The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 645: High-end financial war, directly on the truth! (Please subscribe and vote)

Nagasaki Port, Maruyama Tourist Area.

In the "Zuigetsu-tei" of Maruyama Yukaku, the vibrato of the shamisen mixed with the laughter of geishas leaked through the paper window into a secret room on the second floor.

The leader of the Japanese Revolutionary Party, Sakuma Shozan, was drawing a map of the Edo defense on a low table with sake. Yoshida Shoin suddenly pressed his hand and said, "Listen!"

From deep in the alley came the crisp sound of wooden clogs crushing rubble, mixed with the metallic sound of spurs colliding. And...
"Rice is as expensive as gold. The wealthy merchants are laughing, while the sons of the common people have their bones broken in the fields! What is the warrior defending with his sword?"

The waka sung by a female voice pierced the noise, with the local accent of the fishing village on Shimabara Peninsula in Kyushu.

The Japanese revolutionaries in the secret room were all in disbelief - there was actually a woman who was so courageous that she could sing on the streets of Nagasaki to satirize the wealthy merchants who ignored the suffering of the people, hoarded goods and drove up the price of rice, while the sword-wielding samurai were defending this dark world. This was an insult to the wealthy merchants in Nagasaki and the samurai who worked hard for the magistrate!
According to the Japanese system, it is possible to ask for it rudely!

Takasugi Shinsaku from Choshu Domain suddenly pushed open the paper window facing the street, and then a look of sudden realization appeared on his face - he saw four foreigners wearing wide-brimmed hats standing there with guns, two Colt revolvers on their waists, looking at the two lackeys of the Bugyosho with a friendly look on their faces.

And the person they were protecting was actually a woman in green Wu clothing. She was barefoot and wearing wooden clogs. She held a wine bottle in her right hand and swayed her left hand to the rhythm of the song. A three-inch wide gold bracelet on her wrist exuded the aura of a wealthy person.

No wonder the warriors of the Bugyosho were defeated. Facing eight pistols from four foreign gunmen, their knives were obviously not sharp enough!
"Heavenly punishment!" The ronin's booing voices came from downstairs.

"Bang!" The smoke from the Colt revolver and the sound of the gunshot exploded at the same time, and the startled crows knocked down the lanterns of the "Drunk Moon Pavilion". But the woman continued to sing: "Outside Nagasaki Harbor, black ships are approaching, the white rice is full, and the hungry stomach is rumbling"

"It's Jinshan Alin!" Katsura Kogoro flashed out from the dark, "She arrived in Nagasaki three days ago on the American merchant ship 'Sea Dragon'. She seems to be very rich!"

The woman turned out to be Ah Lin. Jinshan was the nickname she gave herself, which probably meant that she really had a gold mountain! Her current identity was a rich woman who inherited the legacy of her old American husband who opened a gold mine. She returned to Japan for no other reason than to show off her wealth. So within a few days of arriving in Nagasaki, everyone knew that she was "rich".

But she was not afraid of others plotting against her, as four American cowboys from the real Yosemite faction were always there to protect her! No one in Japan dared to kill foreigners in a place like Nagasaki, which was about to become a colony.
"Extremely rich?" Sakuma Shozan turned to his student Yoshida Matsushina and said, "Please ask her to come up."

In the secret room, when Rinko kicked open the wooden door, the cold wine in the bottle spilled onto the tatami. Four cowboy bodyguards from the Shinshin Yokuei were left in the corridor, their hands on the butts of their Colt pistols. "My name is Rin, and I'm from Shimabara." She sat cross-legged, revealing her jodhpurs and wooden clogs under her gown. "I heard that Mr. Sakuma's 'Four People's One Heart Society' is particularly short of money?"

Of course, the signboard of the Japanese Revolutionary Party could not be hung everywhere - this would be equivalent to hanging a sign of "Heaven and Earth Society" in the Qing Dynasty, which would make it very difficult for the officials!
Takasugi Shinsaku sneered: "Kinsan Arin, huh? A bitch who sold herself to an old American mine owner."

"Crash!" The porcelain bottle brushed past his ear and smashed against the wall. Rinko twisted a bill with her fingertips: "150,000 kanwen, to buy a rice riot that swept across Nagasaki."

"Rice riot?" Sakuma Shouzan's pupils shrank. "In Nagasaki?"

"Shouldn't it be?" Rinko looked at Sakuma. "The price of rice has risen to four kanmon. It has tripled in just a few months! Not to mention the common people, even samurai like you should change your addiction to eating, right?"

The price of rice in Japan has skyrocketed in the past two years! From one kanwen per koku to four kanwen per koku, it has tripled. However, both businessmen with vision and those without vision know that the price of rice in Japan will continue to rise in the future!
The reason for being so bullish, of course, is that the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, due to its long-term isolation from the world, developed a price system that was detached from the international market.

比如日本的“一贯文”也就1000个铜板的官方汇率是20两白银或5两黄金！而在隔壁的中国，1000个太平通宝只相当于1个太平银元，而十六七个太平银元才相当于1两黄金.当然了。“一贯文”换20两白银的官方汇率早就崩了，现在得四贯文才能换到20两白银。

In addition, the Japanese "shi" is larger than the Chinese "shi", more than twice as large. If converted into Chinese "shi", the price of one shi of Japanese rice is less than 2 kanwen - in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it is equivalent to a silver dollar of 10 cents. If calculated in silver, it is 1.5 taels! If calculated in gold, it is more than 1.5 taels (gold is also rising). And 20 taels of gold in Shanghai is equivalent to more than Taiping silver dollars!
Therefore, the Jinyo Bank and the Bank of Korea have been "helping" Japan to mint Kan'ei Tsūbo coins in the past two years, and using these Kan'ei Tsūbo coins to buy Japan's gold and silver. As a large amount of gold and silver flowed out, and a large amount of copper coins flowed in, "copper coin inflation" occurred, and rice prices naturally rose. After the autumn harvest of 1858, white rice on the Japanese market became the target of buying foreign-produced "Kan'ei Tsūbo coins"
Yoshida Shoin suddenly jumped up and put the wakizashi against her throat: "What on earth do you want to do, woman? Don't you know that Nagasaki is full of concessions?"

"How can you start a revolution when you don't even dare to touch the concessions?" Rinko said with a smile, "The Japanese people and lower-class samurai are neither blind nor deaf. As long as the Japanese revolutionaries dare to truly fight for them, they will have more and more followers in the future. In addition, I will give you 6 kan per stone of rice looted from Nagasaki. You can take as much as you want!" "Baga!" Takasugi shouted angrily, "Shouldn't this rice be used to distribute to the poor?"

Rinko snorted, "And then what? The poor people have rice to eat for the time being, so they won't oppose the shogunate and the feudal lords. What good will this do for the revolution? You might as well sell it to me so I can buy American arms for you!"

As she spoke, she looked at Sakuma with burning eyes.

"No!" Sakuma shook his head, "6 kan is not enough, I need more money. I want 8 kan per stone!"

"Deal!" Rinko agreed without even bargaining, "But it has to be quick. I'm in a hurry!"

Saku took Rinko's money order and said with a smile, "As long as the money is in place, even the most urgent matters can be handled!"

"Okay!" Rinko laughed, "I'll be waiting for your good news in the Korean Heavenly Kingdom Concession!"

Sakuma and others certainly didn't know at this time that most of the rice warehouses in the Dutch Concession and the British Concession in Nagasaki had long been emptied by the True Contract Sect followers controlled by another Japanese woman. Now they needed a rice riot to settle the accounts!
When the bronze bell of the Bund No. 12 Exchange struck the ninth time, Nathaniel Rothschild's gold-rimmed glasses were reflecting the news on the front page of the Datong Daily - the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's army began to attack Shanxi and Shaanxi, and the war in the northwest broke out again!

"The war in the northwest will push up grain prices by 30%." He flicked the ash off his cigar, and the end of the cigar landed precisely on a brass spittoon three meters away. "Let Barings Bank buy another 200,000 shi of grain futures, either rice or flour!"

"Two hundred thousand dan is too little. Add another two hundred thousand dan!" shouted Chaton of Jardine Matheson. "Also, release another 100,000 dan of raw silk. Once the news of the Dutch expeditionary force arriving in Banten reaches us, the price of raw silk will definitely plummet!"

That afternoon, the glass door burst open and young Junius Morgan rushed in waving an express letter: "The Dutch Army has landed in Banten. Raw silk will plummet, while rice, flour and gold will rise!"

In the lobby on the ground floor of the stock exchange, Emanuel Lehman put out his cigar in the bottom of his whiskey glass and announced loudly: "America needs raw silk. The Dutch can't blockade the Pacific! Anyone who wants to make a move can come to me!"

He glanced at the red vests running around. The brokers were holding up "sell raw silk" quotation sheets and rushing towards him. "Sell another 100,000 taels of gold short orders - let those old European money know that we Americans really have gold mines!"

On the second floor of the stock exchange, Indian Jew Sassoon looked at the "American capital agents" who suddenly appeared in the trading hall below and smiled contemptuously: "These naive Americans still don't understand that the real high-end financial bureau plays with truth. Truth is only within the range of cannons!" He turned around and ordered the red vests in the office: "The battle has begun! My children, attack!"

The Jiangnan Arsenal on the other side of the Huangpu River suddenly blew a long whistle. Six tugboats flying apricot yellow flags were towing the newly launched cruiser "Suzhou" out of the dock. The tarpaulin of the 24-pound cannon was lifted by the river wind, and the black muzzle was accidentally pointed in the direction of the stock exchange.

Sassoon sneered while leaning against the French window: "Look, the Taiping Army doesn't even have a decent navy, but they treat a small cruiser with a displacement of about 1000 tons as a treasure."

"Even the cannons have shrunk," Dent said while smoking. "The original Kokang class had 64-pound main guns and 32-pound side guns, while the Kokang class produced by the Chinese themselves only had 24-pound long guns produced by the Jiangnan Arsenal. There are only 20 guns on the entire ship."

The head of the Dutch East India Bank suddenly appeared in the office with a quick letter in his hand: "Good news, good news! The poor people in Nagasaki Port, Japan are making trouble. Those guys who are addicted to food are protesting against the rising rice prices. The Japanese Revolutionary Party is also involved! Now it is very difficult for Luo Yaoguo to buy rice from Japan!

The corridor suddenly erupted in laughter. Twenty red-vest brokers were pointing and talking around the newly listed "Citibank" seat - Lehman, wearing a bowler hat, was writing "Raw silk 120 yuan unlimited" on the blackboard.

"Upstarts." Rothschild spat into the spittoon. "Once the Dutch completely blockade the Strait of Malacca, these raw silk contracts will be nothing more than ass-wiping paper."

(End of this chapter)