The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 426 Toyotomi Hideyoshi Can't Afford Compensation
Wanli seemed to have made his attitude clear: the Ming Dynasty did not want to go to war, and as long as there was sincerity, everything could be discussed.

He seemed to have made concessions on the issue of ceding Kyushu Island.

Since Toyotomi Hideyoshi was unwilling to cede Kyushu Island, he could only pay compensation instead.

He seemed to have made even greater concessions. He calculated that the 4.5 million mu of fiefdom for the nine dukes was worth 100 million taels, and the compensation could also be paid in installments over 100 years.

In other words, as long as Toyotomi Hideyoshi paid an additional one million taels of silver every year, Kyushu Island would not have to be ceded.

This seems to be a huge concession.

The value of grain produced in Kyushu Island in a year is more than one million taels.

Paying an extra one million taels of silver every year would save them from ceding Kyushu Island, which seemed like a good deal.

Would Toyotomi Hideyoshi accept this plan?
Xiao Xifei really had no idea, so he could only rush back to Japan to ask Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

When he rushed back to Osaka Castle, it was around noon more than ten days later. At that time, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was still drinking tea.

In the main castle of Osaka, Taiko Palace, in a tea room made of pure gold.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi seemed to be sitting cross-legged at the golden tea table, leisurely sipping tea. Xiao Xifei hurried in and bowed, saying, "Your Highness, there has been progress in the peace talks. The Emperor of Ming said that we can do without ceding Kyushu Island. After ceding Iki Island, we will just pay some compensation."

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty actually gave in on this issue?
Could it be that this guy really doesn't want to attack the Japanese mainland?
When Toyotomi Hideyoshi heard this, he was a little confused.

He was stunned for a moment before asking, "How much compensation?"

Xiao Xifei said carefully, "One hundred million taels of silver can also be paid over a hundred years. We can just pay an additional one million taels each year."

Pay an additional one million taels of silver every year!
Upon hearing this, Toyotomi Hideyoshi frowned slightly.

Paying two million taels of silver every year was already his limit, and he had no intention of continuing to pay.

Originally, he planned to pay compensation for a few years to lure the prisoners back, and then turn against them and start a war.

Now the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty actually asked him to pay an additional one million taels every year!
This is simply going to kill him.

Are you kidding? If he loses three million taels a year, does he still want to live?

How much tax revenue did the Ming Dynasty collect in a year?

After Zhang Juzheng implemented the reform, the Ming Dynasty's annual tax revenue was only more than 4 million taels.

If we follow the grain prices in the capital of the Ming Dynasty, we can buy more than 4 million shi of grain.

Before he invaded the vassal state of Korea, he had thoroughly learned about this from the traitors in the Ming court.

How big is Japan?

Others may not know, but how could he not know?
Japan is less than 10% the size of the Ming Dynasty!
The Ming Dynasty's tax revenue in the previous year was only more than 4 million taels, but the Ming emperor actually asked him to pay 3 million taels of silver and 1.4 million shi of grain every year!

This is equivalent to losing all of the Ming Dynasty’s tax revenue for a year!
Can he afford to pay for it?
If it were the other way around, the Ming Dynasty wouldn’t be able to afford the compensation!
The reason why he was able to pay two million taels of silver and 1.4 million shi of grain in a year was because there was a large silver mine in Japan.

Japan produces silver, which is why he has the money to pay compensation.

If Japan did not produce silver, he would not be able to afford the compensation of two million taels a year.

This is a historical fact. The Iwami Silver Mine in Japan was the world's largest silver mine during this period.

According to later statistics, at its peak, the Iwami Silver Mine produced as much as one-third of the world's silver production at the time!

According to Japanese historical records, the Iwami Silver Mine produced 38 tons of silver in the year with the highest output.

This is a big joke. Some people actually said that the silver reserves of Iwami Silver Mine are only 200 tons.

Are you kidding? Two hundred tons. There are hundreds of mines. Even if there are only ten people mining in one mine every day, each person can only refine one or two taels of silver from the ore mined every day. Hundreds of mines can also produce hundreds of kilograms of silver a day.

The most they produced in a single year was 38 tons, and the Iwami Silver Mine had been mined for over 400 years.

It can be said that the reason why Toyotomi Hideyoshi had enough money to recruit hundreds of thousands of troops to invade his vassal state of Korea after the turmoil of the Warring States Period in Japan was because of the Iwami silver mine.

However, the current output of the Iwami Silver Mine has not reached more than 30 tons per year.

At present, there are no mining machines, and they can only mine more than 4 million taels a year by relying solely on manual labor.

Moreover, the Iwami silver mine was located in the territory of the Mori clan, so Toyotomi Hideyoshi could not take the more than 4 million taels for himself.

Now he can only earn more than 3 million taels of silver from the Iwami Silver Mine every year.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty actually asked him to pay three million taels of silver every year!

How does he survive? By relying on tax revenue?

That's a joke. Japan is less than 10% of the size of Ming China, and its arable land is less than 10% of Ming China. You can imagine how much tax revenue it generates in a year. With tax revenue, he can't even pay the wages and rations of dozens of troops!

He seemed to have another solution, which was to pay the Ming Dynasty the one million taels of silver that the Maori clan received in profits every year.

But don’t even think about it.

He still had to rely on the Mori army to guard northern Kyushu and western Honshu.

If we rob them of all their silver, what will they use to pay their food and wages?
Toyotomi Hideyoshi frowned and pondered for a long time before slowly shaking his head and saying, "That's impossible. If we pay 3 million taels of silver every year, we won't even be able to pay our army's food and wages."

Can't you sell everything you have to redeem all the soldiers in Jiuzhou first?
Xiao Xifei glanced at the room full of gold and couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

His Highness Taiko was actually quite extravagant. The cost of building Osaka Castle was more than several million taels. There was also the golden tea room and the golden decorations everywhere in the castle tower, which added up to more than several million taels of silver.

Could he ask His Majesty Taiko to dismantle the golden teahouse and all the golden decorations in the castle tower and cast them into gold ingots to pay compensation to the Ming Dynasty?
This obviously cannot be done.

He could only sigh inwardly, then asked carefully: "Your Highness, what about the soldiers of Kyushu?"

What should the soldiers of Kyushu do?
Toyotomi Hideyoshi couldn't help but frown and said, "You should discuss this issue with the Ming Emperor. Have you asked the Ming Emperor when the other soldiers will be released?"

Xiao Xifei nodded repeatedly and said, "I asked, and the Emperor of Ming said that all the prisoners on Honshu Island should be released this year, and all the prisoners on Shikoku Island should be released next year."

Fortunately, the Ming emperor did not hold on to the other captives.

If all the prisoners on Honshu and Shikoku were released, the number would be more than 100,000, and the military force would barely be enough.

At that time, let the Mori army fight against the Ming army in northern Kyushu, and then send other lords of Honshu and Shikoku to the southern part of Kyushu to continue fighting against the Ming army. Kyushu alone is estimated to be able to wear down hundreds of thousands of Ming troops.

There are still four countries behind, and more than ten countries in the west of Honshu. Even if the Ming army has millions of troops, they will be wiped out!

Toyotomi Hideyoshi still wanted to use the Mori army to fight against the Ming army in northern Kyushu and western Honshu.

Mori Terumoto is no fool. He has already defected to the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

This time, Wanli received a secret report from Mori Terumoto and saw the letter that Toyotomi Hideyoshi wrote to Mori Terumoto. Only then did he understand Toyotomi Hideyoshi's thoughts and formulate a countermeasure.

It was obvious that Toyotomi Hideyoshi was panicking.

After this guy panicked, he was ready to go crazy for the last time!
The final madness of the Japanese pirates in Japan is that they would rather die in glory than live in disgrace!

The crazy 100 million suicides in later generations are a clear proof of this.

He naturally couldn't let this guy go crazy, so he made a plan and started to make plans.

The first step was to pretend to make a big concession and offer to cede Kyushu Island in exchange for compensation.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi would certainly not agree.

To put it bluntly, this guy can't afford to pay.

He had also calculated this. He knew very well where Toyotomi Hideyoshi's money came from and how much silver this guy could get from the Iwami Silver Mine every year.

Are you kidding? If this guy pays three million taels a year, he can't even pay the food and wages, so how can he die with honor?

If you don’t have money, people will give you a piece of their mind.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi refused to pay compensation, and there was nothing Xiao Xifei could do.

He had no choice but to run back to the capital of the Ming Dynasty to discuss with Wanli.

It seemed that Wanli could no longer be polite to Xiao Xifei.

As soon as Xiao Xifei arrived in the capital, he ordered people to take him to the newly renovated meeting hall in the palace in a gorgeous carriage at around noon the next morning.

Moreover, he ordered someone to serve tea to Xiao Xifei.

This time it is Dongting Maojian, which is also the tenderest tip.

Xiao Xifei had no interest in sipping his tea at the moment. He drank a cup like a cow and then said carefully, "Your Majesty, we are really short of money. Paying an additional one million taels per year is beyond our capacity. Our Highness wants to see if there is another solution."

As expected, Toyotomi Hideyoshi could not afford to pay 3 million taels every year.

There are other solutions.

I'll give you a hammer to solve.

Upon hearing this, Wanli said calmly, "I have thought about it and come up with this solution. Since Your Highness is unwilling, then we can talk about it later. I will think about it again. Let's not talk about this for now. Come, let's have some tea."

Xiao Xifei accompanied him to drink a pot of tea in a daze, and was sent away by him just like that!
Then he stood up and walked towards the Yangxin Palace.

(End of this chapter)