Tokugawa Iemitsu put down the chess pieces and said: "I look at Zheng Yu's words yesterday, and there seems to be something unfinished. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info I think, yesterday there were a lot of people, Zheng Ji had some things that were not easy to say, but today here are all credible people, I don't know if I can teach me. ”

When Zheng Sen heard this, he smiled and said, "Yesterday, I suddenly asked, where Zheng Sen could answer, and it was not for other reasons. When Zheng Sen went back last night, he suddenly remembered something. I can say it and consult with His Royal Highness the General. ”

Tokugawa sat up straight and said, "I hope Mr. will teach you." ”

Zheng Sen said: "Japan's current problems are not outside, but inside, and the most worrying thing is the collusion between inside and outside. ”

As soon as he said this, Tokugawa Iemitsu's eyes immediately lit up.

"There are many unreliable daimyo in Japan. If these people are tempted by the outside, it is easy for them to do things that collude with the inside. The general's policy of banning the sea and closing the country is actually to prevent them from colluding with outsiders. And if the sea is forbidden and the country is closed, in today's situation, there will be the drawbacks mentioned yesterday. In my second thought, the policy of banning the sea and locking the country is to lock the hands and feet of those big names, not to lock the hands and feet of generals. For example, if there is a treasure that many thieves want to steal, how can we keep it? ”

"Arrest all those thieves!" Yagyu Shibei Road.

"There are too many thieves, what should I do if I can't catch them?" Zheng Sen asked.

"How about sending more people to guard over the thieves and not allowing the thieves to take advantage of them?" Yagyu Shibei said again.

"There must be a mistake in a hundred secrets, as long as there is a mistake, the consequences will be unimaginable, as the so-called only a thousand days to be a thief, how can there be a thousand days to prevent thieves. What's more, it is even more troublesome to prevent someone from guarding and stealing. Zheng Sen shook his head and said.

"Is there a better way?" Yanagi Shibei said with a frown.

"There's a very simple way." Zheng Sen said, "Let's go and steal that thing ourselves." And then those thieves don't have anything to steal? ”

"Huh? And such a practice? Yagyu Shibei was taken aback.

"The shogunate's ban on the sea and the closure of the country was to prevent those daimyo from colluding with outsiders to take the opportunity to strengthen their strength and plot against them. It's not about not trying to strengthen your strength in order not to associate with foreigners. Therefore, on the one hand, the shogunate should strengthen the ban on the sea and lock the country, but on the other hand, it should strengthen its own contacts with the Ming and other friendly countries, and take advantage of the opportunity of trade to send people loyal to the shogunate to learn from the friendly countries. For example, if the shogunate wishes, my family is willing to strengthen its relationship with the shogunate, and in addition to ordinary business dealings, we can provide the shogunate with the opportunity to learn a variety of new methods of warfare, including land and sea warfare techniques. And with these Shogunate's own talents, the Shogunate will be able to form its own fleet in the future - a fleet of specialized warships. With such a fleet, the shogunate could truly and effectively cut off the avenues of collusion between outsiders and the daimyo. Zheng Sen said calmly.

"In this way, all the feudal clans will be unhappy." Yagyu Shibei Road.

"Even if they have grievances in their hearts, do they dare to do anything? What else can I do? Isn't the shogunate hoping that such a guy will jump out? Since the Battle of Sekigahara, most of the daimyo who used to be hostile to the Tokugawa family have succumbed, but do you really believe that they are truly loyal to the Tokugawa family? IMHO, the reason why these daimyo obeyed the Tokugawa family was only because of the Tokugawa family's troops; And the reason why the Tokugawa family was willing to accept their allegiance even though they knew that their loyalty was unreliable was because although the Tokugawa family had the advantage in military strength, it was not easy to eliminate them. So although everyone is nominally a monarch now, in fact, whether it is some daimyo or the shogunate, I am afraid that they all regard each other as enemies, right? In this case, no matter what the shogunate did, they would not have any good ideas in their hearts. Why did the shogunate weaken itself? ”

What Zheng said is not unreasonable, but the blatant adoption of unfair policies is still not good. And it is possible to unite all the feudal clans that are dissatisfied with us. This leads to more problems. Tokugawa Iemitsu said the same.

"It's easy to be fair, and fairness in the text is actually the best way to defend unfairness." Zheng Sen laughed, "For example, raising the bar, well, I mean allowing them to join, but putting a very high standard on this type of exchange, and then using those standards to make them exhausted by it." Moreover, the shogunate could also use its dominant position to divide the feudal domains and sow discord between them. The simplest way to do this is an arms race, where everyone buys all kinds of armaments, and then relying on the financial advantage, the shogunate can defeat them without a fight. ”

"So, what does Zheng hope to get from us?" Tokugawa said suddenly, staring into Zheng Sen's eyes.

"Of course, I would like to get more out of Japan." Zheng Sen replied very bluntly, "First of all, I need Japanese silver. General, do you know the production of silver in the whole world? ”

Tokugawa shook his head blankly.

Zheng Sen said: "Today, half of the silver in the whole world comes from the mines of the Spaniards. Half of the silver used by the Ming came from trade with the Spaniards. Now that my family is at war with Spain, this silver is naturally broken. Although we were able to get some silver through trade with the Netherlands and other countries, they could not provide that much silver, which caused the price of silver to skyrocket. Although my family had hoarded a lot of silver before the war with the Spaniards, my family had not suffered from the change in the value of the silver at least for now, and Tessie's demand for my Daming's property had not diminished, it was nothing more than a transfer of silver from the Dutch. It's just that it's not a good thing that Daming's silver is too dependent on the Taixi people, and we need more and more stable sources of silver. I've heard that Iwami Ginzan in Japan is one of the few major silver mines in the world. In addition, the copper mines in your country are also very important to my family, and if the shogunate can increase the production of silver, increase trade with my family, order more things from my family, such as warships, cannons, muskets, or iron cannons, and purchase various related services, my family is of course willing to fully support the shogunate.

In addition, His Royal Highness the Shogun, Japan's largest silver mine and largest copper mine, are directly under the direct control of the Shogun, whether it is the purchase of muskets, artillery warships, or related training services, it costs money. And we only have silver and brass. So, even if the feudal domains were given the opportunity to trade with us, how could their financial resources compare to that of the shogunate, which owned Iwami Ginzan? Once the shogunate began to strengthen the military, they had to keep up. In this way, how can they possibly hold up their financial resources? In such an arms race, they will definitely collapse first. Of course, this process is very beneficial to my family. ”