only robbing the people and money of the Ming Dynasty, but also harassing the people along the coast of Japan.
The goods they brought back infringed upon the rights of some people.
After all, without them, the value of the goods brought back by the families going to Kanhe for trade could be multiplied several times.
Therefore, in Japan, the Japanese pirates are half and half among interest groups above the middle level, and below the middle level, the people also hate them deeply.
The people below the middle class did not gain any benefits from the Japanese pirates from the Ming Dynasty. On the contrary, due to the rampant Japanese pirates and the increase in ronin, armed fights broke out from time to time along the coastal areas.
These warriors did not pay compensation for the damage they caused in fights, and were not guilty of injuring ordinary people, so naturally they did not pay compensation. It would be strange if the people did not hate them.
In contrast, they preferred the merchants and pirates smuggled over from the Ming Dynasty.
Because they will pay them to do the work.
So when they saw a large ship with a pirate flag approaching, the women and children would run away first, leaving behind a few young people with nimble hands and feet.
Before the boat reached the shore, the young man on the shore had already quickly glanced at Pan Yun's clothes, hair and face.
After taking a quick glance, he jumped up excitedly and shouted, "It's a Han Chinese, it's a Han Chinese!"
Those who had run far away immediately came running back, and the retainers holding swords immediately led a group of ronin to rush up, pushing these untouchables away while staring at the approaching ship with sharp eyes.
From a distance, Pan Yun's eyes met the leading retainer.
Pan Jun raised the corner of his mouth slightly and nodded at him. When he saw his eyes getting brighter, he looked away and looked to the other side of the coast. There, a group of people with swords were running towards them. Just as they were approaching the port, a group of ragged civilians rushed out from the side and stopped them.
Pan Yun's mouth curled up more obviously, "I chose this place on purpose. It happens to avoid the sphere of influence of the Kikuchi family and the Ouchi family."
Xue Shao: "Whose sphere of influence is this then?"
"According to the Japanese pirates' confession, this place is called Kochi Prefecture, one of the four provinces. Although it is a small place, there are many families entrenched here, including the Motoyama, Aki, Chosokabe, Nakamura and Ichijo. It's not over yet. They are fighting for territory. When things go well, it's great. When things go badly, they can beat each other to the point of shit."
Qu Le looked disdainful and said, "It's just one county, is it that serious? Isn't it just like the local tyrants and gentry in the county fighting for land and profit? We don't even have so many local tyrants and gentry in one county."
Pan Yun laughed happily: "Isn't it good for them to be more powerful? The more muddy the water is, the more we can catch fish."
Ship docked.
The leading retainer jumped onto the boat without waiting for it to stop. Pan Yun frowned, and Ashin immediately drew out his knife. He caught a glimpse of Pan Yun having no intention of stopping him, so he immediately chopped at the person who rushed up with his knife according to his own will.
The retainer immediately raised his knife to block, and the two exchanged a few moves in a flash. After three or four moves, Ashin forced the retainer to the edge of the boat, and the opponent would fall off if he moved the slightest.
Pan Yun then stopped, glanced at the retainer and said nothing.
Ah Xin asked, "Who are you and why did you board the ship without permission?"
When the retainer heard his authentic Chinese, he quickly replied in Chinese: "Sir, please forgive me. I am Benshan Daxin and would like to see your master."
Pan Yun was annoyed by his stuttering Chinese, so she asked directly, "Don't you use Chinese characters and learn Chinese in your country? Find someone who can read to talk to me. Your master should be able to read, right?"
Motoyama Tashinori's face turned red. Although he was a retainer, he was illiterate. He only learned Chinese from the master of the family and only learned it after listening to him more.
Seeing Pan Yun standing in the front of the crowd, with everyone standing half a step behind her, he knew that she was the leader.
Although she was a woman, Motoyama Tashin did not dare to underestimate her.
The fact that she could bring these people across the sea here was not an easy feat in itself.
Motoyama Tashin glanced at the ronin with swords behind her, and he felt that she was different from the Ming merchant who had smuggled in before, and her temperament was also different. He did not dare to force a friendship with her, and hurriedly said, "Wait a moment, I will go and invite the owner of the house."
The head of their family is called Benshan Youshun. Originally, he didn't want to come in person. It was just a smuggled pirate ship, so he just let his sons go.
But for some reason, when he was about to speak, his heart skipped a beat and his intuition told him to go and see for himself.
He always trusted his instincts, so here came Benshan Peregrine.
When Chosokabe's retainers heard that Motoyama Youhan had gone to the port in person, they immediately went back to invite their head of the family.
Then Chosokabe Shigeru also rushed over.
When the two middle-aged men arrived at the port in their wooden clogs, Pan Yun and his companions had been staring at the people on the boat and at the port for nearly an hour.
They are far from boring though.
The people at the port looked at them like spectators, and they looked at the people at the port like monkeys.
The two sides analyzed each other's skin color, hairstyle, clothing accessories, even shoes and socks and language eight hundred times, and finally came to a conclusion, "Why do the people along the coast of Japan look poorer than those along the coast of our Ming Dynasty?"
Pan Yun: "Isn't this natural? They are a small country, and we are the Celestial Empire."
Hu Jing: "But we have a maritime ban."
Qu Le: "The road doesn't look good, it's full of potholes and mud, and the port is small. Pan Yun, didn't you say you chose a relatively large seaport to stop at? Did you find the wrong place? How come this looks worse than a wild port in a small, shabby fishing village?"
"I didn't park wrong. If I did, please go back to the cabin, pull out the captives and whip their corpses."
Qu Le curled his lips and said disdainfully: "It's so shabby and small."
Pan Yun: "It is the people who come out of this small, shabby place that disturb the peace along the coast of Ming Dynasty."
Hu Jing: "You sound a bit resentful. You can't blame us entirely. It's impossible to guard against thieves for a thousand days, even if you can catch them a thousand miles away. We have a long coastline, so we can't defend against them."
Pan Yun: "Cheng Yaojin, a famous general in the Tang Dynasty, once said something famous."
Hu Jing was very interested: "What is it?"
"Offense is the best defense!"
Hu Jing nodded vigorously: "This makes sense, you are worthy of being a famous general!"
Xue Shao was confused and doubted himself. He humbly asked, "Pan Yun, which ancient book mentioned this?"
Pan Yun said calmly, "I forgot, but just tell me whether this makes sense or not?"
Xue Shao nodded hesitantly, "That's right, but there's a sea between our Ming Dynasty and Japan. We're exhausted from fighting them from afar, and we may not be able to adapt to the climate..." Pan Yun sighed, "Who said we should come openly? If openly doesn't work, we should come covertly."
Miao Zhen was very excited: "Like now?"
Pan Yun nodded slightly.
Xue Shao stroked his chin and thought: "That's a solution..."
Qu Le looked at this one, then looked at that one, and quietly moved a little further away from them.
It's really horrible. A Taoist priest and an official actually came up with the idea of using bandits to fight bandits. He's even more barbaric than those gangsters.
While no one else arrived, they enthusiastically discussed the feasibility of this method. As they were talking excitedly, they saw two groups of people approaching quickly in the distance.
The two middle-aged men in the lead were wearing wide-sleeved robes, and the little hair on their heads was combed back, looking shiny and smooth in the sunlight.
He was wearing high wooden clogs and running towards them with a swift and agile posture, which did not look like he was wearing high wooden clogs at all.
Pan Jun couldn't help but glance at their short legs and felt that their lower body was very stable.
but……
"They seem to be quite poor," Wang Cong obviously discovered the same point as he did: "They came here on foot, not by car or sedan chair. Don't they even have a donkey cart?"
Pan Jun coughed lightly and lowered his voice and said, "Now that they are here, they can understand Chinese, so stop talking about them."
Wang Cong shut his mouth obediently.
Benshan Youshun arrived first and stood under the boat to salute Pan Yun: "Are you a distinguished guest from the Ming Dynasty? I am Benshan Youshun. Please disembark and let me show you my hospitality."
Chosokabe Shigeru also rushed over, bowed in the same way, and invited Pan Yun to get off the boat for a chat.
Only then did Pan Yun take Wang Cong and Xue Shao off the boat.
Qu Le wanted to follow, but was grabbed by Hu Jing.
Qu Le was not convinced and lowered his voice and said, "If Ah Xin can go, why can't I?"
Hu Jing whispered, "He was born a pirate, can speak slang, and knows Japanese. It would be useful for him to go there. What do you know?"
Qu Le opened his mouth and said angrily: "Wait until I learn to speak Japanese..."
Miao He said excitedly: "We have learned a lot along the way, I will teach you."
Qu Le didn't want her to teach him because she had just learned it and her explanation might not be standard. He also didn't want her to teach him how to do the splits in the end.
Like his retainers, Benshan Youshun recognized Pan Yun as the leader at a glance, and did not dare to underestimate her, and was even more cautious.
He was able to bring a boat across the sea to Japan at such a young age. It must be because he is very capable or his family is very capable. No matter which one it is, Motoyama Youshun doesn't want to offend him.
Benshan Youshun introduced himself again, and smilingly invited Pan Yun to visit Benshan's home, and said that the Benshan family welcomes all caravans from the Ming Dynasty, whether official or private.
Pan Yun knew that this was a prying question, so he didn't hide it and said directly: "I am Pan Yun, my Buddhist name is Sanzhu. We stole this boat from pirates."
Benshan Youshun's face froze and his eyes quickly swept over Wang Cong and the other two behind Pan Yun.
He paused with his focus on Xue Shao.
Xue Shao has a very strong scholarly temperament. Like Pan Yun, he has a temperament that makes Benshan Youshun unhappy and makes him feel palpitations.
Seeing the suspicion in his eyes, Pan Yun smiled and said, "We are gangsters. Mr. Benshan is Japanese and may not understand our Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, practicing martial arts is very expensive, and we are broke.
So several major sects in our Jianghu teamed up to wipe out a pirate den, but the gold and silver obtained from the suppression of the bandits is only temporary, not a long-term solution. We want to do a long-term business like them, so that we can support our sect for generations, so the Ming Wulin Alliance sent us to be the vanguard, and also wanted to connect with the gentry and local tyrants like Mr. Motoyama in Japan..."
Benshan Peregrine understood it immediately.
An organization called Wulin League in the Ming Dynasty robbed several gangs of pirates and wanted to take over the pirate business.
Benshan Youshun's eyes lit up and he immediately nodded in agreement: "It is our honor to lead the way for Master Pan!"
He had wanted to get involved in the pirate business for a long time, but he couldn't get involved.
Because the Benshan family did not have a big boat, the small boat could only play around nearby.
But what's the point?
He robbed the people of Kochi County. They were so poor that they couldn't even squeeze out a few ounces of oil. It was not worth robbing them.
He couldn't defeat those pirates who were robbing.
So he could only compete with several other families for the port territory, buy the goods from the pirates who came ashore, and make a profit by reselling them.
Since Pan Yun and his team have also just opened a new business, maybe they can cooperate with each other and take advantage of their strength. They may be able to soar to the sky and catch up with the Ouchi family.
Honshan Youshun was very happy and wanted to get close to Pan Yun, but he was kept outside. Chosokabe Shigeru, who only had time to introduce his family name, finally pushed the Honshan family away and rushed in with his men: "And me! Taoist Pan, the Chosokabe family is not weaker than the Honshan family. If you want to sell the stolen goods, you can't rely on the Honshan family alone. We can cooperate with three families!"
Motoyama was about to retort, but Chosokabe Shigeru suddenly approached him and lowered his voice, "Their boat is so big, can you eat it?"
Motoyama Youshun swallowed his words and tacitly agreed that Chosokabe was standing beside him.
Xue Shao raised his eyebrows when he saw this. Pan Yun’s calculation was really accurate. This port was a good choice.
Pan Yun's lips curled up slightly, and she was very happy to make friends with them. Then she ordered people to lower the plank and take the people off the boat.
Benshan Youshun stared at the big ship excitedly and asked Pan Yun: "Master Pan, I wonder what cargo you brought this time?"
"That's a lot. I don't think you two can take it all, so I don't plan to ship it all here." Seeing the two people's faces change slightly, Pan Yun smiled and said, "But I must let you choose the good things first. This is my first port of crossing the sea and the first Japanese friend I met. Naturally, you will have a discount."
Motoyama Youshun and Chosokabe Shigeru's faces brightened slightly, and they quickly asked, "I wonder what goods Master Pan brought?"
Pan Yun said nonchalantly: "There are a lot of them, including copper coins, raw silk, satin, porcelain, books, and..."
She winked at the two of them and said meaningfully, "People."
The two were confused and asked doubtfully: "People?"
"Yes, that person," Pan Yun said with a smile, "but I won't take action against this person easily. It depends on whether the two of you like him or not."
Benshan Youshun asked doubtfully, "Are they slaves? Do you need to like the slaves to buy them?"
Pan Yun smiled and did not continue the topic. Instead, he clapped his hands at the people on the boat and ordered, "Miaozhen, Miaohe, bring down two baskets of silk for Motoyama-kun and Chosokabe-kun to choose from. This will be my gift to them."
Miao Zhen and Miao He agreed and turned to go to the storehouse to carry silk. (End of this chapter)