The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 541 Who is the one that Japan should destroy the most
Thanks to the fact that later generations of Japanese people, from the political arena to the people, have been crazy about boasting and promoting their history, even someone like Mo Zibu who is not very interested in Japanese history knows about the Tenmei Famine.

He even knew that the main cause of the Tianming famine was the volcanic eruption.

The only imperfect thing is that Mo Zibu doesn't know when the Tianming famine took place. Did it already happen, or will it happen a long time in the future?
Then in the second half of the fifth year of Kōchū (1780), news came from Japan that the so-called Emperor Go-Momozono had died, and the newly enthroned emperor proposed that the next year's reign be named Tenmei.

Mo Zibu was happy, although Emperor Kōkaku had just ascended the throne and the sixth year of Kōchū was only the first year of Tenmei.

However, there is a tacit rule for Japan's era names, which is that except for the death of the emperor, an era name is generally only used for eight to ten years, at most twelve years.

Considering that a disaster that could be called a great famine would definitely not end in one or two years, Mo Zibu launched a preemptive economic war against Japan that year.

Of course, regarding the fact that the Japanese claimed to be the emperor, Mo Zibu also sent people to collect various evidences, ready to use as an excuse when the time comes.

When Zheng Jinshui delivered the request from the Japanese shogunate's elder councilor Tanuma Okitsugu and various news from Japan, Ji Yun and Ji Xiaolan were there too.

Big Tobacco has been very busy recently. He is busy gathering people to recall many books that were destroyed and banned when Emperor Qianlong compiled the Siku Quanshu, and he is also busy taking out the books that they had secretly preserved.

Then, according to the summary and classification of the Siku Quanshu, an encyclopedia of ancient and modern times, covering classics, history, astronomy, geography, medicine, divination, astrology, mathematics, etc., was built for the new Dayu Dynasty - the Fuxing Dadian.

Therefore, he often had to go to Mo Zibu, firstly to report the progress, and secondly to seek the emperor's opinion.

Well, the so-called seeking of the emperor's opinions were all trivial questions. The reason why they had to be asked was that this was Ji Dayandai's trick of being an official.

To do good things, such as compiling a great project like the Renaissance Code, you must let the leader, that is, the emperor, feel sufficiently involved, so that the emperor will be recorded in history books in the future.

At the same time, you can take this opportunity to get closer to the emperor.

Even Mo Zibu, who thinks he is strong without desires, cannot escape this feeling.

Ji Yun was actually a pure literati and poet. He was not capable of serving as a prime minister or governing the local areas, but he was well-versed in ancient and modern knowledge and had a quick wit.

When he saw Zheng Jinshui's report, he pretended to be surprised and exclaimed, "Your Majesty, are you going to follow Guan Zhong's strategy of weakening Lu with white clothes?"

The so-called strategy of Guan Zhong to weaken Lu with white clothes is called the earliest recorded economic warfare in Chinese and even world history, which is exactly the same as what Mo Zibu is using in Japan today.

"Hahahaha, you, Ji Xiaolan, are good at reading history, but you haven't grasped the secrets of it."

Mo Zibu laughed heartily, his habit of teaching others as a man came back again, and he had no idea that Ji Yun was deliberately playing dumb.

“During the time of Guan Zhong, although Qi and Lu were considered great states, they were in reality no more than one or two prefectures, with a population of only a few hundred thousand.

Especially in the State of Lu, there were 300,000 people, and 500,000 barbarians at most.

With such a small population, Guan Zhong's plan to deliberately guide the people of Lu to weave Lu silk would naturally succeed.

Because the territory is so small and the population is so large, if this plan is implemented, at least half of the rice fields in Lu will be converted to mulberry fields, thus causing widespread famine in Lu and greatly weakening its strength.

Mo Zibu took a sip of tea and said, "Although Japan is not as great as us, it is still a great foreign country.

Its territory is vast, as big as one or two provinces of China, with a population of 30 million, which is enough to be two of our provinces, or even more.

For a country whose population is comparable to the total of all countries in the Spring and Autumn Period, Guan Zhong's strategy is not very effective.

I have been offering high prices to them for over two years, and the best I can do is get them to convert half their rice fields into mulberry fields, which is great.”

This is the truth. With a country of Japan's size, external force alone can hurt it, but it is wishful thinking to make it bleed profusely or even half-die.

Therefore, these policies of Mo Zibu were just a catalyst. What he was really waiting for was the volcanic eruption during the famine at dawn.

And if there had not been the Tianming famine in history, Mo Zibu could have kept the country afloat for three to five years and then suddenly announced the severance of trade with Japan.

Then Japan would only suffer pain for three to five years, with a dozen high-ranking officials and nobles dying to apologize, and at most a few hundred thousand or eighty thousand people dying of starvation and poverty.

This loss cannot be said to have little impact on the overall situation, but it is definitely not serious enough. People can just hold on and it will pass.

However, Mo Zibu couldn't tell Ji Yun that he had predicted that a volcanic eruption in Japan would cause a great famine, as that would sound a bit superstitious.

Seeing that Mo Zibu didn't continue talking, Ji Yun was also very tactful and didn't ask any more questions. He came to make the emperor happy, not to satisfy his own curiosity.

So, the old fox changed the subject and talked about some other things that made the emperor very happy, then left with a smile.

After Ji Yun left, a team leader from the Finance and Taxation Supervision Team of the Tiqi General Flag Team, who had been waiting outside and was responsible for monitoring Fuxing Company, immediately came in.

"Has Japan not suffered any large-scale floods or droughts?" Mo Zibu asked in a low voice.

The team leader shook his head and said, "There are some droughts, but they are not large in scale and will never cause a famine.

There were some floods in the Kanto Plain, but they were mainly caused by the Shogunate's elder councilor, Tanuma Okitsugu, who wanted to divert the water from the Inpan Marsh, but they were not serious."

"What about the volcanoes? None of them erupted?"

"Your Majesty, there really isn't!" The captain shook his head confidently. Although he felt deep down that the emperor's bet that Japan would suffer a famine was a bit ridiculous, he still fulfilled his duty conscientiously.

"Damn, it won't be another seven or eight years, right?" Mo Zibu muttered in a low voice. The people around him had long been used to it and pretended not to hear.

Mo Zibu didn't believe that the butterfly effect brought by the time traveler could even change a volcanic eruption. That could only mean that the time had not yet come.

He shook his head. It shouldn't be so cruel. The great famine would not break out until the last few years of Tianming's reign!
"Heshen, go and assist Zheng Jinshui. Have him continue to purchase at least 500,000 dan of Japanese grain. Then, before the new Japanese grain comes on the market next year, dump no less than 800,000 dan of grain into the Edo market.

We must make sure that the Japanese farmers who grow crops suffer so much that they can’t even afford to eat!”

What Mo Zibu said to Ji Yun just now was 70% true and 30% false. The 30% false part was that when facing the entire Japanese population of 30 million, his words really could not cause any serious damage.

However, if it only targets the Kanto region centered on Edo Castle, the destructive power is still considerable.

What's more, his move of buying grain at high prices in winter and then suddenly dumping it before the new grain was on the market dealt a huge blow to agriculture in the Kanto region.

Many small warriors with only a few hundred stones of salary and some self-cultivating farmers were forced to go bankrupt by Mo Zibu every harvest season, making them miserable. Many of them had no choice but to sell their children or even hang themselves.

"As you command!" Heshen came over and quickly accepted the order, then asked in a low voice: "So if there is a famine in Japan next year, should we not dump rice?"

"That's right. If a famine occurs, suspend dumping. Then, depending on the severity of the famine, report to me at any time.

I know you are good at managing money, so I can give you a bottom line: I can afford a loss of no more than 500,000 silver dollars per year.

As long as the number doesn't exceed this and things are done well, I can turn a blind eye to some aspects."

When engaging in this kind of trade and economic war, it is impossible for those involved to keep their hands clean.

Mo Zibu understood very well that if the water is too clear, there will be no fish, and if the person is too strict, there will be no followers, so as long as it is within his tolerance, he can accept his subordinates making some money with him.

Especially Heshen, this man is indeed capable, but if you expect him to be as clear as water and as honest as a mirror, you are dreaming.

After giving the order, Heshen also took the order and went down to personally prepare for the economic war against Japan. Only then did Mo Zibu slowly breathe a sigh of relief.

In fact, there was another important reason why he would not apply Guan Zhong's strategy. That was that his requirement was not just to weaken the State of Lu like Guan Zhong did. He wanted the whole of Japan.

But Japan is now a big country with a population of 30 million and a strong sense of national identity. This population size is similar to that of big countries such as Britain, France, Prussia, Austria and Russia.

If Guan Zhong's strategy were used in a country like this, it would be too obvious.

The result will definitely be discovered, and then the Japanese will hate him, and they will think that the famine was specially caused by the emperor of China.

Instead, it gave the Tokugawa shogunate something to blame and used China as a scapegoat.

Therefore, Mo Zibu's plan was to aggravate the scale of the Tenmei Famine while pretending to be the savior of the Tokugawa Shogunate and then to get one or two million people out of Japan.

Finally, he used this as a threat to force the Tokugawa family to abolish the isolation order on China, allowing Japanese samurai to come out and serve Mo Zibu and the people to go to Southeast Asia.

After achieving this goal, a few years later, the Japanese, who had opened their eyes and realized that their future lay in associating with China, would use these to further pressure the Tokugawa shogunate to make policies that were more conducive to its integration into Dayu.

For a country of Japan's size, don't think you can accomplish it in a few years. It will definitely be a long project that will take at least fifteen to twenty years before you can see results.

What? Why should we let the Japanese live? Why not just let them starve to death on their own soil?

My God, what Nanyang lacks most now is serfs who work honestly on the land!

These one or two million Japanese serfs could be used as at least three black slaves in farming.

Moreover, when they arrived in Southeast Asia, they could not speak the language and it was difficult for them to escape. At the same time, they looked similar to the Chinese and were easily assimilated.

This is simply the most perfect cattle and horses, and can even help Chinese plantation owners monitor other Southeast Asian native slaves.

These are such good cattle and horses, and such a huge fortune. How could you think of starving them to death?

Such a waste!

"Your Majesty, are we going to destroy the Tokugawa shogunate in the future?" Lin Qiaoyin, who was continuing to plan with Mo Zibu, asked from the side.

Mo Zibu shook his head, "No, what we want to destroy are precisely the powerful yet impoverished domains of Satsuma and Choshu.

They have nothing, are poor and violent, and must be severely disciplined and killed so that they are terrified before they can be used.

The Tokugawa shogunate, however, was the only one who had a family and a business, and who longed to preserve their wealth and power, but whose name was not legitimate, and who had to keep it.

Because only people like them would sell out Japan's benefits to us step by step in order to preserve their wealth."

Yes, the Tokugawa shogunate is such a good model for the Qing government. Why should we overthrow it? With it around, many things are easier to do.

(End of this chapter)