Rule the Ming Dynasty Alone

High in the sky, a few white clouds float leisurely. They are either round like sheep or as long as ribbons, which stand out against the blue background.

"If the envoy of the Ming Dynasty is not crazy, then the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is crazy!"

"One hundred taels buys one stone of grain. I don't know how much grain I could buy with this money in the Ming Dynasty!"

"Nothing has happened since our feud with the Ming Dynasty. We don't need to pay attention to this paper tiger at all!"

…

After seeing Xie Qian leave, the faces of the retainers present showed disdain, and they started talking.

If conditions hadn't prevented them, they wouldn't have been able to help but follow him to the gate of the Forbidden City and directly ridicule the whimsical Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

One million taels is only exchanged for ten thousand stones of fine grain, not to mention that there is no such outrageous deal in the world, and their investment in mining silver mines alone far exceeds this amount.

Although one million taels of silver were mined in less than half a year, only they knew in their hearts that they had paid a lot for this batch of silver.

In order to cooperate with Jiangnan Company's mining progress, they even sent some prisoners of war to the silver mines and handed them over to the gang to torture them to death.

Japan is a very well-behaved country. Although these retainers were noisy, they sat around Ouchi Yoshiki in a polite manner and observed Ouchi Yoshiki's reaction.

"This Ming envoy reminded me, how much grain does our Ouchi granary still have?" Ouchi Yixing thought about his own grain and asked seriously.

There are not many places suitable for planting in the Western Kingdom. Since they often face wars in the east, their food relies heavily on northern Kyushu Island.

At the beginning of the year, the head of the Ouchi family, Ouchi Masahiro, led his army to go on an expedition, which not only affected the agricultural production of the Western Kingdom, but also made it impossible to transport food from Kyushu smoothly.

Fortunately, they received grain input from Jiangnan merchants, which solved the Ouchi family's food dilemma. They even had food to support Ouchi Masahiro's conquests and silver mining.

this……

Tao Qiandao and other retainers were all warriors and had always been indifferent to their own food reserves, so they couldn't help but look at each other in confusion.

"Notify Jiangnan Company immediately that we want to purchase 10,000 shi of refined grain and ask them to deliver it as soon as possible!" Ouchi Yoshihiro had some leadership talent, so he gave the order directly.

Tao Qiandao was responsible for dealing with Jiangnan companies, and he said politely: "Follow your orders!"

Their Ouchi family and Jiangnan Company had a hidden route, and Jiangnan Company transported grain from the southern sea to the southwest of Honshu Island without passing through the Kanzan Strait.

Just in order not to expose this route, they have always tried to reduce the amount of food transported.

Ordinarily, the Japanese island is surrounded by the vast sea, and human eyesight is limited.

Even if the Ming Dynasty court knew about the existence of grain transport ships, it would be impossible to find traces of the grain transport ships. Therefore, the grain of Jiangnan merchants was their biggest reliance.

The retainers present saw that the food issue had been properly resolved through Jiangnan Trading Company, and they were not too worried about their own food reserves, so they dispersed one after another.

"Ouch...it hurts! Sister, it hurts!"

Ouchi Yoshihiro has a playful temperament. He was about to sneak out through the back door to play as usual, but his ear was twisted again by a hand.

The perpetrator was none other than the most beautiful woman in Japan, Saeko Ouchi, who was tall and taller than the underage Yoshihiro Ouchi, with a pretty face with a hint of frost.

The most rare thing is a pair of long, strong and straight legs, with proud peaks, but those eyes are as tender as water.

Because their mother passed away early, the eldest sister of the Ouchi family was the mother. Ouchi Saeiko hated Ouchi Yoshiaki and said: "Ryuudomaru, you are going to sneak out to play again, right?"

"Sister, no... no, I... I'm going to inspect our family's granary!" Ouchi Yoshihiro saw that he was caught, and quickly made up a lie for himself.

Ouchi Saeiko knew that inspecting the granary was a serious matter, so she let go of her hand and said doubtfully: "You only know how to play all day long, why do you suddenly want to inspect the granary today?"

Ouchi Yoshihiro rubbed his sore ears, but suddenly his eyes lit up and he said with a smile: "Today the Ming envoy came again, this time it's so funny!"

With that said, he put on his shoes and got on the tatami, and then told the story of the incident. The key point was of course that the Ming envoy actually made a ridiculous request to exchange one million taels of silver for ten thousand shi of fine grain.

Ouchi Yoshihiro looked happy, and took the opportunity to ridicule: "The Ming Emperor is simply crazy. He sent an envoy to make a request for such a ridiculous thing. I'm afraid he wants to become the biggest joke in Japan, right? "

"This thing is not funny at all!" Ouchi Saeiko crossed her arms and shook her head gently.

Ouchi Yoshihiro was immediately stunned and looked very confused: "Sister, why isn't this request funny?"

"I heard that the Ming Emperor was not the emperor who doted on old women. The current emperor is still very young. After he succeeded to the throne, he did not favor the civil servants. Instead, he strengthened the Ming army. Not only did he repel the Mongols, but he also regained Jianzhou. Now the The king of North Korea was held hostage in Beijing back then, and he was a very powerful emperor!" Ouchi Saeiko's martial arts training uniform revealed her proud career line, but she said very seriously.

Ouchi Yoshihiro's brows furrowed, and he still said in confusion: "Sister, whether the Ming Emperor is doing well or not has anything to do with us. His suggestion that we buy a million taels of grain this time is a big joke!"

"Since Emperor Ming is not a fool, then he dares to make this request, and you are eager to check the granary, which proves that our Ouchi family may really be short of food!" Although Ouchi Saeiko is also good at martial arts, she is A smart woman.

Ouchi Yoshihiro suddenly realized that this seemed to be the truth, and immediately shook his head seriously and said: "No, how can we have no food! Even if there is really no food in the granary now, I have ordered Jiangnan Company to send food over, our food It’s impossible to choke him!”

"You can't put too much trust in those Ming merchants! Not to mention the profit-seeking businessmen, can they really fight against the Ming Emperor? I heard that the Ming Emperor killed many people who opposed him after he came to the throne, so everyone Call him a tyrant!" Saeiko Ouchi shook her head gently, straightened her back and analyzed her brother seriously.

Because she had practiced martial arts since she was a child, she had always disliked weak scholars, so her condition for choosing a mate was that her future husband should not be a weak scholar.

Because there is a relatively stereotyped impression of the men of the Ming Dynasty, when I learned that the Ming Emperor wanted to force her to be his concubine, I felt very disgusted with the emperor whom I had never met.

After some understanding, the Emperor of Ming Dynasty may have been a weak scholar, but his various deeds were no worse than those of famous names in Japan.

Especially this year at the imperial meeting, because Tao Qiandao instigated the fool of the Ouchi family to provoke the Ming Dynasty, he directly asked Tao Qiandao, the daughter of the Ouchi family, to marry him and accept the punishment. This also proved that he was an extremely domineering man.

As I got to know the Ming Emperor better and better, I became even more confused about my future. I once dreamed that the Ming Emperor was crawling on me.

Ouchi Yoshihiro also realized that things were different from what he thought. He left in a hurry and said: "Sister, how can you help the Emperor of Ming Dynasty? He will never bully our Ouchi family! I won't tell you anymore. I will come immediately." Go inspect the granary!”

Ouchi Saeiko looked at her brother's figure leaving in a hurry, but she shook her head gently.

Although his younger brother is now in charge of the family, many things cannot be considered as carefully as his father's. For something as important as food, he still doesn't know how many grains of food he has.

Now she just hoped that she was overly worried, that their granaries were still full, that Jiangnan merchants could easily transport food, and that the Ming emperor who wanted to make her his concubine and buy millions of dollars in silver was just an arrogant maniac.

Late at night, the entire Kyushu Island seemed dead silent.

Suddenly, a ray of fire from the north cut through the night sky and illuminated the entire military camp.

That was the direction of the Ouchi family's granary stationed in Kyushu. The raging fire was like the karma fire of hell, mercilessly devouring everything.

The samurai of the Ouchi family woke up from their dreams, their faces full of horror and despair. They rushed to the fire, trying to save the food that was about to turn to ashes, but the fire was too fierce and all efforts seemed so futile.

They got water from the tank, but pouring the water in the cup had no effect at all. In the firelight, their heads and the sea of ​​fire reflected each other, making their figures look so lonely and helpless.

They looked at the burning granary, and their hearts were filled with endless sorrow and despair.

Since Jiangnan Company's grain transport ship has not arrived, this batch of military grain is the lifeline of their Ouchi garrison and their hope to continue fighting, but now it has been ruthlessly taken away by the fire.

The air was filled with a burnt smell. It was the smell of burned food, and it was also the smell that God seemed to be trying to drive them out of Kyushu Island.

On a new day, the golden sunshine shines on Yamaguchi Castle.

"News just came from Kyushu, asking us to transport food there soon!"

Because the military rations on Kyushu Island were burned and the Jiangnan Company's grain transport ship did not arrive as scheduled, the Ouchi retainers there had no choice but to send a letter of request for help to the family.

"Are you kidding? If we don't ask for food from him, then why are they asking for food from us?" The person who had the biggest reaction was Ouchi Yoshihiro, who shouted in disbelief.

"Even if there is a fire, there shouldn't be no food, right?"

"That's right! Kyushu is the granary of our Ouchi family!"

"Isn't that powerful Jiangnan business company transporting grain to them?"

…

When they learned that Jiuzhou was asking them for food, the retainers couldn't wrap their heads around it for a while, but they all asked doubtfully.

When Tao Qiandao realized that their large granary was almost bottomed out, he didn't sleep all night last night. At this time, he seemed to have figured it out and said: "The reason why Jiuzhou can hold its territory is Chengyi Jiangnan. Jiangnan is also defeated now! Jiangnan merchants cannot deliver their food, and their food is exhausted. If not us, who can they turn to?"

The reason why the Ouchi family was able to mediate with the Ming Dynasty for so long was not because of their deep background, but because Jiangnan Company continued to send food to the Ouchi family who was trapped in half of Kyushu Island.

Although the food problem was solved, the Ouchi army on Kyushu Island lost the military support of the Ouchi family on Honshu Island and faced attacks from various forces of Kyushu.

After they accepted the food from Jiangnan Company, they quickly made another wrong decision.

War and production are actually contradictory, but it is impossible to grow crops and go to the battlefield with a knife at the same time. Since they had sufficient food, they took the initiative to liberate a large number of people from the fields in order to suppress the resistance forces.

Now Ming Dynasty's food is not allowed to be transported to Kyushu Island, and North Korea's food cannot go south. As for other forces in Kyushu Island, it is impossible to sell food to them, and they are already short of food.

As the Ouchi family liberated farmers from the land and pushed them onto the battlefield, other daimyo had to follow suit, and eventually the number of people engaged in agriculture on Kyushu Island became smaller and smaller.

Originally, they had been relying on Jiangnan Company's grain transport ship. When Jiangnan Company's grain transport ship really failed to arrive, they realized that they had made a fatal mistake.

Just like this, the Ouchi army in Kyushu is now facing a food dilemma, and can only place its hope on the Ouchi family.

Ouchi Yoshihiro thought about seeing the empty granary that day, but he said bitterly: "They came to me when they had no food, but where can I get food for them?"

"Those guys are just idiots. Why are they running out of food? Let them all starve to death!" Kuro Ishibashi, an older retainer, said, hating the fact that iron cannot become steel.

Tao Qiandao had calmed down, but faced the problem and said honestly: "Stop saying such angry words. Now we have to raise food as soon as possible. We must help Jiuzhou solve the food problem, otherwise the consequences will be disastrous!"

"How can we solve it now? If we really buy grain from the Ming Dynasty, I will be the first to disagree. Our Ouchi family will never surrender to the Ming Dynasty?" Kuro Ishibashi immediately stated his position.

Tao Qiandao glanced at Ishibashi Jiulang, but said bitterly: "I'm afraid it won't help if we surrender now! The Ming Dynasty has already changed. People ignore our words, so what can we do to them?"

At this moment, he had also realized why the Ming army had not attacked, and even allowed Jiangnan merchants to continue to send them food and iron.

The dare lovers have already arranged everything. Just as they are becoming more and more dependent on Chinese food and Korean food, they only need to cut off their food line, but they can only beg for mercy from the Ming Dynasty.

"Which one of you did this? Even if there is no Ming army at the Iwami Silver Mine, you shouldn't cut off our military rations, right?" Kuroda Masayori strode in and asked angrily.

Originally, he did not believe that the Ming Emperor could give up mining the Ishimi Silver Mine, but he led the army there, not to mention the Ming mining workers, not even a dog.

But they never expected that their army's food supply would be cut off, and they simply wanted two thousand of them to starve to death in Ishijian Country.

The retainers present couldn't help but smile bitterly when they saw Kuroda Masayori returning and begging for food from them again.

At this moment, they suddenly realized that the most precious resource was not the Jinshan Silver Mine, but the food that could allow human beings to continue their lives.

A few days ago, it was ridiculous that the Ming Emperor asked them to earn 10,000 shi of food from one million taels of silver. But now that I heard this joke, I realized that this huge joke was really not funny at all.

It's just that they don't intend to do such a humiliating thing. They would rather starve to death with the silver that fills the warehouse than use it to buy food. Moreover, the powerful Jiangnan merchants may be able to send them food soon.

Just like this, Jiangnan Company has become the last life-saving straw for the Ouchi family. They only hope that Jiangnan Company can keep its promise and provide them with a steady stream of food. (End of chapter)