Friedrich's fleet departed with a fruitful harvest, and in addition to the shoguns, the daimyo from all over the country also frantically paid tribute to the Austrian Empire.

After all, according to the contents of the Edo Treaty, the Austrian Empire was to return the favor.

However, Friedrich also rejected a very tempting offer, and because he admired the lord of the Chōshū domain (or had a good time), he returned to the Chōshū domain before leaving Japan.

However, this time Friedrich encountered an unexpected situation, when he walked into the castle tower, he found that Mori Keijin was already wearing a kimono, and Haori was sitting there, with an unusually formal attitude, as if he was going to show you seppuku every minute.

"Mr. Maori, what's wrong with you?"

Friedrich asked with some confusion, because during this period of contact he had discovered that the Japanese always found some strange reason for seppuku.

It is worth mentioning here that the Habsburgs have passed down their linguistic talents from generation to generation, and in less than two months Friedrich was able to communicate in Japanese at a basic level.

"Friedrichsand, you must sell me your flagship! Please! ”

Maori reverence is still unaffordable.

However, Friedrich would not agree to such a thing, after all, the Prince Eugen was his treasure and the symbol of the Austrian Imperial Navy (which he had in mind).

"That can't be!"

Friedrich replied crisply, and turned to leave, not wanting to waste time with the guy who coveted his fleet.

Maori hurriedly knelt down and grabbed Friedrich's trouser legs.

"I, the Changzhou Domain, am willing to pay 500,000 taels of gold! Think again! Please! ”

The retainers of Maori's relatives hurriedly began to carry boxes with a thousand taels of gold written on them into the house, and soon piled up into a small mountain.

To be honest, 500,000 taels of gold did shock Friedrich, because the previous feudal lords, even the shoguns, often cried poor.

And Mori Keiko was able to take out so much gold in one go, mainly because the Choshu Domain was the richest vassal state in Japan at this time, and he was also shocked by the new warships of Austria.

The 500,000 taels of gold were the foundation of the Mori clan, but both Mori and Yoshida Shoin felt that it was worth the gamble.

However, Austria did not come to Japan to help the poor, and for the time being, supporting the rule of the shogunate was the best solution for Austria.

"Mr. Maori, I am only the commander of the fleet, and these ships belong to the state, and I can't help them."

Friedrich really wanted to agree, after all, with the money, he could build at least two ships when he went back.

But before he came, Franz had repeatedly told him not to underestimate these East Asians, let alone sell them any military technology.

In addition, the officers around Friedrich also knew about it, so they all hinted that he refused to trade.

Seeing this scene, Maori still refused to give up, and he didn't care about the face of the samurai, and continued to hug Friedrich's thigh and shout.

"Either one will do, and the smallest one will do!"

In desperation, Friedrich could only promise Maori to return to China to ask.

In fact, if Mori Keiko really won the bet, then the Choshu clan would have no one to govern in Japan, and he could even directly drive the ship to Edo Bay to reverse the country.

Then Franz's design will be completely messed up, and if he and the Dutch or the British work backwards on Austrian technology, it will really be a moment of reversal.

In addition, the Choshu Domain controlled the Shimonoseki and Tsushima Straits, and almost all the ships of Japan's trade with Korea and the Qing Kingdom had to pass through it, so it was so arrogant that the Satsuma Domain next door had to sell things for 20,000 taels.

Soon the first grain was delivered to Edo Bay, and the shogunate began to push down the price of grain, after all, according to Kagura, there would be a steady stream of grain from Austria.

The shogunate and the daimyo everywhere were frantically suppressing the price of grain, which made the Japanese merchants think that these daimyo were crazy, because the price of tribute rice would directly determine the income of the daimyo and samurai.

This is a completely end-or-end game, and although the merchants have money in their hands, they will not choose to fight to the end with the shogunate and the daimyo who are about to be eliminated from society.

Therefore, the merchants began to sell grain in a rare way, and this year the shogunate rarely increased the shiroku, although the loss was not as large as that of the low-level samurai, but due to the drop in food prices, life was better than in previous years.

The rebellion that the merchants had anticipated did not take place, and in the days following the shogunate and the daimyo in the regions regained control of the price of grain, the feudal powers regained control of the market.

And once they control the market, they can decide the price of food.

Although Japan was an agricultural country at this time, and the price of food in Japan was falling, it was still higher than in other surrounding areas.

And in both California and Hawaii, food production is much higher than its own needs.

Therefore, a country with more people and less land, and abundant gold and silver reserves, is the best place to dump goods.

Austrian caravans usually took two routes, one was to send agricultural products from the California region directly to Japan, and then bring back people, daily necessities, and local products from Japan to Hawaii for dumping.

Then they brought back pearls and coffee from Hawaii and sent them to California.

Another route was to sell their industrial goods from California to Hawaii, and from Hawaii to sell grain and sugar to Japan, and finally to return to California for labor, precious metals, and local products.

On the Japanese side, both the shogunate and the local Ming dynasty were very fond of this trade model, because the untouchables were the least valuable thing for them.

In fact, in addition to the untouchables, there are also those low-level samurai who disobey discipline, obnoxious monks, and the occasional escaped ronin and criminal.

They wished that the Austrians would take more with them, but unfortunately the Austrian ships had limited carrying capacity and refused to stuff more people into the holds, so the number of laborers exported was still very limited.

As for the Austrians, the privileges in Japan are many and terrible, but how many Austrians will bypass half the world to make trouble in Japan?

The Austrian merchants, let alone entering the interior, wished they could leave immediately after loading their ships, because the Japanese service industry at this time was far from being as developed as in later generations, on the contrary, there were often samurai and rioters who took risks to attack Austrian merchants.

The Japanese locals' respect for Austrian merchants was often treated as abuse, such as sitting in a sedan cage and stuffing a strong man into a space of less than one square meter is not a punishment, it is simply a punishment.

Controlling grain prices alone could not eliminate the influence of the Japanese merchant group, and soon cotton cloth, sugar, and cheap industrial goods from the Austrian Empire poured into the Japanese market.

(End of chapter)