The Reborn Duke of Ming Dynasty

But speaking of it, these thousand muskets are worth 5000 taels of gold, which seems to be a bit too much profit. Zhang Fan has also seen the arms trade between Daming and Fusang before, whether it is cold weapons, pig iron, or It is a finished musket, and there are indeed many transactions between Daming and Fusang.

Moreover, since Fusang Island is now the time of the Warring States Period when the various daimyos separatist and fought against each other, not only did one side come back to show their orthodox status to the Ming court at that time, but in many cases, they would propose to the Ming court at the same time. transaction request.

In this regard, although the Ming court also understood the reason that a country cannot have two masters, it officially recognized the orthodox status obtained by fighting among themselves. Officially, the two parties had a good relationship , and as long as the other party can afford the price, Ming Ting would dare to sell almost anything there.

But in private, if other daimyos also want to buy something, the Ming court will not refuse. After all, there is money to earn, why not sell it, and no matter how fierce the fighting on Fusang Island is, there is a big difference with the Ming Dynasty. What's the matter?

Moreover, the most important point is that whether it is Fusang Island that is currently in flames of war, or the people there look up to the Ming Dynasty, in a word, even if there are some old-fashioned weapons and equipment inside the Ming Dynasty, they can still be used by them. Of course, getting a good price is the most important thing.

However, these years, the situation has gotten better. It’s not that the court’s conscience has found out that it’s not doing this kind of stuff, but it’s been discovered over the years that while the eastern coast of Daming is often robbed by Japanese pirates, Japanese pirates In his hand is no longer just a samurai sword that has remained unchanged for thousands of years, but something made by Daming himself appeared.

I sell you the weapon, and then you use my weapon to rob me, of course no one would do such a thing.

Today, Oda Nobunaga is very powerful. Although Ashikaga Yoshiaki is still in charge of the general position, and the Muromachi shogunate has not yet fallen, in several contests, Oda Nobunaga and his ally Tokugawa Ieyasu both able to take advantage.

However, Zhang Fan saw Oda Nobunaga not because he had no ambitions. On the contrary, Oda Nobunaga had great ambitions. What Zhang Fan hoped was to use his hands to disrupt the entire Fusang. The greater Tian Nobunaga's power, the more enemies he will have, and the more wars will happen on Fusang Island.

By that time, a lot of things will be consumed in the flames of war, and it will be more beneficial for Daming to dump its own products. At that time, once a monopoly is formed, the economies of the three islands will be crushed very quickly. Obviously, this is not the twentieth century, and it is impossible for Fusang, which is in a mess, to launch any foreign aggression to divert domestic economic problems.

It's funny to say that Zhang Fan is taking revenge on them for something they haven't done yet, but they will definitely do in the future.

However, after Zhang Fan heard Wang Xiliang's words, he felt a little confused. The transactions made between the Ming Dynasty and various forces in Fusang in the past are all recorded here, and Zhang Fan also looked for them. But no matter at any time, even when there is an urgent need for weapons there, or when they are inquired by Jin Yiwei's secret agents, none of the transactions after the pirate king Wang Zhi introduced the muskets to Fusang back then can not be worth what is now The price that Wang Xiliang brought back.

This is equivalent to selling a musket for a sky-high price of five taels of gold.

"What's going on here?" Zhang Fan couldn't help asking this question, "It's never happened before, why can a musket be sold at such a high price now? Could it be that you raised the price," Zhang Fan said. Then, he looked at Wang Xiliang and Zhao Xiande, especially Zhao Xiande, after all he is a businessman, if there is anything about business, it is definitely right to ask him.

"My lord has misunderstood this time," Wang Xiliang said, "The price of a humble job is not raised by a single penny."

"Return to your lord," Zhao Xiande also said, "The humble job didn't even say the price at that time, that Oda Nobunaga gave the price."

"This..." Zhang Fan was even more puzzled by this. Oda Nobunaga is an open person who is good at accepting new things, and he also has a lot of iron artillery teams under him. It is impossible for him not to know the price of muskets.

But now, such a proficient person would take the initiative to raise the price and pay more for things, which is obviously abnormal.

"Has anything happened in Fusang recently?" Zhang Fan asked.

"It's true that a lot of things happened," Wang Xiliang replied, "and that Oda Nobunaga is now in a hard fight."

"Oh, let's hear it," Zhang Fan immediately became interested when he heard what he said, and asked.

It turns out that Oda Nobunaga is also in trouble now. Three years ago, because the princes on Fusang Island, especially the group headed by Ashikaga Yoshiaki, deeply felt that after Oda Nobunaga succeeded in going to Luo, what he had Power can even limit the actions of the general. Therefore, many people are extremely jealous of Oda Nobunaga, and some even hold grudges.

So two years ago, Oda Nobunaga violated the alliance with Asai Nagamasa in order to crusade Echizen Daimyo Asakura Yoshikage who ignored his orders several times, and together with his ally Tokugawa Ieyasu, began the crusade a month ago. .

At that time, the armies of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu could be said to be invincible. The Asakura clan's castles were destroyed with only sporadic resistance. The two armies approached Kanezaki. Suddenly sent troops to attack the coalition forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu from behind.

As a result, Oda Nobunaga fell into a sudden crisis. At that time, under the hard work of Kinoshita Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who were in charge of the Oda Army, Jinzaki's retreat was successful, and Oragi Tian Nobunaga was also proud to get back to Kyoto safely, but this time Oda Nobunaga was extremely miserable. It is said that when he returned to Kyoto, he left only ten guards around him.

At that time, the general Ashikaga Yoshiaki, who was already somewhat intolerable for Oda Nobunaga, felt that this was a good opportunity to overthrow Oda Nobunaga, and the confrontation between the two had become acute, so Ashikaga Yoshiaki was Taking this opportunity, as a general, he issued the order to overthrow Nobunaga to the hands of various daimyos in Fusang, so, including Asakura Yoshikage, Asai Nagamasa, Takeda Shingen, Mori Terumoto, Miyoshi, and even Bi Temple forces such as Ruishan Enryakuji Temple and Ishiyama Honganji Temple were also mobilized to form a "Nobunaga encirclement network".

In order to fight against the siege net, Oda Nobunaga can also be regarded as painstaking, trying to break his head.

After two years of hard work, in October of this year, things changed again. Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu have been retreating steadily in the past two years, and in Nobunaga's siege network, the main force is Takeda Shingen. The army, and in October of this year, when the generals of Takeda Shingen attacked Iwamura Castle in Dongmino, they encountered closed-door resistance from the lord of the city, that is, Oda Nobunaga’s aunt, Iwamura Temple, but Akiyama Shintomo also used tactics , because Iwamuraden's daughter Yukihime's son Takeda Nobukatsu was born to Takeda Katsuyori, so it is said that Iwamuraden and the Takeda family also have a courteous relationship, and finally Iwamuraden surrendered in Kaesong.

And because of this, Oda Nobunaga's fifth son, Bomaru, was sent to Kai as a hostage, and most of the entire East Mino fell into the control of the Takeda family. In the battle of Yiyanzaka, the army was defeated by Takeda, and then even the cities of Yuanjiang and Mikawa fell one by one. The alliance of Nobunaga and Tokugawa fell into the most miserable situation.

At this time, Wang Xiliang and others went there with a thousand muskets. Although this batch of munitions is not too much, it can be said to be a timely help for Oda Nobunaga. Naturally, Oda Nobunaga They also didn't care about how much they should spend, or they quietly argued with Wang Xiliang and others, and bought the musket directly at a high price.

And besides, although the chaos on Fusang Island and the Warring States situation where wars are everywhere have lasted for more than 100 years, in the final analysis, the scale is too shabby, not to mention those The daimyo has good strength and some family background. He has a group of ashigaru who have been trained and even joined the army for generations. This can be regarded as the most worthwhile capital for a daimyo with status.

But it is precisely because this group of people is so precious that few daimyos will put these last family fortunes on the battlefield. They have also become a strategic weapon, and those who usually go to the battlefield to charge The people are all armed peasants. Those with better conditions may have tattered armor, while those with poor conditions may not even have weapons.

Moreover, the most important point is that the number of people fighting there is really too small. If there are hundreds or thousands, it can be regarded as a powerful one. It seems that there are tens of thousands of people fighting on both sides, which rarely occurs.

Therefore, these thousand guns, which are not too many, are also very important to Oda Nobunaga today.

"Then Oda Nobunaga also said," Wang Xiliang continued, "If we can sell it, he still wants to buy it. What do you think?"

"He still wants it," Zhang Fan said after hearing this, "Sell it, of course, why not sell it if you can make money, besides, there are a lot fewer Japanese pirates now, and we are not afraid that we will be hit by our own muskets. I’m selling it vigorously, but there’s not much of it in stock now, so I have to go and talk to His Majesty about it,” Zhang Fan seemed to have made up his mind to make war fortune.

"But, can Empress Dowager Li agree?" Wang Meng asked worriedly. After all, Zhang Fan's fortune was somewhat inhumane.

"It's okay, I have my own plan for this matter," Zhang Fan smiled mysteriously,