Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 299 Ogawa's Transformation
March 1635, 3, Wochuan, New Liaocheng (now Obihiro City, Hokkaido).

Early spring has arrived in many places in the Ming Dynasty, and all things are gradually waking up. However, in Wochuan, southeast of Beiying Island, although the temperature is slowly rising, the entire area is still covered with snow, and the world is white everywhere.

Qi Yongze, the head of the colonization team, rode a dog sled and, surrounded by dozens of guards, quickly drove out of Xinliao City and headed towards Xiajin Fort (now Otsu Port Town) on the seaside.

"Ogawa, what do you think about the Tsushima clan's tampering with the letters from the Korean and Japanese kingdoms?" Qi Yongze, wrapped in a thick fur coat, leaned comfortably on the sled, his eyes slightly squinted.

The dazzling sunlight shines on the snow, making it impossible to open your eyes.

"My lord, although the matter of the So family tampering with the letter from the Asahi Kingdom seems serious, in fact, the So family may not receive any substantial punishment from the Shogun." Ogawa Seihei pondered for a moment and said respectfully.

"Oh, why?" Qi Yongze raised his eyebrows and asked with interest, "If this behavior of the Zong family were to happen in the Ming Dynasty, it would be tantamount to deceiving the emperor and the entire family would be executed. Even though your Japanese political system is completely different from that of the Ming Dynasty, this kind of malicious deception of the lord is still quite evil. Wouldn't the Shogun be angry about this and severely punish the Tsushima Zong family?"

"Lord..." Ogawa Seihei hesitated for a moment, then gave a wry smile and said, "If the Shogun discovers that the So clan has tampered with the letters from the Asahi Kingdom, the So clan of the Tsushima Domain will be severely punished. At the very least, they will be stripped of their domain and demoted to commoners. At the worst, they will most likely be executed as a warning to the world."

"But the problem is that this major incident was exposed due to the report of the Zong family retainers. In this case, the whole matter will become very delicate, and the result will be completely opposite."

"Oh, I'd like to hear more about it." Qi Yongze immediately showed great interest.

"Master," Ogawa Seihei continued, "After Tosho-jin (Tokugawa Ieyasu) unified the country, the Edo Shogunate system was established in Edo. Under this system, the master-servant system was formally established, and everyone was required to strictly abide by it."

"The shogunate not only demands that the daimyo of the domains submit to the shogun, but also that their retainers and samurai obey their lord daimyo. A challenge from a daimyo's retainer to his lord daimyo is like a challenge from a domain daimyo to the shogun; it is absolutely unacceptable."

"The So family's tampering with the imperial documents was reported by their retainer Yanagawa. This is a serious deviation from the master-servant system advocated by the Shogun. It is also an act of rebellion, a violation of the entire Japanese nation. Therefore, I believe that in order to maintain order and strengthen the authority of the lord family, the Shogun will certainly downplay this matter and impose some degree of punishment on the whistleblower Yanagawa."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Qi Yongze nodded, agreeing with his analysis.

Information obtained from different channels indicates that the Tokugawa shogunate's ruling strategy was to consistently strengthen the power of the central shogunate. At the same time, as a policy of daimyo control, it also had to adhere to the direction of strengthening daimyo power.

In this case, the Tokugawa shogunate had to resolutely eradicate the bad habit of "rebellion" left over from the Warring States period, and had to consistently adopt the practice of severely punishing retainers for the "house disturbances" of the daimyo.

In order to break away from the Tsushima domain and obtain the position of a hatamoto directly under the shogunate, the retainer of the So family actually "treasonously" reported the illegal activities of his master, and was naturally despised by everyone from the shogun to ordinary samurai.

This kind of thing is absolutely unacceptable in the eyes of the daimyo of the domestic feudal domains.

If So was demoted or severely punished, the daimyo of other feudal states would feel insecure, thus triggering a crisis of trust in the entire shogunate system.

During this period, every daimyo of a feudal state had more or less some dirty or illegal things going on.

If the retainers were allowed to boldly report the emperor, the feudal lords in the country would probably not be able to survive.

Therefore, in order to maintain the authority of the entire shogunate system, even though the Tokugawa clan was dissatisfied or even angry about the So clan's tampering with the national letter, they could only hold their nose and downplay the matter as much as possible, and lightly cover up the So clan's "rebellious behavior."

To be honest, the Hokkien Island colonization team still attached great importance to trade with the Tsushima clan. It was precisely because of the existence of it and the Matsumae clan that the new Chinese successfully avoided the extremely strict trade restrictions of the Japanese shogunate and made the re-export smuggling trade flourish, making a profit of more than 300,000 taels of silver each year, providing strong financial support for the immigration transportation work of Hokkien Island.

When the North Sea Colonization Team heard that the Tsushima Domain was in great trouble due to the tampering of the official documents, they became a little worried and expressed deep "concern" for this partner.

If the Zong family were dealt with and the ownership of Tsushima Island changed, the colonization team would be immediately caught off guard, losing at least hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in trade income every year, and also losing such a critical sea supply point.

Yes, after several years of operation, the Beiying Island Colonization Team has opened up a relatively mature immigration and material transfer route, and Tsushima Island is one of the extremely important intermediate supply points.

If it weren't for their limited strength and the lucrative smuggling profits they could reap, the Beiying Island Colonization Team might even have considered seizing it at some point. Seeing Qi Yongze lost in thought, Ogawa Seihei stopped questioning him and remained silent, staring blankly at the empty field.

More than three years ago, he and another shogunate envoy went to Tsushima Island to investigate the matter of the So family's tampering with the official documents. He didn't know what was wrong with him, but he proposed to go to Korea to secretly find out whether the Koreans knew about the tampering of the official documents, so as to use this as an important reference for the Shogun's judgment.

Shortly after the ship left Tsushima Island, they collided with several Xinhua immigration ships passing through the area.

At first, when he saw several ships that looked like Western ships, out of disgust for the "Southern Barbarians", he immediately ignored everyone's opposition and ordered the only two cannons on the ship to fire at the other side to warn them to leave quickly and not to "invade" Japanese territory.

As a result, their reckless behavior was met with a resolute and powerful counterattack from the other side.

The huge ship of the Xinhua people immediately rushed towards them, and after a fierce chase, they captured the two Guan ships they were on, and all the people became their prisoners.

Those people from the Tsushima clan were imprisoned for less than half a year before they were released along with their ships. Then both sides began to happily engage in the smuggling business.

However, he and several other envoys and attendants from the shogunate were ruthlessly detained and forced to do various tasks like slaves every day, such as cutting wood, farming, building houses, repairing roads... They were suffering terribly.

As a proud warrior, I have never experienced such torture and humiliation!
During his days as a laborer, he once attempted suicide to end the endless hard labor.

But unfortunately, or, fortunately, his suicide attempt was discovered and stopped by the Xinhua people who were monitoring him. He was then severely whipped and thrown into a thatched hut to reflect on himself.

In the eyes of Xinhua people, even a dog cannot end its life at will before the last bit of value is squeezed out of it.

Two years ago, his turning point finally came.

Xinhua people bought a group of Japanese women. In order to facilitate communication with them, he was brought out from the logging site by Xinhua people because he could speak Chinese fluently. He was asked to teach these Japanese women some simple Chinese so that they could quickly integrate into the local living environment.

It is said that these purchased Japanese women would be given as "prizes" to Ming Dynasty immigrants who performed well in the colonization work, so that they would be more loyal to the new Chinese.

By last year, as the Japanese women he had purchased were married off one after another, his work came to an end. However, the new Chinese did not send him back to the logging camp to do the hard and tiring work. Instead, he was assigned to a department called the Naturalization Office, where he dealt with the surrounding Ainu people and "persuaded" and "convinced" more indigenous tribes to submit to and submit to the rule of the new Chinese.

Later, perhaps because he came from the Edo Shogunate and was familiar with the shogunate's system and affairs, the Xinhua people often summoned him and treated him as a political adviser, constantly asking him about matters related to the shogunate. They even consulted him from time to time on issues such as the colonization of Ezo and smuggling trade.

Will the Tokugawa clan turn their attention to Ezo?

Will the Tokugawa clan pay attention to the growing smuggling trade?

What would be the Tokugawa clan's attitude towards the invasion or attack of Japanese territory?

Will the Tokugawa clan take more radical trade restrictions in response to the massive outflow of silver?

……

In response to the "consultation" from the Xinhua people, Seihei Ogawa went from initial resistance and concealment to vague responses, and finally gradually became willing to tell everything he knew. Sometimes he even carefully considered all aspects of a matter for the Xinhua people, making sure that it was strict and seamless without any mistakes.

They come, the security.

Given his current condition, the Xinhua people would definitely not let him leave, and returning to Edo would only be a distant dream.

In this case, you might as well adopt a go-with-the-flow attitude and honestly change to a new Chinese.
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(End of this chapter)