Li Rusong thought that the location of the Flower Viewing Party in Xishan Villa was specifically chosen for him, but he was actually overthinking it. The real reason why Zhang Yuangong chose Xishan Villa was that it was the closest to the pragmatic Baiyu Tower.
This seems to be the same thing, but it is not, because Zhang Yuangong's purpose of doing this is just to facilitate Gao Jingshi to come over earlier, and he has important matters to discuss with Gao Jingshi. As for Li Rusong, if Gao Jingshi hadn't hinted, Zhang Yuangong would never have thought of inviting him.
When Li Rusong was already halfway through the journey, Zhang Yuangong and Gao Pragmatic were taking a bath in the hot springs at Xishan Villa.
Chinese people have known how to enjoy hot springs since ancient times. Not only Bai Juyi famously said, "The spring cold gives you a bath in Huaqing Pool, and the hot spring water washes away the gel."
Legend goes: "The First Emperor was traveling with a goddess, but disobeyed her, and the goddess spit on her, causing sores. The First Emperor was frightened, but the goddess washed her away in order to get out of the hot spring. Later generations thought it was a test."
Here it is said that the "Goddess" used hot springs to cure Qin Shihuang's facial sores, so Qin Shihuang called Lishan Hot Spring "Goddess Soup".
Although the hot springs in Xishan Villa are not as effective as the "Goddess Soup", they are quite famous in the capital. Zhang Yuangong specially arranged a larger hot spring pool for several distinguished guests to enjoy, and he himself accompanied them.
What surprised Gao Jingshi was that this time Zhang Yuangong and others actually came to him to talk about a serious matter. It was a major matter that was so important that the Xungui Group thought it would not be possible without Gao Jingshi.
The nobles took a fancy to the Maori family, or to be precise, they took a fancy to the Maori family's silver mine.
What Gao Pingshi didn't expect was that Zhang Yuangong, Zhu Yingzhen and others not only found out that the Maori family had a silver mine, they even found out how the Maori family obtained the silver mine.
The nobles knew Japan better than Gao Pingshi, and this was the first time they introduced the situation in Japan to him.
The silver mine was of course no other silver mine, it was the Iwami Silver Mine, also known as Iwami Silver Mine, which was quite famous in later generations.
Gao Pragmatic also knew a lot about this silver mountain. It was located in Ota City, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. It was Japan's largest silver mine in the late Warring States Period and early Edo Period. It is estimated that its output was as high as one-third of the world's production at that time.
Around a century ago, during the Warring States Period in Japan, many wars broke out among the surrounding princes and lords such as Ouchi Yoshihiro, Ouchi Yoshitaka and his son, Niko Tsukuru, Niko Haruhisa, Motonari Motonari and other surrounding princes to compete for the dominance of Ginzan.
However, Gao Pragmatic was actually not familiar with the history of this series of wars. This time, it was actually a few distinguished young men who gave him some popular science, which was really a bit surprising.
Following the introductions of the two princes, Gao pragmatically gradually understood this period of history, which was roughly like this: In the 16th year of Jiajing (1537, the 6th year of Japanese astronomy), Izumo Kingdom
The daimyo Nizi captured Iwami Ginzan for a long time. Two years later, the Ouchi clan regained control of Ginzan. Two years later, the Nizi clan teamed up with the Iwami and Ogasawara clan to capture Iwami Ginzan again. After that, the two families fought over Ginzan.
The fight continued. After Yoshitaka Ouchi's death, Moto Mori also joined the fight for Iwami Ginzan.
After the victory in the Itsukushima battle, Motomoto immediately sent troops to attack Shufeng and Nagato. Yoshinaga, who was supported by Tao Qingxian, was finally forced to commit suicide, and the Ouchi clan was destroyed. At the same time, Motonori sent Yoshikawa Motoharu to attack Iwami.
The purpose of mountain blowing castle is to rob Iwami Yinshan.
The Ouchi and Nizi families were fighting to the death for this treasure mountain - no wonder, with it, there is a financial source. Without an economic foundation, where is the superstructure?
Yamabuki Castle is an important fortification built by Ouchi Yixing. It is located on the top of Mount Yamabuki, overlooking the Silver Mountain. The purpose of Yixing building it is to protect the hard-won Silver Mountain. Anyone with a discerning eye can see this. Yamabuki Castle is
Protecting the important stronghold of Ginshan and occupying Yamabuki Castle is equivalent to occupying Ginshan.
At this time, the person guarding Yamabuki Castle was Ouchi clan retainer Asaga Nobu. Motoharu asked Motoharu to offer conditions to lure Naganobu to surrender. Naganobu saw that the conditions were not bad, so he obediently handed over Yamabuki Castle. The condition was to let Naganobu surrender.
Nobu continued to serve as the lord of Yamabuki Castle.
At first glance, this condition seemed very ordinary, but thinking about it in reverse, if he didn't agree, Lai Xiao might not be able to save his life. So the control of Ginshan fell into Motonari's hands smoothly, thus bringing a lot of money to the Maori family.
But the matter was not over yet. In March of the thirty-seventh year of Jiajing (1558, the first year of Yonglu in Japan), Nizi Haruhisa ordered Chang Guang of the city to surround Yamabuki City in order to compete for Yinshan, and strictly prohibited merchants from providing rice and salt to the city.
Naganobu hurriedly asked Motoharu for help. Although Motoharu immediately sent troops to rescue him, in the face of strong obstruction, the Maori army could not get even half a step closer to Yamabuki Castle. In desperation, Motoharu organized eighteen suicide squads, prepared to risk their lives to transport food and grass to the city.
In the city, to solve the urgent need.
The grain transport team was besieged by 200 enemy soldiers on the way. To their surprise, they repelled the enemy soldiers and successfully transported the grain and grass to Shanchui City. When the soldiers who defended the city saw the grain and grass, they all cried with joy.
However, Haruhisa was not willing to accept defeat and personally led an army of 10,000 troops to attack Yamabuki Castle. In late July, Motoharu ordered Motoharu to personally lead 10,000 troops to reinforce. Unexpectedly, the brave and capable Maori army suffered a heavy loss this time.
They were killed and defeated, and they retreated in embarrassment.
Isolated and helpless, Naganobu surprisingly behaved righteously this time - he proposed to Haruhisa that he was willing to trade his own life for the soldiers who defended the city to leave safely. After Naganobu committed seppuku, Yamabuki Castle fell into the hands of the Nishi family. He was proud of his ambition.
Mitsuru Haruhisa appointed Honjo Tsunemitsu as the lord of Yamabuki Castle, and then returned to Tsukiyama Tomita Castle in triumph.
Obviously, Maori Yuan could not accept this result, so in July of the 39th year of Jiajing (1560, the third year of Yonglu in Japan), Yuan sent more than 14,000 troops to the mountain to blow the city in a frenzy in order to seize Yinshan again.
attack.
The city's Nagamitsu commanded it well and relied on the dangerous natural mountain to resist the Maori army's repeated attacks, causing the Maori army to fall into a bitter battle below the city. At this time, a conflict broke out between Otomo Zonglin of Kyushu Island and the Maori family, so the main force of the Maori army turned to
While guarding Dayou's house, Shi Jian Yinshan's siege was solved.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! In the twelfth month of the forty year of Jiajing (1561, the fourth year of Yonglu in Japan), Haruhisa passed away, and his son Nizi Yoshihisa succeeded him as the family governor. Chang Guang was not optimistic about Nizi's future.
In June of that year, he led his people to defect to the Maori clan. Yuanji easily recaptured Yinshan this time, and the surrounding lords who were also not optimistic about the Nizi clan also switched sides and supported the Maori clan.
Soon, Yuan sent envoys to the court and shogunate to propose Ginzan as a royal property, with himself as the administrator. Naturally, this proposal was passed without any controversy, and the Mori clan legitimately gained control of Ginzan, and money was flowing.
The earth flows into Motojiu's pocket.
With the financial support of the silver mine, the Maori clan quickly pacified the entire Iwami. In July of the same year, the Maori army began to attack the Nizi clan's base: Izumo.
The terrain in Izumo is complex and mostly mountainous. Numerous narrow paths between the mountainous areas connect Tsukiyama Tomita Castle and other branch cities. After many years of management by the Nishi family, Tsukiyama Tomita Castle has become a fortified city for Japan at that time.
It is a military fortress that cannot be rushed, can accommodate tens of thousands of people, and can carry out long-term operations.
The "Ten Banners of Nizi" are ten important cities in Nizi's territory. With Yueshan Futian Castle as the center, they form the skeleton of the entire defense system of Nizi's branch cities and lay out a powerful defense network in the territory.
In order to fight steadily, Yuan Ji divided the battle plan into two steps. The first was to uproot various important branch cities of Tsukiyama Tomita Castle to avoid being threatened by the branch cities during the attack: that is, the "Nizi Ten Banners" defense line - composed of Bailu and Shenxi
It is composed of ten branch cities, Takase, Onishi, Santoya, Kumano, Ushio, Misawa, Mamu, and Akaya. The owners of the cities are local wealthy families.
In the forty-second year of Jiajing (1563, the sixth year of Yonglu in Japan), Bailu and Kumano cities fell one after another. The following year, with the fall of Jiangmei City in Boqi State, Nizi's food route was cut off. The following year, Maori Yuan
The remaining troops had already reached the gates of Futian Castle in Tsukiyama. The city was short of food and its morale was gradually declining.
To make matters worse, at this time, Nizi Yoshihisa fell into Motonari Mori's plan to alienate him - he listened to Yamato Sanemon's slander and killed his important minister Uyama Hisakane. This unjust case made the retainers even more disappointed, so
Nizi's family fell into a situation of great collapse. In November of the first year of Longqing (1567, the ninth year of Yonglu in Japan), Nizi Yoshihisa surrendered in Kaicheng and was sent to Anyi for confinement. Nizi's family perished.
From then on, Iwami Ginzan fell firmly into the hands of the Mori clan, and the Mori clan became a powerful feudal lord in western Japan. In later generations, the so-called Choshu of "Satsuma Navy and Choshu Army" in Japan refers to the Mori clan.
Gao Pingshi asked Zhang Yuangong and others why they investigated so carefully, even three generations of their ancestors were investigated.
Zhang Yuangong opened his eyes wide and said: "Then we can't check it out? If we don't check it out, how can we know the strength of Changzhou, and whether our attempt to move Yinshan will involve other Japanese forces?"
Zhu Yingzhen also interjected: "Yes, Nixin, you see, there is a very important clue in the story just now: Maori Yuan once sent envoys to the Japanese court and shogunate to propose Silver Mountain as royal property, and then their court agreed
Yes - this is definitely not a casual agreement, we all think there must be some agreement to share the spoils.
In other words, Maori Yuan will definitely give a part of his silver as the price for obtaining this title. In turn, we now have a question, that is, if the Beiyang side takes action against the Maori family, how will the Japanese court react - exactly
I wonder how the monkey named Toyotomi Hideyoshi would react."
Gao Pragmatic himself had thoughts about Iwami Ginzan, but his previous idea was to wait until Japan consumed a huge amount of national power in Korea and a decisive battle between the East and West armies occurred in the country before the Ming Dynasty or Beiyang Maritime Trade intervened. This is because
In this way, losses and losses can be minimized.
Gao Pragmatic also did not expect that after the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance organized transactions with Japanese forces for many years, this butterfly wing has really changed too many things: for example, most of the nobles in the original history did not know Iwami Ginzan at all.
Even if they knew about this, they could only look back and sigh. However, at this time, they not only knew the existence and importance of Iwami Yinshan, but even felt that they could take it by force with the power of the Beiyang Sea Trade Alliance.
Does the Beiyang Sea Trade Alliance have such power? It depends on how it is calculated, especially how Jinghua’s strength is calculated into the Beiyang Sea Trade Alliance. The current Jinghua is not all calculated into the Beiyang Sea Trade Alliance. Jinghua has two parts: North and South.
The Yangtze Fleet, but only the Beiyang Fleet belongs to the "regular establishment" of the Sea Trade Alliance.
In other words, the area south of Zhejiang, starting from Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi, and then to the entire southern Xinjiang, belongs to the Nanyang Fleet system, but not to the Beiyang Fleet system.
According to this standard, the major garrison forces in southern Xinjiang will naturally not be counted as the strength of the Beiyang Sea Trade Alliance. At the same time, Jinghua Trading Company is also a land trading entity of Jinghua that is independent of sea trade, which means that Jinghua
Trading companies are spread all over the west, and the cavalry and cavalry on the northern border do not belong to the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance.
In addition, the more critical point is that the factory protection teams and mine protection teams in various factories and mines in Jinghua all take orders from the factory and mines, and the main factories and mines directly take orders from Gao Pragmatic himself. Therefore, a huge number of people in Ming Dynasty
The armed servants of Jinghua do not belong to the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance. They have one and only one real "superior", that is, Gao Pragmatic himself.
What is the strength of the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance? It is a joint maritime force with the Beiyang Fleet as the core, and a marine force affiliated with the fleet. However, the "marine force" at this time is only a preliminary concept and has no actual establishment.
The power in it is also very complex.
As for Beijing, some of the domestic armed servants have always been sent to the Beiyang Fleet for training (the original intention is to be sent to southern Xinjiang after training). Its size has been maintained at about 3,000 people for a long time, and only about 50 people are stationed on each ship at a time.
It is used to intimidate the local daimyo when they go ashore for trading.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The situation is more complicated for Xungui. Although they are covered by Jinghua, they inevitably need their own weapons. For example, transactions in some areas do not involve Jinghua’s sales.
, they have to go on their own, and at this time they need certain weapons to ensure the safety of the fleet after landing.
So the honorable nobles also carefully selected some guys who seemed to be more willing to work hard from among the servants in their houses as their "Marine Corps". These people came from different families, but most of them were the same as the honorable ministers.
My status is basically consistent. For example, several princes have prepared a "marine force" of four to five hundred people; the princes usually have about three hundred marines; the uncle is not sure, there are less than a hundred people and more than
The number is as high as more than 200, which is close to the standards of the nobles.
At this time, the nobles who stayed in the capital in the Ming Dynasty included the Dukes of the Three Kingdoms, the Thirteenth Marquis (including relatives who were granted the title of marquis), and the Twenty-first Uncle (including relatives). All the nobles without exception have joined the Beiyang Sea Trade Alliance. This means that
This brings the total number of servants they serve as "Marine Corps" to more than 8,000. Adding Jinghua's 3,000 servants, the number of "Marine Corps" servants in the entire alliance exceeds 10,000.
I don't know if Zhu Yingzhen, Zhang Yuangong and others regarded their servants as servants of the frontier generals, and actually thought that the strength of more than 10,000 people was enough to take down the Maori clan in Changzhou.
The reason why they came to Gao Jingshi was firstly because Gao Jingshi was the leader of the Beiyang Alliance, and without his help from the Beiyang Fleet, the honorable nobles felt a little unsure; secondly, they were worried about the interference of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was the Japanese Guanbai last time.
Two hundred thousand troops were dispatched to fight Satsuma. Just by hearing this number, they knew that they were not easy to mess with, so they would not dare to mess around without being pragmatic.
But Gao Pragmatic frowned and said to Zhu Yingzhen: "Mr. Cheng, when I mentioned the strength of various Japanese vassals to you last time, I mentioned Shi Gao. Do you know how many Shi Gao there are in the Maori family?"
Zhu Yingzhen smiled and said: "Don't worry, Rixin. We have checked this. His family is 1.2 million stone tall, which is indeed quite strong. However, our people have also evaluated it and think that the combat effectiveness of their vassal soldiers is actually relatively average."
, although there are more than 30,000 troops in name, the number that is truly usable is only around 15,000, probably less than 20,000, which is not much better than the extremely poor Satsuma Domain."
Oh, have you reviewed it yet?
Gao Pragmatic was a little surprised: "How was it determined?"
Zhu Yingzhen replied: "The Maori family attacked Yamabuki Castle in Iwami Ginzan at least twice, but never succeeded in a real attack. This can at least show one thing: they seriously lacked artillery, especially heavy artillery that can attack the top of the mountain.
According to Beiyang's experience, the lack of artillery will cause them to be unable to deal with artillery, and this is our strength - of course, uh, it is Jinghua's strength... So as long as Nissin nods, we will definitely be able to use surprise troops to capture
Yamabuki Castle!”
Gao pragmatic frowned and said: "What then?"
"Then...what next?" Zhu Yingzhen was stunned: "We only need Yinshan. We can capture Shanchui City and that's it. What else is there next?"
Gao Jingshi almost rolled his eyes, and after a long while he said helplessly: "Even if we rely on the advantage of the fleet to land at close range and capture Yamabuki Castle in a sneak attack, can the Maori family be able to swallow this breath?"
"It's okay if you can't swallow it. Didn't I just say that they don't have heavy artillery, so they can't take down the mountain and blow the city." Zhang Yuangong interrupted.
Gao Pragmatic sighed: "Maybe they don't have it. Does Toyotomi Hideyoshi have it? Can any of you guarantee this to me?"
"This..." The two princes winced in their eyes, and Zhu Yingzhen smiled dryly and said, "Probably...probably not."
Gao Pragmatic was silent for a moment, and finally sighed again, saying: "Among the heavy artillery produced by Jinghua last year, there were 146 heavy artillery that can be used on land and sea for sale. Beiyang sold 84 of them, of which only ten
Eight of them were bought one by one by scattered small shipowners, and the remaining sixty-six were purchased within the Sea Trade Alliance.
However, according to the outbound inspection records of the Maritime Trade Alliance, in fact, except for the Beijing-China Beiyang Fleet, the other ships actually only had 24 additional heavy guns. Sir, where did the remaining 42 heavy guns go?
Do you know?"
Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong's expressions changed, they looked at each other secretly, and said awkwardly: "This..."
Gao Jingshi suddenly waved his hand: "You two have known each other for nearly twenty years, and you also know who I am. If things are still within the scope of my control and my friends make some small oversights, I will not
I will worry about it. However, if things develop to the point where I cannot even control them..."
"No, no, how is it possible!" Zhu Yingzhen said hurriedly: "Jinghua produced a total of thousands of artillery pieces last year, including no less than 700 heavy artillery pieces, although most of them were sold to the Imperial Guard and various other organizations.
The border troops were suppressed, and some were shipped to southern Xinjiang, but our foundation in Beiyang is strong. After so many years, the Beijing-China Beiyang Fleet alone probably has thousands of heavy artillery pieces..."
Gao Pingshi said calmly: "But they can't get to the shore, let alone Shanchui City."
Zhu Yingzhen hesitated when he heard the words, and smiled dryly, not knowing what to say. Zhang Yuangong saw that the situation was not good, and his heart was broken, and he simply said: "Brother Rixin, this... As a brother, let's just say it: do you know how to sell it?"
How much money can we make from cannons to the Japanese?"
Gao pragmatic glanced at him and said nothing.
Zhang Yuangong stretched out his fingers and gestured: "I don't know the cost of the No. 2 heavy artillery model of the 14th year of Wanli. I don't know the cost of Jinghua, but the internal price of Beiyang is 420 taels per gun, and the independent price in Ming Dynasty is 500 taels per gun."
Door... But Brother Rixin, guess what the price will be after it is sold to Japan."
Gao pragmatic shook his head and said: "I don't know."
Zhang Yuangong smiled mysteriously and lowered his voice: "If you sell less than ten doors at a time, the price is one thousand six hundred taels of silver. If you sell more than ten doors at one time, the price is one thousand five hundred taels of silver."
Good guy, it’s nearly quadrupled? This news shocked even Gao Pragmatic.
More importantly, Gao Pragmatic knew that after he guided the technical points of iron smelting, steelmaking and gun body casting, Jinghua's artillery yield rate increased significantly (the low yield rate was the main factor affecting the cost at that time), so the Wanli 14th Year model
The cost price of the No. 2 heavy artillery was only about two hundred taels of silver. The price sold by Jinghua to Beiyang's interior had actually doubled, and the price sold to other Ming merchants was almost two and a half times the cost price.
Who would have thought that once these artillery pieces were sold to Japan, they would be flipped over and over again, with the price rising all the way to one thousand five hundred and six hundred taels of silver each! No wonder the most profitable business in the world is drugs and arms. Is imperialism honest?
Bully me.
Thinking of this, Gao Pragmatic suddenly realized that it was no wonder that the two of them - or the nobles - came up with the idea of Iwami Yinshan. Japan can spend so much money to buy cannons, if not because they have Yinshan
, could it be because they have the magic pen Ma Liang?
These nobles only have money in their eyes. Since the money is there, and it is not easy to get guns from Beijing, why not just go and grab it?
Gao Pragmatic felt speechless for a moment. He had so many words to say that he didn't know where to start. The two top nobles of the Ming Dynasty looked at him longingly, hoping that he could give them an answer that would make them ecstatic.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, the voice of a maid from another courtyard suddenly came from outside the hot spring to report softly: "Your Majesty, Uncle Ning Yuan is here to attack. The Governor of the Right Mansion and the Left Commander, General Li Zongrong, the Commander-in-Chief of the Liaodong Army, have arrived."
Zhang Yuangong and Zhu Yingzhen both looked at Gao Pragmatic with disappointed expressions.
Gao Jingshi said calmly: "Let's wait until I see Li Yangcheng." After that, he stood up and walked out of the hot spring.
The two princes looked at each other, stood up without interest, and sighed at the same time. Zhu Yingzhen couldn't help but said: "Rixin, this matter... uh, I mean the cannon selling thing... this,
After all, the Japanese country is not Mongolia, nor is it Jurchen. Now that the Japanese pirates have subsided, there should be nothing major, right?"
Gao Pingshi twitched the corner of his mouth and paused. He wanted to say something, but in the end he shook his head slightly and left without saying a word.
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Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: Today’s chapter is actually a chapter added temporarily. The reason is that I saw a book friend asking a question a few days ago, saying that according to the plot of this book, the strength of the Ming Dynasty has strengthened a lot, and I have also hinted many times that in
In the war to aid Korea, the Jurchens would also be used as cannon fodder. In this way, wouldn’t the Japanese combat effectiveness be greatly inferior to that of the original history, and is it still worth fighting? I replied below that there will be the impact of butterfly wings. Later
After thinking about it, although leaving this paragraph completely blank will make the subsequent plot more ups and downs, it may also be more abrupt, so I will insert a chapter here to explain why Japan has "reinforcements". Well, maybe it will be necessary tomorrow.
