Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1455 Meeting with Li Rusong (Part [-])
Li Rusong thought that the location of the Flower Appreciation Party in Xishan Bieyuan was specially chosen for him, but in fact he was superstitious. The real reason why Zhang Yuangong chose Xishan Bieyuan was that it was the closest to the highly pragmatic Baiyulou.

This seems to be the same thing, but it is not, because Zhang Yuangong's purpose of doing this is only to facilitate Gao Yushi to come over earlier, and he has important matters to discuss with Gao Yushi.As for Li Rusong, Zhang Yuangong would never have thought of inviting him if it hadn't been hinted by Gao Yushi.

When Li Rusong was halfway through the journey, Zhang Yuangong and Gao Wushi were soaking in the hot springs in the Xishan Bieyuan.

Chinese people have known how to enjoy hot springs since ancient times. Not only did Bai Juyi have a famous sentence of "spring cold bath Huaqing Pool, hot spring water smoothes and washes fat", earlier, such as Xin's "Sanqin Ji" in the Han Dynasty, recorded the use of hot springs for curing diseases. Legend: "The first emperor traveled with the goddess and disobeyed her order. The goddess spit on it, causing sores. The first emperor thanked her in fear, and the goddess washed it off to get out of the hot spring. Later generations thought it was a test."

Here it is said that the "Goddess" cured Qin Shihuang's facial sores with hot springs, so Qin Shihuang called Lishan Hot Spring "Goddess Soup".

Although the hot springs in Xishan Bieyuan are not as magical as the "Goddess Soup", they are quite famous in the capital. Zhang Yuangong specially arranged a larger soup pool for several distinguished guests to enjoy, and he himself accompanied them.

To Gao Wushi's surprise, this time Zhang Yuangong and others actually came to him to discuss a serious matter, which was so important that the Xungui Group thought that it would be impossible to handle it without Gao Wushi.

The nobles have taken a fancy to the Mori family, to be more precise, they have taken a fancy to the Maoli family's silver mine.

To Gao Wushi's surprise, Zhang Yuangong, Zhu Yingzhen and others not only found out that the Maoli family had a silver mine, they even found out how the Maoli family won the silver mine.

The nobles know Japan better than Gao Yushi, and this is the first time they have introduced the situation in Japan to him.

Of course, the silver mine is not any other silver mine, but the famous Iwami Silver Mine, also known as Iwami Silver Mine.

Gao Wushi has also heard about this silver mine. It is located in Ota City, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. It was the largest silver mine in Japan in the late Warring States period and early Edo period. It is estimated that its output was as high as one-third of the world at that time. one or so.During the Warring States Period in Japan, Ouchi Yoshiko, Ouchi Yoshitaka father and son, Nizi Sukehisa, Nizi Haruhisa's grandson, and Mori Motonari and other surrounding princes and daimyos fought many wars for the dominance of Yinshan.

However, Gao Wushi is actually not familiar with the history of this series of wars. This time, it was a few honorable sons who gave him some popular science, which is really a bit surprising.

According to the introduction of the two princes, Gao Wushi slowly figured out this history, which roughly goes like this: In the 16th year of Jiajing (1537, the 6th year of Japanese Astronomy), the daimyo of the Izumo Kingdom Nizi seized Iwami Ginzan for a long time. Two years later, the Ouchi family regained control of Yinzan. Two years later, Nizi and Iwami Ogasawara seized Iwami Ginzan again. contention.After Ouchi Yoshitaka's death, Mao Liyuan also joined the battle for Iwami Ginzan.

Immediately after the victory of the Itsukushima War, Morimoto sent his troops to attack the two countries of Shufang and Nagato. Ouchi Yoshinaga, whom Tao Qingxian supported, was finally forced to commit suicide, and the Ouchi clan perished.At the same time, Yuan sent Yoshikawa Yuanchun to attack Iwami's Yamabuki Castle, with the purpose of snatching Iwami Yinshan.

The Ouchi and Nizi families fought to the death and life for this treasure mountain - no wonder, with it, there is a source of finance, without an economic foundation, how can there be a superstructure?
Yamabuki Castle is an important fortification built by Yoshiko Ouchi. It is located on the top of Mount Yamabuki, overlooking the Silver Mountain.The purpose of Yixing building it is to protect the hard-won Yinshan, and anyone with a discerning eye can see it.Yamabuki Castle is an important stronghold for protecting Silver Mountain, and occupying Yamabuki Castle is equivalent to occupying Silver Mountain.

At this time, the guardian of Yamabuki Castle is Naganobu Asaga, a retainer of the Ouchi clan.Yuan asked Yuanchun to offer conditions to lure Changxin to surrender. Changxin saw that the conditions were not bad, so he obediently handed over Yamabuki Castle.The condition is to let Changxin continue to serve as the lord of Yamabuki Castle.

At first glance, this condition is very ordinary, but thinking about it in reverse, if he doesn't agree, I'm afraid I won't be able to save my life.As a result, the control of Yinshan smoothly fell into the hands of Yuan Jiu, which brought a lot of money to the Maori family.

But the matter is not over yet. In March of the 37th year of Jiajing (1558, the first year of Yongroku in Japan), Nizi Haruhisa ordered the city Changguang to surround Shanbuki Castle in order to compete for Yinshan, and strictly prohibited merchants from providing rice salt to the city.

Changxin hurriedly asked Yuanchun for help, although Yuanchun immediately sent troops to rescue, but in the face of powerful obstacles, the Maori army could not get even half a step closer to Shanbuki Castle.In desperation, Yuan Chun organized [-] death-defying team members, ready to sacrifice their lives to transport food and grass to the city to relieve the urgent need.

The grain transportation team was surrounded by [-] enemy troops on the way. Unexpectedly, they repelled the enemy soldiers and successfully transported the grain and grass to Shanbuki City.When the soldiers guarding the city saw the grain and grass, they all wept with joy.

But Qingjiu was not reconciled to failure, and led an army of 1 to attack Yamabuki Castle.In late July, Yuan ordered Yuan Chun to lead [-] troops to the reinforcements.Unexpectedly, the heroic Maori army suffered a big loss this time, was killed and defeated, and retreated in embarrassment.

The lonely and helpless Changxin unexpectedly behaved righteously this time - he proposed to Qingjiu that he would exchange his life for the defenders to leave safely.After Changxin committed seppuku, Shanbuki Castle fell into Nizi's hands.Satisfied, Haruhisa appoints Honjo Changguang as the lord of Yamabuki, and then triumphantly returns to Gassan Tomita Castle.

This result was obviously unacceptable to Mao Liyuan, so in July of the 39th year of Jiajing (1560, the third year of Yonglu in Japan), Yuan sent more than [-] troops to attack Shanbuki City in order to seize Yinshan again.

The city's Changguang commanded well, and relying on the dangerous mountain Chuishan, it withstood the repeated attacks of the Maori army, causing the Maori army to fall into a bitter battle under the city.At this time, Otomo Zonglin in Kyushu Island had another conflict with the Maori family, so the main force of the Maori army turned to defend Otomo's house, and the siege of Yinshan was lifted.

In the 40th year of Jiajing (1561, the fourth year of Yonglu in Japan), Qingjiu died in the twelfth lunar month, and his son Nizi Yoshihisa succeeded him as the family governor.Chang Guang was very pessimistic about Nizi's future, and in June of the following year he led his people to seek refuge with Mao Li.Yuan recaptured Yinshan without any effort this time, and the surrounding lords who were also not optimistic about the Nizi family also turned their backs and supported the Maoli family.

Soon, Yuan sent envoys to propose to the imperial court and the shogunate that Yinshan should be the property of the royal family, and he himself would be the administrator.Naturally, this proposal was passed without any dispute, so the Mori family got the control of Yinshan in a legitimate way, and the money flowed into Yuanjiu's pocket.

With the financial support of the silver mine, Mori quickly pacified the entire Iwami.In July of the same year, the Maori army began to attack Nizi's base: Izumo.

The terrain in Izumo is complex, mostly in the mountains, and there are many trails between the mountains that connect Gassan Tomita Castle and other branch cities.After many years of management by the Nizi family, Gassan Tomita Castle has long become a military fortress that can be regarded as indestructible for Japan at that time, accommodates tens of thousands of people, and can carry out long-term operations.

The "Ten Banners of Nizi" are ten important cities in the territory of the Nizi clan. Centered on Yueshan Futian City, they constitute the skeleton of the defense system of the entire branch city of the Nizi clan, and a powerful defense network has been laid in the territory.

In order to fight steadily, Yuan divided the battle plan into two steps. The first step was to pull out the important branch cities of Yueshan Futian City, so as not to be threatened by the branch cities during the attack: that is, the "Nizi Ten Banners" defense line - led by Bailu and Shenxi , Takase, Onishi, Sandaoya, Kumano, Ushio, Misawa, Magi, and Akagata are composed of ten branch cities, and the owners of the castle are the local nobles.

In the 42nd year of Jiajing (1563, the sixth year of Yonglu in Japan), the two cities of Bailu and Kumano fell one after another.In the following year, with the fall of Jiangmei City in the Boqi Kingdom, Nizi's family grain road was cut off.In the next year, Mao Li Yuanjiu's army had reached the foot of Yueshan Futian City. There was a shortage of food in the city, and morale gradually declined.

To make matters worse, at this time Nizi Yoshihisa fell into the trick of Mori Motozuru again-he listened to Yamato Sanemon's slander and killed the important minister Uyama Hisakane.This unjust case caused the retainers to be even more disappointed, so Nizi's family fell into a situation of great collapse.In November of the first year of Longqing (1567, the ninth year of Yonglu in Japan), Nizi Yoshihisa surrendered in Kaesong, was sent to Anyi for house arrest, and Nizi's family perished.

From then on, Iwami Ginzan fell firmly into the hands of the Mori family, and the Mori family also became a powerful vassal in western Japan.The so-called "Satsuma Navy, Changshu Army" in later generations in Japan refers to the Mori clan.

Gao Wushi asked Zhang Yuangong and others why they had to investigate so carefully, even the three generations of their ancestors were investigated.

Zhang Yuangong opened his eyes wide and said: "Then why don't you check it? If you don't check it, how will you know the strength of Changzhou, and whether we will involve other forces of the Japanese people if we want to move this silver mountain?"

Zhu Yingzhen also interjected: "That's right, Nissin, you see, there is a very important clue in the story just now: Mao Liyuan once sent envoys to the Japanese court and the shogunate to propose that Yinshan be the royal property, and then their court agreed. That's it - this is definitely not a casual agreement, we all think there must be some kind of spoils agreement in it.

In other words, Mao Liyuan will definitely donate a part of the silver as the price for obtaining this title.On the contrary, we now have a question, that is, if the Beiyang side takes action against Mori, how will the Japanese court react-to be precise, what will be the reaction of the monkey named Toyotomi Hideyoshi. "

Gao Wushi himself has ideas about Iwami Yinzan, but his previous idea was to wait for Japan to consume a huge amount of national power in North Korea, and after another decisive battle between the eastern and western armies occurred in the country, Daming or Beiyang Maritime Trade would intervene again.Because in this way, losses and losses can be minimized.

Gao Yushi did not expect that after the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance organized transactions with various Japanese forces for many years, the butterfly wings really changed too many things: for example, most of the nobles in the original history did not know Iwami Ginzan at all. Even if they knew about this matter, they could only sigh in dismay.However, at this time, not only did they know the existence and importance of Iwami Yinshan, but they even felt that they could take it by force with the power of the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance alone.

Does the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance have such power?It depends on how to calculate, especially how Jinghua's strength is calculated in the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance.The current Jinghua is not included in the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance as a whole. Jinghua has both the North and the South Ocean Fleets, but only the Beiyang Fleet belongs to the "regular establishment" of the Maritime Trade Alliance.

In other words, the area south of Zhejiang, from Fujian to Guangdong and Guangxi, and then to the entire southern Xinjiang, belongs to the Nanyang Fleet system, not the Beiyang Fleet system.

Then according to this standard, the major garrison forces in southern Xinjiang will naturally not be counted as the strength of the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance.At the same time, Jinghua Trading Company is also Jinghua's land trading entity independent of the sea trade, which means that Jinghua Trading Company's cavalry riders all over the west and north borders do not belong to the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance.

In addition to this, the more critical point is that the factory and mine protection teams and mine protection teams of various factories and mines in Jinghua are all under the orders of the factory and mine, and the factory and mine are directly under the orders of Gao Yushi himself.Therefore, the large number of Jinghua armed servants in the Ming Dynasty do not belong to the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance. They have one and only one real "superior", that is, Gao Yushi himself.

What is the strength of the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance?It is the joint maritime force with the Beiyang Fleet as the core, and the Marine Corps subordinate to the fleet.But the "Marine Corps" at this time is only a preliminary concept, without a practical organization, and its forces are also very mixed.

In terms of Jinghua, most of the domestic armed forces have always been sent to the Beiyang Fleet for accompanying training (the original intention is to send them to southern Xinjiang after training). It is used as a deterrent to the local daimyo when trading onshore.

It was even more complicated for Xungui. Although they were covered by Jinghua, they inevitably needed their own weapons.For example, the transactions in some areas do not involve Jinghua's transactions, so they have to go on their own. At this time, they need certain armed forces to ensure the safety of the fleet after landing.

So the nobles also carefully selected some guys who seemed more daring to work hard from the family members of their own houses, as their "marines".These people come from different families, but most of them are basically in line with the status of Xunchen himself. For example, several princes have prepared a "Marine Corps" of 500 people; Maybe, less than 100 people, more than [-] people, which is close to the standard of the lords.

At this time, the nobles who stayed in the capital of the Ming Dynasty included the Dukes of the Three Kingdoms, the Thirteen Marquises (including foreign relatives), and the 21 uncles (including foreign relatives). All the nobles without exception joined the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance, which made them There are more than 8000 servants in the hands of the "Marine Corps", and with the addition of Jinghua's [-], the "Marine Corps" of the entire alliance exceeds [-] people.

I don't know if Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong regarded their servants as the servants of the frontier generals, and they thought that the strength of more than 1 people was enough to handle the Changzhou Maoli family.

The reason why they came to Gao Wushi was firstly because Gao Wushi was the lord of the Beiyang Fleet, without his Beiyang Fleet's help, the nobles felt a little uneasy; secondly, they were worried that Toyotomi Hideyoshi would interfere. A 20 army was dispatched to fight Satsuma. Just hearing this number, they knew that it would be difficult to mess with, so they would not dare to mess around without a high-level pragmatism.

But Gao Wushi frowned and said to Zhu Yingzhen: "Mr. Cheng, I mentioned Shi Gao when I mentioned the strength of the Japanese feudal clans to you last time. Do you know how many Shi Gao there are in the Maori family?"

Zhu Yingzhen smiled and said: "Rixin, don't worry, we have checked this, his family has 120 million stones high, it is indeed quite strong, but our people have also evaluated it, and think that the combat effectiveness of their family's vassal soldiers is actually relatively average. There are more than [-] troops, but the ones that are really usable are about [-], and should be less than [-], which is not much stronger than the poor Satsuma clan."

Yo, have you reviewed yet?

Gao Yushi was a little surprised: "How did you determine that?"

Zhu Yingzhen replied: "The Maori family attacked the Yamabuki Castle in Iwami Yinshan at least twice, but none of them succeeded in a successful attack. At least one thing can be seen: they are seriously lacking artillery, especially heavy artillery that can attack the top of the mountain. According to Beiyang's experience, the lack of artillery will cause them to be unable to deal with artillery, and this is our strength-of course, er, it is Jinghua's strength...so as long as you nod at Rixin, we will definitely be able to capture it Yamabuki Castle!"

Gao Wushi frowned and said, "And then?"

"Then... what's next?" Zhu Yingzhen was stunned: "We only need Yinshan, and we're done after we take down Shanbuki Castle. What's next?"

Gao Wushi almost rolled his eyes, and said helplessly after a while, "Even if we rely on the advantage of the fleet to land at close range and take down Yamabuki Castle in one fell swoop, can the Mori family swallow this breath?"

"It's okay if you can't swallow it. Didn't you just say that they don't have heavy artillery, so it's impossible to take down Shanzhui City." Zhang Yuangong interjected.

Gao Wushi sighed: "Maybe they don't have it, does Toyotomi Hideyoshi have it? Can any of you guarantee this for me?"

"This..." The eyes of the two princes flinched, and Zhu Yingzhen said with a dry smile, "It should... probably not."

Gao Wushi was silent for a while, and finally sighed again, and said: "Among the heavy artillery produced by Jinghua last year, 140 and six heavy artillery pieces for sea and land were sold abroad, and Beiyang sold 84 pieces, of which only 66 were scattered small ones. You, the shipowner, bought one of them, and the remaining [-] were purchased within the Sea Trade Alliance.

However, according to the sea trade alliance's departure inspection records, in fact, except for the Jinghua Beiyang Fleet, the actual addition of heavy artillery to the other ships is only 24.My lords, do you know where the remaining 42 heavy artillery pieces went? "

Both Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong's expressions changed, they glanced at each other quietly, and said awkwardly at the same time: "This..."

Gao Yushi suddenly waved his hand: "The two gentlemen have known each other for nearly twenty years, and they also know who I am. If things are still within the scope of my control, and my friends have some small omissions, I am not sorry. I will care about everything. However, if things develop to the point where even I can't control..."

"No, no, how is it possible!" Zhu Yingzhen hurriedly said: "Jinghua produced a total of thousands of artillery pieces last year, including no less than [-] heavy artillery pieces, although most of them were sold to the Imperial Guards and various The Zhenbian army also transported some to the southern border, but our Beiyang foundation is strong. After so many years, now the Jinghua Beiyang Fleet alone may have thousands of heavy artillery..."

Gao Wushi said indifferently: "But they can't go ashore, let alone Shanbui City."

Zhu Yingzhen hesitated when he heard the words, and smiled dryly, not knowing what to say.Zhang Yuangong saw that the situation was not good, he felt a slap in the face, and said simply: "Brother Rixin, this... as a brother, let's just say it straight: Do you know how profitable it is to sell guns to Japanese people?"

Gao Wushi glanced at him, but said nothing.

Zhang Yuangong stretched out his finger and gestured: "I don't know the cost of the No. 14 heavy artillery of the 420th year of Wanli. I don't know the cost of Jinghua, but the internal price of Beiyang is 500 taels, and the domestic price of Daming is [-] taels... But the Japanese Brother Xin Xian, guess what price it will be when it is sold in Japan?"

Gao Wushi shook his head and said, "I don't know."

Zhang Yuangong smiled mysteriously, and said in a low voice, "The price for selling less than ten doors at a time is 600 taels of silver. If you sell more than ten doors at a time, the price is 500 taels of silver."

Dude, nearly quadrupled?Gao Wushi was shocked by this news.

More importantly, Gao Yushi knew that after he guided the main points of iron smelting, steelmaking and gun body casting technology, the yield rate of Jinghua's artillery increased significantly (the low yield rate was the main factor affecting the cost at that time), so the Wanli 14th model II The cost price of the No. 200 Heavy Cannon was only about [-] taels of silver. The price Jinghua sold to Beiyang had actually doubled, and the price it sold to the rest of the Ming scattered sea merchants was almost two and a half times the cost price.

Who knew that once these cannons were sold to Japan, they would turn over and over again, all the way up to 600 taels of silver each!It's no wonder that the most profitable business in the world is drugs and arms, and imperialism never deceives me.

Thinking of this, Gao Wushi suddenly came to his senses, no wonder the two of them—or honorable men—had the idea of ​​Iwami Yinshan.Japan can spend so much money to buy cannons, if it is not because they have silver mountains, could it be because they have the magic pen Ma Liang?
These nobles only have silver in their eyes. Since the silver is there, and it is not easy to get guns from Jinghua, why not just go and grab it?

Gao Yushi felt at a loss for words for a moment, and really didn't know where to start.The two top dignitaries of the Ming Dynasty looked at him eagerly, hoping that he would give an answer that would make them ecstatic.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, a maid from the other courtyard suddenly heard a tender voice from outside the hot spring: "My lord, Uncle Ning Yuan Yingxi, the governor of the left of the right mansion, and Li Zongrong, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, have arrived."

Both Zhang Yuangong and Zhu Yingzhen looked disappointed, and looked towards Gao Yushi.

Gao Wushi said indifferently: "Let's wait until I see Li Yangcheng." After speaking, he got up and walked out of the hot spring.

The two princes looked at each other, stood up without interest, and sighed at the same time.Zhu Yingzhen couldn't help but said: "Rixin, this matter... Uh, I mean the matter of selling guns... Well, after all, Japan is not Mongolia, nor is it Jurchen. Now that the trouble of Japanese pirates has subsided, it shouldn't be a big deal, right? ?”

The corner of Gao Yushi's mouth twitched, and his feet stopped.He wanted to say something, but in the end he shook his head slightly and left without saying a word.
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Thanks to the book friend "Cao Mianzi" for the reward and monthly ticket support, thank you!

PS: Today’s chapter is actually a temporary chapter. The reason is that I saw a book friend ask a question a few days ago, saying that according to the plot of this book, the strength of Ming Dynasty has been strengthened a lot, and I have also hinted many times in the book. In the war to aid Korea, the Jurchens will also be taken as cannon fodder.In this way, isn't Japan's combat effectiveness much inferior to the original history, and is it worth fighting?I replied below that there will be effects of butterfly wings.After thinking about it, leaving this paragraph completely blank may make the subsequent plot more ups and downs, but it may also be more abrupt, so a chapter is inserted here to explain why Japan has "reinforcement".Uh, in this way, maybe there will be a "Meeting Li Rusong (End)" tomorrow...

(End of this chapter)