Qi Zheng, the tenth head of the Hizen Nabeshima family, later had a nickname called "Abacus Daimyo", the origin of the nickname is unknown, and there are three theories: the first theory is that Qi Zheng lived a simple life and was also careful about the finances of the domain, so he was criticized for being stingy, so he was called the abacus daimyo; The second theory is that Qi Zheng is proficient in business operations and gets this title; There is also a theory that Qi Zheng was very keen on doing trade, and sometimes went out to negotiate contracts in person, and the status of merchants at that time was very low, and some samurai felt that he was not worthy of the dignity of the great name, so they used abacus to hint at his merchant behavior.

But Qi Zheng dismissed this, claiming that "actual interests are more important than decency." This may have something to do with Nabeshima's personal experience. When Qi Zheng returned to Saga from Edo to inherit the head of the family, the creditors rushed to block the door to ask for debts, and the trouble lasted for a whole day, and finally the accompanying samurai pooled some money to coax the creditors away, and then the retainers fled with Qi Zheng overnight. This scandal made the Saga Nabeshima family and Qi Zheng a laughing stock, and since then, Qi Zheng has changed color when he hears the word debt.

Qi Zheng could make money, but he could spend more money, and in the Tianbao reform in the domain, Qi Zheng invested heavily in industry, education, and Western military education.

The main contents of the feudal reform are as follows:

1. Continue to limit the extravagance and waste of the main hall (hermit master) in a straight line. As a result, the reformists, led by the new head of the family, Qi Zheng, and the conservative retainers, led by the former head of the family, Qi Zhi, continued to oppose each other. In November 1832, the third year of Tenpo, Qi Zhi asked for 33,700 taels of gold as his own pilgrimage expenses, and Nabeshima Shigeyoshi said that he could only give 15,000 taels due to financial difficulties, and as a result, the relationship between Matsuyi and Qi Zhi intensified again, and seven important ministers were implicated, but the head of the family, Qi Zheng, gritted his teeth and did not increase the budget.

2. Reform the feudal schools and strengthen the education of feudal scholars.

In the second year of Tenpo (1831), Koga Kokudo presented the "Jikyu Seal Affair" to the head of the family, Saimasa, and carried out reform practices at the Kodokan of the domain school: Saimasa also enrolled in the school and inspected the study of the retainers every ten years, and ordered that the senior retainers in the clan must study at the Kodokan. At the same time, draconian measures were enacted, and feudal lords were fined and their salaries were reduced if they did not study seriously.

Moreover, the content of the teaching expanded from Confucianism and the art of war to the Orchid and Western military systems.

In September 1836, at the age of fifty-nine, Koga Kododo died, but Kodokan continued to develop with the support of Saimasa.

In the 4th year of Kaei (1850), Yoshida Shoin praised the Saga Domain as "a place where civil and military affairs flourished" in his Diary of Journey to the West. It shows that the scholars here are both civil and military."

3. Reduce fiscal expenditures and improve the efficiency of feudal administration.

Through the education of the feudal school Kodokan, Qi Zheng finally gained the recognition of the retainers and the talent to carry out reforms.

In the 6th year of Tenpo (1835), the feudal domain began to abolish the various rules of the main hall (hermit of the head of the house), strictly limited expenditures, and carried out an "unheard-of elimination" of the establishment: the Imperial Side Servant (Secretariat) and the Request Office (Administrative Office) were merged, and a total of 430 employees were reduced, and the number of feudal officials was reduced to two-thirds. The income of the feudal clan consisted of three types: Jiaroku, Zhilu, and Fumi, and the status of the samurai who was laid off remained unchanged, but the income was greatly reduced, and under the influence of the Tenpo murder and the negative example of the hermit master Qi Zhi, the feudal clan basically accepted this result calmly.

At the same time, the number of attendees has also been reduced by more than 100 people, and the journey starts early and stays late to save travel costs. Qi Zheng's "stinginess" is undoubtedly reflected.

In the face of financial austerity, the feudal domain made efforts to simplify its administration, and in the 9th year of Tenpo (1838), both the Kuri Prefecture (a domain directly under the domain of the domain) and the Daidai Prefecture (the domain of the branch domain and the Nabeshima kinship) were already managed by the Request Office of the Agricultural-Government Minister, representing an unprecedentedly strong feudal government.

The young and middle-level feudal lords who emerged from this were completely different from those who were born in the past, and showed great sympathy and empathy for the people: when dealing with thieves, the young officials shed tears of sympathy when they told the thieves about the plight of their parents, wives and children living in poverty. Some of the acting officials overstepped their authority to open the treasury to distribute relief food when the flood was raging, and although the government was a little young in the early days, most of them later became excellent management talents, and the people affectionately called them "the Imperial Warriors in the Year of the Tiger".

Fourth, the practice of land equalization in rural areas.

The confiscation of land leased by merchants and landlords and the distribution of landless and landless peasants, and the redistribution of one-tenth of the land to the lords, thus improving the livelihood of the peasants and reviving the rural economy.

Fifth, rectify the financial order and land rent.

Externally, in order to reduce the pressure of the feudal debts, the Saga Domain appointed the lord of Suko, Nabeshima Shigema, to negotiate with the creditors, and Shigema began to repay the debts directly, regardless of the dignity of the samurai, "either to recover a certain amount of arrears within the specified time, and the remaining debts to be forgiven as a contribution to the Saga Domain, or to wait for a certain number of hundred years to recover the entire arrears." In the end, Osaka's creditors agreed to give three-quarters of the debt as a contribution, and to recover a quarter within five years; Edo's creditors agreed to forgive 20 to 50 percent of the arrears and recover the remainder in five years; Nagasaki's creditors agreed to a gradual repayment of the loan by the Saga clan over a period of seventy years.

Internally, when the time was ripe, Qi Zheng issued the "Decree on the Restoration of the Land of the Prince", the Order on the Consolidation of Land Rent, and the "Order on the Consolidation of Borrowed Wealth" in August of the 13th year of the Tenpo Dynasty (August 1842).

Jiadizi still ordered the announcement of the exemption of the "Jiadizi" tax. Fields are harvested from non-agricultural fields, such as firewood, wild medicinal herbs, timber, catches, prey, and Fuso's characteristic farmhouse fertilizer (wild grass, seedlings, shrub leaves, etc.). The tax on the commercial trade of the owner of the land was unreasonable, so the owner of the place of origin apportioned the tax to the individual collector or purchaser, which increased the cost of living of the people, and this decree was officially abolished.

In addition, it was decreed that tenant farmers who could not afford to pay the tenant fees could apply for a partial exemption from the tenant fees. In addition, farmers were allowed to use cash crops as part of their annual tribute, such as miscellaneous grains, cotton, tobacco, tea, etc., and local officials were allowed to determine different proportions.

The "Borrowing Consolidation Order" stipulates the number of years and the size of the arrears, and the arrears in excess of this scale and number of years are forgiven. The Borrowing and Consolidation Order exempted samurai, farmers, and townspeople from part of their debts to feudal governments, merchants, and landlords.

Despite the desperate opposition of the wealthy landlords and wealthy merchants, after some fighting, the decree was implemented, which lightened the burden on the people, and the annual tribute began to increase, and the lives of the people improved significantly.

Sixth, the establishment of "hanging inkstone" and "mountain" to carry out breeding and development.

In the 9th year of Tenpo (1838), Nabeshima Saimasa established the feudal lord's private treasury "Hanging Inkstone" to collect funds through the monopoly of cash crops and commercial taxes. In addition to the management of the "Tibetan side" of the feudal treasury and the "mu'an side", which was in charge of the feudal treasury's financial expenditures, the Hanging Yan side invested in the development of domestic (local products) such as wax, ceramics, coal (coal), fisheries, etc., encouraged the cultivation of cash crops, and invested in Western military research and production.

Later, the "Yamakata" (domain monopoly product management organization) was established, and the famous products such as ceramics such as Arita ware, Takashima coal, Tenkenji sugar, and Saga white wax were established.

By the end of the Edo period, most of the revenue of the Saga domain came from trade taxes and domestic monopolies.

7. Learn Western technology to reform the feudal army

In the second year of Tenpo (1831), Nabeshima Shigeyoshi began the Westernization of military reform in his own territory of Takeo, and the ashigaru people wore new military uniforms, changed their weapons from arquebuses to flint guns (flintlock pistols), and with the help of privately appointed officers of the Ran Kingdom, they trained the first Western-style musket unit in Fuso.

In the twelfth year of Tenpo (1841), the old Nakano Tadashi praised Takashima Akiho's Western-style military exercises, which relieved Nabeshima's concerns. At this time, the finances also improved, and Qi Zheng began to prepare for the implementation of the Takeo-ryu artillery technique, ordering all retainers to learn Western military affairs, and at the same time began to comprehensively reorganize the feudal army.

8. Encourage the development of orchid medicine and orchid science.

First of all, Rangaku was included in the curriculum of the feudal school Kodokan. Later, in the fifth year of Tenpo (1834), Qi Zheng listened to the suggestion of Koga Kodo and set up a "medical museum" on Hachiman Koji under the castle, which was under the jurisdiction of the feudal school Kodokan, and at the same time set up a "Rangakuryo" under the medical hall to conduct research on orchids.

In the following year, the "Fire Method" was established to conduct research on Western guns, and later the Fire Art Method became an institution for the development and manufacture of Western-style rifle weapons.

In the future 4th year of Kaei (1850), he established the "Daiji Manufacturer" and its subordinate "Casting Position" to research and manufacture Western steel artillery.

In the sixth year of the future Jiayong (1852), the "refining party" was established, which was subordinate to the domestic party. Originally, the plan was to trade in the manufacture of chemicals as a new specialty, but it did not go well, but it was gradually transformed into a Western-style machine research and manufacturing organization.

As a result of these efforts, Western scholarship was a great success in the Saga Domain. In the sixth year of Tenpo (1835), two qualified bronze mortars were successfully cast, which was the first time that Fuso succeeded in producing a new Western-style artillery after the closure of the country.

According to the historical trajectory, after many failures in the sixth year of Jiayong (1852), a qualified reverberatory furnace was finally established, marking Fuso's entry into the steel era.

In the same year, the Saga clan succeeded in casting four qualified 36-pounder iron cannons, and Fuso had its first Western-style iron cannons made in the country. Later, the Saga Domain built the first qualified small steamship (the Satsuma Domain first built a small steamship, but the quality was not good and the speed was extremely slow) and the first Fuso teleport.

Because of its strong strength, in the dispute at the end of the Edo period, the Saga clan was torn between the imperial court, the shogunate, the Gongmu faction and the fallen shogunate, and because of the ambiguous attitude towards all parties, no one could figure out the true position of the Saga domain.

From the end of the Edo period to the beginning of the Restoration government, the political figures of the Saga Domain included the Eight Sages of Saga (educator Edadyoshi Kamiyo, Fuso Shinpei, founder of modern law in Fuso, Kishiren Oki, the first secretary of education, Diplomat and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tanetomi Shima, father of Ezo Land Pioneering, Yoshiyoshi Shima, founder of the Fuso Red Cross Society, and two prime ministers, Shigenobu Okuma and Nabeshima Saimasa).

During the same period, there were many famous people in Saga, such as Genpo Ito (one of the three great orchid doctors at the end of the Edo period), Totao Motoshima (the best ironworker and weapon maker at the end of the Edo period), Yuyuki Amano (economist, founder of the Toyo Keizai Shimbun), Ryoichi Ishii (Japan's first educator for people with disabilities), Kunitake Kume (author of "Mio's Retrospective Notes" and the founder of modern Japanese history), Chika Kuroda (Japan's first female doctor of science), Shida Hayashizaburo (founder of Japanese electric power), Yosuke Sugitani (one of the Six Masters of Saga Rangaku, chief engineer of the iron reverberatory furnace of the Saga Domain), Kazume Toyoso (a famous female educator in modern Japan), Hatsuko Nakano (inventor, the first person to make electric lights in Japan), and Nafusuke Jiro (the greatest craft educator in modern Japan. Founded a number of craft schools), Masaki Terugo (inventor, inventor of automatic noodle making machine), Ishiguro Kanji (one of the six masters of Saga Rangaku, head of the refining party, Japan's first steam locomotive model maker), Nakamura Kisuke (one of the six masters of Saga Rangaku, head of the refining party), Ishida Eiichi (master of modern Japanese gold and stone), Saburosuke Okada (painter, the first recipient of the Order of Japanese Culture), Akira Kagawara (poet, master of Japanese symbolism), Tatsuzo Soga (modern Japanese architectural artist, One of the founders of the Japan Institute of Architects), Tatsuno Kingo (Japanese modern architectural artist, designer of Tokyo Station), Nakabayashi Goku (modern Japanese calligrapher, one of the three Meiji brushstrokes), Hyakkutake Kaneyuki (painter, pioneer of Japanese Western-style painting), etc.

Saga's research and imitation of Western science opened the door to modernization for Fuso, and Nabeshima Saimasa's original words, "If foreigners can have it, we can have it." Money is not a pity, as long as you work hard and study repeatedly, you will definitely succeed" ( foreigner にできて, われわれにできないはずはない. 金は惜しくない。 Research is the common aspiration of the people of every late-developing country.