Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2376 Han Fake Spring

On June 1699, 6, at the Hashiguchi House in Ishinomaki Port, Han Feichun had just sent away a group of samurai from the Sendai Domain.

Because of his excellent work, Han Feichun was appointed as the deputy general manager of the East Coast Japan Company at the end of last year. He is in charge of various affairs in Northeast Japan, which can be described as a high position.At present, Han Feichun's office is still located in Qiaokou House, but it is not the original place, but a newly built building after buying the neighbors' houses with a lot of money - a four-story building made of reinforced concrete. Japan is really rare and very eye-catching.

The business volume of East Coast Japan Co., Ltd. has grown rapidly in the past two years. In addition to the hard work of the employees, many new agents have been developed, and more and more East Coast products have been introduced to the upper-middle-class Japanese society. The bigger reason is that situation.To put it bluntly, it lies in the situation between Japan and North Korea.

It is said that since North Korea brazenly sent troops to occupy Tsushima Island under the pretext of the killing of businessmen, Japan and North Korea have fought several battles. As a result, Japan suffered heavy losses. Not only dozens of ships were sunk, but also nearly 2 soldiers were killed and injured. And Tsushima Island is still firmly controlled by the North Koreans.

This result is unacceptable to the Japanese.From a historical point of view, although Japan's original culture was introduced from North Korea, so that later generations were dubbed North Korea and East Korea other than South Korea, but in terms of military affairs, North Korea has always been beaten.The Imjin Japanese Invasion, which has only passed a hundred years, is an obvious example. The weakness and incompetence of the Korean army can be seen by the world at a glance.Although people on the east bank have been promoting North Korea’s reforms, they know that North Korea’s national strength has increased greatly in the past few decades, not only in terms of economic strength, but also in military strength, but people always have inherent impressions. The North Koreans were so incompetent in the past that even the East Coast instructors who trained the North Korean army did not dare to say who would win or lose before the Japanese and Korean armies officially fought.

However, the result of the battle was beyond most people's expectations.Although the Koreans have failed several times in many wars that lasted for several years, and sometimes suffered heavy losses, the new army they trained eventually gained the upper hand.They used modern muskets and cannons to defeat the charge of the Japanese samurai sword-drawing team and firmly occupied Tsushima Island.

Japan was so shamed and humiliated that the whole country was naturally shocked.The shogunate urgently convened a meeting, and after some discussion, they decided to order a large number of new warships from the east coast, as well as enough equipment to arm [-] army soldiers.Of course, the Japanese have not forgotten to buy a lot of services, such as how to operate new weapons, how to maintain equipment, how to build a military system, how to train troops, etc. The expenditure here is not even less than buying equipment. Many customers often choose to save money. It would be absurd not to purchase such services.Fortunately, the Japanese are more sober-headed and have a very humble attitude. They will accept whatever goods or services the people on the east coast offer.

Two months ago, as the general agent of this trade, East Coast Japan Company had just delivered the first batch of 5000 muskets and 1500 black water horses to the Edo shogunate. The training group has also arrived in Edo, intending to help Japan create the first modern army-a modern army that is different from traditional samurai.

Until the modern army is formed, Japan still has to rely on traditional samurai.For example, the Edo Shogunate, known as the "Eighty Thousand Riders of the Banner", is afraid that this force will still be the main force for a long time to come, and it is impossible to completely abolish it, even if it does seem to be a little bit old now.

When the North Koreans saw that Japan was determined to buy so many modern weapons and hired so many instructors, they were a little confused.They sent emissaries to Busan to protest and were told they didn't care.So, the North Koreans went to Yantai again, and the newly appointed captain Lu Xiaofeng said that this was a commercial activity of a Japanese company on the east coast, and that this company was not under the jurisdiction of the Denglai pioneer team.The Koreans woke up like a dream, and ran to Heishui Port again, begging to see Bai Yutang.Director Bai was secretly saddened by the fact that he had no chance to join the Executive Committee. Hearing the North Koreans' protests were very angry, he chose not to meet directly, and went to the Thousand Islands to inspect the fishery production work.

After such a closed door, the North Koreans became a little sober.They knew in their hearts that the people on the east coast were determined to support Japan.No, it can’t be said to be full support, only partial support, but the problem is that Japan has a population of more than 2000 million, while North Korea has only 800 million, and its territory is not as large as others. The partial support of people on the east coast for Japan can already greatly Change the balance of power between the two countries.Every time I think of this, the North Koreans feel a little dejected.

Later, there were rumors in Japan and Heishui that in order to buy weapons and equipment from the people on the east coast, Japan had to sign a secret trade agreement with them, and sold a lot of benefits to the east coast, so that they finally got the east coast limited human support.Although this is just a rumor, the North Koreans believe it [-]% of the time. They believe that once the closed market of Japan is opened to people from the east coast, it will inevitably attract people from the east coast to support them desperately.Even the Dutch, British, and Portuguese who have trade relations with Japan will be ready to move, wanting to be like the people on the east coast and get a share of the pie.

After the North Koreans realized this, they really looked up to the sky and sighed. They had been the cows and horses of the heavenly motherland for decades. They never thought that the Dongguo people would still turn their faces and deny people when they encountered great benefits. How heartwarming they really are!But the matter has come to this point, it is useless to think too much, it is better to think about the policies and ideas of the Dongguo people, and try to seek the greatest benefit for yourself.Anyway, North Korea has been with the motherland of heaven for so long, and the relationship is naturally deeper than that of Japan, a latecomer, and there is still a chance.

Han Feichun naturally didn't know what the North Koreans thought.However, he lives in Japan, so he can see some changes in Japan from his own perspective.First of all, the attitude adopted by the Japanese shogunate in this Tsushima incident is actually advisable, that is, limited opening (opening to the east coast) and the strategy of respecting the king and fighting against barbarians.But the problem is that Japan is not monolithic. Some forces have criticized the shogunate’s move—it can even be called angry—thinking that the shogunate monopolizes the trading power of goods on the east coast, which is very inappropriate.In particular, the Sendai clan, which originally dominated the trade privileges of goods on the east coast in Japan, was even more angry. They controlled many clans in the northeastern part of Japan, and secretly communicated with the Kagoshima clan in the southwestern part of the country to jointly oppose the shogunate's attempt to monopolize trade. The act of privilege requires a share in the benefits.

The Edo shogunate naturally found it hard to accept this, so the current relationship between the local forces headed by the two powerful domains of Kagoshima and Sendai and the Edo shogunate is very tense.In particular, the shogunate failed repeatedly in handling the Tsushima incident, and its prestige was greatly lost, which put itself in an embarrassing situation.Kagoshima and the Sendai Fan held on to this matter and made a big fuss, but it also attracted the support of many big names, which immediately put the situation in Japan in a strange state.

Han Feichun, as the deputy general manager of the East Coast Japan Company, has been stationed in Ishinomaki Port of the Sendai Domain for a long time, so he naturally also came into contact with the important people of the Sendai Domain.The envoys of the Date family tried various channels to test the attitude of the people on the east bank, but Han Feichun did a good job and never gave any tendentious opinions, which made the Sendai Fan suspicious, wondering if the people on the east bank were being punished by the shogunate? The benefits promised were bought, so that even the friendship between old friends was ignored.

Han Feichun was also very helpless about this, because he really didn't receive detailed instructions from Shangfeng, and he didn't dare to point fingers at the current situation in Japan and make various interventions.Perhaps, the higher-ups didn't think about how to deal with it.A small Tsushima incident has provoked such drastic changes in Japan. It is estimated that everyone is discussing and deducing this matter, and they don't know how to speak up for a while.

Of course, as far as personal opinion is concerned, Han Feichun hopes that Japan will remain peaceful and stable today, so that Japanese companies on the east coast can earn enough commercial benefits.Moreover, it would be great if the Japanese shogunate was bold enough and opened up more deeply, so that people from the east coast could further infiltrate Japan's military and economy, and then penetrate into the political level.The birth of a large North Korea, no one will refuse, right?

But Japan is not North Korea after all, the size is here.The culture is different, and the spirit of the people is not comparable to that of the North Koreans who are used to major issues.In short, Japan is not tame enough, not used enough to be a slave, which needs special attention.Han Feichun still knows the allusion of Zhongshan wolf, who became rampant when he learned about it.

Of course, all of the above are relatively distant things, and Han Feichun can't control too much.In the short term, he actually got a lot of benefits, and many jobs that were difficult before have also seen the light of day.For example, the recruitment of Japanese cannon fodder samurai once caused Han Feichun a headache, but now it seems that it is not a problem-the shogunate will inevitably neglect the old army samurai, and some people may lose their jobs and become ronin, so there is a possibility of recruitment. possible.

Now war with Spain on the East Coast was imminent.As far as the Far East is concerned, the first thing to do is to capture the Spanish Manila Prosecutor's Court area, which undoubtedly requires a lot of cannon fodder.The plan of Captain Lu of the Denglai Pioneering Team is to let Zheng Kezang and Li Yuanyin attack Mindanao and completely eliminate the Spanish forces on the island; in the direction of Luzon Island, Li Sixing will choose the opportunity to land, defeat the main force of the Spanish colonial army, and occupy the whole country. island.

It should be said that with the strength of the Spaniards in the Philippine Islands, such a power input is completely sufficient.A total of more than 3 armed forces, can't crush the more than 1000 Spanish colonial soldiers and thousands of indigenous soldiers?

Of course, people on the east coast will not fully trust the warlords Zheng Kezang, Li Yuanyin, and Li Sixing. In the future, they may choose one or two ports in Luzon and Mindanao to occupy them, both as naval bases and by the way. A warlord force.At this time, it is necessary to recruit a large number of cannon fodder forces to garrison. Japanese ronin is undoubtedly a good choice. Han Feichun will step up his work in the next period of time.

(End of this chapter)