New Shun 1730

"Wonderful!"

Zong Yiru praised him greatly in his heart, and his thoughts were as expected. If this person knew that he was going to die, he must first keep his collection of books and thoughts in order to pass them on to future generations.

After Yumori Yoshisu went back to his residence to sort out his collection of books and the "Anthology of Ancient and Modern Japanese Songs", he could find his confidants to discuss with the Dashun Army. As long as he gave a guarantee, he could surrender.

Thinking that they might be the first to surrender, if they betray their faith, will others be willing to surrender? Even in the late Ming Dynasty, when the Donglu were causing trouble, the first few who surrendered were all given titles.

Dashun can't be inferior to barbarians, right?

In this case, I will definitely have no worries.

Dashun's navy is so strong that if he can capture Tosa, his own position in Tsushima will be meaningless.

If you can't trade horses, you will really be poor.

Anyway, I can't hold on, I can't run away, and I don't want to die, so I have only one choice.

I have long heard from North Koreans that the capital of Dashun is luxurious and wealthy, so why not go to the capital and become an idle nobleman and a rich man?

He had already made up his mind and remained calm.

Yumori Fangzhou added: "If my lord sends someone to talk to the Tang people again, I would like to write a letter."

"In the past, my senior fellow apprentice Tao Shan was determined to die, and violated the order of compassion for living beings, and encouraged the people to hunt wild boars. The people were favored by him and asked to erect a monument in his memory, but it has not yet been completed. I think there are people in the Tang Dynasty who are benevolent and righteous. Please ask them not to disturb this monument.”

"As an old man, when I see the majesty of China's heavenly troops, I know that they are invincible. China will definitely not tolerate the theory of Eastern and Western China."

"The only way to find a way out is to follow the example of the Sanlu official."

At the end of the sigh, Dashun was called Tangshan, Cathay, and Tang Dynasty at the beginning, and finally it was called China again.

This was not because of the exchange he saw with Zhao Baiquan, but in an instant, he figured out something.

Whether it’s Yamaga Sokyo of the ancient school or Arai Shiraishi of Zhu Xi’s school, the theory of “each claiming to be beautiful” constructed by these people is completely over.

Once everyone has finished talking about China, the concept of China can only be thrown to China. Japan can no longer take it, and may even want to separate it.

Otherwise, Japanese Confucian scholars will have to experience an ideological confusion: since they are no longer associated with their own country being called "Donghua" and calling themselves "Chinese North Korea", will they be the emperor of North Korea in the future? Or loyal to the king?

Japan can only have a future if it remains Japan.

Thinking about his final thoughts, he knelt down to say goodbye. Yoshisu Amemori slowly left Tsukihara Castle and walked towards his residence in the castle town.

There, he would sort out his lifelong collection of books, write out his final insights, and send them back to Japan.

As soon as Yusen Fangzhou left, Zong Yiru breathed a sigh of relief.

Yusen Fangzhou was by his side, and he felt a bit like "Zhongni was in charge of the Spring and Autumn Period, but the rebellious ministers and traitors were afraid."

The dark thoughts in my heart always feel like ice cubes illuminated by the sun in front of such Confucian scholars.

Now that this feeling has dissipated, it's really like being chilled. He breaks out in hot sweat and the pores all over his body become clear.

The 80,000 taels of silver that Dashun asked for was not a problem, it was not much at all.

Before Arai Shiraishi's reform and tightening of precious metals export policies, Tsushima's average annual trade volume of silver coins with North Korea was measured in tons.

At its peak before Arai Shiraishi's reform, 11 tons of silver coins were exported a year. Of course, during the coinage reform at that time, silver coins were not pure silver and contained about 65% silver, which amounted to seven or eight tons.

Among them, ginseng only accounts for one-fifth, and the rest is raw silk obtained by North Korean merchants from the capital trade tax-free.

This is why the Dashun maritime merchants are so keen on starting a war and getting rid of the trade between Japan and North Korea - nearly ten tons of silver coins every year, and that's only the official statement.

Because of the Japan-Korea Jiyou Treaty, only twenty ships from Japan can go to the Korean Japanese Pavilion for trade every year.

However, the maritime merchants of Dashun are very good at this: if you officially specify twenty ships, I can build five times that number.

Can I send a boat to the Japanese mansion to deliver a message? If someone's family member is sick, can I send a boat to pick him up? If you have something urgent for Ma Shou or the general, can you go to the Japanese mansion to do it?

It's normal to accidentally take some cargo with you when you go on a ship, right?

Maritime merchants all over the world are all the same. If they can smuggle, they will never file taxes. As long as they dare to open a hole, I can carve out a door.

More than 20 years ago, the reason why Dashun merchants did not dig out the gate was not because they did not want to dig it out, but because they did not have diamond drills and were blown away by Japanese forts.

Officially, there are ten tons of silver a year, but how much is there privately?

The merchants didn't know the exact number, but they knew in their hearts that it must be quite a lot. To put it bluntly, they were jumping on high ground to support the war because of these idiots.

Besides, if it weren’t for Arai Shiraishi’s tightening policy on precious metal exports, the size of North Korea’s tribute mission and land transportation restrictions, it wouldn’t be a problem to increase the transaction volume by three to five times.

Dashun Maritime Merchant only knew that the trade volume would be large, but of course did not know the specific amount.

But Zong Yiru was very clear about his own family background, and he also knew very well what kind of family background the businessmen on the island had.

Eighty thousand taels of silver would be difficult to come up with in other feudal lords, or they would only be able to come up with a pile of rice, but in Tsushima, 80,000 taels of silver is still very easy to come by.

Moreover, at this time point, Tsushima is the time when silver is piling up.

Zong Yiru was very suspicious that Dashun took advantage of this time to start the war because they had used all the intelligence to the extreme to completely understand Tsushima's Japan-North Korea trade timeline.

In fact, 70% to 80% of the Korean goods that Ma Fan bought were from Dashun Jiangnan.

Korea had to go to Dashun at least four times a year. This was not a normal tribute, but a manifestation of "filial piety" - but in fact, it was trade under the name of obedience.

In addition to the three must-go days, the emperor's birthday, the winter solstice festival, and New Year's Day, there was another must-go day.

Every September, the so-called "imperial calendar" was sent to consult and ask for approval.

Because starting from the second year of Chongzhen, Xu Guangqi, Li Zhizao and others used the astronomical knowledge of Western missionaries to compile a new calendar.

After the founding of Dashun, astronomy and geometry made great progress, and the calendar also used the new Copernicus and Tycho system brought by Western missionaries, which was more accurate than the old method.

First, Korea did not have this level of astronomy. Second, as a tributary state, in order to show obedience, third, the vassal must use the same calendar as the Celestial Empire to prove that it was within the world.

Therefore, it had to ask the Celestial Empire to grant the calendar for the next year.

It can be roughly understood as "Dashun has a technical monopoly on the calendar, and Korea has to send envoys to Dashun every year to request the grant of a calendar."

Of course, if there is such an opportunity to go to the capital, you will definitely not forget to bring a caravan.

The Kingdom of Korea was worried that the Celestial Empire would "demand silver as tribute", so it closed the silver mines in Korea and had to get silver from the Japanese in Busan every year, and then go to the capital to buy goods.

And now, according to the trade timeline of previous years, Tsushima Domain has accumulated a lot of silver to facilitate Korea to buy goods in Beijing.

The trade of Tsushima Domain is actually divided into two parts.

Tsushima Domain's own trade.

The trade of the shogunate.

So in April every year, the shogunate will transport the silver of the shogunate trade to Tsushima, and it will arrive in Tsushima in June and July, just in time for the Korean delegation to come to the capital to ask for calendars in September.

Liu Yu harassed Tosa in May and June, but at that time the silver had been shipped out from Kyoto, Osaka and other places.

When the news of Tosa spread to Tsushima and the trade was suspended, the money had already arrived and was in Tsushima.

This is a large sum of money, a total of more than seven tons of specially minted silver coins, with a silver content of more than 80%.

Part of it was used for the shogunate's own trade, and part of it was used for exchange by the Tsushima Domain.

The reason why so much silver could be accumulated in Tsushima under the tightening policy of precious metals after the death of Arai Shiraishi, but the government was still in power, was closely related to the coinage reform under the influence of Arai Shiraishi and Liu Yu.

The silver coins of Japan were of course not pure silver.

If they were pure silver, the coinage tax could not be collected, and something must have been mixed in.

North Korea... did not have the technical level to purify the silver mixed with impurities.

Therefore, every time Japan reformed its coinage, North Korea and Tsushima would quarrel for a long time because of the "exchange rate" issue.

For this reason, North Korea also won a "trade war" against Japan.

Twenty years ago, the silver content of Japan's Genroku silver coin was 65%, and North Korea insisted that it was 63%.

Either accept it or stop selling the goods.

The merchants of Tsushima Domain could not hold on, and Tsushima Domain itself could not hold on either, and finally it was calculated according to the 63% stated by North Korea.

After that, Japan carried out several coinage reforms in the next two or three decades.

The new coin with a silver content of 30% led to inflation; after Arai Shiraishi came to power, it was changed back to the Kyoho silver with a silver content of 80%, which led to deflation; Liu Yu went to Edo to suggest recasting new coins to ease deflation, resulting in the silver content of the new coin being around 50%.

After all this trouble, the Tsushima clan had experienced the fact that North Korea cut the silver content exchange rate by 2% by word of mouth, and saw that the shogunate had recast new coins, so it requested the shogunate to "specially authorize the casting of some silver coins with a silver content of 80% specifically for trade with North Korea."

The purpose of recasting new coins was to ease deflation, so the Kyoho silver during the reign of Arai Shiraishi could no longer be circulated, and had to be exchanged for the latest Yuanwen silver. Otherwise, there would still be not enough silver coins on the market, and deflation would still occur.

However, North Korea preferred the 80% Kyoho silver.

Korea cannot purify silver, so it prefers silver with a higher silver content. Otherwise, if it takes silver with a low silver content to Dashun, Dashun merchants will also try to block them.

In order to avoid the exchange rate, the Tsushima Domain and the shogunate do not want to mess with the exchange rate, so they specially cast several tons of silver with a high silver content every year for trade with Korea, eliminating the exchange rate nonsense - it is much more convenient to trade with Dashun sea merchants. You can use whatever silver content you want, even if it is your copper material, I have the ability to refine the silver in it and make another profit by reselling it.

The shogunate must use this special money to trade with Korea.

Tsushima also has to exchange the Yuanwen silver in its hands into special silver before it can trade with Korea. The shogunate will collect another wave of seigniorage and rigidly stipulate the exchange rate between the Yuanwen silver and special silver in the hands of Tsushima Domain.

So we should thank the missionaries like Matteo Ricci. If it weren't for them, Korea would not have been able to go to the capital every September to ask for the new technology to calculate the calendar. By this month, Tsushima had accumulated a lot of silver. We should also thank Korea for its backward technology and lack of silver refining technology, which led to the shogunate sending the "specially cast ginseng to replace ancient silver" with high silver content every year to Tsushima in advance.

The beneficiary of this gratitude was undoubtedly Zong Yiru at this time.

He thought, if he let the merchants and retainers collect the 80,000 taels of silver, and he took these tons of "specially cast ginseng to replace ancient silver" for himself, wouldn't it be wonderful?

As long as Dashun accepted his surrender, as long as Dashun needed to set a model of surrender, then he would not touch his property too recklessly.

Ask the merchants to collect 100,000 taels, and give the remaining 10,000 to 20,000 taels to the officers of Dashun, so that they can share the profits.

He kept the hundreds of thousands of kilograms of special silver. Whether he continued to be enfeoffed in Tsushima in the future or went to Dashun to "visit the capital" all year round, it was all his family wealth.

Anyway, he thought that if he couldn't win, if the Dashun army really attacked, he couldn't keep the silver.

Besides, the silver was not all his. Some of it was traded by the shogunate. If he could keep it, he would be happy; if he couldn't keep it, he wouldn't be sad.

He had already made a plan in his mind. He first called the people involved in the trade from the shogunate and put forward a suggestion that sounded very reasonable.

"The Tang army may attack at any time. They can capture Tosa, so how can Tsushima be defended? What we have to worry about now is the batch of 'specially cast ginseng to replace ancient silver' shipped from Kyoto. Why not ask someone to transport them to a suitable place and hide them."

"If the Tang people attack and find this batch of silver, then it can help boost their military power."

"I will choose my confidants to escort and hide them. Those who participated in transporting and hiding the silver..."

Stretching out his hand and making a gesture of wiping his neck, he really has a sincere heart of loyalty and love, and is also a person who thinks long-term.

When the people on the shogunate thought about it, they also felt that Zong Yiru's idea made sense. Hiding should be a good thing.

Zong Yiru thought to himself, I will hide it first. If Dashun still lets me guard Tsushima in the future, then I will be the name of Dashun. If the shogunate comes to ask for silver, Dashun will take care of me.

If Dashun does not allow me to guard Tsushima, I will not make it public yet. When I go to the capital in the future, I will voluntarily offer some to the emperor of Tang and say that it is my private property. He will allow me to keep the rest.