Dominate the Country

Nagasaki, Guangzhou, Japan. After the Tokugawa shogunate closed the country, only Dutch and Chinese merchant ships could come here to trade. Tang Feipeng's first place of residence was here. In addition to a very high-end mansion, he now has two deeply hidden secret strongholds here.

At this moment, in a stronghold, Tang Feipeng, who was sitting upright, listened attentively to the story of his killer, Sanye Pingbei. The latter's official identity is one of the few large cargo merchants in Nagasaki Port, but Sanye Pingbei only got to where he is today with the help of Tang Feipeng several times. The second year after Tang Feipeng came to Japan, he He took this person into his pocket, and on the surface Tang Feipeng had always maintained an "innocence" with Sanye Pingbei with no contact at all.

So why did Tang Feipeng and Sanye Pingbei hook up so quickly? Before Sanye Pingbei met Tang Feipeng, he was also a wealthy businessman. He had no worries about food and drink, and his family had plenty of money. Why did he choose Tang Feipeng? The second year after the latter arrived in Japan, Tang Feipeng was far from the momentum and power he has now.

This is not because Sanye Pingbei speaks Chinese with a Nanjing accent, nor is it because Sanye Pingbei himself is a villain who is greedy for profit, but because Sanye Pingbei is a descendant of China. He took out his own family tree that has been passed down for 400 years. From the beginning of the Ming Dynasty when he followed Zhu Hongwu as the first generation ancestor of a hundred households, it has been twenty-two generations since.

The Han surname of Sanye Pingbei is Wang, and his ancestor is a hundred households in the Ming Dynasty. When the Eight Banners moved south, his ancestors continued to fight in the coastal area for more than ten years after the city of Nanjing was destroyed. The regimes of the Tang and Lu kings followed, and finally followed Zhang Huangyan. One hundred and ten years ago, with the deaths of Emperor Yongli, King Lu of the Supervisory State, Zheng Chenggong, Li Dingguo and others, Zhang Huangyan saw that the situation was over and disbanded the rebel army on Xuan'ao Island in Nantian. Wang Pingbei's sixth generation ancestor took him with him Emperor Gaozu traveled eastward to Japan.

As for changing the surname, "Zhu Shunshui's descendants have changed their surnames, so who does our Wang family matter?"

Wang Pingbei looked bitter about this, and Tang Feipeng, who already had a certain understanding of Japan, was also very tolerant of this. Because Japanese society is very xenophobic. Although they learn Chinese culture, many high-level nobles and even ordinary middle-level warriors can speak fluent Chinese, read the Four Books and Five Classics, and write fluent Chinese characters. But they still vaguely exclude Chinese people. Those Ming survivors who fled to Japan in the late Ming Dynasty, one, two, or three generations later, all changed their surnames to Japanese. The Wang family is no exception. But in the Wang family's genealogy, those with Han surnames are still in use. This situation is also common in Japan. This is true for the Tangrenbo in Nagasaki. Looking at the Wang family's genealogy, Tang Feipeng saw that Sanye Pingbei's great-grandfather was Pingqing, his grandfather was Pingjin, his father was Pingjian, and his eldest son was Pingqian.

This is the persistence of a "little man" for more than a hundred years against the backdrop of history. Tang Feipeng was very moved by this. He unreservedly helped Sanye Pingbei overcome one difficulty after another in his development and growth, and Sanye Pingbei did not let him see the wrong person.

Time goes back to the Mitsui Exchange Shop in Nagasaki at noon yesterday. The conversation that unfolded here was the focus of Sanye Pingbei's visit to Tang Feipeng today.

Mitsui Exchange Shop is a pillar industry of the Mitsui family, a prominent business family in Japan. The founder of the Mitsui family is Takatoshi Mitsui from Matsusaka, Mie Ise, Japan. Ten years after the Wang family immigrated to Japan, he came to Edo to open a Wufu dealership, also known as a kimono shop, and another ten years later he began to run a bank as well. In the days that followed, the scale of Mitsui Bank gradually expanded, and finally sixty years ago [in the late Kang Mazi period] it developed into a Mitsui money exchange shop that mainly handled money exchange business. It also funded daimyo from various places, collected tribute rice on their behalf, and received local With the support and protection of the daimyo and the Tokugawa shogunate, he became one of the privileged merchants and became rich quickly.

Wang Pingbei faced Mitsuishi with a cautious look, and Mitsuishi took Wang Pingbei's caution as a matter of course. The Mitsui family is far deeper than Wang Pingbei in terms of overall strength and official foundation. Mitsuishi was not one to test, so he simply and neatly stated what he meant, and said: "Sanye-kun has been engaged in port commerce for many years, and has had business dealings with the Commercial Bank in Shanghai, China all year round. I guess you are not unfamiliar with banking operations, right?" "

"Know a thing or two." A touch of pride showed up at the right time on Sanye Pingkita's face despite his humility, because the Japanese businessmen who are qualified to receive Grade A credit evaluation from the Commercial Bank are not more than one hand, and Mino Pingkita is one of them. .

"China's banking industry has been booming. From the original China Bank to the current private bank, the Chinese have used banks to make huge profits. I wonder if Mr. Sanno is interested in participating in the establishment of the Bank of Japan. ? "Mitsuishi is really straight to the point and gets to the point.

The Mitsui family noticed the upgrading industry of banks, financial institutions, two years ago. Last year, Mitsuishi officially started planning for the bank. Whether it is the official 'opinion' or the integration of its own strength and industry, the Mitsui family has been working hard for this in a year.

Although the Mitsui family cannot afford the 10 million registered capital of China Private Bank, as long as they get the support of the shogunate and local daimyo, and the reputation and influence of the Mitsui Exchange Shop, they can still afford a bank even if they don't have any capital. Come. Seeing that the curtain was about to be unveiled, the Mitsui family began to cast a wide net at all costs, searching for every knowledgeable talent.

In fact, banks are only one aspect. China is now starting to hype up the "stock exchange". It is completely foreseeable that this is also a thing that makes a lot of money. From the perspective of function, with this exchange, a group of industries in hand can be restructured through financial means, maximize profits, and optimize these assets. Therefore, the Mitsui family needs to contact more people and pull more big businessmen and daimyo into their own chariot. Sanye Pingbei is one of them!

In Japan today, there is no such stock exchange industry. Businessmen basically trade their shares and industries in wine houses or even in their own homes. The Mitsui family's initial plan was only a bank, but after contacting the stock exchange and obtaining certain information from the Dutch acquaintances, they could not suppress their inner ambitions and wrote the stock exchange into their own plans. If the Mitsui family's idea is really established, they will hold the lifeline of the Japanese economy in their hands. Of course, the Mitsui family cannot grasp all of it, but as long as a part, as long as a part, their status will be completely changed.

Although this is just an idea, whether it can be realized is not guaranteed, the entire Mitsui family is ready to go all out.

Even though the Mitsui family is far behind China in terms of strength, China can benefit greatly from the same approach, but the Mitsui family may lose everything.

After hearing Mitsui Ishi's suggestion to set up a bank, Sanno Pingbei pondered for a long time. He remained calm on the surface, but was shocked in his heart. Then he felt that this was a good opportunity to deal with Japan. Because he knew that on the other side of Nagasaki, in Shanghai, 1,500 miles away, China would soon issue paper money. If the Mitsui family's bank was also established at that time, would they also issue paper money?

The Mitsui family's exchange house, which operated bill transactions in Kyoto and Edo, was like the Shanxi merchants' bill exchange, and was the earliest organized financial institution in Japan. For fifty or sixty years, the shogunate relied on Mitsui to transfer silver from Nagasaki to Osaka to Edo, which greatly shortened the time and reduced the risk. The Mitsui family also gained the trust of local daimyo and the shogunate.

So if the Mitsui family established a bank and then issued banknotes with a deposit, it would not be impossible. No matter how big the difference is between banknotes and paper money, there are similarities between the two. Paper money evolved from banknotes. There is a lot of knowledge in between. If Japan really made paper money based on the current gold-silver ratio, the scene would be too wonderful.

At that time, Sanye Pingbei organized his words and said: "Banks cannot be opened just by saying so. First, they must have strong funds; second, they must have qualified managers; third, they must have a good reputation; fourth, the world must be peaceful." These things seem to be no problem for Mitsui and Japan now, as long as China does not really take action against Japan. "Now it seems that the Mitsui family is completely in line with this. Since the nobles have already gone through the path of the shogunate and the local daimyo, and they look up to Sanye, I, Sanye Pingbei, would like to see a bank belonging to Japan appear in Nagasaki."

"I am also running a money house. Your Excellency should know that in the past two years, the funds of Sanye Money House have undergone a huge and incredible transformation for the second time, which has given Sanye Money House a pair of wings. I have just been involved in the money house business and I don't have too outstanding management. I just rely on a steady stream of funds. And the source of these funds is also very simple. What I did was to withdraw money from the Commercial Bank of Shanghai, China at a low interest rate, and then lend it at a high interest rate to earn the difference profit. I didn't even preside over the specific affairs of the money house." Sanye Pingbei is a Class A credit merchant of the Commercial Bank, which is one of the few in Japan. The loan interest rate from the Commercial Bank is of course lower than that of Class B, Class C, and Class D, and the interest rate of the Bank of China is much lower than that of Japan. As long as he can guarantee to repay the loan on time, he can certainly use the money of the Commercial Bank to make money for himself.

"So that's it!" Mitsui Shi suddenly realized.

Sanno Pingbei's money house is the fastest growing money house in Japan in recent years. The source of funds is incredibly abundant. Although it is still far behind the exchange office of the Mitsui family, it has attracted the attention of many people in the family when the Mitsui family investigated Sanno Pingbei. Moreover, the source of Sanno Pingbei's funds is unknown, which is also one of the reasons why the Mitsui family put Sanno Pingbei at the end before coming to the door.

They did not find out that the Sanno family is of Chinese descent.

During the more than 100 years of the Tokugawa shogunate's isolation, Japanese Buddhism, as a good friend of the shogunate, played a very important role in the entire Japanese society. The shogunate cultivated Buddhism and used Buddhism as a tool to purge monotheism. The shogunate required monotheists to convert to Buddhism, which was called Zongmen Kai. All people in the country must be included in the Zongmen Renbie Kai account of local temples as donors, which is similar to the household registration, called the Danjia system. If someone wants to travel far away, they must first obtain a certificate from the Buddhist temple where they are staying stating that they do not believe in monotheism. This is called the temple request system. Simply put, Buddhist temples during the Tokugawa shogunate were, to a large extent, police stations. Or, in other words, the Tokugawa shogunate did not actually cultivate Buddhism, but rather trained local police officers...

The Wang family was a Buddhist before they moved to Japan. Over the past 100 years, thanks to the deepening "friendship" between the two sides, there is no record of them being of Chinese descent in the archives of Nagasaki Fukuji Temple.

Of course, the Wang family's ability to do this is actually closely related to the origin of Fujiji Temple. This temple is commonly known as Quanzhou Temple or Zhangzhou Temple. It was initiated and founded by overseas Chinese from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou in Fujian. In the fifth year of the Kanei era (1628 AD), the Chinese monk Juehui, accompanied by his disciples Liaoran and Jueyi, came to Nagasaki and built a temple on the land of Iwahara Village to worship the Holy Mother of Heaven. This was the beginning of the establishment of Fujiji Temple. In the twentieth year that followed, Yingchuan Fujisa (original surname Chen), a Tang Tongshi from Longxi County, Zhangzhou Prefecture, Fujian, and his fellow villagers gathered to invite the monk Yunqian Jiewan from Anping County, Quanzhou Prefecture to come and be the abbot, expand the temple, build a large number of temples, and become the most spectacular temple in Nagasaki Port. In the following hundred years, the temple has invited high monks from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou from China to serve as abbots, many of whom are good at calligraphy and painting. They all left behind a lot of paintings and ink marks. In the ninth year of Enpo [1681 AD], a riot broke out in Nagasaki, and many of their paintings and calligraphy were sold. They cooked porridge every day to help the hungry people.

In the era when the Sino-Japanese conflict was far from the Meiji Restoration, and when the Tangrenfang in Nagasaki was still a villa area for the rich in the eyes of the local Japanese, it was too easy for the Wang family to cover up their identities. Naturally, there was a reason why the Mitsui family was still quite limited in strength.

Wang Pingbei was actually a financial broker who was engaged in usury. Of course, the means had to be clever, but the risks were also great. If you didn't have a certain amount of courage and skill, you couldn't engage in this kind of speculative business.

But this not only did not disappoint Mitsui Ishi, but made Wang Pingbei receive a more sincere call from Mitsui Ishi. Because the Mitsui family, who wanted to employ people based on their talents rather than simply focusing on blood, was never afraid that their subordinates or partners were smart and superb.

"The Mitsui family's bank will be officially established next month. When the Japanese open a bank, banknotes and checks will definitely be issued, and paper money may not be long in coming." Wang Pingbei didn't think anyone could resist the profits of three or five taels.

With paper money and security deposits, plus government credit, it would be too easy to issue three or five taels of paper money with one tael of silver. "The Japanese in Shanghai should have seen the appearance of Chinese paper money now."

"If this news spreads back to Japan, even if the Mitsui family can tolerate it, the shogunate will not be able to bear it."

"It can be predicted that the Tokugawa shogunate will definitely intervene. Those local daimyo, especially the foreign daimyo who are heavily in debt and have a military foundation, will definitely intervene." Japan is not a unified country.

Wang Pingbei now does not regard himself as a Japanese at all. The influence of the ancestors is still there, and China's strength completely crushes Japan. No one will choose to be a Japanese instead of a Chinese at this time. When he knew that the Crown Prince of Chen Han, now the Emperor, was going to attack Japan, he had already put Japan on the opposite side of himself.

Wang Pingbei, who had lived in Japan for 35 years, had never felt that the word "Emperor" and the geographical term "Kyushu Island" were so harsh to his ears. But now he was furious when he thought that the little Japanese king dared to call himself the Emperor. Moreover, the title of "Emperor" was the name of Li Zhi at the beginning. Only ten years after Li Zhi died, the little Japanese took it up.

When Wang Pingbei thought of this nation kneeling and kowtowed to Tang and Song China, shouting "Dad", while wearing the hat of "Emperor" and boasting, he couldn't help feeling sick. It's simply nauseating!

As the saying goes, "the butt determines the head", looking at Wang Pingbei now, this sentence is really correct.

"Hehe, I don't know when the Japanese will use paper money, but if the news of the Japanese using paper money is passed back to the country, Your Majesty will definitely be patient for three to five years!" When the whole of Japan starts using paper money, when the local foreign daimyo in Japan also opens banks to issue banknotes, or even issues paper money, then if we take action against Japan, the entire Japanese economy will collapse, right?

After so many years in Japan, Tang Feipeng is very clear about the true relationship between the Japanese foreign daimyo and the Tokugawa shogunate. It's like the Central Plains dynasty and the northern nomadic peoples when they were strong. They can't be destroyed, but can only be restrained. When the Central Plains dynasty declines, those northern foreign tribes who were once submissive will once again open their mouths full of sharp teeth towards the Central Plains.

For the powerful vassal states of Satsuma and Choshu with a million stones, they have no real loyalty to the Tokugawa shogunate. What's more, which of the current foreign daimyo doesn't owe a lot of foreign debts? Will they watch the Tokugawa shogunate use paper as money and remain indifferent?

Japan will have fun watching.