"Why am I here too?"

In the end, Lian Qiaoqiao was tricked by Ma Xianglan into the hot spring without knowing it. Although only her head was exposed, she was still so embarrassed that her ears turned red and she dared not look up to see anyone.

"It would be bad if the news of a single man and a single woman got out. It's better to have more people." Young Master Zhao said seriously, "Sister Qiaoqiao, we are pure. Don't think wrongly."

"Who said I thought about it?" Qiaoqiao puffed out her chest as if to defend herself, and the bath towel around her chest slipped off silently.

"It's so beautiful..." Master Zhao couldn't help but sigh.

"Ah!" Qiaoqiao screamed and quickly hugged her chest with her hands, trying to sink to the bottom of the water.

"The beauty of the sunset." Zhao Hao seemed to see nothing, staring at the purple-gold sea, feeling deeply moved. "You guys felt it too, right? Sister Qiaoqiao, Sister Xianglan?"

"Yes, sir," Ma Xianglan also looked at the sunset with an intoxicated look on her face and said, "Xianglan never dreamed that one day I would be able to watch the sunset and soak in a hot spring in a foreign country."

"This is not a foreign country." Zhao Hao corrected seriously: "Tanegashima is the Tanzhou recorded in the "Records of the Three Kingdoms"."

"Sitting in the forest of curtains, floating on the sea of ​​Tanzhou?" Sister Ma whispered, "So this is the Tanzhou that Sun Quan discovered."

"Yes, so since ancient times..." Master Zhao nodded and started talking about his old story again.

Seeing that Zhao Hao really didn't notice her, Qiaoqiao felt less embarrassed. She sighed, wrapped herself in the towel again, and sat down next to Zhao Hao. "Hey, sir, why are you bleeding from your nose?"

"Really? Haha, I'm angry." Zhao Hao quickly raised his head. Ma Xianglan also quickly tucked in the cotton towel and stood up, took off the cotton on the cotton swab, and carefully stuffed it into his nostrils.

Young Master Zhao couldn't help but sigh: "The moon is so round tonight."

"Today is only the third day of the Chinese New Year, and there is only a crescent moon." Seeing that she was no longer needed, Qiaoqiao poured Zhao Hao a cup of honey water to cool him down.

"Yes, it is true that we can only see a crescent moon, but as the saying goes, one leaf can tell the coming of autumn." Zhao Hao said seriously.

Ma Xianglan stuffed his nostrils and pinched him to tell him to stop talking nonsense.

But in my heart I secretly rejoiced, Young Master has really grown up, and so have I...

~~

The next day, Ma Rulong arrived with the second and third squadrons. As soon as they entered the Okuma Strait, they were discovered by a patrolling speedboat and taken to Iwo Jima.

Master Zhao ordered the cattle and sheep to continue to be slaughtered, and also asked the later fleet to quickly change shifts and go ashore to take a bath and rest.

He and Wang Rulong personally went to the dock to greet everyone.

In addition to Ma Rulong and Gao Jie, also coming were Jin Xishan from Jeju Island, Omura Junzhong, and two missionaries.

"Hahaha, are you happy now, Zhongcheng?" Zhao Hao saluted Gao Jie first.

"These Japanese pirates are too weak to fight on the sea. It's very boring." Gao Jie still held his big Guandao, but there was less nameless anger between his eyebrows, and more peace. Then he said: "When will we attack their capital and capture their emperor alive?"

Omura Juntada and the two missionaries were shocked when they heard this, as if they had heard some great secret.

"They are in the middle of a war among warlords. It would be meaningless to capture their emperor." Zhao Hao smiled and comforted the old Zhongcheng, saying, "Take your time. Let's fight a few more battles and I'm sure the Zhongcheng will be satisfied."

"That's what you said." Gao Jie laughed happily and followed Zhou Cang to eat meat.

Zhao Hao smiled and said to Ma Rulong who saluted him, "How is it, Brother Ma, is the battle going well?"

"It went very smoothly." Ma Rulong did not avoid outsiders and deliberately said loudly: "The Mishima navy has been completely wiped out, and the Sun Prison Castle has been razed to the ground. Hirado, Tsushima, and Iki have all submitted their surrender and compensated us for our losses with a total of 180,000 taels... of gold!"

After a pause, he continued, "In addition, the Third Squadron found the silver vault of the Yujiu family in the ruins of Jiangchuan City. They found 50,000 taels of silver and 3,000 taels of gold! All the gold and silver have been sent back to the garrison base."

"Not bad." Zhao Hao was delighted. No wonder the Western powers wanted to be robbers and were unwilling to do business properly. Blackmail is so satisfying. It's so satisfying to keep blackmailing!

"But compared with the losses they caused to my Ming Dynasty, it's just a drop in the bucket!" But in front of Omura Juntada and the two foreigners, he snorted coldly, seeming dissatisfied.

The two missionaries were indeed shocked and thought to themselves that this young man had such a big appetite and it seemed that they would not be able to satisfy him easily.

The two of them couldn't help but secretly raise the price.

Omura Juntada also felt nervous. It seemed that the 40,000 taels of gold he had presented before could not make Master Zhao look at him differently.

Thinking of the violent storm he would have to endure later, beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.

"Omura, can you please introduce these two people?" Zhao Hao was not in a hurry to ask him about the results of his mission to the Ouchi family.

"Hi, young master." Omura Junzhong hurriedly nodded and introduced the missionary with black hair and black eyes, a high nose bridge and a round nose tip, and obvious Sicilian features. "This is Father Coelho, the deputy rector of the Japanese diocese of the Christian Church of Christ, and that is Father Luis from the Bungo Church."

The other tall missionary was naturally the one who celebrated mass for Chunzhong.

Both of them bowed to Zhao Hao.

Young Master Zhao nodded slightly and said calmly, "I know why you two came here, but you must be hungry after the hard journey, right?"

As he said this, he gave an order: "Call Mr. Ping and ask him to entertain his two fellow countrymen for me."

After a while, Mr. Ping, wearing a coast guard uniform without a police rank and a blue helmet, appeared in front of the two missionaries.

"Colonel Pinto?" The two men exclaimed, and asked in Portuguese: "Why are you dressed like this?"

"Well, it's a long story. Let's go eat first." Pinto knew that Zhao Hao was too lazy to talk to them and wanted him to talk to them. So he forced a smile and said, "How long have you not eaten meat? Here is a good steak given by the young master."

"That's great!" The two missionaries couldn't help but drool when they heard this. They were almost drooling in the mouths of the Japanese.

"I feel like I can eat a cow!" The two men didn't have time to think about it. They quickly bowed to Zhao Hao and followed Pinto excitedly.

"Do you eat meat?" Young Master Zhao glanced at Omura Juntada and made a polite remark out of habit.

"I am now a Christian. When the Lord tells me to eat, I should eat; when the Lord tells me to drink, I should drink." Omura Juntada apologized with a smile.

"Uh..." Zhao Hao really didn't want to have dinner with a bald man, so he changed the subject and asked, "So how is your business going?"

"I was just about to report this to you, sir." Omura Juntada quickly forced a smile and replied, "I went to Usuki Castle and finally met Master Sorin. He was very interested in your proposal and expressed his willingness to cooperate. The only problem is that he already has an agreement with the Portuguese, so the issue of trade shares should be negotiated between you and the Portuguese."

"Is this the good news you brought back?" Zhao Hao looked at him unkindly and sneered, "Do you think it's worth 100,000 taels?"

"No, it's not worth it." Omura Junzhong said with a pale face: "I will give the 100,000 taels to you later..."

"Hmph, you understand." Zhao Hao snorted coldly, and said with a serious face: "But Otomo Sorin is a fool! If I want free trade, do I need to go to him? Now Hirado, Tsushima, Tanegashima, and Dingyuan Port are all open to me! I can already trade freely!"

"Yes, yes, yes." Omura Junzhong wiped his sweat and nodded. "That's what I said, but Master Zonglin didn't want to offend the Portuguese."

"Does he dare to offend me?!" Zhao Hao sneered and said, "Go to Usuki Castle and tell that bald donkey that I am not discussing with him, but ordering him! He has no choice but to cooperate with me! Do you understand?"

"Understood." Even the arrogant Shimazu family ceded land and paid compensation to Zhao Hao. How could Omura Junzhong dare to talk nonsense with him? He hurriedly agreed, and then said with a bitter face: "But sir, I am insignificant and my words are not taken seriously. I am afraid that I can't intimidate Master Zonglin and disappoint you again."

The main reason was that he really had no money, so he had to compensate Zhao Hao.

"Don't worry, you will definitely be able to intimidate him this time." Young Master Zhao smiled coldly without explaining. "Go ahead, I'll give you five days!"

"Hi!" Omura Junchu responded and got on the boat. After all, he didn't get to eat steak...

~~

Omura Juntada's ship was a Kansen with thirty rowers, and with the help of the Japan Warm Current, he returned to Oita on the fourth day.

As a result, they encountered the patrol ship Kobaya of the Bungo Navy outside Usuki Port. They first interrogated them and then boarded the ship to check that there was no incendiary material. Only then did they let them enter the port.

"Why is the security so tight?" Chunzhong couldn't help but mutter to himself.

The one who accompanied him, Asanaga Junki, was the leader of the Omura navy. He looked at the more than 200 warships anchored in the harbor and the navy soldiers who were busy transporting supplies at the dock.

"Wakabayashi Chōsei is here too." His eyes lit up and he whispered, "It looks like the Bungo navy is going to go out in full force. Are they going to have a decisive battle with the Mori navy?"

"Who knows?" Chunzhong sighed, not quite believing that Master Zonglin would be so reckless. "Let's take care of our own business first."

The ship docked at the pier, and Juntada went ashore and asked, and found out that Otomo Sorin was still in Usuki Castle. It seemed that something big was going to happen.

In fact, the fleet at the dock was to escort Ouchi Teruhiro back to the west to carry out an uprising behind enemy lines. Now everything is ready, just waiting to set off tomorrow!

Hearing that Chunzhong had returned, Zonglin quickly summoned him. A decisive battle was about to begin, and he had to find out what the Ming people's attitude was.

After hearing Chunzhong repeat what Zhao Hao said, Master Zonglin was so angry that his nose was crooked. If Zong Huan hadn't stopped him, he would have hacked Chunzhong to death with a single blow!

"I want to see how he can order me around? Why do I have no choice?" Zong Lin split the table in half with a knife! !

"My Lord... Hey, what's that sound?" Zong Huan was about to persuade him to calm down when he suddenly listened. "It's rumbling, like it's coming from the sea."

ps. Third update. Also, I haven't rested for a long time, so I'll take a day off on Sunday and resume on Monday!