Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 403: It is better to do finance than to dominate Japan

During this tribute from Japan in the seventh year of Zhengde, serious trade frictions occurred.

Japanese diplomats made two major demands.

The first requirement is that the price of commodity trade must be strictly traded in accordance with the previous guidance price.

Another appeal is that several Ming people, such as Sun Zan, Gao Laoguan, Pan Wu and others, claimed to have helped the Japanese envoys to sell the contraband goods they brought, but ended up getting away with the goods. These goods are worth about 500 taels, and it has been almost three years. Is there anyone who can do anything about it?
Well..., it is written in the Japanese's own "Jinshin Ruming Ji", so it is very likely to be slander.

We are the Celestial Empire, this shouldn’t happen.

Why, then, did all the civil and military officials in the court criticize this tribute trade and say that it was useless?

There are three reasons.

First, trade is indeed profitable, but the local government has to provide food and lodging for the delegations. Sometimes, the other delegations will refuse to leave once they arrive, and the welfare in this regard is completely free.

The local government did not want to be cheated by paying money, nor did it want to cause a diplomatic crisis and make itself unhappy over time, so it was quite resistant to the tribute.

This factor accounts for about 1% of all the reasons. After all, it’s not my money that is being spent.

whee.

Second, there was a huge shortfall in the imperial court's tribute system, which was the tributes from the Sichuan and Tibetan areas. The tributes from the Sichuan and Tibetan areas were mostly swords, armor, and monk products.

The smelting technology of the Sichuan and Tibetan people is average, and the quality of their swords, armor and the like is not good enough. They earn foreign exchange mainly from the products made by the living Buddhas after their death.

The Buddhist artifacts received by the Ming Dynasty over the years include more than 100,000 kilograms of Buddha bones, more than 8,000 Buddha teeth, and mountains of relics.

These monk products were of little use, and the rewards given to them by the Ming Dynasty were mainly silk, raw silk and Ming treasure notes.

This created a huge deficit.

Is it a good deal?
In fact, it is still very cost-effective.

Many people believe that the Ming Dynasty only had theoretical rule over the snowy areas, but this is not the case.

During the Yuan Dynasty, the imperial court managed the snowy areas using officials of the ten thousand households. In the Ming Dynasty, the hereditary religious kings were in charge of the snowy areas.

The change from a nomadic position to a hereditary position seems to mean a reduction in ruling power, but from the perspective of the political structure, this cannot be considered as such.

During the Yuan Dynasty, the officials who managed the snowy areas were not sent in by the imperial court, but were nominated by local forces. This made the officials lose the significance of the imperial court's control over the local areas.

In addition, this is a region dominated by religion. How much role can such an administrative official play in his duties?
During the Ming Dynasty, the replacement of nomadic officials with hereditary ones seemed to be a decline in ruling power, but in fact it dismembered a region that was able to make a concerted voice.

The ruling structure of the Snow Region changed from the original public election of ten thousand households to the coexistence of seven kings.

The seven kings are the King of Expounding the Dharma, the King of Expounding the Dharma, the King of Protecting the Dharma, the King of Praising the Dharma, the King of Assisting the Dharma, the Great Treasure Dharma King, and the Great Mahayana Dharma King.

The King of Chanhua, the King of Chanjiao, the King of Hujiao, the King of Zanshan, and the King of Fujiao divided the land among the five kings, each ruling a region and establishing their own hereditary lineage.

The Gyalwa Karmapa and the Mahayana Dharma King rule their thoughts religiously.

After the split, the Snow Region no longer had individual consciousness, but directly accepted the vertical leadership of the Ming court.

The French kings sent people to Beijing whenever they had nothing to do and enjoyed the good days of the Ming Empire.

The religious kings also acted like feudal lords and needed the eldest brother's approval for everything.

As for the Ming Empire, it overcame numerous difficulties and did something that seemed even less cost-effective.

That is, it took huge amounts of manpower and material resources to build the post road from Ya'an to Tibet.

In the fifth year of Yongle, Zhu Di issued an edict to Prince Chanhua: "Instruct Prince Chanhua, the national master of Phagmodrupa initiation, together with Prince Hujiao, Prince Zanshan, National Master Biligongwa, Chuanbu Qianhu Suo, Bili, Duogan, Long Sanwei, Chuanzang and other clusters, to re-establish post stations to communicate with envoys from the Western Regions."

At the same time, he ordered "Commander-in-chief Liu Zhao, He Ming and others to set up stations in Xifan, Dogan, U-Tsang and other places to pacify the military and civilians."

"Order that all post stations under your jurisdiction that have not been restored should be set up as before to carry out missions."

With the joint efforts of the Han and Tibetan people, it took a total of seven years, "since then, the road has been opened, envoys have traveled tens of thousands of miles, and there is no worry about bandits."

A few years ago, the previous King Chanhua passed away, and his son Aji Wangqiudi sent two foreign monks to Beijing to request hereditary succession.

As a result, because the journey was too long, when the two foreign monks rushed back to Tibet with the Ming Dynasty's imperial edict, the new king Aji Wang Qiu Deshi had died of illness.

Now there is trouble, as the successor is the grandson.

The two foreign monks didn't want to make another trip, so they got together to discuss it, and finally they agreed: The Han people don't know anything, why don't we just change our name.

So the two foreign monks made some flexible arrangements and modified the imperial edict, and Awang Zhashi Zhabajian took over.

Awang Zhashi Zhabajian happily took the imperial edict and the inherited seal and asked people to pay tribute to the court to express their gratitude.

However, the problem was discovered by the governor of Sichuan.

So Sichuan immediately arrested these people and advised the emperor: Damn it, these people forged the imperial edict, kill them!

But the emperor is not stupid.

The sense of ritual and such is just a form of PUA. It will not be fun if you get too angry.

So Zhu Houzhao’s father suggested: Forget it.

In the end, he was spared the death penalty and exiled to Pingliangwei, Shaanxi.

"At that time, the king died, and his son requested to succeed him. He ordered two foreign monks to be the chief and deputy envoys to confer the title. By then, the new king had also died, and his son Awang Zhashi Zhabajian requested the title. The two monks had no choice but to grant the title, so they presented the ceremony of thanks and the seal of their father as proof. When they arrived in Sichuan, the governor was diligent in conferring the title without authorization, and arrested them for the crime of beheading, or sentenced them to death and sent them to the border, including the deputy envoys and below."

——"Ming Shilu Xiaozong Shilu"

It can be said that ruling is not something that can be achieved overnight, but requires wisdom and careful care.

There is no need to use an arbitrary standard to judge its political form.

Overall, from Yongle to Hongxi, to Xuande, to Zhengtong, to Jingtai, to Chenghua, to Hongzhi, to Zhengde, the attitudes of the Ming emperors towards the Sichuan-Tibetan people were...

Spend a little money, make them obedient first, and believe in the wisdom of future generations.

Emperor Zhengde also worked diligently, using his limited private money to win over these religious forces stationed in the border areas.

In order to completely integrate with those religious barbarians and deepen the rule of the Ming Dynasty, he even obtained a religious identity.

Daqing Dharma King!

If Zhu Houzhao could successfully complete his rule over a long period of time, who knows if the title of "Daqing Dharma King" would become the "Heavenly Khan" in the hearts of Tibetans?

Then, the problem arises!

——Zhengde has no descendants!!

This Ming Dynasty makes me cry to death.

The Emperor Wanshou of Xuandu Realm who came to power later was somewhat clever, but this guy who was born as a vassal king did not have a clear understanding of how to rule a country.

With the indiscriminate destruction of Buddhism by Emperor Wanshou of Xuandu Realm and the loss of power of the seven kings who had pledged allegiance to the Ming Dynasty in the struggle in the snowy region, this ruling system simply failed. In the later period, there was still such a record in Xu Xiake's Travel Notes.

"In Tubo, there are Dharma Kings and Human Kings. The Human Kings rule war, there were four of them at first, but now they are one. The Dharma Kings rule Buddhism, there are also two of them. The Human Kings use the land to support the Dharma Kings, and they are unaware of the existence of China; the Dharma Kings educate the people on behalf of the Human Kings, and they obey the court."

"It is taught that the Great Dharma King and the Second Dharma King are each other's master and disciple. When the Great Dharma King is about to pass away, he will first tell the Second Dharma King where he will be reborn. If the Second Dharma King goes and seeks the place where he will be reborn according to his instructions, he will surely find the place where he will be reborn. Then, he will embrace him and raise him as the Great Dharma King, and pass on the Way to him."

So in the eyes of the ministers, what proportion did the Sichuan-Tibet tribute trade, which was so disadvantageous, account for in their opposition?

It’s also 1%, because it’s not my fucking money.

whee.

The third point, which accounts for 98% of the weight, is the most important point?

That is, all those messy things coming from trade were used to pay the salaries of that damn emperor!
That's my fucking money!

No laughing!

As a person with the perspective of later generations, Pei Yuan can certainly look at this issue more openly.

While the Ming Dynasty was making profits through tribute, successive emperors were also unyielding in their desire to build ships and go abroad. The restrictions on tribute were more intended to protect markets that could have been monopolized than to reduce losses.

Sadly, everyone knows the result.

Speaking of which, the dispute over tribute among the Japanese delegation also profoundly revealed the internal contradictions in Japan.

There was one incident of tribute dispute recorded in the Ming Dynasty, which was the famous Ningbo tribute dispute in the second year of Jiajing.

However, based on records in Japan, the dispute over tribute actually occurred twice.

One was the dispute over tribute in Japan, which was the dispute over tribute to the Ming Dynasty in the seventh year of Zhengde.

One was during the dispute over tribute in Ningbo, which brought Japan’s domestic conflicts to the surface of the Ming Dynasty. That was in the second year of the Jiajing reign.

According to the Ming Emperor's order to pay tribute to Japan every ten years, these two tribute disputes actually spanned thirty years.

The records of the Ming Dynasty were not very detailed, so it was naturally difficult to discover the huge opportunities therein, nor did they realize that the two insignificant trades between the Ming Empire and Japan would trigger earth-shaking changes in Japan.

As mentioned before, trade with the Ming Dynasty was an important source of wealth imported into Japan through the Yongle Tongbao.

At the beginning, this wealth was always in the hands of the Ashikaga Shogun.

After Ashikaga Yoshimitsu paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty and received a large amount of Yongle Tongbao coins as a reward, he immediately became interested.

It would be better to engage in finance than to dominate Japan.

——I want to trade in cryptocurrencies!
The currency in circulation in Japan at that time was mainly Song Dynasty coins that had been used for hundreds of years. In addition, there were a large number of self-minted copper coins in Japan, as well as a small influx of Hongwu Tongbao coins.

Therefore, in order to drive up the value of these Ming coins, the Ashikaga Shogun family spent several generations promoting the Yongle Tong Bao in their hands.

Shogun Ashikaga first issued a decree, forcing the local lords not to refuse Yongle money.

Subsequently, the "Coin Editing Order" was issued, announcing that Yongle Tong Bao and Xuande Tong Bao could be used to pay Duan money and annual tribute, and other Song Dynasty coins and Japanese coins were invalid and were no longer allowed to be used.

After the defeat of the Ashikaga Shogun, the Ouchi and Hosokawa clans, who took over the tribute trade, also discovered the benefits of this caliber of wealth.

They also agreed that...

It’s better to engage in finance than to dominate Japan!

We also want to speculate in cryptocurrencies!

The two companies joined forces to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty in exchange for a large number of Yongle Tongbao coins, and then continued to speculate in currencies in Japan.

The other Japanese princes were all dumbfounded.

Is Yongle Tongbao so fragrant?

Both the Ouchi and Hosokawa families expressed their opinions: Get on the bus quickly, it’s too late, 4,000 points is just the starting point.

As a result, other Japanese princes also followed suit and rushed to use Yongle Tongbao, and only accepted Yongle coins in trade.

Those who often play Japanese Warring States games and watch Japanese Warring States action movies will find that the Yongle Tong Bao was painted on the military flags of Oda Nobunaga's family. There are Yongle Tong Bao patterns everywhere on the heads, armor, and curtains of some princes.

Later, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified Japan, he thought about his poor background and wanted to create some image projects that would be passed down through the ages to prove his wealth.

So what should I do?

What can you do to appear generous yet elegant, noble yet profound?

So he used his imagination to cast many Yongle Tong Bao coins using gold and silver.

——Tsk.

Now the problem is that the two most powerful daimyo in Japan are now frantically hyping up the Yongle Tong Bao, hoping to use this wealth to plunder the wealth of other daimyo.

But, but that is Yongle Tong Bao!
The Yongle Tong Bao of the Ming Dynasty!
I am in the Ming Dynasty!
Those Japanese daimyos tried so hard and fought against each other to get the Yongle Tongbao coins, but I was too lazy to even bend down to pick them up!

If he took advantage of the time when they were frantically hyping up the Yongle Tong Bao, he could secretly contact a guide and run to cash in frantically, first distributing the goods to those small princes, and then concentrating his efforts on squeezing out the Ouchi and Hosokawa clans.

Wouldn't it be possible to directly cause the two giants to collapse?
Pei Yuan couldn't even imagine the pain of selling at a high price.

If these two daimyos collapsed, and in the form of a financial collapse, it would surely spread to other regions, causing a chain reaction.

Perhaps the whole of Japan will reach the climax of the Warring States period ahead of time.

Japan is a place rich in gold and silver. Pei Yuan can use the precious Yongle Tong Bao to exchange for the common gold and silver.

And if Pei Yuan remembered correctly, Japan was a particularly strange country. The more losses they suffered, the more obsessed they became.

The more war there is, the more valuable the Yongle Tong Bao becomes.

Otherwise, there wouldn't have been things like the Oda family's generals painting Yongle Tongbao coins all over their bodies, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi minting gold and silver Yongle Tongbao coins.

Later, Spanish silver flowed into the Ming Dynasty from the Philippines in large quantities, and Japanese silver could no longer be exchanged for Yongle Tong Bao.

Those daimyos lost this caliber of wealth and gave up speculation, causing the Yongle Tong Bao to begin to depreciate.

Pei Yuan thought about it and subconsciously drew a simple map of Japan on the ground.

He didn't know much about Japan and only had a rough idea of ​​Japan's Warring States Period, so the map he drew was only a rough outline.

Pei Yuan watched carefully.

Thoughts flashed through my mind.

The wild Jurchens, the Japanese pirates, the Shandong Beiwadusi, the Luojiao, the Japanese tribute missions, the Ouchi clan, the Hosokawa clan, the Yongle Tongbao, the rise of the silver group, the bleeding of the inner treasury, the Zhongsouyou Group, and the speculation of the Ming Baochao.

A series of thoughts vaguely formed a web and slowly wove themselves together.

(End of this chapter)