Chapter 453: The Formation of Triangular Trade

Wan Shihe's evaluation of Japan was incisive. Wan Shihe said that Japan stole the culture of China, but didn't learn three parts of humanity, and seven parts of beastliness were deeply rooted. As the Viceroy of Nagasaki, Xu Wei fully agreed with this evaluation.

Japan's coin casting was mainly "three parts like." The Japanese had the nerve to carve the two characters "Yongle," which really made Xu Wei helpless; it was simply smashing the signboard of Emperor Chengzu Wen.

These stolen Yongle Tongbao that Xu Wei threw out had a specific term in Japan called "evil money," while the copper coins flowing in from the Central Plains were called "imported money."

During the Tianbao era of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the monk Jianzhen crossed the sea to Japan six times. Japan imitated the Tang Dynasty's Kaiyuan Tongbao and began to mint money called "Wado Kaichin." Since then, Japan's currency had always been in the contradiction between local "evil money" and Central Plains "imported money."

The Treasure Notes Xu Wei took out could also be considered a type of "imported money."

"Can it be exchanged for Wanli Tongbao or silver coins?" Oda Nobunaga finally opened the box, looked at the exquisitely made Treasure Notes in the box, and asked with a solemn expression.

Xu Wei nodded and said, "If needed, it can be exchanged. It can be redeemed for new notes in three years."

Xu Wei was lying. Great Ming overseas Treasure Notes were inconvertible Treasure Notes. This was a fact that had been clearly confirmed from the very beginning of their production.

Lying to the Japanese didn't count as lying.

If you asked Xu Wei, Sun Keyi, and Li Chengli to forgive the Japanese, they would only give you a slap in the face. They had blood feuds with the Japanese; it was the hatred of family members dying in Japanese pirate raids. In their eyes, the Japanese had never been considered human.

Oda Nobunaga's question—Xu Wei naturally couldn't say it couldn't be exchanged. Of course, the promise was just a fart; just listen to it.

As for the problem of loss of credibility, Xu Wei didn't consider it at all. He and Sun Keyi were planning how to knock the bells off all the Japanese men and sell them to the Yuanxu Islands to work like cattle and horses, and sell the Japanese women to Songjiang Prefecture. The Sun family's painting boat business was severely short of people.

Not every Japanese woman could get on a painting boat; that required careful selection. Most of them learned Chinese and married bachelors who couldn't afford a wife.

Treasure Notes were a type of credit paper money. Make promises if you have to. At worst, exchange old for new, exchange one for ten, and exchange new notes for Tongbao. This was "convertibility."

How to extract Japan's wealth to the maximum extent was the primary problem for the Nagasaki Viceroyalty to consider.

"Then I have no questions." Oda Nobunaga actually knew that this kind of promise was completely unbelievable, but at least it could deceive himself and deceive the Japanese, which was enough.

Oda Nobunaga, the "Great Fool of Owari," the "Demon King of Japan," was not a person who worried about the country and the people at all. He was arrogant and dismissive of everyone.

Before seeing the strength of the Great Ming navy, Oda Nobunaga didn't even put the Great Ming in his eyes. In his view, it was just that the Ryuzoji, Otomo, and Shimazu clans were too stupid, which gave the Great Ming an opportunity.

Oda Nobunaga obtained the details of the Great Ming trade. He also needed to use silver to exchange for the things he needed.

The Nagasaki World Trade Fair officially opened on the 9th day of the 9th month. This day was the Great Ming's Double Ninth Festival. Every daimyo who entered the venue was quickly lost in the ocean of goods. The entire trade fair was very orderly. This kind of order was extremely rare in Japan.

Because the three five-masted ocean-crossing ships brought by Chen Lin were quietly anchored in Nagasaki Port, their pitch-black muzzles pointed at the row of houses of the World Trade Fair, reminding everyone that this was the Great Ming's territory and they had to follow the Great Ming's rules.

No one dared to act recklessly in front of the Great Ming navy.

Since the Tang Dynasty, there had been Shipping Bureaus, and then the sea trade of the Song and Yuan dynasties reached its peak. Before the Ming, sea trade was mainly luxury goods: silk, porcelain, tea, and metal utensils. In the late Southern Song Dynasty, Songjiang Prefecture's cotton cloth was already popular at home and abroad. The Yuan Dynasty's southward invasion destroyed Songjiang Prefecture's production, which did not flourish again until the Yongle era. The Wanli opening of the sea saw the share of luxury goods trade decrease year by year, and bulk commodities and trade became the mainstream. But there was no grain. The Songjiang Shipping Bureau, Ryukyu Shipping Bureau, and Nagasaki Shipping Bureau locked the list of goods entering Japan, and grain was the only commodity prohibited from entering Japan.

There were hundreds of commodities participating in the Nagasaki World Trade Fair alone. Songjiang cotton cloth was the largest commodity.

There was no Songjiang cotton in Songjiang cotton cloth, because local Songjiang cotton was more expensive, and the profit from exporting it was smaller, so it was mostly sold in the Great Ming hinterland. Authentic Songjiang cotton was not a commodity that Japan could afford, so the cheap cotton cloth from the Mughal Empire was the mainstream of sea trade goods.

Everything from pots and pans, oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar, to carriages and waterwheels was available.

The Great Ming provided door-to-door delivery services. Of course, the shipping cost was not cheap. Door-to-door delivery was mainly to gather intelligence. The Great Ming using merchants as spies was an open secret in Japan, but the daimyo had no ships to transport goods, so they had to let it be.

The daimyo were dazzled by the dazzling array of goods. They exchanged the silver they had painstakingly mined in the mountain hollows with poor people and hard labor for silk, tea, and various utensils that could show their status, such as a set of solid wood tea sets priced as high as thousands of taels of silver, or a very exquisite carriage with spring steel shock absorption, and a limited number of sturdy horses. This set was worth seven thousand taels of silver.

The next day, the daimyo were led to a drill ground. On both sides of the drill ground were all kinds of long and short weapons, bows, arrowheads, and firearms.

Japan lacked weapons. Oda Nobunaga's arquebuses (a type of matchlock gun) were enough to look down on the heroes, but this time the Nagasaki Viceroyalty gave them a fair chance to compete, where everyone could exchange silver for weapons to deal with each other's punitive expeditions.

Oda Nobunaga and everyone else looked at these weapons in a daze. Before, the Great Ming only sold muskets, but this time the trade fair even had cannons. This was something all the daimyo hadn't expected!

Could it be that Chen Lin, the Regional Commander of the navy, was secretly selling arms for personal gain?

This was naturally a misunderstanding. These firearms were all genuine "monkey versions" of military arms, specifically produced by the Ministry of War and the Directorate of Military Weapons for sea trade.

"Damn it! Our Japan lacks saltpeter. All saltpeter relies on China's supply. Even if they provide us with firearms, what's the difference between them and fire pokers in our hands!" Oda Nobunaga clenched his fists.

He had completely seen through the Great Ming's scheme!

What's the use of just giving firearms if the Great Ming doesn't have the guts to supply saltpeter!

At the present time, the only ones who could manufacture qualified gunpowder on a large scale were the Great Ming and Spain. Controlling saltpeter meant controlling gunpowder production. Spain controlled the largest saltpeter mine in Peru, while the Great Ming relied on local saltpeter plus smuggling from Bengal.

So what if he saw through it? Oda Nobunaga looked desperately at the several daimyo around him—Mori Motonari, Chosokabe Motochika, Uesugi Kagekatsu, Hojo Ujinao—who couldn't take their eyes off the firearms. Mori Motonari was the only daimyo who could buy Great Ming muskets before, and he hadn't been qualified to buy Great Ming cannons before either.

The burly Chen Lin finally came to the crowd, his eyes narrowed and his head half-raised, scanning the crowd. The Japanese were generally short, and Chen Lin's seven-foot height was like Mount Tai pressing down, making everyone unable to breathe.

At this moment, Chen Lin wanted to kill all the daimyo here, and then start an expedition to level the entire Japan. For Qi Jiguang to be enfeoffed as a Duke was already a certainty. Yu Dayou had passed away, and Chen Lin, as the Regional Commander of the navy, was only a Count, which was a bit unjustifiable.

But after conquering Japan, the sins and infamy of mining and slave-catching would need to be borne by the Great Ming. The Great Ming's well-trained navy was only 90,000 people. To kill all 9 million people in Japan, each person would have to kill 100 people, and even the most determined soldiers would become crazy.

However, they could use various means to make the Japanese kill each other, which was a very good method.

Not all daimyo had silver mines in their territories. If they didn't have silver mines, they could exchange them for men or women.

"All the military weapons you see can be purchased openly." Xu Wei said to the crowd, "This is the Great Ming Navy Regional Commander, Duke of Shouli, Chen Lin. Looking at the sea from here, although the row of houses is slightly blocked, you can still see the shadow of the five-masted ocean-crossing ships."

"This Regional Commander has a bad temper. The Shimazu clan plotted against the Ryukyu Shouli Mansion and was leveled by Commander Chen."

The Otomo clan at least had a few survivors, but the Shimazu clan was all sent to the capital and finally entered the Dissection Court, making their own contributions to the Great Ming's medical progress.

"What about gunpowder?" Oda Nobunaga looked around and didn't see the key item.

Xu Wei smiled and said, "The amount of gunpowder for each household is different. If you want to buy gunpowder, you can discuss it separately."

The limited quantity depended on strength. Population, strong men, mineral deposits, and the intensity of fighting all determined the amount of gunpowder that could be obtained. Holding crudely made iron weapons and killing each other—when would they finish killing? The Great Ming chose to arm the Japanese to accelerate their mutual slaughter, but would not supply more gunpowder.

Unless Japan could break the sea trade blockade of the Songjiang, Ryukyu, and Nagasaki Shipping Bureaus and obtain large amounts of saltpeter.

One could see a very clear policy difference. Even for Altan Khan, there was still San Niangzi who could communicate and interact with the Great Ming, but for the policy toward Japan, there was not a trace of warmth.

The Japanese pirate raids that lasted for several years during the Jiajing era had extremely complex contradictions. It took more than twenty years of struggle to find the best solution: kill all the Japanese in the Japanese pirates.

"Your Sun family actually expanded the painting boat business to Japan, which was something I completely didn't expect." Chen Lin met Sun Keyi and looked at the painting boats anchored in Nagasaki Port with a complex expression.

The beauties on the painting boats were all "beauties of ten thousand nations." This was to avoid risks. The Great Ming court had a ban prohibiting the sale of Great Ming people, and violators would be exterminated. The painting boats were on the sea, which meant absolute freedom and no taboos. To avoid risks, the Sun family chose beauties of ten thousand nations, so there were no legal problems. Under the framework of the Great Ming's distinction between Chinese and barbarians, all barbarians were in the status of animals, so essentially, the painting boat business was a zoo. The main play of the painting boats was extremely wild.

The entertainers on the pleasure boats were all beauties from various nations. This was to mitigate risk, as the Great Ming imperial court had a strict ban on the trafficking of Ming subjects, with the punishment for violators being the execution of their entire clan. The pleasure boats were out at sea, and the sea was synonymous with absolute freedom and total lack of taboos. To avoid legal risks, the Sun family chose beauties from various nations, which eliminated any legal issues.

Under the framework of the Great Ming's distinction between the civilized and the barbarians, foreign barbarians were essentially treated as animals or livestock. Therefore, in essence, the pleasure boat business was a zoo. The popular nickname for these pleasure boats among the common people was "Leopard House," primarily because the way they were played with was extremely wild.

The daimyo's reaction was only one: consume!

This kind of fancy play was too rare in Japan.

"This business, naturally, is pervasive. The painting boat business, our Sun family pays taxes according to the law and has never been late or short of paying taxes once." Sun Keyi said with a smile. The painting boat business not only paid taxes but also donated money to the establishment of the Great Ming Maritime Academy. As for the physical suffering of the animals in the zoo, Sun Keyi had no pity.

Since the Han Dynasty, the Central Plains began to enfeoff the King of Japan, and until the Yongle era, they were still enfeoffing. This was education, hoping to educate the Japanese from beasts into humans. The inner logic of "gentleness to those from afar" was the omnipotence of morality.

And the Japanese pirate raids that lasted for more than twenty years proved that morality was not omnipotent. In the distinction between Chinese and barbarians, the public opinion of "gentleness to those from afar" gradually weakened and disappeared. The "wolf-faced and beast-hearted" barbarians who "fear power but do not cherish virtue" gradually occupied the mainstream.

At the arms trade fair, what was interesting was that the transaction volume was not public.

Any daimyo who wanted to buy firearms and gunpowder had to go to the side room and communicate with the clerks of the Shipping Bureau. This caused a very terrible result: no one knew how many firearms the other party had bought. The Great Ming selling arms to make the Japanese kill their own people and weaken Japan's strength—the daimyo knew this well.

To resist the Great Ming Treasure Notes and arms sales, the best way was for all the daimyo, with Oda Nobunaga as the core, to unite as one and reject the Great Ming!

The Great Ming wanted to sell firearms, so the daimyo were very tacit: no one would buy them! The Great Ming wanted to promote Treasure Notes, so the daimyo would not use real gold and silver to exchange for Treasure Notes!

In this way, the Great Ming had no good way to deal with Japan. After all, it was across the ocean, and Japan had 9 million people.

But this transaction was not public, which made everyone feel precarious. Who knew how many firearms and gunpowder the neighbor had bought, and when they were preparing to crusade against themselves? Even Oda Nobunaga had to buy a large number of firearms to guard against it, to prevent a third "Nobunaga Encirclement Net."

Once the seeds of suspicion were sown, they would inevitably take root, sprout, bloom, and bear fruit.

No matter how Oda Nobunaga lobbied these daimyo before and what kind of agreement they reached, under the practical military threat, they all turned into bubbles.

"Neighbor hoards grain, I hoard guns; neighbor is my granary!"

Once the seed of suspicion is sown, it will inevitably take root, sprout, bloom, and bear fruit.

No matter how Oda Nobunaga had lobbied these daimyo before or what agreements he had reached, they all vanished like bubbles under the pressure of a tangible military threat.

After the trade ended, Chen Lin was to head to the Whale Sea. The Whale Sea was the open sea of the Great Ming's Nurgan Regional Military Commission. The place Chen Lin was heading to was called Muyanghe Guard (present-day Vladivostok). Upstream of Muyanghe Guard were Shuangcheng Guard and Jianzhou Guard.

The Jianzhou Guard here was the old home of the Jianzhou Jurchens. In the first year of Yongle, the leader of the Jianzhou Jurchens, Ahatsu, paid tribute and was bestowed the name Li Chengshan, and was enfeoffed as the Jianzhou Regional Military Commissioner. In the 23rd year of Yongle, he received Zhu Di's permission, and the Jianzhou Guard moved inland, moving to outside the pass of Fushun.

Before the Yuan Dynasty, this place belonged to Huanglong Prefecture, which was the Huanglong Prefecture that Yue Fei longed to strike directly. During the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan established the Whale Sea Battalion in the Muyanghe River of the Liaoyang Province, catching fish and refining fish oil to pay tribute. Later, a Shuangcheng General was established in Shuangcheng to govern this place.

The reason Chen Lin was heading to Muyanghe Guard was to inspect the hydrology, explore the ocean fog, and restore the water routes of the Yuan Dynasty. This place had extremely rich fishery resources. In the old records, it was a natural good port. Even from the Jilin Shipyard, one could sail directly from here. Because of the influence of the ocean currents, Muyanghe Guard was an ice-free port in the north. Every ice-free port in the north had significant meaning for the Great Ming.

If the Bohaiwan didn't freeze, then Tianjin Wei would be the most prosperous port in the north. But the Bohaiwan would freeze, so the northern Shipping Bureau was established in Mizhou, because there was an ice-free port, Jiaozhou Bay, one hundred li away from Mizhou.

Chen Lin's long-distance voyage started from Muyanghe Guard, arrived at Ezo Road, crossed the Tsugaru Strait, bypassed the east of Japan, and returned to Ryukyu. The entire voyage was expected to be over ten thousand li, and it was expected to take three months to complete this exploratory voyage and become a new route for the Songjiang Navy to bypass Japan. The purpose of the armed patrol was to deter Japanese pirates, and it was also an exercise.

(Exploring the ocean fog)

When the time was ripe, if the Great Ming court had the idea of permanently clearing the Japanese pirate threat, the hydrology observed during the voyage would be the first opportunity.

Under the exploration of the Coastal Defense Inspection Office's water-flying ships and star-observing ships, the Great Ming already had a very detailed understanding of the Whale Sea. There was a lot of fog here, but the water surface was calm, and the average wave height was no more than two feet, which was very suitable for fishing.

The Great Ming's three five-masted ocean-crossing ships, two star-observing ships, twenty-three three-masted horse ships, and fifty four-hundred-liao battle ships began to set sail from Nagasaki Port toward Tsushima Island. The sails covered the sky and the sun, cutting through the sea surface and sailing toward the distance.

Oda Nobunaga, standing on the tide-watching tower of Nagasaki Port and watching the fleet leave, felt a sense of powerlessness from the bottom of his heart. This terrifying fleet was just one of the Great Ming's maritime mobile fleets. The main force of the Great Ming navy was still entrenched in the Great Ming hinterland Shipping Bureaus. But just such a mobile fleet made Oda Nobunaga completely unable to raise the idea of resistance.

Oda Nobunaga had always had an ambition, or rather, Japan had always had an ambition: to conquer the continent and get rid of the trouble of having too many people and too little land. Since the Yuan Dynasty, the Japanese had often gone to sea, and the Japanese pirate raids were for this fundamental ambition.

Before coming to Nagasaki and seeing the Great Ming fleet, Oda Nobunaga had imagined countless possibilities. For example, the Great Ming ships were large but not flexible enough, so he could use enough small ships to harass them constantly, or simply ignite small ships to burn the large ships; for example, after losing the command of the sea, the Great Ming ships would inevitably land, and no matter how strong the navy was, the conquest would eventually be solved by the army, so Japan, which occupied the geographical and human advantages, might not have no power to fight; for example, pinning his hopes on the "Divine Wind" to protect the country.

Kublai Khan had twice conquered Japan, but because of the appearance of storms, he did not succeed.

But now Oda Nobunaga only had a sense of despair permeating his heart. This despair came not only from the powerful firepower of the Great Ming navy but also from those greedy daimyo who were addicted to infighting.

The appearance of the Nagasaki Viceroyalty shattered Oda Nobunaga's dignity as the "Man of the World."

Why hadn't the Great Ming completely conquered Japan? Oda Nobunaga knew very well that the Great Ming Emperor in the distant capital was accumulating strength. The navy was even more expensive than the capital battalion. The navy had just expanded from 30,000 to 90,000 people. When the strength was accumulated enough, the Great Ming Emperor would inevitably launch a war to exterminate Japan.

The Great Ming Emperor was really too vengeful. Altan Khan was already that old, and the Emperor didn't talk about any martial virtue, catching Altan Khan to the capital and beheading him to show the public.

"It's simply a disgrace." Oda Nobunaga looked at the daimyo who were scrambling for Great Ming goods and firearms, shook his red cloak vigorously, and chose to leave Nagasaki.

Similarly, he also bought a large number of firearms and a smaller amount of gunpowder. He had to buy them because he also had to face the crusades of others.

If firearms are well maintained, they can be used from the Yongle era to the present, but the shelf life of gunpowder, under the condition of proper storage, is at most three years. If stored improperly, it will become damp in a few months and cannot be fired.

Drying gunpowder is definitely not a good idea.

Gunpowder is a consumable and extremely expensive.

Oda Nobunaga raised a group of missionaries in Kyoto, intending to communicate with them to obtain saltpeter from places other than the Great Ming. Originally, this road was completely unobstructed. Saltpeter from the Mughal Empire and Bengal, although expensive, was enough for Oda Nobunaga to use.

The war in the Strait of Malacca destroyed all this, because of the war, the ships of the red-haired barbarians could not smoothly enter the South Seas, let alone reach Japan. All of Japan's sea trade was controlled by the Nagasaki Viceroyalty and Ryukyu. The Great Ming would never allow saltpeter to enter Japan.

"Settling down and moving away is the nature of the people," meaning that being content with living in one's hometown and not wanting to move easily to a foreign land is human nature. This is naturally correct.

The Great Ming's conquest in the Ordos Loop discovered the phenomenon of "wild geese flying." The commoners went to the Ordos Loop before the ice melted, and returned to the pass when burning straw in winter. In Luzon, Ryukyu, Keelung, Borneo, and Old Port, they found those Great Ming people who would pray to Mazu before setting sail and migrating. Even in the Mexico of the Wanli era, in the City of the Sun, there was a Chinatown.

Before Yin Zhengmao led the sea pirates like Lin Afeng to conquer Luzon, every June or July, large sailing ships loaded with Great Ming goods would set sail. At this time, everyone would pray at the Manila Cathedral, hoping for a smooth journey. Generally, it would take 1-3 months to reach the port of Acapulco in Mexico.

Captain Antonio's evaluation of this voyage was: 【This is currently the longest, most terrifying, and most profitable voyage in the world. After leaving Manila, sailing north all the way, passing through Ryukyu, and starting to drift with the waves, these three months are always sailing against the wind, relying entirely on ocean currents. Storms, fog, and monstrous waves always appear one after another. It is cold and hot at sea, and people are prone to illness. Coupled with the lack of food, even people made of iron will be crushed.】

The Pacific Ocean is not peaceful; it was only when Magellan passed through the doldrums at the equator that he felt it was peaceful.

In March of the 8th year of Wanli, the Great Ming exploration fleet arrived at the port of Acapulco and then arrived at the City of the Sun. There, Xu Jiugao saw the Chinese in the City of the Sun, about two hundred people—tailors, shoemakers, butchers, embroiderers, clerks, etc., living hard in the noisy and harsh shouting. The gathering place was called Parián, meaning a place to rest temporarily.

Why do commoners migrate? It is because even if they are attached to their hometown, when they can't live, they have to find a way out for their lives.

The concentration of means of production or wealth is not a problem that the current Great Ming's productivity can solve. Zhang Juzheng's various new policies can only alleviate annexation, not fundamentally solve it. So the only thing the Great Ming court can do is to expand, expand, and expand.

The rules and regulations for the issuance of Great Ming overseas Treasure Notes have been completely set. Although Treasure Notes have not yet become popular in Japan, the daimyo of Japan have already discovered the use of Treasure Notes, which is to exploit downward.

One only needs seven mace of silver to exchange for one string of Treasure Notes at the Nagasaki Viceroyalty, and then this string of Treasure Notes can be used to pay military expenses or other necessary expenses.

The largest denomination of Treasure Notes is one string, and there are also small notes of 500 to 100 wen. Japan is very short of money. Japan's stolen Yongle Tongbao cannot meet the circulation demand at all. Compared with commodity currencies like shells, rice, silk, cloth, and oil, which are difficult to measure in specific value, paper money is not so unacceptable.

This is very clear: Treasure Notes are also a commodity sold by the Great Ming, and they are a sharp weapon for daimyo to exploit downward. It is a tool for rulers.

The circulation of Treasure Notes in Japan is only a matter of time.

Because the daimyo will soon understand that the Treasure Notes exchanged for seven mace of silver can be used to collect seigniorage. Once you get involved in this, you can't shake it off, and because of its difficulty to counterfeit, it is also conducive to promotion. In Japan, it is very difficult to get ink, and it is also very difficult to get cotton paper.

Xu Wei once submitted a memorial to the court, asking the Emperor what stage to reach in Japan, and the reply was that the Emperor didn't care.

He didn't care what kind of human purgatory Japan would become under the Great Ming's various policies, nor did he care if Japan had a future. The Great Ming Emperor only cared that the process of Japanese silver entering the Great Ming would not be interrupted, and only cared that this group of damned Japanese pirates would no longer be sea pirates threatening merchant ships.

Because the daimyo would soon realize that the paper currency obtained in exchange for seven qian of silver could be used to collect seigniorage tax downward. Once one gets involved in this, it is impossible to shake off. Moreover, due to its difficulty to counterfeit, it is also conducive to promotion. In Japan, it is very difficult to obtain printing ink, and equally difficult to obtain cotton-spun paper.

The development of the Yuanxu Islands requires a large amount of manpower. Whether it is logging, uprooting, clearing rubble, turning soil, dredging river channels, or building ports, a large amount of manpower is needed.

The Great Ming Emperor's "not caring" is a disaster for the Japanese.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 454 =====

The development of the Yuanxu Islands requires a massive amount of manpower. Whether it is felling trees, uprooting stumps, clearing rubble, turning soil, dredging river channels, or constructing ports, all require a vast labor force.

The indifference of the Great Ming Emperor is a catastrophe for the Japanese people.

(End of chapter)