New Shun 1730

The company crossing the river played war drums loudly, and the officers held a large flag with the words "benevolence and righteousness" on it and officially entered the castle town of Kochi without any resistance.

Liu Yu crossed the river like a tourist, and stood beside the Harimaya Bridge in the castle town of Kochi. He looked down at this very famous bridge and couldn't help laughing: "If I were a child, I could pee on the other side of the bridge if I tried hard."

The officers beside him listened to this joke and laughed secretly. It seems that the children of the nobles also played like this when they were young? There were also jokingly saying: "You are young and strong, I think you can do it now."

Liu Yu laughed, but didn't really take off his pants to try it. He just felt that the famous places in the eyes of the Japanese were really shabby.

Standing on this small bridge, he habitually spit into the river, but no schools of fish swam over.

He looked up and asked the Japanese craftsman who followed him: "Is this the Harimaya family, the Tosa lord's official merchant?"

He said the word "official merchant" in Japanese, but he would never say the word "official" in Chinese.

The Japanese craftsman nodded and said: "This is Harimaya, responsible for transporting rice to Edo or Osaka for the daimyo, and also engaged in paper and other businesses. Opposite is the Kukuya, also a local wealthy merchant. This bridge is a private bridge, for the convenience of the two families. The surrounding area is full of samurai who followed the lord from Kakegawa to Tosa, and they all live nearby. But now, they should have fled to Kochi Castle."

Since that's the case, this should be the center of the castle town. The owners of this Harimaya and Kukuya are also at the top of the list of loan sharks and pawnbrokers.

And in the previous land reclamation permits, these two families also invested in the development of large tracts of fertile land and have many tenants.

Speaking of the wealthy merchants with high knowledge, the Japanese master could not help but sigh: "It is these merchants who have led to the moral corruption of the lords. It is said that dogs and pigs eat human food without knowing how to be self-disciplined."

"Those who have rich fields and newly reclaimed land have enough food and clothing and nothing is lacking; but they see natural disasters and punishments and do not know how to pick themselves up, and ignore the begging of the common people. As for themselves, some of them have delicacies from mountains and seas, and are surrounded by wives and concubines; or they seduce the retainers of the daimyo to brothels and wine shops, and feast without restraint, spending a lot of money. In this difficult time for the people's livelihood, they still wear fine clothes and eat delicious food, and enjoy themselves among actors and prostitutes, just like in the past. This situation is really the same as King Zhou's long night feast."

"Why don't you follow the example of the ancient sages and distribute the money and rice of Juqiao Lutai to save the people who are suffering from famine today? This money is all ill-gotten gains."

Liu Yu thought to himself, you are an expert, distributing the money and rice of Juqiao Lutai... Isn't this the standard template for rebellion?

Disperse, of course, but not now. It is estimated that the wealthy merchants have all hidden in Kochi Castle together, and there is nothing to disperse at this time.

From the words of this master, it can be regarded as confirming Liu Yu's judgment that in the process of the gradual disintegration of the feudal economy, the hatred of the lower class people for merchants is greater than that for the lords - as long as the land trading is allowed, even if it is slightly loosened.

After all, this master is a Confucian scholar. Even if he is not Zhu Xi or Yang Ming, and claims to be an ancient Confucian, he actually always hopes that the lord will implement benevolent policies in his heart, and he has not really dared to rebel.

Merchants, especially those who hoard land and those with monopoly franchises, are the easiest to be hated. The shogunate actually treats these merchants as big fat sheep to feed them, and they absorb hatred and issue debt-defaulting laws from time to time.

As long as the iron chains on the merchants are slightly loosened, the merchants will let the feudal lords know what is the efficiency of enriching wealth. As for whether it is legal or moral, Liu Yu does not want to judge at all.

Anyway, he was running a trading company and industry in Dashun, and the biggest worry was the high interest rates of Dashun's loan sharks, which made it impossible for him to raise funds for some of his projects with lower profits.

50% of the land rent was also considered a benevolent land rent level, and Dashun accounted for a quarter of the world's population, and it had to rely on overseas trade to get its industry and commerce started.

The master's words gradually deepened his understanding of the mood of the Japanese people at that time.

He asked someone to break open the door of Harima House, and when he entered, it was indeed a mess, empty.

He didn't want to live in such a place. The city was too dangerous and the terrain was complicated. If there was really someone who was not afraid of death to assassinate, there would definitely be chaos.

"Well, first put up a notice to reassure the people, saying that I am here not for money, but for righteousness. Those who kill will be killed, those who injure will be punished, and those who rob will be flogged..."

The master handed over several rewritten notices to the people behind him, wondering: "Flogging for robbers? Sir, are you not going to follow the example of the ancient sage Juqiao?"

Liu Yu smiled and said: "King Wu scattered the wealth of Lutai, can it be called robbery? Distributing the grain of Juqiao, can it be called robbery? I am afraid that all these wealth have been transferred to Kochi City. No hurry, no hurry, go post the notice first."

The master didn't know what Liu Yu meant, but seeing the Marines standing still, although they spied on the houses of the wealthy merchants next to them from time to time, they did not move at all without orders, he admired them in his heart, and helped post the notice with the remaining like-minded people.

All the samurai fled to Kochi City, but it was impossible for all the people in the town below to escape.

The 40-meter-high hill in Kochi Castle may not be as large as the garden of Liu Yu's home, and it can't accommodate too many people.

The remaining samurai of Tosa Domain were staying in Kochi Castle, and they could only watch Liu Yu making trouble here, and they were helpless.

They couldn't beat him, and they didn't dare to come down.

Fortunately, Liu Yu had been distributing leaflets before, promoting himself as a benevolent and righteous army, and there was indeed no robbery or other things happening, and he didn't use violence or harassment on the families of some samurai.

People in the castle town are not very afraid. After all, they were not Westerners, but people from the Tang Dynasty that these Japanese people had often heard of, so they did not have much fear.

Most of the merchants did not escape, but were still in the city, quietly waiting for their fate.

These people are also the tools Liu Yu plans to use.

Say different things to different people.

Everyone has different concerns. Apart from ethnicity, it may be difficult to find a general purpose that unites people from different classes.

Farmers outside the castle towns longed for land, cared about loan sharking, and were waiting for documents to pledge their land.

The merchants in the castle town longed for fairness, cared about the privileges of the imperial merchants, and waited for the day when they could be on an equal footing with the samurai class.

So this time the contents of the list to reassure the people are all centered around these small businessmen. of small craftsmen.

On the new list, Liu Yu first told a story.

"I heard in the Tang Dynasty that there are warriors and common people in your small country. I heard that a businessman saw a flea on the warrior's body, so he kindly warned him. However, the warrior was furious and killed him with a sword, saying that it was a flea. Fleas are the most common on animals. To say that he has fleas is to insult him as an animal.”

"In the Tang Dynasty, not to mention a mere warrior, he was the prime minister. If he dared to kill people in the street, he would be killed. From this point of view, your country is really a barbarian. Most of you are businessmen, so you must be oppressed by the warriors. …”

Starting with this story and using very popular language, I got closer to these small traders.

The new article points the finger at two groups of people.

Some of these small businessmen are envious and jealous of the privileged businessmen who cannot do anything for them.

And most of the samurai.

Since the ruling class of the shogunate are samurai, if you want the shogunate to be afraid, you have to prove your ability to incite people from the non-ruling class.

Farmers have people, businessmen have money, some rural teachers have culture, and down-and-out samurai have weapons.

No one should be missing.

This is for the shogunate and the daimyo to see, so that the shogunate cannot carry out full mobilization.

There are obviously 400,000 registered warriors, but they dare to use at most 70,000 to 80,000 to form a few mobile regiments. Most of them still have to stay in the cities to maintain their rule.

At the end of the list, there is Liu Yu's decree, saying that everything in the city is business as usual. If any robbers are found, they can report them near Harimaya Bridge.

Then the army was sent to control the rice shop, forcing it to open for business, and went in to search the rice store.

People who buy rice are also told not to buy more, and each person can only buy a certain amount per day.

As the rice shops were forced to open, it took only one day for the entire castle town to start functioning again.

The scene of whipping the "robbery" soldiers was staged again. The Japanese were all called teachers of benevolence and righteousness. More and more people began to walk out of the house and went to an open space east of the castle town to listen to the lectures of Liu Yu and others.

Some people in the castle town have been to Terakoya and know some words.

When Liu Yu distributed the leaflets in the wind a few days ago, the warriors in the city searched everywhere, but there were still some who were more courageous and quietly collected the leaflets, yearning for the "benevolent government" described above.

That was a kind of benevolent government that even Dashun did not have, but it was also a reasonable benevolent government that could be imagined by those who had been exposed to Confucianism since childhood.

The world depicted is like heaven in the eyes of Chechitan believers. Heaven still needs an afterlife, but such benevolent government seems to be just around the corner.

In the open space to the east of the castle town, more and more people came to listen to the speeches of the Renyi Tang people. Liu Yu also repeated over and over again that he was not here for land and wealth, but to help the Japanese build a royal kingdom. Earth, conduct benevolent and righteous government.

Talk about people when you see them, talk about ghosts when you see ghosts.

With these small businessmen in the castle town, Liu Yu focused on the two things of samurai privileges and privileged merchants.

Fortunately, he had read the First Four Histories. A "Biographies of Huo Shi" was enough to quote the classics, saying that merchants are useful to the country and promote the circulation of wealth. One of the four people is not lowly. He has achieved these small things spiritually. Businessman's favor.

And by virtue of fair transactions, he gained the trust of these merchants.

Then he publicly announced that businessmen who operate normally are good, but businessmen who lend money are bad, especially loan sharks who make farmers pledge their land and buy land at low prices due to natural disasters. This is not in line with "benevolent government". It needs to be dealt with.

They also publicly listed the names of businessmen who provided loan sharks and hoarded land provided by the farmers, sent troops to guard their doorsteps, and gave them two days to deliver all the pledge documents, otherwise they would be punished.

Most small traders have neither the capital for loan sharking nor the connections to participate in the land trade. Many of them applauded this announcement either with some conscience or with a gloating mentality.

Before the limited time came, half of the loan sharks obediently delivered the pledge documents to Liu Yu.

But the few really big businessmen hid in Kochi City. No one was left in their homes, and the food, gold and silver were also transferred. This was also expected by Liu Yu.

In front of many onlookers, Liu Yu reprimanded the loan shark businessmen and issued several meaningless orders:

The annual interest rate on all loans shall not exceed twenty percent.

All loans are deemed to have been paid off after they have been repaid to double the principal with interest, regardless of whether the principal has been repaid in full.

As for whether it can be implemented, Liu Yu doesn't care at all. He won't be here for too long and will leave soon. Just like all the promises made by the opposition party when they are in opposition, they always sound so beautiful. These promises naturally attracted the support of many small vendors who are in debt.