Xinshun 1730

Chapter 447 The bottom line of the shogunate

After this very realistic question was raised, it was like a basin of incomparably cold sea water, pouring over the heads of those warriors who supported the decisive battle to the end.

These low-level warriors have blood and courage, but they have no brains. They don't know the opponents they will face at all, which is different from the past.

Their past experience is nothing more than fighting each other.Even if there have been foreign affairs such as the invasion of the DPRK and the Mongolian Yuan invasion, the experience gained is outdated.

Since it is an open discussion, the warriors can also speak freely and express their opinions.

However, the samurai who supported the decisive battle to the end came up with ridiculous ideas.

It is said that you can pretend to be peace talks, find some dead soldiers to pretend to be entourages, board the ship, make a surprise attack, kill Dashun's navy, capture the ship and burn it down.

It is said that you can take advantage of the rainy weather and when Dashun's firearms can't be used, you can shoot the pig with a white blade.The people of Tang are good at using firearms, and they may not be good at hand-to-hand combat, so they can delay until the rainy season comes.

It is said that Kou can go, and I can go too. You can let the warriors take the merchant's boat to plunder the coast of Dashun, and force the navy of Dashun to go back to guard.

There are all kinds of ideas, but none of them actually work.

Either they felt that Dashun would follow their ideas and would not respond in any way; or the various ideas were pure nonsense and had no feasibility at all.

The only thing that is feasible is to delay until the rainy season comes.The problem is that before the rainy season comes, Dashun will be able to capture Kyushu Island, and it may not be possible to wait.

After a long discussion, the shogunate was "finally" persuaded that the fight could not continue.

However, there are two conditions for the peace talks, which also require the endorsement of the various feudal clans.

One is how to deal with Shimadzu?

One is what if Dashun asked Japan to pay tribute?
Of course Tokugawa Yoshimune knew what to do, but he should not say what to do, only the feudal clans could say.

The feudal lords avoided Shimadzu's disposal. Now everyone knows that Shimadzu wants to sacrifice human heads, but no one wants to mention it. They have to wait for Tsutoyoshi Shimadzu, who was recuperating in Edo because of a hernia, to bring it up himself.

One of you is dead, and the rest of the family is happy.If you don’t know current affairs, it’s not impossible for the Shimadzu clan’s enfeoffment to be taken back—if the Shimadzu clan doesn’t want to take the initiative to die, the southwestern feudal clan will help Shimadzu clan die. If Dashun wants to attack Lu’er Island, the southwestern feudal lords will not send half a soldier.

As for the issue of tribute, the veterans of the various feudal clans also pointed out that General Ashikaga Yoshimitsu paid tribute to Ming Dynasty.

Someone checked the records of the Ming Dynasty. After the death of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the Ministry of Rites of the Ming Dynasty assigned a posthumous title, and the posthumous posthumous title was "Gongxian".

Of course, this is nothing to be proud of.A large number of people in Japan have studied Confucianism, and some have studied posthumous titles.

Gong, it's not a good posthumous posthumous posthumous title, it's basically praise and derogation.But in the end, it's not too bad to say, and it's not unacceptable if it doesn't reach the point of obvious irony.

The Ming Dynasty may or may not have known that there was an emperor above the shogunate, but Dashun definitely knew this time.

Therefore, if you want to pay tribute, the emperor can only be the king of Japan.It is inevitable that the rank of the shogun will be lowered by one level, but to what extent depends on Da Shun's intentions.

The posthumous title of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu is the Taishang Emperor of Luyuanin. Since Ashikaga Yoshimitsu has mixed the title of Taishang Emperor, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's tribute to the Celestial Dynasty can also be used as a story system, so that the current emperor can also pay tribute.

This is nothing too unacceptable.

There is a story to follow in this matter, and after "persuading" the shogunate, the problem of eliminating the Kagoshima domain has not been resolved for the time being, and the rest are trivial matters.

All in all, the opinions of the vassals are very unified: it is okay to call yourself a vassal, but not to cede the land.

After the discussion of whether it was war or peace, Tokugawa Yoshimune recalled the letter Liu Yu sent at the beginning, thinking about the conditions that Dashun might propose.

It goes without saying that money is required.

Switch, if you don't accept this, you have to accept it.

It can be said to be a blessing in misfortune, at least Dashun is also against Catholicism, after the switch, Japan can continue to maintain a closed country, and Dashun will also help Japan maintain the closed country policy.

This point was also mentioned in Liu Yu's letter.

Since Dashun is a tributary state, Dashun is of course obliged to protect the vassals, maintain the barrier of Kyushu, and prevent Westerners from attacking.

Tokugawa Yoshimune felt that he was guilty of carrying jade. Dashun said it was for Ryukyu, but in fact it was for gold and silver.

But in fact, it is not as simple as the crime of conceiving a jade. Although Japan has a lot of gold and silver, the more important reason is because of Japan's policy of locking the country.

Britain and France can set up trading companies and give trade monopoly rights, because their coastlines are not long, and naval patrols can completely guard important ports.

Illegal free trade cannot be carried out.

Dashun wants to follow the example of Britain and France in setting up a trading company. The biggest problem is that the coastline is too long, and there is no steamboat or clipper boat to patrol, so the smuggling trade cannot be controlled at all.

However, thinking can sometimes be reversed and a different way of thinking.

Since there is no way to eliminate smuggling and illegal free trade at the output end, isn't it the same to eliminate it at the receiving end?
If Japan and North Korea do not lock down the country, it will be really difficult.

However, Japan locked the country, and the policy of locking the country has been implemented well, which gave Liu Yu the opportunity to create a monopoly trading company.

Only in this way can we maintain a basically visible "naval reserve system" and the embryonic form of "organized group maritime merchants".

It can be said that Japan's policy of sequestering the country is the basis for supporting Dashun's future Nanyang policy.

Tokugawa Yoshimune didn't expect this, and he couldn't guess that if Liu Yu presided over the negotiations with Japan, he might open his mouth wide, but he would definitely protect the shogunate and not push the shogunate into a desperate situation.

Even when necessary, blood will be returned to the shogunate to ensure that the shogunate can suppress the vassals and ensure that they will not smuggle and accept smuggling.

This is crucial.

Moreover, if the shogunate system collapses, there will be no Edo, the largest consumer goods market. The 10,000+ full-time samurai with their families are in Edo Castle, and they are the main force of consumption.

A trading company with monopoly privileges would not be able to open without the cooperation of Japan—Liu Yu added a lot of military obligations to the monopoly power of the trading company, including reserve sailors, armed merchant ships, and so on.

These imposed military obligations can only be implemented with a monopoly power. Otherwise, the "free trade" that does not provide reserve sailors and does not require armed merchant ships, driven by profits, cannot bear the additional military burden. obligation.

And under absolute free competition, those with military obligations would never win against smugglers without military obligations.

It's just this kind of cooperation, Liu Yu didn't explain it clearly to Tokugawa Yoshimune, so that Tokugawa Yoshimune is now nervous, worried that Liu Yu's presiding over the negotiation will weaken his strength too much.

Tokugawa Yoshimune couldn't figure out this kind of economic matter.But he thought clearly about political issues.

Dashun made it clear that he wanted to leave the southwestern feudal clans to disgust him and keep the shogunate in check.On this issue, Tokugawa Yoshimune cannot let go.

At least, direct trade between Dashun and the southwestern feudal clans is absolutely not allowed.

Now, the feudal vassals think that not to cede land is the bottom line, and if Dashun wants to start trade, he must cede land, which is a good thing that can be used.

This is what the vassals themselves said, and their land cannot be cut off.Then even if the lands of the vassals are cut off in the future, the shogunate will exchange the land directly under the jurisdiction to ensure that the right to trade is in its own hands. Of course, it will lose a lot of gold and silver, but it can also buy usable weapons.

After confirming the need for peace talks, Tokugawa Yoshimune appointed Shinchu Hayashi, the head of Seido University, and Teruzawa Nakamatsudaira, the old shogunate, as the principal and deputy envoys to go to Tsushima or Busan for negotiations.

In his instructions to his confidant Nakamatsudaira Huisada, Tokugawa Yoshimune clarified his bottom line.

Japan can pay tribute to China, and the emperor is changed to the king of Japan, but the shogunate must also confer hereditary titles, and Dashun must ensure the existence of the shogunate.

The Shimadzu clan can sell it to Dashun as an explanation for Ryukyu.

Compensation can be made, but the amount of compensation should be strived for as much as possible.It's not that Japan can give whatever amount they want, but Dashun raised the price on the ground, and Matsudaira Huizhen had to learn to pay back the money on the spot.

Switching trade is also possible, but it cannot be too close to Edo.

Moreover, Dashun absolutely refused to conduct direct trade with the vassals, and the shogunate also had the right to prohibit the vassals from conducting trade.

The shogunate can deny the Dutch trade in Japan, but if the Dutch retaliate, Dashun must send troops to help resist the Dutch.

After Japan paid tribute, if the Western countries came to Japan, Dashun had the obligation to protect Japan from the invasion of the Southern Barbarians.

Dashun was not allowed to accept Japanese who went to Dashun to study privately. Japan could send some students to the Imperial College to study, but privately going to Dashun needed to cooperate with Japan to capture these Confucian scholars or warriors who went to Dashun privately and send them back to Japan.

All exchanges between Dashun and Japan must go through the shogunate or the emperor, and they are not allowed to communicate directly with the feudal vassals, nor can they confer titles on the vassals. The vassals are not eligible to pay tribute individually.

After these bottom lines were set, Tokugawa Yoshimune carefully instructed Matsudaira Teruzhen: Now that peace talks with Dashun have begun, Dashun is no longer an enemy, and the focus should be on suppressing the vassals.

If Dashun's attitude is to dismantle Japan, or even let the vassals become independent, then this is the bottom line that the shogunate cannot accept.

If peace talks fail, the fight will continue.Even if they lost, the shogunate and the feudal vassals would die together.

The bottom line cannot be violated.

After confirming what Tokugawa Yoshimune meant, Matsudaira Huisada went to Hagi Castle with Tokugawa Yoshimune's trust and expectation, Hayashi Shinmitsu, head of Seido University, and many Confucian scholars from Edo.

In Hagi City, they sent a letter to the Dashun defenders there, informing them that they hoped for peace talks.I hope that Dashun will send someone to contact her as soon as possible.

In order to make Liu Yu sick, and in order to continue to bury Liu Yu and the emperor, Tokugawa Yoshimune pointed out in the letter: Liu Yu must come to negotiate before the shogunate will accept it.If it was someone else, the shogunate didn't trust him, not even the state affairs of the current Pingzhang Army.

(End of this chapter)