The next day, at dawn, several samurai-looking men pulled up outside the gate of the Tagawa clan with a Japanese-style carriage. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 Info A man stepped out of the carriage. Zheng Sen and the others, who had been waiting at the door for a long time, hurriedly greeted the old man in.

This person was Matsuura Dong, the lord of the Hirado Domain. Matsuura-dong entered the house, and Zheng Sen gave him up to the throne. Matsuura excused himself a little and sat down.

"When Zheng Ji was still in Hirado before, I knew that Zheng Ji would do a lot in the future, and today really confirmed my vision. Speaking of which, our two families can be regarded as world friends, and our two families have been friends since the time of my father and Ling Zun. Now that your family's business is getting bigger and bigger, I saw that your ship to Nagasaki is really as big as a mountain. In addition, there are two boats that look like Dutch ships. Matsuura said with a smile.

"The business is really getting bigger and bigger. This was also mainly due to the care of the feudal lord and the shogunate. Zheng Sen replied, "As for the ships, we have hired some European shipbuilders, and we have also built some European-style ships, mainly for warships, to deal with those Spanish pirates who interfere with the normal order of trade at sea." ”

"I heard that your country is at war with the Spaniards? Those Spaniards were the most ill-intentioned and liked to propagate heresy the most, and they didn't know how much trouble they had made in Japan back then. "Matsuura Road.

"Heresy is fine, since ancient times evil has not prevailed over good, and what heresy says is just to deceive stupid people." Zheng Sen smiled and shook his head, "The most hateful thing about Spaniards is that they don't do business properly. Originally, everyone did business, exchanged what they had, each took what they needed, everyone had money to make, and it promoted the friendship between the two sides, just like my family and your domain, isn't it beautiful. However, the Spaniards always want to monopolize all the interests of one person, and they cannot get it by legitimate means, so they specialize in those indiscriminate methods of robbery and murder. The feudal lord also knew that when the Spaniards first arrived in Luzon, they were only borrowing a piece of land in Luzon to settle down temporarily and do some business. Luzon lost its vigilance against the Spaniards, and as a result, the Spaniards colluded with a gang of rebels in Luzon through missionary work, and suddenly launched a rebellion, which turned out to be ...... And Luzon perished. A few days ago, they plundered and killed Chinese businessmen who were doing legitimate business in Manila, and my family presided over justice and came out to teach them a lesson, and at that time these Spaniards expressed their willingness to change their past mistakes, and we forgave them in the spirit of forgiveness. I don't want these Spaniards to be human-faced and animal-hearted, fearful of power but not virtuous. They were forced to retreat by force, but once they relented, they reverted to their old ways, and a few days ago they began to plunder and kill legitimate merchants. This is also the scourge left behind by my family's inexhaustible elimination of evil last time. So this time they must be expelled from Luzon completely. ”

"Yes, these Spaniards are the most hateful. The last rebellion in the Shimabara Rebellion of the Despicable Country was caused by them. Matsuura Dong also said hatefully. Although the Shimabara Rebellion did not involve Matsuura's territory, the untouchables in the territory organized themselves through Christianity to seek clerical authority corresponding to the lord's power, and even to oppose the lord by force. This is a threat to all the daimyo in the whole of Japan, and nowadays, there is no distinction between relatives and genealogies, and there is no distinction between relatives and genealogies in the attitude towards such things.

In fact, whether it is the Zheng family or the Matsuura family, they are all well-known pirates, and if they want to say that they do business unruly, and play murder and robbery, they are all full of kung fu. Now the two of them condemned the Spaniards together, and they all looked righteous and awe-inspiring.

"Fortunately, the shogunate was quick to ban the spread of the cult and expelled the Spaniards from Japan." Matsuura sighed again, "Otherwise, it's really chilling to think about." ”

"The year before I heard some stories about the Spaniards from a Dutch merchant...... Zheng Sen told Matsuura how Francisco Pizarro destroyed the Incas and how Hernán Cortés destroyed the Aztecs.

"This ...... This...... How could there be such a thing? Even Matsuura, who was born in a pirate family, couldn't help but show an expression of such an operation.

At that time, I heard the Dutch talk about this, and I didn't believe it. The first is that I don't believe that anyone can be so stupid, and the second is that I don't believe that there are such bad people in the world. You know, the Dutch and the Spaniards have always been at odds, so I thought it was a deliberate attempt by the Dutch to slander the Spaniards, if not out of nowhere, but an exaggeration. Later and merchants from other countries, such as France and England, they all confirmed the story. Later, I even got a book printed by the Spaniards themselves, which also recorded these things. Moreover, the Spaniards not only did not hide anything in their books, but boasted of their treachery in selling clothes used by smallpox patients, deceiving the king that they were going to negotiate, and then seizing them for money. Zheng Sen added.

"What a barbarian!" Matsuura Dong Road. Anyway, it was impossible for him to do business with the Spaniards at this time, and it was no problem to scold the Spaniards.

"The war with the Spaniards also interfered with Zheng Ji's family's business, right?" Matsuura asked again.

"That's natural, fortunately, there is still the support of your clan and the shogunate, otherwise it would really be impossible to open the pot." Zheng Sen smiled and said, "Moreover, I heard that the Spaniards are preparing an expeditionary fleet. So in order to guard against them, we also had to spend more money to prepare the water army, and as a result, the money we earned was almost not enough to spend. ”

"But I heard that you occupy the land of the original Luzon Kingdom, and that is probably a land with millions of stones, right?" Matsuura Dong said with a little envy. In Japan, daimyo often describe the land in terms of the amount of food produced by the land.

"Yes, a big piece of land. And in the warm south, there is rain, there is no drought, and it can be cultivated three times a year. Zheng Sen said, "Most of the locals are lazy, because the conditions in this place are so good, they won't go hungry if they plow casually." But that was a good thing before the Spaniards arrived in Luzon. How is your domain doing now? ”

"Not so good." Matsuura shook his head, and his little goatee shook and shook.

"What's wrong? Did something go wrong? Zheng Sen asked.

"Nowadays trade has to be done in Nagasaki, not in Hirado Castle. As a result, the Hirado clan will receive much less, and my expenses will be very large. Matsuura sighed.

Zheng Sen naturally knew why Matsuura Dong had a lot of expenses. This was due to the Tokugawa shogunate's system of restricting attendance and accountability for various daimyos.

After the Battle of Sekigahara that year, Tokugawa Ieyasu became the boss, and in order to control the daimyo in various places and prevent them from plotting against each other, the Tokugawa shogunate gradually developed a system called the attendance account.

This system stipulated that the wives of the daimyo in each region had to live in Edo, which was under the control of the Tokugawa family, and that the feudal lord himself had to live in Edo for one year every other year, while holding positions in the shogunate and working for the shogunate. As a result, most of the daimyo spent half of their time in Edo; Considering that Japan is mountainous and not easily accessible, they spend a very large part of their remaining time traveling back and forth. Especially for the so-called daimyo of the outer daimyos, most of their fiefdoms were far away from Edo, and they spent more time on the road. As a result, the feudal lord did not have much time to rectify his internal affairs, or even prepare to raise an army in Shangluo.

This trick not only controlled the time of the feudal lords, but also had a great significance in making the feudal lords spend money. The cost of traveling back and forth along the way, as well as various expenses for living in Edo, had to be paid for by the feudal lords themselves. Originally, the Japanese have always been frugal, even if it is a daimyo, because there are no rich people around to compare, and the expenses under normal conditions are limited and frugal. However, Edo is expensive, and it is not easy to live in a big place. Moreover, after these daimyo were concentrated in Edo, the situation changed, and the daimyo lived near other daimyos, which made a comparison, and then some of the ill-intentioned daimyo and genealogical daimyo took the lead in breaking the rules and wasting money, and as a result, everyone compared, and Edo became a bottomless pit and a gold hole. On the one hand, this consumed the financial resources of the daimyos, but on the other hand, it promoted the economic prosperity and strengthened the economic power of the shogunate, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

In addition to the cost of traveling in Edo, the cost of traveling along the road is also a significant expense. When the daimyo arrived in Edo, it would take a month or two to get it right, and the entourage of the daimyo should not be too shabby. Although according to the regulations, the daimyo was not allowed to bring no more than 20 cavalry to enter the Hajj, but there were not too many restrictions on the rest of the entourage. As long as you have money and can afford it, you can bring as much as you want. In addition, it was those pro-feudal daimyo and genealogy daimyo who shared pants with the shogunate took the lead, making the team bigger and bigger. In particular, every time the royal three families attend work, they talk about pomp and circumstance, and thousands of people are at every turn, as if they are "showing off their wealth". The other daimyos, on the other hand, brought fewer people, and not only did they lose their faces, but even the lowly merchants in Edo Castle would show their contempt for them. However, the Gosan family was already close to Edo, and although there were many people who used it, it only took a few days to arrive in Edo. And those outward names have to learn from them, but it really costs a lot. Later, some of the poorer daimyo could not support such a pomp and circumstance, so they had to take a small number of people to the vicinity of Edo, and then hire some part-time workers on the spot to pretend to be their entourage, enter Edo Castle in style, and then dismiss them.

"Is there anything I can do to help the Domain Lord?" Zheng Sen asked.

"Absolutely." "It would be nice if Zheng could sell me more struvite and increase the amount of sulfur and copper he bought from us." Also, I'm going to Edo in a few days. The main hall is also very interested in Zheng Ji, and hopes to meet Zheng Ji. If Zheng Ji is free, I wonder if he can go to Edo with me. ”