In the Mito Domain of the Mountain Hand (place name), on a row of tall Japanese maple trees outside the courtyard, summer cicadas are squeaking and chirping.

The July sun, through the open window, shone into a tatami mat-covered Japanese-style room, where a few people were seated, but they were all dressed in green cloth with slanted collars and wide sleeves, and wore square scarves, all dressed as Confucian scholars in the Ming Dynasty.

The reason why he was dressed like this was to show the Japanese that Zhu Ming represented the Chinese Zhengshuo, and Zhu Jishi did not wear Western-style clothes anymore in these days in Japan.

"Ming Gong, please see, this place is called 'Yokohama', it is a small fishing village in the southwest of Edo Castle, the domain of the Tokugawa clan, counting the surrounding villages, the nominal stone height is about 3,300 koku." Zhu Mo, the future manager of the four major foreign banks in Japan, pointed to a map and said, "It's all Miss Mingzi's dowry." Although the stone height is limited, the land is not small, there are tens of thousands of acres, most of them are beaches, and it is very suitable for building a port, and you can also build a town, which means town, and it will be very prosperous in the future. ”

Soon to become the uncle of the Tokugawa family, Zhu Jishi, who is called "Zhu Sage" by ordinary Japanese, sat cross-legged on the tatami mat, looked at the map, nodded very seriously, but was pondering in his heart: Mingzi Xiao Lori's face and skin have nothing to say, but she is shorter, less than one meter five, I don't know if I can grow taller? And it's a baby face, how can she look like a little girl, this has become her own concubine? It's so wicked!

Thinking about evil things in his heart, he is still serious on his face. The "Yokohama" that Jumo was talking about, he had heard more than a hundred years later. It is the largest commercial port in Japan. So he nodded in satisfaction. "Yokohama Port, it's very good, don't say much, this Yokohama will be up to you."

"Ming Gong, I can't do it in Yokohama." Zhu Mo hurriedly waved his hand and smiled, "Because although this Yokohama is Miss Mingzi's dowry, it will not be transferred to Ming Gong, and it will remain in Miss Mingzi's name." In the future, it will be inherited by Miss Akiko's children. Moreover, the Tokugawa family also prepared eighty-eight courtiers for Miss Akiko, most of whom were both civil and military, and were very capable, and they should be chosen from among them for the position. ”

The so-called "courtier" is to follow Tokugawa Akiko to the Zhu family and give Zhu Jishi the meaning of being a retainer. At present, there are many samurai in Japan, and the Tokugawa family is also trying their best to arrange it, so they sent eighty-eight to Zhu Jishi at once - probably knowing that Zhu Jishi has money, let him help raise a little. Most of these men were low-ranking samurai or the last sons of the Banner family, but they were all proficient in swordsmanship and were educated in "kokugaku" and "ranggaku" - the Japanese samurai class in the Edo period attached great importance to education. Each feudal domain opened a feudal school to educate samurai, and a large number of "penniless" were trained. people with lofty ideals who are worried about the world, and most of them are both civil and military.

Because the samurai themselves are soldiers, so they receive traditional military education, although the things they learn are outdated, but the cultivation of military quality is extremely haode, most of them still have quite good writing and arithmetic skills, many people still have a certain knowledge of Western studies, it is easy to train them into excellent officers or soldiers.

It is indeed much stronger than the Chinese Confucian scholars who can only write eight-share articles and the Chinese military attachés who can only "sell their arts"!

Historically, Japan was able to catch up with the laggard and become a new power, and the abundance of talented people was the most important reason. Therefore, if you want to prevent the rise of Japan, the most haode way is not to get rid of a few so-called "heroes", there are countless candidates behind these "heroes", and they can't be cut at all! The only way to do this was to maintain the Tokugawa shogunate as much as possible and prolong Japan's policy of seclusion.

In the same way, the decline of China at the end of the Qing Dynasty was actually the failure of the Confucian education system caused by the Eight Stocks! In fact, the failures of the Song and Ming dynasties were, to some extent, also the failures of Confucian education. In order to truly rejuvenate China, we must start by reforming Confucianism and integrating it with Western-style education and modern military education -- the future officers of the Ming Empire will of course be "based on middle school and Western education for use," and Confucian education is absolutely necessary. After all, Zhu Jishi wants to be the emperor, not the general secretary. If the officers under his command were not brainwashed by the Confucian idea of loyalty to the monarch, but believed in Marxism, and all of them were full of rebellious spirit, would our Emperor Zhu still sleep peacefully?

"Ming Gong, I have met with all of Miss Mingzi's eighty-eight courtiers, and they are indeed both civil and military, and a few of them are really useful." Zuo Zongtang shook the paper fan and suggested, "Let them be used by me." ”

Zhu Jishi smiled bitterly, international competition is the competition of talents in the final analysis! How many talents were available in China under the Manchu rule? Can a few famous ministers in the late Qing Dynasty be compared with so many heroes of the Restoration? is the bunch of civil and military under his command, and how many can compare to Zhu Jianyu and Saigo Takayong (Emperor Zhu still doesn't know that this master is Saigo Takamori, one of the three heroes of the Japanese Restoration)?

"Who are they?" Zhu Jishi made an interested look. He has never seen any of these sixty-eight courtiers, and he has been dying of many entertainment in the past few days. Not only the Tokugawa clan wanted to meet him, but even the lords of the various feudal clans living in Edo flocked to visit.

Zuo Zongtang thought about it, and recommended a talent to Zhu Jishi, he said: "There is a person named Sheng Yizhou who is very good, not only proficient in Confucianism and Zen, but also very proficient in Western studies and Western military science, and also opened a forging shop outside Edo City, and can design and manufacture foreign guns by himself!" Although it is not as good as the Besse Wheat Gun, it is no worse than the Brown Bass Gun. ”

"Well, you can arrange for him to go to Lanfang to study with Bessemai for a while, and then he can go to manage the arsenal in the future." Zhu Jishi pondered. Now there is no shortage of military generals under him, and civil officials can recruit some Confucian students to make do with them first. What is most lacking are managers and engineers who manage enterprises, although they have been hired in Europe, but those people do not belong to China. And this is called Shengyizhou...... How can they be considered their own retainers, right? If it is really a talent, let him come to China to manage the factory for himself, so as not to have to mix with some fallen aspirants in Japan and learn badly.

"That Saigo Takanaga also left the feudal domain and joined the Tokugawa clan, and this time he also joined the Ming Gong as a courtier." Zuo Zongtang said again, "In addition, the Goto family and the Daikoku Tsuneko family each have ten children to serve as Miss Akiko's courtiers, they are all businessmen and scholars, and they are also proficient in casting jishu, and they are all usable talents. ”

The Goto family and the Daikoku family minted currency for the shogunate, and although they were samurai, they were actually royal merchants.

"That's good." Zhu Jishi nodded.

Zhu Mo also suggested: "Ming Gong, his subordinates suggested that the errand of the Yokohama commission be entrusted to the Goto family and the Daikoku Tsuneko family to compensate for the loss of their coinage service, and the Yokohama commissioner can arrange 500 koku. ”

The current identity of the Goto family and the Daikoku family is a bit like the compradors of the four major foreign banks, although they have lost the benefit of coinage, but they will definitely make more money by serving as compradors of the four major banks, so the current loss is only face. The Big Four Banks are not familiar with Japan, and if they want to start business as soon as possible, they must find a Japanese agent.

"If there is another shipbuilding director, and the two families will also be in charge, Yokohama is a transit point for our Pacific trade routes, and there will be a lot of shipbuilding and ship repair business that can be done."

Zhu Jishi thought for a while, and then said: "In addition, if you want to open a merchant hall in the Ryukyus, in the name of HSBC, the steward of the merchant hall will also let the two families take turns to serve as it." By the way, Yokohama turned out to be a fishing village? Are there a lot of fishermen? ”

"There are a lot of fishermen."

"Then let's set up another fishing office." Zhu Jishi said, "As far as I know, Japan's abalone and sea cucumber are important export commodities, and we have to find a way to do this business." There are many whales in the Pacific Ocean south of Japan, and the price of whale oil has risen rapidly in recent years, so many foreign whaling ships are active in the Pacific waters close to Japan. We can build some large fishing boats and organize the fishermen of Yokohama to go out to sea to hunt whales.

In addition, the quality of sulfur in Japan is very good, and the output is also very large, so Lan Fangxing can buy sulfur in Japan, and our rubber factories and gunpowder factories will use it in the future. ”

In fact, the purpose of developing Japan's whaling industry and purchasing Japanese sulfur is to try to generate trade income for Japan, so as to avoid a large outflow of silver and aggravate social contradictions in Japan. Otherwise, the rotten regime of the Tokugawa family would not be able to control hundreds of thousands of wolf samurai who "killed with one sword". (To be continued......)