July 25, 1729, Hagi Castle (now Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture).

Surrounded by a group of elders and samurai, the lord of the Choshu domain, Mori Yoshimoto, rode in several horse-drawn carriages to a newly established weaving factory in the west of the castle to inspect production in person.

The factory has a total of 35 looms, mainly producing muslin fabrics, which are popular in the Japanese domestic market. These second-hand interactive pedal machines imported from the Qin and Qi kingdoms required an average of two weavers per machine, which made the workshop employ almost 70 "weaver girls", although it could not be compared with the large workshops of more than 100 people in Osaka and Edo, but it was considered a large weaving workshop in the whole of China (the western part of Honshu Island).

During this period, looms in Japan changed from horizontal machines to interactive pedal machines, and the productivity of looms increased tenfold as a result, which is the most advanced technology in Japan, which is a "small country with few people". The Japanese textile industry developed at the beginning of this century, although it is still very immature, but under the influence of the Qin State on the mainland and the Qi State in the south, there is still an irrepressible trace of "gratifying" changes, that is, the high-end silk weaving interactive pedal technology, which began to be applied to cotton looms.

Previously, according to the production capacity of the horizontal machine, one reverse (ancient Japanese fabric unit, one reverse is about 2 zhang that is, 20 feet) white cloth can be woven within five days, and if the interactive pedal machine is used to achieve division of labor and cooperation, two anti white cloth can be woven within one day.

Relying on the handicraft industry of the factory, cotton weaving has created ten times the capacity of the lying machine, which is indeed a technique for generating wealth (capital), which is much stronger than digging in the field.

Rich country, oh no, it should be a rich feudal strong army, just around the corner!

Mao Li Jiyuan walked past the looms, watching countless yarns under the weaving of the machine, constantly "spitting" out of the white cotton cloth, and couldn't help but feel excited.

Where is the cloth that this machine "spits out", it is simply a lovely silver coin!

Well, it's still the kind of silver coins of Qi and Beiming.

As for the paper money "Golden Yuan Coupon" of Qi State, even if it is in Hengguan and even Ryukyu, you can buy any goods, but I always feel that there are no heavy silver coins to look down-to-earth.

In the Edo period, Japan, like the rest of the world, began to pursue the "good color, slenderness, and breathability" of cotton yarn. The alluvial plains of the Great River can be used to make high-quality cotton yarn, while the arable land, which lacks sandy soil, such as in the Nara area, can only produce cotton with short and thick fibers for making cotton jackets.

At the beginning of this century, with the increasing scale of trade between Qi and Japan, due to the market demand of Qi country, the Osaka Plain, located at the mouth of the Great River, was the first to abandon rice and grow cotton, and began to plant cotton, a higher-value cash crop, on a large scale to make up for the expanding trade deficit. After years of development, the average area of cotton cultivation has reached 45 percent of the total area of the field. It is said that many farmers have to buy rice for their own consumption and annual tribute because their fields are full of cotton.

The average annual yield of seed cotton in the Setkawa Springs (present-day southern Osaka) and the Osaka Plain exceeded 12 million kosai (about 3.75 kg per koku), and more than 50 percent of the cotton area was planted in the middle reaches of the Yasaku River in Mikawa (in present-day eastern Aichi Prefecture) and 45 percent in the plateau area. The Owari area in western Mikawa is basically the same.

For more than two decades, cotton had become Japan's largest export, bringing enormous benefits to the shogunate and some of its feudal states.

As for the food needs of more than 20 million people in the country, how to solve the problem?

It was only for the people to tighten the belt in their trousers a little more, and the many associated weeds in the cotton fields could barely make ends meet. If the gap is still too large, it will have to import grain from North Korea, Northern Ming, Luzon and Annam.

Later, some "people of insight" felt that they always exported cotton, and the money they got back was not much, and wondered if they could make use of the rich cotton resources to spin and weave cloth by themselves, so that they would not have to spend huge sums of money to import cotton cloth from Qi and Qin, and the continuous outflow of gold and silver could be more or less suppressed.

As a result, the powerful economic feudal domains such as Edo, Osaka, and Kyoto, as well as the Kaga and Sendai domains, as well as the Choshu and Satsuma domains, which were under the control of the shogunate, introduced textile machinery from the Qi or Qin states one after another, preparing to shift from the extensive export orientation of agricultural products to refined industrial production and manufacturing, in addition to meeting the domestic market demand, perhaps they could also earn more "foreign exchange" through exports, and improve the serious financial problems.

It is also embarrassing to say that Qi originally planned to kick the door of the Japanese market open through a war, so as to find a stable sales market for the domestic manufacturing industry with an increasing production scale.

However, after the first twenty or thirty years of "good times", Qi merchants were surprised to find that the market size of Japan seemed to have reached a growth bottleneck, and no matter how hard they tried, many goods could not be sold.

What made Qi manufacturers even more angry was that many mercenary traders turned to purchase large quantities of cotton cloth from Qin in order to make high profits, and then secretly dumped them in Japan, causing domestic cotton manufacturers to lose many orders.

In vain?

Now, with the "awakening" of Japanese businessmen, they are beginning to plan to carry out "export substitution" and develop their own cotton textile industry.

I'll it!

The market seems to be a little unstable.

Whether the market is stable or not is not considered at all by the lord of Choshu Mori Yoshimoto. All he wanted was to increase the revenue of the domain as much as possible, and to scavenge more resources in order to build a powerful feudal army to resist the shogunate's threat of "centralization" and "land repossession".

Over the years, the Tokugawa clan continued to find fault with the daimyo of various feudal states, and often reduced or changed their feudal titles, or directly confiscated their territories, causing panic among many feudal states.

Compared to before the Qi-Japanese War, the total height of the Tokugawa clan's shogunate stone has increased from 4.3 million stone to 5.2 million stone now. Although many of these increased stone heights were acquired by the shogunate through land reclamation or mountain development, most of them were incorporated into the shogunate by reducing the feudal domains and confiscating them.

If we add the Ishitaka of the Gosan family (except for the Tokugawa Shogun's family, the Owari Tokugawa family, the Kishu Tokugawa family, and the Mito Tokugawa family, which have the right to inherit the Shogun), the total number of Ishitaka directly controlled by the shogunate exceeded 7 million koku, accounting for almost 30% of the total Ishitaka in Japan, and the strength further crushed all the regional feudal states.

In addition, the shogunate's inadvertent policy of "abolishing the feudal domain and establishing a prefecture" made the local feudal states not frightened and angry.

The feudal domain has been withdrawn, is this world still the world of our martial arts?

"Lord, this time I run the factory, I am afraid that the world will laugh at it!" The elder Hiratsuka Masao couldn't help frowning when he saw that Mori Yoshimoto valued this textile factory so much.

Let a hereditary martial artist run a business, no matter how you look at it, it is not a system!

It's just a bad etiquette!

"Is there any other way you can get more money?" Maori Yoshimoto was silent for a while, and asked faintly.

"......" Hiratsuka Masao was suddenly dumbfounded.

Yes, just with the annual tribute in the domain, it will be more than 300,000 stone per year, plus fishing along the coast, digging some mines in the mountains, engaging in some transit trade, and a little smuggling business, it will slightly increase by more than 100,000 stones, but to support thousands of feudal troops, especially the firearm army with a scale of 1,500 people, where is this income enough?

It's just because they don't have money that these musketeers can't do a few live-fire training sessions a year. And the people of Qi in Hengguan City next door, even their rotating township soldiers have to conduct a live-fire drill every month, which is extremely extravagant.

If you pull out this kind of firearm troops in the domain that have not been fired with too many live ammunition to start a war with the Qi people, I am afraid that they will be abused as dogs in the end!

Since more than 100 years ago, since the Chōshū Domain was greatly reduced, its finances have been in a dilemma of making ends meet, and life has been tight. Since the second year of Tenwa (1682), the feudal clan has repeatedly issued the "Thrift Decree" to reduce the knowledge and practice of the feudal lords and increase the annual tribute, but it has not solved the financial deficit. The previous feudal lord Mori Yoshihiro resolutely carried out the reform of the feudal administration, re-measured the land, and even counted the miscellaneous taxes and small things outside the annual supply, such as the tree and the salt pan, into the village height, in order to increase the stone height, and at the same time realized the monopoly system of national products to supplement the financial shortage, but in the end it was only an increase of 30,000 koku.

However, this extreme oppressive method also caused widespread poverty among the peasants in the domain, which led to the continuous occurrence of mass protests or rebellions in various parts of the territory, and the exodus of the people was also repeatedly prohibited.

It was not until Mori Yoshimoto became the lord of the domain that he actively improved relations with the Qi people of Hengguan and encouraged merchants in the domain to engage in entrepot trade and cross-border trade through Hengguan, which brought a large amount of commercial taxes, which led to a slight improvement in the finances of the domain.

However, a few years ago, the Tokugawa shogunate began to take advantage of the drastic changes in domestic social ideology and the frequent violent incidents of samurai and peasants in various regions to carry out "major political reforms", from the economic level, to social control, to military reforms, and finally to the faint revelation of "the abolition of feudal prefectures". In addition, in recent decades, the shogunate has repeatedly reduced, changed, and even confiscated territories of various feudal states, and many feudal lords have been wary of it.

The Choshu Domain has always been the suspicion of the shogunate, and it has been the main target of years of suppression, and if the Tokugawa clan really wants to implement the so-called "withdrawal of the feudal domain", there is no doubt that the first target of the knife will be their Mori clan.

After the feudal lord Mori Yoshimoto began to strengthen the feudal army. Through smuggling through various channels, he continued to accumulate weapons and equipment, and finally built a firecracker army of more than 1,500 people in the domain over a period of six years to fight against the shogunate.

"For the sake of the inheritance of the martial arts, this business has to be done!" Seeing the embarrassed expression on the face of the old Hiratsuka Masao, Maori Yoshimoto sighed slightly, and said with a wry smile: "The way of a businessman, although it is a cheap business, is a little more decent than the shameless behavior of the Xiren Chuan clan who blocked the way and demanded money. Masao, do you think so? ”

"The lord ......" Hiratsuka Masao also shook his head helplessly and smiled bitterly when he heard this.

The Kirengawa clan mentioned in the mouth of Mori Yoshimoto is an orthodox descendant of the Ashikaga clan, the ancestor of the Ashikaga dynasty, a descendant of the Ashikaga clan, the hereditary Kamakura prince, and the Ashikaga clan is an important lineage of the Genji samurai, with a high status. Tokugawa Ieyasu served as the general of the Seiyi Shogunate, and after the establishment of the shogunate, he proclaimed himself the leader of all the Genji samurai, so he naturally wanted to give more preferential treatment to the Ashikaga clan, and "offered" the Kirengawa clan, and after the Battle of Sekigahara, the Kirengawa area of Shioya County, Shimono Province was designated as the Kirengawa domain.

Since the establishment of the Xirenchuan clan, the strength is not large, and the power is even weaker, at most it is a "village domain", and the stone height is less than 10,000 stone. Like the other feudal domains, the feudal domain was in financial difficulty, its income was declining, and it was very poor. The lord of the Xirenchuan Domain was anxious in his eyes, but he also came up with a clever plan, that is, to build roads and houses.

Although the territory of the Kirengawa domain was small, it was also an important point for many feudal states in the Tohoku region to go to Edo to pay for their duties, and the lords of the Kirengawa domain put their money-making calculations on these feudal states.

He ordered the roads in his territory to be repaired, and after the roads were repaired, a number of government lodgings (inns) were built on both sides of the roads, and then waited for customers to move in.

Not to mention, his operation really improved the economy and led to the development of the domain. But the good times didn't last long, and gradually the other feudal lords who went to Edo to attend the work stopped leaving the Kirengawa Domain, because the cost of food and lodging in the Kirengawa Domain was too poor.

Traditionally, on the way to Edo, the feudal lords had to make a large-scale "daimyo procession", and the cost of such a "tour" was very high, and the shogunate did not pay for it, so the daimyo had to bear the cost themselves. In the spirit of saving money, many feudal lords were not willing to take this sword in the Kirengawa Domain at all, after all, no one wanted to spend the money they had wronged, so they were reluctant to pass through here on a detour.

Seeing that his income had plummeted and he couldn't continue to gather wool, the lord of the Xirenchuan Domain came up with another trick.

He put a lot of eyeliner around the area, and whenever a team of feudal lords who attended the service came to come, the feudal lords of the Kirengawa clan would sit and wait at the entrance of the village, welcome the feudal lords from all over the world, and then invite them to enter his territory to rest.

said that he invited the other party to his territory to rest and drink tea, but in fact, he arranged for these people to go to the hotel to live, and then paid a high accommodation fee for himself. This wave of riotous operations of the lord of the Xirenchuan domain can be said to be very shameless, belonging to a typical car bandit road rage, forced to buy and sell.

For other feudal lords, why not choose a detour? The lord of the Xirenchuan clan left his residence and took the initiative to come to greet him, and besides, the status of the family is still so high, it is very bluffing, if he doesn't go, he will probably save the face of others. But don't take a detour to live and live, the Xilianchuan clan is really not a person, and the price is so high that it hurts to the flesh, which makes the other feudal lords and the feudal lords around them unable to get off the stage, and finally had to be slaughtered aggrievedly, so that the Xilianchuan clan collected "tolls" and flew up, so angry that many feudal lords of other countries cursed behind their backs for not being a son, but they were helpless.

However, being able to receive money is also the ability of the Xiren Chuan Domain, so don't care about being embarrassed.

If Mori Yoshimoto had this convenience, he would have done the same thing. Unfortunately, the Choshu Domain was located in southwestern Japan, and there were few feudal lords who passed by their doorsteps (the daimyo of the feudal kingdoms on the island of Kyushu often preferred to travel to Edo on the merchant ships of the Qi people rather than through the Choshu Domain, as they had done decades before), so they were unable to gather wool.

However, there was a god of wealth squatting on the side of the Choshu Domain, who could continuously import all kinds of novelty goods through the Hengguan Castle of the Qi people, and then resell them to various inland feudal states and shogunate territories, bringing them a large amount of gold and silver currency, which not only effectively supported the financial stability of the feudal government, but also greatly improved the local people's livelihood and economy.

To the surprise of the Maori clan, the Qi people of Hengguan Castle had recently informed them through a merchant that they could provide corresponding military support for the Choshu Domain, and that swords, armor, horses, muskets, and even artillery could be obtained at a lower price to arm the troops in the domain.

Of course, Mori Yoshimoto also knew that the Qi people were uneasy and well-intentioned, and wanted to take this opportunity to get involved in the internal affairs of the Choshu Domain, and then push the situation in the entire southwest region.

So what?

At the very least, we can use this to preserve the centuries-old heritage and continue to maintain the existence of the Choshu Domain.

"My lord, the referee of Edo has arrived." The elder of the family, Mori Muneki, hurried to Mori Yoshimoto and reported to him with a solemn expression.

"Oh, the Tokugawa clan has finally sent someone." Mao Li Jiyuan raised his eyebrows and asked in a deep voice, "What verdict did that referee bring?" ”

"The Tokugawa clan believes that we should not oppress the branch clan as the main domain." Munyoki's face was full of gloom, and he said hatefully, "Not only did they reject all of our complaints, but they also ordered our Choshu domain to give up the land of the river dam and asked us to give it to the Tokuyama clan (Mori clan)...... Indemnify! ”

"......" Mori Yoshimoto heard this, his face immediately turned pale, and his eyes widened with anger, "The Tokugawa clan is like this...... It's too much of a deception! ”

"My lord, I am willing to take five hundred samurai to attack the Tokugawa Domain and hold their lord at your feet!"

"My lord, the Tokugawa clan bullied me like this, I can't bear it!"

"My lord, kill the Tokugawa family magistrate and let him know that the dignity of my Choshu Domain is not to be disgraced!"

“……”

The high-ranking samurai on the left and right of the attendants pressed their hands on the hilts of their swords and spoke loudly.

"The Lord is angry! Don't ......" Hiratsuka Masao hurriedly spoke out, and he had to warn Mori Yoshimoto not to act rashly.

"Everyone, there is no need to say more!" Mori Yoshimoto waved his hand, stopping the crowd from agitating many samurai, and also interrupted Hiratsuka Masao's exhortation, took a deep breath, and said loudly: "At this time, it's time to let out our Mori clan's angry roar." Otherwise, under the pressure of the Tokugawa clan step by step, we and other samurai families, what dignity do we have to live in the world! ”

After hearing this, Hiratsuka Masao's mouth opened, but in the end he wisely chose to keep his mouth shut.

With the strength of my Choshu Domain, can I resist the shogunate alone?

(End of chapter)