Han Du has been in the mansion deep in the Governor's Mansion for too long. From the 29th year to now, it has been more than half a year.
On this day, Jiang Wei came to report.
"Sir~"
Han Du put down the book he was reading to kill time, stood up from the recliner, and asked, "Have people on both sides left?"
"Let's go." Jiang Wei nodded.
Seeing that the gentleman was not sure whether it was okay, Jiang Wei paused and said, "Sir, the student feels that the Japanese and Japanese sides are almost reaching their limit."
"Oh? Why do you say that?" Han Du turned his head and asked.
Jiang Wei said quickly: "This time when the Ashikaga clan left with food, they asked to see the students."
"What did they do when they saw you?" Han Du had a guess in his mind and couldn't help but smile on his face.
Jiang Wei said: "They want credit."
Han Du smiled and said nothing.
Jiang Wei continued: "They said that they no longer have real gold and silver. If we continue to pay with one hand and deliver the goods with the other hand, then they may not have gold and silver to buy food."
"They are cheating!" Han Du said sharply without waiting for Jiang Wei to finish. "Although the Japanese country is small, it is rich in gold and silver. Moreover, they have always been closed to the outside world and have very little contact with other countries. That is, the Tang Dynasty After all, the contacts between the Song Dynasty and the Central Plains were more frequent. But at that time, every time they came to the Central Plains, even if they only brought some Japanese women, Japanese knives, folding fans and other tributes, they would get a lot of rewards back. Therefore, the Japanese country would not only not suffer losses, but also And getting richer and richer.”
"After hundreds of years of accumulation, the Japanese country must have a large amount of gold and silver. Although we have fished out more than one million taels of gold and fifteen million taels of silver from the Japanese country in the past six months, the most we have done is to break the Japanese country's muscles and bones. , it’s not time for them to run out of gas yet.”
Jiang Wei suddenly interrupted and said: "Sir, what you mean is that both sides of the Japanese country still have existing gold and silver in their hands?"
Han Du immediately turned his head to look at him, nodded slightly, and said: "Of course there is. If you say that the gold and silver in their hands has dropped sharply to a small amount, I believe it. If you say that they have a little gold and silver in their hands, It’s all gone, that’s simply impossible!”
"In your opinion, sir, what should students do?" Jiang Wei followed Han Du and asked respectfully.
Han Du said without hesitation: "Insist on them paying with one hand and delivering the goods with one hand. If they don't have the money, then we won't sell them a grain of food. Now they are begging us, let's not take the slightest consideration and directly sell them to them." Squeeze them dry of their gold and silver.”
"Then what?" Jiang Wei nodded and continued to ask.
Han Du smiled and said, "Then according to my plan, let them use prisoners of war to pay. Without prisoners of war, women can do it."
"yes."
Then Han Du suddenly remembered the Southern Dynasty and said with a chuckle: "But it seems that the Southern Dynasty's family is still richer than the Muromachi Shogunate. So far, they have not complained to you."
Jiang Wei also laughed and explained: "Students have understood that the Southern Dynasty was originally the orthodox system of the Japanese country. It was only driven south by the rebellion of the Muromachi shogunate. But after all, the Southern Dynasty once ruled the Japanese country for hundreds of years. Time and some family wealth are natural things.”
Han Du nodded, agreeing with Jiang Wei's view. Then he added: "However, no matter how rich they are, you have to find a way to plunder them all. If you can do it, I will ask the emperor for credit after returning to Beijing."
"Thank you sir for your kindness." Jiang Wei immediately bowed his hands.
...
The next time the Ashikaga clan asked General Jiang Wei for credit again, Jiang Wei directly rejected their request. He also said that if he did not take advantage of the situation by raising the price, he would be worthy of them. It is absolutely impossible to get credit!
In fact, by now, both the Ashikaga clan of the Muromachi shogunate and the Hosokawa clan of the Southern Dynasty understood that Jiang Wei was selling food and weapons to both of them at the same time.
But even if they knew it, so what. The two of them had been fighting until now, and they already wanted to drive each other into the sea to drown, and there was no possibility of stopping.
If they don't break this layer of window paper, then they can pretend to know nothing about it and continue to let Jiang Wei sell food to them. If they expose this matter and anger Jiang Wei, what if Jiang Wei stops selling food to them?
Therefore, as long as Jiang Wei continues to sell food and weapons to them, they will have to hold their noses and endure it.
When the Ashikaga clan heard that Jiang Wei wouldn't sell it, they really panicked. Because if he doesn't buy it, then the Southern Dynasty will definitely buy more. That would be a huge disadvantage to them, and they might even be completely defeated by the Southern Dynasty, and they would all die without a burial place.
Therefore, even if they were very reluctant, the Ashikaga clan had to spend real money to buy the grain.
Looking at the gold and silver that had just been transported to the warehouse and stored in the warehouse, Jiang Wei couldn't help but admire his husband very much, "Sir, you are really clever, these bastards are really cheating. Just now you swore to heaven that there was no more gold and silver. Wouldn’t it be easier to take it out now?”
He made up his mind that in the future, whether it was the Ashikaga or Hosokawa clan, as long as they said they had no money, Jiang Wei would treat them as lies.
Last year, although the north and south of Japan were fighting to the death, they were still somewhat rational and did not completely abandon food cultivation. After all, they still don't know whether the Jeolla Governor's Palace can provide them with enough food.
But after the experience of buying food for most of last year, both of them found that there seemed to be endless food in Jeolla Province. As long as they took out gold and silver, Jiang Wei could sell them the food they needed.
So during the spring plowing this year, both sides unanimously abandoned most of the land and recruited all the farmers, preparing to conquer the other side in one go.
After fighting for a whole year, the two sides still failed to completely defeat the other. Each time they beat the opponent until they seemed to have their last breath left, but when they tried to extinguish the opponent's breath, they discovered that the breath was very tough and very long. They tried several times without success.
If you are a normal person, you will definitely notice the weirdness in this. Where in the world can such a coincidence happen? Obviously the last time he beat the opponent to the point of dying, the next time the opponent became more energetic and defeated him step by step, and was even almost forced to a dead end.
But now both sides are completely occupied by hatred. No one is aware of this at all. They just think that they can use their last strength to drive the other party into the sea.
A full year and a half of melee warfare left the Japanese state in devastation.
Originally, although some conflicts broke out from time to time between the north and the south, the casualties each time were not large, and they would calm down within a short period of time until the next conflict broke out. After all, the two sides have been at odds for so many years and have already formed a habit.
In the past year and a half, the brutality of the battle between the two sides has directly refreshed the understanding of everyone on both sides. In the past, a friction would only injure a few people, or even kill one or two at most. But since a year and a half ago, the casualties in each battle between the two sides have continued to soar.
From the dozens or hundreds of casualties at the beginning, it quickly soared to hundreds, and this was not even the peak. Subsequently, battles with thousands or even tens of thousands of casualties abounded, becoming as common as eating and drinking.
In this year and a half, almost the entire Japanese country was caught in the flames of war, and almost all the Japanese were swept in. Those who are lucky can drift with the tide, while those who are unlucky will die without a burial place. It can be said that compared to the casualties caused by the battle, the Japanese who were caught in the war suffered more casualties, even several times the number of people who died in the war.
Nine out of ten rooms are empty, bones are exposed in the wild, and there are no roosters crowing for thousands of miles. This is the most true portrayal of the Japanese country today.
But even at this point, the North and the South still show no signs of giving up. On the contrary, conscription became more and more urgent, and the purchase of food and weapons became more and more frequent.
One of the things that Handu must read every day now is all kinds of information coming from Japan. Through this information, even Handu knew the current situation of Japan better than the Muromachi Shogunate and Nanchao.
Although Yelang of the Japanese state was arrogant and dared to refuse the Ming Dynasty's order to surrender and behead the envoys, in Han Du's eyes, the Japanese state had never stood up.
And now, the Japanese country has fallen.
Whether it was the Muromachi Shogunate or the Southern Dynasties. They all need a lot of gold and silver to buy food and ordnance so that they can continue to fight. But although they have a lot of gold and silver in their hands, it is not endless after all.
What will they do when the gold and silver in their hands is almost used up? Both sides naturally focused their attention on ordinary Japanese people.
As a result, the prices of all kinds of food, cloth and other daily necessities have skyrocketed. Nowadays, a large area of land in the Japanese country has been abandoned, and the people do not have much food at all. Therefore, even if the price of food rises to the point where it is unbearable for ordinary Japanese people, they still have to spend what they have at the end. A little money was given out just to exchange for a pitiful meager ration. The money in the hands of the Japanese instantly flowed into the hands of the Muromachi shogunate and the Southern Dynasty, just like the floodgates were opened to release floods.
For the Muromachi shogunate and those in power in the Southern Dynasties, this was a very beneficial method to them. Although they bought grain from Jiang Wei at a high price, as long as the price of grain they sold to ordinary Japanese was higher, not only did they not suffer a loss, but they also made a huge profit.
But ordinary Japanese people were in misery, and their wealth shrank rapidly as if it had been evaporated. The phenomenon of people starving to death because they had no money to buy food quickly appeared, and even tended to spread rapidly.
