Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

When Zhu Guoxiang came to Luoyang to celebrate the New Year, chaos had already broken out in Japan.

Moreover, it is more chaotic than ever before!

First, when the Ming Dynasty occupied Iwami Ginzan, it triggered a civil war in Heiankyo, Japan, and the Fujiwara family changed their families. Second, the impact of the Ming Dynasty's goods and coins caused some Japanese forces to become stronger.

If explained in an easy-to-understand way, the king is written as the emperor, and the photographer is written as the prime minister, it is as follows -

The emperor's wife had a falling out with the prime minister, and the prime minister turned against the emperor.

And because of the issue of the successor of the Minamoto family, the emperor's wife and Wu Chenyuan had a falling out. The Minamoto family split. Minamoto Yoshito turned to the Taitai Emperor, and his son Minamoto Yoshitomo was loyal to the Taitai Emperor.

Father and son are at odds, brothers are at war with each other.

Due to the uneven distribution of profits from maritime trade, the power of the Queen Mother continued to be divided, and each family demanded that Taira Kiyomori hand over control of the Seto Inland Sea and ports.

This summer, a bloody conflict broke out between the two factions' peripheral forces due to a dispute over cargo at the Osaka port. It turned into a riot and finally a coup.

The prime minister, who had been deprived of half of his power, enlisted the forces loyal to the emperor and launched an attack on Taira Kiyomori's family home.

Various factions were soon involved, and the wife of the emperor even invited monk soldiers to quell the chaos.

The Heian-kyo Rebellion lasted for thirteen days, with more than 200 samurai casualties on both sides. The wife of the emperor won, and the failed emperor was deposed.

Minamoto Yoshitomo personally killed his eccentric father Minamoto Minamoto!

But after experiencing this chaos, the elderly wife of the emperor became seriously ill and died soon after.

Civil strife resumed and turned into a conflict between the two Genpei clans.

Taira Kiyomori supported the newly deposed Emperor and controlled the navy and Gyeonggi forces.

The Minamoto no Yoshitsame Dynasty regarded the emperor with no real power as the orthodoxy, controlled the local samurai groups in the Eastern Kingdom, and gained the support of a large number of civilian officials.

After a battle, Minamoto Yoshitomo was defeated and fled Heiankyo. He returned to the Eastern Kingdom and raised troops in Luo, leading a group of Eastern Kingdom warriors, Kiyoshi Jun, on his side.

Since the Taira clan's control over the Western Kingdom was far less than that of Minamoto Yoshitori in the Eastern Kingdom, the difference in army strength between the two sides was a bit large. This top student, who had studied abroad in Luoyang for several years, was beaten back and forth. It was obvious that he had not learned the essence of Ming Dynasty.

Winter has come, and the two sides have temporarily ceased fighting.

…

Seventy-two-year-old Xue Daoguang has a Taoist temple on the outskirts of Ping'an Jing and was given dozens of acres of surrounding land.

Dozens of acres of land are too shabby.

But this is the outskirts of Heian Jing, and the fertile land has long been occupied. Xue Daoguang can own dozens of acres of land, thanks to his status as a great Ming Dynasty scholar.

To put it bluntly, for the sake of Emperor Zhu, some land was moved and given to him!

Taira Kiyomori, who currently controls Heian Kyo, walked into the abbot's room. He has white teeth and a Ming Dynasty bun. If his height and clothing were not taken into account, he looks like a Ming Dynasty scholar.

Ping Qingsheng bowed straightly and said in fluent Ming Dynasty official words: "Qingsheng has met Taoist Xue."

Xue Daoguang picked up the kettle and made tea: "Dear guest, please take a seat."

Picking up the teacup pushed by Xue Daoguang, Ping Qingsheng thanked him and said, "Every time I come to Daoist Xue, I recall my time in Luoyang and Kaifeng. How nostalgic that is."

Xue Daoguang said: "I haven't returned home for many years. Your Excellency said that I miss my hometown a little."

Taira Kiyomori continued to express his love for the Ming Dynasty: "Sometimes I often think that maybe I was from the Tang Dynasty in my previous life. Before going to the Ming Dynasty, I seemed like an uncivilized hozen. The Ming Dynasty is another world, where all the greatest existences exist."

Xue Daoguang smiled and asked, "Why don't you move to Daming to settle down?"

Ping Qingmori laughed dryly and changed the subject to talk about the scenery of Luoyang.

After half an hour of detours, Taira Kiyomori finally said, "Can Taoist Master help me contact His Majesty the Ming Emperor?"

Xue Daoguang said: "I am an old man, how can I be virtuous? Shi Jian saw that there is the Governor's Mansion on the other side of Yinshan Mountain."

Taira Kiyomori said: "I have already sent people to Ishimi, but the governor has not given a clear answer. I have heard for a long time that the Taoist priest has an old relationship with His Majesty the Emperor, so I just need to send a letter for help. After the matter is completed, this Taoist temple As the center, everything within a radius of five miles is given to the Taoist priest."

Xue Daoguang was noncommittal.

Taira Kiyomori said: "I just want to use the stone to see the two hundred knights of the Governor's Palace and gain the approval of His Majesty the Ming Emperor."

Xue Daoguang thought for a long time and finally said: "I just write a letter for you. I can't guarantee whether it will come true or not."

"That's enough." Taira Kiyomori said.

After Xue Daoguang finished writing the letter, Ping Qingsheng personally collected it and took it away.

He left the Taoist temple and returned all the way to Ping An Jing.

If Ping Qingsheng continued to develop for a few years with the benefit of sea trade, he would not need to borrow troops from the Ming Dynasty at all.

If Taira Kiyomori is willing to share the profits from sea trade, he will also get the support of more Western warriors and will not need to borrow troops from the Ming Dynasty.

However, Taira Kiyomori likes to eat alone.

Not to mention sharing the profits from sea trade with the Western warriors, he was not even willing to share them with his own father. Now that the war situation was unfavorable, he allocated a port to his father in exchange for his father's full support for him.

This guy is a dictator.

Historically, after he came to power by force, he owned more than 500 manors in Japan, a far bigger country, and controlled large tracts of land around the manors. Children were sent to inquire about public opinion, and if they had the slightest suspicion, they would kill officials and civilians. Looking at the countless dilapidated thatched houses outside the city, Hei Kiyomori felt increasingly displeased.

Luoyang and Kaifeng are also the capital cities. They are so prosperous outside the city. These thatched houses in front of us are simply unsightly.

Taira Kiyomori really misses the time when he studied abroad in Ming Dynasty!

Everything is so beautiful.

The longer he was back in Japan, the more his memories of it were beautified. He automatically ignored the discrimination he suffered in the Ming Dynasty, missed some of the friends he made, and asked the Ming Dynasty merchants to help him send letters to his friends.

Many daily necessities in Taira no Kiyomori's house were imported from the Ming Dynasty.

A few years ago, someone had brought tea seeds to Japan, and they are currently only planted in a small area. But the trend of drinking tea has become popular in Heian-kyō, and the nobles mainly drink tea from Zhejiang and Huainan.

Taira no Kiyomori, however, likes to drink Sichuan tea and Fujian tea, because the two Ming Dynasty emperors also like to drink them.

He looked down on Japanese nobles who drank Zhejiang and Huainan tea, thinking that they were a group of bumpkins. He would rather spend more money to drink the same tea as the Ming Dynasty emperor.

The following year, in the spring.

The East-West War in Japan resumed.

Minamoto no Yoshitomo fully utilized his diplomatic talents to increase the number of Eastern troops.

This man was hated by his biological father because of his grandfather. Although he was the eldest son, he was deprived of his inheritance rights since childhood.

His father threw him back to the countryside, completely letting him do whatever he wanted. However, he used his adoptive father's connections to win over a bunch of local forces when he was in his teens, and the number of samurai he controlled when he was 20 years old surpassed that of his biological father.

He now has two wives and a large number of concubines, each of whom represents a force.

On the other hand, Taira no Kiyomori was simply abandoned by everyone.

In a battle in the spring, Taira no Kiyomori lost again.

In desperation, Taira no Kiyomori took out a large amount of wealth and rewarded it to the Western samurai group, and promised benefits to attract some monks, finally curbing the advance of the Minamoto clan's front line.

The reply from the Ming court was also delivered.

After reading the letter, Taira no Kiyomori was furious - Emperor Zhu asked him to cede Kyushu Island!

Kyushu is indeed a poor place, but there are also some that are not poor.

Especially Fukuoka, which is a node of Sino-Japanese exchanges, and the Tang envoys set sail in Fukuoka. Various advanced technologies of China, including rice, also entered Japan from Fukuoka.

Fukuoka was developed very early. Around the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, maritime trade became more and more developed. The Hakata area of ​​Fukuoka has now developed into a large port city, and its urban population ranks among the top five in Japan.

Taira no Kiyomori sat for a whole day in front of Emperor Zhu's reply.

Although Emperor Zhu asked for a lot, he also gave more favorable conditions:

First, the Ming Dynasty provided 2,000 elite soldiers to help Taira no Kiyomori defeat the Eastern Allied Forces, and Taira no Kiyomori did not need to provide military expenses and food.

Second, the Ming Dynasty was willing to lend Taira no Kiyomori 1 million kan of low-interest loans, with taxes from ports in the Seto Inland Sea as collateral.

Third, the Ming Dynasty gave Taira no Kiyomori 500 sets of armor.

Fourth, the Ming Dynasty recognized the king supported by Taira no Kiyomori and supported Taira no Kiyomori as regent as the general. However, the Japanese emperor, who had been renamed the king, could only be called the king, the lord of the country or the great king in the future.

Fifth, the Ming Dynasty supported Taira no Kiyomori's exclusive trading rights in the Seto Inland Sea.

Sixth, the Ming Dynasty sent 30 prospectors to help Taira no Kiyomori explore gold, silver and copper mines, and teach more advanced gold, silver and copper smelting methods.

Seventh, the Ming Dynasty could open a mint in Fukuoka to help Taira no Kiyomori turn gold, silver and copper mines into Japanese coins. Taira no Kiyomori could use this to control Japan's coinage rights and influence and control the economic activities of local counties and kingdoms.

At night.

Taira no Kiyomori lit the whale oil lamp, read the letter carefully again, and then placed the letter above the lamp and lit it.

He agreed because the Ming Dynasty gave too much.

With the support of the Ming Dynasty, he could abolish the court politics, establish the shogunate as a general, control the king and the whole country, and enjoy the Seto Inland Sea trade alone and make a fortune.

As for Kyushu, just cede it to the Ming Dynasty, anyway, it is not his territory.

It is actually a very cost-effective deal to trade with the Ming Dynasty with something that is not his. As for the stigma of ceding land, there is no need to worry about it. If you kill more people, you will not dare to blame.

Emperor Zhu, who was far away in Luoyang, could not help but write this letter with a bad taste.

The shogunate version of the Twenty-One Demands?

Apart from the bad taste, Zhu Ming made a lot of money.

He got Kyushu Island, the two major ports of Fukuoka and Nagasaki, and countless gold, silver and copper mines in Kyushu.

In addition, Emperor Zhu also had evil intentions in helping Taira no Kiyomori to explore for minerals and teach him advanced mining technology. It was nothing more than letting Japan mine more gold, silver and copper, and then the Ming Dynasty would use trade to earn those precious metals.

Helping Taira no Kiyomori to mint coins was a disguised way of obtaining Japan's coinage rights.

In addition, supporting Taira no Kiyomori to establish the shogunate was also castrating Japan.

Once the shogunate was established, the shogunate's policies would become more and more conservative in order to control the local areas, and the Japanese nobles would become more corrupt and degenerate. It would also be difficult for the local military to develop, because the shogunate would take the initiative to weaken the local military.

If Japan wanted to develop, it had to overthrow the shogunate!

And the Ming court would send troops to help the shogunate suppress the rebellion at a critical moment. At that time, the shogunate would have to provide military expenses. If it could not afford it, it would use Japanese tariffs to offset the cost.