Let’s not mention the undercurrents in the capital of the Ming Dynasty for the moment, and let’s talk about the land of Japan thousands of miles away.
The winter in a foreign country is extremely cold.
Unlike the Ming Dynasty, when the northern country was covered in ice and snow for thousands of miles, the snow in Japan was also very heavy, but the wind was not as strong as the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Gaochi was wearing a silver-gray leather cloak with a round collar and was sitting in a loft in the Shanmingjia Garden. He looked at the pine garden below that was different in shape from the Central Plains but had a unique style, as well as the snow-covered mountains in the distance, with a smile on his round face.
A bit lonely.
"How long have I been here?" he asked softly.
Zheng He, who was wearing a belted sheepskin robe, said softly behind him, "Your Highness, you have been here for one month and twenty-one days."
Zhu Gaochi nodded when he heard this, "It's time to go back!"
In the past month, he did not stay at the Yamanojia. Instead, he traveled around the territories of various daimyo in Japan by virtue of his identity as the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty imperial envoy Huang Ming. During his daily schedule, in addition to traveling, he met people, and then...
Banquet.
For the famous princes of Japan, the crown prince of the Ming dynasty, the grandson of the vassal prince, was of course a much-coveted guest.
As for Zhu Gaochi, his move had ulterior motives.
Although the purpose and significance of this trip were already clear before he came, he only believed in his own eyes and ears.
He could follow the emperor's instructions, but he had to practice it himself to discover the emperor's intentions for asking him so much.
More importantly, even though he doesn't like it here, he must understand the complicated relations between the princes here and analyze their pros and cons.
In this way, he can change from a participant to a controller.
There are many families in the Japanese princes, and the Shanming family is just one of them. In more than a month, he found out that the Shanming family was really wealthy more than ten years ago, but the subsequent Mingde Rebellion made them lose their vitality.
He was seriously injured and was beaten by the shogunate until he ran away with his head in his arms.
It was precisely because of this that the Yamano family hated the Ashikaga shogunate and wanted to succeed Akira and rise again.
In Japan, Yamana and his family were not the only princes who wanted to eliminate the Ashikaga Shogunate.
There was also the feudal lord Ouchi family. When he went to the Ouchi family fiefdom and interviewed the head of the family, Ouchi Yoshihiro, the other party hinted that Zhu Gaochi had united with other daimyo lords and could send troops to attack Kyoto at any time.
Zhu Gaochi had a deep impression of Ouchi Yoshihiro, not only because he was the most manly prince he had ever seen in Japan, but more importantly because his idol was actually Xiang Yu.
Zhu Gaochi asked about the story of the Chu-Han War.
Zhu Gaochi was annoyed by it, and finally threw him a popular vernacular story in the Ming Dynasty, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. As a result, the guy felt like he had found a treasure, and he studied it all day long as a military book.
In addition to these two families, there were other feudal lords such as Hosokawa, Akamatsu, and Inoue.
In the past nearly two months, he had clarified the conflicts between these feudal lords and the Ashikaga shogunate, clarified their entangled interests and hatreds, and even clarified what they wanted and what they could give.
By understanding this, the Ming Dynasty represented by Zhu Gaochi will be able to obtain maximum benefits.
In fact, if you think about it, these things are all leftover from the Ming Dynasty's ancestors. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Emperor of Zhou became a decoration, and the princes continued to conquer, and the art of combining vertical and horizontal lines had long been perfected.
Not only did he meet these Japanese princes, he even met the envoys of the Ashikaga Shogunate at the home of Akamatsu Daimyo.
All the famous princes in Japan are determined to oppose the shogunate, but they are not monolithic, and there are people who seek interests from both sides.
The Ashikaga Shogunate particularly respected him, the imperial grandson of the Ming Dynasty, and promised to be his vassal. In Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's secret letter to him, he was even more frank that he could write a letter of credence again, bow his head to the Ming Dynasty, and even arrest those who had harassed the Ming Dynasty.
The Japanese pirates did not guarantee that they would pay tribute once every ten years, that each mission of 200 people would not carry swords, and that they would restrain their samurai from harassing the Ming Dynasty waters in the future.
The request of the Ashikaga shogunate was also very simple. The Ming Dynasty should no longer support the forces opposing the shogunate. At the same time, if the Ming Dynasty wanted to trade, they could open the port.
In fact, in Zhu Gaochi's view, this result was the best. Japan surrendered as a vassal, and the two countries would no longer have disputes. For the Ming Dynasty, canonization was just a matter of an edict. It didn't matter who was in charge of Japan, as long as they were respectful to the Ming Dynasty.
But it is hard to disobey the emperor's orders. The insidious emperor of the Ming Dynasty wanted to plunge Japan into a civil war. It would make people's minds go crazy and there would never be peace.
In fact, he could already guess the intentions of the sinister emperor in the capital.
That emperor took the old man's chokehold policy against Bei Yuan and used it on Japan in a different way.
The land of Japan is poor in products. In the early years, why were pirates so popular? They desperately wanted to go to the Ming Dynasty to rob them. It was because the Ming Dynasty would not sell them anything. Because of the long civil war in Japan, there was a lot of waste. What kind of needles, threads, brains, and medicinal materials did they have here?
All ironware relied on the Ming Dynasty for transportation.
The emperor did not give Japan the opportunity to be self-sufficient, and allowed them to fight on their own, and then firmly controlled Japan's economic lifeline through trade.
Use some worthless things to bring Japanese silver back to the Ming Dynasty, so that the harbor is full of Ming Dynasty merchant ships, so that no matter what the Japanese use, they have to buy it from the Ming Dynasty merchants.
Japan not only has silver, it also has copper mines.
When Zhu Gaochi learned the news, his eyes were red. Jinyiwei sent people to investigate the news. According to the calculations of the accompanying Ministry of Industry personnel, the annual output of the copper mine could reach 1.5 million kilograms of copper. You must know that the Ming Dynasty
The annual output of copper mines in Yunnan is only 1.2 million jin.
The Ming Dynasty was short of copper, and because the copper in Japan was not smelted thoroughly, it also contained silver!
Therefore, in the past two months, in order to maximize profits, he had not touched the materials on the accompanying ship that were supposed to be handed over to the famous masters in the Japanese princes mountain. It seemed like he was raising prices on the ground.
He somewhat slandered the emperor's policy towards Japan, but he coveted Japan's mineral resources.
"Your Highness? Your Highness?" Seeing that Zhu Gaochi had not spoken for a long time, Zheng He asked from behind, "You...?"
"Inform Shan Mingjia that I am going back!" Zhu Gaochi said calmly.
Zheng He was slightly startled, "Yes!"
~~
"Nani?"
The head of the Yamana clan, Yamana Shixi, was shocked, "Your Highness is leaving?"
After he learned that Zhu Gaochi was returning to the Ming Dynasty, he quickly rushed to Zhu Gaochi's residence with several of his important officials.
"After disturbing you for so long, it's time to go back!" Zhu Gaochi said with a warm smile, "I am drinking tea instead of wine here, and I would like to thank the head of the Shanming family for his warm hospitality." As he said this, he raised his tea cup.
It is said that in this country of Japan, except for beautiful women, there is nothing that attracts Zhu Gaochi, whether it is food, wine or even tea.
"But..." The head of the Yamano family was extremely worried.
It doesn't matter whether Zhu Gaochi leaves or not. What matters is that the things brought by the Ming envoy are still on the Ming Dynasty's ship and have not been handed over to them at all.
Moreover, since the grandson of the Ming Dynasty emperor came to Japan, he has not mentioned a single word of serious business. He spends his whole day eating, drinking and having fun. There is not a word about the subsequent cooperation between the two parties and the subsequent delivery of supplies.
"Your Highness, please stay a few more days!" Lao Zhongcun, a famous mountain master, bowed and said, "We still have some respect that we have not yet paid!"