Chapter 426: The Trip to Hirado

Ping Qiusheng didn’t stop. He decided to go to Hirado and Nagasaki at once. First, to get a feel for Takeya’s background, and second, to find Japanese export goods as soon as possible. If possible, he also had to go to Okayama to secure the channel for the much-needed copper for Lingao. The main copper-producing areas in Japan were concentrated in this area. Otherwise, it would be embarrassing if they couldn’t trade when the bulk goods from Lingao arrived. After receiving his telegram, Zhao Yingong had already replied: the Hangzhou station was organizing a large-scale source of goods and ships, preparing to set sail from Shanghai with the summer southeast monsoon and sail directly to Nagasaki.

Qiao Tianzhi was in charge of Fukue. Although Senator Qiao’s skill points were a bit low, at least Master Zhou was there to handle things, so it was unlikely that anything major would happen. The task Ping Qiusheng gave him was to lead the naturalized citizen cadres and the locally recruited militia to continue repairing the trading post and the port. At the same_time, as a representative, he was to contact the lower-ranking local officials and figures in the domain, and engage in some social interaction and negotiation.

Ping Qiusheng also specifically instructed Qiao Tiansheng that he could have Master Zhou help him purchase camellia oil in Goto for the time being. The so-called camellia oil was a very common oil crop in Goto, and the output was quite rich. Although China also had this kind of thing, it was at least a kind of oil that could be exported. The demand for oil in Lingao was very strong, especially in industry.

“There’s one more thing. You should walk around Goto and inquire about whaling,” Ping Qiusheng said. “Goto was an important whaling port during the Edo period. You need to investigate how many whales are caught each year, the fishermen’s whaling techniques, and their processing methods.”

The whaling industry in the Goto Islands was once prosperous, and the Fukue domain had prospered for hundreds of years because of this industry.

Whales, this not-so-tasty marine mammal, played an extremely important role in the early stages of industrialization. Its oil was a raw material for the chemical industry and a lubricant for the machinery industry. Its baleen was a natural elastic material. Some Senators had long been eyeing whales, but the coast of China was not a place where whales appeared, so there were no conditions for large-scale industrial whaling.

“Whale yamato-ni is hard to eat,” Qiao Tianzhi smacked his lips. “Whale meat is too greasy…”

“Who asked you to eat it? This is what the Industrial and Energy Committee wants!” Ping Qiusheng said helplessly. “Camellia oil too, and whales! Do a good job of research. By the way, the investigation of the fishing industry should be as comprehensive as possible. The seafood here is also very rich. In the future, we can consider setting up a seafood processing factory.”

Of course, Lingao was not short of seafood, but for Japan’s pitifully few export items, it was a better-than-nothing supplement. At least it could supply the future actions of the Senate on the mainland nearby, and the processed dried goods and tawaramono could be exported to the Ming Dynasty.

There were five people going to Hirado: Ping Qiusheng and his life secretary, Ping Lingzi; two full-time security personnel from the newly established Senator Guard Detachment of the Special Reconnaissance Team, Li Biao and Zhou Shiqun; and an interpreter.

These two were from the same line as Zhou Shizhai, the master of the Qiwei Escort Agency. One was his apprentice, and the other was his clan brother. Zhou Shizhai had been providing personal protection for the Senators for a long time. Although he had never been formally “naturalized,” his reliability was very high. He was very stubborn. Although he was not against naturalization, he was very resistant to the fact that all naturalized citizens had to have their hair cut and their heads shaved, so he was still an “external” guest minister.

However, he did not have such high requirements for his apprentice and cousin. Although bodyguards were very attached to traditional morality, they were not stubborn old fools who did not know the times. When the chiefs proposed to recruit some personnel for security work, he immediately recommended these two young men to the security training class.

With the expansion of the ruling area, the number of Senators sent overseas and on business trips was increasing, and the personal security of the Senators was also put on the agenda. In the past, the Senators who were active in Lingao and the various counties of Hainan were the responsibility of the police headquarters. The Senators who were outside were selected from the elite personnel of the local regular army, which was relatively scattered and not systematic.

And Senators like Zhao Yingong, who were active in the yellow and red zones, had to rely on covert personal protection. In the past, they mostly relied on the guards and bodyguards hired by the Qiwei Escort Agency. Although there was no problem with the professional ethics of these people and they had been sufficiently tested, they were after all externally hired personnel, lacking sufficient training in the modern security system and political education, and their use was very limited.

So, under the auspices of Ran Yao, a Senator Guard Detachment was added to the establishment of the Special Reconnaissance Team Command to train security personnel according to the requirements of VIP protection. The specific training work was the responsibility of the professional personnel of the Special Reconnaissance Team and the police headquarters, and senior bodyguards from the Qiwei Escort Agency were also recruited as teachers. Traditional guards and bodyguards had rich social experience and coping skills, which were of great use to the safety of Senators sent to enemy-occupied areas.

Li Biao and Zhou Shiqun were both taciturn young men. For work needs, neither of them had their heads shaved. The interpreter was recruited locally in Fukue Island through the Zhou family and was also of mixed Chinese and Japanese descent. This person was roughly literate, could speak excellent Nanjing official dialect and Japanese, and often accompanied the Ming ships to Hirado, Nagasaki, and other places, but his life was not very satisfactory. Ping Qiusheng gave him the name Ping Kefu.

Ping Qiusheng and his bodyguards both carried pistols and daggers for self-defense. Chinese merchants were relatively popular in Japan at that time, and under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate, the world was generally peaceful. Walking along the main road would not encounter any danger. To be on the safe side, they also carried an authorization letter issued by Lingao. If there was really any problem, they could still find a way to escape through the Dutch trading post in Hirado. Although they did not think the Dutch were very reliable, they did not think this trip would be very dangerous.

The group traveled on a small boat, one of the many small boats that plied between Kyushu and the outlying islands at this time. It was filled with goods, and its displacement was only seventy or eighty tons. The boat was loaded with goods for trade and also carried some people going to Kyushu. This was a regular trade ship of the Zhou family that traveled between various places in Nagasaki, carrying both passengers and cargo. According to the plan, the transmigrators would be free to move around after the ship arrived in port. If all went well, they would return to Goto with the ship. If they still had to go to Okayama, they would have to find their own ship or wait for other trade ships from Goto on their return.

The group set off before five in the morning. Although the weather was good at this time, it would still take a good part of the day for a small boat relying on wind power to reach Hirado.

The small boat sailed north along the west coast of Fukue Island. This was a deliberate arrangement by Ping Qiusheng. He wanted to observe the situation on Nakadori Island along the way. Nakadori Island is to the north of the Goto Islands and is the second largest island after Fukue. It is also far from the ruling center of the Fukue domain. In the old time and space, Aokata Port on Nakadori Island was the main port of Goto. Ping Qiusheng’s real thought was that the current Nintendo was only a commercial agent for the transmigration group in this place. He still needed a truly stable transit station to provide guarantees for the transshipment of bulk goods. After all, the current transport capacity was also very tight. It was obviously not a wise and proper way to place a suitable cargo storage place under the eyes of the Fukue domain. More importantly, in the upcoming Amakusa Rebellion, it would be very difficult to operate directly on Fukue Island if they wanted to absorb refugees or station troops. Around noon, the small boat entered a sea area surrounded by several small islands.

“That’s Aokata Port over there,” Ping Qiusheng said, looking at the sea chart and pointing to the entrance of a trumpet-shaped strait about two li to the right of the ship’s side.

Li Biao and Zhou Shiqun were both members of the Special Reconnaissance Team, and geography and topography were their compulsory courses.

Zhou Shiqun said, “If the chief wants to set up a port here, the amount of work will not be small.”

“I don’t think it’s a big problem. The natural conditions of this port are good, and the initial requirements are not high. The project can be completed in stages, and there is no need to dock very large ships in the short term,” Li Biao said with great confidence. He had been “following the dragon” for a long time and was much more natural in his interactions with the Senators than Zhou Shiqun.

“The name is quite good. Let’s make it a logistics base in the future,” Senator Ping thought the name of the island was very clever.

“There is also a fishing port on the inner side of the peninsula ahead. The surrounding area is a good fishing ground. I just don’t know how developed it is now,” Ping Kefu didn’t know what was “good” about this Nakadori Island, but he had roughly learned the preferences of the Australians in the past few days—they were very interested in products. He immediately introduced it enthusiastically, “Does the master want to take a look along the way?”

“That’s not necessary. This terrain won’t be bad even now. We’re in a hurry now. It would take too long to go around, and we’d have to turn back. We’ll turn east directly after passing the strait and still have a way to go. We’ll try to get to Hirado before dusk.”

The speed of the boat increased a lot after passing through the strait. Ping Qiusheng knew that less than thirty nautical miles to the right of the bow was the Nagasaki of the old time and space. He looked at his watch. Today was July 12th. On August 9, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped there. Now he was so close to Nagasaki, he couldn’t help but sigh. He was not only sighing that Nagasaki had received the title of one of the only two cities in the world to be bombed by an atomic bomb, but also the technology of the old time and space. If the technological power of Lingao in this world could still be understood by some people in this time and space, then many things in the old time and space were not just shocking—they were probably far beyond the understanding and cognition of the people at that time.

The setting sun was accompanied by the afterglow and the seabirds flying low over the white waves. Hirado had arrived. Hirado is a large island among the Matsuura Islands, very close to Nagasaki. In the old time and space, it was part of Nagasaki City. And now, it was an East Asian international port with a daimyo in command, and its foreign trade was no less than that of Nagasaki.

There were many small bays on this island, and foreign ships loaded with goods came and went in these bays. But the island was rugged and uneven. Several small rivers separated the mountains, and rice was planted in the paddy fields by the rivers, but the harvest was pitifully small. The goods brought in by the ships that entered the port here made the merchants rich and also allowed the islanders to have enough to eat and wear.