"Sen! It's getting dark. Unloading and reloading sack after sack of rice is way too much trouble! And I only brought a limited number of ships this time; they simply can't hold this much…"

"Let the Chief Divine bear witness! So, since there are still two shiploads of goods left undelivered, why don't you just sell me those two Large Ships together with all the cargo on them? Just name how much Gold you want for each ship—you'll definitely make a massive profit!"

Zuwaro smiled broadly, stretched out his powerful big hand, and grabbed Mori no Kiyoshi's wrist in one go. Hu Nu and Xiong Da also each stepped forward, blocking Mori no Kiyoshi's Monk Soldiers.

At this moment, seeing the Golden Chief's expression, Mori no Kiyoshi's heart tightened. He quickly swept his gaze around, and sweat "shhh" trickled down his forehead.

"Ah! Honorable Golden Chief… These five Large Ships of mine are the best cargo ships my trading house has! Fine ships like these—you can search all around Lake Biwa and still not find many. They run cargo north and south; they're my hens that lay golden eggs… uh!…"

Mori no Kiyoshi's wrist tightened in that grip, the pain making the corner of his mouth twitch. He cursed "Barbaric Mongolian Barbarians" inwardly, still hesitating in his heart over whether to keep the Large Ships.

The issue wasn't "money." The real problem was that, right now—before the Five-Peak Ship Master Wang Zhi bundled up Guangdong's Sea Ship technology and brought the whole package to Kyushu—Japan's shipbuilding industry really wasn't up to par!

For nimble, high‑capacity cargo ships like these that could sail coastal waters or even go on long‑distance voyages, it took scarce Senior Shipwrights working for months, up to a year, to build them.

Timbers for constructing Large Ships had always been extremely precious and hard to obtain. To cut costs, Shipwrights usually used the complicated "Joints" method for the keel, which further increased the procedures and time needed for shipbuilding!

In other words, once he handed over these two fine ships, there would be no way to build new ones for at least a year or half a year! And those ordinary customs ship small ships simply couldn't match these Large Ships for speed; to reach the same cargo capacity, he'd need many more hulls and a lot more oarsmen!

In fact, at this moment across all of Japan, the only merchant groups that had such shipbuilding capability, able to conduct coastal or even long‑distance maritime trade, were the Omi Business Group, the Sakai Port Trading Group, and the Fukuoka Trading Group—just these three! Even the time‑honored Ise Merchant Group didn't yet have the ability to enter this game.

Behind the Omi Business Group stood the Kyoto Nobles and temple forces; their shipbuilding level could only be called average. They controlled the shores of Lake Biwa and were more adept at Biancai Ship‑type coastal vessels. And as the Shogunate's power waned, they had begun to slide downhill.

Behind the Sakai Port Trading Group, beyond any doubt, stood the ruling the Hosokawa family! They controlled the lion's share of "validation trade," owned large Ocean-Blocking Sea Ships, and regularly carried out immensely profitable Tribute exchanges with the Ming Dynasty. Their shipbuilding standards were currently the highest in Japan.

For example, that "Ocean Shielding Ship" Mori no Kiyoshi had managed to acquire earlier had been bought from Sakai Port at great expense through Noble connections; he'd even brought in Korea's Shipwrights! Unfortunately, in the end, ship and men alike vanished into the boundless Northern Land…

As for the Fukuoka Trading Group, its backer was the Western Country Dominator, the Ouchi clan. The Ouchi clan operated from behind the scenes, controlling the profits of Korea trade and forcing Korea to set up the Japan Pavilion. The Fukuoka Trading Group, through constant trade and raiding, expanded at breakneck speed and was gradually showing signs of overtaking the others! For example, in the coming effort to open up trade routes with Korea, he knew he'd inevitably have to deal with the Fukuoka merchants…

"Buddha! Ah! Golden Chief, please let go, let go!… I'll agree! I'll agree, all right?!… I'll sell you the ships!!…"

Mori no Kiyoshi cried out twice from the pain, and only under Zuwaro's "intimidating might" did he have no choice but to nod in agreement. He shook his head and sighed, looking at this "barbaric yet generous Golden Chief" with a bitter smile on his face, while secretly vowing that this time he was definitely going to carve off a big piece of meat!

"Zu! I can grit my teeth and let you have these two ships! But each Biancai Ship will cost you twenty jin of Gold!…"

The price Mori no Kiyoshi named was staggering! You had to know: this four hundred Stones single‑masted merchant ship had a capacity of roughly 50 tons. Compared with that earlier two-hundred‑料, 70‑ton long‑distance Ocean Shielding Ship, it clearly carried less, used simpler technology, and was much easier to build!

And according to the Longjiang Treasure Ship Chronicles, the construction cost of a two-hundred‑料 Ocean Shielding Ship was two hundred taels in ship timber alone. As for the conscripted Official workshop Craftsmen, they were virtually unpaid; they only received meals and recorded wages of several taels, for a total cost of about two hundred and twenty taels.

Therefore, even if this four hundred Stones Biancai Ship were built in Japan, with less advanced technology, higher timber costs, and Shipwright wages on top… even if you maxed out every miscellaneous expense, at most this four hundred Stones merchantman would cost three hundred taels!

Given an exchange rate of one gold for ten silver, that came to about 30 taels of Gold, less than two jin of Gold! Yet Mori no Kiyoshi's opening ask multiplied that by a full ten times—twenty jin of Gold per ship!

"Hahaha! Good! How straightforward, it's a deal! Twenty jin of gold for one large ship, I'll take both of these! As for the other three, if you sell them, it's at the same price! …Hu Nu, bring the money!"

"Smack! …"

"Ah! Buddha!! …How much gold does this Golden Tribe actually have?! …"

Another forty pieces of Gold Talismans were slammed down in front of him; Mori no Kiyoshi's head swam, and he almost groaned aloud. He didn't know what to say. That little bit of resentment at being forced to sell the ships just now, under the glare of this dazzling golden light, was like foam on the sea, vanishing in an instant. His heart was pounding even harder, and he almost couldn't resist the urge to sell off the rest of the ships as well…

"No, that won't do! These three ships still have to go back to haul cargo, I can't sell them! …Buddha! Stop-and-contemplate, stop-and-contemplate! …Once I'm back at Lake Biwa, I'll have the shipwrights build large ships at once—start ten of them in one go! …"

"Zou Jirou! Hurry and put this gold away, take it aboard! Then have the sailors and Monk Soldiers from the other two ships come ashore, and let the warriors of the Shandan Tribe board and take over… Quick! Take the gold away, don't let it shine in my eyes any longer! Hurry!! …"

Mori no Kiyoshi covered his eyes with his hand, not daring to look at that gleaming gold again. He was terrified that his already tottering Buddhist Law would be utterly shattered by bottomless greed. Matsushita Zou Jirou, on the other hand, had long since fallen; like a diligent honeybee, he ecstatically carried forty jin of gold on his back. Even if he was so tired he couldn't straighten his waist, he still had to personally deliver it to the flagship!

"Ahem! Honorable Golden Chief, the crews on those two ships have all disembarked… You can send people aboard to check the supplies inside…"

"Four hundred Stones of rice, plus the freight, two kan per Stone, at eighty kan to one jin of gold, that's a total of ten jin of gold… Two hundred sets of samurai armor, all fine goods from Nara and the Capital City, eighteen kan per set, forty-five jin of gold… Eight hundred spears, four hundred Tachi, and one hundred sets of Heavy Bamboo Bows… What, you say our bows aren't very good and the Tachi don't work that well, and that I should bring more guns and axes next time? …Fine! Then I won't count this batch of blades and bows in your bill, I'll throw them in for free! You just pay the spear price, one kan for two pieces, five jin of gold will do! …In total, fifty jin of gold!"

Mori no Kiyoshi's mental arithmetic was extremely fast; in just a moment, he tearfully tripled the price on all the military supplies and then flipped them over to Zuwaro. And Zuwaro had no objections; no matter how much of this food and military gear he stockpiled, it was worth it! These fine goods that could supply the Tribes and arm the warriors were not only lacking at the Kingdom's outposts; they were even scarcer in Maha division, far up the Great River deep within the forest!

"Hu Nu! Go back on board and bring another chest of gold! What, the chests are all full? Then use leather bags! …"

"Yes, Great Chief!"

Hu Nu strode off in great bounds, going up the ship and back down again, now with a leather bag on his shoulder. He didn't really understand why supplies and weapons—which the Northern Tribes valued above all—could be produced in such quantities by these Southern Tribes. And they didn't want tribe people, didn't want furs—only these shiny "golden stones"! If these golden stones were thrown into the freezing forests of the far north, not a single Shengshu Jurchen Tribe would spare them a second glance!

"Clink clink! Thud! …"

The heavy leather bag was dropped in front of him, and again fifty jin of gold flashed with golden light. This pleasant sound of gold clashing together was like the most beautiful Buddhist chant, making Mori no Kiyoshi's heart pound, his legs almost going weak. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"Buddha! Stop-and-contemplate, stop-and-contemplate! Zu, these last few hundred chests of rice wine, tea, and salt… I won't take your money for them! This is enough, enough, don't pull out any more gold! If you keep pulling more out, my Buddhist Law will be broken! …"

"To speak frankly, this salt is very cheap; even a few hundred jin isn't worth much. If you hadn't asked for it, I wouldn't even have bothered hauling it here… It's the wine and the tea that are expensive. Especially the tea! …What? You've never drunk tea before? Then you should have a taste later; I'll let you try some good tea! Not this bulk old tea, but the very best kind! …"

At this, Mori no Kiyoshi also felt unbearably parched; he desperately needed to drink some mind-clearing tea Water to calm the violent emotions stirred up by the gold. He turned his head and saw Matsushita Zou Jirou, already running back with the "gold-filled leather bag" on his back, his steps stumbling… Mori no Kiyoshi let out a soft sigh and finally spoke to the young Monk Soldier beside him.

"Rongdong, go to the ship and bring back that jar of the finest Echizen 'Jade Dew Tea'! The Golden Chief has been so generous; we must also bring out some truly fine tea to treat him properly!"

"Echizen is your homeland. You are a noble descendant of the Shiba Clan, and very familiar with this tea… So, for this final tea service, you'll be the one to prepare the tea! …"

"One flavor in the cup joins heaven and earth; its sweet fragrance entering the throat warms the spirit… Let this one cup of Jade Dew Tea Water bid farewell to the majestic mountains and rivers of this Ezo land, and bid farewell to the generous, bold Golden Tribe! …After that, with over two hundred and twenty jin of gold loaded aboard, only 'Clear Heart Zen' and only profound Buddhist Law that remains unmoved in expression can barely keep it under control! …And once this enormous sum of gold is brought back to the Capital Region, the storms and changes to come, the mighty surges that will follow, and the direction this flowing road of gold will take…"

"Namu Amida Butsu! May the Buddha be merciful and protect us! …"