New Shun 1730

As soon as the squadron was ordered to mobilize and prepare, the navy was like a frozen snake that was thrown into warm water. Come alive quickly.

Those who were at a loss a few days ago and suddenly became alive today were not only the navy, but also people from the trading company who were waiting for news in Weihai and preparing to coordinate the transportation of grain.

If there was any class in Dashun that was most concerned about the news of the war against Japan at this time, it must be the maritime merchant group that dominated Eastern trade.

If it were the entire Dashun at this time, who was most concerned about Liu Yu's status in the court? Perhaps these maritime business groups were only ranked after Liu Yu's parents and family, and were on par with the navy.

The hearts that had been hanging around for the past few days finally fell into place. The merchants immediately made a decision and prepared to send three ships to follow the squadron to Busan.

The ship was filled with grain and some medicinal materials purchased by merchants, as well as cigarettes and alcohol. These were not from the national treasury, but were actively "donated" to the navy by trading companies.

At the same time, there were two boats carrying small groceries that soldiers usually buy, and a member of the board of directors of a trading company also followed.

Hearing that the commander of the squadron was Liu Yu's confidant, Mi Gao Miziming and the people in the trading company knew that this time they were finally stable.

The three ships of grain, medicinal materials, tobacco and alcohol were worth nothing to the trading company. They were mainly to give face to the newly arrived governor Haijun Rongzheng and the seventh prince Li Huan, and to show their support.

Li Han was also very happy, but repeatedly told them that they could donate to the navy, but not to give gifts to themselves. Needless to say, I am young and have little prestige. It is not the time to accept gifts for personal gain. Giving gifts at this time is just eye candy.

The efficiency of the navy was completely beyond Li Huan's expectations. The efficiency of the maritime merchants was not bad at all. These ships carrying grain and medicinal materials had already stayed in Jiaoliao, and they were prepared to donate money once the war started. However, they could not enter the port and had to wait outside.

The navy was well-equipped and had already made full preparations for the expedition. After the order was issued, the guns, gunpowder, and fortress coastal defense artillery were distributed and loaded on the ships in just two days.

What we have to wait for now are the people sent by the imperial court to pay homage to the government.

When dealing with Korea, you still have to give it due face. After all, it is still a vassal, not an enemy.

Once the people from the Li government arrive, the squadron will leave the port, and the merchant ships will meet them outside Liugong Island and head to Busan together.

At this time, an old maritime businessman in his sixties was speaking with great joy in front of several squadron officers, unable to conceal his excitement.

"Nang Xipi, I have long disliked North Korea. We cannot sell medicinal materials to the Japanese country, but they can sell ginseng. Before Ying Suobo got the trade letter, our goods had to pay port taxes in China. When we arrived in Changchun, Qi had to send gifts to Nagasaki to pay tribute to the Koreans. They sold goods in the capital city duty-free and transported them overland to the Japanese country of Busan, and the prices were almost the same as ours."

"We should have dealt with them a long time ago, as well as Japan. Unfortunately, Arai Shiraishi of Japan died early, which gave this guy an advantage..."

The man who spoke was the director of a trading company who was going to follow the fleet to Busan, where he would preside over the handover of future supply and logistics.

Even though he is over sixty years old, he still has a hot temper when he talks. Judging from the accent and spoken language, we also know that this is a member of the Ningbo Gang, one of the three major gangs of Nagasaki Tang Shang.

His surname is Xu and his given name is Tao. He is also a senior figure in Ningbo maritime business.

In his life, the Japanese he hated most was Arai Shiraishi.

Before Shiraishi Araishi carried out reforms, the Jiangzhe Gang, Fuzhou Gang and Zhangzhou Gang had a very good relationship. They joined forces with the Dutch to lower prices and smuggle, forcing Japanese businessmen to sell copper cheaper than in Japan.

Because on the one hand, Japanese businessmen can recoup these losses with Chinese goods, on the other hand, the backlog of goods in hand cannot bear the capital turnover and interest.

Even if the shogunate enacted a "conservation law" prohibiting the import of Dashun porcelain, these people could still take advantage of the loopholes of the previous lock-up and sell the goods in different ways.

As a result, Arai Shiraishi instituted a credit card system, which suddenly disintegrated the smuggling alliance between the Chinese maritime merchants and the Dutch, and incidentally divided the Chinese maritime merchants into three.

The three countries of Fuzhou, Zhangzhou, and Ningbo were fighting among themselves all day long in Nagasaki Tangren Town to restrict export quotas, so that the pricing power was completely taken away by the Japanese.

Xu Tao's son has been dead for more than 20 years, and he can be considered dead because of Arai Shiraishi.

After the trade letter system, Chinese maritime merchants tried to use small boats to smuggle in Kokura. As a result, they were shelled and two smuggling boats were sunk.

In addition to the Japanese, these maritime merchants would inevitably secretly curse the court.

North Korea only pays tribute in return, it's normal etiquette.

But in addition to paying tribute, North Korean merchants were also allowed to trade domestic trade tax-free. They had to collect taxes and go to Nagasaki to pay bribes. It was impossible not to have resentment towards the imperial court.

Now he knows that war will be launched against Japan, and as a member of the board of directors of a trading company, he knows that the future "monopoly" will include North Korean trade.

When he heard that he was going to Busan, he was naturally very excited. The sixty-year-old took the initiative to ask Ying to go to Busan to communicate in order to coordinate the transportation of food and baggage in the future.

If there is a chance, I also want to go with the boat to see the sea outside Kokura Castle and see the place where my son died.

Maritime merchants are not good men and women. Historically, after Arai Shiraishi's reform, maritime merchants also tried something similar to what the British and Dutch did in China at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

It's just that the ship was too bad and the cannon was too bad. When trying to forcefully break through the Shimonoseki Strait, it was hit by a fort and dispersed in a rush, with thirty to fifty casualties.

Chen Tao was still cursing Arai Shiraishi, who had been dead for several years. Although he cursed, these people were still convinced by his methods.

As a great Confucian scholar and the leader of the Ten Philosophers of Zhu Xi's School of Wood, Arai Shiraishi was capable.

With his own efforts, he perfected the policy of isolation and took back Japan's trade initiative.

Relying on the state intervention and the letter card system, he disintegrated and separated Chinese maritime merchants and controlled the outflow of precious metals.

Historically, the Dutch also hated it to the core and even came up with the idea of ​​"gunboat switch", but it was not implemented because the Dutch mainland was too far away, Sulabadi's anti-Dutch uprising, the shadow of the war against Zheng Chenggong, etc.

Moreover, the regime was still alive after the death of the person, and it can be said that there was a little bit of the awareness of worrying about the outflow of silver during the destruction of opium at Humen.

Someone who can make Chinese maritime merchants and the Dutch East India Company hate him to the core is indeed capable.

However, it was not of much use. The Dutch could not gather soldiers for the switch because they were too far away, but the Dashun after the military reform could gather them.

Just as the Netherlands could gather 150 warships, 5,000 cannons and 20,000 sailors in England, blocking the port and beating the British and French coalition forces, but could not gather the 10 warships in East Asia that the East India Company planned to force Japan to open and close; Dashun could not sail even one real warship that was not a merchant ship to Amsterdam, because there was no supply port and base along the way, but it could gather at least 15 warships and 500 naval guns in Japan at its doorstep.

In the eyes of sea merchants like Chen Tao, the slender body of the warship, the closed gun ports, and the towering masts are all full of unspeakable beauty.

If Dashun had such a navy when the Zhengde New Order was implemented in Japan, the sea merchant group would be willing to pay hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to support the army.

He is an old sea merchant who has experienced the carnival of trade with Japan, the helplessness after the Zhengde New Order, the grief of the tragic death of his beloved son, and the novelty of the trading company after Liu Yu monopolized the trade letter card.

Until today, he finally waited for something he had never dreamed of before: the court would go to war with Japan because of trade.

Although nominally it was because of Japan's occupation of Ryukyu, the sea merchants knew in their hearts that this was nonsense.

He was old, but he had shares, other sons who were still alive, and non-legitimate grandchildren who were studying at the Xinxing Practical School in Songjiang and preparing to enter the Jinghai Palace in the future.

He even had the right to decide the trade volume of millions of taels or even tens of millions of taels in the future, and he participated in such a major event as a country's conquest as a pure businessman.

This feeling is really... very mysterious.

It is not accurate to say that it is a dream come true, because before this, no sea merchant dared to have such a dream. If they did not dare to have it, how could they say that the dream came true?

Mantou looked at Chen Tao, who was still dancing at the age of 60, and decided to clarify the issue of profit distribution first. He had been with Liu Yu for so long, and he knew what the businessmen cared about.

"There is another thing for this trip to Korea. The gold and silver in the Japanese pavilion in Korea are naturally not yours. But the furniture, pavilions, houses, etc. in it may be useful to you in the future."

"In the future, it will be used as a port for opening and closing to Korea, and it will also be a place to check the trade between Korea and Japan. You can go and investigate and see if it is suitable. If it is suitable, give Korea some money every year to rent it."

"It will not be good to ask for it. Korea will be cut off from the trade of ginseng and raw silk to Japan, and it will definitely be unhappy. You still have to pay a little bit to make this vassal look good."

Chen Tao smiled and said, "Don't worry, sir. That's right. Since we have been given the monopoly of trade, not even a ginseng will go from the Koreans to Japan. Although I am old, the company is still there. When we see the scale of the Japanese embassy there, we will naturally offer a good price. "

"As a businessman, we will not save the money we should pay."

"Your Excellency, you don't need to talk about the rest of the military orders. Ying Suo Bo has warned us. We know when we can sell wine and cigarettes to sailors. Don't worry this time. There are no private goods of the crew on the company's ship. We know that the matter is serious and we are investigating it very strictly."

Seeing that the sea merchants knew what was going on, Mantou didn't say much.

He thought that the Koreans might be unwilling, but there was nothing they could do. He also knew what kind of people the sea merchants were. If they were given the monopoly, the Koreans might not be able to get a single ship past Tsushima.

I don't know how many troubles there will be in the future. Will the Korean envoys go to the capital to cry? Or... go to the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum in Jinling to cry?

This thing can probably be done. North Korea is counting on ginseng and the money from being a middleman.

Don't make too much noise at that time, and the court will change its mind again, that would be bad.

Thinking about the way of thinking of the group of people in the court, I dare not think about it any further, so I can only wait quietly for the people from the Li government to come.

The fleet waited for another three days, and the people sent by the capital finally arrived in Weihai.

Mantou didn't recognize this person, but the rest of the navy did. It was Zhao Baiquan who went to Ryukyu with Liu Yu as a deputy envoy.

Unlike the mentality when he went to Ryukyu last time, Zhao Baiquan went to North Korea this time with a lot of resentment.

Liu Yu, the navy, and the sea merchants care about trade, ports, switches, compensation, and naval bases. They look at the problem from the perspective of China.

Zhao Baiquan is an orthodox Celestial Empire and a member of the Li government, so he naturally looks at the problem from the perspective of the Celestial Empire.

Before leaving for the capital, Liu Yu talked with Zhao Baiquan about some things. Just a few words made Zhao Baiquan furious.

The problem is still the title of "Great Prince" of the Japanese shogun.

When Arai Hakuseki was in power, he changed the title of "Great Prince" of Japan to "King of Japan" in the official documents of Korea.

This sentence ignited the anger in Zhao Baiquan's heart.

The King of Japan... is the shogun.

According to the Book of Changes and the Book of Poetry, and the annotations of Kong Yingda, one of the 18 scholars of the Qin Palace in the early Tang Dynasty and the 31st generation grandson of Confucius, [Great Prince is the Son of Heaven].

Even if Korea does not understand the Book of Changes and the Book of Poetry; even if Korea does not know Kong Yingda's annotations; when Arai Hakuseki changed "Great Prince" to "King", did Korea still not understand?

The shogun is the King of Japan, and Japan does not pay tribute to the Celestial Empire. Changing "Great Prince" to "King of Japan", who is this "Great Prince" left for?

It goes without saying that it is left for the one in Kyoto.

Regarding the diplomacy between Korea and Japan, Zhao Baiquan felt that Liu Yu's words "Nine generations of hatred, irreconcilable, even if Japan gives mountains of gold and silver, Korea cannot trade with nine generations of enemies" were false charges.

Even before, calling himself the Great King of Japan was not impossible to get away with. If you are not familiar with the classics, Korea also has the title of Great King, which is not impossible to change.

But before, he was called the Great King, and then changed to the King of Japan after Arai Hakuseki, and Korea also responded and accepted it, which is completely unbearable.

Does Korea know that the Japanese shogunate is just the shogun? Does it know that there is something above the shogun?

Of course it knows.

Since it knows, as a person in the Confucian cultural circle, Korea is a county king, following the Ming system, or following the example of the Korean prince.

Japan and Korea have equal diplomacy, so the King of Japan is also considered a prince.

But the King of Japan is actually the shogun, and the shogun is nominally conferred by the one in Kyoto.

Who is qualified to be conferred the title of prince?

The king cannot be conferred the title of king.

Last time, Korea allowed the Shogun to be called "King of Japan". Does this mean that there are two Sons of Heaven?

This is different from Western countries, because... Western countries do not use Chinese characters. Whether it is King or Inberado, it is translated by Dashun officials. It is similar to if the emperor is called "Li Yu", then the word "fish" needs to be avoided, but not "fish".

If Korea is not a vassal state of Dashun, it can call Japan whatever it wants, and Dashun has no reason to control it.

But the correspondence between Korea and Japan is all in Chinese characters. As a vassal of Dashun, Korea must follow some connotations.

This is etiquette.

Etiquette is the cornerstone of the world.

Cao Pi was so powerful that he could only confer Sun Shiwan as the King of Wu after abdicating.

Everyone knows that Emperor Yi is just a puppet, but Xiang Yu can only confer the title of princes in the name of Emperor Yi.

The Ryukyu Kingdom can appoint hundreds of officials, but cannot confer the five nobility on the Shang clan members.

Joseon can confer titles on this monarch or that monarch, but even if it expands its courage a hundred times, it dares not confer the title of king on its own people, and can only use other titles instead; when compiling history, it dares only use "Shijia" and absolutely dares not use "Benji".

Dashun can recognize that Luosha is the emperor, but Joseon cannot deal with Luosha directly. The two sides are parallel lines that cannot touch each other in legal terms - similar to the first article of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which is neither compensation nor cession of territory, but the independence of Joseon.

Japan can close the door and say that it is the emperor, whatever. But as long as it deals with Joseon, Joseon cannot accept the letter of state when it sees the Chinese character "Emperor" and can only refuse directly.

The responsibility here is of course Joseon's problem.

If the Japanese shogun is the king of Japan, what is the subtext? The one who is qualified to confer the title of the Shogun is not the Son of Heaven? Even if everyone knows that he is a puppet, it is not okay.

How can this be tolerated?

Although the meaning of the court seems to be that Joseon is a vassal after all, some things can be covered up if they can be covered up, and it will not look good if they are exposed.

Ryukyu treated the Celestial Empire as a fool, Annan proclaimed himself emperor, and Korea, which was known as a filial son, played dumb on the issue of the Great Prince being the Son of Heaven... There really was not a single filial son, they were all rebellious sons.

But now that we have to go to war with Japan, it is not good to rebuke Korea at this critical moment.

The final account will be settled later.

The overall situation should be given priority, but Liu Yu's words completely ignited Zhao Baiquan's anger.

This time when he went to Korea, he was not going to talk about etiquette, but the practical matters of Korea as a vassal to support the Celestial Empire's actions.

Zhao Baiquan, who was full of anger, would naturally have a tough attitude.

Liu Yu used Arai Hakuseki's "Great Prince to King" to fan the flames. Sometimes the dead are more useful than the living.