Great name!

Chapter 295: Maritime Trade
In Settsu, the new policies implemented by Nobutora were proceeding in an orderly manner. Especially after Nobutora's economic reforms, Settsu's business not only did not decline, but became more prosperous.

Although big businessmen are not as prosperous as before, life is much better for small and medium-sized businessmen, and there are more small stalls and vendors.

In addition, Nobutora's tax reform reduced nearly 30% of miscellaneous taxes and levies, and the policy of protecting tenants and farmers avoided the situation where low rice prices hurt farmers during years of plenty.

It is precisely because of these policies that the originally lifeless lower class has become active, which has also driven the development of the middle class and made the entire country vibrant.

However, the Mori family's navy began to appear in Osaka Bay, which affected the maritime merchants from other places who came to Hyogo and Kobe to trade.

For Xinhu, this means cutting off his source of income.

It just so happened that the Mori family's occupation of Osaka Bay allowed them to provide support to Honganji from the sea, which naturally affected Oda Nobunaga's war against Honganji.

Nobutora was writing a letter to Nobunaga at that time, and he was writing in his heart: Nobunaga-dono, now all the elite troops of Honganji have been lost, and they have no ability to fight back against my Oda army. Now we just need to defeat the navy of the Mori clan in Osaka Bay and cut off the support of the Mori clan to Honganji. Honganji will be isolated and helpless. Even without a violent attack, we can defeat Honganji within one or two years.

Honganji has always been a major concern for Oda Nobunaga. Now that he knows that Nobutora is confident that he can suppress Honganji, he is particularly happy.

However, he had learned from previous lessons regarding the Mori navy in Osaka Bay and was not in a hurry to go to war with the Mori navy.

He wrote a reply letter to Nobutora, agreeing to send out the navy for a decisive battle with the navy of the Mori family this year.

After receiving Nobunaga's reply, Nobutora remembered the second Battle of Kizugawaguchi, in which Kuki Yoshitaka defeated the Mori navy with his ironclad ships.

However, these ironclad ships were merely covered with a thin layer of iron sheets, and because the Ataka ships were not suitable for ocean voyages, they could only be used in inland seas.

Therefore, ironclad ships could not sail on the oceans and were in danger of capsizing if they encountered strong winds and waves.

This ironclad ship was a special vessel originally built to cope with the characteristics of the Maori navy and was of little use.

If a fleet was formed using Ming warships, there would be no need for ironclad ships to deal with the Mori navy; just cannons and huge warships would be enough.

It can be said that the fleet did not even need to fire its cannons, as it was enough to sink the Mori family's Ataka Kansen and other small boats.

However, building a navy with hundreds of Ming warships was also a big problem for the Oda family, because there was relatively little wood suitable for building large ships in Japan and transportation was also difficult.

Just like now, it would take a lot of effort for Tsuda Nobutora to build a large Fukusen ship with a capacity of 3,000 koku, but he has commissioned the Ming Dynasty's maritime merchants to purchase a Fukusen and asked them to transport some logs for shipbuilding.

In the Ming Dynasty, building a 3,000-dan Fu ship would cost between 400 and 600 taels. If the Ming navy used the Fu ship, it would have to add about 200 taels of equipment.

Xinhu bought a Fujian ship from a Ming merchant, and the merchant offered one thousand and two taels of gold for it, which was dozens of times the price.

Naturally, Xinhu found it difficult to accept such a price. Fortunately, he had retainers who were originally pirates of the Ming Dynasty. They knew the price of a Fu ship. After some bargaining, they finally determined that a 3,000-stone Fu ship would cost 600 taels of gold, and the keel for making a Fu ship would cost 200 taels of gold. Xinhu would buy five keels in total, for a total of 1,600 taels of gold.

This amount of money was not too much for Xinhu, and he could easily afford it.

The shipyard that Nobutora built in Settsu could not build large 3,000-koku ships, but he could build ships of around 2,000 koku.

Although these 2,000-stone ships cannot sail on the ocean, they are sufficient for use in the near sea. Xinhu wants to trade overseas, but he doesn't need to go too far. It is enough for him to go to the Ming Dynasty for trade.

Although it is the Age of Exploration and Western countries are trading on the seas, the goods they transport do not bring much profit in Japan.

Only Ming Dynasty's silk and porcelain were the best-selling commodities.

Like those Westerners, Nobutora also needed to import silk and porcelain from the Ming Dynasty and ship them back to Japan for sale. At the same time, he could also sell gold and silver to the Ming Dynasty in exchange for more profits.

During this period, the most valuable commodities were Ming Dynasty silk and porcelain, so Xinhu did not need a super-large ocean-going ship to cross half the globe like the Westerners did. He only needed a ship that could cross the Sea of ​​Japan and the East China Sea.

If he pushed the Oda clan to establish official trade with the Ming court, Japanese ships could directly enter the Bohai Bay along the peninsula and trade with the Ming in Tianjin.

Of course this will happen later.

The Tsuda family currently has little financial resources. Although Nobutora intends to make money through maritime trade, the sources of goods are relatively limited, so he must find some partners.

He thinks that this Tsuda Soki is not bad.

Nobutora immediately sent someone to tell Tsuda Munekichi to come to Arioka Castle.

Tsuda Soji was very happy when he saw the letter, which was a great thing for Tennojiya.

You must know that after the dissolution of the Heshukai in Sakaimachi, Sen no Rikyu and Imai Munehisa relied on the power of the Oda family to grow and develop in Sakaimachi, far surpassing other families such as Tsuda Muneki.

Tsuda Soji was very jealous of these two people, so when Tsuda Shingen threw an olive branch, he immediately grabbed it.

He immediately asked people to prepare gifts and then rushed to Arioka Castle overnight.

Seeing the exhausted Tsuda Muneki, Nobutora said amiably, "You don't have to be so hasty. This matter is just for discussion. When things start, our army will need to destroy the Mori family's navy."

Tsuda Muneki hurriedly said, "Thank you for your concern, Lord Jingzhao Yin. I am fine. I just want to listen to your teachings as soon as possible, so I was impatient. I am sorry to make you laugh."

Wear it a thousand times, but flattery never wears it.

This flattery made Tsuda Shintora smile more. He invited Tsuda Souji to sit down and said, "I called you here today because I have a great fortune to cooperate with you."

Although Tsuda Soki had been mentally prepared, when the time came and he heard the truth, he still couldn't help but get excited.

He said quickly: "Jingzhao Yin Palace, just give your orders. I, Tianwang Temple, will absolutely support any decision made by Jingzhao Yin Palace!"

Nobutora was still very satisfied with Tsuda Soki's attitude, but when it comes to business, some things still need to be made clear.

Tsuda Muneki still kept his composure and said, "Please give me some advice, Your Excellency Jingzhao Yin."

Nobutora said: "I am building ships and preparing to trade with the Ming Dynasty, but I am not capable of handling commodities. As a big merchant, you must have enough supply, so I would like to invite you to participate in the maritime trade. You split the profits 20% and I split 80%. How about it?" This condition seemed very harsh, but Tsuda Muneki agreed without hesitation.

After all, Japanese merchants rarely go out to sea to trade. They trade with merchants coming to Japan at the docks first and then sell their products back home.

Now Nobutora has organized a fleet to go out to sea for trade. For Tsuda Soki, there are fewer middlemen to make a profit from the price difference, so he can make more money.

So for Soki Tsuda, even if he only got 10%, let alone 20%, he would earn more than he does now.

The profits from maritime trade are several times, even ten times or dozens of times more, which is absolutely incomparable to the profits from his reselling.

This is more of a gift than a compulsion.

Nobutora saw that Tsuda Soki was a man who could make sense of things, so he gave 20%. If it were someone else, 10% would probably be too high.

Now we just have to wait for Oda Nobunaga to send troops to defeat the Mori navy.

……

The Oda family rested for more than a month while suppressing the rebellion of the Yamato Matsunaga father and son. In May, Nobunaga sent someone to call Nobutora from Settsu to Azuchi Castle.

Nobunaga met Nobutora in the tallest castle tower of Azuchi Castle. He asked, "Nobutora, what do you think of this castle tower?"

Nobutora said casually, "Not so good. The reason why this castle tower is so magnificent is because of you, Nobunaga-dono. Without you, anyone can destroy this castle tower."

Nobunaga laughed loudly. He turned around and looked at Nobutora, saying with a smile: "You are really insightful. I asked you to come here today to discuss the attack on Honganji Temple. Honganji Temple can't be delayed any longer. We have to hurry up and resolve it."

Nobutora replied: "I can lead the troops to trap Honganji in the area around it, but a strong attack will inevitably result in heavy casualties. Only if the navy occupies Osaka Bay and completely isolates Honganji, I will be sure to make Honganji surrender in one or two years."

Nobunaga frowned and asked, "Why just surrender?"

Nobutora said helplessly: "Nobunaga-dono, have you forgotten? Xianruo's father-in-law is a member of the imperial family. Besides, Xianruo is also a Buddhist. No matter how weak Buddhism is, it has a close relationship with the court and the imperial family.

I think Honganji will ask the imperial court to intervene, so we still have to give the imperial court some face."

Nobunaga's expression was uncertain. He asked, "What will happen if Honganji is destroyed again?"

Nobutora smiled and said, "I'm not afraid of that. The Honganji Temple in its heyday was defeated, so how can the Honganji Temple that survived the catastrophe be a match for my Oda clan?

Moreover, we can dismember the power of Honganji. The first thing we need to do is to move Honganji away from Ishiyama and place it in Kyoto. Under the nose of the Oda family, Honganji will not be able to cause any trouble.

In addition, Honganji Kenshin has two sons. We can let each of them inherit a part of Honganji and let them be hostile to each other. In this way, Honganji will hardly pose a threat. "

After listening to this, Nobunaga agreed with the suggestion and said with a smile: "Since you have already thought of a solution, the overall command of the attack on Honganji will be handed over to you.

You don't have to worry about the navy. I have ordered Kuki Yoshitaka to bring the navy here. This time we must avenge the previous attack."

After Oda Nobunaga discussed with Nobutora, he ordered all units to mobilize troops. According to Nobutora's suggestion, this time he still mobilized an army of 40,000.

However, something happened in Iga, and Oda Nobuo set his sights on Iga, the country of ninjas. He had long wanted to pacify this small country and increase his own prestige.

This time, Nobunaga asked him to lead his troops to join him at Azuchi Castle. He led an army of 10,000 from southern Ise and tried to go to Azuchi Castle via Iga.

Facing such a large army, the thirty or so jonins who controlled Iga immediately gathered to discuss the matter. The leader, Momochi Sandayu, said, "I have already investigated clearly. Oda Nobuo has bad intentions. We cannot let him pass."

Fujibayashi Masayoshi said with some concern: "If we refuse, won't this Oda Nobuo make trouble for no reason?"

Bai Di San Taifu frowned and said, "That's exactly what he was thinking. I've been sending people to watch over Minami Ise and get information. Oda Nobuo got drunk at a banquet a year ago and said he wanted to capture Iga.

"Oda Nobuo could have led his troops to bypass Iga and head for Omi Azuchi Castle, so why did he have to go through Iga? Why not just use the excuse of borrowing the passage and then quickly send troops to destroy us?"

Fujibayashi Masahiro was surprised and said, "So that's how it is. If we let him in, we'll be inviting a wolf into the house. But if we refuse, Oda Nobuo will have an excuse to attack us. This is really a dilemma."

Momochi Sandayu looked at the other ninja clans' jonin and said, "We have no way out. Since Oda Nobuo wants to deal with us, we will fight him to the end. Go back and tell your people to prepare for battle!"

The jonin shouted before disbanding and returning to their own territories.

Jonin is just a title that represents status. The patriarch of every ninja clan is a Jonin, and the ones who actually do the work are the lower-ranking leaders and lower-ranking Genin.

Momochi Santayu gathered all the men, women, old and weak in the Momochi family. As one of the three top ninjas in Iga, everyone in the Momochi family is a ninja, from the white-haired old men to the four or five-year-old children, all of whom know ninjutsu.

He called all the tribesmen together and said loudly: "My tribesmen, this time, we will face an unprecedentedly powerful enemy, but we don't have to worry. In Iga, no one is more familiar with every mountain, river, grass and tree here than we are.

No matter how powerful the enemy is, we will make them pay a heavy price!

From now on, all the ninjas of the Momochi clan must be mobilized. If they see someone from the Oda clan, they can assassinate him. The head of an Oda clan member can be exchanged for five coins, a samurai can get one hundred coins, and a general can get one kan! "

When the tribesmen below heard the reward offered by Baidi San Taifu, they all began to breathe heavily. This was money! If they lost their lives, they would lose them, but if they didn't make the money, they would really lose!
All the ninjas shouted loudly. For the reward, they were no longer silent and took the initiative to do things without any orders from Momochi Sandayu.

Iga, the country of ninjas, is a mysterious country, but to Oda Nobuo, ninjas are nothing but rats in the gutter. He can lead his 10,000 troops to flatten Iga.

However, Oda Nobuo soon paid a heavy price for his contempt. After his 10,000-strong army entered Iga, they were ambushed by the ubiquitous ninjas.

He didn't even see the enemy, but he kept losing soldiers and was almost killed by the ninja.

The frightened Oda Nobuo immediately withdrew his troops and took another route to Azuchi Castle.

(End of this chapter)