Wei Boqiu rode a steam engine sailboat and slowly docked at the mouth of the river that would later become known as the Kushiro River. This is the mouth of the Kushiro River, a river that flows hundreds of kilometers from the mountains of the north and nourishes countless lands on both sides of the river before flowing into the Sea of Japan.

At the mouth of the river, there was a simple wooden wharf, and there were people on the wharf, who were armed with spears, wearing khaki khaki uniforms, large black-brimmed hats, and overturned fur shoes, and they were like soldiers of the East Shore Advance Team.

"Deputy Commander Wei (Deputy Commander of the Gendarmerie), Imamura has arrived, he brought dozens of people, and he just lost his temper at us. But I didn't show weakness and pushed them all back. As soon as Wei Boqiu came ashore, Zhou Zuoding, deputy captain of the third brigade of the forward team, leaned over and reported to him in a low voice.

Zhou Zuoding is the former Dashun Tai'an County Commander, after the Qing army occupied the entire Jinan Mansion, this person resolutely did not surrender, and also raised troops to "resist". Wang Aoyong, the ambassador of Shandong and Henan appointed by the Qing court, repeatedly appeased him, "knowing the righteousness", but he "did not surrender in the end". After the Qing army mobilized a large army to besiege after sweeping away other places, Zhou Zuoding saw that he could not do anything and fled to Yantai with a group of old brothers. Yantai's Mo Dashuai is the general of the Dashun system who has the power to control the three mansions of Denglai Qing, and was later named the ambassador of Shandong Jiedu, no matter what is behind the scenes, at least this Mo Dashuai is a real Dashun high-ranking official, so many "rebellious remnants" in Shandong have run to Yantai to work, and Zhou Zuoding came to Yantai under such a background.

It's a pity that Yantai was later surrounded by the Qing army, which cut off the road for many people to flee. But it doesn't matter, everyone has a way. It's surrounded on land. I can get a small fishing boat and run to it. In short, Yantai is now a lighthouse-like storage on the ground in Shandong and North Zhili, attracting countless "remnants of the army" to come and defect.

"Oh, what's his tantrum?" The weather was a little cold, and Wei Boqiu asked casually while kicking his feet the solid ground to keep warm.

"He blamed us for occupying the port without permission and demanded that we retreat immediately." Zhou Zuoding immediately replied, "But I went back, and I said that there are only a few seasonal Japanese fishermen living here for a short time. It's borderlands at all. Besides, we just went ashore to dry some goods, and this Ezo land is not his Matsumae family, so of course we can occupy it. ”

Hearing Zhou Zuoding say this, Wei Boqiu smiled, noncommittal, and then stepped forward to a place where some wooden houses were built, and shouted from afar: "But Imamura Yoshinosuke of the Matsumae Domain, in the next Wei Boqiu, the first time we meet, please take care of me." Inspector Kojiro Kojiro, the chief of the National Intelligence Agency, who served as the translator, stood aside. Truthfully translate the conversation between the two sides.

"Wei Jun, why did you occupy my Kushiro River without authorization? You have chosen this place for this trade. Is it trying to humiliate our Matsumae family? As soon as he saw someone coming from the east coast, Yoshinosuke Imamura began to attack.

Wei Boqiu looked at Yoshinosuke Imamura, who was pretending to be angry, and sneered in his heart. He didn't believe that the Japanese had just learned that the people from the east coast had occupied the mouth of the Kushiro River, and that the location of the trade had been notified to the Matsumae domain's liaison officer in Omari more than half a year before, and that the people from the east coast had occupied the port, which was still a wasteland at the time, and it was impossible for the Japanese to send someone to the Kushiro River to see it in advance. In addition, in July, some Japanese fishermen who had come to fish in the nearby waters wanted to recuperate on the Kushiro River, but were expelled by soldiers from the east coast, and it was impossible for them to return to Fukuyama Castle without reporting to the feudal lord.

In other words, these Japanese actually knew two or three months ago that a group of people from the east coast had occupied the Kushiro River estuary, which was empty at the time. They didn't react during this time, so it wouldn't be a big deal. At this time, seeing that this Imamura Yoshinosuke only brought a few dozen people over and set off a mouth cannon, and his expression didn't seem to be too angry, Wei Boqiu suddenly felt even more relieved.

Face, everyone wants it, normal! The Matsumae Domain, which was determined to open up the entire Ezo region, and even coveted the Omari region of Sakhalin Island, was so greedy that it suddenly discovered that somewhere in the Ezo land, which he had regarded as a meal on his plate, had suddenly been accused by his long-time trading partner, who was also a gang of robbers. Therefore, if they do not express some strong protest at this time, it is difficult to guarantee that this gang of robbers will not covet Nemuro and Hakodate, which have already been set up by the Matsuzen Domain.

However, they can only fire cannons with their mouths, otherwise they can't shoot iron cannons at us? Are you kidding! How many people are there in the Matsumae Domain? Even though in recent years, the people on the east coast have played the sideline game of Shandan trade, and a lot of goods from Dabo have been secretly smuggled to neighboring Mutsu and other places for sale, and the economic strength has increased, and the population is still only more than 10,000. How many troops can more than 10,000 people living in the bitter cold land produce? Can these armies stand up to the armies of the East Coast? Don't be funny, don't dare to borrow his courage from the Matsumae Domain!

However, as a business partner for many years, the necessary decency still has to be given. Therefore, Wei Boqiu first had a discussion with Imamura Yoshinosuke, saying that the people of the east coast only went ashore to dry their goods and came to spend the winter at the same time (Kushiro Port is an ice-free port), and sometimes they would come to rest when they passed through this place for fishing, and they had absolutely no ambition for the territory of the Matsumae Domain, which made Imamura Yoshinosuke have a step to ease the bottom of the color.

Seeing that the group of Japanese in the Matsumae Domain was no longer as aggressive as they were at the beginning, Wei Boqiu began to strike while the iron was hot again, and said, "Imamura-kun, this time I brought those things according to the wishes of your feudal lord, please check them carefully." After saying that, he waved his hand, and Huang Yi, who was still standing on the deck of the ship, immediately commanded the sailors to lift a large number of heavy wooden boxes to the dock trestle through the guò pulley boom.

Zhou Zuoding, who had been standing aside, took out a 41-year-old steel bayonet from his waist at Wei Boqiu's signal, and then stepped forward and pried open a box with force. As the lid of the box was uncovered, the yellow and clear "goods" inside suddenly attracted everyone's eyes. The Japanese of the Matsumae clan were even more unbearable, and they saw them looking at these things with greedy eyes, and their lips twitched slightly with excitement.

"In the thirteenth year of Kanei's copper coins, this box is fifty kanwen (1), and we have shipped a total of five hundred boxes, totaling twenty-five thousand kanwen. Of course, this is only the first batch, let you take it back and try to use it, if you can digest it, please let us know as much as possible. We should immediately organize the manpower to start work, and strive to produce hundreds of thousands of pieces of paper in the winter. Wei Boqiu grabbed a handful of copper coins from the box and said in a good manner.

In this era, Japan was actually very short of copper coins. Especially during the shogunate period when the Warring States period ended and the economy developed rapidly, the demand for currency increased year after year due to the prosperity of private trade. For some reason, the shogunate, for some reason, banned foreign copper coins (mainly Ming copper coins, but also a small number of Korean copper coins) from circulating in Japan, thus creating a huge amount of scrap coins. The scrap coins were later shipped by the Dutch to Vietnam, another copper-scarce place, so profitable that copper coins and the Japanese copper trade became the most lucrative trade of the Dutch East India Company in the Far East.

Since the shogunate banned the circulation of Ming copper coins in Japan, it was natural to prepare for the use of self-minted copper coins. Helplessly, its money casting technology is really poor, and even inferior to those merchants who cast private money in Fujian in the Ming Dynasty, the reputation of Kanei Tongbao is declining, and the number is still very small, which has artificially caused a large-scale money shortage in Japan.

After the Matsumae clan came into contact with the silver dollars stamped and forged by the Omari Mint on the East Coast in their daily trade, it didn't take long for them to come up with the idea of asking the people of the East Coast to mint "fake money" to make a profit. And Wei Boqiu agreed without saying a word after hearing about this request of the Japanese. The fool didn't agree, and how amazing the profits were beyond the imagination of outsiders.

For example, the 25,000 Kuanyong Tongbao in front of him only consumed about 90 tons of copper, and if you include the cost of purchasing materials (mainly copper, mixed with a small amount of lead and tin), the cost of mold opening and stamping, the depreciation of steam engines and equipment, coal consumption, personnel salaries, etc., the total cost is only 17,500 taels of silver. And how much do the Japanese have to pay to get these 25,000 copper coins?

First of all, let's take a look at the exchange rate set by the Edo shogunate, that is, one tael of gold = fifty bun of silver = four kanbun of copper coins, in which the ratio of gold to silver is 1:5, and the ratio of silver to copper is 1:80. Let's not talk about the price comparison of gold and silver, just the price of silver and copper, at this time, the price of silver and copper in Japan's domestic private and foreign trade has actually reached more than 1:100, for example, in a transaction with the Dutch East India Company in 1623, the price of silver and copper reached 1:150 (of course, the texture of these copper blocks is not pure, mixed with a lot of impurities, but it is also an indisputable fact that copper has depreciated in Japan at this time), that is to say, At this time, the official exchange rate set by the shogunate was not recognized by all parties in actual transactions, for example, the Dutch bought a large number of copper bullion in Japan and shipped it back to Europe, making a profit of as much as one or two times.

Then, if the Matsumae clan used silver to pay for this batch of copper coins, even if it was calculated according to the price ratio of 1:100, they would have to pay 25,400 taels of standard Daming Treasury flat silver, and the net profit rate reached 45%.

(1): Let's talk about the monetary policy of the Edo period in Japan, that is, gold, silver, and copper circulated at the same time. It is only said that the gold coins in circulation are mainly small judgments (one tael) and one sub-judgment; Silver coins are divided into units of text and points, mainly including Ding silver and bean plate silver, with different weights and messy shapes; Copper coins are copper coins, and in units of coherence and text, 1,000 wen is called consistent text. According to the exchange rate given by the shogunate, Jin Xiaoju = silver fifty Wen = copper coin four kanwen, and the standard weight of Wen is 3.759 grams. (To be continued......)