Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1511 Secret Hands
The reason has been analyzed very clearly. Both Gao Wushi and Zhu Yingzhen agree with Liu Xin's opinion, but their attitudes towards it are not the same.

Zhu Yingzhen maintained his previous attitude and said with a smile: "That's good, that's good. Since it's buying a ship to transport grain, I think it should be feasible. Although it would be much cheaper for Jinghua to have less ships, but since he needs Mount Tai Given the growing trend, the pressure of supplying military rations is definitely not small, and it is estimated that this business will not be too small, and it is also an opportunity to make money."

But after saying this sentence, he suddenly remembered that the sale of the ship itself had nothing to do with him, because Jinghua Shipyard is a highly pragmatic "sole proprietorship", and his words were a bit too lenient.

So Zhu Yingzhen hurriedly added with a haha: "Of course, it's up to Rixin to make up his own mind. I'm just passing on the news."

Gao Wushi smiled, and took care of his face and said: "For the sake of the country, Toyotomi Hideyoshi is looking for the Maritime Trade Alliance to discuss the purchase of ships. This is not a matter for pragmatic people alone."

Zhu Yingzhen laughed again, as if he meant it seriously, and it seemed that he was just trying to avoid a cold apology.Liu Xin saw it on the side, but felt a little emotional in her heart.

When Gao Wushi recruited this group of nobles, to be honest, she was not optimistic. She felt that such a group of wastes might be a burden if they were recruited. They were probably "Italians from our side".

Unexpectedly, Gao Yushi is really a talent in waste utilization. He used a Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance to trap them, and now he has become a part of Gao Yushi's power in the DPRK and China—maybe it is a very important part.

After all, although civil servants are not afraid of nobles, that does not mean that they are not afraid of nobles who hold groups.Even the emperor had to give face to the group of nobles, but this group of nobles was made up of the core figures of a powerful civil servant faction like Gao Yushi, and anyone who wanted to give face had to weigh it carefully.

Now it seems that although these nobles are useless in fighting, they have at least one advantage, that is, they know how to measure and know how to advance and retreat.Well, it seems that the Xungui Group has really become some kind of politicized group, and is no longer the military group of the early Ming Dynasty, but they still have some strengths to represent the military group - such as controlling the military civilians of the five prefectures.

But the merits belong to the merits. Liu Xin still feels that Zhu Yingzhen's sensitivity to certain matters—especially foreign military and political affairs is too low.He himself has made the problem almost clear, but he hasn't seen it yet.

Fortunately, although Zhu Yingzhen didn't see it, Gao Yushi obviously saw it.

After Gao Wushi and Zhu Yingzhen finished the formalities, they pretended to be pondering, and said slowly: "Once the Hojo Clan fails, no one in Kanto Japan will dare to fight against Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Japan's unification will not be far away. This matter... Miss Liu , do you think it is good or bad?"

Liu Xin said: "Obviously the harm outweighs the benefit."

Gao Wushi smiled slightly: "Is there any profit? Where does the profit come from?"

Liu Xin talked to him much more easily and naturally than talking to Zhu Yingzhen. She spread her hands together and said, "Throughout the past and present, a unified, peaceful, and orderly market is obviously more conducive to trade—except for the arms trade. .”

Gao Wushi smiled, then turned to ask Zhu Yingzhen, "How many weapons and equipment do we sell to Japan every year?"

"Uh, what does Rixin mean?" Zhu Yingzhen looked a little embarrassed.

Gao Wushi not only knew about the artillery smuggling, but also pointed it out to Zhu Yingzhen before. Zhu Yingzhen saw that Gao Wushi just smiled lightly, but did not explain, so he coughed lightly and said, "This... the situation about artillery is getting better and better every day. You also understand, so I won’t say more. Besides, muskets are the big ones, and there is some gunpowder. Other things are mainly iron ingots and bronze ingots.

The Japanese forging skills are not bad, but their smelting scale is not large, and they don’t seem to have much iron ore. After these years of trade, their metallurgical industry basically relies on us to send raw materials to start work. The raw materials are iron Ingots, bronze ingots, etc. "

When he said this, seeing that Gao Wushi still didn't intend to fight, he coughed lightly and said awkwardly: "The annual trade volume of the above is about... maybe three to four million taels."

Gao Wushi knew that his words were an ambush. According to the investigation of the Jinghua Ministry of Internal Affairs, the above trade volume should be at least 50 taels, and because the products of the Maritime Trade Alliance are not cheap, the profit may reach more than [-]% or even Four percent.

However, high pragmatism is not a perfectionist idealist. At this moment, he does not intend to stand on the standpoint of a ban on sales to clean up old accounts. Instead, he calculated the scale in his heart, and then frowned: "So, the Japanese have at least [-] yuan on hand now." Is there a standard musket made in Jinghua?”

This scale is really not small. After so long of reforms in Ming Dynasty, there are only about 20 troops in the whole country who have changed their outfits, and not all of them are the latest models.There are more than 20 Jinghua firearms in the Ming Dynasty, from Longqing II to Wanli I, and then from Wanli I to Wanli II, a total of three types are equipped - of course, the more elite troops must be equipped with newer muskets.

But Zhu Yingzhen finally gave Gao Yushi some "good news". He shook his head and said, "It should not have reached this number. As far as I know, they have up to [-] muskets on hand, mainly because they bought more at the beginning. Gradually, there were fewer, and the purchased goods changed from muskets to gunpowder."

Oh, so that's the case, Gao Yushi immediately understood.

Although the Japanese Warring States Period seems to be quite famous in later generations, but in fact the village chief at that time... No, the daimyos had limited financial resources. Although they began to understand the power of muskets and their role in war after the arrival of the Portuguese, but Limited by financial resources, metallurgy, and manufacturing capabilities, the troops that can be equipped are very limited.

In this life, due to the existence of the BUG of Jinghua, the daimyos in Japan have also discovered a "truth": it is better to buy than to make!

Ever since, all the big names and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who gradually took control of the government, began to buy a large number of smuggled Jinghua-style muskets.But as I said just now, their financial resources are limited, and it is impossible to equip too much equipment, and they can't afford to use so much equipment-the gunpowder has to be purchased from Jinghua.

And there is another problem here, sulfur, an important raw material of Jinghua gunpowder, is itself purchased from Japan.Therefore, to a certain extent, Japan actually buys its own products with its own money, and Jinghua mainly only consumes some nitrate.

But at this time, Daming was not too short of saltpeter (mainly because the consumption was too small compared to later generations), and there were saltpeter mines in many places in Sichuan, as well as in Huguang (Hunan and Hubei), Yunnan and even Nanzhili (later Anhui) and other places. productive.Most of these production areas are not rich areas, and Jinghua can easily control a large number of saltpeter production areas.

Later, because Gao Yushi was not willing to dig domestic saltpeter, he bought it from Tumote again. In later generations, many places in Inner Mongolia produced saltpeter.Tumed’s Mongols are now a bit like the Middle East and Russia in later generations. Apart from selling resources, there are no other projects to get rich. What’s more, most of the mines bought by Jinghua only need to be loaded directly. Tumed only needs to send people to do things just fine.

Therefore, the two sides hit it off immediately, and Gao Wushi could get the raw materials without spending much money, and Tumote could get the silver continuously without much effort-but they bought other things immediately-it was the most ideal win-win situation.

Tumed saltpeter is cheap, and Japanese sulfur is so cheap. Jinghua only produced some charcoal, but after making it into gunpowder and selling it to Japan, the price has more than doubled by more than ten times.

It seems that technological monopoly is indeed the only way to make money. After all, the Japanese learned gunpowder technology from China. At that time, although China invented gunpowder, it went astray by itself, and always liked to add some weird things to it. Things that seriously affect the performance of gunpowder (for example, like to add various poisons).

The Japanese were also affected, resulting in the wrong ratio of gunpowder, which greatly reduced the effect.So after they had seen Jinghua's gunpowder, they would never use their own rubbish anymore.

It was the end of the Warring States period, and wars continued frequently. Since all parties had replaced a lot of Jinghua muskets, it was natural that they would consume a lot of gunpowder, so they couldn't afford more muskets in turn.This is what Zhu Yingzhen said.

"Forty thousand..." Gao Wushi thought for a while, and said, "It is estimated that Toyotomi Hideyoshi's direct lineage may have about [-] rods. As for the Hojo family, I think he will not exceed [-] rods."

Liu Xin understood what he meant, smiled, and asked, "It seems that Dasinong is not very interested in the unified and orderly Japanese market, but I hope the Hojo family can persist for a while longer?"

Gao Wushi nodded and said, "A unified and orderly market is certainly good, but Toyotomi Hideyoshi... has always been ambitious. Once he really completely unifies Japan, I don't think he will honestly do business with us. .”

Of course Zhu Yingzhen didn't know that Toyotomi Hideyoshi would attack Daming, so Gao Wushi deliberately said: "It is reported that this person even told his subordinates that he plans to come to Daming to try his hand at the unification of Japan in the future."

"Ah?" Zhu Yingzhen was really taken aback: "Isn't it, this guy is so overestimated?"

In fact, he and Gao Yushi had discussed the issue of Japan's strength before, but at that time they mainly talked about Shi Gao.But no matter what, even though Zhu Yingzhen already knew that Japan's current mobilization ability far surpassed that of Ming, he still didn't believe how much threat Japan could bring to Ming.

Gao Wushi snorted cooperatively: "It's just a frog at the bottom of the well." After a pause, he continued: "However, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's plan is to take down North Korea first, and North Korea has been at peace for a long time, and the domestic situation is also turbulent. North Korea will be unstoppable when Japan invades. At that time, I, Ming, may be forced to send troops to help, but the Jurchen situation is only a little stable now, and the imperial court will launch troops against Chahar in two or three years..."

Zhu Yingzhen finally understood this time, and suddenly said: "So Nisshin intends to help the Hojo clan and let them slow down Toyotomi Hideyoshi's process of unifying Japan?"

Gao Wushi nodded and said, "Exactly."

Zhu Yingzhen thought about it and said: "Although the Hojo family is a great prince in the Kanto region, the territory under their jurisdiction is not bad, but as far as I know, they believe that Odawara Castle is indestructible, so they are not very active in military purchases."

Gao Wushi shook his head slightly: "Perhaps what the Hojo Clan lacks most is not armaments...or to be precise, it is not the lack of weapons and armor."

Zhu Yingzhen was surprised: "Then what do they lack?"

"Two things are missing." Gao Yushi said plainly: "One is food, and the other is the determination to unite and never give in."

"Oh..." Zhu Yingzhen looked dazed, but he didn't say "suggestion".

Liu Xin next to him saw it and said, "Food is easy to handle. Although Odawara Castle is famous in Japan, it is not a big deal for the grain production in southern Xinjiang. It is just a batch of grain from southern Xinjiang and sold to them. It’s nothing to fill the entire Odawara Castle. It doesn’t matter if the price is cheaper, as long as you don’t lose money.”

After a pause, he said again: "As for the determination, if the Maritime Trade Alliance gives them a word, it should make them feel much more at ease."

Before Gao Wushi opened his mouth, Zhu Yingzhen was taken aback: "It's okay to sell some grain to the Hojo family at a lower price, but with words... If Toyotomi Hideyoshi finds out in the future, will it affect our business?"

Gao Wushi snorted softly: "So what if it's affected? After Toyotomi Hideyoshi took over the Hojo clan, I predict that he will use troops to North Korea in at most two or three years. At that time, can we continue to do business in Japan? What will the emperor do?" think?"

"Ah..." Zhu Yingzhen really didn't think about this aspect before, and now he was shocked when he heard Gao Yushi's words: "Then what should we do? If Toyotomi Hideyoshi really fights with North Korea, I expect the emperor will definitely send troops If we aid North Korea, doing business with Japan will become collaborating with the enemy. But the problem is that without Japan’s business, the impact on our Beiyang will be too great!"

Gao Yushi just let out a "huh" out of nowhere.Zhu Yingzhen said anxiously: "Hey, Rixin, tell me something, if the business in Japan stops, what should I do with so many ships and so many sailors?"

Gao Wushi saw that the cold sweat on his forehead was frightened, and he couldn't help laughing: "Why is the Duke in such a hurry?"

"No, can I not be in a hurry? Even if I can seal up the ship for a year or two and wait until the war is over, there are [-] to [-] sailors in my fleet. These people are not military households, I recruited them with great difficulty. Those who have been cultivated by and have to be raised with money! If there is no business to do, I raise so many people, can't I pawn off Cheng Guogong's mansion?"

Seeing that Zhu Yingzhen was really in a hurry, Gao Wushi couldn't help but smiled and comforted him: "Master, I have the most boats in my hand, and I'm not in a hurry. Why are you panicking?"

Zhu Yingzhen looked at Gao Yushi carefully for a while, and asked suspiciously: "So... Rixin, you have a plan in your mind? Then tell me quickly to make me feel at ease!"

Gao Wushi seemed to be thinking about what to say, and finally coughed lightly, lowered his voice and said, "Duke, don't you think that this battle is actually going on like this: When did it start, maybe it was Toyotomi Hideyoshi has the final say, but when it ends, we Beiyang have the final say."

Zhu Yingzhen was stunned for a while, but he still couldn't understand the meaning of Gao Wushi's words, and asked in confusion, "Why?"

Gao Wushi sighed, and explained helplessly to the governor who had no talent for war: "If Japan wants to attack North Korea, he will have to mobilize 10,000+, or even two 10,000+ troops. Most of them went to North Korea, but because of the war, it was definitely not possible to collect enough military rations in North Korea, so they had to transport food from Japan.

But there is no land connection between Japan and North Korea, and they can't fly, so they can only rely on sea transportation.The combined fleet of our Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance has hundreds of gunships. Could it be that we can't control this small strait? "
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(End of this chapter)