Ming Zhengzhi, I am Zheng Kezang

The victory of Ming Zheng's naval division was not enough for Lord Zheng to take the absolute initiative on the battlefield. Just as the two sides in the Annan Civil War continued to fight each other around the Hengshan Great Wall, the consequences of Ming Zheng's ingestion of Ezo land finally surfaced. After several months With the petition and operation, the Edo Shogunate Laozhong meeting finally made a decision.

In fact, as early as June, Matsumae Shima Morihiro went south from Mutsu to Edo crying and complained about being invaded by Ming people.However, for the middle school seniors who came from generations of daimyos, the Matsumae family is nothing more than an account of the qualifications of the district banner [Note 1], and it is just a passer-by on the Japanese political map. As for the Ryohama group, it is just a member of Omi Ordinary commercial organizations cannot be compared with the well-known wealthy merchants in Kansai and Kanto, and their influence in the shogunate is very low. In addition, Ezo is too remote, so the shogunate was not prepared to go to war for this at the beginning.

However, Tomohiro Matsumae lobbied everywhere, and first persuaded the foreign daimyo Shimadzu family who had had an armed conflict with Mingzheng because of the ownership of Ryukyu and suffered huge casualties and economic losses as a result.Although the Shimadzu family is foreign, the head of the family, Jifeng, has just married Takehime, the adopted daughter of General Tsunayoshi, so he can be regarded as a member of the Tokugawa family. Naturally, the status is not comparable to that of Matsumae. The tide of the meeting changed.

Next, the Lianghama group also contacted the Kansai Haoshang Group.The relationship between the Kansai luxury business group that controls the Silk Cut Fu Zhongjian and Mingzheng has long been very tense: on the one hand, although Mingzheng has developed private business to trade in Japan, because Mingzheng officials firmly control the prices of foreign trade products from the source As a result, the price of the most important silk fabrics for Japan remained high, and the Kansai luxury business group suffered great losses; Although it helped Zheng Kezang to a certain extent, it gave Zheng Kezang a slap in the face in terms of etiquette.

Now that the conflict between the two parties has intensified, under the plea and instigation of the Lianghama group, the Kansai luxury business group is half passive and half active behind the scenes to fuel the flames.As a result, the results of the new round of discussions at the Laos-China meeting are a 180-degree U-turn from the consensus reached at the previous meeting.

On August 11th, the first year of Ming Taishun and the 4th year of Japan’s Genroku, the Nagasaki Magistrate’s Office represented the shogunate to submit a document to Ming Zheng at the Japanese Commercial Hall, which clearly stated that “Ming Zheng withdrew his troops from Ezo and returned the entire island to Matsumae. Fan, compensation of [-] taels of silver for the Matsumae clan, pricing of goods arriving in Japan by the Japanese side, transfer of Ryukyu suzerainty" and other four requirements.Nagasaki also claimed that if Mingzheng did not agree to the above conditions, the shogunate would send troops to retake Ezo on its own, and in the future, trade between Ming and Japan would be banned.

Zheng Kezang certainly refused the Japanese side's dreamlike request.In his opinion, Japan's so-called threat to interrupt the trade between Ming and Japan is too ridiculous. In fact, the trade between Ming and Japan cannot be interrupted. The entrepot trade between China, Japan, Ryukyu, and Japan will continue the sales of Ming goods in Japan, but the Japanese will have to bear the additional cost of entrepot, and the Japanese themselves will suffer.

As for the possibility of the Japanese army attacking Ezo, Zheng Kezang is not afraid. After all, Ezo is north of Mutsu, and the supply problem alone should cause the shogunate a headache. The bandit daimyo has long been a landlubber and has no control over the sea. It is still a question of whether the Japanese can land on Ezo Island. Even if the Ming Zheng Navy landed on Ezo Island due to the negligence of the Ming Zheng Navy, basically there will be no return.

Based on the above two considerations, Zheng Kezang ignored the ultimatum from the shogunate.

Of course, it is despised strategically and valued tactically.On September 22 of that year, Zheng Kezang officially authorized the Privy Council before his southern tour of Hunan and Guangdong. Once it was confirmed that the shogunate sent troops to Ezo, or Japan confiscated Chinese merchants’ goods and drove away Ming Zheng’s ships, there was no need to request an order to immediately order the Beiyang Squadron of the Eastern Fleet to occupy it. Tsushima and Yiqi as revenge.

In addition, in order to cope with the possible Ming-Japanese War, the Admiral's Office of the Eastern Fleet moved to Ezo, and the General Office of the Beiyang Squadron also temporarily went to Ishikarigawa Castle.The Imperial Government of Ezo also received an additional [-] kan internal funds to expand the five ports of Hakodate, Tokachi, Kushiro, Nemuro, and Muroran, of which Hakodate, Kushiro, and Muroran are the main ports, and Tokachi and Nemuro are the main ports. for alternate ports.In order to ensure Mingzheng's presence in Eastern Ezo, the whaling team of the Naval Military Academy was also ordered to move to Kushiro.

Mingzheng had already made preparations to deal with it. At this time, the Japanese side had not received a response from Mingzheng for a long time, and found that the number of merchant ships from Ming Dynasty to Japan was also showing a sharp decrease. Therefore, the shogunate judged that Mingzheng might be a rejected its own request.According to the content of the note submitted to Ming Zheng, the shogunate should immediately implement diplomatic sanctions, commercial sanctions and military strikes against Ming Zheng.

However, when things came to an end, some people in the shogunate were shaken again.

Some people will be surprised, the arrow is on the string and has to be fired, how can some people be shaken, are these people kissing Zheng?Or were these shogunate bigwigs bought by Zheng Fan?In fact, this is not the case at all.

The reason is simple, the shogunate has no money.

In a word, Japan's Genroku era was turning from prosperity to chronic financial crisis.

In the early days of Edo, Japan was peaceful, and agricultural production developed rapidly. By the Genroku period, the cultivated land area had increased to more than three times that of the late Warring States period. The annual tribute standard of the Qing Dynasty was adjusted to "four publics and six peoples".The area of ​​cultivated land has increased, the annual tribute has been reduced, and farmers have money in their hands.With money, consumption increases accordingly, which stimulates the development of commerce and cities. In addition, the output of gold, silver and copper mines controlled by the shogunate remains high. silver.

However, the prosperity of the economy has created a trend of extravagance and waste. For pleasure, Japan, which produces very little, imports a large amount of foreign goods, and Japan itself does not have enough goods to export. This import and export has caused a huge surplus.Only in the 1648 years from the first year of Qing'an (11) to the 1698th year of Yuanlu (50), Ming Zheng alone obtained 130 taels of gold and 400 guan of silver from Japan, which shows that The outflow of gold and silver from Japan contributed greatly to Zheng being able to persevere under the blockade of the Qing court and successfully counterattack.

But as far as Japan is concerned, the gold and silver flowing into the hands of Ming Zheng and the Dutch has accounted for a quarter of Japan's century-old gold and silver mining since Qingchang six years (1601), and the mining of gold and silver mines in Japan It has been sold out one after another, so this situation of gold and silver outflow will not last long. It is precisely for this reason that the discerning Japanese luxury business group expressed extreme dissatisfaction with Ming Zheng who took away a large amount of wealth.

If the outflow of gold and silver is only a long-term hidden danger, the extravagance and extravagance of the fourth and fifth generals Tsunakichi caused the shogunate's financial crisis.In the eighth year of Genroku, in order to guarantee the expenses of the shogunate, Tsunayoshi agreed to carry out Ogiwara Shigehide’s proposal to cast bad coins. The shogunate obtained millions of taels of income from this, but hyperinflation and price inflation immediately appeared in the market.

In this situation, more than 690 bannermen and imperial family members who were the backbone of the shogunate fell into a difficult situation.In order not to shake the foundation of the shogunate, there have been proposals for relief at the Lao-China meeting before.

Relief costs money, and so does war.

Whether relief is important or war is important, the senior shogunate debated endlessly.

Those who are in favor of sending troops believe that the shogunate should fight a battle while the shogunate’s finances are still relatively ample. It can promote the military power of the shogunate internally, deter the people, samurai, and even daimyo who should be dissatisfied with the reform of currency, and can also force Ming Zheng to reduce imports. The price of the goods has completely solved the problem of importing drugs.

Opponents think that losing the battle with Mingzheng will shake the foundation of the shogunate's rule, and they won't make any money if they win. Import, under the circumstances that the Dutch have been forced to withdraw from the Nagasaki trading house due to Ming Zheng's force, there will be a complete commodity shortage in Japan.Instead of further intensifying civil dissatisfaction at that time, it is better to use the money on relief.As for being rude to Ming Zheng, since Ezo Land is not the main island of Japan, since Ming Zheng wants it, he might as well sell it to the other party, or in exchange for a reduction in the price of imported goods within a certain period of time.

The mediators believe that the shogunate can follow the example of quelling the Shimabara Rebellion, and let the daimyo of Hokuriku dispatch the coalition forces in the form of military service, and even the ships that land and transport can be made to serve by merchants.In this way, the shogunate has the ability to provide relief to the banner and the imperial family while sending troops to fight.

Although those who are in favor of sending troops agree with the remarks of the mediators, they are the same as the opponents on the issue of sending troops, advocating that the shogunate must lead the war in Ezo. If you go to Hokuriku, you still have to spend money, just a little less.No matter how much money is spent, the opposition insists that this is for the Shimadzu family and Kansai tycoons, which is not in the fundamental interests of the Kanto tycoons and the shogunate.

The public says that the public is right and the woman says that the woman is reasonable. The results of the discussion have not yet come out, and time has quietly left behind.At the beginning of October, Mutsu and Dewa have already started to fall the first snow, not to mention that Ezo farther north is already icy and snowy.In such a harsh environment, not to mention the shogunate army, even the daimyos who are accustomed to the bitter cold in Hokuriku could not send troops to fight.

Since there is no way to send out troops this year, the arguing Laozhong meeting can only reach a resolution on relief for Banner and the Royal family. Of course, there must be a lot of controversy about the specific amount of relief. As for breaking off diplomatic relations with Ming Zheng and going to war However, since Ming Zheng was deaf and dumb to the shogunate's national costume, the shogunate naturally had no choice but to think that the other party was still considering it, and everything would be postponed until next year's spring plowing.

[Note 1] Banner: The Matsumae family did not obtain the 1715 stone daimyo qualification until 1.