January in Osaka is still very pleasant, the weather is cool but not cold, and the weather is mostly sunny. The citizens of Osaka have clearly emerged from last year's war, and the streets of the New Year are as lively as ever.

Even though the negotiations between the coalition and the shogunate failed to reach any agreement, the well-informed citizens of Osaka were already convinced that the war was far away from Osaka. Osaka's inns are now full of representatives of princes from all over the world, and if they were secretive when they sent people to Osaka last year, then the representatives of the princes who poured into Osaka in the first month of this year can be said to be above board.

Even many southwestern princes have already taken out the faction of serving the shogunate and personally rushed to Osaka to pay homage to the new female Taiko Toyotomi Chiyo. Since three coalition warships forced their way into Edo Bay last month, one warship ventured to the vicinity of Nihonbashi and shelled Edo Castle, thus shaking the shogunate and the princes of the world.

Edo Castle, which began as a vision of Tokugawa Ieyasu and was completed by Ina Tadaji and Tadaka, was essentially a megacity built on the aid of a network of waterways. The water brought from the Tama River divided Edo Castle into a defensive system with a double moat inside and outside, and it also created a water passage for each neighborhood in Edo that could be used in a comprehensive way, and the bricks and stones used to build Edo Castle and the daily necessities of Edo Castle residents could be transported into Edo Castle through the water channel.

The design of Edo Castle made it almost invincible on land, but it also made it difficult for the small-caliber artillery of Edo Castle to hold back the attack of the allied ships when facing a naval attack from Edo Bay.

The damage caused by the bombardment of Edo Castle by the coalition fleet was not very large, but the psychological blow to the Edo shogunate was quite serious. Since Tokugawa Ieyasu built Edo Castle, it was the first time that anyone dared to fire at Edo Castle. These cannons of the coalition army suddenly broke the awe-inspiring image of the Tokugawa shogunate in the hearts of the princes of the world.

After the news of the bombardment of Edo Castle came out, the Kwantung princes, who were originally respectful to the shogunate, now had some attitude of wanting to wait and see. The chief of the shogunate, Naotaka Naotaka, even sent someone to intercede with the Grand Imperial Palace and the shogun, believing that no matter what kind of peace negotiation conditions should be agreed to first, and it is the best policy to persuade the Akito to go back first, otherwise the shogunate may be in danger of overturning.

Although many important ministers of the shogunate are still hard-mouthed, saying that the Ii sweeping department was frightened by the Ming army, it is complete nonsense. However, Matsudaira Nobutsuna also sent a letter in support of Naotaka Iii, which made it a little difficult for the general Iemitsu who had always held a tough stance to decide. When the Imperial Palace asked everyone about the one who was willing to lead troops to drive away the coalition ships in Edo Bay, the shogunate's bowed head and silent posture finally made Iemitsu come to his senses.

Under the instructions of the Great Imperial Palace, the Kyoto Shoji no longer prevented the imperial court from issuing an edict in the name of Emperor Akimasa to canonize Toyotomi Chiyo as Taiko, and this official position founded by Toyotomi Hideyoshi returned to the hands of the Toyotomi family again, which also meant the real revival of the Toyotomi family. In return, the coalition forces finally withdrew the fleet in Edo Bay.

However, the negotiations between the two sides still reached a dead end, and in fact, the shogunate could not be blamed at all. The coalition that really had the upper hand, except for the Akira and Toyotomi Chiyo, did not want to continue peace talks with the shogunate.

When the allied forces defeated the shogunate army in succession on the Osaka Plain and outside Hiroshima Castle, both the European colonists and the southwestern Japanese feudal domains immediately realized that the shogunate was not as strong as they had imagined. The Europeans, who had only wanted to get some compensation and trade benefits from the shogunate, and the three great feudal clans in the southwest, who only wanted to get rid of the shogunate's constant oppression of their own domain, were no longer satisfied with getting half of Japan's spoils, they wanted more.

However, whether it was the Europeans or the three powerful feudal clans in the southwest, they still had some self-knowledge, knowing that if the Ming people were not in the center, they would not be able to defeat the shogunate on their own, so they just blindly opened their mouths in the negotiations, instead of shouting that they would carry on the war alone.

Therefore, the Dutch proposed that the shogunate should compensate the Dutch East India Company for the loss of trade and military expenses of 7,500,000 taels of silver (the Chinese Kuping tael), and cede Iwami Ginzan or Sado Island; The Spaniards demanded that the shogunate pay 3 million taels for military expenses and cede Iwami Ginzan and part of Sado Island; The British offered the shogunate to compensate 2 million taels for trade losses and military expenses, and to cede part of Sado Island; The Portuguese demanded 3.5 million taels of compensation from the shogunate for lost trade, military expenses, and death pensions for missionaries, and demanded that the shogunate relax restrictions on Catholicism.

The southwestern feudal domains in the name of the Osaka shogunate proposed that the Edo shogunate should not interfere in the affairs of western Japan from now on, that the heavenly domain of western Japan should be under the name of the Osaka shogunate, that neither Osaka nor Edo should garrison troops in Kyoto, that the area of 30 li outside Luoyang should be directly managed by the imperial court, and that the shogunate should also compensate the southwestern feudal domains for their military expenses of 2 million taels.

Not to mention other political and trade terms, the compensation claimed above alone amounted to 18 million taels. The economic compensation and military compensation demanded by the Ming Dynasty for himself was 9 million taels, the loss of the Imjin War for Korea was 15 million taels, and the property loss of Ryukyu occupied by Japan was 3 million taels, and the amount of compensation was finally pushed to an astonishing 45 million taels.

Neither Naotaka Ii nor Nobutsuna Matsudaira could accept such a staggering amount of compensation, which is almost the same as the entire population of Japan paying 2 taels per person. The shogunate has lost nearly 20 million taels of gold and silver in this war, and the privileged merchants of the shogunate have lost about 5 million taels of silver, plus the losses of those Japanese merchants and pro-shogunate daimyos, this war has caused Japan to lose more than 30 million taels of hard currency, and then ask the Edo shogunate, which is only half of Japan, to come up with 45 million taels of silver, which is no different from the destruction of the Tokugawa family.

The shogunate still has about 6 million taels worth of gold and silver in the treasury in Edo, but this is the money that the shogunate is going to use to fight the coalition forces, so how can it be handed over to the other party.

So Ii Naotaka and Matsudaira Nobutsuna demanded that the coalition forces greatly reduce the compensation, and at the same time pointed out that the coalition forces had robbed the shogunate of at least nearly 30 million taels of gold and silver, which theoretically belonged to the Edo shogunate rather than the coalition forces.

In addition to the gold and silver worth 7 million taels smuggled back by the Ming ships, and the gold and silver worth more than 220 taels brought by Tokugawa Tadacho's wife to the Ming Dynasty, there was indeed a sum of silver and copper coins worth more than 1,300 taels in the public treasury of the coalition army. Of course, in the estimation of Ye Yuxuan, Xu Xinsu and others, about six or seven million taels worth of gold and silver fell into the hands of all sides of the coalition army.

After obtaining the account books of Osaka and Nagasaki, Ye Yuxuan and Xu Xinsu were almost able to estimate that the Edo shogunate could obtain more than 89,000 taels of gold and nearly 6 million taels of silver from the gold and silver mines in various places every year, and the shogunate could also get 7 million taels of silver a year, not counting the income from trade taxes and field taxes.

It was also the income from this hard currency that allowed the shogunate to build a large number of water conservancy facilities in Osaka Castle, Nijo Castle, Sunpu Castle, Edo Castle and Kanto, and to continue to buy luxury goods such as silk.

Although Japan's gold and silver production has been declining after decades of mining, after the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, Japan was at peace for nearly three decades, and the shogunate still had at least six or seven years of savings in its coffers, most of which were now used by the coalition forces.

Naturally, the coalition forces were unwilling to spit out the silver that fell into their hands as an indemnity for the shogunate. The shogunate was also reluctant to cut meat and feed the tigers to avoid falling into a situation where it was difficult to protect itself. As for the dispute over the ownership of Iwami Ginzan and Sado Island, it existed not only between the coalition forces and the shogunate, but also within the coalition forces, and no one was willing to give up the gold and silver mines.

And Ye Yuxuan, who presided over the negotiations, finally found that his prestige was not enough to unify the coalition forces, nor was it enough to force those Japanese to submit, and even there was a faint existence of jokes within the Ming army, obviously some people did not want him to win the honor of defeating the Japanese shogunate.

If we continue to grind like this in Osaka, even talking about spring will not lead to anything. Ye Yuxuan thought about it for a long time and decided to move the negotiation venue to Tianjin or Beijing, only far away from Japan, these shogunate envoys could not find an excuse to ask Edo for everything.

Zhang Guoji, the representative of the Ming Overseas Trade Bank, also very much agreed with Ye Yuxuan's opinion, originally according to the emperor's idea, after the shogunate admitted the defeat, the Ming would obtain two important powers from the shogunate, the first was to open the port of free trade and conclude a customs union on a reciprocal basis; The second is to help Japan reorganize its domestic financial institutions, form a central bank of Japan, and issue banknotes on its behalf.

The Osaka shogunate, which controlled western Japan, had no problem, but the Edo shogunate only agreed to open the ports for free trade, and vetoed all other conditions.

What made Zhang Guoji feel depressed was that the Edo shogunate did not veto it because they saw the harm that these conditions would bring to the Japanese economy after they were implemented, but because they did not know what kind of changes free trade and central banks would bring to Japan, so they decided to veto.

As an ideal businessman, what Zhang Guoji wants to do most now is to separate the Daming Overseas Trade Bank from the Daming Central Bank, Shanxi Bank, and Bank of Communications, and become the fourth bank in Daming with the right to issue notes.

In order to achieve this goal, he had to persuade Edo and Osaka to establish a national central bank together, and then he could ask the emperor and Tobe to make the Damei Overseas Trade Bank independent and become the central bank of the central banks of the countries surrounding the Ming Dynasty.

The refusal of the Edo shogunate hurt Zhang Guoki, and a bank that only included the western Japanese economic circle could hardly be called the central bank of Japan. Therefore, he also felt that he should get the representatives of the shogunate to go to the country and cut off their ties with Edo, so that he might be able to force them to agree.

With the exception of the Dutch, the rest of the coalition forces agreed with Ye Yuxuan's proposal and sent a letter to the shogunate, asking the other side to send plenipotentiary representatives to Tianjin for negotiations, and if they did not reply by February 5, the coalition forces would consider the negotiations between the two sides to be broken.

On February 4 of the fifth year of Chongzhen, before the deadline, Edo finally accepted the request of the coalition forces to change the venue for negotiations. On February 5, despite the dissuasion of Iemitsu and other retainers, Hidetada decided to go to the Ming Kingdom in person to negotiate.

Hidetada believed that the Chinese emperor had always regarded himself as the lord of the world, and since the shogunate was no longer able to resist the attack of the coalition militarily, the Tokugawa clan's political submission would be exchanged for the Chinese emperor's leniency towards the shogunate.

Blindly taking a hard line or delaying negotiations can only push the situation to an unpredictable outcome. The power of the coalition may not be able to conquer Japan, but it will be enough to defeat the Edo shogunate.

On February 12, Hidetada arrived at Osaka Castle, and Toyotomi Chiyo personally went out of the castle to greet him, and when the two grandfathers and grandsons met, they were still as close as ever.