"However, His Royal Highness Zonglong acted without permission, which clearly disrespected your authority, your father, and also showed a tendency to centrifuge your family...... Isn't that okay? Jing Zheng said unyieldingly, with a posture of insisting on saying it.

"If you want to say that you acted without permission, it was you and Gao Hu who did not respect His Royal Highness Zonglong in the first place!" I sighed and called his nickname and admonished, "Keisaburo, Iga is ruled by His Royal Highness Sotaka, which is the unanimous decision of the wealthy families in the country, and it is also the result of a compromise between the two sides. Even I can't easily change this fact, otherwise the people of Iga will probably resist us, and then initiate a rebellion against the country, returning to the state of the previous state of joint deliberation. ”

"Then let's start a conquest!" Keimasa was very unimpressed, "With the strength of my own family, I will deal with the ...... of Iga Country"

I tilted my head slightly and looked at him solemnly. Under my gaze, his voice grew quieter and quieter, and finally he didn't finish the sentence.

"Jing Saburo, don't just participate in one battle, you think that you are already a qualified general!" I rebuked, "War is not child's play, it requires a lot of financial, human and material resources, considerable sacrifices, and perhaps the huge consequences of defeat." Therefore, we cannot easily start a war, let alone seek war for ourselves, this is a very important way to survive! ”

Really, do you think Iga Country is so easy to fight? In the original history, with the power of Nobunaga's later period, more than 40,000 people from Yamato and Ise were gathered, and the power of well-known generals such as Niwa, Takigawa, Gamo, Tsutsui, and Asano was also pacified, and it took nearly two months to calm down, and it was the people of Iga who took the initiative to subdue it...... Will I be able to overcome them with the strength of one person now? I'm not going to be so arrogant as that.

Moreover, Keimasa only served as the nominal guardian of Iga Province, and this matter was also confirmed by Nobunaga. If this kind of turmoil really occurs, it is still caused by Keimasa's unwillingness to be lonely, and it is estimated that Nobunaga will be very angry, and even if I put it down, it is very likely that Iga Ichikuni will be taken under Nobunaga's direct control. Again, that's something I don't want to see.

"Yes...... The child was taught. Keisaburo bowed his head and replied. Probably thinking that he was going to continue to be a puppet, his expression was very depressed.

Looking at him like this, I suddenly felt a little unbearable. I promised to let him be this puppet guard, because he had always been submissive, so I thought it was more suitable for his surname, but obviously I was mistaken, he was not without ambition, but he was just used to avoiding the two brothers at home. Now that he wants to make a difference, maybe he should be given a chance.

I thought about it for a moment and instructed Keimasa, "In short, the current situation of Iga Province cannot be changed in a short period of time, so don't have any unrealistic ideas...... However, if you want, you can govern Kii Kunita County for me first! Later, I will send a letter to His Highness Zonglong, asking him to hand over all the political affairs of Arita County to you and Gao Hu, and only take charge of military affairs. ”

"Yes!" Jing Zheng leaned down happily, "I will do my duty and never disappoint my father's expectations." ”

"There is one more thing," I continued, "in order to clear up this misunderstanding, and to strengthen the bond between the two families, you will also marry the eldest granddaughter of His Highness Zonglong as the main family. ”

"This ...... Do you want to marry Shiorihime as the main room? Jing Zheng's expression was very surprised.

"You know her! Then it's the best," I smiled and nodded, "I heard that she is a very gentle and graceful woman, and she is the daughter of Zongji, the heir of His Royal Highness Zonglong, you shouldn't be dissatisfied, right?" ”

“…… How to say that? Jing Zheng scratched his forehead, "I don't have any opinion, it's just that I'm only thirteen years old this year, and I haven't thought about it yet." Moreover, neither of the two brothers has yet to marry the main family, so can it be delayed by two years? ”

"Shiorihime is sixteen years old this year, and it's not good if it's late. His Royal Highness Zonglong has never let her marry, and he was waiting for you...... As for your two brothers, Keijiro is about to marry Princess Fuyuhime of the main family, and you don't know it; Even Keitaro already has the intention of getting married. ”

"Really? With which one? Jing Zheng hurriedly asked.

"It's Akiko Hatakeyama, the daughter of His Royal Highness Kingo Hatakeyama. Her mother is the deceased Lady Hirohashi, and the current Senate Nayan and Samurai Legend Sano Terushi is her uncle. I replied.

This marriage was mentioned to me by Hatakeyama Yoshishu on his own initiative after the Kana trading ship set sail last year, and he planned to apply to Nobunaga when the trading ship returned. For him, this meant moving closer to the Oda family, and Nobunaga would certainly be happy to see it happen.

In this era, marriage was the most important means of strengthening the relationship between each other, and Nobunaga was always very good at this method. When Noo was united, he once strongly encouraged the marriage of the wealthy families between the two countries, so there were many marriages such as Beehouse Yoritaka marrying Niwa Nagahide's sister, Mori Kecheng marrying the daughter of Lin Tongan, and Maeda Genyi marrying the daughter of Murai Sadakatsu. Now, he obviously hopes to be able to win over all kinds of foreign daimyo through the children of important ministers in the family. At the end of last year, he facilitated the marriage between the Akechi family and the Araki family, marrying Mitsuhide's daughter Akechi Ryoko to Araki Muraji's sister-in-law, Araki Muraji; In addition, he also accepted Hideko, another daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide, as his adopted daughter, and agreed to marry Tsutsui Shunkei's adopted heir, Tsutsui Seiji.

Therefore, since Hatakeyama Yoshishu has this intention, and he is still Zhou Jingyuan's black hat pro, it can almost be regarded as settled.

"Brother Zhou Jing, you want to marry the Hatakeyama clan!" Jing Zheng sighed and nodded, "It's really gratifying......"

At this time, Yu Jia's figure appeared at the door. She leaned against the door, looked sideways into the hall, and saw that Jing Zheng and I seemed to be talking about business, so she turned to leave.

"Yuga, huh? Come into the hall. I stopped her.

Yu Jia hesitated slightly: "Is this okay?" His Highness seems to be talking about business......"

"Yes, it's serious, and it's related to you, so let's listen to it too." I said with a smile.

"Yes." Yu Jia obediently entered the main hall, then walked around Jing Zheng to my side, and sat down on his knees in a dignified manner.

"Looking at the way you just looked, it seems that you have something to say. Right? Is it with me, or with Keisaburo? I asked first.

Yu Jia laughed: "It's nothing, it's just that I just heard Mitsu say that Jing Saburo wanted to stay here for a few days, so I arranged a place for him, and then came over to talk to him." ”

"That's right." I nodded.

"So, Your Highness just said that there is something related to the concubine's body, what is it?" Yuga asked.

"Well, I just decided the marriage for Jing Saburo, and I am the granddaughter of the Daifudi family. I think I should let you know first, after all, you are a mother. ”

"Oops, that's something to celebrate!" Yu Jia clasped his hands together and smiled happily, "Mitsu and Yujin have a good home, and Jing Saburo is about to get married...... In this case, the concubine will have nothing to worry about! ”

As she spoke, she looked at Jing Zheng with a smile: "The other party is the granddaughter of the guardian family, Jing Saburo must be very happy, right?" ”

"As long as you're happy!" Jing Zheng said angrily, got up and left the main hall.

"What's going on?" Yu Jia asked puzzled. Although she was topped, she has always had a good surname, and she is her own child, so she is not angry.

I know in my heart that I probably heard that the eldest brother married the daughter of a famous family, and the second brother married the princess of the main family, but he had to marry the granddaughter of his acting official in order to have a good relationship with the other party, so it feels a little unbalanced!

Speaking of which, this is indeed a bit unfair to him, but since he inherited the Iga guardian Nishiki family, he must take on the responsibility of being the head of the family.

Moreover, compared to the children of the rest of the important ministers in the family, it is already very remarkable that he can serve as the guardian of a country when he is just an adult; It is also a great honor to marry the granddaughter of the guardian generation. He was dissatisfied, most of which should be due to the fact that after being blamed, he had to show favor to Fudi Zonglong.

In addition, looking at his attitude towards Yuga, it seems that he still blames his mother a little, feeling that her status in the family is not as good as that of Xiao Xia, so that Keitaro is treated much better than him, right?

If so, it can only be said that he is too sharp, and he is blinded by momentary dissatisfaction and resentment.

How can there be anything completely fair in this world?

"It's up to him to be quiet! …… Anyway, I've decided on this matter. I replied.

……，…… After two days of introspection, Jing Zheng took the initiative to admit his mistake to me and accepted my arrangement in its entirety. So after Shinkyo married Donghime, he also married Shiorihime, the granddaughter of Fukuchi Sotaka, in March. As a gift, I asked Fujido Takatora to build a new Iga Ueno Castle in Iga for him as his guardian residence.

Soon, the four galleons that had gone to Ming for exploration and trade returned smoothly. These four ships, named "Janet", "Dongying", "Dongmeng" and "Dongming", are mainly loaded with 40,000 guansheng red copper designated by the Ming court, which is about 150 tons when converted into metric, as well as some goods of the Otomo family. These trade shares were specially agreed upon with Nobunaga when the Otomo family had assisted our mission in contacting Korea, and we had to rely on them as guides when we went to the city of Guangzhou, and they were the only ones who were familiar with the route.

The official exchange rate of silver and copper coins in the Ming court is the same as that I stipulated, which is one tael of silver for consistent copper coins (one tael is slightly less than one tael). The copper we paid tribute was converted into silver according to this ratio, and then it was summed up together with the rest of the tribute, and the Ming court gave a certain amount of reward. Due to the practice of the Ming court, the standard of this reward is naturally higher than the value of the tribute, and it will not make the distant vassals suffer.

However, although the rewards are huge, they are nothing compared to the profits of the exploration trade.

Nearly 170 years ago, when General Yoshiman traded, he used three Tenryu Temple ships carrying 1,800 stones, and basically all of them were in the form of tribute and rewards, and the value of each trip was about 20,000 kan, plus the cost of shipbuilding and navigation, it was about 40,000 kan, but the value of the reward could reach more than 300,000 kan, and the profits were extremely amazing. And in the previous exploration trade, the largest one, in the fourth year of Jingtai (AD 1453), led by the Oriental Yun Peng exploration trade group, there are ten ships, the number of nearly 1,200 people, the goods carried are also very large, such as sulfur 364,400 catties, Sumu 106,000 catties, red copper 152,000 catties, etc., if according to the old practice of previous years, then only the price of bulk goods in the attached commodities has reached more than 615,000 guan, if you add the price of the reward part, and Ningbo, The price of transactions in the various markets of Yanjing will be a super staggering number, and as a result, the Ministry of Rites has to play Ming Jingzong and cut the price significantly, but the profit is still in hundreds of thousands.

And this trade is the first time in the past 30 years between the two countries, and it is also the first time that a new vassal state has paid tribute after Wanli ascended the throne and Zhang Juzheng took power, so the Ming court was particularly generous, and the embassy in the Ming Dynasty should spend all the money supplied by the Ming court; In addition, 50 people were allowed to enter Beijing, and a tribute ceremony was held at Fengtianmen, and a set of winter clothes was given to each of the following by Xixiao, and there were other rewards from time to time during the period; When returning to China, the city berth division also specially allocated "guan rice", which is enough for 100 sails on the sea.

As for the bulk goods bought by the Ming court price officials, the prices were also very affordable. Originally, according to the practice of paying tribute, when the vassal state that completed the tribute thought that the price of the official purchase part was too low, it could also sell it in the market under the supervision of the Ming court, but this time because of the generosity of the Ming court, Xixiao Chengcheng and others simply omitted this consideration, and directly handed over all the goods to the Ming court, and then purchased a large number of raw silk, red thread, northern silk, folding silk, satin, medicine and other goods that were very in demand in the official warehouse.

When these goods from the Ming court arrived in Sakai Town, they caused a great sensation, and except for the part kept by the major daimyos, wealthy families, and temples, the rest of the shares for sale were quickly divided among the wealthy merchants and warehouses, and then distributed to various places. The 10% freight charged by me and Takeda Nobutaka is more than enough to cover the cost of shipbuilding, and the profits of the goods received by each of them are also extremely considerable; Nobunaga had to collect half of the tax, and the income from this alone amounted to nearly 300,000 kan, not counting the profits he could make from the goods in his own name.

In this way, the cost of nearly 400,000 yen for the construction of Azuchi Castle this year will be covered, and there will be no need to delay the government and military affairs of the family.

At this moment, Nobunaga was in a very good mood, and quickly agreed to Hatakeyama Yoshishu's request to marry me, and generously gave Yoshishu the 60,000 stone territory of Shimowazumi, on the one hand, to reward him for his efforts last year, and on the other hand, to facilitate him to continue to preside over the exploration of trade.

(To be continued)