The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 428: Seal in the open and come in secret

Wanli was ready to start his conspiracy.

He made it clear to the Japanese pirates that the Japanese tabloids were printed by the Ming Dynasty.

Sometimes, you don't have to use all tricks to scheme, you can also use open tricks.

At this time, it would be more effective to do it openly, so let's do it openly and play an open game.

However, he can be clear about it, but Li Yuansheng cannot.

If Li Yuansheng had gone to Japan to recruit ronin to spread tabloids, he would definitely have been caught and killed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Li Yuansheng is very important to him at this moment.

Not only did he have to rely on Li Yuansheng to gather ronin to publish tabloids, he also had to rely on Li Yuansheng to do overseas business to make money. Even Tokugawa Ieyasu had to rely on Li Yuansheng to instigate.

This obviously won't work. Li Yuansheng is responsible for too many things, and they are all quite important. Once something happens to this guy, not only will his plan to destroy Japan be ruined, but even the army's food and wages will be in trouble.

Therefore, Li Yuansheng had to share some of his burden with others.

After discussing the matter of printing the Japanese tabloid with Li Tingji and others, he came to the Grand Council Hall and ordered people to call Li Yuansheng and Luo Sigong over.

After the king and his ministers had established their relationship, he solemnly asked, "Si Gong, how is it? How many of the secret guards have learned Japanese?"

Their top priority during this period was to destroy Japan, and the secret guards' covert actions were an important means of warfare, so he had instructed that the secret guards must learn Japanese and keep learning without stopping.

Luo Sigong estimated, "Your Majesty, almost all the secret guards with talent in this area have learned it. Now there are about two thousand secret guards who have learned Japanese."

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "How are you doing with your studies?"

Uh, this.

Luo Sigong said with some shame: "Your Majesty, please forgive me. I am stupid and have not learned very well. Now I can only understand Japanese, but I can't speak it very well."

That's about it.

Wanli nodded slightly, then said solemnly: "Yuansheng, I plan to print a Japanese tabloid, one issue every two weeks, and send it to Japan continuously. You have too many things to do, and you definitely can't keep in charge of this all the time.

More importantly, sending these Japanese tabloids would definitely make Toyotomi Hideyoshi furious. Then he would definitely order an investigation to find out who sent the tabloids to Japan. Once he ordered an investigation, you would be in danger.

Therefore, I intend to let Si Gong take over the distribution of the Japanese tabloids. You should focus on your business and instigate Tokugawa Ieyasu."

It turned out that they did not have a fixed time for publishing Japanese tabloids. Sometimes they did not publish a single one for several months, and sometimes they suddenly published five at once. Toyotomi Hideyoshi had no way to investigate even if he wanted to.

After all, the person who sent the tabloid to Japan couldn't have waited in Japan for several months just to send out the next tabloid.

It’s different now. It’s decided to have two issues per month, and it’s clearly stated that they are printed by the Ministry of Rites of the Ming Dynasty.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi could not stop the Ming Dynasty from printing Japanese tabloids, so he would definitely find a way to cut off the tabloids' entry into Japan.

At that time, it would be very dangerous for those who organized and distributed Japanese tabloids.

The key point is that it is impossible for him to go to Japan every two weeks.

Upon hearing this, Li Yuansheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Okay, Your Majesty, I will tell my confidants in Japan that Lord Luo is my deputy and will be responsible for distributing Japanese tabloids from now on.

They follow me simply for money. As long as they are paid, they don't care who they follow."

Luo Sigong is not only responsible for distributing tabloids.

Wanli shook his head slowly and said, "Si Gong will bring all the secret guards who have learned Japanese with him this time. They will disguise themselves as ronin and blend in with them to facilitate their future actions. Will your trusted subordinates betray the secret guards for money?"

Well, I can't guarantee that.

Those guys will do anything for money.

Li Yuansheng thought about it carefully, then said carefully: "Your Majesty, how about this?

Lord Luo's secret guards shouldn't use my trusted confidants to insert themselves among the ronin. They can disguise themselves as ronin and go directly to the ronin camp in Hirado. Let nature take its course and let my trusted confidants select the men. What do you think?"

You are really smart.

Wanli nodded without hesitation and said, "Well, that's a good idea. Let's do it this way. This time, take Sigong with you to escort the prisoners to Japan. After you send the prisoners to Honshu, go to Iki Island to take them over. After that, you will recruit all your trusted men and have them follow Sigong."

Li Yuansheng bowed repeatedly and said, "I understand."

Wanli then gave detailed instructions, "Sigong, Iki Island will be under your charge from now on. This includes the 1,000 centipede ships and 50,000 naval officers and soldiers who are escorting the prisoners this time. Once you have taken over Iki Island, you will send all the original inhabitants to Kitakyushu and hand them over to Kobayakawa Takakage, then prepare to build a city."

I will order the craftsmen and materials to be transported to Jeju Island and prepared to be delivered to you. When the time comes, you can build a big city on Iki Island and transfer all the grain and silver paid by the Japanese pirates this year to the city for storage, and use it to recruit ronin.

Tell the dozen or so confidants under Yuan Sheng to secretly disperse their ronin throughout Japan. Secretly gather all the ronin you can to establish ronin camps in the coastal ports of Japan. You will provide them with meals, make sure they have enough to eat, and pay them to work."

All the ronin in Japan!
Luo Sigong said cautiously, "Your Majesty, I dare to ask how many ronin are there in Japan?"

What do you care how much it matters?
Wanli said without hesitation: "Yuan Sheng said there are at least 100,000. Don't worry about the number. Gather all those you can. The more the better."

At least one hundred thousand!
Luo Sigong said with some concern: "Your Majesty, there are at least 100,000 ronin. We have to feed them and pay them to do the work. I'm afraid the little money and food compensation Japan paid won't last for a few months."

Wanli said without hesitation: "This is not a problem. These more than 100,000 ronin are very useful. If they are used well, the casualties of the Ming army can be reduced by more than 100,000.

Yuan Sheng, please estimate how much food and money these 100,000 Ronin consume in a year. If it's not enough, I will provide more. In short, we must make good use of the Ronin in Japan."

Are you still going to feed the wanderers?

Li Yuansheng estimated: "We are not yet feeding all the wanderers.

My trusted subordinates divided the ronin into groups of 100, appointed a group leader, gave them a big pot, and distributed ten kilograms of rice to each group at noon and in the afternoon every day. Then, they arranged a fishing boat for every ten groups and let them organize their own people to go fishing.

Don't worry about anything else, such as clothes, tents, weapons and equipment, or even firewood, oil, salt, bowls and chopsticks, etc., all the Japanese wanderers are flocking to it.

If they were fed well, that would be even more amazing. The Japanese people don't actually have a big appetite, and they are used to drinking porridge, which is more filling than rice. In addition, the seafood in the porridge can also satisfy hunger, so they actually can't consume much food.

I estimate that giving each group of 100 people two meals a day and 50 kilograms of rice for each meal will be enough for them to eat.

By this calculation, each ronin consumes one kilogram of rice every day. One hundred thousand ronin consumes one hundred thousand kilograms, which means three million kilograms per month, which is equivalent to about 20,000 stones.

This consumption was nothing compared to the 1.4 million shi of grain that Toyotomi Hideyoshi had to pay as compensation every year. Even if there were more than 200,000 ronin in Japan, 500,000 shi of grain a year would be enough.

There are also fishing boats. I have already brought a hundred of them, which are enough for a hundred thousand ronin to catch fish. If the number of ronin exceeds a hundred thousand, it will be enough to provide them with dozens or hundreds of boats at most.

As for the wages for hiring them to work, I originally paid them one tael of silver for every thousand pieces thrown, except for those that were deliberately thrown into Toyotomi Hideyoshi's house.

If it's not to be published in dangerous places, one million copies of the tabloid would only cost one thousand taels of silver, and two issues a month would only cost two thousand taels of silver."

Are Japanese Ronin so cheap?
Luo Sigong was stunned when he heard this.

Wanli pondered, "We'd better try to find some work for all the ronin. Otherwise, if we recruit more than 100,000 or 200,000 ronin for only 1,000 to make money, the other ronin will definitely have objections.

Let's put it this way: those who obey our orders completely and do whatever we tell them to do will be paid one tael of silver a month; those who are half-hearted and lazy will be paid half a tael of silver a month. Two million taels should be enough to support us for a year."

This is equivalent to using the money and food paid as compensation by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to support the Japanese ronin.

However, these ronin did not listen to Toyotomi Hideyoshi;

As for what these ronin are supposed to do, it is naturally to cause trouble.

Wanli thought about it carefully, and then said: "Sigong, if you want to use these ronin well, you must equip them with weapons.

We have these weapons. We have confiscated the weapons from more than 400,000 prisoners. The Mori clan only needs more than 100,000 sets. The rest are enough for those ronin. I will let the navy deliver them to you when the time comes.

However, you can't distribute them casually. You have to tell the more than ten confidants under Yuan Sheng to pay close attention to the performance of their ronin and only distribute them to those who are obedient. Moreover, you have to give each confidant a thousand sets of weapons every month.

That way, those wanderers will behave themselves and fight for weapons. If you give them all at once, they won't value them."

Luo Sigong nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

Wanli thought for a moment and then warned, "Sigong, this mission is really dangerous. Toyotomi Hideyoshi can't stop us from printing tabloids. This guy can only do everything he can to deal with those who distribute tabloids, especially the leader.

You must not go to the mainland of Japan, not even to Kitakyushu. Iki Island is only a few dozen miles away from Kitakyushu. If you have something to tell someone, just order someone to call Yuansheng's confidants over.

You must also be careful with the secret guards you bring this time and make sure they are not exposed. Anyway, they are just distributing Japanese tabloids during this period of time and have nothing else to do. You can just let them disguise themselves as ordinary ronin and secretly find out the situation in Japan.

Also, you should tell the more than ten confidants under Yuan Sheng to be extremely careful. When distributing tabloids, they must do it in secret. Moreover, when those ronin throw tabloids, they should not do it openly in broad daylight. It is best to do it secretly at night.

In short, we can print the Japanese tabloids openly, but we must distribute them covertly. From now on, whatever you mobilize the ronin to do in Japan must be kept secret and not discovered."

This is the strength of the secret guards, and this is also the main reason why he sent Luo Sigong to take charge of this matter.

Luo Sigong bowed repeatedly and said, "Your humble servant understands."

(End of this chapter)