"Do you really want an all-out war with Japan?"

"Of course it can't be, we don't have time to go to war with the Japanese here, and there's no need." Liu Jun replied with a smile, although there is a strong fleet, but the current situation of the Ming Dynasty does not allow Liu Jun to really go to Japan to fight a full-scale war. Moreover, in a real all-out war, you cannot win it with only one fleet.

"But we have to convince the Japanese that we will fight an all-out war with him and that we can win them."

Liu Jun is still very confident in this, and he has no worries about fighting a local short-term war. Japan is an island nation, and Liu Jun has a powerful naval fleet of this era, with the most intense artillery fire. All they have to do now is to beat the Japanese a few times, and then get the Japanese to come back to the negotiating table and blackmail them again.

Two years ago, Hizen had just broken out in the Shimabara Rebellion. At that time, the people who had been banned from religion and asked to convert were dissatisfied, and when the disaster year came, the feudal lord demanded that they pay the original annual tribute, and finally broke out. It was also an uprising in Japan. There are all kinds of ichisai in Japan, religions, farmers, merchants, and so on.

The Shimabara Rebellion, which was initiated by a combination of religious people and peasants, broke out on the Shimabara Peninsula in Hizen, and then Amakusa in the opposite strait, and eventually more than 40,000 people were suppressed, but at first it was defeated and thousands of people died. In the end, more than 100,000 soldiers and horses were mobilized, and it took nearly a year to finally trap these religious rebels.

And the leader of this turmoil at such a great price was only a sixteen-year-old boy, 40,000 rebels, and only more than 10,000 young people, and the rest were old and young women and children.

The fact that the Japanese shogunate had to spend so much money to deal with such a group of people fully shows that the strength of the Edo shogunate controlled by the Tokugawa family is very average.

Especially now Tokugawa Iemitsu's lockdown order. The ban on trade between the feudal domains and the transfer of foreign trade rights to the shogunate made many powerful foreign daimyo dissatisfied.

"It seems that we have to put some pressure on Tokugawa Iemitsu, Brother Zheng, you are a veteran of the sea, and you will lead a fleet to plunder the coast of Japan. If we can grab it, we must make a big noise, and we must convince the Japanese that we are serious this time. ”

Zheng Zhilong is also a predecessor of robbery, he started as a robber in his early years and became a pirate, which is to return to his old business and be familiar with the road. With Liu Jun's permission, he has no pressure.

"But there's one thing you need to be aware of. We only rob, but we try not to kill, let alone commit adultery. ”

"That seems a bit difficult, huh?" Zheng Zhilong said.

"Then try to grab as many Japanese merchant ships as possible, break through more cities, rob their treasury, and don't rob those ordinary fishing villages." Liu Jun wants to make a big noise, but he doesn't want to make Japan unanimous, so he has to fight to the death with the Ming Dynasty.

Although Japan is capable of mobilizing 300,000 or 400,000 troops. But this is not a traditional war, this is a new type of war in the era of sea power. The Ming army had the right to control the sea. What is the use of the Japanese being able to mobilize more soldiers, Liu Jun only needs to hold a few islands such as Hirado, there is a fleet to control the sea, plus a new type of fortress and artillery, it doesn't matter how many soldiers there are.

And the island country of Japan, there are coasts everywhere. Ships could be parked everywhere, and Liu Jun's fleet could land anywhere, plunder their shores, and attack their fishing boats and merchant ships.

The fleets of the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Britain and other countries did this, and Liu Jun did not intend to occupy the whole of Japan. Therefore, if you only occupy a point, then the Japanese will never be able to win this war.

It's just that Liu Jun doesn't want to really get to that point, after all, he is seeking money. Just wanted to force the Japanese to back down a little, open foreign trade to the East India Company more, and by the way, they could grab a big deal, which could be regarded as paying some price for the Japanese invaders to invade China's coast.

"Ci Ye and Zheng Zhilong are leading a fleet to attack Japan?"

Hearing the report of the Admiral Dongchang's Wang Zhixin, Chongzhen put down the music in his hand and his expression became heavy.

A few days ago, he had just issued a secret order to go to North Korea, asking Liu Jun to finish the affairs of North Korea as soon as possible and return to southern Liaoning as soon as possible. As a result, Liu Jun went to Japan instead, and without reporting to the imperial court in advance, he actually transferred Admiral Zheng Zhilong to lead a fleet to attack Japan together.

At that time, Taizu once designated Japan, Korea and other countries as non-conscripted countries.

Of course, what is more important is Chongzhen's surprise that Liu Jun actually started a war with the Japanese without being invited.

"Do you know why you want to fight Japan?" Chongzhen asked.

Wang Zhixin hurriedly replied, "According to Dongchang Fanzi's report, Korea leased the two islands of Tamna and Geoje to my Daming, and then, the Duke of Chu discovered that the Japanese Tsushima, Iki and Hirado were raiding the fishing villages along the Geoje coast and looting the materials transported to the island's builder's port. Chu Guogong believed that this was a provocation by Japan against the Ming Dynasty and must be punished. The Duke of Chu sent someone to issue a document that was the shogunate general who was supposed to be in power, but the other party ignored it, and the Duke of Chu sent troops when he was angry. ”

"Now the Duke of Chu and Admiral Zheng have captured Japan's Tsushima, Iki, and Hirado islands, which are the territories of the Japanese Matsuura family. The Matsuura family also had the head of the family personally lead a team to come to Daming to plunder. Back then, the big pirate Wang Zhi, who called himself the king of Wei, colluded with the Matsuura family. ”

Wang Zhixin usually takes Liu Jun's filial piety, and at this time, he is indispensable to say some good things for Liu Jun.

When Chongzhen heard this, he also became even more disgusted with the Japanese.

"Although the Japanese are hateful, they also distinguish priorities, and at the moment my first priority is to fight against the Qing captives and recover Liaodong. As for the Japanese clown, let him be arrogant for a while, and then clean up in the future. Chongzhen said this, but there was not much blame for Liu Jun in his tone.

"What the emperor said is that in fact, the Duke of Chu is not as arrogant as the Japanese for a while. According to what Chu Guogong said, now our country trades with Japan every year, and the merchants make a lot of profits, and the imperial court can also obtain hundreds of thousands of yuan in taxes from the trade with Japan every year, and the Japanese want to ban the sea, which has a great impact on us. ”

As soon as he heard that it would affect Daming's income of hundreds of thousands of silver dollars a year, Chongzhen was not happy. Is it easy to get some taxes these days? This year's rare drought, several provinces have almost no harvest of summer grain, and even Susong and Huguang, which are the granaries of the world, have only half harvested.

Silver and food were needed everywhere for disaster relief. Revenues have dropped even more, and many localities have had to reduce taxes this year, which makes the imperial court's finances just improve and begin to deteriorate. And the 200,000 troops gathered outside the pass consumed countless money and food every day.

If it weren't for the total of 30 million silver dollars raised by bonds, and the increase in revenue of more than 10 million silver dollars from customs duties and commercial taxes since last year, the imperial court would not have known how to operate.

Now Chongzhen also understands a fact. It is unrealistic to expect to collect taxes from the common people to support the finances, and it would be good not to stick to them. The only things that could be counted on now were bonds, as well as customs duties and commercial taxes, of which customs duties and commercial taxes came mainly from maritime trade, and merchants were the objects that the imperial court could now collect.

Wang Zhixin carefully looked at the emperor's expression, and took the opportunity to say, "Actually, the emperor doesn't have to worry too much, the spies from Dongchang reported that Chu Guogong was just going to teach the Japanese a lesson." After intimidating them and letting them reopen the mutual market, Chu Guogong estimated that the Japanese would be able to relent, and then negotiate again, and the matter would be resolved. It is said that the Duke of Chu had planned to wait for the peace negotiations to purchase millions of stone of grain from Japan and transport it back to Liaodong to be used as military rations. In order to solve the food shortage caused by this year's grain shortage. ”

"If you can really purchase so much grain from Japan, will it cost too much to buy grain from Japan and transport it back to Liaodong?"

"There is a shortage of food everywhere in the country. The price of grain is extremely high, and it is not too expensive to buy grain from Japan, and the transportation cost is high, but it is acceptable. ”

Chongzhen nodded, "On the Japanese side, I still handed over the full authority of the Duke of Chu to dispose of, but it is still the same sentence." End it as soon as possible, don't make things out of control. ”

Japan.

Now the Japanese finally repaid the panic of the coastal people of the Ming Dynasty, and the fleet of the Ming Dynasty attacked everywhere. Not only the coasts of Hizen, Higo, Chikuzen, Satsuma and other areas in Kyushu were attacked, but also Shikoku and Honshu, and finally Edo Bay. The fleet groups of the Ming Dynasty appeared.

The fleet group flying the sun and moon flag went straight to Edo Bay and reached the sea near Yokohama.

Tokugawa Iemitsu transferred more than 200 ships from the navy to try to defeat and drive the Ming fleet.

"Let them see the power of the Ming naval guns." In the face of the hurried Japanese navy, the Ming fleet, composed of more than 100 ships led by Liu Jun, was fearless.

In mid-September, a naval battle broke out between the Chinese and Japanese fleets off the port of Yokohama in Edo Bay.

At the beginning of the battle, the Ming fleet immediately seized the upper hand, and then lined up in the most advanced line battle array at that time, and dealt a devastating blow to the Japanese naval forces at a long distance with powerful ship-borne artillery fire.

Tokugawa Iedashi and many other daimyo of the Japanese shogunate witnessed this naval battle in Yokohama, and the Japanese ships could not get close to the sailors of the Ming fleet at all, and they were sunk one after another.

Especially in this battle, Liu Jun's battleship was equipped with a new type of cannon howitzer, and used the most lethal howitzer for the Japanese naval wooden ships. Ordinary solid bullets sometimes hit a ship, and as long as it is not below the waterline, although it will be punched into a large hole, it will not sink for a while. However, this kind of explosive bomb, which explodes twice on the ship, is fatal to the wooden ship, causing a fire and even directly destroying the ship.

The Battle of Edo Bay lasted for a whole day from morning to night, and finally the Japanese navy was completely wiped out, and the sea was full of fragments of Japanese ships. At the end of the battle, the Ming fleet suffered no casualties.

This result shocked all the Japanese, and after winning the naval battle, Liu Jun had the fleet sail into Yokohama and fire naval guns at Yokohama Castle. The fleet then continued its depths to the port of Edo, where hundreds of shells were fired at Edo.

On 18 September, Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third general of the Japanese Edo shogunate, sent a representative to ask for peace.

Liu Jun proposed negotiation conditions to Japan, "Japan will pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty, and will always be a vassal of the Ming Dynasty." The Emperor of Japan changed his name to the King of Japan, accepted the canonization and seal of the Ming Emperor, and paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty six times a year. Second, Japan leased Hirado, Tsushima, Iki, and Falklands to the Ming Dynasty in perpetuity, and the Ming Dynasty paid Japan 1,000 taels of silver every year. The Ming Dynasty had garrison, judicial, and administrative powers over the islands, and Japan had no right to interfere. ”

"Third, Japan opened all port trade to the Ming Dynasty and enjoyed the most favored nation treatment and the lowest tariffs. Fourth, the Ming people residing in Japan can not obey the constraints of Japanese law and are not subject to Japanese trial, and if they commit crimes, they should be handed over to the Ming Dynasty for disposal. Fourth, the Ming Dynasty had exclusive trade rights with Japan, and Japan was not allowed to trade with other countries. ”

The Edo shogunate also gave the bottom line of negotiations, opening up mutual trade to the Ming Dynasty with limited preferential treatment. Yunmyeongguo established a merchant house in Goto, and Yunmyeongguo people lived in Goto, and opened the two ports of Hirado and Nagasaki to exchange markets with Ming merchants. In addition, Japan requires the Ming people to be resettled within the Goto Islands, and it is forbidden to enter the rest of Japan.

In Hirado and Nagasaki two ports, the Akito were allowed to establish merchant houses. The Ming people can move within ten miles of the two ports, and they are limited to ten miles of the port, and it is forbidden to cross the ten-mile boundary.

Liu Jun directly refused this condition, and he directly issued an ultimatum to the Japanese envoy, if Japan did not agree to the conditions of the Ming Dynasty, then he would attack Edo City.

After urgent negotiations, the Edo shogunate finally reluctantly agreed to Liu Jun's conditions, agreeing to lease several large islands such as Tsushima, Iki, Hirado, and Goto and the surrounding affiliated islands to the Ming Dynasty, and recognizing the Ming Dynasty's rights over the concession as garrison, judicial, and administrative. The most favored nation treatment was also given to the Ming Dynasty. But there is no exclusive right to trade.

Outside the concession, only the seven ports of Nagasaki, Karatsu, Namba, Yokohama, Edo, Nagoya, and Hyogozu were opened to Ming merchant ships. The open commercial ports recognize the right of abode and the right to lease houses of the Ming people, allow the Ming people to trade freely, and the citizens of both sides are not restricted from buying and selling goods; Japanese officials do not interfere with payment methods, etc.; There is no obstacle to Japanese people buying or selling or bringing goods purchased from Americans. The two sides shall formulate agreed tariffs and shall not unilaterally increase tariffs. Akito is allowed the right to travel in Japan.

Such conditions. Already the biggest concession from the Japanese.

Liu Jun also accepted it when he saw it, on the same day. On the Ming Dynasty's battleship Shenlong, Liu Jun represented the Ming Empire, and Tokugawa Iemitsu represented the Japanese Edo Shogunate, formally signing the 918 Edo Treaty.

After the peace treaty was signed, it was also necessary to hand it over to the King of Japan and the Ming Emperor for signature, and then exchange the treaties. Officially in force.

After signing the peace treaty, Liu Jun immediately ordered all Ming ships to return to Hirado in the presence of Tokugawa Iemitsu, and not to invade all parts of Japan without reason in the future. The captured Hirado feudal lords and Japanese soldiers were also released, and the Japanese were allowed to relocate the people in the Hirado and other concessions. If they do not move out within half a year, they will be deemed to have voluntarily stayed in the concession. In the future, they had to obey the laws of the concession instead of Japanese law, and they had to pay taxes to the Ming Concession instead of Japan.

Tokugawa Iemitsu didn't want to fight the Ming anymore, so he immediately ordered the people to be relocated from the concession, and at the same time gave the Matsuura family a new territory.

The day after the peace treaty was signed, Liu Jun negotiated several trade contracts with Japan, including the sale of raw silk, porcelain, sugar, deerskin, silk, spices, pepper, linen, and European-style soft-sailed merchant ships to Japan, and the purchase of large quantities of rice, lacquerware, gold, silver, and copper from Japanese merchants.

The volume of this batch of transactions was huge, and Liu Jun deliberately lowered the price and gave some preferential treatment to Japanese businessmen. In addition, Liu Jun also agreed with Japan on tariffs, although these taxes were not high, but they also made the Japanese shogunate make a small profit, and both sides were satisfied.

After the treaties and agreements were reached, Liu Jun sailed away with the fleet and returned to Hirado.

Standing at the bow of the boat, looking at the smaller and smaller Edo Bay, Liu Jun breathed a sigh of relief, this blackmail was finally successful.

"If you fall behind, you will be beaten, you must remember." Liu Jun said to Zhu Chenggong, who was standing beside him, this young man had long been eager to go back to Pinghu, and his mother had been separated for many years, and now he was finally reunited, and his younger brother when he left was now very tall, and his father had already told him that when he left, he would take his mother and younger brother back to Taiwan.

Zhu Chenggong nodded, he had been following his father-in-law, knowing very well that this was an adventure and a blackmail, but the Japanese compromised. It is unimaginable that under the banner of the Ming Dynasty, with 20,000 horses and hundreds of ships, the father-in-law made Japan with a population of more than 10 million submit, leased so many islands, and opened so many ports.

The young man is full of admiration for his young father-in-law!

Beijing.

Liu Jun sent a clipper ship to send the peace treaty with Japan to Beijing, and when Chongzhen saw this peace treaty, he was full of amazement.

"He actually did it, and in just over a month, he made Japan surrender."

Chongzhen sighed, he didn't know how to describe Liu Jun, he entered southern Liaoning, defeated Jianjiao, and made the coast of Liaodong hundreds of miles into a no-man's land, and now he even had to take the initiative to move the sea.

In this month, Chongzhen had just received a report that Huang Taiji had ordered that all the people in the coastal area of 1,500 miles from the mouth of the Liao River to the Kuandian line of the Yalu River should be moved back 50 miles, and that merchant ships would be strictly forbidden to go to sea, and no maritime trade would be allowed. At the same time, he ordered the burning of all ships owned by the Qing army and the people, and the burning of all the cities, fortresses, and houses within 50 miles of the coast. All the people who crossed the border were to be killed on the spot as soon as they were discovered, so as to prevent them from collaborating with the enemy.

When he saw this report, Chongzhen was very happy.

The Tartars had been embarrassed by Liu Jun's attack, and had to issue such a mediocre order, relying on the fifty orders to move the sea and create a no-man's land to defend Liu Jun, which fully showed that the Tartars were already afraid of the Ming army. This sea relocation order is a great good thing for Daming.

The Duke of Chu went to Korea, and Korea immediately changed to a more pro-Ming and loyal king. I went to Japan, and Japan also surrendered to the Ming Dynasty.

"Immediately let the Hanlin Academy draft an edict to canonize the king of Japan." Chongzhen gave a satisfactory order.

He was even happier that Liu Jun reported to him that this year, he would be able to purchase about 3 to 5 million stone of rice in Korea, Japan, and Nanyang to help the famine in the Central Plains. Although it is very expensive to transport so much food back home from overseas, having so much food can greatly alleviate this year's food crisis, and it is worth spending a little more.

In previous years, the great disaster was followed by a great famine, and the imperial court could not get food even if it had money. Now there are several more overseas grain purchase channels, which is very good. (To be continued......)