On the eighth day of February in the 19th year of Kanyei (1645), the first moment of the hour was. About 7:15 am.
Thorn Warehouse, Dejima, Nagasaki, Japan.
Ruprecht Colen, executive director of the British East India Company, walked out of the corner of the warehouse where flies were flying.
He raised his furry hand to block the sunlight coming from the east side of Dejima.
The dazzling sunlight leaking through the fingers is still so piercing that people can't open their eyes.
The chubby Liverpool businessman yawned, his round body looking like he had been fished out of a rum bottle.
The smell of alcohol filled the air.
Rosacea grumbled and started complaining about drinking too much with Nagasaki Monkey last night.
The Nagasaki monkeys in the mouth of British businessmen include, but are not limited to, Nagasaki's horse racer Toshige, as well as various shogunate officials.
Orientals look very similar, making it difficult to tell them apart.
Colen stayed in Nagasaki for eight years.
I got to know three Nagasaki governors successively.
The whole of Nagasaki treated him with respect.
It’s not just because the British assisted the shogunate in expelling the Ming Dynasty fifteen years ago.
More importantly, Britain was now Japan's largest and only trading partner.
Fifteen years ago, in the naval battle of Tsushima with the Ming Dynasty, the Dutch were severely weakened. The British took the opportunity to replace the position of sea coachmen in East Asia and occupy all trade from the Philippines to Japan.
The British East India Company became the new owner of Dejima, an artificial island built in Nagasaki Port for Japan's foreign trade.
The Nagasaki Church has great responsibilities. In addition to being responsible for the administrative justice of Nagasaki Town like other towns, it also has to guard against foreign invasion, prohibit the spread of Christianity, trade with Britain and many other matters.
Of course, it also includes drinking wine with Column and watching the singer perform Noh drama.
In recent years, Nagasaki's status has increased due to the increase in trade with Britain.
Among the town rituals, the Nagasaki clan is second only to the Edo town clan. Among the Tokoku clan, it ranks first, above Kyoto and Osaka town clans.
Most of the officials who served as governors of Nagasaki were bannermen with no more than 10,000 shi. They were of low origin and their territory was no more than 20,000 shi.
This is the check and balance method that the Edo shogunate has always pursued to select hard-working officials from low-level samurai and exclude the feudal lords from the shogunate.
In the 16th year of Kanei (1639), Nagasaki's salary (the corresponding salary received when holding the position, which will be lost after leaving the job) was 2,000 taru, which was later increased to 4,000 taru. The family salary was no more than Qianshi's Hatamoto. Said, this income is already very considerable. In addition, because he handles import and export goods, there are other ways to make money.
However, in Koren's view, the Japanese are all monkeys.
The Hatamoto samurai on horseback is a monkey riding a male dog.
The shogun, who is favored by the shogun and earns a good salary, is a monkey in fine clothes.
At last night's banquet, the monkey took advantage of the wine and chopped off the forearm of a singer.
When the singer performs Noh drama, she alludes to the wife of the second-generation general who conquered Yi, Ajiang, who transformed into a fox spirit.
This is disrespectful.
Baba Toshige was furious and raised his knife.
Despite hating the monkeys, Coren had to stay on Dejima.
Because the current mission of the British East India Company is to aid and save this group of ignorant monkeys and help them conquer the increasingly rampant Tatars (Qi people) on the western continent.
One of the themes of the banquet held by Cologne and Nagasaki last night was to discuss military operations against the Tatars.
As far as the British know, this majestic military plan was originally proposed by the shogun. It required the recruitment of 200,000 monkey warriors, divided into three groups, from Korea, Liaodong (Shandong), and Ningbo to the Tatar mainland. attack·····
As a close minister of the shogunate, Baba Toshige was responsible for the logistics and transportation of the army and military cooperation with the East India Company.
~~~
A burly and strong European stood in the sun. Through the gap between his fingers, Colen discovered that the person was General Brown.
"Mr. Colen called me here so early. Do you want to drink together?"
"I won't drink anymore. I made the dancer drink ten pounds of rum last night. I won't need to drink anymore until next Christmas."
John Wick Brown stared at his red rosacea and thought ten ounces was a joke.
Colen pointed to the long street (the main street of Nagasaki) separated by a wall from Dejima, where two sturdy stags were hurrying past.
"I want to talk to His Majesty the General about this."
General Brown looked at the stag and smiled:
“The deer shanks are plump and plump, perfect for Christmas dinner.”
Coren shook his head:
"Seeing these two deer reminded me of a Chinese proverb: The deer of Qin is lost, and careerists all over the world are looking for it."
After the failure of the four-nation joint intervention operation, York Brown led the remaining fleet and retreated from Nagasaki to Manila.
He stayed there for fifteen years and never returned to London.
Until the year before last, Cansu (Zheng Sen) retreated from the mainland and defected to the shogunate.
Realizing that the situation in the Far East was about to change dramatically, Brown immediately organized mercenaries and returned to Nagasaki.
The result was as expected by the British officers. Before returning to Japan, they heard various rumors that the Tatar army (Qi Army) had occupied all of Fujian and was massacring Zhangzhou.
"This is a very interesting proverb, but what does it have to do with the topic we are discussing today?"
Colen patiently explained:
"China is in chaos, and the Tatars are slaughtering people all over the country. The shogun who lives in Edo is full of confidence in his military power. The year before last, Mr. Kunisuke and Zuo Liangyu defected to Japan. In short, Tokugawa Iemitsu thinks he can do it again , can launch a war of annihilation against the Tatars and avenge his father Tokugawa Hidetada!"
"And we need to work with the Japanese to defeat the Tatars, because that will be related to the safety of Manila and even Britain."
East Indian mercenaries stationed in Manila patrolled the islands in large sailing ships, transporting silver and silk between Acapulco and Malacca.
These simply trained indigenous people (mainly Eurasians) played a large role in defending the island against attacks by the Dutch and Moros, and played a large role in further proselytizing and colonizing the indigenous people.
After fifteen years of development, there are currently three thousand mercenaries in and around Manila. They are equipped with new European firearms, their combat training is based on French infantry, and they even have professional artillery.
However, as Daqi changed its attitude towards Europe and closed sea trade, the situation of this mercenary was not good.
In 1642, the Attorney General of the Philippines, Don Hernando de los Coronel, once complained that the British had lost face among the indigenous Filipinos because of the shameful conduct of soldiers stationed in Manila.
These mercenaries often gamble away their wages and "then walk around without shoes or clothes."
They sold their weapons to the natives and "went about begging and committing countless despicable deeds among the unbelievers..."
Manila soldiers generally lived a life of poverty and hunger.
Since the year before last, China, under Tatar control, has cut off trade with Europe.
This directly caused a serious trade imbalance for the British East India Company - trade with the Japanese was really lackluster - and the company had no supplies or funds to pay the wages of the mercenaries.
A sample of wage records from July 1, 1642, to June 30, 1646, illustrates the arbitrary nature of soldiers' wages.
In the case of the Manila infantry, only 22 of the 388 mercenaries were paid, and all but two of these soldiers received exactly one-third of the pay owed to them.
······
Colen rubbed his rosacea, turned around, opened the lock of the wooden box, and took out a Japanese copper ingot.
"The Tatars cut off trade and made provocations to Japan. We are sending more and more copper blocks to Europe and the Philippines, but recently Japan has supplied us with less and less copper because they want to use copper to cast cannons. , to attack the Tatars.”
“Without copper, there would be no coinage in Manila, let alone London and Liverpool.”
Colen picked up a flintlock blunderbuss with an ivory handle. This was a New Year's gift given to him by the surnamed master. It was said to come from Taqi.
Colen pulled the trigger with his finger, and the hammer made a crisp and powerful snap.
“Without money, the local soldiers we hired in Manila would turn back into primitive people, return to the rainforest, barter, and abandon the civilized world we built for them, and the colonial empire established by the British in the Far East would also like····"
General Brown helped the Liverpool Fat Man load the fixed ammunition and looked up at an apple on a wine barrel fifteen feet away.
The executive director pulled the trigger.
boom!
The apples turn into crumbs.
"Like this apple, falling apart."
The huge recoil made Colen stagger and almost fall. He stared at the weapons made by the Tatars in surprise and continued:
"Without coins, the East India Company can only pay half of the salary to the local indigenous soldiers. In this way, the Manila garrison can barely hold on until next May. By July, some people will escape or steal. Finally, The indigenous people will find the company weak and they will no longer believe in God or listen to us."
"Oh, Lord, forgive these poor people for betraying You."
Colon crossed himself and hoped that the Filipino natives would be forgiven by God.
Without the steady supply of copper from Japan, the British East India Company in Manila, Philippines, would have come to a standstill by Halloween at the latest.
The commercial order that Britain had finally established in the Far East might collapse on a cold night.
Then the Dutch or the Portuguese would come and clean up the mess.
"I swear, this is definitely not the result the Queen wants to see. If that day comes, believe me, General Brown, you will be hanged on the streets of London just like me, with a wooden sign hanging around your neck that reads Author: 'Traitor' and 'Coward'."
General Brown knew this was not alarmist.
If Manila were lost, Britain would lose the entire East.
Without the Tatar’s butcher’s knife, competitors would rush in to snatch the colonial gains like sharks smelling blood.
Brown looked at the apple crumbs on the ground.
"The aloof shogun who lives in Edo Castle insists that the current threat to Japan is the Tatars, who have been defeated by them once. Now that the Tatars are coming for revenge, the shogun decided to take action in advance and launch a war A Western Expedition of unprecedented scale, similar to the Western Expeditions of his predecessor Toyotomi Hideyoshi..."
The eyes of the executive director revealed the cunning that only businessmen have:
"And we, the civilized people of Europe, only need to assist the shogunate, help them win this war against the infidels, ensure a stable supply of copper, and ensure that the East India Company's interests in the Far East are not disturbed."
