New Shun 1730

The letter was all in Chinese characters. Tokugawa Yoshimune had personally taught Zhu Xi's philosophy in the church, so his Chinese studies level was sufficient.

The higher the level, the more angry it was.

Liu Yu questioned Tokugawa Yoshimune righteously, why did he allow Satsuma to invade Ryukyu? Although it started from the time of Tokugawa Ieyasu, it has continued to this day and has not been stopped. Isn't this a sin?

Knowing the chaos but not stopping it is also a sin.

He also questioned Tokugawa Yoshimune, why did he implement the policies of Jie and Zhou and collect more than 40% of the tribute, which was not shameful even for Emperor Yang of Sui.

Seeing Liu Yu's full of benevolence and righteousness, Tokugawa Yoshimune did not get angry but laughed. He was really angry and laughed.

Before Liu Yu monopolized the Nagasaki trade, there were also Tang Feng storytellings of other ship owners, which introduced a lot of the situation of Dashun.

Indeed, in theory, the regular tax of Dashun was not high, but the tenants still paid nearly 50% of the rent, or even higher. These things were clearly written in the Tang Feng storytelling.

I thought that it was nothing more than me collecting taxes directly in my hands, while the Tang court confiscated so much, but the landlords still collected a lot.

Moreover, I am afraid that your Tang Dynasty is not as good as me. If it is like the previous Ming Dynasty, if it can ensure that the public is 4 and the private is 6, one person one crop, and land cannot be bought and sold, how can it be destroyed? If it can really achieve one person one crop and public is 4 and the private is 6, I am afraid it can also be considered a good policy.

I also thought that although I increased taxes to increase income, resulting in 5 public and 5 private, I at least controlled land annexation and did not have the trend of Tang Dynasty annexation. Even if I opened the precedent of merchants cultivating land and tacitly allowing tenancy to increase income, it has not reached the level of the rich connected by the roads in the previous Tang Dynasty storytelling.

Although I raised the price of rice, the warriors and farmers were happy, and the merchants were indeed in pain, but since ancient times, there has been a benevolent government that made the four classes of scholars, farmers, merchants and workers happy? If the price of rice is low, the scholars and farmers will suffer, and the merchants will be happy; if the price of rice is high, the merchants will suffer, and the scholars and farmers will be happy. Is there a way to have both in the world?

The more I read Liu Yu's letter, the more hypocritical I felt Liu Yu was.

I only felt that the people of the Tang Kingdom were still suffering. Since you are benevolent and righteous, why don't you relieve the suffering of the people of the Tang Kingdom? Why do you use benevolence and righteousness to stab me?

You really want to accuse someone, and you can find excuses for it.

Looking at these eloquent accusations of benevolence and morality, Tokugawa Yoshimune turned them over directly.

There are Confucian scholars who debate the issue of benevolence and righteousness, and these are all meaningless questions.

He wanted to know what Liu Yu wanted.

After turning over four or five pages of nonsense about benevolence, righteousness, and benevolent politics, he finally came to the moment when the dagger was revealed. Tokugawa Yoshimune was shocked and realized that this time the situation was serious.

He thought that the biggest request of Dashun was nothing more than to let the Shimazu clan apologize and stop interfering in the Ryukyu affairs. Or it was just another verbal attack to force them to pay tribute. Who would have thought that after reading the back, every sentence was shocking.

The stagnant blood in his chest kept rising, causing his temples to throb and hurt, as if the tide of Edo Bay was surging and hitting his head.

Until the end, Liu Yu "kindly" reminded him that if he didn't want to take the blame, the one who lived in "Usurpation Luoyang" could take it, which could be regarded as a friendship between the two of them.

Tokugawa Yoshimune snorted and sneered a few times, thinking to himself, you are so kind that you even thought of this?

He looked up and asked the two Tosa retainers again.

"Are the Tang ships really invincible?"

The two Tosa retainers recalled the warships they had seen in Kochi, and the scene of the warships firing volleys to smash the Guan ships, and fell to the ground and dared not speak.

After a long time, he said: "The ships are strong and the guns are powerful. The navy cannot defeat them. One shot can destroy dozens of miles. Everything that hits them is shattered, and the rocks are all broken. They really cannot win."

After describing the scale of the Tang fleet in a down-to-earth manner and conveying Liu Yu's words "give him time to organize the navy and fight in Uraga", Tokugawa Yoshimune knew that the navy could not win no matter what.

Liu Yu and Shi Shiyong had both been to Edo. This time they came prepared and fearless, so they were determined not to fight the navy.

If the conditions in the letter were a little more relaxed, Tokugawa Yoshimune actually wanted to agree directly. However, he could not agree to the conditions in the letter no matter what. If he agreed, he would die, which was tantamount to drinking poison to quench thirst.

But the navy could not win, and the army seemed to be unable to win either. Even the most elite hatamoto in Edo could not break through Kochi Castle with 500 people and march across Tosa for dozens of miles without being stopped.

Besides, Dashun was a big country, how could it have only 500 soldiers who could fight? Even if it is a hundred times more, it is not too much. Even if all the registered samurai are gathered together, including the old, weak, sick and disabled, and Edo is not defended, there are only 300,000. What is there to fight?

His head hurt more and more. Tokugawa Yoshimune withheld the letter and asked the two retainers of Tosa to withdraw first. He also summoned his trusted and important ministers, such as the old middle bugyo, to his side and first talked about Liu Yu's request for "opening the country" in the letter.

Ooka Tadashi, a frequent guest in Japanese TV dramas in later generations, whose identity and fame are similar to Bao Zheng of the Celestial Dynasty, was similar to the "Kaifeng Prefecture Governor" at this time, leaving behind many legends of solving cases. At this time, he also promoted coin reform and sweet potato planting, and had some say in the matter of opening the country.

When Liu Yu came to Edo that day, he had a chance encounter with him and studied the pamphlet on currency reform left by Liu Yu. At that time, he thought he was a hermit who was disloyal and unfilial and only wanted to be happy. Who would have thought that he would become a great enemy who oppressed the shogunate in a blink of an eye.

"Your Highness, the General, in the past, Arai Shiraishi once said: Gold and silver are not like rice and millet, they cannot be regenerated. Since the red seal ship trade, most of the country's gold and silver have been lost abroad. For this reason, Arai Shiraishi established a trade letter system to strictly prevent the outflow of gold and silver. Although the general does not like him, he has extended his policy, which shows that he is a good policy."

"Tang people's silk, satin, porcelain, etc. are all sought after. On the other hand, in Nagasaki, the Tang merchants only like copper ingots, and are unwilling to carry things such as treasures."

"If during the founding of the country, goods from the Tang Dynasty poured in, and gold and silver from the country flowed out, within a few years, gold and silver would become less and more goods would become more abundant, and the price of gold and silver would become more expensive day by day. I am afraid that merchants would hoard gold and silver. In this way, there may be another situation. Liu Yu of the Tang Dynasty called it the disaster of 'deflation'."

"This country has nothing to sell except copper; people in the Tang Dynasty have nothing to enter except copper. Although the Tang people also banned the Qie Zhi Dan religion, the policy of locking the country must never be changed, and the country's gates must never be opened."

Japan is different from Dashun. The "central bank" of Dashun is the East India Company of Japan and Western countries. If it hadn't been for the development of Yunnan in recent years and the economic development, it might not even be able to mint copper coins.

But Dashun doesn't have to worry at all, because as soon as he sits there, the money will continue to come to him, and he won't think too much about it.

Japan itself has mountains of gold and silver, and it is not metaphorical gold and silver, but real gold and silver. It is extremely sensitive to the outflow of gold and silver.

Arai Shiraishi's reforms cut off the financial path of Dashun Maritime Business and led to Dashun Maritime Business' involution. From the original joint efforts to control bargaining power and joint efforts to trap Japanese businessmen, the previous maritime business involution was divided into Zhangzhou Gang and Fuzhou Gang. and the Zhejiang Gang, the shogunate all saw it.

If Liu Yu had not really helped the shogunate a lot before, Tokugawa Yoshimune would not have acquiesced to Liu Yu's monopoly on Nagasaki trade.

Prime Minister Ooka mentioned the matter again at this time and declared that the country must never be founded, even if Dashun banned Catholicism, that would not work.

Once the country was founded, Japan's silk industry, industry and commerce would be completely destroyed without even thinking about it.

All experience comes from summary, and China has no chance to sum up, because even by the time of Yi Crow, even if the British have stolen tea seeds and planted them in India for self-production and sale, there is still no chance to sum up, because even if opium is included, it is still surplus. It wasn't until small farmers were dumped that they went bankrupt that "people of insight" figured it out.

Japan has experience, and it had experience decades ago. Dashun Maritime's porcelain almost destroyed Japan's fledgling porcelain.

The porcelain industry, which took advantage of the war in the late Ming Dynasty and the inability of Westerners to obtain goods in China, was in danger less than twenty years after Dashun stabilized the world.

As a last resort, a policy was introduced. If a ship carrying porcelain was caught in Nagasaki, it would be immediately seized and the trade letter would be cancelled. This way Japan's porcelain industry could be saved.

Moreover, it was a situation where Dashun merchants mainly sold silk and occasionally used it as ballast stone to transport porcelain.

Now that we have the opportunity to sum up our experience, it is not wrong to respond in this way. Regarding the founding of the country, from a purely economic perspective, it must not be ignored.

Tokugawa Yoshimune sighed and said helplessly: "People are swordsmen, and I am fish meat. Liu Yu's son is well versed in water warfare, and he is afraid that he will not have the help of Kamakura Kamikaze. He is knowledgeable in practical studies and knows astronomy, and now he can directly Come to Edo. How about coming to Nagasaki and Satsuma?”

However, Prime Minister Ooka had already considered this and said: "Your Highness, our country is small and has no big ships, so it is indeed impossible to win a water battle. However, our country is not good at water battles, but there are some who are good at water battles. I have a driving force "The tiger eats the wolf."

"Oh? What's the plan?"

As soon as Tokugawa Yoshimune spoke, he immediately thought of the Dutch. If the only people Japan can contact at this time who are good at water warfare are the Dutch.

During the Shimabara Rebellion, thanks to the help of the Dutch, the fleet bombarded the Catholics in Shimabara, and people from the Dutch business houses came to visit every year...

However, how can we drive away a tiger and devour a wolf? The tiger is not stupid, so how can we drive it away?

Tokugawa Yoshimune, who had read the Three Kingdoms, shook his head and said: "Xun Wenru's plan of two tigers competing for food was because he was the prime minister of the Han Dynasty and used the emperor to control the princes. Therefore, it can be said that Liu Bei is the shepherd of Xuzhou, which makes Lu Bu hate him deeply. Old man What can cause Tang and Dutch to quarrel?"

Ooka Tadashi saw that Tokugawa Yoshimune had already thought of the Dutch, so he explained his strategy.

The so-called driving a tiger to devour a wolf does not mean killing someone with a borrowed knife. To be more precise, it can also be called "two tigers competing for food".

Since it is a competition for food, there must be food first, and this food must be something that both tigers want.

Originally, there was no food to compete with between Dashun and Holland.

But now that Dashun has asked Japan to open a country, and the Netherlands has always hoped that Japan would expand trade between Japan and the Netherlands and send more trade letters to the Netherlands, then there is a basis for "competition" between Dashun and the Netherlands.

Japan's own gold and silver, or market, is what the two tigers compete for.

After Ooka Tadashi explained why he drove the tigers and wolves, Tokugawa Yoshimune nodded with a smile on his face, but then said: "If the Dutch win, they may drive away the wolves and the tigers will come again."

"I can't defeat the Tang Dynasty's fleet. If the Tang Dynasty can't defeat the Dutch, then how can I defeat the Dutch fleet?"

Ooka Tadashi was confident and said with relief: "Your Highness, don't worry. In the navy of the Tang Dynasty, the Netherlands is a tiger. In our country, the Netherlands is no more than a rabbit."