Liu Dahai's legs were weak when he heard this! Fortunately, he was sitting, so he didn't fall on his ass! He hurriedly said, "Dongjia, you sent me to Shimazu's house at this time, didn't you let me die?" ”

Liu Pei patted him on the shoulder to show comfort. said: "I won't die!" First of all, the two countries are fighting each other. From this point on, the Shimazu family will not kill you easily. Secondly, you are escorting their general general Biryama Hisataka's ashes back, and with this favor, they will not easily touch you. The most critical point is that they still have more than 2,000 people, and half a fleet with us. If they kill you, these people and the ship won't be able to go back!" So, it seems dangerous for you to go to Shimazu's house this time, but it is actually very safe. And maybe they will bribe you in order to get the news out of your mouth, and maybe they can stuff two widows to warm you at night! ”

Liu Dahai was shocked when he heard this, and said, "Dongjia, do you really think there will be no accident?" ”

Liu Pei waved his hand and said, "It's definitely fine!" I promise! ”

In fact, Liu Pei didn't know if it would be okay. Judging from the crazy brains of the Japanese people, it's really hard to say! If these widows go crazy, Liu Dahai's life may not be saved! But Liu Pei would definitely not say this at this time, so he could only cheer Liu Dahai up and tell him that there was no problem.

In fact, sending Liu Dahai to Shimazu's house was also a matter that everyone discussed, and consulted the guy Aso. Everyone is basically sure that Liu Dahai's life will not be in danger. Because more than 2,000 people and half a fleet were too important for the Shimazu family. Once they kill Liu Dahai, these people and the ship don't want to go back.

In addition, the Shimazu family borrowed a lot of money from the merchants for this war against the Ryukyus, so they basically did not have enough strength and financial resources to go to war again. After all, the Ryukyus were a useful complement to the Shimazu family, and their roots were still in the Wa Kingdom. If they send a large army again, less than 5000 will not work. But if there are too many, their domestic strength will be weakened to the extreme, maybe someone will take action against them, and then the nest will not be able to be saved, and it will be useless to occupy Ryukyu!

The most critical point is that the Shimazu family cannot afford to go on the expedition until they have repaid their loans. Don't think that at that time, the daimyo of the Japanese kingdom were very coaxing, and they said that they would start a war. The samurai carried their swords and saw who cut whom. In fact, everyone ignores an important group, that is, the merchants of the Wa Kingdom.

The main source of income for the daimyo came from land. Therefore, even the division and evaluation of this daimyo are determined by how many stone heights. So their financial source is very single. And in the case of arable land in the Wa Kingdom, their income is lower.

It's just that these daimyos are fighting endlessly for various names, which makes their hands even tighter. So where does all the money come from for their war? In addition to increasing taxes, it is borrowing from merchants.

Although the merchants of the Wa Kingdom had the same low status as the merchants of the Ming Dynasty. But they are different from the merchants of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the merchants of the Ming and Qing dynasties had no status at all, and they had to endure the bone-knocking of the officials! However, the merchants of the Wa Kingdom had political status and could participate in politics, and they had begun to collect. This is one of the reasons why Japan was able to complete the Meiji Restoration so quickly. Because businessmen have political status, innovation can be completed quickly and with low risk with the support of businessmen.

Therefore, the merchants of the Japanese kingdom were not afraid of the daimyo defaulting on their debts at all! If you don't pay the money and you have a bad reputation in the merchant group, don't think about borrowing money to fight in the future. Eventually, the loot of the big names ended up in the merchants' wallets.

Therefore, except for a few daimyo such as Takeda Shingen, who had mines at home, other daimyo had the experience of borrowing money from merchants to go to war. It's not a joke to say that Takeda Shingen has a mine at home, his family really has a mine! And it's a gold mine! Otherwise, with such a narrow and barren land as his fiefdom, how could he raise an army that would deter the heroes? And one of the reasons why his son was in a hurry to challenge Oda and Tokugawa was because his family's gold mines had dried up! If he couldn't open up the situation again, the Takeda family would not be able to support this army, so the famous Battle of Nagashino broke out.

In Wakoku, the main form of the city is "castle town". These castle towns, known as the "houses of the samurai," were originally feudal strongholds for the shogunate and the daimyos, but when the samurai took their first steps from the countryside to the city and completed the separation of soldiers and peasants, they inevitably entered the orbit of urban life. The consequent consumer demand forced the feudal rulers to adopt a policy of forced immigration and preferential treatment of industry and commerce, which promoted the construction of castle towns and the development of industry and commerce, and gathered a considerable number of craftsmen and merchants in castle towns, collectively known as "machito", and the area where they lived was called "machito"

There are three main entities that make up the cultural structure of the castle town. The first was the samurai, which included shoguns, daimyos, and affiliated retainers. The second is the merchants and craftsmen who are called the townspeople. The third is the monks.

Since the three groups of people are divided into living areas according to their status and occupation, the urban management system is also divided into three parts to adapt to the residential structure of this divided state. For example, in Edo (Tokyo), the largest castle town at the time and the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate, the samurai were under the jurisdiction of Ometsuke and Wakanianyo, the monks were under the jurisdiction of the temple shrine, and the townspeople were all under the jurisdiction of the town. Although the town council, which is considered to be muto, nominally has executive, legislative, police, and firefighting powers, in practice, the administration of the town is mainly carried out by the townspeople under the town, who are collectively called townspeople. That is, the town official.

The Japanese scholar Yohiko Harada once commented: "In the city, the townspeople are politically subordinate, but economically they are above the samurai and become the main body of the city." It can be seen that the power of the Japanese merchants at that time was strong!

However, Liu Dahai was scared at this time. But he also saw that Liu Pei's will was firm and he was not allowed to push back, so he had the courage to say: "Then the owner, what am I going to do?" ”

Liu Pei said: "The first thing is to return the ashes of Birch Mountain Hisadaka, which is the easiest. The second thing to do is to reach a peace agreement or an armistice with the Shimazu family. The third thing, and the hardest one, was to get the Shimazu family to pay for the redemption of these people and the boat. ”

Liu Dahai said: "The owner, this time the Shimazu family lost so badly, will they agree to a truce?" ”

Liu Pei said confidently: "Don't worry! They will definitely cease fighting. Because they can't afford to fight. ”

Liu Pei told Liu Dahai the news he heard from Aso Zhi and explained it in detail. Liu Dahai was relieved when he heard this, and felt that he should be able to come back alive. But when I thought of the third thing, I immediately felt that I might not be able to come back alive! After all, ransom is not a good job.

Liu Dahai said: "Owner, how to calculate this ransom? By capitation? ”

Liu Pei said: "I'll give you a price, and you can talk to them slowly when the time comes." It's a fixed price, 300,000 yuan! The bottom line is 250,000. ”

As soon as Liu Dahai heard the number of 300,000 guan, he blurted out and said: "300,000 guan? That's too cheap, right? There are more than 300,000 ships alone! ”

Liu Pei said: "We want money is not the goal. It's to slow down the time for the Shimazu family to take revenge on us. Now that there is an all-out war with the Shimazu family, our strength is not enough. So, destroy them financially first. Moreover, the low ransom is to release goodwill and reach a settlement as soon as possible. At the same time, in order to paralyze them, you can also tell them that the money can be offset with goods. Well, it would be better if a trade deal could be reached! We need copper and brimstone from the Wa Kingdom. ”

Liu Dahai heard this, and his heart was completely counted. Because this condition is a very favorable condition for the Shimazu family. As long as the Shimazu family governor Shimazu Tadashi is not brain-dead, he will definitely agree to this condition.

So he immediately said with confidence: "I understand, owner." I'll do it. Just when to go? ”