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

Chapter 683 Hatamoto Matsumae Domain

Main castle tower.

A group of middle-aged and older people stared at each other, not knowing what to say.

Before the war even started, the eight hundred elite shogunate warriors were wiped out in a night attack.

This was not only a heavy blow to the military morale of Edo City, but also made them realize how big the gap in combat power between Japan and the Chinese army was.

"How about peace talks?" Honda Tadayoshi, who had just been promoted to senior lieutenant, said.

This guy is a daimyo of the Furukawa clan of the Shimo-shogunate. He was promoted to a side servant during the family propaganda period, and was dismissed from his post by General Yoshimune. It was not until this year that he was re-appointed as Nishimaru Laochu.

Another veteran, Kuroda Naokuni, who was a few years earlier than him, echoed: "I think it is feasible. Continuous war is not good for China and Japan, and the people of both countries are suffering."

Mizuno Tadayuki didn't care, as long as it wasn't him who brought it up, the blame could be thrown away, but he still asked Tokugawa Yoshimune for instructions: "Shogun, whether it is war or peace, we must make a decision early on!"

Tokugawa Yoshimune pondered for a long time and said: "For the sake of the people of the two countries, I sent an envoy to contact the Celestial Empire first to see how we can cease the war."

After saying that, he looked at his shogunate official and his think tank Mr. Shi Jiuchao: "Naoqingjun (this is the name, Jiuchao is just the title), you have been to China and paid homage to the emperor of the Celestial Dynasty. This time You will be the one to host the peace talks!”

"As ordered." Shijiu Chao bowed.

As a staunch scholar of the shogunate, the shogun had orders to jump into it without changing his expression, even if it was a huge pit.

Speaking of which, he is also unlucky. If the Ming army continues to endure and wait until next year to fight, then he can die in peace and not have to worry about anything.

Muro Hatochao left Edo Main Castle. After explaining his purpose of coming, he was not blocked and was taken directly to see Xue Bin, the interpreter accompanying the army.

"The subordinate minister of the lower country, Shi Zhiqing, pays homage to the angel of the upper country." The posture of the dove nest is very low.

Although they are both great scholars, this guy's moral bottom line is very flexible.

It is precisely because of this that even though his talents and learning are not as good as those of Ogiyo Sorai and his political achievements are not as good as those of Arai Shiraishi, Tokugawa Yoshimune just likes him.

Xue Bin did not deliberately make things difficult: "Xue Bin from Honglu Temple in the Ming Dynasty, you don't need to be polite, just sit down first."

After Shijiu Chao sat down, he planned to work harder and pretended to be tough: "The Celestial Empire is the suzerain of Japan, but this time it went to war without declaring it, annexing the territory of the vassal country, and interfering in the internal affairs of the vassal state. The disciples are unknown, and it is not the sect leader of the Celestial Dynasty. for?"

Xue Bin sneered: "You still know that the Celestial Dynasty is the suzerain, but you expel the people of the Celestial Dynasty without authorization and seize the assets of the people of the Celestial Dynasty. The teacher is unknown? This is the name. If your vassal country betrays the suzerain, the suzerain should send troops to reprimand and teach them a lesson."

The title of suzerain and vassal country is just a name. In today's era, it would be funny to take it seriously.

Moreover, the Ming Dynasty was not an unknown country. As a vassal country, Japan actually disobeyed the suzerain's orders, expelled the people of the suzerain country, and embezzled the property of the suzerain country.

This is almost an initiative to abandon the Confucian diplomatic concept of "taking small things to be big". How can we blame the Chinese government for not "taking big things to be small"?

Knowing that Japan was in the wrong, Murojiao could only bite the bullet and tried to argue: "It is Japan's internal affairs to close the country. Moreover, the people expelled last time were not the good people of China, but violated the prohibition, acted without authorization and did not abide by local laws." Daimyo, treacherous people in the smuggling trade. Just like the Japanese pirates mentioned by the Celestial Empire, the shogunate also hates them. The Suoguo is also resisting these pirates and protecting the maritime trade between the Celestial Empire and Japan. "

Even after saying such outrageous words, Xue Bin was too lazy to argue with him: "Since you said so, the shogunate does not need to worry about the problem of Japanese pirates in the future. When our army conquers Edo, Japan can directly The government was restructured and established as a province, and from then on it was under the rule of the Celestial Empire, and the Japanese people were also the people of the Celestial Empire. Come and see us off!"

How come the table is turned over just because they don't agree with each other?
Shijiu's Nest finally lost its stability: "Angel, calm down! What is the will of His Majesty the Emperor of Heaven? Please let the angel explain it to you. I will definitely take it back and tell the general." Xue Bin put down his hand and said seriously: "First, this The war was caused by Japan's disobedience to the orders of its suzerain, China, and its insistence on seclusion, which cut off trade between the two countries. It was only in the Ming Dynasty that our country sent troops to reprimand, and all the funds needed for the expedition were borne by the Japanese shogunate.

Second, Japan must immediately abolish its previous lockdown and recognize all coastal ports as ports open for normal trade.

Third, gold, silver, and copper coins from China can be circulated and traded in Japan normally in the future, and Japan cannot ban them.

Fourth, Ezo (Hokkaido) was the territory under the jurisdiction of the former Ming Nuer Kandu, but Japan classified it as its own territory without authorization and must return it immediately. There are also two Japanese islands, Kyushu and Iyo (Shikoku), which will also be ceded to Ming China. "

There were four requests in total. When he heard the last one, the brush in Muro Jiuchao's hand couldn't help but tremble.

The first three are just to lose money and establish the country. The fourth is to cede land directly, and also cede three large islands at once. If all of them are really ceded, then Japan will only have the main island of Honshu.

Tokugawa Yoshimune took the written terms brought back by Murohatocha and was silent for a moment before asking: "Where is this Ezo Island?"

Mizuno Tadayuki was also a little confused, and all the elders present looked at each other in confusion.

Murohatocha couldn't help it anymore and pointed out: "Ezo Island is located in the north of Honshu. It is very cold all year round. It is covered by ice and snow. It is impossible to grow rice and can only fish and hunt. The lord of the domain there is the Matsumae family, but Matsumae The family only receives the standard treatment and does not receive the high-level reward.”

The only treatment he received was Hatamoto, which meant he was at the samurai level, and he didn't even receive the reward of Shi Gao.

No wonder the Edo shogunate didn't know much about it. Even Murohatochao only heard about it because he read a lot.

By the way, because life was so miserable, the Matsumae Clan just contracted its land on Ezo Island to businessmen for development a few years ago, and took a commission from it to make money and live.

Honda Tadayoshi, who had previously proposed peace talks, said: "Ezo Island is such a barbaric place, and the island is just a Matsumae clan with a flag no higher than a stone. We can order the title and flag of the Matsumae clan to be withdrawn, and then return Ezo Island to China." As for Kyushu and Iyo Islands, they belong to Japan and we should fight for them."

"That makes sense." Many elders present nodded.

Even General Tokugawa Yoshimune believed in it, but a Hatamoto daimyo without Ishitaka was not even a daimyo strictly speaking, because he had no idea that there was such a daimyo and had never heard of it.

Historically, it had to wait until fifty years later, when Tsarist Russia invaded Ezo Island, and the shogunate learned from Tsarist Russia that it actually still had land in Ezo. The Matsumae daimyo Michihiro Matsumae took the opportunity to quickly report the situation on Ezo Island to the shogunate. The shogunate couldn't stand it anymore, so it sealed the 5,000 koku stone high of Musashi country to the Matsumae family.

During the Meiji Restoration, the Matsumae clan first joined the shogunate faction to fight against the emperor's reformist court. Then, seeing that the shogunate was failing, it quickly instigated a rebellion by the reform government and fell with the emperor.

Jumping sideways repeatedly like this will naturally not lead to a happy ending.

Among the four clauses proposed by Zhu Yijiong, the Ezo Island in the fourth clause was the most important. The remaining Kyushu and Iyo Islands were added by Xue Bin on his own initiative.

What the emperor wanted was Kagoshima in Kyushu, because there was a ronin rebel army here that was devoted to the Celestial Empire and was still fighting guerrillas in the mountains, so it had a "mass base." Moreover, it is too close to Ryukyu and Penglai counties. It is just right to build a post station here to develop commercial trade and at the same time suppress Japan.

As for Iyo Island, it was purely a temporary clause added by Xue Bin, because there is Besshi Copper Mountain here, which is the largest copper mine in Japan, and there is also Sumitomo, the "director" of Japanese coinage.

Except for the newly added two items, the shogunate had some doubts. On the contrary, no one in the shogunate took it seriously, the Oshima Island Ezo that Emperor Zhu valued most.

It's just a broken island that can't grow rice. What use can it be to the shogunate?
Even the Matsumae clan daimyo, who could not contribute the rice annual tribute and was not even qualified to participate in the service... No, no one regarded him as a daimyo at all, he was just a feudal lord with basic treatment, and he was packaged directly to the Chinese emperor.

Quan should safeguard the clan relationship between China and Japan.

(End of this chapter)