On the other side of Shinkyo Wharf, dozens of Japanese people also watched the naval ceremony from afar. These people were vaguely headed by a man in his thirties. This man was dressed in a light blue hunting suit and had an extraordinary temperament. The man was named Okubo Takasuke, who was the official envoy of the Tokugawa Shogunate Mission this time.

"The martial arts of Chinese navy are so powerful that we are not comparable to those of ours, Japan." Okubo Takasuke looked at the ships that were leaving and said with emotion.

All the Japanese delegation bowed their heads. The Totsushimaru under their feet was a merchant ship built by the Edo Shipyard in Japan. It was equipped with sails and oars. It can be sailed far and turned around in the sea. It is already a rare good ship. Even among the Japanese navy, there are not many, but compared with the ships that have gone far away, it is simply a difference.

"Haha, those are just some backward ships." A lazy voice came from the cabin, and a young man in his twenties walked out. He was wearing shirts and trousers that the working-class in the Empire had liked, and his hairstyle was also very capable. If he hadn't spoken Japanese and just dressed up, people might have thought he was a young teacher or factory technician in the Empire.

This young man was named Goto Nobuzuo. His father was Goto Akinobu, who was very famous in the Japanese political arena. At that time, Goto Akinobu was lucky in the anti-shog war led by Li Hai and became a little daimyo. Although his fiefdom was not large, he was active in the Japanese political arena with his own abilities. He first became a master of the Wu family, running between the ministers and the shogunate in Kyoto, and the daimyo. Later, with the aging of the Three-Ben Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Guns of the Gun

Goto Nobuzuna is the son of Akinobu. He grew up in Kyoto when he was young and studied in China at the age of twelve for ten years. This time, the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan sent an envoy to China, and Nobuzuna served as deputy envoy.

"Really, Your Highness Nobuka, are these castle-like ships still lagging behind?" someone asked.

"Of course, of course." Goto Nobuzuka said with his hands behind his back: "The main ships of the Imperial Navy have been replaced with iron-clad ships, sub-cruisers, frigates, and tonnages are similar to what you see in front of you. They are warships made of steel as materials, with fast speed, strong firepower, and powerful armor. The ships you see cannot catch up with or penetrate."

Okubo Takatsuki looked at Goto Nobuzuma with contempt and expressed his disbelief. He turned his head and looked at a thin old man on the side of the ship and asked, "Mr. Kido, what Your Highness Nobuzuma said is an exaggeration."

Kido shook his head slightly: "No, no, I have seen a huge boat in Nanyang, which can carry 3,000 people. The tonnage reaches 20,000, which is four times the size of the big ship you see in front of you."

Fumiyo Kido is the translator of this mission, and his life experience is quite bizarre. Fumiyo Kido was born in Nagasaki. When he was a child, he studied Confucianism with the local Tang people. Before the War of the Overthrow of the Gulf, the Nagasaki tragedy occurred. The local Japanese expelled the Tang people arbitrarily. Fumiyo Kido was afraid that his affairs would involve his family, so he simply boarded a Chinese ship and went to Jeju. After that, he lived in the empire. Later, he went to Tsuma and became a teacher.

After the War of the Overthrow of the Pagoda, Tsuma was already the territory of the empire. During the Japanese civil war, a large number of Japanese fled to Tsuma. The empire simply moved these refugees together with some Japanese without land in batches. Fumiso Kido went to Nanyang. When he was young and middle-aged, his footprints were spread throughout the Southeast, Suez and South Africa, and then returned to Japan.

At that time, the civil war ended, and the shogunate began to learn from China on a large scale. Kido Fumiso became a famous consultant in the shogunate and claimed to be a Chinese scholar. Shogunate officials, samurai and cultural classes, most of their understanding of China was limited to merchants in the Chinese concession, and a small number of them had only been to Shinkyung and other places. It was rare for Kido Fumiso to travel around most of China.

After hearing what Kido Fumiso said, the young people in the Chinese delegation immediately regretted it. Someone secretly looked at Okuba Takasuke with dissatisfied eyes.

The reason is very simple. When the mission was established in Edo, Goto Nobuo proposed to hire a Chinese passenger ship to China. Okubo Takasuke insisted on using a Japanese ship, but he chose a Toshimaru. Unexpectedly, even such a good ship would be in rags in China. Moreover, because this ship was too slow and did not catch up with this expedition ceremony.

Dongshengmaru docked under the guidance of a steam tugboat, and a welcome ceremony was also prepared here. The scale of the honor guard is relatively small, but thousands of people gather to welcome him. Most of these people are Japanese expatriates in China, and most of them are businessmen.

Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were very skilled in handling affairs, dispatching carriages, and guiding the delegation to temporarily enter the hotel at the dock for a while.

"On behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Empire, I welcome you to come..." The Director of the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed everyone in the hotel lobby and shook hands with a group of Japanese officials.

Behind the director was a young man of about the same age as Nobutsu Goto. When Nobutsu Goto shook hands with him, he said kindly in Chinese: "Senior, long time no see."

"Oh, it's Nobusuka." The young man looked at Nobusuka Goto, and couldn't believe it in his words.

The director asked, "Director Bai, do you know Deputy Envoy Goto?"

"We are classmates from Imperial University, so my Japanese is thanks to Xin Gang." Bai Le said with a smile.

The director heard this and described it as relaxed. The reason was very simple. This was the first time the shogunate had conducted a large-scale diplomatic activity with the empire, and he, the Asian director, was not familiar with dealing with the shogunate.

After the Anti-Shogawa War, the Tokugawa shogunate's position of dominating Japan was abolished, and the southwestern vassals rose strongly. The shogunate's compensation, cede land and founding the country had a huge impact on its ruling order. Then it was the shogunate's long-term hatred and vigilance against the empire. Until the tenth year of the empire, the Japanese civil war was in war.

The Japanese shogunate, who had been recuperating for more than ten years, defeated the southwestern vassals. Although it did not restore its former status, it had already mastered all the territory of the Honshu to the north of Kyoto and banned some of the privileges obtained by the imperial side in the war against the anti-shog.

However, because of the balance policy of the empire, the Tokugawa shogunate still could not change the situation where the shogunate formed after the Anti-Shogun War, and the southwestern vassals and the three-pin gun coexisted. However, because the imperial interests were damaged, the shogunate also adopted a long-term cold-coordination strategy. The empire did not restrict trade and diplomatic exchanges with the three-pin gun and the southwestern vassals, but various restrictions were imposed on the shogunate, which was not relaxed until last year.

The biggest problem before the Director of the Asia Department is that the shogunate did not have an embassy in Japan. The state guesthouse was not placed, because the Hindustan Empire sent a mission with a size of more than 800 people. This was a procurement group. Naturally, the empire had to settle first, and some parts of the state guesthouse were still under renovation.

Because of Bai Le's relationship, the shogunate delegation did not object to staying in the Oriental Hotel. Instead, when they arrived by car, they exclaimed bursts of exclamations. The Oriental Hotel is a reinforced concrete building with sixteen stories high. There has never been such a towering building in Japan, and the hotel is luxuriously decorated, which is something most Japanese have never seen before.

Like the State Guesthouse, the Oriental Hotel has no Japanese entertainment, so everything has to be based on the empire. There is no sliding door, no tatami, and even sake and other food is not authentic. In fact, there are not Japanese-style hotels in Shinkyung, but these hotels are all related to the southwestern vassals and the Sanben Gun. The shogunate is in the empire, and the first thing they have to refuse is them.

"Today is just a brief welcome banquet. You guys stay here first. The night after tomorrow, the Vice Prime Minister will come to visit everyone in person. It will be a formal banquet in the evening, and His Highness Cheng will also attend." Bai Le entertained everyone at the banquet.

Okubo Takasuke asked, "So how did Guaiko arrange the daytime tomorrow and the day after tomorrow?"

"There is no formal arrangement, so the envoy can arrange it by himself."

Okuba Takasuke asked: "Can we go to and from hotels and visit Shinkyung?"

"Of course, of course." Bai Le was stunned at first because he did not expect that Takasuke Okuba would ask such a question, and then gave a positive answer.

Okubo Takatsuki immediately said: "Then I want to visit the Navy Shipyard and Fleet Command..."

"No, no, no, no." Bai Le immediately interrupted him and explained: "The places you mentioned must be applied after the formal meeting. We are deciding whether it is possible and arrange the time. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, the delegation can only go to places where everyone can go like ordinary tourists, military and political units, factories, etc., and they can only decide whether to receive them according to foreign affairs arrangements."

"So, please arrange personnel to help us, can you?"

The reason why Takasuke Okubo had to make this request was that he and his dozens of people were really unfamiliar with the urban life of the empire. He made a lot of jokes just after getting off the car and entering the hotel to the welcome banquet. For example, after taking off his shoes and getting into the seat, the waiter pursed his lips and laughed. These guys from Japanese aristocratic families immediately had to fight.

This is no longer a matter of translation, and the words and deeds of the shogunate delegation are incompatible with Shin Kyung.

"Of course. But please note that you must treat the people I have arranged for you as friends, not as slaves." Bai Le reminded.

Nobuzuna Goto smiled and said, "Don't worry about this, I will notify everyone."

After three rounds of wine, I went through five flavors, and the short welcome banquet ended. It was time to arrange accommodation. When I heard that the room was arranged on the tenth floor, the Japanese delegation was frying again.

"Master Bai, are you intentionally humiliating us? Mr. Kido is already sixty-two years old. How could he climb to the tenth floor?" Okubo Takatsuki waved his fists, blushed, and protested at the top of his lungs to the arrival of Bai Le.

Bai Le took a few steps back to prevent the guy from spitting his saliva on his face. Bai Le said, "Don't be impatient, Lord Okubo. Please come with me, I promise, you won't walk too much because you were arranged on the tenth floor."

After saying that, Bai Le led the way. He thought it would be better to explain to these Japanese people who had never seen the world to waste their talk or take them to the elevator directly.

The group walked out of the restaurant through the side door and came to the elevator attached to the outside. From the outside, it looked like this. This was a square shelf made of steel bars attached to the building. There was an iron cage inside. Bai Le wanted to explain to the other party how to use it. Okuba Takasuke became excited again: "You are so arrogant, so arrogant. Are we monkeys in your eyes? It's over, everything is over, we will return to China immediately!"

Bai Le was surprised. Even if these guys didn't understand how the steam-powered elevator was used, they didn't have to be so excited. In a trance, he remembered a legend and immediately understood it.

Before the Anti-Sky War, Japan had trade with the Empire, the Netherlands, Siam and other countries. The Netherlands was the only European country. During the Japanese civil war, in order to obtain more advanced firearms, Japan chose to resume trade with Spain. Immediately afterwards, France and British merchant ships were also allowed to approach the port, but the Portuguese were always refused to be outside the country's borders. The reason was that the Portuguese ambassador to the Empire had gone to Edo about establishing diplomatic relations with the shogunate and met the shogunate general Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, but Tsunayoshi was only 1.24 meters tall.

The Portuguese ambassador said nothing at the time, and concealed his smile. After returning to the museum, he mocked Tsunayoshi as a monkey. As a result, the shogunate found out that he would no longer allow diplomatic relations with Portugal.

Obviously, Okubo didn't know what a lift was, and thought he was asking the mission to climb the steel frame to the tenth floor.

"Your Highness Okubo, obviously your imagination is too rich." Nobuzuo Goto said calmly. He took the initiative to walk to the elevator door, opened the safety door, and said, "We are going to go to the tenth floor through this car. As long as we stand in, someone will start the steam engine and pull us up, instead of climbing up the tenth floor like a monkey as you think."

Bai Le had no choice but to say to the hotel staff responsible for taking care of the mission: "You can demonstrate it to the Japanese guests first."

The hotel waiter walked into the elevator car, closed the door, pulled the copper bell, and heard a clattering sound from the computer room next to him, and the car slowly moved upwards.

"Silk cake is short!"

“Where do you do more!”

The Japanese exclaimed in surprise. When the car came back, Bai Le said, "Please please, you can only enter ten people at a time."

Goto Nobuzuo entered the car and asked casually: "When I was in school, I had a question: This elevator is not driven by electricity, but by steam engines. Why is it called an elevator?"

"This is the name set by His Majesty the Supreme Emperor. He said that in the future, this kind of elevator will be driven by electricity. Instead of changing the name at that time, it is better to call it an elevator from the beginning. Your Majesty is very optimistic about the future of electricity." Bai Le introduced.

"What is electricity?" asked Okubo Takasuke on the side.

Nobuzuna Goto said: "Electricity is electricity! When it rains, lightning and thunder are electricity. When you take off this sweater, the sparks emitted on your head are also electricity."

"You mean, Shangguo can control lightning freely?"

"It can be said that, but it can be completely different from what you think."
Chapter completed!