Chapter 311 Customs (II)
"Katsura Taro, from now on you will be the envoy specializing in trade with Ming."
"Thank you, sir!" Katsura Taro's forehead was pressed against the tatami, and he felt as if he had just soaked in warm hot water, with all the hairs on his body standing up.
With such feelings, Hojo Katsura Taro humbly withdrew from the Shogun's residence and immediately went to his office. Not long after, his subordinates arrived.
Looking at the last names of these guys, one, two, three, they are all famous families. It seems that all the big guys are trying their best to get people into this big and lucrative job.
The subordinates at least saluted Hojo Katsura Taro very politely, not caring at all about their previous prominent status as court nobles.
Since no one cared, Hojo Katsura Taro felt that he didn't need to think too much. No matter how lucrative the job was, at least he should get the benefits first. After everyone got ready, Hojo went to visit the Chinese court's trade office in Edo.
When we arrived at the gate, we saw a group of Japanese laborers carrying goods under the supervision of the "Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei". Vehicles were coming in and out, filled with various cabinets, bamboo baskets, and unknown objects wrapped in oil paper.
Hojo recalled the picture books he had read. He was wearing a black soft hat, which looked like an official hat without wings. In the picture books, the Jinyiwei's jackets were right-fronted, but the group in front of him had front-fronted jackets.
Although it is a double-breasted style, the left side is still in front of the right side, and the beautiful copper buttons make the collar completely symmetrical.
The robe below is similar to a pleated skirt. It doesn't look wide, but when it is fully stretched, it is twice as wide as the visible part. It is not only suitable for movement, but also very comfortable during combat.
The Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei in front of him had a belt around his waist with a gun holster and a scabbard. When going to war, these Jinyiwei used a longer embroidered spring knife. Now that it was not wartime, the Jinyiwei only had a short knife.
Even so, Hojo Katsura Taro was quite envious. The belt was as wide as a palm, so the Japanese and the Ming people could certainly afford it, and the high-level samurai could also afford it. As for the mid-level samurai, it might not be the case.
The Jinyiwei of the Ming Dynasty in front of us not only have one in each hand, but made of leather, which is very beautiful and eye-catching. It can be seen that these people are at least mid-level warriors in the Ming Dynasty across the sea.
After hearing about Hojo's purpose and looking at his badge, someone soon brought Hojo and his entourage into the trade office. Feng Yukuan was ready to go back, so he was very happy to meet Hojo. After listening to Hojo's self-introduction, Feng Yukuan said to the permanent representative beside him: "What a coincidence. Did Japan also build a customs?"
Permanent Representative Song Chenglian knew that the Hojo in front of him was the person he would deal with in the future, and said with a smile: "Isn't this good? If we sell the things, everyone will save trouble."
Hojo knew some Chinese, and he had roughly understood what Feng Yukuan and Song Chenglian said. Seeing that they didn't seem to care about their job at all, Hojo was in awe. It seemed that the two guys in front of him really had a more noble status as the legend said. They were not simply sent here to do trade.
The conversation that followed was quite frank, with Hojo reiterating that, according to the Shogun's orders, the Edo trading point could only trade with the Shogun. Ming officials could not sell privately. If they were found to have violated the order, the Ming trading point would have to explain.
Feng Yukuan and Song Chenglian looked at each other and both thought it was nonsense. However, Song Chenglian did not take it seriously. After the official procedures were completed, Song Chenglian pulled Beitiao aside and said, "Brother Beitiao, if I want to buy you a drink, are you free today?"
Hojo had long heard that the Jinyiwei of the Ming Dynasty were quick to act, and now he was even more certain of it. Although he felt that he still had to act according to the traditions of the Japanese, his body was very honest, and Hojo whispered, "I will send someone to invite you to Yoshiwara tonight."
At night, all the Jinyiwei changed into their regular clothes. That is, they changed their combat belts into ordinary belts. They also took a bath and sprayed perfume.
There is no other way. The Japanese love to wear shoes barefoot, and they are particularly concerned about being decent. The Chinese do not want to lose face. There is no need to show off wealth, because that is too low-class. As long as it is cleaner and more fragrant, the Japanese can't do it no matter how much money they spend.
Yoshiwara was a place with trenches dug on all sides, like a fortress. Shandong men were tall, and Huo Chong selected the tallest men for the group going to Japan. Several people who were all over 180cm tall entered Yoshiwara and immediately stood out from the crowd.
The top of the soft hat has a 10-centimeter hollow part, which was used to hold the hair bun. 180+10, plus rubber-soled leather boots, these Shandong brothers are almost two meters tall from the soles of their feet to the top of their hats.
The Yoshiwara guests all looked at the brothers, and the brothers looked down at the guys who were about 160 cm tall. No one spoke, except for looking at each other, and each went to his own destination.
The store that Hojo chose was not a top-notch one. I don't know if he couldn't afford it right now, or if he was worried about meeting a higher-level boss here.
Non-top-tier stores also have their own advantages. Several staff members called the boss over and put a bag and a wooden box in front of him.
The boss opened the box and saw ten bottles of perfume in it. In the bag were large grains of salt. He immediately smiled flatteringly, "What do you want me to do, my lords?"
"We'll pay for this room. Are these enough?"
The boss wanted to say enough, but he stopped temporarily, picked up a large grain of salt and put it in his mouth. After a moment, he spit out the salt with a painful expression, but replied: "Sir , please tell me..."
"The girl's bill is paid separately. Whoever calls her pays. I'm talking about the meal."
The boss then nodded and bowed to show that he understood. However, in the end, he did not give a clear explanation.
After the boss left, Feng Yukuan said to Song Chenglian, "The Japanese are such bad people when it comes to doing things. Don't be fooled by them."
"They dare to default on their debt?" Song Chenglian was a little surprised.
"They don't dare to deny their debts. They will choose the most favorable excuses every time. If they can gain a lot of benefits in this way, they will certainly not deny their debts."
Song Chenglian listened to Feng Yukuan's experience and nodded slightly.
Not long after, Hojo arrived. Feng Yukuan did not give Hojo any chance to talk nonsense. With the generosity of Shandong people, he first persuaded Hojo to drink a few glasses of absinthe. Then he saw that Hojo's face was ruddy and his spirit became excited.
Seeing that it was almost done, Feng Yukuan asked, "Mr. Hojo, what do you mean by not selling things to others?"
Hojo drank more and suddenly lost his inhibitions. He spoke out what he was thinking. "I heard that the Ming merchants sold some things to the Chinese daimyo. Someone around the general is very unhappy."
The "China" in Japanese is different from the way it is called. This China refers to a place in Japan, probably the territory of the Mori family, that is, the Choshu domain.
Feng Yukuan had learned about this and sneered, "We are just doing business. They use their money to buy it. What can we do? Shouldn't we do it?"
Hojo shook his head quickly, "The Shogun is not happy either. Although you are selling ordinary goods, we in the shogunate have rules."
Feng Yukuan rolled his eyes when he heard about the Japanese rules. Song Chenglian had only heard about them, and this time he had a chance to hear the Japanese talk about them, so he asked what the rules were.
Taking advantage of the alcohol, Hojo began to talk about the rules of Japan.
The general idea is that there are rules throughout Japan, and food, clothing, housing, transportation, and daily life are all included in this set of rules.
For example, there are rules for the color of clothes. Black, red and other fabrics and silk are not something that anyone can wear if they want.
As for the inner material, such as the rabbit fur lining of the Song Dynasty, it is worn inside, and it cannot be worn by those who are not of high grade.
"If you can't wear it, will you freeze?" Song Chenglian was very surprised. Even though he had heard of such a thing, he still felt a little curious when he heard the Japanese officials say it.
Rabbit fur lining was just a common clothing accessory in the areas ruled by the Chinese regime. No one cared how others wore it. Even in the areas ruled by the Qing Dynasty, people wore it casually, depending on whether they could afford it.
Hojo looked at the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei opposite him and wanted to criticize them. However, the shogunate did not want to be hostile to the Ming Dynasty, so when he said this, it became less aggressive.
Black and red are the colors used exclusively by the nobility in Japan. The use of these two colors at the same time is especially exclusive to the nobility.
The clothes of the Jinyiwei of the Ming Dynasty were black on the outside and red on the inside. They had already entered the range of Japanese nobles, and the Jinyiwei wore white silk undergarments. If this outfit was worn by Japanese samurai, they would probably be ordered to commit seppuku. To transgress to such an extent, they must be put to death.
Feng Yukuan laughed loudly, while Song Chenglian shook his head and smiled bitterly. Hojo did not stop, and said drunkenly: "If you want to sell things, it's not impossible. You can build a place to sell them..."
After the meal, no one called the girl. At least when Feng Yukuan and the others left, they did not call her. As for whether the Hojo who stayed here called the girl, Feng Yukuan and Song Chenglian did not care at all.
What everyone cares about is the arrangement of the Edo Shogunate. Hojo is definitely not the one who can make the decision, so what he said should be the opinion of the Shogun.
Compared with the previous Wakoku shogunate, the Edo shogunate was stronger than them in all aspects.
Since the shogunate established by Tokugawa Ieyasu had a tightly controlled political system, the shogunate's rule became stable after two generations of shoguns, Tokugawa Hidetada and Tokugawa Iemitsu.
In the Edo period, the shogun was the largest feudal lord, directly managing a quarter of the country's land and many important cities. The rest of the country was divided into more than 200 "feudal domains" of varying sizes, and the heads of the feudal domains had to obey the shogun. With the power directly under the shogun, the Tokugawa family had the strength to suppress the daimyo at any time.
The daimyo in the country were divided into three categories: the kin han, the hereditary daimyo, and the gao daimyo. The shogun and the daimyo all had their own retainers, or samurai, who formed the basis of the shogunate's rule, thus forming a feudal ruling system consisting of the shogunate and the han, or the shogunate-han system.
The relatives and hereditary lords also have fiefs and armies, and they alone are capable of fighting against the outer daimyo. With the shogun's direct territory and these guys, it is extremely difficult for the outer daimyo to rebel.
As for the entire Japanese nation, the people were strictly divided into four classes: samurai, farmers, craftsmen and merchants. The Tokugawa shogunate implemented a policy of isolation, strictly prohibiting Japanese from trading with foreign countries, prohibiting Japan from communicating with overseas, expelling foreign merchants and missionaries, and only allowing trade with China, Korea, the Netherlands and other countries, and only in Nagasaki.
From this perspective, the fact that the current shogun allowed the Ming Dynasty to establish a trading point in Edo already shows that the current daimyo was in a desperate situation. He had to rely on this trade line to solve the serious problem facing the shogun.
Song Chenglian was puzzled. "Is the shogunate really planning to establish a new country?"
Feng Yukuan corrected him, "The trade between Japan and China has never been interrupted. Expanding our trade has nothing to do with the policy of opening up the country. In fact, Japan is better than the Qing Dynasty in this regard!"
When Feng Yukuan mentioned the Qing Dynasty's maritime ban, his face turned ugly, even a little vicious. Song Chenglian knew Feng Yukuan's dislike for the Qing Dynasty, so he could only turn the topic to the news conveyed by Hojo, "Brother Feng, why didn't the Shogun make the decision? Do they look down on us?"
Feng Yukuan became furious when he thought of the maritime ban. He cursed the Qing Dynasty's maritime ban and told Song Chenglian about the so-called Japanese version of the maritime ban.
In 1616, the second shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada, took further measures to ban religion. The main contents were: first, further banning foreign religions; second, all foreign ships were not allowed to trade in the daimyo's territory, and could only engage in trade activities in Nagasaki and Hirado; third, Chinese ships were not restricted by this regulation.
Hearing this, Song Chenglian quickly echoed Feng Yukuan's curse, saying that the Qing court was worse than Japan.
Someone agreed with him, and Feng Yukuan felt relieved, so he continued his story.
Because of the problem of foreign religion, the shogunate banned Spanish ships from coming to Japan in 1623. In the following decade, the Tokugawa shogunate issued the so-called "isolation order" five times in a row.
The main contents are: First, Japanese ships are prohibited from going out to sea for trade and Japanese people are prohibited from communicating with overseas countries, and illegal immigrants will be sentenced to death; second, all missionary activities of foreign religions should be banned, missionaries who sneak into Japan should be reported and arrested, and the influence of foreign religions should be completely eliminated; third, foreign ships arriving in Japan should be closely monitored, and trade activities should also be strictly controlled by the shogunate.
However, these actions still did not involve Chinese ships. After all, China and Japan have been trading for so many years, and everyone knows each other well. Japan knows that China will not continue to trade and send foreign missionaries to Japan.
Therefore, Japan's "closed-door policy" was eventually established, which was more aimed at foreign religions from Europe rather than at trade between China and Japan.
It was targeted at prohibiting the foreign daimyo in the southwest of Japan from purchasing goods from China through free trade, in order to ensure the absolute dominance of the Tokugawa shogunate.
At this point, Song Chenglian finally understood the root of the matter. Thinking back to what Hojo said, Song Chenglian sighed, "Brother Feng, after you said that, I realized that I had misunderstood before. Everything the shogunate did seemed to be aimed at us, but in fact, they were targeting Japan."
Feng Yukuan waved his hands again and again, "Don't think too highly of Japan. I've said before that the Japanese never tell the truth. You can't think of Japan in the same way as we do. If you think that way, you will suffer."
Song Chenglian felt that he couldn't understand, so he could only beg: "Can you give me an example?"
"Then Hojo said, let's build a special business district. Just like Yoshiwara. Let me ask you, if they point out a piece of land to you, what will you do?"
"Build it on that piece of land?" Song Chenglian asked carefully.
"First, you need to find out who this piece of land belongs to. Not only who it belonged to before, but also who it belongs to now. Who lives next to this piece of land? Who manages the road to this piece of land? If you think that Hojo said what the general meant, you can believe it. You will be tricked to death without knowing how you died!"
Song Chenglian immediately took out a small notebook to record. Feng Yukuan took out a small notebook and threw it to Song Chenglian. Song Chenglian took it and flipped through it. He saw that the first few pages listed many key points of action against Japan.
The writing is messy, and the handwriting shows that it is from many different time periods. It can be seen that this is a long-term accumulation, not a sudden rise.
Looking further down, there is a very neat article, which should be a summary. What is written in it is very similar to what Feng Yukuan said. The only difference is that Feng Yukuan talked about the specific implementation, while that article talked about the direction of implementation.
When he raised his head to express his gratitude, Feng Yukuan said, "Here it is. Use it well and learn from it. Add more content and pass it on to the next generation. I will retire after I return this time. I am too old to travel by sea. From now on, it will be up to you young brothers."
Song Chenglian was touched and asked quickly, "Brother Feng, thank you very much. But I still want to ask, don't the Japanese listen to the general? The general has spoken, so he must keep his word, right?"
"Haha." Feng Yukuan laughed dryly, "Brother, think about it again. Can that sentence of Hojo be sure that these are what the general said?"
Song Chenglian recalled that it was just as Feng Yukuan said. Hojo's words were very clever, always tempting others to think that it was the general's order. However, except for air-to-air, nothing can be taken seriously.
Just when I was wondering how to comment, I heard Feng Yukuan continue, "But don't make a mistake, this is definitely the general's order. However, the general will not admit it, but will keep an eye on this Hojo. If Hojo can gain a little more, the general will not give in, never. Not only do they want to occupy this point, they will also think they can squeeze out two more points. If this kind of overreaching happened in Shandong, they would not be beaten to death, but at least scolded to death. People who do this are ashamed. But in Japan, this is not the case at all."
Song Chenglian didn't dare to ignore Feng Yukuan's words at this time. He thought for a while before answering: "You are shameless?"
"It's not shameless. What Brother Huo said is what we Shandong people say. The one who has money is better..."
Seeing Feng Yukuan struggling to recall, Song Chenglian hurried to help him think, and suddenly he remembered, "When the granaries are full, people know etiquette; when they have enough food and clothing, they know honor and disgrace. Is this the sentence?"
Feng Yukuan nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, yes! That's it. The Japanese are so poor, do you think they can be so brave? What they are afraid of is that they can't even maintain such a poor life. Honor and disgrace, etc., you say they don't know, it's unfair to them. But when they are so poor, compared with the so-called honor and disgrace and the real benefits, it is better to put the benefits in the bag first..."
