Although the Shiba family and the Ichijo family have not officially started war, the secret war has been going on.
Yoshigan Shiba used the death of Oda's envelope as an opportunity to quickly break into Oda's old territory.
The Owari samurai family of the Shiba clan, such as Maeda Toshiie and Maeda Yoshikoshi, launched a diplomatic war against the Owari Mino samurai family who occupied the middle and upper levels of Oda's old territory, prompting Oda's old territory to start to wait and see neutrally.
Under a series of blows from the Shiba family, Ichijo Hideyoshi, who had been unable to withstand it for a long time, calmed down. She was already mobilizing an army to invade the peninsula and prepared for a decisive battle with the Shiba family.
Both sides are preparing desperately in secret. It is like the calm before the storm, just waiting for that moment to arrive.
———
When I heard about the mountain city, I stayed in the pavilion, and Yiyin convened all the ministers to discuss matters.
Nanman Shixing Lilu is now able to speak Japanese and speaks eloquently in meetings. Although her tone is a bit strange, everyone can understand her.
Just listen to Lilu say.
"The special envoy of China has followed my fleet back to Sakai Port. I heard that the saint intends to suppress Ichijo Hideyoshi and restore peace to the peninsula. His Majesty the Emperor of China is very satisfied.
Although there was no official consent, our tentative offer to purchase saltpeter and lead received a quick response, and the goods have returned with the ship."
Saltpeter is an important component of gunpowder, and lead is the material used to make projectiles.
Now that the Kanhe trade has not been reopened, Yiyin asked Lilu to use these transactions to test, just to see the true attitude of the Celestial Empire.
Obviously, Ichijo Hideyoshi's aggression on the peninsula had made the Celestial Empire very impatient.
The civil and military ministers of the Celestial Empire who rescued the peninsula and the mediocre monarchs and ministers of the peninsula were not happy with each other, and the discord affected the war situation.
The stalemate war on the peninsula also made the treasury of the Celestial Empire, which had been mostly consumed by the war in the northwest and southwest, become even more empty.
Together with finance, it is nothing more than increasing revenue and reducing expenditure.
China intends to end the war on the peninsula as soon as possible in order to save money.
However, whether Kanhe trade can be reopened and become a new channel for the Chinese government to increase revenue has caused disagreements within the Chinese government.
Yiyin frowned.
"Just acquiescing to our purchase of gunpowder and projectile materials is a compromise for the peninsula's military, but it is not yet clear whether China is really willing to reopen the exploration and cooperation trade."
If the Celestial Empire uses the prospecting trade as a bargaining chip and asks Yoshihiro to immediately eliminate Ichijo Hideyoshi, Yoshihiro will definitely accept this task with joy.
Just as Ashikaga Yoshimitsu satisfied Emperor Yongle with the annihilation of Japanese pirates and obtained Kanhe trade, Yoshiyin can also follow the old example.
But the current China is completely different from the one in Yongle.
China's foreign trade was mainly carried out through the Import and Export Department, so the name "exported goods" came into being.
From the Tang Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the Shipping Department has been the main agency responsible for foreign trade in successive dynasties.
I didn’t talk about it before, I just talked about North Korea.
The Ming system inherited the Yuan system, but Emperor Hongwu did not like foreign trade and retreated early. In the seventh year of Hongwu, the three municipal shipping offices in Mingzhou, Quanzhou and Guangzhou were closed.
Until Emperor Yongle succeeded to the throne, he fought in the south and north, fought in the civil and military fields, and everywhere was short of money and needed money everywhere.
Therefore, Emperor Yongle reopened the Shipping Department and established five offices in Taicang, Ningbo, Quanzhou, Guangzhou and Jiaozhi.
As we all know, Jiaozhi disappeared after that, so the Ming Dynasty’s foreign trade shipping companies were mainly located in Taicang, Ningbo, Quanzhou, and Guangzhou.
Among them, Taicang was closed early due to the invasion of Japanese pirates. Ningbo was responsible for the island countries, Quanzhou was responsible for Ryukyu, and Guangzhou was responsible for Southeast Asia, each performing its own duties.
Later, the exploration and cooperation trade between the Chinese island countries brought a lot of wealth to both parties.
The trading goods of the island country are of high quality, mainly including copper ore, gold, sulfur, and special products, while the Ming Dynasty mainly gave Japan silk, sugar, ceramics, copper coins, etc.
In fact, both sides have benefited from the joint trade, but the island country's status in the tribute trade system is very low, paying tribute only once every ten years, while the peninsula can pay tribute every two years.
But it was only a tribute paid once every ten years that allowed Ashikaga Yoshimitsu to gain trade rights. From then on, the Ashikaga family became richer than the country, truly suppressing the samurai families in the world, and stabilizing the rule of the Ashikaga Shogunate.
The joint trade that Yiyin wants is naturally comprehensive trade, so that this income can become the financial support of the Sibo family as much as possible, and it also creates a pro-Chinese atmosphere politically.
The economic foundation determines the superstructure. As long as the roots of Sibo's theocracy are on the Chinese side, the pro-Chinese political attitude will easily continue.
But China may not be willing to reopen the Kanhe trade. This is an internal problem within China.
Emperor Yongle spent a lot of money during his reign, and the reason why his finances were healthy was because he vigorously developed foreign trade.
But it was precisely because this piece of meat was fat enough that it led to the subsequent sea ban. Because seeing the emperor eating meat, local interest groups also took action.
In the second year of Jiajing's reign, the Celestial Empire reiterated the maritime ban and closed the Municipal Shipping Department in Ningbo and Quanzhou, leaving only the Guangzhou Municipal Shipping Department.
Soon, the Guangzhou Shipping Company was also closed.
As for the island country, the Ashikaga family declined, and the Hosokawa family and the Ouchi family competed for tribute in Ningbo, which caused the Japanese rebellion in Ningbo and directly led to the cancellation of the Kankai trade.
Coupled with the impact of the Jiajing Sea Ban, the smuggling route in the Zhoushan Islands has since become the main trade channel for both sides, and the resulting problem is the Jiajing Japanese Rebellion.
Rather than saying that the Jiajing Japanese Rebellion was the spillover of the war in the troubled times of the island country, it is better to say that it was a carnival of private merchants and merchants in the Chinese dynasty, in which the island country's ronin played the most unbearable and hated role.
The forbidden seas of the Chinese Empire are very interesting. Although the shipping department was closed, foreign trade did not stop.
There was smuggling in the Zhoushan Islands, and even more so in Guangzhou. Even in Macau, the Portuguese bribed local officials to open a port privately.
This kind of behavior, which harms the national finance and enriches private pockets, has gradually become the mainstream of foreign trade.
It was not until the 39th year of Jiajing that Ningbo, Quanzhou and Guangzhou were reopened, and then closed again soon after.
In the middle of Wanli period, the imperial court made another effort and reopened Quanzhou, but it was quickly closed.
From then on, the Ming Dynasty never reopened the Shipping Department.
The maritime ban policy was repeatedly pushed back and forth from Hongwu and Yongle until it completely collapsed in Jiajing and Wanli. It can be said to be a political tragedy that lasted for a hundred years.
The Ming Dynasty's finances were notoriously weak, and Zhang Juzheng's reforms made silver occupy the main tax revenue, establishing the initial prototype of the silver standard in the Chinese dynasty.
Silver is an easily obtained currency in the southeastern foreign trade areas, but in the closed northwest areas, silver is rarely used.
The difficulty of obtaining currency is different between the northwest and the southeast, which is reflected in unfair tax standards, and the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen.
The combination of maritime ban and tax reform benefited the Southeast, but worsened the finances of the Celestial Empire and created a group of related bureaucratic capital interest groups.
Therefore, when Yiyin's request to reopen the Kanhe trade reached the Chinese court, Emperor Wanli might be happy to open up a new source of income, but vested interest groups might not be so willing.
Things are stuck here.
It's not that Yoshigan is unwilling to eradicate the scourge of Ichijo Hideyoshi for China, but he also needs China's response and uses Kankai trade to cultivate his own political group's closeness to China.
If the Kanhe trade cannot be reopened, and the island country is merely granted the title of King of the island country conferred by the Celestial Empire, it will be difficult to continue the friendly relations between the Celestial Empire and the island country with such a false title that is not mixed with interests.
Yi Yin's political dream of making Sibo theocracy the Great Wall of China on the Sea may never be realized.
It is still not enough to rely solely on the political line efforts of Yi Bank and Miyuki two generations.
Only a large amount of real money and interest can make Sibo's theocracy consciously and voluntarily safeguard the Celestial Dynasty, and willingly become the Celestial Dynasty's dog from generation to generation.
After one hundred years, two hundred years, or even longer, loyalty to the Celestial Empire has been ingrained in the minds of the island nation, and the island nation can truly integrate into the Celestial Empire.