The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 664: The Shogun’s Tatar Conquest Plan

On the eighth day of the second month of the 1645th year of the Kanei era (), at the beginning of the Chen hour, approximately : AM.

Thorn Warehouse, Dejima, Nagasaki, Japan.

Ruprecht Kohlen, executive director of the British East India Company, emerged from a fly-swarming corner of the warehouse.

He raised his furry hands to block the sunlight coming from the east side of the island.

The dazzling sunlight that leaked through the fingers still made it impossible to open my eyes.

The plump Liverpool businessman yawned and tried to fish his round body out of the rum barrel.

The smell of alcohol filled the air.

Rosacea grumbled and began to complain about drinking too much with Nagasaki Monkey last night.

The Nagasaki monkeys mentioned by British merchants include but are not limited to Nagasaki Magistrate Baba Toshishige and various shogunate officials.

Oriental people look very similar and it is difficult to distinguish them.

Koren stayed in Nagasaki for eight years.

He met three Nagasaki Bugyos in succession.

The whole of Nagasaki treated him with respect.

It’s not just because the British assisted the shogunate in expelling the Ming forces fifteen years ago.

More importantly, Britain is now Japan's largest and only trading partner.

Fifteen years ago, the Dutch were badly damaged in the Battle of Tsushima with the Ming Dynasty. The British took the opportunity to replace the Sea Coachman in East Asia and occupied all trade from the Philippines to Japan.

The British East India Company became the new owner of Dejima (an artificial island built in the port of Nagasaki for Japan's foreign trade).

The Nagasaki Bugyo had heavy responsibilities. In addition to being responsible for the administration and justice of Nagasaki Town like other town bugyos, he also had to guard against foreign invasions, prohibit the spread of Christianity, and trade with Britain, among many other matters.

Of course, it also includes drinking wine with Koren and watching the singer perform Noh.

In recent years, the status of Nagasaki Bugyo has risen due to the increase in trade with Britain.

Among the town magistrates, Nagasaki magistrate was second only to Edo town magistrate. Among the distant country magistrates, he was at the top of the list, and his status was higher than that of Kyoto and Osaka town magistrates.

Most of the officials who served as Nagasaki Bugyo were hatamoto with a rank of less than 10,000 koku, who had humble origins and territories of no more than 20,000 koku.

This was a method of checks and balances that the Edo Shogunate had always followed, selecting capable officials from samurai of lower family status and excluding powerful feudal lords from the shogunate's politics.

In 1639, the Nagasaki Bugyo's salary (a stipend received while in office, which ceased to be paid upon leaving) was tyo, later increasing to tyo. This was a considerable income for a hatamoto whose salary was only koku. Furthermore, the Bugyo had other ways to make money, as they handled import and export of goods.

However, in Koren's view, the Japanese are all monkeys.

The hatamoto samurai on horseback is a monkey riding a male dog.

The magistrate, who is favored by the shogun and has a high income, is a monkey dressed in gorgeous clothes.

At the banquet last night, the monkey, under the influence of alcohol, chopped off the forearm of a singer.

When the singer performed the Noh play, she implied that Ae, the wife of the second shogun, was a fox demon in disguise.

This is extremely disrespectful.

Bachang Lishige was furious and raised his knife to strike.

Although he hated the monkeys, Koren had no choice but to stay on Dejima.

Because the British East India Company's current mission is to aid and save these ignorant monkeys and help them conquer the increasingly rampant Tatars (Qi people) on the western continent.

One of the topics of the dinner that Koren had with Nagasaki last night was the discussion of military action against the Tatars.

As far as the British knew, this grand military plan was originally proposed by the Shogun, which required the mobilization of 200,000 monkey warriors, divided into three routes, to launch an attack on the Tatar mainland from Korea, Liaodong (Shandong), and Ningbo...

As a close aide to the Shogun, Baba Toshishige was responsible for the logistics and transportation of the army, as well as military cooperation with the East India Company.

~~~
A burly and strong European stood in the sun. Colen saw through the gaps between his fingers that the man was General Brown.

"Mr. Colen asked me to come here so early. Do you want to drink with me?"

"No, I made the dancer drink ten pounds of rum last night. I won't need to drink again until next Christmas."

John Wick Brown stared at the red rosacea and treated the ten ounces as a joke.

Koren pointed to the long street (Nagasaki's main street) across the wall from Dejima, where two strong stags were hurriedly walking.

"I want to discuss this with His Excellency the General."

General Brown looked at the buck and smiled:
"The venison leg is very rich and delicious, perfect for Christmas dinner."

Colen shook his head:

"Seeing these two deer, I was reminded of a Chinese proverb: 'The Qin deer is lost, and ambitious people all over the world are looking for it.'"

After the failure of the Four-Power Intervention, York Brown led the remaining fleet from Nagasaki back to Manila, where he remained for fifteen years without being able to return to London.

Until the year before last, Cansu (Zheng Sen) retreated from the mainland and defected to the shogunate.

Realizing that the situation in the Far East was about to change dramatically, Brown immediately organized mercenaries and returned to Nagasaki.

The result was just as the British officers had expected. Before they returned to Japan, they heard all kinds of rumors that the Tatar army (Qi army) had occupied all of Fujian and was slaughtering people in Zhangzhou.

"That's an interesting proverb, but what does it have to do with the topic we're discussing today?"

Koren explained patiently:
"China is in chaos. The Tatars are slaughtering civilians across the country. The Shogun, living in Edo, is confident in his military might. Two years ago, Koxinga and Zuo Liangyu defected to Japan. In short, Tokugawa Iemitsu believes he's up to speed again and can launch a war against the Tatars to annihilate the country and avenge his father, Tokugawa Hidetada!"

"And we need to work together with the Japanese to defeat the Tatars, because that will affect the safety of Manila and even Britain."

East Indian mercenaries stationed in Manila patrolled the archipelago in galleons, transporting silver and silk between Acapulco and Malacca.

These simply trained indigenous people (mainly Eurasians) played a major role in defending the islands from attacks by the Dutch and Moros, and in further missionary work and colonization of the indigenous people.

After fifteen years of development, there are currently 3,000 mercenaries in Manila and its surrounding areas. They are equipped with new European firearms, their combat manuals are learned from French infantry, and they even have professional artillery.

However, as the attitude of the Great Qi towards Europe changed and maritime trade was closed, the situation of this mercenary group was not good.

In 1642, Philippine Attorney General Don Hernando de los Rios Coronel complained that the British had lost face among the native Filipinos because of the shameful behavior of their soldiers stationed in Manila.

These mercenaries often gambled away their wages, "and then they walked around without shoes or clothes."

They sold their weapons to the natives and "went about begging for alms, and committed countless vile acts among the heathen...
The soldiers in Manila generally lived in poverty and hunger.

Since the year before last, China, under the control of the Tatars, has cut off trade with Europe.

This directly led to a serious imbalance in the British East India Company's trade - trade with the Japanese was really not very good - and the company had no materials or funds to pay the mercenaries' wages.

1642年7月1日至1646年6月30日期间的工资记录样本表明士兵工资的随意性。

In the case of the Manila Infantry, only 388 of the 22 mercenaries were paid, and all but two of these soldiers received exactly one-third of the pay they were owed.

······
Colen rubbed his rosacea, turned around, unlocked the wooden box, and took out an ingot of Japanese copper.

"The Tatars have cut off trade and are provoking Japan. We've been sending more and more copper to Europe and the Philippines, but recently the copper we've been receiving from Japan has been decreasing because they want to use it to make cannons to attack the Tatars."

“Without copper, Manila couldn’t mint coins, let alone London and Liverpool.”

Colen picked up an ivory-handled flintlock pistol, which was a New Year's gift from Koxinga, said to have come from Tatarstan.

Colen squeezed the trigger with his finger, and the hammer clicked with a crisp, powerful sound.

"Without currency, the local soldiers we hired in Manila will become primitive again, return to the rain forest, barter, and abandon the civilized world we built for them. And the colonial empire established by Britain in the Far East will also be like this..."

General Brown helped Fat Liverpool load his ammunition and looked up at an apple on a wine barrel fifteen feet away.

The executive director pulled the trigger.

boom!
The apples were reduced to crumbs.

"Just like this apple, it's broken into pieces."

The huge recoil caused Colen's body to tilt and he almost fell. He stared at the Tatar-made weapon in surprise and continued:

"Without currency, the East India Company can only pay the local native soldiers half their salary. As a result, the Manila garrison can barely hold out until May of next year. By July, some will escape or steal. Finally, the natives will find the company weak and will no longer believe in God or obey us."

"Oh, Lord, forgive these poor people for their rebellion against you."

Colen made the sign of the cross on his chest, hoping that the native Filipinos would be forgiven by God.

Without a steady supply of copper from Japan, the British East India Company in Manila, Philippines, would have come to a standstill by Halloween at the latest.

The commercial order that Britain had worked so hard to establish in the Far East might collapse on a cold night.

Then the Dutch or the Portuguese would come and clean up the mess.

"I swear, this is definitely not the result the Queen wants to see. If that day really comes, believe me, General Brown, you will be hanged on the streets of London like me, and there will be a wooden sign hanging around your neck with the words: 'traitor' and 'coward' written on it."

General Brown knew this was no exaggeration.

If Manila was lost, Britain would lose the entire East.

Even without the Tatar's butcher knife, competitors would rush in to seize the fruits of colonization like sharks smelling blood.

Brown looked at the apple crumbs on the ground.

"The high-ranking shogun living in Edo Castle insisted that the current threat to Japan was the Tatars, whom they had defeated once before, and now the Tatars were seeking revenge. The shogun decided to act in advance and launch an unprecedented westward expedition, just like his predecessor Toyotomi Hideyoshi's westward expedition..."

"Either open up the Tatar market and grant the British Empire most-favored-nation trade status, or let the Japanese stop casting cannons and supply us with more copper."

The executive director's eyes revealed the cunning of a businessman:
"In short, we must aid the shogunate, help the Japanese win this war against the infidels, and ensure the East India Company's interests in the Far East."

(End of this chapter)