The Japanese were very interested in rice, and in fact, in this era, only samurai were allowed to eat rice at every meal, and farmers had to eat a lot of grains. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoRice is even a status symbol in the hearts of ordinary Japanese farmers.

At this time, the population of Japan was only more than 10 million, and Zheng Kaida estimated that it was about 16 million. According to the weights and measures of the Ming Dynasty, Japan's annual grain output was only more than 40 million stones. Li Zhi took away 2 million stone rice from the Japanese at once, and I am afraid that many samurai in Japan will eat miscellaneous grains like the peasants.

The granaries are boxy buildings that line up densely in the northeastern part of Ninomaru in Osaka Castle. Li Zhi walked into a granary and saw sacks of rice piled up in the warehouse.

Li Zhi was in a good mood, pulled out his command knife and stabbed it at a sack of rice, and as soon as he put the knife away, he saw the rice spilling out of the sack like a waterfall. Li Zhi picked up a few grains of rice and shook them in his mouth, trying to figure out the difference between Japanese rice and Ming rice. But after biting for a long time, Li Zhi didn't notice any difference.

Zheng Kaida saw Li Zhi make such a professional action as biting rice, and admired Li Zhi more and more.

Li Zhi was worried about the corruption of the officials of the Tokugawa shogunate, and worried that the barn keepers were guarding the rice that was stealing from the granary, and he checked the authenticity of the rice sacks all the way. But after poking open more than a dozen sacks in a row, all the real rice that flowed out of them was Li Zhi's heart.

Zheng Kaida sent people to count the number in each warehouse, and finally concluded that there were 2.1 million stone of grain in this warehouse.

Zheng Kaida said with a smile: "Grandpa Guo, if you sell all this grain, you can get five million taels of silver." ”

Five million taels of silver is a huge amount of money. Enough to support 10,000 Tiger Division soldiers for five or six years.

This time, Li Zhi spent a lot of money on disaster relief in Shandong, spending more than 3 million taels to buy sweet potatoes from farmers in Hsinchu and more than 4 million taels of silver to buy rice. Li Zhi instigated the gentry to raise the price of rice, and all the silver earned by selling grain at a low price was used for disaster relief. This is just the expenses on the account, in fact, all the land rent in Hsinchu, Taiwan this year was turned into sweet potatoes, and all of them were invested in disaster relief.

Nagasaki was committed to burning fine cloth in Hirado, which also caused Li Zhi to lose hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. If it hadn't been for the large amount of silver that he had snatched in Zhengjiading Haicheng, Li Zhi would have had a huge deficit in his account this year.

If these two million stone rice were sold for silver, it would greatly improve Li Zhi's finances.

However, after the drought in Shandong this year, Li Zhi paid more and more attention to grain, and less emphasis on storing silver.

Nodding, Li Zhi said: "These grains are not sold, all of them are transported back to Fanjiazhuang for storage." In the future, if there is a disaster in Tianjin or Shandong, these grains will be the life-saving food at the bottom of our box. ”

Zheng Kaida said with a smile: "Grandpa Guo, you are scared of this Shandong drought!" ”

Li Zhi looked at his cousin and didn't speak.

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On 16 November, Li Zhi was still organizing soldiers from Osaka Castle to load rice on the ship.

The amount of this batch of rice was so large that Li Zhi's steamship alone could not transport it at once. Li Zhi was going to call Zheng Chenggong's more than 100 Dafu boats to carry them together.

Moreover, all the local Japanese ran out, and Li Zhi lacked labor. After the artillery fire at Osaka Castle stopped, the Japanese citizens of these castle towns did not return. It was all up to Li Zhi's soldiers to carry grain to the ships one by one, and it took seven or eight days to fill the sixty-three steamers.

I don't know when the Japanese citizens of Osaka's castle town will return.

However, Li Zhi was slowly transporting grain in Osaka, and he was not worried about the Tokugawa family attacking. In this era, it was a thousand miles from Edo in Japan to Osaka, and it took a month to march at a normal pace. Even if the Tokugawa family had recruited 100,000 troops in only half a month, it would be a month and a half before they came to Osaka.

In this month and a half, Li Zhi can make the fleet run Shandong at least three times and transport half of the grain back to China. At the same time, Li Zhi planned to let the fleet bring another 10,000 soldiers and horses on the way, and gather 20,000 soldiers and horses in Osaka.

Even if Tokugawa Ieyasu really mobilized 100,000 soldiers and horses to fight him, Li Zhi had 20,000 tiger soldiers, and there would be no problem in holding Osaka.

Li Zhi was fine that day, and was looking at the Japanese fields in the distance from the castle tower, but saw Zheng Kaida walking in.

"Grandpa Guo, Shimazu Mitsuhisa, the lord of the Satsuma Domain, and Morihide, the lord of the Choshu Domain, are here to visit!"

Li Zhi secretly said that the reaction of the Shimazu family of the Satsuma Domain was still very fast, and he captured Osaka Castle for two days, and Shimazu Mitsuhisa came. This time, the lord of the Choshu clan was brought in, could it be that this Choshu clan was preparing to oppose the Tokugawa clan with the Shimazu family?

Li Zhi looked at Zheng Kaida, and Zheng Kaida said: "Grandpa Guo, this Changzhou Domain is a relatively powerful feudal town in the western part of Honshu Island. Originally, the territory was vast, but because it had always been hostile to the Tokugawa family, it was repeatedly deprived of its territory. Although the family was obedient on the surface, they were probably very hostile to the Tokugawa shogunate in their hearts. ”

Li Zhi smiled and said, "Let the two of you in." ”

Zheng Kaida retreated, and after a while, Shimazu Hisamitsu walked in with a slightly chubby middle-aged man.

Li Zhi conquered Osaka Castle, the largest castle in western Japan, and his status and momentum in the hearts of the Japanese were very different. Osaka Castle was once the capital of Japan during the Toyotomi Hideyoshi era, and by conquering this castle, Li Zhi already had the momentum to challenge the Tokugawa shogunate. If it was still a temptation for Tokugawa Hisamitsu to come to see Li Zhi, then when he came back at this time, he was ready to follow Li Zhi.

Shimazu Hisamitsu took Maori Xiushi, all wearing silk feather weaving with the family crest, and knelt down as soon as he saw Li Zhi,

"Shimazu Hisamitsu, the lord of the Satsuma Domain, came with Morihide, the lord of the Choshu Domain, and met the Dameitsu National Palace."

Without waiting for Li Zhi to speak, Mao Lixiu lay on the ground and took a step forward, shouting loudly: "Maori Xiu is willing to lead the Choshu Domain to follow the Tsukoku Gongdian and overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate!" ”

Li Zhi blinked and did not speak.

Maori Xiu raised his head and said loudly: "The Maori family presented the famous Japanese sword and Izumi Mamoru Kanedori to the Tsukoku Gongdian to show their sincerity. ”

Mao Li Xiu had already given Zheng Kaida the Japanese sword as a gift, and Zheng Kaida presented the samurai sword at this time. Li Zhi took the treasure knife and looked at it, and nodded.

Li Zhi likes to fiddle with firearms, but he is not very interested in these cold weapons and knives.

Mao Lixiu saw that Li Zhi was interested in the katana, and his face was very disappointed, and he couldn't prostrate on the ground.

Shimazu Hisamitsu looked at Mori Hidesa, a little proud, and said loudly: "In order to show sincerity, the Satsuma Domain is willing to dedicate the most beautiful woman in Kyushu, Shimazu Chixia, to the Kokuko Hall as a side room. ”

The most beautiful woman in Kyushu?

Li Zhi was stunned and was about to speak, but saw a Japanese woman walk in.

A sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl dressed in a kimono with a high bun on her head walked in with broken steps. The woman's figure is wrapped under a kimono and is bumpy. The snow-white face was not covered with rouge, which was very beautiful, so that Li Zhi couldn't help but take a few more looks.