Chapter 189: Meiji Restoration (5)

"Contemptible Mitsui Gaosui, Your Excellency is a merchant of the Qing Dynasty?" He used an unfamiliar Chinese dialect, and during this period, merchants would always be willing to learn some Chinese, on the one hand, to improve their status, and on the other hand, it was easy to communicate with Chinese merchants, until China lost all the Sino-Japanese War, and the Japanese began to turn to the arms of the West and choose a new target to imitate.

Huang Xuan didn't nod or shake his head, maintaining an arrogant attitude.

This is a compulsory course for every child of the family.

However, the current Japanese have very little fear and admiration for China, if it weren't for this, this group of samurai would not have exploded, but the guy named Mitsui Takasui didn't speak anymore, but looked at Huang Xuan like this, which made Xiao Huang a little uncomfortable.

Compared with these merchants, he is a little weaker.

A short and fat merchant next to him stood up, raised his voice, and said in Kanto dialect: "For the sake of you as a foreign merchant, after kneeling down and saluting, you can leave." ”

He has a typical Japanese-style nose, his mouth is also upturned, and his face bones are thin, so the flesh on both sides of his cheeks is drooping, forcing him to grow a round face, and when he shouts like this, the flesh on his whole face is shaking.

Huang Xuan snorted disdainfully, but he was just freed from the eye contact with Mitsui Gaosui, he kicked away the two people under his feet, and stepped onto the high platform.

This is a grandstand specially prepared for people with status, which is higher than the stage where the actors perform, and the viewer has to look down, but I don't know if I can really see it clearly.

A few warriors who came up to stop were taken away by Dian Wei, and Huang Xuan stood face to face in front of a group of wealthy businessmen and said to the fat man, "You can apologize to me now." ”

The other party naturally scolded, Lorraine didn't translate, and Huang Xuan didn't want to know, so he gave him a finger, thought about it, and said, "I'll give you 20,000 yuan." ”

The man staggered and was about to fall, Huang Xuan held him up, let go of his hand, and watched him tremble and kneel down, the person was obviously unconscious, everyone present looked at Huang Xuan's hand in horror, even Mitsui Gaosui didn't know what to say for a while.

Speaking of Japanese merchants, there is a special reason for their rise - during the shogunate period, whether it was a samurai or a daimyo, their property and fortune were grain, and land could not be bought and sold at will, according to scholars, this is the so-called feudal lord land ownership system.

Therefore, the samurai class could only receive the prescribed amount of rice as a slu, whether it was 50 koku or 1,000,000 koku, and the grain could not be eaten, and according to the regulations, the samurai were not allowed to sell these goods.

As a result, everyone exchanged things with merchants, not only ordinary samurai, but also daimyos.

Not only that, the daimyo and samurai were often short of money, and it didn't matter where they spent it, but if they wanted to borrow, they had to go to the merchants, so modern people say that the late shogunate in Japan was very similar to the West, and because the daimyo who held the power were short of money, they had to compromise with the merchants who held the economic power, so that the status and influence of the merchants gradually expanded.

To use a simple analogy, Daimyo A wants to attack Daimyo B, but he has no money, so he borrows a loan from local merchant A, signs a contract, promises to repay the money later, and gives merchant A the status of a samurai. After the war, Daimyo A won, and at this time he had two choices, either to find a way to swallow Merchant A, and the money naturally did not have to be returned, or to pay back the money truthfully.

In the beginning, many daimyo will choose the first method, but it will not take long for these daimyo to find that there are no more merchants to lend them money.

As a result, the daimyo who received financial support from the merchants won the final victory.

However, if the second option was to repay the money directly, it would be difficult for many daimyos, because all his money was spent on the war, and the income, mainly the land rent, had not yet been received.

As a result, they either attacked the other daimyo as the merchants demanded, or they had to give preferential policy treatment and then repay the loan in kind.

Later, merchants made huge profits by distributing the daimyo in kind and collecting and disbursing aggregate currency, and gradually accumulated a large amount of wealth in society. To put it simply, it is to master the commodity channels and financial capital of the entire country, and develop without restrictions, how can such businessmen not be rich.

Therefore, in the Kansei period (1790), it was said, "Fifteen-sixteenth of Japan's national wealth was collected by merchants, and one-sixteenth was collected by samurai." ”

When the Shogunate faction and the Shogunate faction duel, the merchants became the decisive force for sexuality.

The main reason why the Emperor's army was able to defeat the 15,000 men of the shogunate army with 5,000 soldiers was the application of new weapons, and the reason why the British were willing to provide new weapons to the shogunate army instead of the shogunate army was that the shogunate army could take the money, while the shogunate army did not have so much military spending.

As a result, there was another change of regime.

It is precisely because of the Meiji Restoration that Mitsui, Mitsubishi and others made a lot of political investment, and finally reaped huge benefits from it and became the head of the six major Japanese conglomerates, and now standing in front of Huang Xuan is the owner of the Mitsui exchange shop, Mitsui Takasui.

Huang Xuan looked around and said, "Here are the most famous businessmen in Osaka?" ”

"That's right." A middle-aged man on the side smiled, he combed the hair of a samurai, but still wore the blue "color" cloth of an ordinary merchant.

Huang Xuan noticed that he was not only sitting next to Mitsui Takasui, but also dressed far more casually than the others.

This is like watching the leaders of the news network travel, secretaries, bodyguards, and low-level officials are always dressed straight, and the prime minister's "chairman" must be casual clothes. Huang Xuan smiled faintly and said, "What is this gentleman called?" ”

As soon as Mr. said that it originated in Japan, but it was also after the Meiji Restoration, I don't know if Lorraine translated it into "foot" or "Your Excellency", but looking at this guy with a smile on his face, he knew that it was a good word.

The guy smiled and said, "Yataro Iwasaki in Shimo-Iwasaki." ”

Huang Xuan was in awe.

Regardless of nationality, this Yataro Iwasaki is also familiar to him, because this is the founder of Japan's largest consortium, the Mitsubishi Foundation.

In another three years, he would become the leader of the 99 chambers of commerce in the Tosa domain Kurashiki (an organization responsible for storing and selling goods from local daimyos), and thus began the Mitsubishi zaibatsu path.

Zhang Xinyi mentioned this name more than once, and Huang Xuan couldn't help but shrink his hand and said, "Why are you in Osaka?" ”

Yataro Iwasaki didn't answer, but instead asked, "You know me?" "The current Mitsui Takasui is much more famous than him.

Huang Xuan didn't make more compliments, but looked around and said with a smile: "The victory of the fallen curtain army, you seem to be very happy?" What he really thought in his heart was that this place had been occupied by the Fallen Shogun Army again.

Roughly calculated, the time has been advanced by more than half a month.

Mitsui Gao squinted at Huang Xuan, a little "touching" his way, high-profile appearance, coupled with the miraculous knockdown of a group of samurai, it should not be a small person, but to talk about his purpose, it is a little difficult to guess.

It was a sensitive time, and the Shogunate relied on the British, and the Shogunate had actually defected to the French, so the British were still stronger, just like in the distribution of power in Europe.

However, judging from his position today, the shogunate army is not guaranteed to lose.

As long as the shogun can come up with a plan that satisfies foreigners, these guys who have "milk" are mothers may prefer a somewhat chaotic scene.

Especially during the period when arms dealers were loitering.

Yataro Iwasaki has a pair of small eyes, the size of a mung bean, embedded in slightly bulging eye sockets, the image is not very good-looking, but it gives people a very real feeling, he saw that Mitsui Takasui did not reply, so he said: "The emperor is supposed to be the supreme rule of Japan, and the shogunate is unpopular." ”

If he was a samurai, he would have shouted slogans, not to mention saying that "it should be the supreme rule", and only those who have accepted Western ideas will think about things in this way.

Huang Xuan didn't notice this, and before he could speak again, another slightly fat young man next to him said, "The envoys of the Qing Dynasty can't be just two people. ”

Mitsui immediately glared at him.

Huang Xuan suddenly realized, he had always wondered why these Japanese people had such strange eyes, and now he finally understood the reason.

They even suspected that they were the envoys of the Qing Dynasty.

It's no wonder that the Japanese are no wonder.

Throughout the Meiji Restoration, there were always some Japanese who were thinking about whether the Qing Dynasty would "intervene", just as the Qing Dynasty did not know Japan, and Japan actually did not know the Qing Dynasty very well, especially these newly brought to power the Shogunate, who had not yet been in contact with the high-level of the Qing Dynasty, and therefore, they were always worried about such a question: the Dutch, British, and French were all fighting in the land of Japan, how could the Qing Dynasty not come.

However, it is true that the Qing Dynasty did not come.

In 1868, the Manchu masters had just solved the problem of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and at this time, where did they have time to pay attention to the vassal state that was not a vassal state.

Huang Xuan simply wanted to kiss this fat guy, he was actually very smart, maybe in two days, he would be able to think of the tiger skin of the Qing Dynasty, but by that time, I am afraid it will be too late.

Almost "lewd" laughed twice, Huang Xuan stretched out his hand to pull Dian Wei, and said loudly: "I was originally the second envoy of Li Hongzhang, the minister of the Qing Dynasty. "Li Hongzhang is still in the post of governor of Liangjiang at this moment, and the people who have heard of him are far from as many as in later generations, Huang Xuan's voice is full of emotion, and his words are not sad, but have the taste of a court family.

His age is still too young, if he says that he is a minister, it is a joke at all, even so, Mitsui and others will not believe it, but suspicion is suspicion, all the people present are businessmen, Mitsui Gao then held the idea of not offending foreigners, made a gesture, and said: "You are ......"

"Huang Xuan." Xiao Huang smiled triumphantly and arched around, Mitsui Takashi is equivalent to the business boss of Osaka, as long as he does this, it will be enough for him.