"General Li, I have admired the name for a long time!" Mori Keyichiro stood at the door of Fufeng Tower, bowed deeply to Li Yanliang, and then had a flattering smile on his face, "You came to the banquet this time, Xiaomin is deeply honored, and the joy is indescribable. ”

"Mao Lijun speaks Chinese very fluently!" Li Yanliang nodded lightly, stopping to look the Japanese businessman in Hengguan City up and down.

"Sir, I'm afraid you don't know yet." Zhou Chongzan, the person in charge of the black-clothed guard stationed in Hengguan next to him, said with a smile: "Mao Lijun not only speaks Chinese fluently, but also writes good articles, and has a deep study of traditional Chinese culture, which is almost the same as my Qi people!" ”

"Ashamed, ashamed!" Mori Keichiro said humbly, "Although Komin was born in Nagato, he spent his entire teenage years in Yokoseki Castle. It was also thanks to the blessing of the empire that a number of primary and secondary schools were opened in the city to have the opportunity to learn Chinese. There is also some research on the small people of Chinese culture, but it is not as in-depth, and it can only be understood a little bit. ”

During this period, many economically developed areas in Japan, such as Gyeonggi, Kanto, and Edo, also opened a number of common people education represented by terakoya, and the terako (students) did not care about wealth or status, regardless of status (except for the takuta), but also included women. However, many of the shabby samurai and poor families did not even have a full meal, so where would they have the leisure to let the children of their families go to the temple house to receive basic education.

In the fifth year of the Han Dynasty (1675), when the Qi State passed the Treaty of Edo and ceded several territories such as Hengguan, it was announced that all newly occupied territories would be made Chinese as the official language, and all children must also be forced to enter the government-run primary and secondary schools to receive the Qi model education.

After more than 50 years of rule, most of the Japanese residents of Hengguancheng were able to master the ability to speak Chinese, and there were even many "elite talents" who could write many beautiful articles, except for those who fled from the interior of Japan from time to time.

As the deputy commander of the Hengguan garrison, Li Yanliang naturally knew a little about the Japanese businessman in front of him through the channel of the black-clothed guard, and knew that he was a Japanese immigrant, but he never thought that this person would be so proficient in Chinese and write beautiful articles in order to deeply integrate into the empire.

Moreover, this Japanese businessman also gave himself a Chinese name, called Mao Hanjun. Oh, a name with a lot of meaning.

Well, it's okay, with such a heart for the empire, many things are easy to explain.

Fufulou is a Japanese-style restaurant built by several Japanese businessmen in the city, but unlike traditional Japanese restaurants, the whole building uses a lot of cement and masonry, making the restaurant seem larger.

However, in the layout design of the restaurant, the traditional Chinese "Hui" character pattern is adopted, leaving a transparent hollow pattern. The owner of the restaurant has set up a stage in the middle of the empty hall, and during the meals, kabuki performances, or Noh performances, are arranged to support the enjoyment.

After eating a few bites of puffer fish sashimi, Li Yanliang stopped his chopsticks, feeling a little bland and tasteless, and at the same time he was a little wary of this raw food, worried that he would eat a lot of untreated and clean parasites.

I really don't understand why the Japanese are so fond of these raw and cold things, and they eat them one by one without any scruples.

"General Li, please try this delicious fish soup again, it is fresh and smooth, it is one of the famous restaurants here." Mori Keichiro enthusiastically introduced the new dishes to Li Yanliang.

"Shopkeeper Mao's business has been good lately?" Li Yanliang took the small bowl full of fish soup from Maori Keichiro's hand, took a few sips gently, and then asked casually.

"Thanks to the general's question, Xiaomin's business ...... Fair. Mori Kiichiro didn't know what he meant, so he replied cautiously.

"I heard that Mr. Mao had previously sold many prohibited and controlled goods to mainland Japan. Now, can you continue to operate? ”

"......" Mori Kagiichiro heard this, his right hand holding chopsticks trembled, and he couldn't help but look at Zhou Chongzan, the head of the black-clothed guard sitting next to him, but seeing his appearance, he buried his head and ate with relish, ignoring the conversation here.

"General, I didn't know much about many things before, and Xiaomin didn't know that certain commodities were prohibited. That one...... That one...... It was to sell some government-regulated goods to the interior of Japan. Mori Keichiro defended himself calmly: "However, after being reminded by the customs, Xiaomin no longer sells those prohibited goods. Hehe...... as a businessman, you still have to abide by the imperial decrees, and you don't dare to risk yourself again. ”

"Haha......" Ye Xuanliang, the host of the Land Border Management Office of Hengguan Customs, heard this and laughed, "I said Shopkeeper Mao, don't hide it, a few days ago, our brothers from the Land Border Management Office also saw that your subordinates transported a batch of refined knives, guns and plate armor to the Changzhou Domain. Oh, by the way, half a month ago, you got a dozen muskets over. As for horses, gunpowder, tarpaulin, and medicinal herbs, it's even less to count! ”

Maori Keyichiro's eyes widened, looking at several military and political officials of Qi State present, and he couldn't help but secretly complain in his heart.

Obviously, I warmly invited guests, but how did it turn into a Hongmen banquet?!

What's going on? Does the other party want to use this as a lever and prepare to blackmail himself?

The problem is, apart from this new deputy commander of the garrison, each of you has received a lot of filial piety from me!

Why don't you give yourself a wake-up call in advance?

"You're close to the Mori clan of the Choshu Domain, aren't you?" Li Yanliang first signaled an accompanying officer to guard outside the private room to prevent anyone from eavesdropping, and then solemnly asked Mori Keichiro: "Most of the weapons smuggled were transported to them before, right?" ”

"......" Maori Keyichiro looked at the several Qi military and political personnel present with an embarrassed face, his mouth opened, and he didn't know what to say.

Should I answer yes or no?

Isn't this going to settle accounts after the fall?

"Shopkeeper Mao, don't worry." Zhou Chongzan picked up a napkin, wiped his mouth gently, and said with a smile: "Captain Li asked you about weapon smuggling, although to be honest, we have a place to use. Well, I might as well tell you that if the Choshu Domain wants anything in the future, I can cooperate with our Garrison Command and the Black Guards through you. Also, you can go and bring a message to the Mori clan, and if you want to train the feudal army, we can also help. They can enter Fuso Castle as fugitive civilians, and we will provide professional officers and staff officers to guide and train their vassal troops. ”

"......" Mori Keichiro looked at Zhou Chongzan in disbelief, and then turned his head to look at Li Yanliang.

"That's right." Li Yanliang nodded and said, "We can provide the necessary military support to the Maori clan to strengthen the armament of the Choshu Domain. You can also ask the neighboring Hiroshima and Fukuyama domains if they need such military support. As for the price of the supply of weapons, it can be two or three percent lower than the price you used to smuggle. Of course, you can also put forward some constructive suggestions on how to do it. ”

A few days earlier, after grudgingly reaching an agreement with the governor of Hengseki, Fan Changchen, Li Yanliang immediately presented a plan of action to the Ryukyu Governorate, preparing to intervene in the affairs of the surrounding feudal states on a limited basis, providing them with military support, and strengthening their armaments to increase their strength against the shogunate.

Although Qi has some "ideas" about Japan in recent years, it is believed that allowing such a populous country to complete reunification in the true sense will inevitably upset the regional balance of power and threaten Qi's eastern strategy. However, he did not intervene in Japan's internal affairs with great fanfare, but only carried out some local "micro-manipulations" and arranged two idle places, one for the Satsuma domain in the southwest and the other for the Sendai domain in the northeast, to give some support, hoping to contain the Tokugawa shogunate in the future.

For many years, the Beiming government has been constantly agitating and lobbying Qi to plan to dismember Japan into several pieces in order to completely eliminate their threat to Beiming.

This is because a weak and divided Japan is an excellent direction for the Northern Ming Dynasty to expand and gradually encroach on and annex the northern territories of Japan.

It is true that the Northern Ming Dynasty was not very interested in the vast and desolate Lingbei region, and in addition to occupying the Yinzhou region (present-day Magadan Oblast), which was rich in gold and silver mines, it only settled a dozen settlements along the coast of the Ice Sea (present-day Sea of Okhotsk) to collect some furs, catch some fish, and assert sovereignty, but it was not yet a complete de facto control. Their covetous eyes are always aimed at the northern regions of Japan and the southeastern regions of Korea, and they want to swallow them as quickly as possible.

Without him, the vast area of Lingbei is too cold, and it is in winter for almost half a year, so it can't support too many people, so naturally it can't quickly improve its own strength.

In the northern part of Japan and the southeastern part of Korea, although the hills are undulating and the plains are not large, they are much warmer in comparison, and the agricultural conditions will be improved. Not to mention, there are still a lot of people in the above two places, and if they are gradually swallowed up, it will take twenty or thirty years to use them for their own use and become the best cannon fodder. Oh no, it should be the best fighter.

For a long time in the past, the Qi State secretly supported the Satsuma Domain, a daimyo in the southwest, helping the other side to actively improve the finances of the feudal state, develop industry and commerce, expand foreign trade, and spare no effort to help the Shimazu clan establish a new army of 2,500 people, which was filled with a large number of Qi staff officers and retired non-commissioned officers, making the Satsuma Domain faintly the first powerful domain on Kyushu Island and even in the entire southwest of Japan.

According to the strategy of the General Staff of the Qi Kingdom, once the shogunate issued a land inspection order to forcibly recover the territories of the daimyo of the feudal kingdoms in various regions, the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma domain could ascend to the top and take the lead in opposing the centralized behavior of the shogunate by force.

At that time, Qi can rely on its strong sea power to secretly help the Satsuma Domain and support his rebellion against "tyranny".

In the worst case, the Satsuma Domain, even though it failed to defeat the shogunate, was able to defend itself on the island through strong force, and successively cut off the daimyo and pedigree daimyo who were attached to the Tokugawa shogunate on Kyushu Island, and established itself.

As for the Sendai Domain in the north, although the Qi State also made a lot of efforts, the main force was the Northern Ming. Through economic and trade means and military infiltration, they gradually influenced the Date clan and made them determined to resist the shogunate.

The Sendai Domain (including the branch domain) had a wide area of jurisdiction over the northern part of the Morioka Domain, which was bounded by the southern part of present-day Kamaishi City, the northern end of Sumita-cho, the northern end of Oshu City, the southern part of Kitakami-kami, and the northern end of Kanegasaki Town. In addition to Mutsu, the Sendai Domain also had three prefectures in Hitachi Province, one prefecture in Shimosokuni, and two prefectures in Omi Province.

Although the Sendai Domain's public income was more than 600,000 koku, it was lower than that of the Kaga Domain and the Satsuma Domain, and comparable to that of the Owari Domain. However, the actual financial scale of the Sendai Domain was as high as 1 million koku, and in addition to the abundant mineral resources, the shogunate rewards obtained from smelting and animal husbandry, the income from the fishing grounds of Sanriku Bay, the port income, and the income from smuggling in the north, the actual financial scale of the Sendai Domain is said to have exceeded more than 2 million koku, making it the "largest feudal domain in the world".

The Choshu Domain, which was once the largest feudal domain, was based in Yoshida Castle in Aki-gun, and possessed 1.2 million koku from the Ten Kingdoms of China, and it can be said that it had a strong capital to unify the world at the end of the Warring States period. However, the Mori clan was defeated by Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu (who were also subdued by Toyotomi Hideyoshi during this period), which consumed a lot of the power of the feudal kingdom. After the Battle of Sekigahara, he was reduced by Tokugawa on a large scale because of the defeat, and only received more than 300,000 stone from Zhou Defense and Nagato, and no longer had the ambition to dominate the world.

Therefore, neither the Qi State nor the Northern Ming Dynasty looked down on this down-and-out "strong domain". In addition, Shimonoseki, which originally belonged to the Choshu Domain, was ceded to the Qi State by the Shogunate's generosity, and was hated and hostile by the Maori clan, which made the Qi State even less concerned with this feudal state.

That is, to do some trade, engage in some smuggling, and absorb some immigrants, and the relationship seems to be a little salty.

However, Li Yanliang learned through many businessmen that after so many years, the Changzhou Domain had actually changed its attitude towards Qi State.

Not to mention the prosperous trade and lively smuggling activities, which greatly improved the embarrassing financial problems of the Choshu Domain, even the large amount of food and weapons and equipment obtained through Hengguan also revitalized the lonely feudal state, and its strength was slowly restored and improved.

The various manufactured goods of the Qi Kingdom that poured in from Hengguan were transported to the interior of Japan through the hands of the Choshu Domain, and the transit trade and entrepot trade were flourishing, greatly enriching the finances of the feudal state.

Therefore, after receiving these various benefits, the Maori clan immediately realized that the land of Xiaguan to which they belonged was occupied by the Qi people, which did not seem to be a bad thing, but it would be of great benefit to them.

At the same time, under the persecution of the Tokugawa shogunate's "land seizure" and "seizure of power", if there was no strong foreign aid, it would be impossible to resist the shogunate on its own strength alone.

If you don't resist, you can only obediently hand over the territory inherited by your ancestors for hundreds of years to the shogunate, how can you be willing?

If you resist but are unable to fight the enemy, you will encounter the fate of death and annihilation.

In such a situation, is it possible to consider vassalizing a powerful foreign power in order to preserve the territory of the Mori clan and maintain the continued existence of the feudal state?

It just so happened that a young man who wanted to make a contribution came to Hengguan, and he also hoped to have a platform to show his strength, and set his sights on the Changzhou Domain.

(End of chapter)