Xu Heng's strategy is a bit retro, using Taizu's old method of 'building high walls and accumulating grain'.

In Sakai Port and its surroundings, 50,000 elite Ming troops and 30,000 young and strong auxiliaries were concentrated.

Because of the special relationship between the Xu family and the emperor's family, Zhu Qiyu did not send Wenchen to counsel military affairs. There is only one so-called prison soldier Jin Xing, who was actually sent by Zhu Qiyu to accumulate qualifications.

So the military has become Xu Heng's final say.

During this time, Xu Heng focused on building fortifications and set up three lines of defense to defend Sakai Port.

With tears in his eyes, the Daming sailor transported more than 3,000 war horses for Xu Heng.

There are soldiers and horses, guns and armor, food and artillery, since the construction of the defense line, Xu Heng has been drinking tea and chatting with Jin Xing in the Chinese army's tent every day.

Jin Xing had nothing to do all day, and he was a little anxious: "An Guogong, when are we going to fight?" ”

Xu Heng said with a smile: "The situation has reached this point, either you don't fight, or you want to fight, it's a decisive battle." Anyway, we have food in our hands, and Ashikaga Yoshimasa has no food in our hands, and when they are hungry, they are naturally willing to fight a decisive battle.

This is exactly the same as the Battle of Changping, there are several Lian Po on the opposite side, who are lucky, thinking that the energy consumption will last for a long time, but they only catch up with the drought after only one year.

If it really fought, the Japanese army ended up much worse than the Zhao army. There are plains between Kyoto and Sakai Port, and our heavy cavalry and heavy infantry kill light infantry, isn't it like a joke? ”

Jin Xing said with a smile: "We have such a big advantage in troops, we took the initiative to attack at the beginning, and we didn't take down Kyoto long ago." ”

Xu Heng explained: "What we want is for the enemy to fall into despair and take the initiative to surrender. What's the use of just taking down Kyoto, Japan is full of mountains, and if the enemy army drills into the deep mountains and old forests, we will be dumbfounded.

The heavy cavalry and heavy infantry can't enter the mountains, and the light infantry also goes to drill deep in the mountains and old forests when they are not familiar with the place, isn't that looking for death?

We don't take the initiative to attack, and the enemy is not willing to leave Kyoto and drill directly into the deep mountains and old forests.

Besides, if Ashikaga Yoshimasa throws Kyoto away without being attacked, then his prestige and ruling base will collapse, so how can others continue to resist.

In the words of the Holy One, this battle is a game of psychology and human nature. ”

Jin Xing nodded and continued to ask: "If after the defeat of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, those guardian daimyo of Japan surrender one after another, how should we settle them?"

I don't care about these things, but I'm very curious. I'm afraid these land snakes are very difficult to deal with. ”

Xu Heng said with a smile: "Combined with the arrangement of the saint and my own speculation, it should be that several large plains and important ports and mines in Japan are under the direct jurisdiction of the imperial court and the government, and the feudal princes and county kings are guarded.

In other places, similar to the southwestern provinces, such as Yunnan, Guizhou and other places, seal some Tusi, Tu Governors, Xuanfu and the like, and let them be semi-autonomous.

However, the rights of mining, coinage, and sea trade in its territory must be owned by the imperial court.

Later, he slowly changed the local officials to liuguan and completely incorporated them into the rule of the imperial court. ”

The two were chatting energetically, and the soldiers sent a secret letter in, Xu Heng opened it and read it carefully, and then handed it to Jin Xing: "Look, this year's drought has tossed Japan enough."

Our neighbors, the Akamatsu clan, the guardians of the three kingdoms of Harima, Bizen, and Mimasaka, asked us to buy 500,000 koku of grain, and they bought it at a high price. ”

When Jin Xing heard this, he gasped: "500,000 stones, how can they come with their mouths open, even if we have so much food, we can't give it all to them." ”

Xu Heng stretched out two fingers: "People offer two taels of silver and one stone." ”

Jin Xing was even more surprised: "500,000 stones is one million taels of silver, can the Chisong clan take so much?" ”

"For the part where the silver is not enough, the Akamatsu clan wants to take copper. The Muromachi shogunate has three management and four positions, a total of seven families, the Akamatsu clan is one of them, and if we are analogous to the Ming Dynasty, the Akamatsu clan is equivalent to the level of the Marquis of Wuding, and it may be a little higher, even close to the Marquis of Xiping.

Their family is still very rich, and if you think about it, the previous head of the family, Akamatsu Mitsusuke, assassinated Ashikaga Yoshimasa's father, the sixth shogun.

Although this behavior is reckless, it can also be seen how powerful their family is. ”

"Shall we sell it to them?"

Xu Heng said with a smile: "Let's sell some of it, in fact, with the current food shortage situation in Japan, if we connect with multiple buyers, we can sell it for five taels and one stone."

Save on it, sell it at a high price in small batches, and the more you go to the back, the more expensive it is.

And the Akamatsu clan is a vicious wolf, and they can't be fed too much.

Sell 100,000 stone first, and receive them 200,000 taels of silver. When the new rice from Annam is shipped over this year, we will sell the grain as appropriate. ”

Jin Xing also smiled: "No wonder the emperor has to send me to supervise the army, this business is too cool." Two taels of silver and one stone of rice, it's funny to think about. ”

"Don't laugh, we didn't even bargain, so we gave the grain to the Akamatsu clan, which is just like a great good man.

The main reason is that the Akamatsu clan has a blood feud with the Ashikaga clan, and they are helping us to besiege Kyoto from the west, and we can't watch them have a civil rebellion and mutiny because of a lack of food. ”

After the two agreed, they sold 100,000 stone of grain at the price of 221 stone. Subtracting the cost of grain by sea, this transaction, the two of them made a net profit of 100,000 taels of silver for the imperial court with tears.

At the same time, he also helped his ally Akamatsu clan temporarily survive the famine and stabilize the situation.

……

On 16 April, the weather was fine.

After breakfast, Zhu Qiyu sat on the couch and leaned against the window. On the couch and coffee table, there are all kinds of porcelain.

Zhu Qiyu took a few favorite concubines and looked at these porcelains one by one.

Lin Xiangyu asked with a smile: "The porcelain of the official kiln and the private kiln in Jingdezhen, the Dehua white porcelain, and our own Qingzhou porcelain, where does the husband look at the better production?" ”

Zhu Qiyu shook his head: "To tell the truth, although we have taken over the industry of Qingzhou Qi Wangfu for several years, although Qingzhou porcelain has improved, it is still not as good as the other two."

Among the three, I obviously prefer Dehua white porcelain. I originally loved white the most, and this Dehua porcelain was as crystal as jade, and the glaze was like condensation, which won my heart.

This Jingdezhen porcelain is not realistic enough, freehand is not freehand enough, the flowers are green, and I am dizzy when I see it.

Their technology is fine, but I don't agree with the aesthetics. If it can be realistically realistic, I'd like to look up at them. ”

Lin Xiangyu nodded: "Our preferences are the same, these Dehua white porcelain are used at home, and the others are appreciated." ”

"The Malaysia-Shanghai trade route is about to be opened, and we can take porcelain, tea, and silk to go out to exchange for overseas gems, spices and other specialties."

Lin Xiangyu asked curiously: "The slave family still thinks that the husband is going to say that he is going to exchange silver and copper coins." ”

Zhu Qiyu teased: "What kind of silver, what kind of copper coins, now the big silver mine and the big copper mine are in my own hands."

Because Japan has a lot of gold, silver, and copper mines, their elites and people have huge stocks of gold, silver, and copper.

There is so much silver and copper in other places overseas, and if you go there with porcelain and silk, people can't take out so much silver, so they can only exchange it for things, precious stones, spices and other special products. ”

There are some things that Zhu Qiyu can't say clearly, the people in the west exchanged the silver of the Americas for the goods of the Ming Dynasty, and that was more than a hundred years later.

At present, the silver mines of the Americas are still buried in the mountains, and the Jingtai Emperor, who owns the Dexing copper mine and the Japanese gold, silver and copper mines, is the largest holder of precious metals today.

(End of chapter)