Wild North America 1846

no doubt
The Tang Empire has plans for Fusang. Although the court officials don't know the future direction of history, it is undoubtedly the right direction to strengthen infiltration and capital control of the vassal state, saving time, effort and worry.

The empire is easy to do, and it is not the first time that it has done so. The two sides of the United States, the North and the South, are clear examples of being kidnapped by capital.

Although the Confederate States of America (South) are allies of the Tang Empire, the principal and interest of the huge war debts owed during the Civil War need to be repaid annually. Like the current situation, new debts are borrowed to repay old debts, and they will be repaid in another 30 years. not finished.

The United States of America (North) is even worse. Its domestic economic lifeline is basically controlled by the Chinese capital of the Tang Empire. Ports, steel, shipbuilding, finance, and a large number of urban properties are all controlled by Chinese capital.

It has to repay a huge amount of debt principal and interest every year, including the money owed to the Tang Empire and international loan sharks. It is a huge debt that will not be paid off until the end of this century.

These brothers and sisters in North America, one disabled and one crippled, at least in this century will not be able to make any waves.

Nowadays, there is no such thing as inflation. The value of the British pound and the Tang Yuan are bound to gold, and the purchasing power of the currency is extremely strong. There is no such absurd possibility of "printing money to pay off debts".

The huge loan principal and interest that the North and South of the United States need to repay each year alone is close to 4000 million Tang Yuan. This has injected strong financial support into the economic development of the Datang Empire, and made a lot of money from top to bottom.

In addition to repaying the principal and interest of the bank for most of this fund, about one-third belongs to the imperial finance and the Royal Household Office, which means an average annual stable income of more than 1600 million.

According to the arrangement of His Majesty the Emperor;
The Ministry of Finance of the Empire established an institution to manage this fund, called the "Datang Empire Government Development Fund", and used the money to invest in mines, take shares in Texas oil fields, railway companies and some emerging electrical companies, so as to get a lot of money every year. Philippine investment dividend income.

The chicken lays the egg, and the egg lays the chicken.

After more than 4 years, the money has rolled to a huge amount of 8800 million Tang Yuan (including the value of the mining equity held by the government fund), which is a major pillar of the empire's finances.

The Royal Household Office also operates a similar operation, except that the Royal Household Office started early and invested heavily. It has a number of large international funds under its command. The scope of investment is all over Europe and East Asian countries, including the Melbourne Gold Mine in Australia. It has earned countless money. Amazing wealth.

The topic returned to Fusang Guohuo's request for help from Shangfang;
His Majesty the Emperor and all the ministers present know the situation of Fusang Kingdom. It is really not a matter that can be summed up simply by the word "poor". In the late Edo period, the shogunate's financial revenue was not enough to cover its expenses every year, and the shogunate even had raw fish. The slices are almost unbearable.

In addition to the vassals directly under the shogunate, there are more than 270 vassals and daimyos in Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu.There are as many as five or six million stones in the fief, and as few as thousands of stones.

The Satsuma, Changzhou, Sendai, and Tosa domains in the rebellious southwestern region are all powerful domains of 60 million shi, ranking among the top five among the vassals.

It is precisely because of its strong strength that it has the confidence to challenge the declining last shogunate.

Among them, the richest should be the Satsuma clan. It is the head of the "Four Powerful Fans", with a territory of 77 shi and the strongest economic strength.

During the Edo period, the financial income of the Satsuma clan was converted into gold for about 15 taels a year. In the currency system of the Edo period in Japan, a small penal gold was one tael and weighed about 16.5 grams.

One Tang Yuan equals about 1.5064 grams of gold, and one small rebel gold equals about 11 Tang Yuan.

That is to say;

Satsuma's annual financial income is converted into Tang Yuan, which is about 165 million Tang Yuan.

It does seem to be quite a lot, with an annual surplus of 50 to [-] Tang Yuan, which is many times stronger than the shogunate's inability to make ends meet.

After the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Toba Fushimi, the "Sajang Alliance" urgently purchased a large number of advanced weapons and ammunition supplements from British businessmen, and quickly recovered, clamoring to fight the shogunate army to the end.

In fact, they did.

"Show Your Majesty;
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also asked several times, what is the collateral for the large amount of funds borrowed by Fusang to ensure that the principal and interest can be repaid on time after the war?
The country's envoy hesitated, talking about him from left to right, obviously he didn't have any good thoughts in his heart, maybe the shogunate didn't plan to repay the loan at all.

Now the form of Fusang Island has become more complicated. After the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Toba Fushimi, the rebellious Southwestern Powers have recovered their former military strength and are even better than before after half a year of recuperation.

The situation on the island is like a raging fire cooking oil, and the situation is becoming increasingly critical.

If there is no support from the empire, the shogunate army will most likely not be able to suppress the strong rebound of the southwestern rebels, and the situation may be completely reversed.

Weichen thinks;

Maintaining the rule of the shogunate is conducive to the interests of the empire. In addition, Fuso Island is the most important and influential vassal state of the empire. It is an important pawn in the layout of East Asia and should not be discarded easily.

So as not to chill the hearts of Ryukyu, Lanfang and other countries, and cause damage to the majesty of our Tang Empire.

Opinions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Empire should still lend a helping hand at the appropriate moment. "

Sitting high on the throne, after hearing the report from Minister of Foreign Affairs Luo Fengxian, Li Cha looked noncommittal and did not make a clear statement. Instead, he turned to Juan Carlos, Minister of the Colonial Department, and asked; "Juan Aiqing, you how about?"

"Qizou Your Majesty; Master Luo's words are reasonable, but the Tang Empire cannot allow the Wa Kingdom to take whatever it wants, it must be beneficial to both sides." Juan Carlos stood up and said proudly.

"Oh, I would like to hear the details." Emperor Li Cha said with interest.

Juan Carlos saluted the throne respectfully, then turned around, looked at Minister of Foreign Affairs Luo Fengxian and said;

"My minister believes that the way countries get along with each other is like the relationship between people in the world, there is no reason for unilateral sacrifice.

The amount of loan funds and military supplies requested by Wa Kingdom this time is huge, worth about 1500 million Tang Yuan. Even if our Tang Empire is strong, it cannot be easily granted.

Especially for huge war loans, Japan must provide collateral, such as customs taxes, such as mortgages in Ezo (Hokkaido) or further opening up of Edo, Tokyo and other places are safe.

Moreover, in the use of funds, most of them should be offset against the supplies sent by the empire, and the proportion of cash should not exceed [-]%.In order to prevent the corrupt shogunate from working hard to embezzle money, and the crooked monk recite bad scriptures.

The aforementioned two loans from the Wa Kingdom plus this sum amounted to a total of about 2000 million.

It's not that the veterans look down on the Wa country, the Tokugawa shogunate's financial revenue is not enough to cover its expenditure every year, the gold and silver resources that rely on it are exhausted, and there is no decent industry, and it simply does not have the ability to repay such a huge loan.

out of prudence
It would be better to urge the Wa country to sell the land directly under the northern region of Ezo, and use the customs revenue as collateral to raise funds to quell the civil strife.

If the situation is critical, some weapons, equipment and supplies can be given first to help the Tokugawa shogunate stabilize the current situation and prevent complete corruption, that's all. "

The veteran's performance is really different, the analysis is sharp and sharp, and hits the nail on the head.

"Qizou Your Majesty, this humble minister seconded the strategy of Lord Juan, this is the words of the old minister seeking the country."

"Qi Zou His Majesty, my minister seconded the proposal."

"Qizou Your Majesty, what Master Juan said is reasonable, it is beneficial to the country and the people, and my ministers agree."

All the courtiers present expressed their support one after another. Taking a look at the past, they actually occupied more than half of them.

Emperor Li Cha seldom acted arbitrarily in court discussions, unless certain important issues would be deliberately guided by someone so as not to fall out of control.

On weekdays, the court discusses most policies, and the minority obeys the majority, so that all conflicts will not be brought to the royal family.

For example, today's "Aid Japan Policy" was advocated by Count Juan Carlos, Minister of the Colonial Department. If it succeeds, it will be rewarded, and if it fails, it will take the blame and resign. The Japanese can only blame Count Juan Carlos.

All problems at home and abroad should be resolved at the cabinet level as much as possible, and should not be handed over unless necessary. Otherwise, what are the people in the cabinet doing?
Li Cha saw that most of the courtiers agreed, preferring to adopt a tougher aid method, which means that the Japanese country must mortgage the land of Yezou, and pay the less important customs tax (note; due to the long-term seclusion of the country, the trade volume is extremely high. Small).

If you pay off the loan, it will be returned to you. If you don't pay it off, I'm sorry. The mortgage of Ezodi will be confiscated.

Emperor Li Cha's last gaze fell on the Minister of Foreign Affairs Luo Fengxian, implying a question.

Luo Fengxian is a representative of the dove faction of the empire. He was originally a scholar in the top two rankings. He still has a lot of pedantic Confucian ideas of goodwill in his thinking. He advocates being kind to others and ruling the world with benevolence and virtue.

It is not possible for a court to be full of hawks, to be inclusive and open-minded is the kingly way.

When all parties are arguing endlessly, only the emperor can guide at the right time, so that the entire empire can move forward smoothly along the expected development track.

"Your Majesty Qizuo, I have no objection to what Lord Juan said, and I have no objection." Seeing that the general situation was over, Luo Fengxian couldn't help but sighed softly, and replied respectfully.

He is not the spokesperson for the interests of the Wa country, nor has he received any benefits from the Wa country, but he is more moderate in terms of policy stance.

The aggressive policies of the Tang Empire did not conform to the Confucian philosophy of "forbearance is the most important thing, and tolerance is great" since the dynasties and dynasties.

But looking back and thinking this is North America... that's fine.

Seeing that the courtiers had reached an agreement on this issue, Emperor Li Cha nodded slightly and said;
"That being the case, let's act according to what Juan Aiqing said, and the cabinet will come up with a statement, and the royal approval will be promulgated and implemented. The next question is the current Paraguay War in South America. What are the Aiqing's announcements?"

A word from His Majesty the Emperor concluded the "aid policy to Japan", which is also part of the East Asia policy.

In the next few decades, if there is a similar need for assistance again, the imperial government will implement it in accordance with this spirit, and there will be no major changes, and there will be no further court discussions.

This is not only the case for the Wa Kingdom, but also for the Kingdom of Ryukyu and the Kingdom of Lanfang.