Great name!

Chapter 287: The thief is still determined to build a ship
Chengtianzhuang, for the farmers in the village, this period is really a turbulent time. Since last year, which was the beginning of the New Year in the fifth year of Tianzheng, things have been going on until the first month of the year, and many people have died.

Even the Narita family, who had governed Narita Village for hundreds of years, was destroyed overnight.

Now Narita-sho has become the direct domain of Tsuda-dono, and the manor is managed by his samurai Watanabe Toshinaga.

On the first day of the new year, Watanabe Toshinaga announced a new tax system to them and required all farmers to exchange their bad money for new money as soon as possible.

Everyone was taking a wait-and-see attitude towards these new policies, and they only took out a little bit of bad money to deal with it.

Everyone thought that the matter was over, but one day, when they were about to go out to work, they heard the sound of the golden gong for assembly.

The farmers had no choice but to gather on the flat ground in Zhuangzi.

This time, they saw that there were a few more people and a team of foot soldiers around Watanabe Toshinaga.

There is a big box next to Watanabe Toshinaga's feet.

The leaders were none other than the like-minded members of the Industrial and Commercial Enforcement Office. They were Yuli's subordinates and worked for Yuli.

The like-minded people asked, "Are all the people here? If they are, we can start now."

Watanabe Toshinaga personally counted the items, then turned around and said, "Everyone is here, we can start."

The people of the same mind opened the box, which was full of new coins. He shouted, "I will stay here for a few days to exchange new coins for you. I hope you can exchange the evil coins in your hands for new coins as soon as possible.

By February, all bad money will not be allowed to circulate in the market, and once discovered, it will be confiscated. "

There was a commotion among the crowd, as no one had ever heard of money being unusable.

But when they saw the gleaming swords, they were naturally angry but dared not say anything.

Watanabe Toshinaga quickly explained: "These new coins are of good quality. You can see for yourself the difference between new coins and bad coins."

The person who had been arranged immediately said loudly: "Yes, this new money is much better looking than the bad money, and each one is similar, not as irregular as the bad money. I think it's best to replace it."

He was the first to step forward and exchange the bad money he had for new money.

The remaining farmers were still struggling, and the like-minded people continued, "By February, the evil money will definitely be unusable, so don't think that Tsuda-dono will change his mind.

If you don’t want to, you can leave Settsu.”

These words made those still somewhat reluctant people change their minds. They knew very well what kind of person their ruler was, and the smell of blood had not yet dissipated, so no one dared to resist.

Farmers took out their savings and exchanged them all for new coins. As for the bad money they exchanged, they would melt it down and select usable materials to cast new coins.

For Xinhu, doing this will cost him a lot of money, but this is the initial investment that he must pay.

In addition to each township and village exchanging new currency under the guidance of the resident samurai, exchange agencies were also set up in places such as Oka Castle to carry out exchanges.

Xinhu went on a secret visit to the exchange office in Arioka Castle, and everything went smoothly.

But he said to his left and right: "Those people will not give up easily. The Ninja Team must keep a close eye on them. Wenshan, Shimamura, you must cooperate well with the Ninja Team and avoid any mistakes."

Ishimaru Hachiro, Wen Shanyu, and Shimamura Jingie quickly agreed.

……

The Tsuda family was busy exchanging new currency. Through the exchange of new currency, everyone found that there were fewer disputes caused by bad money, and trade became smoother, especially when traveling to various places of the Oda family for trade, there were fewer troubles.

This gradually increased Tsuda Nobutora's reputation and changed everyone's perception of the Tsuda family.

This made the dissatisfied businessmen and countrymen even more dissatisfied, and they had long thought of a way to undermine the Tsuda family's new monetary policy.

In a shop in the north of Arima County, a caravan was resting, led by several wealthy merchants.

The wealthy merchant said to the resting guys, "Everyone, work harder. We will try to reach the agreed place within two days."

After giving some instructions, several businessmen gathered together to chat.

The wealthy businessman sneered, "Haha, that Tsuda Shintora must have been very proud these days, thinking that we have no way to stop him. We must give him a hard time now to let him know how powerful we are."

The thin-faced wealthy businessman said with a cold look in his eyes: "Yes, we must bring down his new policy. If his new policy is implemented, how can we make money in the future? Even if we make money, what good will it be? We will still be dogs for the warriors. Why?"

The short merchant consoled him, "Anger is bad for your health, so why get angry? This time we are lucky to have Master Shojo of Honganji Temple, otherwise we would be in trouble."

The wealthy businessman and the thin-faced businessman immediately smiled.

What they are doing today is the idea given by Master Shojo of Honganji.

Although Shimomura Nakataka had tried to conceal his secret before, he was discovered by Tsuda Shintora and dozens of monks died. This incident once again became a topic of conversation among people and Shimomura Nakataka was greatly shocked.

However, there were too few talented people in Honganji, and Kenshin found that only Shimomana Nakataka could be used, so he had to continue discussing countermeasures with Shimomana Nakataka.

As Tsuda Nobutora's reforms in Settsu became more and more extensive, Shimomama Nakataka took action in this regard and contacted these businesses.

People on both sides hated Tsuda Shingen, and they all wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible, but they were no match for Tsuda Shingen in a head-on attack, so they chose to attack him from behind.

The three wealthy merchants were still imagining how miserable the Tsuda family would be after destroying Tsuda Shingen's new policies.

But they didn't know that Wen Shanyu and Shimamura Jingjia had already surrounded the place with their men.

The person leading the way was Mitsutoshi Taroo, who introduced: "This group of people came from Harima, they crossed the mountains and were not found at the checkpoint.

My subordinates have heard some trivial information, and it is basically certain that they are going to deal with the new currency policy of the master, and Honganji is also involved. "

Wen Shanyu snorted and said, "These people are still ruthless. Don't hold back when you attack them."

When they arrived nearby, they found that the group was already packing up and preparing to continue on their journey.

Wen Shanyu immediately split into two groups with Shimamura Jingie to intercept from the front and back.

"Kill!"

In the dark night, the Tsuda army hiding in the dark lit torches and rushed forward. The shop assistants who were about to leave were frightened. When they saw the fully armed Tsuda army, they instantly lost the will to resist, and many of them ran away directly.

The three wealthy merchants also wanted to escape, but they were surrounded by two teams in front and behind, and they could not run away at all. They were captured one by one, and several were shot dead.

Wen Shanyu and Shimamura Jingjia came to the carriage and opened the box, which was full of dirty money.

He waved his hand, and the foot soldiers immediately pushed the wealthy merchant over. Wen Shanyu pointed at the dirty money in the box and asked, "How much dirty money is there here?" The wealthy merchant was trembling with fear. He wanted to be more impressive, but his trembling fat betrayed his inner feelings.

Wen Shanyu didn't waste any words and directly drew his sword, which frightened the wealthy businessman and he shouted loudly: "Don't kill me, don't kill me, I can answer any question you ask."

Only then did Wen Shanyu put down his sword.

The wealthy businessman said quickly: "Here is a total of 10,000 strings of evil money, and we didn't just come here for this trip. We raised tens of thousands of strings and came in batches."

Wen Shanyu immediately asked: "Where are the others going? Tell me!"

The wealthy businessman did not dare to hesitate in the face of the sword and told everything he knew.

The reason why they were able to collect so much ill-gotten gains was mainly because Honganji stepped in and asked the Mori family for help.

This time, Shimomama Nakataka's plan was to take advantage of Tsuda Nobutora's new currency policy, use a large amount of bad money to exchange the new currency in Tsuda Nobutora's hands, and consume the money in Nobutora's hands, so that Nobutora would have no money to exchange with the people of Settsu.

Without enough new currency, the new monetary policy cannot be implemented and the company will go bankrupt.

Although this strategy is not very brilliant, it is very practical.

It's a pity that the devil is one foot high and the road is ten feet high. Xinhu had already been prepared for them to use this trick.

Shimomura Nakataka could think of such a trick, and so naturally Nobutora also thought of it, so he stipulated that the exchange of new currency could only be completed before February.

Theoretically speaking, everyone in Settsu can pay off their new currency before February, and any bad money after that can be treated as counterfeit.

In addition, he asked the ninja team to monitor the movements in various places and arranged an army to cooperate in order to catch those who used a large amount of evil money to consume the new currency in his hands.

The gang was soon caught in one fell swoop, and all the captured wealthy merchants and the confiscated money were sent to Arioka Castle.

When those wealthy merchants saw Xinhu, they immediately kowtowed and begged for mercy. Xinhu ignored them. He walked to a carriage and opened the box. Inside were bad coins of different shapes, sizes, thicknesses, dull colors, and even rusty.

Nobutora looked at it and said with a smile: "Although these tens of thousands of kan of bad money are only comparable to the Oda clan's ten thousand kan of new currency, you are still helping in times of need."

The wealthy businessman begged for mercy: "Your Majesty, we were just bewitched by the monks of Honganji Temple. Please give us a chance."

Xinhu looked at the businessmen with disgust and said coldly: "What do you think you are doing? If you do something like this, you will have to bear the cost of failure.

Take them all away and behead them in public, and confiscate their property!"

Xinhu looked at the businessmen who were dragged away and smiled coldly. This was a life-and-death struggle and everyone had to rely on their own abilities.

Capturing these merchants can be considered a way of recovering some of our losses.

Honda Masanobu stepped forward and said, "The master of the family is very smart. This is the third time that Shimomana Nakataka of Honganji has been defeated by the master of the family."

Xinhu laughed and said, "Shimomana Nakataka, he is nothing, just a monk with some ability, not qualified to be my opponent.

Now those who still want to cause trouble should calm down for a while."

Honda Masanobu continued to flatter him, "These people are really stupid. As long as your new currency policy is successfully promoted, there will be no resistance to other policies. We only need to wait for the summer and autumn harvests next year, and then the new policies will be integrated into everyone's lives.

If another two or three years pass, everyone will be familiar with it and they won’t be able to cause any trouble.”

Xinhu laughed heartily and said: "Zhengxin, you really understand me. However, we cannot relax yet. We need to speed up the banking affairs and commercial reforms.

How much money can we extract from farmers? We still have to rely on business, especially foreign trade.

How's it going? How's the search for the shipwright going?"

The Age of Discovery was just around the corner, so Xinhu naturally wanted to get involved.

Honda Masanobu immediately reported: "Zheng Jun has received news. He has tried his best to persuade the craftsman he knows, but the craftsman has settled down in Hizen and doesn't want to leave his old place."

"Then give him more money. As long as he comes, I will arrange a place for him to live and land."

Xinhu agreed to the conditions directly.

Honda Masanobu responded, “Then there is no problem.

It’s just that it’s not easy to communicate with the southern barbarians.”

Nobutora mainly communicated with the church. In order to preach, Floyd and his men naturally took advantage of various opportunities to lift the various restrictions on preaching by the Oda family.

He knew that there were only a few missionaries who were truly committed to preaching, so although he agreed to the spread of Christianity in Japan, he limited it to a certain scope and added many restrictions.

For example, their doctrines must conform to local concepts, and secondly, they cannot interfere in local affairs and must obey the law, etc.

Floyd knew that Nobutora was using their church to obtain Western high-tech, but they also needed Nobutora's support, and both parties could only achieve their goals through exchanging interests.

The West had already entered the Age of Discovery, and their ships were constantly being replaced and upgraded to adapt to ocean voyages, while their local ships were still at the level of thousands of years ago.

The largest Ataka ship had a capacity of only 2,000 koku, and such a ship was not suitable for ocean voyages. Even sailing from Japan to the Ming Dynasty would be fraught with danger.

In comparison, the Ming Dynasty's ships could beat the Japanese ships in both tonnage and performance.

Not to mention that Western ships have surpassed Ming ships.

The exchanges between the Ming Dynasty and Western pirates can be traced back to the Zhengde period, which is forty or fifty years ago.

Up to now, Western colonizers, such as Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands, have fought several naval battles with the Ming Dynasty along the coasts of Guangdong and Fujian provinces in order to trade with the Ming Dynasty.

Relying on the advantage of its large number of ships, the Ming Dynasty repelled these colonists. At the same time, the Ming Dynasty also had more exchanges with the West and many innovations appeared in the Ming Dynasty.

For example, Portuguese artillery and the improvement of Western warships to create local characteristics.

But Japan is lagging behind in this regard, or has chosen the wrong direction.

Japan continued to strive for perfection in its muskets, and the quality of matchlock muskets was even better than those of the West and the Ming Dynasty. However, in the war against the Kingdom of Korea, matchlock muskets were clearly no match for artillery.

Xinhu would naturally not go the wrong way.

However, Xinhu still has a long way to go if he wants to build a ship suitable for ocean voyages.

(End of this chapter)