1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 487 Ryukyu Free Trade
September 1643, 9, Ryukyu Island (today's Okinawa Island), Shurijo Castle (today's Shuri District, Naha City, Okinawa, Japan) in the waters outside the mouth of the Kokba River.

A fleet of as many as ten ships lined up on the sea two miles away from Naha Port, with densely packed muzzles exposed on the ship's side, which made Takeshi Kawakami, who was watching on the pier, palpitating.

"No firing without my order!" Takeshi Kawakami put down the binoculars in his hand, and solemnly ordered a warrior beside him: "Just relying on a few small cannons on the pier cannot pose a threat to those big ships. We Think, we are in big trouble. Immediately go and inform the elders of Shuri Castle, and ask them to prepare for it.”

After hearing the order, several warriors around him turned around quickly and ran back.

"My lords, please get ready to fight, the time to sacrifice your life for the feudal lord may have come!" Takeshi Kawakami drew out the sword from his waist, and looked at the more than sixty samurai on the pier with firm eyes.

"Willing to die for the feudal lord!" All the warriors agreed loudly.

"Look, my lord!" Suddenly a warrior pointed to the sea, "One of their big ships is coming!"

Hearing this, Takeshi Kawakami turned his head to look at the sea, only to see a large ship slowly sailing out of the fleet and gradually approaching the pier.

"The fort is ready!" Takeshi Kawakami shouted.

Seven or eight warriors immediately rushed to the two forts near the pier, threatening the Ryukyu gunners and preparing to fire to meet the arrival of the big ship.

However, the big ship stopped a mile away from the pier.After a while, a small boat was put down and slowly rowed towards the shore.

Two quarters of an hour later, the boat docked, and several people got off and jumped onto the pier with all their strength, including a soldier in black military uniform.They tidied up their clothes a bit, and walked towards Wuji Kawakami.

"My lord, hello." Pinglong bowed solemnly and said: "On behalf of the Great Qi Kingdom, I would like to make formal representations to you, regarding the reasons for realizing free trade in Ryukyu."

Takeshi Kawakami was surprised to find that the visitor could speak fluent Japanese, and his expressions and movements were exactly the same as those of a Japanese. This soldier representing the Daqi Kingdom seemed to be a Japanese!

"Are you Japanese?" Takeshi Kawakami blurted out.

"I'm from Qi now!" Pinglong said loudly: "I need to negotiate with your Satsuma clan's lord in charge of Ryukyu affairs, if you can take me to see him."

Hirataka used to be a wandering samurai from Japan. His original name was Ryuji Hirao. During the Shimabara Rebellion, he fled to Batavia with a merchant ship of the Dutch East India Company, and was later recruited back to the mainland by the Hanzhou people. , First colonized and opened up wasteland in New Huai'an City (now Palmerston, Australia).Three years ago, he was drafted into the Marine Corps and is now a Marine Corps platoon leader.

Looking at the leader of the Satsuma warriors in front of him, Pinglong did not show any enthusiasm among his compatriots in the past. Instead, he kept a straight face and a haughty attitude.

Just now when I came ashore, I casually observed the situation near the pier, and I couldn't help feeling a little contempt in my heart.Although there are several forts, the artillery looks very old. It is an old-fashioned bronze cannon, and its power should be average.He didn't even need the artillery cover of the fleet. He believed that with two platoons of marines, he could successfully land on the beach, attack the pier, and defeat dozens of Satsuma warriors and Ryukyu soldiers in one fell swoop.

"Our boss is in Shuri Castle. If you don't mind, I can send someone to take you to see him now." Takeshi Kawakami bowed and saluted.

"I need to go see your elders right now." Pinglong turned his head and looked at a civil affairs official from Hanxing Island beside him, seeing him nodding his head affirmatively, he said, "Because, I'm worried that the fleet at sea will Too long, and I lose my patience.”

When Wuji Kawakami heard the words, his face couldn't help but flushed red, the other party was threatening them with bare hands.But he didn't dare to refute. Ten gunboats are enough to destroy all the defense facilities on the pier. Judging by the posture of the other party, it is estimated that there are a lot of landing troops on board. Maybe they dare to land forcibly and attack the island where the Satsuma clan is stationed. Armed on.

On September 9, Yoshio Ueda, the head of the Satsuma Domain stationed in Ryukyu, formally met with the Hanzhou people to discuss the two sides' free trade in Ryukyu Island.

Yokota Yoshizo, who was in charge of Ryukyu in the past two years, has always been relatively restrained towards the Hanzhou people on Hanxing Island. Hanzhou people will also conduct limited trade.All kinds of hardware tools, metal products, fish catches, grains, cotton, linen, silk and other commodities are taken according to their needs. Although the trade volume is not large, it also satisfies the daily needs of both parties.

In February of this year, Yokota Yoshizo was transferred back to Kagoshima by Shimazu Mitsuhisa, the lord of the Satsuma domain, to preside over the development of new farmland to increase the food demand in the domain.

In order to cope with the increasingly severe financial crisis of the Satsuma clan after Japan locked the country, the old Yoshio Ueda, who was newly in charge of Ryukyu affairs, began to gradually increase the oppression of the Ryukyu people, trying to completely turn Ryukyu into a minister of the Satsuma clan. Most of the food was exported to Kagoshima.Therefore, a few months ago, when Hanxing Island sent ships to Ryukyu to trade grain, they would flatly refuse the Hanzhou people to enter the port, let alone allow them to land and trade.

Today, the Hanzhou people on Hanxing Island actually brought ten gunboats, which surprised and angered Yoshio Ueda.For decades, the Satsuma domain has always regarded Ryukyu as its own forbidden domain, even its own internal domain, and has obtained a large amount of income from it every year, and does not allow other forces to get involved.

However, the Satsuma clan did not sever this relationship with Ryukyu as a vassal of the Ming Dynasty.Because of the official tribute trade income between Ryukyu and Ming Dynasty, their Satsuma clan can exploit it again in the name of its actual suzerain.Especially after the Edo shogunate declared the country closed, the Satsuma domain became the only private domain in Japan that obtained income from international trade in this disguised way.

You must know that during the period when the shogunate issued the lock-up order, the Satsuma domain completely lost all foreign trade profits.In order to get out of the predicament, in 1640, the lord Shimadzu Mitsuhisame and the old Shimadzu Hisami went to Nagano (now Nagano, Satsuma Town, Satsuma County, Kagoshima Prefecture) to develop Jinshan.

Unexpectedly, in April of this year, after the shogunate learned about it, it strictly intervened and ordered it to stop the mining of Jinshan.The Satsuma clan did not dare to disobey, but could only obey the orders of the shogunate.In desperation, he continued to strengthen the exploitation of Ryukyu in order to maintain the financial distress of Satsuma.

"In this case, your Satsuma clan should open up the market on Ryukyu Island." Tong Chungui, who came to negotiate, rolled his eyes and said with a smile: "You must know that our Daqi Kingdom has dozens of large ocean-going merchant ships. All kinds of goods from our Daqi Kingdom are transported here for trade, and goods from Daming, North Korea, Annan, Siam, Cambodia, Nanyang and other regions can also be transported here. After your Satsuma clan traded with me, in addition to satisfying your own use, It is absolutely possible to resell these goods to Japan and earn a high price difference. Wouldn’t this be a happy thing for both of you and me?”

After hearing this, Yoshio Ueda fell into deep thought.The Hanzhou people on the opposite side made a lot of sense. If only Ryukyu obtained trade income by paying tribute to Ming Dynasty, not only would the quantity be small, the goods would also be relatively single, and the profits would be very meager.

But to use Ryukyu as a free trade transit point to sell the goods from all over the place brought by the Hanzhou people is a big deal, and he dare not be self-confident for a while.In case something unexpected happens and brings big trouble to the lord, then I have no choice but to commit suicide and apologize.

But the ten gunboats of the Hanzhou people are still parked on the sea of ​​Ryukyu Island, and I can't answer the opponent in one word, which makes these arrogant Hanzhou people anxious. , Come to the island, Satsuma Fan really can't guarantee that he can win a complete victory in the conflict.

After two days of negotiations, Yoshio Ueda, the old man in charge of Ryukyu affairs in Satsuma, agreed to temporarily open the Ryukyu market to Hanzhou people and allow them to freely trade various goods on the island, with a limit of 5 taels of silver.However, Hanzhou is resolutely not allowed to send armed personnel to land on the island, and also made the other party promise not to change the status quo of Ryukyu and prohibit the import of weapons and the Ryukyu royal family and civilians.

Although Satsuma had certain restrictions on the trade between the two parties, and even stipulated a total trade amount, the representatives of Qi who came to negotiate still approved this roughly signed trade agreement.They believe that with the deepening of bilateral trade and the influx of various urgently needed goods in Japan, as long as the Satsuma domain tastes the sweetness, it can earn a lot of profit from the price difference of reselling the goods, and itself will break through various trade restrictions.

You must know that Japan has a population of tens of millions, and the shogunate issued a national lock-up order that only limited countries and regions (only Daming and the Dutch East India Company) are allowed to stop in Nagasaki for trade, and all foreigners are not allowed to enter the Japanese mainland , only a short stay at Dejima, an artificial island built near Nagasaki.

In addition, the main purpose of the Tokugawa shogunate's policy of locking the country was to prohibit the spread of Catholicism, prevent businessmen and rich men from confronting the shogunate, and consolidate the shogunate system.But there is another deep-seated reason, which is to stop the tendency of the southwestern vassals to use overseas trade to strengthen their separatist regimes, and to consolidate the dominance of the Tokugawa shogunate in the country.

Otherwise, why did the Satsuma clan not sever the vassal relationship between Ryukyu and Daming after they actually controlled Ryukyu? They needed to indirectly obtain benefits from overseas trade from Ryukyu.

Don’t you see that the foreign trade between the Zong family of the Tsushima domain and Joseon, and the Matsumae clan of the Matsumae domain and Ezo (Hokkaido) is also behind the back of the shogunate, and the business is flourishing.

Therefore, the Hanzhou people can be very sure that once the Shimadzu family of the Satsuma domain has tasted the benefits of the entrepot trade, they will spare no effort to expand the "free trade" on the Ryukyu Island with the Hanzhou people, and easily break through their own settings. various restrictions.

(End of this chapter)