Under the sunshine of southern Kyushu, several samurai or former samurai, and now ronin, are drunkenly staggering along the road between several villages, staggering all the way to their destination without knowing where they are.

Looking at the peasants toiling in the fields, the samurai didn't know what to remember, and suddenly burst into bursts of laughter, and then went on again.

The peasants who were busy planting rice in the fields saw that this group of drunks had gone farther, so they dared to raise their heads, wiped the sweat on their faces under the bamboo hats, and quietly spat at the back of the group of people into the muddy water of the paddy fields.

"A bunch of wild cubs! The ghost knows if the money for drinking was sent back by his daughter from Nanzhong! ”

Since the Shimazu family began to engage in marriage introduction and labor export (human trade?) The samurai in the Shimazu Domain seem to have a much better life than before, not only can the feudal lord's fortune be paid on time and in full, but those who have a daughter as a wife and concubine in Nanzhong can also send back some Nanzhong Tongbao and cloth every year to help supplement the family, so that those samurai lords who only have Taro, Jiro, and Saburo in the family are envious of having daughters at home.

"Alas! It's a pity that the old man of Nanzhong only needs the daughter of the samurai master, and even if the daughter of us is beautiful, he can't squeeze into the galleon bound for Nanzhong! ”

A farmer hatefully threw the seedlings in his hand into the muddy water.

In this era of agriculture, Japan was absolutely barren. In fact, even during World War II, Japan was already claimed to be one of the great powers, and its food could not be completely taken care of by itself. And Kyushu. It's even more barren. As a terrain environment with many mountains and few lands, the paddy fields are distributed in the east and west of the mountains. Under the scorching summer sun of the Pacific Ocean near the equator, the farmers really did the sweat and drop the soil in the paddy fields on the afternoon of hoeing day.

According to the distribution standard of the four public and the six people, forty percent of the farmers' harvest was given to the samurai, and the rest was paid by themselves. In addition to these two expenses, the rest is your own income. Without cold-tolerant rice varieties and without double cropping rice, farmers can only struggle to survive.

Fortunately, not long ago, the Edo shogun issued a benevolent decree to his domain, his relatives, and the daimyo of the pedigree, allowing the peasants to pay for the harvest of 40% of the public with various specialties. Such an order. It has also been popularized as never before among the daimyo of foreign varieties in various places, and the farmers seem to catch a breath a little, and there are a few more grains of rice in the multigrain rice. Although it is said that it can not be compared with the samurai lords who can open a pork porcelain head from Nanzhong for ten days and eight days to invite a few friends to get drunk, but. Days like this. The farmers are also very satisfied.

"Saburo! Don't be lazy anymore! Hurry up and plant rice! ”

The Saburo who lost the seedlings in the paddy field. Hearing his father's scolding behind him, he had to bend down and continue to work hard to plant seedlings. The moment he bent down, he clearly saw a few ripples of his sweat beads splashing on the water.

"Sorry for the trouble! Excuse me, is this Nakagawa Village? "There was a question from the road by the river, and I heard the accent, which should be someone from a nearby town, unlike the voice of people from these villages.

"Yes, this is Nakagawa Village."

Saburo took the opportunity to answer other people's questions, and once again raised his head to win a chance for himself to stretch his waist and rest for a while.

"Excuse me, where is Jiro's house at the entrance of the village in the village?"

"There are several Jiro at the entrance of Nakagawa Village, which one are you talking about?"

Saburo looked at the visitor with great interest, and the other people were not the same, there was a flag behind the person, which was somewhat similar to the appearance of the samurai masters when they went out on the expedition, and there were a few words painted on the flag, and when it was blown by the wind, it was not very clear, and he was carrying a big package on his back, which looked quite weighty.

"It should be Jiro next to the well at the entrance of the village, and there is only one mother in the family."

"Oh! Got in the temple! ”

"It's Jiro of the Iguchi family, and he's a good friend of mine. Are you looking for him? ”

Jiro secretly said to Saburo last year that life was not good in Nakagawa Village, and he couldn't support his wife, and he planned to go to the town to find a job to do, and soon disappeared in the village, and his wife cried several times because of it. Now someone is looking for him, and I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse.

"Yes! I'm Gorou of Shunfeng Xinsha! Thank you for your kind attention! ”

Gorou bowed and greeted Saburo while showing Saburo the words Shunfeng Xinbo printed on his clothes, asking him to verify his identity.

"The Faith Bureau? What's the matter with Jiro? ”

"That's right, Jiro of the Iguchi family in Nakagawa Village, who works part-time in Nanchu, sent his wages back to our letter bureau to hand it over to his mother in person to complete the procedure. Please take me to his mother. ”

"This bureau is now handed over to the bank in batches, and the allocation of funds is not taken, and there is no small silver in the big bank, if there is a small silver to be taken or a small silver prayer to indicate the approval or letter to show the bureau, I am willing to return to your family twice, and never break my word, and the letter bureau will be reopened in the year of Renshen."

In front of Jiro's low thatched house, the people of the village chattered and discussed, listening to Goro of the Shunfeng Nobuki reciting the instructions printed on Jiro's envelope, and many people were still a little puzzled, so they had to listen to Goro of the Nashinjiro Bureau's explanation.

"Our Hitchhiker is an evolution and development of the Hitchhiker Dealer opened by Mr. Li in Nanjung, and the business in Minami Kyushu is contracted by Mr. Kazuo Koga of the Shimazu family in Nanchu."

"I am in charge of the exchange of money and goods from Nanchu to Kyushu! Thank you for your kind attention! ”

Gorou bowed to the whole village again!

Jiro's mother heard that her long-missing son suddenly had news, and she also sent someone (?) Something was sent, and he was so happy that he didn't know what to say, but Saburo still had some ideas, he looked at Goro, "Goro-kun, you said Jiro has something, so, what is it?" Where is the thing? ”

"Jiro-kun of Nakagawa Village works in Minami Chung, and he bought some cloth with the proceeds and asked our Shinji to send them to his mother." Gorou said as he looked out of the crowd, and when people looked out of his gaze, a man carrying a burden similar to his outfit appeared at the entrance of the village.

The young master of the old man's family in Tongguò village. It was learned that Jiro of the Iguchi family had secretly run away last year and boarded a galleon bound for Nanchu on the dock (smuggling?). After arriving in Nanzhong, he was hired by the owner of the Grange in Jiulongjiang, and now he is working in the Grange in Jiulongjiang, and there are already nine people under him!

"With the belief in the salary, Wu Guannan Zhongtong treasure money, there are two cotton cloths, and two meat porcelain heads. The meat porcelain head was given to his son by the owner of the village when he saw that he was diligent and did not hesitate to reward his son. Please taste it with your mother. ”

The man who carried the burden untied the two pieces of cloth hanging from the two ends of the burden and handed them to Jiro's mother, asking her to check whether the cloth was defective or trapped.

Where did Jiro's mother have the opportunity to see such muslin? Weigh it with your hands, isn't a piece of cloth weighing dozens of pounds? Give it a stroke. This is a cotton cloth made with fine cotton threads. It's better than the women of the old man's house, and I don't know how many times better. Holding it in my arms, I am afraid that others will snatch it.

From the large package on his back, Gorou took out the five Guannanzhong Tongbao and the two meat porcelain heads mentioned in Jiro's letter, which immediately made the whole village exclaim again.

Rao is the lord of the land, he prides himself on being a figure who has seen the world, and he has never seen so many copper coins in front of him at the same time!

A Nanzhong Tongbao weighs a penny. That's five grams. A thousand treasures in one place. That's five kilograms! Wu Guanqian was placed in front of people, no less than a small mountain of money suddenly appeared in front of them.

Seeing the money in front of him, Jiro's mother almost fainted with happiness. She grabbed her son's friend Saburo, "Saburo, please!" Please, pinch me! ”

"My lord! It's true! Jiro brought it back to you! ”

Saburo's father quietly walked up to the landlord and asked in a low voice if he should leave the two people from the letter bureau for lunch, so that Jiro's mother could learn more about her son's situation outside.

So, a bag of rice was generously taken out by the lord of the field, and he ordered someone to steam the rice, and Nakagawa Village wanted to invite the two masters of the letter bureau to eat today!

Pure white rice, unadulterated with radishes and other substances, was placed on the table, and Goro and his companions of Shunfeng Xinbo were so moved that they couldn't stop getting up and bowing to Jiro's mother and the land lord to express their gratitude.

The lord of the land was very generous and ordered his daughter to take a pot of sake from home, and he wanted to get drunk with the two lords of the letter bureau (three people drink a pot of sake?). ）

After drinking a few glasses of wine with a thumb-sized wine glass, the old man of the land, as the person who used the seal of the receipt to the letter bureau, took advantage of the wine to start asking Goro of the letter bureau about our Nakagawa Village's Jiro in Nanchu.

In fact, Jiro's situation in Nanzhong is already very clear in the letter he wrote, and the young master of the old man has read it once, but people always get tired of hearing good things, especially when they hear others talk about the people around them.

"This! You must take this money! If you go to the town to exchange money for those townspeople, remember that you will always exchange money for one or two pieces of silver, and don't let those black-hearted townspeople coax you! Or, remember to tell him what price he paid with such a tongbao when he bought something, and this money was from the shogun to the various daimyo and samurai lords who were willing to ask for it! ”

"And what about this muslin?"

"Muslin?! It's a great thing that makes the town's eyes bleed! On the way we came, two or three groups of merchants caught up and asked, if it is for sale, can a small gold judgment be made?! ”

"And the meat porcelain head!" The guy who played the role of the porter killed three bowls of rice in one go, and kept handing the rice bowl to the person on the side, "Please work hard again!" ”

"The samurai lords bought it from Nanzhong, but it costs twelve to sell it for one or two pieces of silver, and in exchange for the price we have here, it will cost about two dollars. However, if you sell it in the town's shop, I'm afraid it will cost 1200 yuan! ”

In the twilight, Saburo sent the two messengers out of the village, and along the way kept asking what way to go to Nanzhong to work, and Nagoro knew everything, and told Saburo about Kazuo Koga and Shunfeng Li's family setting up a store in the Kyushu area to recruit laborers.

"The condition is three meals a day, plenty of rice, one egg for breakfast, and fish and meat for lunch and dinner. I am paid a regular salary every two months, I have a set of clothes and shoes every quarter, I can take one day off every ten days, and if I don't take a break to work, there is also the so-called overtime pay. ”

"If you plan to go, hurry up and go to the main city of Lord Shimazu and Lord Kayama, where we have shops and you can sign up for the test."

Such a salary package. There is also a living example of Jiro in front, and I can't help but make Saburo's heart move, if I go to Nanzhong to work for a few years and come back, can I marry the daughter of the landlord family as a wife?

However, at this time, the landlord was also playing a similar idea.

"Master Shi, I want to ask you to help me find a way for my daughter to find a mother-in-law in Nanzhong."

Outside the main castle of the Kayama family, in an izakaya, the head of the ground spoke in a low voice with a samurai who was in front of Kayama Hidaka for 600 stones.

The priest glanced at the two pieces of cotton cloth on the table, which he had bought from Jiro's wife. It cost two small gold sentences!

"The bride to Nanchu is all handled by that lowly guy Kazuo Koga. He's coming back in the past few days, and you can go and meet him. ”

After a few years, Kazuo Koga couldn't believe it. Take out the old clothes at home and compare them. It seems that the waist at that time was not as thick as the legs are now. Accustomed to satin shoes, his feet stepped on the clogs again. I think it's so uncomfortable.

Not only did he feel uncomfortable. Even the son he gave birth to in Ha Jing was crying and going home, unwilling to stay here longer.

This son is after he didn't control his younger brother for a while, and the prison guard stole and ate a flag book. Born as a last resort. But after the birth of this son, his business is getting better and better day by day, and both husband and wife think that this child brings them good luck!

Looking at the clear soup and little water in front of him, Kazuo Koga couldn't help but want to end his affairs in Kyushu as soon as possible and return to Hue as soon as possible.

"Koga-kun, you're doing a great job in Nanchu! Everyone was very satisfied! ”

It is the current head of the Shimazu family, Shimazu Tadashi, who rewards Kazuo Koga with wine and food.

As the first daimyo to trade with the Nanchu Army, the Shimazu family gave up the interests of the Ryukyus, but just like playing Go, they lost a small piece and gained the largest piece. A scene that several generations of family heads did not dare to imagine was realized in the hands of Zhongheng's generation of family heads.

The samurai banners were all equipped with swords and guns imported from Nanchu, and the iron cannons were replaced by imported iron cannons, and the so-called Tanegashima iron cannons were simply rubbish in comparison. Samurai of all ranks were given armor, and large bamboo armor inlaid with iron plates was sent to the temple for sacrificial purposes.

With the expansion of strength step by step, the seed called ambition began to grow rapidly under the watering of fertilizer and water. However, since the shogunate began to enter the southern and Chinese trade strongly, the Shimazu family inevitably suffered a lot of losses.

However, when he went to Edo to make a pilgrimage explanation, when he found that the daimyo who had trade with Nanchu were showing off their strength there, he couldn't help but scold at home, these uninformed hillbillies! With a few bad money, I don't know what my surname is! Showing off your strength at this time, isn't it looking for the Tokugawa family to worry about you and calculate you?!

In the process of confession, he conspired with his son, who had lived in Edo for a long time and was actually a hostage, and Shimazu Mitsuhisa, who had traveled to Kawajeong with Hisataka Kayama. My father united the Nabeshima family and the Kayama family in the fiefdom to expand their strength, and once something happened, my father went to Edo in person, exchanged for his son, and Mitsuhisa inherited the position of head of the family, and carried out the division of the territory in Kyushu, recruiting the enemies of the former Tokugawa family as backup, and fighting to the death for the establishment of the Shimazu shogunate!

However, to do such a big thing, strength comes first!

In order to have sufficient strength, at least the treasury must have equipment that can equip 10,000 people, from those conscripted peasants and soldiers, to iron artillery, to samurai at all levels, if there are a few national collapse, large barrels and the like, it will be the icing on the cake!

But to do this, the most important issue is money.

Nowadays, the daimyo everywhere are carrying out trade with Nanchu, and the benefits of that exclusive trade activity are gone, but Kazuo Koga, who was the first to establish a human trade with the Nanchu army, once again brought Shimazu Tadashi a glittering way to make money.

Today, Kazuo Koga and Hitchhiker have cooperated with the company to establish a communication and mail exchange service from Nanchu to Kyushu, and almost 1,000 letters and parcels arrive in Kyushu every month and enter the territory of the Shimazu family. Based on the fact that every Kyushu person who worked and married in Nanchu sent home the money of the Nakatsukan, 5,000 kan money fell asleep peacefully in the cash cabinet of the Koga Kazuo store pù every month, and then sent by his messengers, whom the villagers called water ke, to various towns and villages.

Zhongheng is to make up his mind within this time!

"Your letter bureau. It has sought a lot of benefits for the samurai of the people of southern Kyushu, and also soothed the hearts of many mothers, so I recently told all localities to strictly protect your letter bureau shop pù and your water messengers! No one, including me, may infringe on the property of the messenger or the letter office! If anyone dares to attack the letter bureau and the messenger, they will be the enemy of my Shimazu family! I swear to death! ”

I heard that the lord of the family praised himself so much and supported himself, as a low-level samurai of the former Birshan. Kazuo Koga has only zero gratitude. Bow down and bow down.

"However, your letter bureau has too many money to exchange, and it is inevitable that there will be ronins and outlaws everywhere who will covet it. In order to prevent your losses and compensation. I decide. Later your letter bureau. All valuables such as money cloth are stored in the treasury of the Shimazu domain! ”

This one? Kazuo Koga felt that something seemed wrong with this. But I can't bring it up in front of the head of the family, and besides, I can't think of anything wrong with it.

"Then, it is very cumbersome for the messengers to send to and fro everywhere!" Koga tried to say what he thought, "I'm afraid of causing trouble to the treasurers!" ”

Zhongheng waved the fan in his hand very generously, indicating that he would not.

"For every penny, for a tael of silver, it will be much easier for those messengers of yours to travel from place to place! I heard that a piece of cloth weighs dozens of catties, plus a few copper coins on the body, I'm afraid it's not a hundred and ten catties? When you encounter a bandit ronin, you can't run away! ”

The head of the Shimazu family is very considerate of Koga's employees.

It turned out to be the idea!

Kazuo Koga suddenly realized!

When he landed and returned to Kyushu, he found that because of the exquisite casting and uniform quality of Nanzhong Tongbao, it was very popular in Kyushu and Japan. In many shops, the exchange price is always copper coins for one tael of silver. In some remote areas, it can even reach 800 wen and can be exchanged for one tael of silver. In Nanzhong, the official exchange price is one silver dollar for two dollars!

This practice, and the Ming merchants went to the country to trade when the gold judgment as a settlement unit, when returning to the Ming Dynasty, the gold judgment will be exchanged with a ratio of gold and silver to four, according to the exchange rate of the Ming Dynasty one to ten huàn out, the same as the windfall profits, are the use of the exchange rate difference and the asymmetry of information to earn a huge difference.

No one is a fool.

Such a trick is not only known to the Ming merchants, but also to the Fuso Daimyo.

"My lord," His Majesty dared to ask, what did the lord do when he collected so much money?

"One is to issue a fortune to officials and warriors at all levels, and the other is to go to Nanzhong for trade!"

In the face of Kazuo's questioning of Kazuo's obvious violation of the samurai hierarchy, Tadashi seemed to turn a deaf ear and said his thoughts very bluntly.

"Then, there is a way for your subordinates. It can save a lot of trouble. ”

Kazuo Koga's method was actually very simple: he collected remittances from the Kyushu people in Nanchu, and after collecting the remittance fee, he only sent out the letters, and the Shimazu family's treasury paid the same amount of silver instead of the letter office. Samurai or traders who went to Nanchu to purchase money from the Shimazu family could withdraw the same amount of copper coins from him with the Shimazu family's exchange certificate, which could be used for commercial activities in the Nanchu region. However, in the process, he has to collect one percent of the catchment.

You greedy guy!

Scolding and scolding, but the expression on his face was still calm as water, Shimazu Tadashi nodded and agreed to Kazuo Koga's request.

In recognition of Kazuo Koga's achievements in opening a trading hall and a letter office in Nanchu, providing a lot of necessities for the people of Kyushu, and improving the living standards of the people of Kyushu, Tadashi Shimazu specially promoted Kazuo Koga to the position of Kazuo Koga, and paid 600 koku. He continued to serve as the business representative of the Shimazu family in Nanchu.

In addition, Shimazu Tadashi also found Kazuo Koga's cheap old man and asked him to treat this son-in-law well and not embarrass him.

Facing the identity of Kazuo Koga, who was already the same 600 stone as himself, and the majesty of the feudal lord, a large number of gold and silver goods in Nanzhong had to get off the donkey down the slope and pinch his nose to recognize this cheap uncle.

For a while, Shimazu Tadashi and Kazuo Koga were both smiling, and they were overjoyed that they had once again found a way to make money.

Kyushu had the largest amount of remittances to and from the south because of the earliest population exporting to Nanchu, but they didn't want to, and these remittances became the biggest boost for the Shimazu family to expand their strength.

Soon, this phenomenon of currency repatriation was discovered by the guys in the investigation office and the business intelligence room, and they found that the samurai of the Shimazu clan almost frantically purchased all kinds of military equipment and materials allowed to be exported by the Nanchu army as if they did not need money, and the speed and purchase volume were no less than that of the Tokugawa family.

"Isn't that great? Our commodities become money, which in turn buys our commodities. We've made money from our stuff, and the Shimazu family has expanded their strength, so it's the best of both worlds! ”

The financial war begins!

Shouhan smiled darkly. (To be continued......)

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