New Shun 1730

After leading people through the door, Liu Yu met King Zhaoren of Wa for the first time.

After a quick look, he was just a young man in his twenties.

Because it was a private banquet, it was held in the room instead of in the hall.

If it was held in the hall, the seating arrangement would be quite formal, which would inevitably involve some issues of respect, etiquette, and nobility.

The hall is long from north to south and narrow from east to west.

For example, if it was held in the hall, the seat on the north side must be vacant according to the status of Liu Yu and Zhao Baiquan. If Zhaoren held a banquet in the hall, he would be sitting to the south, and the two of them could just walk away. Sitting down would be a big problem in the future.

But if the seat on the north side was vacant, it would be equivalent to Zhaoren admitting that he was not qualified to sit in the north seat.

We haven't finished talking yet, so to avoid arguing, we simply chose a small banquet indoors.

The room is long from east to west and narrow from north to south.

Only the host and the guest were distinguished. Zhao Ren sat on the north side, and Liu Yu sat on the west side. The head of the Seido University, Hayashi Nobumitsu, and the regent, Ichijo Kenka, sat on the south side. Zhao Baiquan, who came with Liu Yu, and Matsudaira Terusada sat on the east side.

The interpreter was on the side, but he was not qualified to eat or drink.

There was nothing good to eat on the table, and it looked unappetizing, so Zhaoren took the opportunity to talk about it: "I've always heard that Liu Jun's family is rich and well-fed, and the wine and food are delicious. Japan is a small country, poor and hard-pressed, and it's really dull. The people are poor, and the saying that there is a lot of gold and silver is mostly just hearsay."

"During the Kuichou period, Liu Jun happened to visit Edo and talked about currency with General Yoshimune. After that, the reform replaced the old gold with the new gold to solve the problem of "deflation" that Liu Jun said. However, the people still had no money."

"As a last resort, General Yoshimune issued an order to ban the people from burying money and silver hairpins. At that time, some people said that they suffered during their lives, but after death, they didn't even have money for straw sandals in their coffins."

He didn't use the Japanese era name, but the sexagenary cycle, in order to avoid some arguments during the table.

He cried very skillfully about poverty.

Liu Yu pretended to be dumb, as if he didn't understand Zhaoren's deliberate avoidance of the reign title, and smiled: "Ah, Kuichou year. According to you, it was the eighteenth year of Kyoho."

"I am not very knowledgeable, but I don't know where these two words Kyoho come from?"

Zhaoren's face changed slightly. Seeing Liu Yu asking this, Yitiao Jianxiang had to answer: "It comes from the Book of Zhou. It says: The public will enjoy this great destiny and protect the ten thousand countries. Take it as "enjoy" and "protect."

Liu Yu smiled and said: "This is quite interesting."

After that, he asked Zhao Baiquan: "Brother Zhao reads a lot of history books, have you heard of this?"

The two had not discussed this matter before, but Zhao Baiquan was a figure who passed the imperial examination, so he could talk about classics, history, and literature.

After listening to Yitiao Jianxiang's source, he thought it was wrong to say the Japanese reign title in Korea.

But thinking of the source of this sentence, and thinking about the political structure of Japan, he thought that Ying Suobo was taking advantage of the topic? Or did he really not understand and asked again?

This is interesting to talk about.

Seeing that Liu Yu still had a look of seeking knowledge, he said: "This is what Tuoba Kuo, the Emperor Gong of Western Wei, said when he abdicated to Yuwen Jue, the Emperor Xiaomin of Later Zhou. At that time, Yuwen Jue had been granted the title of Duke of Zhou, and Tuoba Kuo asked the Grand Master of the Imperial Clan to hold the book to abdicate."

"This sentence is a statement of abdication."

Deliberately speaking of the word abdication, Liu Yu slapped his head and said: "I seem to have heard that the first year of Kyoho was the year when Yoshimune took office as shogun. Who chose this era name? It seems that the people who discussed the era name on that day had very interesting ideas."

After hearing this, the faces of Akihito, Ichijo Kenka, and Matsudaira Terusada all became extremely ugly.

The reason for changing the era name from Shotoku to Kyoho was because the shogun's eight-year-old son Tokugawa Ietsugu died, and the Tokugawa family was extinct.

The main family was extinct, and the only way to find an heir was from the side branch of the Gosan family. When the era name was changed, it might have been meant to mean "Tuoba Kuo abdicated to Yuwen Jue", but this was definitely a matter of the Tokugawa family of the shogunate, and had nothing to do with the abdication of the emperor.

This matter had no impact in Japan, but when people from Dashun asked this question, it was inevitable that it had some meaning of instigating the relationship between the public and the military.

Using this era name, is it an allusion to the fact that the successor of the Tokugawa family was Tuoba Kuo, and the abdication was to Yuwen Jue?

Or is it that Emperor Nakamikado was Tuoba Kuo, and the abdication was to the "Duke of Zhou" Tokugawa shogunate?

Akihito had never thought about this before. At this moment, his face was ugly, and the wine in his hand tilted slightly. He was very dissatisfied in his heart, thinking that Dashun was going to instigate civil unrest in Japan?

Matsudaira Terusada was still here. If it was heard by Tokugawa Yoshimune, he would inevitably have some suspicions.

Just as he was about to say something, he saw Lin Xinchong on the south side saying, "Mr. Liu is overthinking. The reign title was actually changed because the general's family passed away one after another."

"There is also a precedent for this. In the past, when Liao minister Han Derang died, Liao Shengzong remembered his great contribution and changed the reign title the next year; in the Song Dynasty in southern Liao, Shi Miyuan killed Han Tuozhou and changed the reign title to Jiading; when Shi Miyuan died, Lizong changed the reign title to Duanping."

"This is actually not unprecedented."

"If you look at history books, it is not uncommon to change the reign title after the death of meritorious officials."

Zhaoren felt relieved and thought to himself that you are using this as an excuse. The other side can also counter the opponent's moves, so he said: "Yes. Looking back on the past, the later emperor Liu Chan also said, 'Government is by the Ge family, and sacrifices are by me.'"

"Japan has its own national conditions. The difference between the public and the military is not the same as that of the big countries. Not to mention Japan, even Korea's two-class system is not the same as the imperial examination of the big countries."

"There is no deep meaning in changing the era name to Kyoho."

Akihito did not want to cause conflicts within Japan at this time. In addition, Zhu Xi's school of thought had just taken root in Japan at this time, and had not yet extended the great meaning of respecting the king and returning power.

He himself knew that he was a shrine, and he had to do what he should do. No matter how Dashun instigated him, he must not create internal rifts at this juncture.

The most important thing was that he had no power at all.

Without power, if he wanted to seize power, the final result would be that he could only be a puppet.

They were all puppets. What difference did it make whether they were puppets for Dashun, for the southwestern feudal domains, or for the Tokugawa clan?

In fact, Liu Yu did not want to instigate the relationship between the shogunate and the King of Wa. He just wanted to disgust the other party and divert the topic of Zhaoren crying poor.

After listening to Zhaoren and Lin Xinchong's explanation, Liu Yu smiled and said, "So that's it. I didn't read much, so it's inevitable that I made random guesses. I just thought it was a palace secret and talked about it for fun."

After that, he said seriously, "But the issue of the year number is not trivial. I heard that the Dutch in Hirado were closed because they used the Western Christian calendar and moved to Nagasaki."

"If Japan pays tribute in the future, the year number will also need to be changed."

Just one sentence, the topic was directly led to whether to pay tribute or not, but only "if" was used to make an assumption.

Zhaoren didn't argue about these things. Suddenly, he thought of something and thought it could be used.

"Do all vassals of the Celestial Empire have to change their reign and use the Celestial Empire's reign title? Japan has never been a vassal, so I don't know about this."

Liu Yu glanced at Zhao Baiquan, who thought Liu Yu was forcing Japan to negotiate terms, so he said firmly: "Yes."

Zhao Ren thought that you were just making up a story, so he pretended to be surprised and said: "But when I was a child, I remember that Annan sent an elephant, and the elephant was given the title of a fourth-rank official at that time. The letter from Annan said the reign title of 'Yongqing' instead of Taixing. Could it be that Annan is not a vassal of the Celestial Empire?"

He deliberately talked about something else, but avoided directly talking about whether Japan was paying tribute, but took advantage of Zhao Baiquan's words to lead the question to Annan.

He indicated that if Vietnam could use its own reign title, would it be considered a vassal or not?

If Vietnam could use its own reign title, why couldn't Japan use its own reign title in the future?

If Japan used the reign title of Dashun, would Dashun also invade Vietnam? With such a lot of words, when the time comes, they will bite Vietnam to the ground. If they really want to pay tribute, they will complain. Anyway, they are not afraid that Vietnam will attack Japan.

At that time, the trouble will be diverted to the south. Since the Celestial Empire is attacking Japan because of such a trivial matter of Ryukyu, why will it be partial to one and not attack Vietnam?

However, Vietnam is full of miasma, and the former Ming Dynasty finally withdrew from Vietnam. If they also go to war, they will surely be able to contain the national strength of Dashun.

By containing the national strength, military strength and energy of Dashun, Japan can develop quietly.

Zhao Baiquan was speechless for a moment, knowing that he had said something wrong, but he heard Liu Yu say: "If this is true, I will ask about it. But there may be hidden secrets."

"For example, Ryukyu has been paying tribute every year, but for more than a hundred years, it was unknown that Satsuma controlled its national affairs. Vietnam is far to the south, and it may also have hidden secrets, which is unknown."

"If the emperor is not smart, how can he know about Ryukyu? The holy emperor is very observant. Although he will not allow usurpation, he will not wrongly accuse the vassal."

The topic was brought back to the Ryukyu Kingdom, and the atmosphere at the banquet suddenly became extremely weird.

It was neither a tense confrontation nor a smile at each other, but the topic was killed all of a sudden, and no one could continue to talk.

Zhao Baiquan couldn't continue, he was still wondering how it happened, how did Dashun not even have a proper vassal now?

Korea recognized the Great King, Ryukyu deceived fools, Vietnam had a reign title, and the Western Regions were downgraded to an internal vassal rather than an external vassal. Now it has really become a Celestial Empire without a real vassal.

Zhaoren and others were thinking about how to drive Liu Yu's rhythm.

I thought that the rhythm of today's banquet was to deliberately show weakness, asking Liu Yu to ask for less money, just asking Dashun to think that Japan had completely lost its spirit and not to stare too closely in the future.

Who would have thought that from the beginning, when it was mentioned that Japan was poor and short of money, they ordered not to put money to press the soles of shoes in the coffin. Liu Yu directly changed the topic, and went to the contradiction between the public and the military, and whether the reign title was a metaphor for abdication.

It was difficult to catch the flaw of Vietnam's reign title, but Liu Yu mentioned Ryukyu.

Zhaoren knew that if he argued today, he would probably annoy Liu Yu. After a moment of silence, he could only say: "Greed blinds the mind, greed blinds the mind. These four words are most appropriate for the Satsuma Domain incident."

"Japan is a small country, the country is poor and the people are poor. Kagoshima is even more prone to volcanoes and tsunamis, and it is difficult for the people to find food. With no food or clothing, they have to survive on the sea."

"Your country is a big country, with vast land and abundant resources. At that time, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was at war with the Ming Dynasty, and trade was cut off. Japan envied your country's products, but had nowhere to get them, so it had to go to Ryukyu to get your silk."

Liu Yu laughed and said, "Well said! Look, I have also considered it, Thinking that the Celestial Empire is vast and rich in resources, and Japan is poor, we decided to open Japan to trade. "

"Exchange of what we have and what we don't have is also for the benefit of the Japanese people. If the Japanese people want to wear silk and satin, there is nowhere to produce it. After the opening of the Celestial Empire, they can provide it; if the Japanese people want to eat sugar, there is no place to grow sugarcane in Japan, so it is just right to open the door and trade sugarcane..."

"The merchants of Dashun have come, and the Japanese people are blessed! A country established in an isolated overseas country, isn't it for the well-being of the people? Come on, come on, let's raise our glasses to celebrate, and drink a toast to the blessing of the Japanese people. "