The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 915: Unknown Volcano Gunshot
"After my death, my descendants will never invade Japan. Japan is a land that the Great Qi will not invade..."

In the early morning of March 1772, 3, in the Qianqing Palace in Tianxin City, the 18-year-old Emperor Jingyan passed away in his sleep, ending his long reign of seventy years.

On the same day, Tianxin City welcomed the sixth emperor of Da Qi, the 35-year-old eldest son Liu Ye.

On March 3, the old emperor's last will and testament was telegraphed to the whole nation through the cabinet.

On his deathbed, the old emperor was still admonishing his successor not to invade Japan, that is, the eastern province, otherwise it would bring a catastrophe to the Great Qi.

Such a statement is alarmist. Generally speaking, Liu Fan was opposed to plundering the eastern provinces during his lifetime.

However, now, the will of the Emperor of Da Qi can no longer influence the empire's national policy.

As for whether the heir can abide by Emperor Jingyan's will, that is up to fate.

~~~~~~~
Although the old emperor did not suffer the same curse as previous emperors of the Great Qi Dynasty, and although he was in good health during his lifetime, his death in the end can be said to be a natural death.

However, Liu Fan's sudden departure still caused some turmoil in the political situation of Da Qi.

It should be noted that at this time the eastern provinces were in turmoil, and the trend of independence was like an arrow on a bowstring that had to be launched.

Zhang Ruoting, son of the former prime minister, has now inherited his father's legacy.

The newly appointed prime minister was called "Little Prime Minister Zhang" (to distinguish him from his father Zhang Tingyu).

Prime Minister Zhang called on the members of the Da Qi parliament to impose additional commercial taxes on the eastern provinces, and to triple the current taxes.

At the same time, strict restrictions should be placed on tea sales in Nagasaki, Nara, and other places, and corresponding restrictions should also be placed on the eastern provinces' deep-sea fishing, papermaking, steel smelting, and other industries...
In short, according to Prime Minister Zhang, as an imperial colony, the eastern provinces can only serve as a source of cheap raw materials and a consumer market, and cannot engage in any possible competition with the suzerain country.

In other words, the empire wanted to squeeze the eastern provinces dry, using this method to weaken the colonial power and slow down the process of colonial independence.

It is still unknown how effective this strategy will be. In the eyes of the new emperor Liu Ye, the parliament's actions are undoubtedly a temporary solution to a long-term problem. Just as his father said, it is self-destruction.

Like his father, Liu Ye had different ideas from his ministers. He hoped to resolve the colonial issue peacefully, and it would be best if Japan, Australia, North America and other places could achieve true independence in his hands.

Liu Ye's ambitions were naturally not tolerated by the parliament.

The imperial power and the parliament were mutually constrained. The tax increase bill introduced by the parliament was rejected by the emperor, and the emperor's edict to recall the garrisons in the eastern provinces was also opposed by his ministers.

When Liu Ye ascended the throne, the power struggle in Tianxin City entered a white-hot stage.

All the wise men in the empire believed that the tax pressure from the mother country on the colonies had reached a critical point. Further increasing taxes would only lead to widespread resistance in the eastern provinces.

If the situation continues to deteriorate, the eastern province will become a low-value area for Da Qi, and continuing to rule here will only be counterproductive.

However, the old men in parliament disagreed.

The members of Parliament unanimously decided to dump the colonies.

Through dumping, the economic lifelines of the colonies can be effectively suppressed, thereby weakening the political forces in various places and maintaining the stability of the empire's rule.

Specifically in the eastern provinces, large quantities of tea were dumped to Nagasaki and other places.

~~~~~~~
"I heard that the tea trees on the volcano bloomed last year."

Zhang Ruoting boasted to his colleagues in his residence, "I don't know about the volcano, do you all know about it?"

One council member blurted out, "You don't know about the volcano? How could you not know? There used to be a group of evil monks who sought immortality on the mountain." Zhang Ruoting shrugged, "What evil monks? They died a long time ago. Today, I want to talk about tea."

tea.

Tea is related to the economic lifeline of Da Qi.

"Wakoku exports a large amount of tea from Nagasaki every year, and a large part of it is picked on this unknown mountain."

"So, what do you think, Prime Minister?"

Zhang Ruoting stood up and looked around, then said casually, "A brilliant idea? Just turn the tea trees on the unknown volcano into ashes in the raging fire, just like the evil monk did a hundred years ago!"

"Let all enemies who dare to obstruct the great cause of the Great Qi be reduced to ashes!"

~~~~~
In order to dump the accumulated tea from large domestic farms, the Da Qi Parliament passed the "Regulations to Relieve Da Qi's State-Owned Tea Factories" during the reign of the previous emperor.

Although this regulation has never been truly implemented, its impact is far-reaching.

The regulations gave the state-owned tea merchants of the Great Qi the exclusive right to sell their surplus tea to colonies such as Australia, Japan, and North America, and they were exempt from some import tariffs, with only a symbolic tea tax levied.

The regulations explicitly prohibited the sale of "private tea" in all colonies.

The so-called private tea is tea that has not been inspected by the Tianxin City Commerce Department.

Members of parliament hope to pass this regulation to monopolize the global distribution of tea.

Thanks to the tariff advantage, the tea sold by state-owned tea merchants was more than half cheaper than the "private tea" in the colonies in various regions.

In other words, if this decree is implemented, it will inevitably lead to the bankruptcy of local tea companies in major colonies, including Japan.

Soon after the promulgation of the regulation, it was met with unanimous resistance from colonies around the world. In the eastern provinces, immigrants generally believed that the relationship between these state-owned tea factories and the parliament was unclear, and that the parliamentarians must have received benefits from domestic tea merchants.

For a new immigrant, drinking tea from the state-owned tea factories in Da Qi was tantamount to acknowledging Da Qi's cruel exploitation of the eastern provinces and itself.

These are things that the new immigrants who advocate freedom absolutely cannot tolerate.

People in Nagasaki, Nara, Edo and other places prevented the Qi tea ships from docking, and fierce conflicts broke out between the two sides.

Around the time of Emperor Jingyan's death, a spontaneous tea dumping incident occurred in Nagasaki. On the night of November 1772, 11, under the leadership of lower-ranking samurai Samuel Adams and John Hancock, 11 "free men" disguised themselves as Japanese savages and boarded Qi tea ships. They dumped all 60 boxes of tea from five ships inland from Qi into the sea.

The Nagasaki Times of January 1773, 1, described:

"The amount of tea that was dumped into the Sea of Japan was impressive, and the waste was impressive. At high tide, the water was filled with broken boxes and tea leaves. It stretched from the south of the city to the outlying islands, and some of it was washed ashore and mixed with the volcanic ash."

When the news reached Tianxin City, the parliament immediately passed a resolution to intensify the crackdown on the smuggling of Japanese tea. The navy then dispatched additional troops to patrol ports such as Nagasaki, and any smuggling found would be punished by law.

However, this continued crackdown on smuggling is clearly unpopular.

When the Imperial Navy's Shanhaiguan warship, which was responsible for combating smuggling, was on patrol off the coast of Nagasaki, it was set on fire by new immigrants.

The imperial army sent to suppress the rebellion was ambushed by local militia at the Unknown Volcano.

War is about to break out.