Yamaguchi Parkway is not the beautiful star we know in later generations, but a big shipper in Hanoi, the center of the cotton weaving industry near Osaka, Japan.

The so-called big shippers are also big businessmen. Son Pass Parkway is one of the largest shippers in Hanoi. He buys cotton at low prices from cotton-rich farmers in Osaka, and then supplies it to more than 100 spinners in Hanoi, and buys back the cotton yarn made by the spinners every once in a while. At the same time, Yamaguchi Parkway provided the cotton yarn in his hands to the weavers in Kawachi City, who would weave homespun cloth, which would then be purchased according to its fineness and sold in Osaka, Edo, or even Nagasaki.

A large shipper like Yamaguchi Parkway has a profit of more than 100,000 taels almost every year. This year, however, he stepped up the scale, recruiting dozens of spinners and weavers from other competitors, and further expanding production. Of course, he made more money, and in the first eight months of this year alone, he made a profit of 200,000 taels.

According to the past practice, when the end of the year was approaching, he began to hoard homespun cloth, thinking that at the end of the year, when people had a harvest and a fortune, and had enough money to push the price of homespun cloth, he would release the homespun cloth in his hand to obtain the maximum profit. According to his calculations, it is very likely that there will be a profit of 400,000 taels this year.

But all of this came to an abrupt end two months ago!

Yamaguchi Parkway can still painfully remember that on the day he went to Osaka to deliver homespun cloth, a large number of cloths suddenly appeared in Osaka City, which were exquisitely made and delicate, and the price was only 4.5 taels of silver per horse. And the new cloth, known as the Chinese cloth, was overflowing. The reason is that the cloth is not only cheap, but also strong and exquisite.

Since then, Yamaguchi Parkway has been in trouble, and the accumulation of homespun cloth in his home has become more and more hoarded, and he has to intervene to stop buying cotton, stop production, and the whole business comes to a standstill.

He wanted to stay up for a while, but he thought that after this limelight, the branch of that cloth would be sold out of the head office, and his own homespun cloth would be able to sell. Unexpectedly, not only did the cloth not sell out, but there were more of them, and the price became cheaper, from 4.5 taels per horse to 4.2 taels, and even, some people privately said that as long as they bought more, the price reached 4 taels.

This completely defeated Yamaguchi Parkway. You know, he buys cotton and turns it into yarn and weaves it into cloth, and the cost of tossing back and forth is more than 4.5 taels. That piece of cloth only sells for 4 taels! Lose money!

He couldn't figure it out! Are those people stupid and doing loss-making business? After persisting for 2 months, he couldn't help it and secretly inquired, but the result left him dumbfounded!

In Osaka Castle, two long-time friends who sell Shina cloth carefully revealed to him that their purchase cost was only 3.5 taels per horse! Even if they sell 4 taels each, they still have a profit of 1 to 20%. And, according to their estimates, there is a good chance that the cost of this stick of cloth will be lower.

Hearing this result, Yamaguchi Parkway was stupid! In desperation, he could only admit it. All the homespun cloth hoarded in his hands was sold at a price of 4.2 taels per horse, and each horse lost 0.3 taels.

There is no way to do the homespun business! Yamaguchi Parkway was confused.

At this time, he received a letter from a merchant who called himself Rosen, saying that he wanted to cooperate with him in business, to help them buy tens of thousands of cotton every year, and then provide him with fine cloth for him to sell.

Yamaguchi Parkway immediately got up and hurriedly agreed.

…….

At the same time, in Edo Castle and within the Tokugawa shogunate, letters from various feudal domains came like snowflakes. The current shogun, Tokugawa Iesada, frowned, and beside him were several retainers of the shogunate, either gloomy or full of anger.

"Shogun, not only the dozens of small feudal clans such as Anbo, Omi, Yamato, Kawachi, Ueno, and Dewa have reported that there have been urgent reports, but also the major feudal clans such as Mosa, Nagato, Tosa, Musashi, and Mito have reported that since Nagasaki was transferred to the Nasaga domain, the cotton spinning craftsmen in the domain have gone bankrupt, lost their jobs, and become displaced and become ronin. They have asked the Shogun's Mansion to take back Nagasaki, and then let the Nasaga Domain stop the dumping of Shina cloth! "The head of the shogunate's retainers is the elder Abe Masahiro, and at this moment he is frowning, obviously very worried about this.

However, one of the retainers said, "But Elder, since Nagasaki was assigned to the Saga Domain, not only has I guaranteed my Shogun's Mansion a million stone of grain every year, but also has a monthly tax of nearly 100,000 taels of silver. This was unimaginable before, and it greatly relieved the financial and tax pressure on our general's office. As for the other domains, what does the life and death of some lowly craftsmen in their territories have to do with my general's mansion? Besides, it would be a good thing if those feudal clans, especially the powerful feudal clans such as Nagato Mosa, could reduce their strength in this way. ”

Before the Tokugawa family could speak, another chubby old man Nakai Yi said straightly: "That Saga Domain is ambitious. According to the detectives, the current newcomer domain lord is simply a puppet, and the authority of the Saga domain is in the hands of a Chinese surnamed Lin. In the long run, I'm afraid that the Saga domain will completely become a place controlled by Shina. When the time comes, the other side will encroach step by step, and I am afraid that the whole of Japan will be invaded. ”

"Yes, general, elder, you know that not long ago, North Korea has been annexed by China!" The question raised by another skinny old man, Nakamatsudaira Dingfang, made everyone's hearts sink, and he continued: "Shina is very ambitious, although my great Japan is barren, but it is much richer than that Korea, and the other party will definitely not let it go." Therefore, in my opinion, the Saga domain must be a springboard for China. You have to deal with it early and kill it! ”

Obviously, the retainers of the General's Mansion were also divided into two factions. One faction thought that it was a good thing that the Saga Domain controlled Nagasaki and that the shogunate had made a lot of profits, and that it had also attacked other feudal states. On the other hand, the Saga Domain believed that the Saga Domain had posed a threat and that it should be resolved as soon as possible from the perspective of the overall situation, since the shogunate was the nominal control of the whole of Japan.

Shogun Tokugawa Iedai was sick and weak from an early age, and he was cowardly by nature, and in the words of later generations, he was autistic and suffered from brain-damaging paralysis, that is, mild brain damage. Therefore, as long as the elder Masahiro Abe is here, he can't make his own decisions.

He could only look at Masahiro Abe.

The latter understood, nodded and said, "General, my lords, originally the Shogun's Mansion transferred Nagasaki to the Saga Domain in order to solve the financial pressure, but also to strengthen the control of the foreign affairs of the various domains. But I didn't expect so many problems to happen in a short period of time. The cloth was so prolific, so good in quality, and so inexpensive, that the weavers of the great Japanese feudal kingdoms could not survive. But I didn't expect it. ”

Masahiro Abe gritted his teeth: "The root of this matter is still in Shina!" Although China is strong enough to annex Korea, Japan is not a small country like Korea, and if those vassal states can obey the deployment of the shogunate, there will be no less than hundreds of thousands of soldiers? Why fear that China? But it's a pity that these feudal states have their own plans and can't work together. Relying on the strength of our general's office alone, at most it is stronger than North Korea, and it is impossible to confront the enemy of China at all. Now, we can only use those feudal states! Don't they hate the Saga Domain? So they sent troops to attack the Saga Domain, and our shogunate waited and saw what happened. This is just a battle between the feudal states, and it is difficult for Shina to send troops, so he can only secretly help the Saga domain. When those feudal states defeat the Saga Domain, our Shogunate will come forward and make both Nagasaki and Saga Domain directly under the Shogunate. ”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Masahiro Abe also looked proud. The method he thought of was actually to let the vassal snipes compete with each other, and the shogunate fishermen benefited. In his opinion, even if the Saga Domain was strong, it would not be able to oppose the many feudal states, and the struggle between these feudal states was allowed as a shogun's office. At the beginning, the feudal lords of the Saga Domain were fighting, and it wasn't because the people of the Saga Domain and Lawson sent a big gift, so he agreed to come down with a boat!