I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 596 Hit it off

Zhu Yijiong was not polite and directly issued an order to the Edo shogunate in Japan, asking them to open the port.

The envoys sent by the Ming Dynasty set off with the naval fleet to the port of Nagasaki in Japan.

Be polite first and then fight!

Today's Ming Dynasty already has an established navy, and they are all newly built Ming-style warships.

The Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau has begun to manufacture second-generation warships with newer models, faster speeds, and more gun positions.

When we arrived at Nagasaki Port, Zheng Rui, the shogunate's general officer, was stationed here. He had been appointed by the shogunate to be responsible for trade with Chinese merchants and to mediate commercial relations with the Ming court.

The Ming Dynasty's naval fleet entered the port of Nagasaki. The merchant ships and Japanese here were shocked at first, but then they quickly calmed down when they saw that the Chinese fleet made no further moves, and hurriedly went to Zheng Rui, the shogunate's commercial office, to come and have a look.

Li Hong stood on the deck of the flagship and looked at the entire port. The last time he passed by Nagasaki on a mission was because of the Satsuma Domain and Ryukyu Prefecture.

After many years, this place has become very different.

Many Dutch merchant ships could still be seen in the former Nagasaki Port, and it was also the first foreign commercial center established by the Dutch.

But now, the number of Dutch merchant ships in the port is very small, and the docks in the entire sea area are all Chinese merchant ships flying bright flags.

Backed by the coastal areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian, Chinese maritime merchants have cheap supply and cost advantages, and the shipping prices are also lower. Coupled with the huge base of Chinese maritime merchants, they are frantically trying to seize the Dutch market share.

Even if they engage in smuggling, the Dutch cannot smuggle the Chinese.

The reason why these Dutch people are still struggling to survive is entirely due to the closed-door policy of the Japanese shogunate. At least so far, the Edo shogunate still insists on the apparent trade quota.

Many Chinese maritime merchants could not bear the trade quotas, so they joined forces with Japan's local daimyo lords for smuggling, and now even the shogunate is secretly joining in.

Those Chinese maritime merchants who could not win over their own people and were unwilling to give up the Japanese market focused on the trade share in the hands of the Dutch and entered into joint ventures with them.

Of the few Dutch merchant ships that Li Hong saw, almost none of them were purely operated by the Dutch themselves. They were all in cooperation with Chinese maritime merchants.

"Zheng Rui pays homage to Lord Angel!"

"Your Excellency, please arise. When Your Majesty sent me here, he specifically told me that the descendants of the Yanping County Prince are exempt from saluting!" Li Hong said with a smile.

Zheng Rui quickly knelt on the ground again and shouted towards the south in the Chinese he had learned in the past few years: "Zheng Rui thanks His Majesty the Ming Emperor of China!"

After waiting for the salute to end, Zheng Ruicai led Li Hong to the shogunate merchant house at the port to receive him.

Without much chit-chat, Li Hong directly explained his intention.

Zheng Rui nodded: "Since His Majesty the Ming Emperor has issued an edict, the Japanese vassal country dare not disobey it. Moreover, even if there is no imperial edict, I believe that the general will not refuse this matter."

Li Hong asked: "Why is this?"

Zheng Rui explained: "The finances of the shogunate have always been problematic. It can be said that the entire Edo shogunate, and even the entire Japan, owe money to those businessmen. Our shogun is someone who wants to do something. , in order to solve these financial problems, he has been trying to reform Japan since he took office."

"But whether it is the abolition of the old-to-medium rotation or the increase in annual tribute, all it brings is a sigh of relief from the common people! Moreover, those local daimyo simply ignored the general's reforms. The smuggling trade throughout Japan has become a problem today. It’s so rampant that countless daimyo lords are jointly smuggling with foreign businessmen overtly or covertly, and even the general can’t do anything about it.”

Li Hong said: "Because smuggling is too rampant, the shogunate now feels that blocking is worse than spreading, so he doesn't plan to seclude the country anymore?"

Zheng Rui nodded: "Angel is indeed smart. In fact, the shogunate has been intending to lift the isolation from the country a few years ago. The general hated daimyo smuggling and felt that the business must be in the official hands of the shogunate, but those local daimyo and lords , but for the sake of smuggling, they tried their best to prevent the shogunate from opening coastal ports."

"That's true!" Li Hong understood now.

I originally thought that I would at least have to use force and cooperate with His Majesty's decree to force Japan to open its ports, but I didn't expect that the Japanese shogunate had already had this intention.

But now, these big names in Japan, in order to make huge profits from smuggling, have suppressed the shogunate and prohibited the shogunate from opening the port.

Tokugawa Yoshimune was not an incompetent general. Although most of his reforms failed, many of them were actually problems at the implementation level. Even if they failed, they still increased the fiscal revenue of the shogunate, allowing the shogunate to continue to survive for more than a hundred years. Year.

The Japanese shogunate closed the country in order to maintain governance, and now it is opening up its ports to maintain governance.

Otherwise, the shogunate will only suffer more losses, and Japanese merchants will gradually be squeezed out by Chinese merchants and Chinese goods. Tokugawa Yoshimune clearly knows what this means.

After Li Hong got the news he wanted, he took the fleet north to Edo and directly visited Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune as a Chinese envoy. The fleet was discovered by the Japanese before it approached the port of Edo. The Japanese warships quickly came out and confronted the warships of the Ming Dynasty Navy.

It wasn't until Li Hong came forward and showed his identity as a Chinese envoy that he was allowed to leave.

The warships sent by the Ming Dynasty are all big ships. Compared with the few pitiful Japanese ships, they are completely a father-son game. Take the lead and stop them!

"Edo Castle, I haven't seen it before when I came here, but now I finally have a chance." Li Hong landed at the Edo Pier and took a look at the de facto capital of Japan - Edo (nominally) or Kyoto).

As the capital of Japan, this city has a large enough population and shops can be seen everywhere.

Since the Edo Fire that year, almost the entire Edo City was burned down. After it was rebuilt, it officially became the commercial capital of Japan. Even the Emperor completely settled in the Edo Palace after several moves, and no longer Return to the palace in Kyoto.

However, the business is prosperous, but there are too many beggars on the roadside. Not to mention everywhere, it can be seen everywhere.

This is not surprising, after all, the people were just crying, and the Japanese shogunate and daimyo did not provide disaster relief at all. They also had no money or food to provide disaster relief, and the people were just reduced to beggars, but they did not starve to death.

Tadayuki Mizuno, the appointing official of the shogunate (the minister of household affairs, but with greater power) heard that the Chinese envoys had arrived and hurriedly brought officials to greet them.

Tadayuki Mizuno was originally just a senior lieutenant in the shogunate, but with the emergence of Tokugawa Yoshimune, a power-hungry shogun, he directly abolished the rotation system of the old lieutenant and instead established an approving party to take charge of the national finance and acting officials.

In this way, he became the subordinate of one person. His power was smaller than that of the Chinese Prime Minister, but it was far greater than that of the ordinary Minister of Household Affairs.

"Mizuno Tadayuki, a subordinate of Japan, pays homage to the Angel of Ming Dynasty in China!"

"Please get up."

Li Hong looked at Mizuno Tadayuki who was saluting and tried hard to hold back his laughter.

As the appointer of the shogunate, this guy was the only one riding in a sedan chair. It was in the style of a sedan chair. In Li Hong's eyes, he found it funny.

Not only is it small, but it is also short. The lifting rod is even located on the top of the car, just like a cage containing animals and livestock.

It was such a small and short sedan, but Mizuno Tadayuki could still fit in it without feeling crowded.

When we met on the boat a few years ago, Li Hong didn't pay attention, but now he secretly thought to himself, this old guy is really short!

At a rough glance, it may not even reach 1.5 meters, which is just about the average height of Japanese men in the Edo period.

Mizuno Tadayuki also recognized the Chinese envoy who had intimidated and humiliated the Japanese shogunate a few years ago outside Edo.

However, to this day, he no longer dares to hold resentment against China, and he does not even have the slightest disrespect.

In fact, the news brought by those Dutch and Chinese businessmen, as well as the world map they bought, shocked the Japanese shogunate.

In a few years, the Manchus, whom they despised as Tatars, became a thing of the past, and the current Ming Dynasty was even more powerful than the previous Tatars. The surrounding vassal states were either destroyed or annexed and their territories were ceded. Recently I heard that Korea had suffered another disaster. Those who were ceded could hardly take care of themselves.

Mizuno Tadayuki respectfully led Li Hong and his party into the city. Instead of arranging sedan chairs for the Chinese envoys, he directly transferred several luxury carriages.

Enter the city to have a rest, enjoy a fine wine and banquet, and receive the highest standards of hospitality.

Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune also burned incense and bathed in advance, and then led his subordinates to kneel down and receive the order. The grandness was directly comparable to the succession ceremony of the great general who conquered the barbarians.

Li Hong read out the imperial edict: "The emperor is entrusted by heaven, and the edict says: Japan belongs to the country, and it is good to be respectful... The shogunate's general, Tokugawa Yoshimune, assisted the government on behalf of the Japanese emperor, and made outstanding contributions... I am deeply comforted, and I will give you a special reward to show my kindness. … Today, I, the Ming Dynasty, want to open the Yinzhou-Japan Northern Sea Route, and order Japan’s dependent countries to open their eastern ports. I hereby express my gratitude!”

"The shogunate of Japan's subordinate country, on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor, receives the imperial edict from His Majesty the Emperor of China!"

There is no trace of sloppiness, time has changed.

Tokugawa Yoshimune originally planned to open the ports and lift the lockdown, but he has been hampered.

Nowadays, with the Chinese emperor's decree, it can be said that they hit it off and everything becomes natural.

　From the Edo period to before World War II, the average height of men in Japan was only 153 meters, and that of women was only 140 meters. Even Tokugawa Ieyasu, the ancestor of Tokugawa Yoshimune, was later confirmed to be only cm tall, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi was only cm.

　　

　　

　

(End of this chapter)