Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 509 Measurement
On the tenth day of the second month of the nineteenth year of Kan'ei (1642), the morning mist in Kaiping Bay had not yet dissipated, and the salty sea breeze, carrying the coolness of early spring, lapped against the gunwale of the "Canglu Maru".

Yokoyama Michiyoshi, the elder of the Matsumae Domain, stood on the deck, leaning against the railing. The hem of his black patterned robe was lifted by the wind, revealing the deer-patterned armor underneath. This armor was a gift from the previous lord, Matsumae Hiroshi, fifteen years ago. Now, the edges were worn and frayed, just like his current state of mind. It looked neat on the surface, but inside it was gnawed by anxiety.

The ship passed through a calm bay, and the port of Kaiping (now Hakodate City) gradually came into view ahead.

More than a decade ago, he led his samurai on an inspection tour of Ezo (Hokkaido), and visited this coastline. At that time, the area was still a barren tidal flat, extremely desolate.

Today, a city wall made of giant timber and rammed earth has been erected here, with several red five-star flags planted on the top of the wall, fluttering in the wind. The bright red flags are particularly eye-catching and dazzling under the afternoon sun.

This emerging port city is situated on the coast of the bay, with neat wooden buildings stretching along the coastline. Dozens of ships of different sizes are moored beside the docks, including the "slender-waisted" seagoing vessels unique to the new Chinese, as well as merchant ships from the Ming Dynasty, Korea, and even as far away as Southeast Asia.

Inside the port area, steam-powered buckets were loading and unloading cargo. Laborers shouted as they unloaded goods such as porcelain, cloth, and ironware from the ships, and then loaded packages of food and bundles of furs onto the ships.

The size of Kaiping Port is comparable to some small castle towns in Japan, and it is said that the population has reached more than 3,200.

The city has a network of streets and clearly defined zones.

To the east are the administrative and warehouse areas, where a two-story brick and wood structure stands out—the government office of Kaiping Port. To the west are the workshop and residential areas, with neat rows of houses and wisps of smoke rising from the chimneys. To the south, facing the port, are the commercial and fish processing areas, where busy merchants and fishermen can be seen everywhere.

The streets were bustling with people. In addition to Han Chinese immigrants dressed in cotton and linen clothing, you could also see Ainu people wearing furs, the occasional Japanese merchant, and a few European sailors.

The air was filled with the salty smell of the sea, the fragrance of wood, and the unique aroma of various goods mixed together.

The streets of the small town are paved with cement, and although there are puddles of melted snow, there is not a trace of mud.

You should know that by early spring, many streets in Fushan City should already be ankle-deep mud, making it difficult to walk.

Thirty percent of the houses along the street are brick-and-mortar structures, while the rest are built with rough timber. Corn, dried chili peppers, and salted fish hang under the eaves. Occasionally, a few blue-and-white porcelain vases are placed on the windowsills of well-off families, with a few sprigs of newly opened plum blossoms inserted in them.

In the bustling city, a group of children were surrounding a peddler, staring longingly at the sugar figurine he was holding. It was sculpted into the shape of a military general on horseback, which made the children clap and laugh while swallowing hard.

Yokoyama Michiyoshi and his party were led to the Kaiping government office to meet Qi Yongze, the commissioner of the Xinhua Beiying Colonization Area.

Inside the reception room, the fire in the stove was burning brightly, dispelling the chill of early spring.

A detailed map of Ezo Island hangs on the wall, clearly marking Xinhua's various settlements and the Matsumae Domain's sphere of influence.

Yokoyama Michiyoshi glanced at it casually, his mood becoming even heavier—on the map, the red markers representing the Xinhua forces almost covered the entire southern part of the island, while the Matsumae Domain's territory had been compressed to a small area on the southernmost Matsumae Peninsula.

Before long, Qi Yongze, the colonization commissioner of Beiying Island, rushed over and greeted him warmly.

This was the first time Yokoyama Michiyoshi had met Qi Yongze. The man was about forty years old, with a neat short haircut, a resolute face, and sharp eyes. He wore a dark blue cotton robe with a mink-trimmed short jacket over it, which made him look both dignified and practical.

"Your Excellency, I have brought with me a personal letter from the head of my household." Yokoyama Michiyoshi took out an exquisite letter from his sleeve and presented it with both hands. "Since last year, Japan has suffered from a rare famine (the Great Kan'ei Famine), with severe food shortages and many people displaced. Although the Matsumae Domain is located in a remote area, we feel the pain deeply. We earnestly request that you further expand the grain trade to alleviate this urgent crisis."

Qi Yongze nodded: "We have heard about this matter. Natural disasters are merciless, and the people suffer, which is truly regrettable. Xinhua has always valued its friendly relations with the Matsumae Domain and is willing to provide assistance within its capacity."

"I am deeply grateful for your understanding and support." Upon hearing this, Yokoyama Michiyoshi breathed a sigh of relief, then cautiously inquired, "May I ask, what is the price you set for selling grain?"

"What do you think, Mr. Yokoyama?" Qi Yongze asked with a smile.

“Uh…” Yokoyama Michiyoshi paused for a moment, hesitated briefly, and then said a number: “I dare to propose that grain be priced at one tael of silver per shi, corn at six mace of silver per shi, and potatoes at three mace of silver. What do you think, Your Excellency?”

"Hehe..." Qi Yongze chuckled twice. "Mr. Yokoyama, your price is a bit unfair! As far as I know, in big cities like Kyoto and Osaka, the price of rice has soared to an astronomical price of 3.6 taels per shi (a unit of dry measure), and the price of grains is around 2.8 to 3 taels. Even corn can sell for 1.6 taels. So, your price is a bit unfair!"

"Your Excellency..." Yokoyama Michiyoshi rubbed his hands awkwardly, "Your Excellency, the price you mentioned is the local selling price of grain. But what we're discussing is... the purchase price at the production site. This... there's a slight difference between the two prices..."

"The difference?" Qi Yongze shook his head. "Your price difference is too high! It's more than one or two taels of silver per shi of grain. If we trade 10,000 shi of grain, wouldn't we lose more than 10,000 taels of silver?"

"..." Yokoyama Michiyoshi remained silent for a while, then said in a low voice, "I heard that the rice you Xinhua people sell to the Tsushima clan is only two taels and five qian of silver, and the price of grain is only one tael and eight qian. Can we also trade at this price?"

"I didn't expect Mr. Yokoyama to be so well-informed!" Qi Yongze looked at the other person in surprise.

"More than half of the Siamese rice imported from Nagasaki should have been transported by your Xinhua merchant ships and then resold to Japan by the Tsushima clan, right?" Yokoyama Michiyoshi asked.

"It seems Mr. Yokoyama really knows a lot!" Qi Yongze said with a smile. "If that's the case, why did you give us such an extremely unfair price?"

Yokoyama Michiyoshi shook his head with a wry smile: "Your Excellency is unaware of the situation. The Matsumae clan is a small and small clan with limited resources, and we simply cannot afford a high price. In addition to bringing 12,000 taels of silver, we have also prepared another small gift in the hope of making up for the price difference."

He paused briefly, observing Qi Yongze's expression, and continued, "On the two ships, we have brought over four hundred young girls, all virgins aged thirteen to eighteen, with decent looks, from all over Japan. They volunteered to travel across the ocean, hoping to exchange them for Ming Dynasty goods such as grain, tea, porcelain, and raw silk."

Qi Yongze's smile gradually disappeared, replaced by a thoughtful expression.

He slowly stood up, walked to the window, and gazed at the ships moored in the harbor.

Yokoyama Michiyoshi's heart was in his throat as he stared intently at Yokoyama's retreating figure.

He knew that most of the new Chinese immigrants to Beiying Island were men, resulting in a severe gender imbalance, and these girls might be their only bargaining chip.

"How many of these goods do you still have?" After a moment, Qi Yongze returned to his seat with a gentle smile on his face.

There are at least 80,000 to 100,000 bachelors in the New Zealand mainland and the North Ying Island settlement. If they rely solely on local indigenous women for marriage, it will be insufficient. They must find other ways to bring in more young women to balance the serious gender imbalance problem in the area.

“If you can give us a reasonable price for the grain, we can prepare more of these goods for you.” Yokoyama Michiyoshi picked up the teacup on the table and took a small sip.

Sure enough, the Xinhua people were very interested in these "goods"!
“This year, we need five thousand.” Qi Yongze took a deep breath. “Of course, if your Matsumae Domain can provide more, we can handle it too. As for the price of grain…”

He smiled at Yokoyama Danji: "We can provide you with grain at the same price as the Tsushima clan, but the total transaction volume will only be 20,000 koku. In addition, tea, porcelain, raw silk, and furs can be calculated at 90% of last year's prices."

"Twenty thousand koku?" Yokoyama Dangi frowned. "That's too little. We need one hundred thousand koku of grain."

“Mr. Yokoyama, we don’t have that much surplus grain to sell.” Qi Yongze shook his head and said, “Although Beiying Island has fertile land, the weather is cold, and the development and settlement period is still short, so it is not enough to produce too much grain.”

"Furthermore, as you know, the volcanic eruption on the island last year severely impacted the entire region's grain harvest. Moreover, our own immigration is constantly increasing, and we need to maintain sufficient reserves to cope with unforeseen circumstances. We are afraid we cannot provide the 100,000 shi you requested."

“Don’t you have a large number of merchant ships traveling between Siam, Champa, and Annam?” Yokoyama Dangi said. “There should be enough grain there to transport to Ezo Island and then import it into Japan through our Matsumae Domain. You know, in the case of such a large-scale famine, we can earn two or three times the profit for every shi (a unit of dry measure) of rice we bring in.”

Don't you Chinese from New China love trading goods the most?
How could we let such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make money slip by?
“Previously, we had many merchant ships that traveled to places like Siam and Champa. But in recent years, the situation there has been unstable, and the Dutch are also competing with us for business. We can no longer dominate the rice trade there.”

"..." Yokoyama Danji stared intently at Qi Yongze, seemingly trying to discern from his expression whether he was telling the truth.

“Mr. Yokoyama, I have no reason to lie to you.” Qi Yongze smiled. “As you know, the Dutch have grown in power very quickly. They not only have exclusive trading privileges in Nagasaki that are second only to those of the Ming Dynasty merchants, but they have also established close trade channels in places such as Dongfan (present-day Taiwan), Siam, Malaya, Borneo, and Java. Our Xinhua merchant ships simply cannot compete with them.”

"The Dutch sometimes used force to attack and drive our Xinhua merchant ships to the aforementioned areas for normal rice trade. Oh, and they also expressed serious dissatisfaction with our Xinhua control of Luzon, and once tried to organize armed ships to drive us out and replace Spanish rule. Fortunately, the Dutch did not have enough landing troops, so they could only watch helplessly."

Yokoyama Danji remained silent for a long time after hearing this. "Eighty thousand koku." He looked solemnly at Qi Yongze. "We need to purchase at least eighty thousand koku of grain. Rice, cereals, corn, and even potatoes can be used for delivery. To be honest, Your Excellency, the Tokugawa Shogun of Edo has sent an order to our Matsumae Domain, requiring us to find a way to import fifty thousand koku of grain and transport it to Mutsu, Kanto, and Kinai to alleviate the severe famine in those areas."

“Thirty-five thousand shi.” Qi Yongze pondered for a moment and then gave a number. “This is the maximum transaction amount we can offer. Mr. Yokoyama, please don’t make things difficult for us.”

"Your Excellency Commissioner, are you just going to stand by and watch hundreds of thousands, even millions, die of starvation?" Yokoyama Danji was still unwilling to give up.

"..." Qi Yongze shook his head firmly.

Of course I won't stand by and watch hundreds of thousands or even millions of Japanese starve to death. At that time, I can only close my eyes and pretend I didn't see it!

To be honest, if it weren't for the need to make some "ill-gotten gains" to supplement the impoverished finances of Beiying Island and expand the construction of immigrant settlements, we wouldn't even be willing to sell you a single grain of food.

Japan is facing an unprecedented famine, which is weakening the foundation of the shogunate's rule to the greatest extent possible. We, the new Chinese, are happy to see this happen.

Putting aside the emotional factors from later generations, even considering the presence of a powerful enemy on our side, our Beiying Island colony also hoped that the great famine that broke out in Japan would be more prolonged and more severe.

In this way, the Japanese shogunate would be powerless to interfere with our Xinhua's occupation of Beiying Island, allowing us more time to "develop".

It should be noted that last July, the Tokugawa Shogunate instructed the Mutsu Tsugaru clan to send people to Hokkien Island to conduct an on-site investigation into the development of this large island by newly colonized Chinese.

From initially establishing settlements secretly to eventually expanding in a semi-open manner, and even attracting the attention of the Edo Shogunate, the occupation of the northern islands by the new Chinese had already made the Tokugawa clan somewhat wary.

Matsumae Domain, constrained by its own weakness, was powerless to stop the gradual encroachment of the new Chinese.

However, the Tokugawa Shogunate had both the power and the motivation to take extremely tough measures against the new Chinese.

Of course, the Tokugawa clan might not be willing to use force to launch a large-scale cross-sea expedition to forcibly expel the new Chinese forces from Ezo Island, a "land beyond the reach of civilization".

However, the appearance of such a powerful, uninvited, and uncontrollable force directly at the "North Gate" of Japan was undoubtedly a blatant challenge to the authority of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

In order to ensure the stability of the "Japanese-style Sino-barbarian order" system, they will inevitably take extremely tough diplomatic, economic blockade or other indirect means to exert pressure, tighten the "fence" in the north, and sever any contact with the new Chinese.

If the Tokugawa clan felt that the new Chinese territories posed a strong threat to their core areas of control, such as the main island of Honshu, they might mobilize military forces to wage a "territorial war" to eliminate potential threats.

Although the new Chinese possessed a large number of ships (including ships dedicated to immigration and commercial transport), giving the Tokugawa Shogunate a relative naval advantage, they were not worried about the enemy launching a landing operation.

However, waging war or military conflict with such a large country with a population of 17 million (roughly estimated) and hundreds of thousands of professional warriors would be quite challenging for Xinhua.

Therefore, when Japan was plunged into a widespread famine since last year, the new Chinese did not engage in large-scale grain trade to earn substantial profits. Instead, they took the opportunity to recruit young and middle-aged people, especially young women, and sent large numbers of immigrants to the New Island and the Outer Northeast region.

If this allows the Japanese to have food to eat, wouldn't that just be asking for trouble?

Well, selling a little bit of high-priced grain is doing our part to show some humanity, and that's enough.

After finalizing the grain trade volume, the subsequent talks proceeded smoothly, with both sides engaging in in-depth discussions on the details of trade in other goods.

Qi Yongze agreed in principle that if there is a large surplus of grain production after this year's autumn harvest, he would increase the scale of exports as appropriate and accept the trade method of exchanging Japanese women for consideration.

In exchange, the Matsumae Domain will reduce taxes and fees for Chinese merchant ships entering its ports and provide more trade facilitation.

However, as the business was concluded, the atmosphere of the meeting gradually became delicate.

Yokoyama Michiyoshi hesitated several times before finally asking the question that had troubled him for so long when a servant was refilling his tea.

"Your Excellency, please forgive my intrusion, but there is something that has been on my mind, and I am not sure if I should ask it."

Qi Yongze glanced at the elder of the Matsumae Domain and smiled slightly: "Please speak freely, Mr. Yokoyama."

Yokoyama Michiyoshi took a deep breath, his voice trembling slightly: "With your current power on Hokkaido Island, you have more than 200,000 immigrants and your settlements have expanded south to Liping Fortress (present-day Shirinai-cho, Hokkaido), less than 30 li from my domain's Fukushima-ya. Your army is strong and well-equipped with powerful firearms. If you were to completely eliminate my Matsumae Domain and seize this island for yourself, it would probably be a piece of cake. I wonder... I wonder if your domain has such a plan?"

The reception room fell silent, with only the crackling of the fireplace.

Qi Yongze did not answer immediately, but slowly took a sip of tea, his gaze fixed on the map on the wall, staring for a long time at the small area marked Matsumae Domain.

After a long silence, he turned around, his tone calm yet firm: "Mr. Yokoyama, you are overthinking this. Our Xinhua and the Matsumae Domain have enjoyed pleasant cooperation and mutually beneficial trade for many years. Why would we resort to arms? I can assure you clearly that, at least in the foreseeable future, we have no intention of forcibly expelling the Matsumae Domain. On the contrary, we hope to continue to maintain and expand our friendly cooperation."

Yokoyama Michiyoshi bowed in gratitude, but the worry on his face did not dissipate: "Thank you for your frankness, Commissioner. However, please forgive my bluntness, but is your retention of my Matsumae Domain merely because we are still of use and can serve as intermediaries in your trade with Japan? What if that value is no longer there, or if you find a better trade route...?"

Qi Yongze shook his head slightly, stood up and walked to the map: "Lord Yokoyama, look at this Beiying Island. It is vast and rich in resources, enough to accommodate the coexistence of multiple forces. Our Xinhua came here to colonize, and our primary purpose is to create living space for immigrants, not to compete with others. Maintaining good relations with the Matsumae Domain is conducive to regional stability, which is beneficial to both sides."

He turned to face Yokoyama Michiyoshi and said sincerely, "Of course, trade interests are an important consideration, but not the only one. What we hope to establish is a long-term, mutually beneficial cooperative relationship, not a short-term exploitative one."

Yokoyama Michiyoshi listened silently, but his mind was perfectly clear.

He knew perfectly well that although Qi Yongze's words were euphemistic, they actually confirmed his concerns—the reason why the Matsumae Domain could still retain a place on the island of Hokyo was entirely because they still had some value to be used for the time being.

Once this value disappears, or Xinhua finds a way to bypass them and trade directly with Japan, the Matsumae Domain's end will be near.

What worries him even more is that with the continuation of the Kan'ei Famine, the domestic situation in Japan may fall into turmoil, the authority of the shogunate will be challenged, and each domain is planning for its own survival.

Matsumae Domain, located in the north and with limited power, was like a small boat on a raging sea during this great upheaval, and could capsize at any moment.

"Your Excellency's vision is truly admirable," Yokoyama Michiyoshi said with a forced smile. "Our Matsumae Domain will certainly do its utmost to maintain friendly relations with your side and expand trade."
-
The following day, as Yokoyama Michiyoshi boarded the ship returning to Fukuyama Castle and looked back at the increasingly prosperous Kaiping Port, his heart was still pounding with tension.

He clearly saw that the wave of Chinese immigrants was unstoppable, and that their technological and institutional advantages were obvious, making the Matsumae Domain seem like a small boat in the face of this torrent.

“My lord, you look very worried,” Murakami Saemon, the trade magistrate accompanying them, asked in a low voice.

Yokoyama Michiyoshi sighed deeply: "I'm wondering how long we can hold out on this land. Perhaps five years, at most ten years, and the Matsumae Domain will be completely surrounded and infiltrated by the power of the new Chinese, and eventually lose its foothold on this land."

"..." Zaemon remained silent.

Any samurai with a modicum of insight could see that, amidst the unstoppable expansion of the new Chinese, the Matsumae Domain would one day be driven out of Ezo.

This is an irreversible trend that cannot be reversed by human effort.

Unless they can obtain the full support of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which can mobilize the entire nation to suppress the spread of the new Chinese, or even uproot them and completely expel them from this giant island.

However, this was ultimately just wishful thinking—after more than a decade of pioneering and management, the new Chinese had already taken deep root here, like a large tree that had spread and been cultivated, with its foundation becoming increasingly solid and no longer easily shaken.

Under the sunlight, Kaiping Port is filled with sails and masts, resembling a suddenly emerging forest stretching between the blue sea and sky.

This place is not only a port for the new Chinese, but also their vibrant blood, radiating unstoppable power and ambition in all directions.
-
(End of this chapter)