Hengshan Takuya had been waiting in the imperial city in the morning, and the chamberlain had already delivered lunch to him at noon. However, considering that he was likely to be summoned by the Ming Dynasty Crown Prince in the afternoon, he did not dare to eat more at all and reluctantly gave him some food. That's it.
If he really ate when he was full, he would definitely feel sleepy in the afternoon. He was not willing to take the opportunity he had waited so hard for, because he would miss out on his sleepiness, and he was even more afraid of committing the crime of disrespect and angering the prince.
"No need to be polite, sir, please use it!"
From now on, Daming Ramen will be spread out of the country and toward Asia. Maybe in the near future, it will be spread out of Asia and toward the world.
As the first step to create a new world, it is natural to proceed more steadily. This guy has traveled all over the world, eaten in hundreds of restaurants, and tasted high-end dishes from both Ming and Japan. If he can conquer his taste buds, he is half successful.
"...His Highness treats me so kindly, I would rather obey my orders than be respectful!"
Since the morning meeting ended earlier, the courtiers had their meals earlier. As foreign guests, they could enjoy the treatment of first-class dignitaries. Yokoyama Takuya also had lunch relatively early, and he was half full at most.
So in the afternoon, his stomach was a little unhappy, especially the smell of Wenwen beef ramen, which almost made him salivate. Yokoyama Takuya had never smelled such a strange fragrance in his hometown, it was the best in the world.
When a large bowl of steaming ramen was served, half of Yokoyama Takuya's attention was directly attracted. If Prince Ming hadn't spoken, he would have almost reached the point where he couldn't bear it anymore.
However, even though the master had given instructions, he still looked a little reserved and shy when eating noodles alone in front of such a large group of people. If ordinary people were watching, it would be fine. However, since the other party had a distinguished status, he felt a little abrupt.
But the delicious food was right in front of him, and Yokoyama Takuya was eager to taste the taste. After much deliberation, he had to hide his exaggerated robe sleeves in front of his face to prevent the Ming Prince from seeing the embarrassment of his devouring food.
A certain prince was a bit unsure about the tastes that the Japanese people liked. Even though he had tasted many Japanese specialties from later generations, that was still his preference more than three hundred years later. He needed to do a new market survey now.
While the distinguished guest was eating noodles, Yaoji didn't say another word. He just watched quietly as the guy in front of him finished a large bowl of ramen, not even the soup was left. It seemed like he was getting enough of his own products. Take action.
"I would like to thank Your Highness for the gift of noodles. I have never tasted such delicious food in my country."
After Yokoyama Takuya ate and drank, he seemed to feel that he was still satisfied, but in front of the prince, he could not ask for another bowl, and he had to praise what he had eaten immediately. After all, the taste of this kind of noodle soup was really good.
"As long as you like to eat noodles, that's fine. If you can convince His Majesty Tokugawa Shogun, I will hand over the secret recipe of this noodle to you, and you will become the only merchant in Japan who knows the secret recipe and sell millions of bowls of ramen every year. , it must not be a problem.”
This is equivalent to a certain prince giving the other party ten thousand taels of silver for free. If this business is run well, the money earned will be far more than this amount.
It doesn't matter whether this guy can run a noodle shop. Even if he doesn't know how to manage it, he just needs to keep the general agent firmly in his hands and resell the operating rights of noodle shops in various places.
"I would like to thank Your Highness for your kindness. I will definitely return to Japan as soon as possible to convince the General!"
Knowing the secret recipe of noodle soup is equivalent to mastering the secret of getting rich. Takuya Yokoyama seemed to see a huge mountain of silver waving to him.
"This is just one of the gifts to thank you sir. In addition, before the Ming Dynasty, five thousand bird guns were imported from your country every year, which is what your country calls 'iron cannons'. From now on, ten thousand will be imported every year. Five thousand of them will be purchased directly from Mr.’s workshop for a period of five years, totaling 25,000.”
This is just the minimum amount. If the military expansion speed is too fast and the various arms factories of the Ming Dynasty cannot keep up with the progress, then additional orders will be placed with the Japanese side. Whichever company has high quality and low price will get this huge order.
Yokoyama Takuya was overjoyed when he heard this. This was his dream business. Considering the benefits of noodle soup, he made a substantial concession: "Thank you, Your Highness. Your Highness, my workshop will provide you with sufficient quantity at the cost price of seven taels per tube." It is an iron cannon and its performance is guaranteed. If there is any defect, it can be replaced with a new one immediately."
Yaoji knew that the Ming Dynasty's muskets were purchased by the Ministry of War for as little as eight taels and as high as ten taels. It was quite interesting to ask for seven taels for this product, because there was also the cost of shipping.
For a certain prince, as long as he could field new troops in time, there was no harm in buying more from Japan. If that didn't work, he would increase the annual import volume to 20,000.
Thinking of this, he drew another pie: "Sir, you are indeed a generous person. In this case, I can safely and boldly purchase muskets from you. If the first five-year order is successfully completed, I will I will renew my contract with you for five years, and I am willing to support you to become the largest arms dealer in Japan."
The Japanese country also has a strong arms production capacity, which is enough to meet the year-round combat needs of a hundred thousand troops. However, under the suppression of the Tokugawa generals, there are no large-scale wars in the country.
Arms orders are extremely shrinking, and relevant businessmen can only expand their markets overseas. In particular, Ming Dynasty and Southeast Asia are the key customers for various manufacturers.
Yokoyama Takuya could only export about 1,500 iron cannons each year, two-thirds of which would be sold to the Ming Dynasty. Hengshan Takuya was considered one of the major suppliers of imported bird guns to the Ministry of War.
Now that the prince has opened Jinkou, his export volume has suddenly increased to 6,500, and almost overnight he has become one of the top three exporters of Japanese iron gun dealers.
Although the profit has been very small, it can be regarded as a relationship with the Ming Prince, and there is also a secret recipe for soup noodles as compensation. After all the calculations, not only is there no loss, but the profit is much more than before.
The first thing that Yokoyama Takuya thought of was to recruit craftsmen immediately after returning to greatly expand the production capacity of his own workshop. This was a business deal with the Ming Dynasty Prince, and the delivery must be guaranteed on time with quality and quantity.
In order to maintain this business, the quality of the iron cannon must be improved as much as possible. Once a defective product appears during inspection, it can be replaced immediately by the other party, so it is necessary to ship more than the quota.
If the Prince of Ming Dynasty can really fulfill his promise, then the total order volume will inevitably double in five years, so that he can support himself to become the largest weapons merchant in Japan.
But when doing business, you have to take it one step at a time, and make corresponding adjustments to the business based on the situation of your partners. No one can say with certainty what will happen in five years.
At such a young age, the Ming Prince could speak such perfunctory words to businessmen. He was really as difficult to deal with as the rumors in the market said. He had to be more careful. As for this grand goal, Yokoyama Takuya only regarded it as a vision.
"You must have read the "Jingshi Daily". If you can open such a newspaper in your country and publish similar newspapers, it will definitely be a great success. I can hand over the plan for running the newspaper to you, whether it is for your own use or not. No matter whether you make a donation to His Majesty the General, it can be regarded as a piece of my heart."
"Jingshi Daily" is a business that can make an annual profit of ten thousand taels, and the same is true in the Japanese country. Even if the profit amount shrinks by half, it is still a business worth five thousand taels of silver every year.
Except for the daimyo, generals from various places and those with relatively strong financial resources, not many people in the Japanese country can earn five thousand taels of silver per year. If it falls into the hands of one person, others will inevitably feel envious, jealous and hateful.
"Your Highness is wise and generous. I can't thank you enough!"
Even if the Ming Prince did not arrange this, Yokoyama Takuya planned to take back a few newspapers and present them to General Tokugawa. How to proceed was a matter for the top.
Even if the relevant personnel don't know how to do it, they can imitate the layout of "Jingshi Daily" and make corresponding content, print it out and then sell it on the market.
Now that he has the plan, he can do twice the result with half the effort. After reading it, General Tokugawa will definitely be convinced and appreciate him greatly.
"Sir, you are a distinguished guest, there is no need to be so polite!"
I originally wanted to give your second-rate general a bicycle, but it would take a lot of time to make, and the most important thing is that your general is a fat man, and the tires will be crushed by him if he doesn't do it.
If the truth is to ride a bicycle, it is best to lose weight for three months and remove thirty pounds of fat before trying it out. After all, this guy’s subordinates can’t bear to see the bicycle being repeatedly crushed by their generals and getting flat tires...
After much deliberation, it would be a great gift to give the sugar to the second-rate general and let him set his own price. If he could get him to agree to send troops, it would not be too late to give him a few bicycles.
In this way, the upper house, the lower house and the middleman all get what they like. It can definitely be regarded as a sincere cooperation in which each gets what they need and is mutually beneficial.
It would take at least ten days to get from the capital to Edo, and it might even take a month to go back and forth.
Even if the second-rate Tokugawa general agrees to send troops, they still have to discuss the specific strength of the troops and mobilize troops there.
When everything is ready and the Japanese troops board the ship and set sail, it is estimated that it will be June, and it will be mid-June when they arrive at the Liaodong Peninsula.
The troops will have to be withdrawn by mid-September. If it gets colder, there will be a large number of non-combat attrition, and a lot of pension money will have to be allocated to the useless general.
Calculating this way, it would take three months to attack the pigtails. It depends on how efficient the Japanese army is in combat.
Fifty thousand Japanese soldiers fight five thousand pigtails, and the scene is one-sided, and there is no problem at all.
The number of opponents doubled, but if they were not elite, the final result would still not be changed.
If it's 15,000 to 20,000, the Japanese army will probably be a bit overwhelmed, unless the general sent here is also an elite capable of hard steel.
If the braid's strength is higher than 20,000, the Japanese army can decisively choose to escape.
Then he landed from another beach and started a physical game of fifty thousand against five thousand.
Assuming that the Japanese army is no match for the pigtails, it would be better to fight five against one, or even ten against one.
To be precise, the Japanese army could use the advantage of ships to form a force advantage ten times that of the enemy anywhere on the peninsula.
In a short period of time, carry out a devastating blow to the braid defending the landing site, and destroy it before reinforcements arrive.
Using this elusive maritime guerrilla tactic, the Japanese army was able to defeat Huang Taiji and evacuate the peninsula troops and people south of Fuzhou to the inland areas.
Otherwise, even if Huang Taiji still claims to control the entire peninsula, it will not help the war situation. Some troops of the "Qing King's Division" responsible for defending the area may be annihilated by ten or even twenty times the Japanese army at any time.
Unless Huang Taiji was so angry that he transferred half of the main force to the peninsula in an attempt to repel the Japanese invasion from the sea and stabilize the situation there.
But in this way, after three months of fighting with the Japanese army in summer and autumn, by the tenth day of winter, I am afraid that the "Qing Dynasty King's Division" will not have much spare power to enter the pass and plunder.
A certain prince's plan was to have the Japanese army attract at least 50,000 pigtails, so that the emperor's troops entering the customs in winter would only be around 100,000.
If the troops were divided into two groups to attack various places within the pass as before, it would still be very possible for the Ming army to concentrate its superior forces and severely damage one of the groups.
At the same time, Wang Zaijin ordered all the troops in western Liaoning to go out and have fun. They did not ask for any merit, as long as they traveled a hundred miles to the northeast and then came back.
The feint attack did not achieve any results. A certain prince was certain, but he had to make a certain offensive posture to make the local braided defenders nervous.
If the summer offensive launched on the peninsula goes well, after winter comes, Japanese troops can come to help in the battle, make quick money for a month, and then go home after cashing out.
Mercenaries are very popular in Europe, and in China, as early as the Warring States Period, the State of Qi adopted the mercenary model on a large scale to deal with surrounding conflicts.
Xunzi once fiercely criticized this, saying that mercenaries were "soldiers of national subjugation".
But mercenaries can become a business, which shows that they have obvious advantages over their peers.
First of all, the combat effectiveness must be high, at least better than the employer's troops. Only by treating brave battles on the battlefield as one's own sales resume can the employer's interest be aroused.
Secondly, the cost-effectiveness is high. Although the price of mercenaries is expensive, it can be calculated based on their combat effectiveness, and it can always fall within the tolerance of the employer.
Finally, mercenaries have a bad reputation, but in a single battle, they rarely defect on the battlefield, because if they break their trust with one employer, other employers will not dare to use them.
In the short term, a certain prince can't count on his own East Palace Guards. The only thing that can be formed and quickly put into battle is the 30,000 new troops from northern Shaanxi.
Sun Chuanting's Qin army was a powerful division based on the Minbing armed forces in Yulin and other places. Because the troops were all brothers and fellow villagers, as long as they had sufficient food and pay, their morale would be high and they would be brave and fearless.
The Battle of Arausio that took place in 105 BC was a fierce attack by 300,000 Germanic tribesmen against 16 Roman legions.
Although Rome had an absolute advantage in equipment, within one day, all participating troops were annihilated by the enemy. It was a brilliant victory for the "Horde" against the "Alliance".
Regarding the current mess, since the cannon fodder troops of the official army have done nothing, a certain prince has to rely on the two main pillars of the military: Min soldiers and mercenaries.
The training of Minbing troops in northern Shaanxi was divided into three phases, with each phase recruiting 30,000 troops, for a total of 90,000.
Together with the 50,000 Japanese troops, this is the main force in the north to contain the braids from entering the pass and plundering.
