I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 675: Seclusion
The ronin of the Satsuma domain rioted and killed "Koshiki" Shimazu. The shogunate must respond, but the problem was that Tokugawa Yoshimune had no money.

Ten years ago, after Tokugawa Yoshimune's reforms, the shogunate's family fortune was becoming increasingly abundant, not to mention rich.

Then, a fire came. The fire came unexpectedly (the fire capital "Edo") and burned nearly half of Edo City. The reconstruction of the city almost drained the shogunate's finances.

If it weren't for the trade profits from the newly opened seaport, the shogunate might not be able to uncover the truth, and the trade profits would also be divided up by the new Chinese who came to power.

Among them, Tadayuki Mizuno, a veteran who was personally promoted by Tokugawa Yoshimune, took the lead in corruption.

In theory, the old and middle-aged people have just regained power from the side officials and should be politically clearer, but the actual situation is high-speed corruption in the administration.

This time to suppress the peasant army of Satsuma Domain, the shogunate also had no money and did not want to spend money. It only left the local feudal lord daimyo to find a way on his own, and he had to send troops to help.

After a lot of piecing together, they really managed to piece together an army of 100,000, but more than half of them were on the march. Only the Daimyo troops who were close to them first started fighting with the peasant army in Izumi (Izumi City) City.

The peasant army numbered hundreds of thousands, and the shogunate army numbered 30,000. The two sides fought in Izumi with no winner or loser.

The confrontation lasted for more than a month. The shogunate army continued to increase its troops, and the peasant army also continued to gather troops. The ronin samurai, who were countrymen and city corporals, did not have the slightest fear, but their "fighting spirit" increased.

The locals wanted to force the shogunate to compromise through war, while the castle corporals intended to use a great victory to force the shogunate daimyo to hire them as samurai.

The demands are obviously different, but the interests are strangely consistent.

Seeing that the peasant army would not retreat, the shogunate army used their traditional skills again. A shogunate official came to the confrontation battlefield and announced to the peasant army: "The shogun has ordered that the future taxes of farmers in the Satsuma Domain will be halved. , you can leave!"

Once this news spread on the battlefield, the morale of the peasant army was greatly reduced. Almost all farmers felt that it was better not to resist the shogunate. Moreover, the shogunate had ordered tax reductions, so it was not worthwhile to accept the situation as soon as it was good. It was not worthwhile to fight the government for some land.

The leader of the rural warriors felt that this was not going to work, so he joined forces with the castle corporal who was eager to win a big victory to prove himself so that he could become a guest of the shogunate after the war.

Without waiting for the shogunate to gather, the peasant army launched a decisive battle.

……

Edo, shogunate.

"The rioting people of the Satsuma Domain returned to their countryside, but most of the cities were plundered by bandits after the war. The Shimazu clan (other lords) asked the shogunate to exempt the Satsuma Domain from paying attendance and paying rice tribute this year... Mizuno Tadayuki said while holding a document.

As expected, the group of ronin from the Satsuma Domain must have been defeated. They led a group of rabble with no intention of fighting to a decisive battle with another group of rabble who wanted to steal money and make a fortune.

Who can win is quite abstract!
After the war, Kagoshima was also looted by various feudal lords to make up for the military expenditures for the war.

What kind of robbers and bandits are these, everyone here knows it very well.

Tokugawa Yoshimune said: "Because of political reasons related to the participation in the work and the annual rice tribute, the Satsuma Shimazu clan can be postponed from this year to next year."

Ooka Tadashi said at this time: "This time the common people's rebellion in Satsuma Domain is different from previous years. The royal family, the Chinese (daimyo), the nobles (samurai), and the common people are the ranks given by heaven, but these rioting people are demanding Equality requires the distribution of land. This is all influenced by China. It was the Chinese emperor who distributed land and power to the Chinese people. "

Mizuno Tadayuki nodded: "Yes, China is powerful, but the Chinese emperor gave land to the Chinese people. This matter has spread to Japan through Chinese businessmen. When those rogues hear about it, they will have a disobedient heart, thus shaking the samurai family of our shogunate. foundation.”

The other senior middlemen nodded, this uprising really scared them.

In the past, when local uprisings occurred, the most they could do was kill off the Gundai Rimasa (local wealthy families and big landowners), but this time even the daimyo who lived in seclusion as "hindami" were killed, and the peasants also began to demand equal rights and their land.

Mizuno Tadayuki added: "Nowadays, smuggling is extremely serious in various feudal domains, and once the people of Satsuma Domain are shocked this time, they should immediately close the country. Only in this way can we prevent further Chinese influence from interfering in our country. All foreigners, including businessmen from China, are no longer allowed to do so." Ashore, we should continue trading at Nagasaki Port and the newly opened Sakata Port.”

Some senior middlemen nodded, while others were angry. This is the conflict between the inland lords and the coastal lords. The coastal lords can make a lot of money from smuggling, but the inland lords can only watch others eat meat and can't even drink soup themselves.

The shogunate had previously condoned and even personally participated in smuggling, not only for profit, but also because there was really no way around it.

Because the feudal lords could publicly challenge the shogunate for the benefit of smuggling, but the shogunate had nothing to do with them.

After all, this is the cake of all the daimyo along the coast. Anyone who touches it will be bitten, and the shogun can't just reach out without reason.

But it's different now. In order to protect the interests of the entire Wu family and the four clans, the country must be closed off. This reason is impeccable.

Anyone who dares to openly oppose it is going against the entire martial arts family.

At that time, the coastal daimyo may have to wait and see, but the inland daimyo will definitely attack in groups.

Moreover, once the country is closed to the outside world, it will be of great benefit to the shogunate.

After the country was locked down, it was only possible to trade with Nagasaki and Sakata under the control of the shogunate. This meant that the shogunate directly monopolized all smuggling profits from latecomers to smuggling.

Among the old Chinese present, those from the interior did not object to this, and those from the coast did not dare to object at all.

Seeing that no one was speaking, Mizuno Tadayuki, who was originally kneeling, turned his head and bowed down, and said to Tokugawa Yoshimune who was sitting in the seat: "Shogun, please issue an order to lock down the country and strictly expel and crack down on smuggling in various places."

Tokugawa Yoshimune's political stance has always been to lock the country away from the country. Previously, it was impossible to lock the country away, so he was forced to compromise and join smuggling. He only thought for a moment and then said: "I will do as you said. Don't disturb the Chinese merchants in China, especially the Chinese merchants in Sakata Port. You must not disturb others."

With the support of Tokugawa Yoshimune, Mizuno Tadayuki and Ooka Tadashi, these two important ministers of the shogunate, immediately directed the inland daimyo to go to the ports of the coastal daimyo to severely crack down on local smuggling.

Not only did they crack down on local smuggling, they also expelled all the Dutch, the enemies of the Chinese merchants, and the Dutch shops and houses were sold to Chinese merchants at a low price.

Anyway, the trade smuggling volume of these Dutch people has been very little squeezed by Chinese merchants many years ago. Without the central control of the shogunate, the Dutch have long been kicked out of the Japanese market.

The Dutch were expelled and all coastal ports were closed. From now on, smuggling was prohibited, and trade could only be done at ports designated by the shogunate such as Nagasaki and Sakata.

In order to avoid angering the Celestial Empire, the shogunate raised the Sino-Japanese trade quota higher. This not only appeased China, but also allowed the shogunate to make more trade profits, and the old Chinese could embezzle more money from it.

Tokugawa Yoshimune felt that he was giving face to the emperor of China. The emperor of China was kind-hearted and would not be angry because of this, nor would he mobilize troops to punish some lowly businessmen.

One after another, merchant ships were forcibly returned to Chinese coastal ports by Japan. These were all involved in Japanese smuggling, and they were smuggling that was secretly encouraged by the government.

The Japanese shogunate was indeed "very face-saving". It only expelled Chinese merchant ships and confiscated the houses and shops of Chinese merchants along the coast of Japan. Because those places were illegal smuggling, they had good reasons.

The shogunate suddenly closed the country and closed the country. Although two ports were left, two ports were nothing!

For China's huge export volume of goods, these two ports cannot be said to be a drop in the bucket, and they are not even enough.

Moreover, the Chinese side was not informed in advance about the air circulation, which caught many coastal cities off guard. A large number of goods intended to be exported to Japan were blocked at the ports and could not leave.

The four provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang almost jointly submitted a memorial requesting the emperor to issue an order to ask the Japanese shogunate why they suddenly closed coastal ports.

It's just a question. After all, they are smuggling, so they have to worry about some face impact. Just put a little pressure on the Japanese shogunate and relax some ports and trade quotas to allow coastal goods to go out.

Zhu Yijiong has read reports from various places, and there is news from Japan. Even the news of the Satsuma Ronin riot was sent to Nanjing a few days ago: "Order the garrison in Liaoning Province to start preparing for war immediately, and start from Lushunkou in the spring of next year." Set off to attack Japan. The Denrai Marine Division must also be prepared to march directly to Edo, the seat of the Japanese shogunate, together with the Liaoning troops."

(End of this chapter)