Chapter 1740: Japanese pirates in chaos along the coast
Chapter 1740: Japanese pirates invade the coast
Japanese pirates are bandits from the Japanese country, so they are called Japanese pirates.
The Japanese country is Japan.
Originally, the common people of the Han Dynasty had no dislike or dislike for Japan, an island country in the East China Sea. They just regarded it as one of the small countries around them, so not many people cared about it at all.
But it was not until three years ago that the Japanese mission came to Luoyang for a pilgrimage and challenged the heroes of the Han Dynasty in more than 30 civil and military aspects, such as music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, and song. Only then did the people of the Han Dynasty realize the ambitions of this East China Sea island country.
Of course, this challenge to the Japanese mission failed miserably. They only won three out of thirty challenges and lost the other twenty-seven.
This incident inspired the people's national pride. Later, because most Japanese people were short, people often jokingly called Japan the Japanese country, in order to satirize the Japanese people for overestimating their own capabilities and acting like a chariot.
During the pilgrimage three years ago, the real purpose of the Japanese mission was to obtain technology from the Luoyang court. However, they failed in the end and had to shift their goals to obtain it from the major princes.
But the major princes are not stupid, and it is impossible to give it to a small country for free. In the end, the Japanese mission can only spend money to buy it.
The blockade of technology by other princes is not as strict as that of the Qin army. Each prince has a technology that he is good at, and it is naturally impossible to sell the technology that belongs to him, but the public technology can be sold.
Despite the Japanese mission's heavy purchase, the princes could not resist the temptation and sold a large amount of skills to the Japanese mission.
In the end, the Japanese mission sold papermaking technology to Cao Wei, steel forging technology to Zhao Song, and shipbuilding technology to Sun Wu... and also bought a large number of new grains for the Ming army.
Although the Japanese mission spent a lot of gold and silver, they returned to Japan with a lot of technology.
These technologies are not top-notch in the Han Dynasty, they can only be regarded as second-level, but they are the most advanced technologies in Japan. Soon, the power of the Hatsumatai country to which the mission belongs, that is, the power of Oda Nobunaga, has skyrocketed.
Even more than the other vassal states combined.
Yamatai is not the only country in Japan, but Yamatai is the largest country in Japan, so it is qualified to represent Japan.
In addition to Yamatai, there are more than ten forces in Japan including: Tokugawa Ieyasu, Akechi Mitsuhide, Takeda Shingen, Uesugi Kenshin, Motonari Mouri, Sanada Yukishige, Date Masamune, etc.
Generally speaking, the situation in the four islands of Japan is actually more chaotic than that of the Han Dynasty.
Under the governance of Oda Nobunaga, Yamatai's national power grew rapidly, and Oda Nobunaga also took advantage of the increase in national power to begin to annex surrounding countries, and step by step embarked on a journey to unite the four Japanese islands.
With the support of advanced warfare technology and strong national power, Oda Nobunaga captured nearly half of Japan's territory in just one year, forcing other princes to join forces to fight against his family.
At the same time, Oda Nobunaga, who was in great power, changed Yamatai to the East Victory Kingdom, and replaced his wife, Queen Yamatai Himiko, and became the first emperor of the Japanese Empire.
The major princes of Japan also realized that the Yamatai Society has become so powerful because of the advanced technology obtained from China, so they also sent envoys to the Central Plains to purchase technology, and this was the most frequent exchange between Japan and China.
One year.
The princes of the Central Plains were naturally willing to use their backward technology in exchange for the gold and silver in the hands of the Japanese princes to seek development.
But even if the Central Plains princes were willing to sell, the Japanese princes would not have much time to develop under the iron heel of Oda Nobunaga's army.
In addition, after a great war, both the Japanese Princes Alliance and Oda Nobunaga suffered losses, and Japan's recovery speed was faster than that of the Japanese Princes Alliance. Once Japan fully recovered, it would be difficult for other princes to survive.
Therefore, in order to protect themselves, the Japanese princes had no choice but to come up with the bad idea of plundering money and food from the Central Plains to quickly recover from the wounds of the war.
In the transactions with the Central Plains princes, the Japanese princes also knew clearly that the Central Plains princes were also in a warlord melee, and as long as they acted fast enough and ran away after the robbery, the Central Plains princes would not care about them at all.
Can the princes of the Central Plains still send a large army to cross Fusang eastward and reach Japan Island?
Although the Central Plains princes are powerful, they cannot directly threaten them, but the threat of Oda Nobunaga is very close at hand.
With this mentality, the Japanese princes, headed by Tokugawa Ieyasu and Akechi Mitsuhide, decided to send troops disguised as pirates to plunder money and food in the Sanhan and Central Plains areas.
"Everyone, among the thirteen states of the Han Dynasty, the only coastal states are Youzhou, Qingzhou, Xuzhou, Yangzhou, and Jiaozhou. Among them, Jiaozhou is too far away, so only four states are available for us to plunder."
Tokugawa Ieyasu looked at the other alliance members below and said in a deep voice: "In order to prevent conflicts caused by interests, we should all demarcate an area and grab what we have. How much we can grab is up to each of us."
"That's a good idea."
Akechi Mitsuhide, Uesugi Kenshin and other big princes all agreed, but other small princes naturally did not dare and would not have any objections.
"good."
A gleam flashed in Tokugawa Ieyasu's eyes, and he smiled lightly and said: "In that case, Yangzhou will belong to my Tokugawa family."
"Why?"
Takeda Shingen, who had some grudges with Tokugawa Ieyasu, was the first to stand up and object, saying: "Among the four states of You, Qing, Xu, and Yang, Yangzhou is the most prosperous state. Your Tokugawa family should just think of Yangzhou."
It would be too greedy to occupy a state as a plunder zone."
"Yeah yeah……"
Other princes agreed one after another.
Seeing this, Tokugawa Ieyasu immediately frowned and said, "If that's the case, then our Tokugawa family will only plunder the area north of Yangzhou. Is that okay?"
"That's pretty much it."
Takeda Shingen nodded with satisfaction, then pointed to the south of Xuzhou and the Jianghuai area, and said: "This place belongs to my Takeda family."
"My Mingzhi family wants the area south of Yangzhou." Mingzhi Mitsuhide said quickly.
"Then my Maoli family will be responsible for the northern part of Xuzhou." Maoliyuan also rushed to speak.
"The Date family is responsible for the Qingnan region." Date Masamune said.
Soon, except for Youzhou and Qingbei regions, all other regions were divided up.
The reason why no one chose Youzhou is because compared to other areas, Youzhou is too poor and there is not much money to be made.
The reason why no one chose Qingbei was because Qin Hao, Yuan Shao, the first and second most powerful princes in the Han Dynasty, all had territories in Qingbei, so they did not dare to provoke them easily.
Uesugi Kenshin started late. Everything he wanted to choose was taken by others. The only ones left were Youzhou and Qingbei. After hesitating for a long time, he finally chose the richer Qingbei. After all, he was starving to death and was a coward.
The most courageous one.
After Uesugi Kenshin made his choice, Sanada Yukishige chose Yushu, while Hojo Tsunari could only choose the poorest Sanhan.