Satsuma country, Kagoshima Castle.

Tsunaki Shimazu, the grandfather of the Satsuma domain, Shimazu Mitsuhisa, is now a recluse, but in fact he is still in power, even longer than when he was the lord of the domain.

Because when he became a feudal lord, he had to go to Edo regularly to serve the Tokugawa shogun. Edo was so far away from Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province that Mitsukyu spent much more time on the road and living in Edo than he did in Kagoshima Castle.

At that time, Japan's domestic communication conditions were very poor, and there was no post system, so it took several months to deliver news from Satsuma to Edo. Therefore, in the era when Shimazu Mitsuhisa ruled in the name of the feudal lord, his control over the feudal kingdom was not as strong as it is now!

However, no matter how powerful his control over the Satsuma Domain is, he can't change one of the basic "feudal feelings" of the Satsuma Domain - there are too many samurai!

Samurai has a double definition in today's Japan, one is identity; The second is occupation.

As long as a man from a samurai family is not ordained, his status is that of a samurai, and even if he is poor, he is a samurai with the right to carry a sword and a surname. If a civilian offends a samurai, the samurai also have the right to cut people!

Of course, having the right to cut people does not mean that you can cut people at will. Because civilians also have lords, it depends on the owner to beat dogs, let alone cut people? Generally speaking, unless it is your own people, you will have a lot of trouble after cutting it down. If the lord of the commoner who was hacked to death was bound to be in trouble, and if the lord of the commoner happened to be a general, then the samurai who cut him down would be tied up in the official office and wait for a verdict...... The dignified samurai, who was tied up and captured by a lot of flowers to wait for the fall, maybe he will be visited by others, and he will not be embarrassed?

If the slashed commoner belongs to a powerful and hard-to-talk domain, then the samurai who cut people are likely to be hacked to death by the feudal clan sent by the feudal lord - if the commoners pay taxes to the feudal lord, they are all cut down, and how can the feudal lord collect taxes?

And the lord of the feudal lord also wants to save face, and the civilians below are casually cut down by outsiders, what should they do with face? If you don't cut it back, it won't be a laughing stock?

In short, there is a right to cut it, but it's best to weigh it before chopping, but don't make a fuss and have to scratch your belly to apologize at the end - it hurts!

Another definition of samurai is profession. The samurai was originally a profession, a thug of the minister's family, but it was only later that he counterattacked and took power, overthrew the government, and seized power, and then became angry. After the cow got up, in order to solidify the class, there was a threshold for reincarnation as a samurai. But there are always more people who can be reincarnated than there are people who can become samurai!

Because the number of samurai is limited, and the samurai family does not engage in family planning, they are allowed to give birth!

In addition, the samurai is still a bit of a privilege, and he looks quite majestic, and there are more opportunities to soar, so few people are willing to quit the group.

Therefore, in all the feudal domains in Japan, there is a tendency for more and more samurai (referring to status). However, the amount of money that each feudal domain can send out and the territory that can be allocated is limited. Roughly speaking, the number of samurai employed by each Japanese feudal clan was tied to Ishitaka. Usually 10,000 stone is tall, and you can afford to raise up to 250 samurai - this is only the theoretical maximum! Because there are many places to spend money in the feudal treasury, you can't keep all the samurai, and the feudal lord himself has to spend money!

Even if the feudal lord could eat pickles every day, the cost of pomp and circumstance and the cost of visiting the shrine could not be saved.

In addition, the samurai's salary should also be high and low, not average. The samurai who take less money only have twenty or thirty koku of brown rice per year, and those who have more can get several thousand koku!

Therefore, 10,000 stone stones are usually only a few dozen samurai, and with the 725,000 stone of the Satsuma Domain, it is enough to raise 3,4005 warriors.

However, in the Satsuma Domain, there are too many people who have the status of samurai!

Because the Satsuma Shimazu family was once wide in the Warring States period, during the reign of Shimazu Yoshihisa, the sixteenth lord of the Shimazu family, the Shimazu family almost unified Kyushu. Later, due to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's conquest of Kyushu, he had to surrender, and as the price of surrender, the territory of the Shimazu family was reduced to 605,000 koku. Later, because of the invasion of the Ryukyus, the Tokugawa shogunate converted the interests of the Satsuma domain in the Ryukyus into 120,000 koku, a total of 725,000 koku.

Compared to the situation of Kyushu when the Shimazu family was in its heyday, the family business of the Satsuma clan is now in miserable decline.

But this is not the worst thing, the worst thing for the Shimazu family is that Toyotomi Hideyoshi can cut the territory of the Shimazu family, but the Shimazu family can't cut the retainers casually, let alone deprive others of their samurai status!

The size of the retainers in the heyday of the Shimazu family was very large, and it was not big and impossible to occupy most of the territory of Kyushu!

These retainers are all heroes who followed Shimazu Yoshihisa and Shimazu Yoshihiro to fight the world, and they can't be said to be laid off! Even if you can cut some of them, you can't deprive others of their samurai status!

Therefore, since the establishment of the Satsuma Domain, there has been the problem of too many samurai - there are many feudal lords who have a rakoroku, and there are more village warriors who do not have a rako (there is no rako, and the stone has the right to saber and the status of a samurai, and is allowed to engage in agricultural production and does not have to pay annual tribute).

And out of the population of 500,000 or 600,000 in the Satsuma Domain, there are as many as 100,000 people who have the status of samurai! Among them, there are at least tens of thousands of samurai who are strong and can stand out, and have the ability to cut people!

Among the tens of thousands of samurai, only three or four thousand samurai could be hired...... The so-called strong clan Satsuma is actually a strong (there are a lot of people!). And the feudal clan is weak (loss-making), and the fiscal year is empty, so you can only borrow money to get by.

Most of the samurai who did not have the opportunity to be hired were in a difficult situation and were looking forward to one day!

The dream of this group of samurai could only be fulfilled under one circumstance, when the Satsuma clan launched the War of Shogunate Downfall and challenged the authority of the Tokugawa shogunate.

As long as the Satsuma Domain can succeed in counterattacking, then everyone will be able to get a rich fortune and become a banner lord who has no worries about food and clothing!

If it fails, hehe......

After Shimazu Mitsuhisa returned to seclusion, the Satsuma Domain's finances did not improve, but instead suffered an even greater deficit due to the shrinking trade of the Ryukyu Domain, the 120,000 koku that the Satsuma Domain received from the Ryukyus was not the output of land, but the conversion of trade income. Now that the Ming Dynasty opened the country and Japan has also increased its efforts to open up, the Ryukyus controlled by the Satsuma Domain will inevitably decline, and Satsuma's foreign trade income is close to drying up.

Under these circumstances, the Satsuma clan had to find ways to tighten its expenses, which in turn caused the income of the lower feudal lords to decline...... Therefore, the Satsuma clansmen, who were originally quite satisfied, are now also beginning to move, not only do they not help Shimazu Mitsuhisa suppress the lower classes, but many people are affected by the so-called Toyotomi legacy and begin to dream of the fall.

Every once in a while, a guy with a small clean mind would write a white letter to Shimazu Hisamitsu, suggesting that he contact the Nagasu Domain, which hated the shogunate, and gather the people of the domain to raise the banner of the Emperor of the Shogunate......

Just when the financial problems and a group of confused feudal priests and village priests made Shimazu Hisamitsu anxious, his nephew Younemo Kiyoo suddenly took a Spanish sailboat to the bay outside Kagoshima Castle, and also brought a thunderbolt to Shimazu Hisamitsu!

The Spaniards had just expelled the Ming Dynasty's commercial superintendent in the Ryukyu Kingdom, and the current Ryukyu Kingdom was already shared by the Satsuma Domain and Spain!

"Lord, there's no way!" Kiyoo You, who is the head of the Shimazu family, knelt in front of Mitsuhisa Shimazu, who was already dumbfounded, and said with tears in his eyes, "Now you can't even wash Kagoshima Bay by jumping into the castle!" ”

"Can't wash it?" Mitsuhisa Shimazu pretended to be calm, "What am I going to wash?" ”

"Of course, it is suspected of colluding with the Spaniards to bring down the curtain......"

"I, I'm innocent, I haven't colluded with the Spaniards, and I'm not a Catholic!"

Kiyoo sighed, "But the Spaniards expelled the Ming Dynasty while protecting the interests of the Satsuma clan in the Ryukyu Kingdom......"

()