MTL - I-Chapter 1036 1032【Japan lock country】

  Chapter 1036 1032 [Japan locks up the country]

   Coercion, see also coercion.

  Those Japanese farmers who were able to survive a little bit were actually reluctant to follow the rebellion. But they had no choice. Their houses were burned down by the rebels, and their food was taken away by the rebels. They had to rebel together to survive.

   Twenty-four villages, more than 10,000 farmers participated, swept towards Tsurumaru City.

  They did not follow the "Datong Collection" to divide the fields, but declared that farmers own the land. Whoever owns the permanent land belongs to whoever owns it, and those lands are no longer owned by the lords, but belong to the peasants themselves.

  The uprising was not only massive, but also extremely fast. Before Shimadzu Yoshisho gathered his troops, the peasant army had already approached the city.

  Hundreds of countrymen and ronin with weapons are the absolute main force of the peasant army. The rest of the peasants all carried bamboo spears and wooden sticks, and some simply went to the battlefield with hoes.

  This kind of rabble, fifty years ago, the Shimadzu family could easily solve it.

  But now the whole of Japan is almost the same, the horses are released to Nanshan, and the knives and guns are stored in the warehouse. The lords and nobles only knew how to enjoy themselves, and a large number of samurai became unemployed and turned into ronin, so they were not able to suppress the uprising at all. What's more, since being beaten up by the Datong Army, the Shimadzu family has completely lay flat.

  How did the more than 1,000 peasant uprisings in the Edo period be settled?

  It's very simple, agree to the demands of the peasants, and the peasant army will disperse by itself. After the news has passed, the leader at that time was killed, and the tax was increased again.

  This time it is different. Guided by "Datong Collection", farmers need to obtain land!

  Shimadzu Yoshimasa urgently recruited castle ronin for defense, and promised to continue to employ them after the war.

   But the ronin have already suffered a loss once. Those who helped fight the Datong army back then were still ronin after the war. And those who helped the Datong Army fight, some were hired as warriors after the war.

   It is clear at a glance who to help.

   Moreover, those ronin in the castle town have long been in contact with the peasant army, and they themselves have the will to rebel.

   Not long after the siege battle started, the city defenders fought back, and the peasant army took the opportunity to enter the city. Among the nobles of the Shimadzu family, only a few escaped, and the rest were all killed.

   Immediately, the peasant army began to attack the entire Kagoshima.

  The momentum is going well, but there are also great hidden worries, and it has split into three forces.

  The first force wants to learn from "Da Tong Ji" to obtain land property and force the shogunate to reform the land policy. This is also the core force of the peasant uprising army.

  The second force is mostly coerced. They don't want to kill the lord, they just hope that the lord will implement good governance and lower the annual tribute. Although the lord Shimadzu Yoshimasa was killed, two of his sons ran away, and the one who escaped could be welcomed back as the new lord.

  The third force is the ronin of the castle town. They belonged to the class of urban scholars, and naturally looked down on rural scholars. But this uprising was led by the peasants. Moreover, ronin do not need land, they just want to find a stable job.

  As the peasant army swept across half of Kagoshima, internal divisions became more and more serious.

  The shogunate convened the national army to suppress it, and managed to collect 150,000. But more than half of them were still on the march, and the troops of the daimyo who were close to each other were already fighting against the peasant army in the water.

  The Peasant Army had 100,000 troops, but the Shogunate Army had only 40,000 troops. The confrontation lasted for half a month and the battle was evenly divided.

  Suddenly, the shogunate sent officials over and announced that the annual tribute of farmers in Kagoshima would be reduced.

   When the news came out, at least 60% of the peasant army was unwilling to fight again. Even those peasants who want to obtain land property feel that as long as the annual tribute can be reduced, there is no need to fight desperately with the court.

   A month later, another 20,000 shogunate troops arrived on the battlefield.

  Seeing that there are more and more officers and soldiers in the imperial court, there are also more farmers who hope to accept as soon as they are good. On the contrary, the ronin have become more "firm", they are eager to win the battle, let the shogunate know their value, and can only find a job after the battle is over.

  Country officials and city officials are united, but village officials and peasants have no fighting spirit.

  During the decisive battle, the samurai team composed of rural soldiers and city soldiers charged forward bravely as if they were dead, and defeated the shogunate army in a small area. But looking at the entire battlefield, most peasant armies were being defeated, defeated by the shogunate army without warning.

  The rural and urban scholars had no choice but to flee, taking more than a thousand revolutionary peasants into the mountains to escape the search and arrest of the shogunate army. And transformed into bandits and bandits on the spot, going out of the mountains to loot from time to time, specializing in robbing wealthy households in the countryside and shops in the castle towns.

  …

  Edo, Shogunate.

  The shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna fell ill again, coughing continuously while sitting on it, not caring what the elders were saying.

  The shogunate ten years ago had a relatively rich family.

  But a fire burned down Edo Castle, and the reconstruction of the city exhausted the shogunate's finances. Especially during the rebuilding process, the elders took the opportunity to embezzle and make the Japanese government even more corrupt.

   This time to suppress the peasant army, the shogunate also had no money, and let the lords figure out their own way.

  The foreign lords wanted to get military expenses, so they could only rob them themselves. Several major cities in the Satsuma domain were looted.

   "The farmers' unrest this time is different from the past." Said Tadaki Sakai.

  The past two years have been the era when Tadaki Sakai took full power.

  This power minister, unwilling to be just an old middle school, made himself the big boss, that is, the leader of the old middle school. It's like before there was only a group of cabinet ministers, and everyone was on the same level, but Sakai Zhongqing made himself the chief assistant.

  The shogunate Tokugawa Iezuna has nothing to do about it, he has long been a display.

  Hiroyuki Kuze is a confidant of Tadakiyo Sakai, and he immediately cheered and said, "What do you mean, Your Excellency?"

Sakai Zhongqing said: "The royal family, the Chinese family, the noble family, and the common people, the four peoples have distinct classes. How can the four peoples be equal? ​​The royal family and the daimyo own land, which is also granted by heaven. How can it be distributed to farmers? "Da Tong Ji" will shake The foundation of the shogunate is the enemy of all daimyo, and it must be banned!"

   "Your Majesty is very right." The elders nodded one after another.

  This peasant uprising is too scary. In the past, at most, the county officials were killed, but now even the lords are killed. It also said that the four peoples are equal, and farmers are clamoring to own land.

Sakai Zhongqing also said: "Nowadays, smuggling is serious everywhere, and the country must be closed to prevent the influx of "Da Tong Ji". It is still the same as before, only trading in Nagasaki, and foreigners are not allowed to go ashore. Merchants from China can only live in outlying islands and are not allowed to go ashore. Set foot on Japanese land."

  The old middle schooler from the coastal area was very upset, but he didn't dare to explode on the spot.

   In the past, Sakai Tadakiyo condoned smuggling because he had not fully gained power. Now not only is the power in the hands of the government, but there is also an extremely legitimate reason to lock the country, which is enough to unite all the daimyos.

  Whoever dares to oppose the lock-up is a national thief!

  When the time comes, the coastal daimyos may wait and see, but the inland daimyos will definitely be willing to crusade against non-subjects.

   As for Tadaki Sakai himself, wouldn't he want to smuggle profits?

  Hehe, you can make money without smuggling, who the **** is doing smuggling? After closing the country, it can only trade in Nagasaki, which is equivalent to the monopoly of sea trade by the shogunate. Sakai Chukiyoshi, who holds the power of the shogunate, will earn more money than before!

  As for the elders present here, even if some of them come from the coast, they can still get some from the monopoly trade.

   Those who really have enough motivation to oppose the lock-down are not here at all.

  The shogun's uncle, Hoshina Masaoyuki, as the staunchest supporter of smuggling, has already lost in the political struggle. He handed over all the power in his hands, did not have any position in the shogunate, and did not need to live in Edo, so he could return to the fief to enjoy his old age.

  Hoshina Masaoyuki didn't even care about common affairs, even his own smuggling. He sat in the study all day, reading and writing, and personally wrote the "Fifteen Articles of Aizu Family Instructions".

  When people are old, they just want to organize their families and educate their children and grandchildren well.

   Sakai Tadakiyoshi, who was originally kneeling, knelt straight and said: "My lord, please reiterate the lock-up order, expel all foreigners, and severely crack down on smuggling by each family."

  Tokugawa Iezuna wanted to speak, but coughed suddenly, and said weakly: "You have full authority to handle this matter."

  So, under the command of Sakai Chukiyoshi, a daimyo from the inland area was appointed to fight smuggling. They took a small group of elites and went to the ports of the coastal daimyo. When they saw people wearing Hanfu, they expelled them, and the shops built by the Han people were also confiscated.

   In the future, smuggling will not be allowed, only trade in Nagasaki.

  In order to avoid offending China, the Japanese shogunate expelled all the Dutch from the outlying islands. The houses and shops of the Dutch were confiscated and sold to the Han at a low price. Anyway, the Dutch trade is already dispensable.

  At the same time, increasing the trade quota between China and Japan can not only appease China, but also allow the old Chinese to make more money.

  This time the country is closed to the outside world, and the power of Japanese businessmen is also involved.

  The rich merchants in Kyoto, Osaka, and Edo almost monopolized Nagasaki trade because of their cooperation with the shogunate. Smuggling broke this monopoly, and the three major merchant groups lobbied secretly, spending a lot of money to bribe the old middleman, and Sakai Tadakiyo got the most money.

   Except for the Chinese businessmen who traded in Nagasaki, all the rest were expelled.

  One merchant ship after another, carrying Chinese merchants and fellows, returned to the coastal areas of China. People including the Sihai Trading Company were also forcibly expelled, but for Emperor Zhao's sake, the Nagasaki trade volume of three ships per year was exclusively given to the Sihai Trading Company.

   Sakai Tadaki felt that he had given face enough, and the Chinese emperor would not be angry because of this.

  Li Quan was about to go south to explore the ocean, and the trade winds had already arrived, but he saw that his own ship came back from Japan, and the Japanese springboard he was sailing to America was locked.

  Japan is a big market that can eat too many goods from China.

  This time the country is locked down, not only maritime merchants are affected, but also land merchants, factory owners, workshop owners and related practitioners.

   And without saying hello in advance, everything happened too suddenly, and many goods destined for Japan were blocked in Chinese ports and could not be sent out.

  The envoys of the four provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Shandong went to the court one after another, asking the emperor to send someone to question the Japanese shogunate.

  These chief envoys never thought of going to war with Japan. For the sake of people's livelihood and the dignity of the Celestial Dynasty, it is enough to ask questions, and by the way, force Japan to increase the trade quota, and it is best to open another port.

After reading the report, Zhao Han said: "The garrisons in Shenyang and Nanjing have not fought for a long time, and each will transfer a division to prepare for war. After the spring of next year, the Shenyang army will start from Lushun, and the Nanjing army will start from Shanghai. They will go directly to Attack Edo!"

  (end of this chapter)