Text Volume 3 The Road to Empire_Chapter 307 The Transformation of the Western Kingdom IV
When Hideuni appeared in front of everyone in a vulgar manner, this scene was actually expected by Shimazu Iehisa.
However, Tadahiro Kato and Tadayuki Kuroda took the lead in supporting the rise of the Toyotomi family, and Sadayoshi Fukuhara echoed and agreed, but it was really beyond Shimazu Iehisa's expectations.
One step away from the position of the leader of the southwestern princes, but he was robbed of the fruits of victory by an outdated Toyotomi orphan girl, not to mention that the Shimazu family was unbearable for a long time, and even those Satsuma samurai who had just seen hope raised objections.
The Shimazu retainers, represented by Shimazu Kuga, questioned the qualifications of Toyotomi Chiyo to represent the Toyotomi family, because the other party was a woman, and there was no way to guarantee the continuation of the Toyotomi bloodline.
Then they asked whether they wanted to steal the fruits of the princes' hard work in the previous great cause of the downfall, but now they want to become the leaders of the princes.
However, as soon as the doubts of the Shimazu retainers subsided, the lord of the Kumamoto domain, Tadahiro Kato, and the lord of the Fukuoka domain, Tadayuki Kuroda, retorted one after another, believing that the rebellion against the shogunate was out of righteousness, not for their own interests.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the emperor canonized the Taiko, and he was also the king of Japan canonized by the Ming Emperor, and the Tokugawa clan destroyed the Toyotomi clan with his own selfishness, which was an unrighteous act. At the beginning, the Satsuma clan was one of the princes who swore allegiance to the Toyotomi clan, but in the subsequent Battle of Sekigahara, he turned his back on the Toyotomi clan because of his own selfishness, and he did not end well, which is the consequence of the lack of righteousness.
Now that the old lord Toyotomi clan still has bloodline, then everyone should fight to the end with the shogunate under the banner of Toyotomi to wash away the shame in the Battle of Sekigahara. At this time, it is necessary to push back and put one's own interests before the general righteousness, then it shows that there is no difference between the Shimazu family and the Tokugawa clan, and they both want to steal the position of the people in the world.
Although the retainers of the Shimazu family thought so in their hearts, and the Shimazu family believed that Mori and the Kato clan, and even the powerful princes in the world thought so, he also knew that this kind of thing could not be admitted.
Because the Shimazu family is not qualified to talk about the belonging of the people of the world now, unless they can become the leaders of the princes of Kyushu. But looking at the princes of Kyushu who were faintly united and excluded the Shimazu family, as well as the Akito and Mori families who were watching from the sidelines, the Shimazu family could only speak out and make it clear that the family did not want to get involved in the position of the people of the world.
Making such a statement on such an occasion, Shimazu Iehisa was dripping with blood in his heart, and he knew that unless there was a miracle, the position of the people of the world would no longer have anything to do with the Shimazu family.
What to discuss at the subsequent meeting, Shimazu Iehisa actually has nothing to care about. Because Toyotomi Chiyo, who has the support of the princes of Kyushu, has completely controlled the meeting. As for how to divide the lands of those who failed, the isolated Satsuma clan clearly became a loser.
Sure enough, after winning the position of the leader of the princes, the first thing Toyotomi Chiyo said was: "What His Royal Highness Satsuma said just now is also good, my Toyotomi clan did not contribute much when the princes were fighting. Therefore, I decided that I would not take any of the land of the other princes except the Shogunate Heavenly Lord, and the Toyotomi clan..."
Toyotomi Chiyo's promise was immediately met with an eager response from the Kyushu princes, and the Satsuma clan took 240,000 koku from the 440,000 koku territory confiscated from the defeated princes, and half of the remaining 200,000 koku territory was given to the Choshu domain, thus offsetting the Choshu domain's claim to the Kokura domain.
The four Nabeshima families led by the Saga Domain, the lord of the domain, Nabeshima Katsushige, was stubborn and was ordered to abdicate and live in seclusion. The Saga Domain's throne was ceded to his younger brother Nabeshima Tadashige, and the Saga Domain was reduced by 200,000 koku and transferred to the Kumamoto Domain.
In addition, Ryuzoji Boan, the son of Ryuzoji Takabo, and Ryuzoji Temple's brother, Ryuzoji Temple, shared the 100,000 stone territory confiscated from the defeated princes equally, and revived the Ryuzoji family.
Fukuoka, Kokura and other princes of Kyushu who had joined the coalition side woke up after the Battle of Kumamoto, and they were able to keep their original territories only after being ordered to pay a fine.
This review meeting presided over by Toyotomi Chiyo, even Shimazu Iehisa couldn't find any major faults. However, the decision of this meeting still disappointed the Shimazu family for a long time, so that the Satsuma Domain, which had originally promised to send 12,000 troops to Kamiraku, finally provided only 6,000 troops.
The Kumamoto Domain promised to send 5,000 troops, the Fukuoka Domain 3,000, the Ogura Domain 1,500, the Nabeshima family 2,500, the Ryuzoji family 1,000, and the rest of the princes sent a total of 3,500 troops, plus the 500 Toyotomi remnants recruited by the Tokai Patrol Prefecture, for a total of 17,000 troops.
After pacifying the princes of Kyushu in the name of the Toyotomi clan, Ye Yuxuan immediately turned his attention back to the economy and people's livelihood in Nagasaki.
Although the climate in the Kyushu area was normal this year, the grain of each domain was either purchased in advance by the coalition forces or preserved due to preparations for war, so the price of grain in Nagasaki and Hirado remained high.
Although the war within Kyushu is over, the alliance of the princes who are about to launch Shangluo will still not sell the strategic material of grain to the market. Nagasaki itself was developed as a hilly wasteland by the sea, and food and other daily necessities had to be imported from outside.
Now that there is no input from outside, the price of local grain has naturally risen to the point that even the merchants are a little unbearable, for example, rice has risen to 3,400 wen per 100 kilograms. Because of the war, Nagasaki's entrepot trade also shrank a lot, so stabilizing the price of rice in Nagasaki became Ye Yuxuan's first task.
Although Tanegashima, Ryukyu and other places still hoarded a lot of rice, Ye Yuxuan did not plan to use this batch of reserves. He happened to know that the weather in North Korea this year is good, and the price of rice is only 1,200-1,300 wen per 100 kilograms.
Although the goods brought by the Chinese merchants could not be sold at a high price in Korea, they would not lose much if they were exchanged for grain and shipped back to Nagasaki and Hirado.
Ye Yuxuan handed over the purchase of grain to Lin Qingye's brother Lin Zhongxin and the Nagasaki merchant Ichchi Langbei brothers. After the Battle of Wanli in Korea, although some trade between Japan and North Korea had resumed, it was only through small trade with the Ma Domain, and Japanese ships were still restricted from going to Korea.
But now, under the banner of the Ming Dynasty, and with the help of Lin Qingye's family from the three waters, there should be no problem with this grain trade. Of the more than a dozen Ming merchant ships anchored in Nagasaki Port, eight or nine joined the route.
Before the Ichiro Guards brothers set out, Ye Yuxuan set up a citizens' court in the name of the Nagasaki Autonomous Assembly, and firstly, the Guangxing incident was re-tried; The second is the trial of the former Nagasaki for the crime of collecting women in Takenaka.
The Guangxing was sent back to its original owner, and the imprisoned Chinese crew and the Portuguese missionary Julian were released and given some financial compensation. However, the most important thing in this trial was that the Catholic Church in Macau was granted the right to preach freely in Nagasaki, and the Japanese Chechitans, who had previously been persecuted by the shogunate, were given the right to open their faith without being persecuted.
As for the greedy and lustful Nagasaki former commissioner Takenaka Cainu, he was sentenced to beheading in an anonymous vote of nine members of the trial who abstained from voting with two abstentions and seven votes in favor.
If the citizens of Nagasaki still have reservations about the verdict in the previous case, everyone is happy to see the execution of the Takenaka Maiden. For a moment, they didn't notice that the Association had quietly stolen the ruling power of the city.
While Ye Yuxuan was busy calming the hearts of the princes of Nagasaki and Kyushu, the various forces in Osaka City were also busy negotiating.
After a detachment of the Southern Route Fleet bombarded the Abe Shoji Army at Hyogo, which had captured the port, the Abe Shoji Army stopped its march towards Osaka and began to clear the remnants of Kataoka, which had retreated to Mt. Rokko.
After several days of support, Kataoka Saemon retreated with more than 300 men to Tenma Town, north of Osaka Castle. At the behest of Li Chenfang, the 1st Division drew two squadrons, plus the newly recruited soldiers, and expanded the Kataoka detachment into a complete wing.
If you count the wing brought by Xu Xinsu, Osaka Castle now has 2 divisions plus 2 infantry wings, and 12 town police squads, with a total of more than 7,000 land forces, not counting the southern route fleet with 12 warships as the core.
After secretly signing peace treaties with the Tokushima and Kishu domains, and forcing Abe's Masaji army to stop with naval power, the citizens of Osaka Castle and around were naturally ecstatic, which was even better than they had expected.
At this time, even those former Osaka shogunate samurai who were still doubting whether Li Chenfang and the others were subordinates of His Highness Tadacho were now praying that they had better be His Highness Tadacho's subordinates, otherwise they were worried that they would be abandoned by the other party.
In the army, Yuta Higuchi of the 1st Division was represented, and the Osaka City Council was represented by Yoshinaga Saemon, the owner of Izumiya, and these people were now the representatives of Tokugawa Tadanaga who were the most supporters of Osaka Castle.
It's just that Yuta Higuchi was forced, and in the current situation, being loyal to His Royal Highness Tadacho was able to avoid the charge of betraying the Tokugawa clan. As for the copper merchants represented by Yoshinaga Saemon, they invested too much capital in Tadacho, and they could only recover their costs after Tadashi ascended to the position of general.
Previously, when Li Chenfang captured Osaka City, Yoshinaga Saemon did not dare to jump out, and after Xu Xinsu rushed into Osaka Bay with the fleet, Yoshinaga Saemon and others finally couldn't bear it anymore and asked Li Chenfang and Xu Xinsu for their compensation.
Although these copper merchants supported Tokugawa Tadacho, Xu Xinsu really didn't dare to offend them. In Japan, Japanese copper has risen to 19-20 yuan per 100 catties, while in Shanghai, Suzhou and other places, the price of copper is 28 yuan per 100 catties.
Since last year, Japan's copper exports to China have stabilized at about 6 million catties, which is almost 80% of Japan's annual copper output. Because of China's strong demand, Japan's copper production has also been growing, and it is a matter of time before Japan exports tens of millions of catties of copper every year.
These Japanese copper materials have greatly alleviated the money shortage in the south of the Daming River. For Xu Xinsu, they are the God of Wealth who holds the source of wealth. Without their help, where would Daming go to find so many copper imports, naturally he would have paid more respect to them.
However, Yoshinaga Saemon and others were not satisfied with the current peace in Osaka, and after receiving the news that His Royal Highness Tadashi led troops to repel the shogunate army, they found Li Chenfang and Xu Xinsu and asked for troops to be sent to Kyoto, hoping to provide political support for His Royal Highness Tadacho after controlling the imperial court.