Adjusting policies is not like treating guests to dinner. You must not make a hasty decision before you understand the causes and consequences and the specific situation. This principle is very pragmatic and you understood it in your previous life. Therefore, you have to ask questions such as whether to support Satsuma Domain and how to proceed if you support it. , he has not made any decision yet.
Before that, he decided to meet Zhu Yingzhen first.
Zhu Yingzhen, Duke of Chengguo, was of course the top nobleman of the Ming Dynasty, but times had changed, and Zhu Yingzhen, the top nobleman, had no choice when faced with the highly pragmatic "invitation". Even though he had just dragged his exhausted body back to his own mansion from the princess's mansion, he didn't even have time to take a few bites of dinner, so he could only wipe his mouth immediately, quickly change his clothes and go to see Gao Situ.
Fortunately, Gao was pragmatic and meticulous in his work. When Zhu Yingzhen came, he found exquisite refreshments in front of Gao Situ, which seemed to be specially prepared for him.
Zhu Yingzhen sat down while being polite to Gao Yingzhen, and took a piece of Dragon Beard Crispy to eat, but he didn't seem to like sweets, so he immediately took another sip of tea.
Gao pragmatic smiled and said: "The renovation of the eldest princess's mansion is hard work, so I have to thank you for it."
"Hey, I beg you to be honest, what are you talking about? What kind of friendship do we have? How can we talk about whether it's painful or not?" Zhu Yingzhen laughed and waved his hand: "But it's thanks to you guys from Jinghua Infrastructure for doing this. From experience, it is really easy to dig out bitter water on the ground in the capital because of the Yongding River. Today, water seeped out from the digging. In order to waterproof it, several master craftsmen discussed it for a long time before finalizing the construction plan, and finally decided …”
"Okay, okay, Mr. Guo, please stop it first." Gao Pingshi stopped him quickly and said with a smile: "You tell me this, and I can't understand it, but I can rest assured that Mr. Guo will do his job, so just do it. Don’t worry about the money, it’s all mine.”
Zhu Yingzhen didn't mind being interrupted, he just smiled and said: "That's it, that's it, if it were anything else, I wouldn't even bother to talk to you about this little money, so I can just put it in for you, but since it's the eldest princess's mansion... ah , I won’t join in the fun.”
In fact, Zhu Yingzhen didn't know the situation between Gao Pragmatic and Princess Yongning, but he was summoned to the palace by the emperor to give private instructions about this project, and he learned a little bit about it.
Of course, it is easier to distort the secrets from Zhu Yingzhen’s perspective. He came to the following conclusion:
Her Royal Highness Princess Yongning had a crush on Gao Jingshi a few years ago, which he knew. He knew the real reason why Gao Jingshi was demoted and transferred to a foreign post in the eighth year of Wanli, and this was the major premise for subsequent inferences.
On this basis, the Empress Dowager Cisheng is mainly responsible for the reason why Princess Yongning is now a widow, and the emperor is probably very guilty, feeling that he, his biological brother, has not done a good job, so he is determined to compensate his sister.
However, this compensation is difficult to handle, because the princess of the Ming Dynasty wanted to set an example and did not remarry. This is different from the imperial court changing the ancestral system in government affairs. The reason why the ancestral system in government affairs can sometimes be changed is because a large number of important courtiers promote it, and behind this driving force are the interests of many people, huge interests.
Does the princess's remarriage affect a group of important courtiers and the huge interests behind them? Obviously not, so it is impossible to tamper with the ancestral system for this reason. Even if you are the emperor, the emperor would not dare to bring it up.
Therefore, even if the emperor wants to compensate, he has to find a cover. First, he can use the excuse of "kissing" to allow the princess to live outside the palace, and then find a way to let someone from outside the palace get in. This is the best option. As for who that person is, it goes without saying. Her Royal Highness the Princess has never seen many men in her entire life. Apart from Gao Situ, whom she has long been attached to, Zhu Yingzhen simply does not believe that there are other candidates.
Moreover, Zhu Yingzhen also felt that the reason why the emperor was willing to do this was most likely because "this person" was highly pragmatic, his childhood classmate, and his pillar of strength. If it were anyone else, it is estimated that even if the emperor wanted to compensate, the most he could do would be to give Her Royal Highness the Princess some more land or something.
So Zhu Yingzhen was very happy that the emperor was willing to entrust him with such an important matter. Is there any other explanation besides trust? There should be no more, or at most one more thing should be added: The emperor also knew that Zhu Yingzhen and Gao Pragmatic had an unusual friendship.
Wonderful! In the court of the Ming Dynasty, with the trust of the emperor and the care of Gao Situ, isn't Zhu Yingzhen as stable as a mountain? Maybe in the future, the Chengguo Gong line could even overtake the British Gong line!
After hearing Zhu Yingzhen's obvious hint, Gao Yingshi just smiled faintly and did not continue. Instead, he changed the topic and said: "The reason for inviting the Duke over today is actually for another matter."
Zhu Yingzhen's heart moved, and he immediately stopped joking, looked at him seriously, and asked: "What about the Japanese?"
It seems that even though the Japanese pirates have been rampant for so many years, they are not serious enemies in the eyes of the Ming Dynasty, so when Zhu Yingzhen mentioned them, he also used the term "Japanese" with the connotation of contempt.
Gao pragmatic nodded slightly: "I heard that the Shimazu family contacted the Duke and said they wanted to buy some firearms?"
Zhu Yingzhen was afraid that Gao Pragmatic might misunderstand him, so he explained with an embarrassed look: "These Japanese people are so ignorant that they think I am a prince, someone who can take charge of affairs. This... I am also quite surprised."
Gao Jingshi didn't take it seriously. The Duke of the Kingdom had the highest title of foreign surname in the Ming Dynasty. People in the Shimazu family might have thought he was Guan Bai or General Zhengyi. It's normal to have some misunderstandings.
"It doesn't matter. The Duke is also a permanent director of the Maritime Trade Alliance, and the Shimadzu family is not the wrong person to ask." Gao Pragmatic smiled slightly: "But I don't know what the Duke thinks about this?"
"Ah, well, what do you think..." Zhu Yingzhen glanced at Gao Pragmatic quietly, but didn't see anything special about it, so he could only say: "I heard that the Shimazu family only has ten thousand soldiers in total. I'm thinking about selling some muskets to him." Nothing should happen to them."
Gao Pragmatic reminded: "After the Shimazu family was defeated recently, the family governor was changed. The new family governor Shimazu Yoshihiro once led troops to defeat an enemy army that was ten times the strength. What does the Duke think of this?"
"Is there such a thing?" Zhu Yingzhen obviously just learned about this situation, and said with some surprise: "I didn't expect that there are generals among the Japanese who are good at conquering and fighting."
Then he paused and said with a face full of joy: "Then when a person like him becomes the head of the family, he will probably be thinking about fighting... This is a good thing. Doesn't he need weapons to fight? Jinghua's muskets are well made. It’s so sophisticated that even the Ming Dynasty’s own Ordnance Bureau can’t imitate it, let alone the Japanese. Doesn’t that mean he will have to continue to buy it in the future? Good thing, good thing!”
Gao Pragmatic had a smile on his face, but he almost couldn't help but rolled his eyes and said to himself: I'm not asking you to analyze business prospects!
But then he thought about it and asked Zhu Yingzhen to analyze how much impact this incident would have on the situation in Japan... This question was probably over the top.
He thought for a while and decided to ask in a different way: "How much does the Duke know about the situation of the Shimazu family?"
"Well... I only know that this is a poor vassal. Even in the Japanese country, he is regarded as a country bumpkin. And then he was recently taught a lesson by the regent of the Japanese court."
The "regent" in Zhu Yingzhen's mouth obviously refers to the regent Guanbai Toyotomi Hideyoshi. I guess the Duke of the country doesn't know what Guanbai is. In fact, even if it is forced to be translated, the regent Guanbai or "sheguan" should be more equivalent to "Prime Minister Regent" - roughly the same as the Prime Minister Cao Cao.
Gao Jingshi was too lazy to explain these things to him, and instead said: "The Shimazu family originally had a height of more than 770,000 dan, but after being beaten, it was reduced to just over 600,000 dan. This is a matter for the Duke of the country. clear?"
Zhu Yingzhen obviously didn't know, and asked in confusion: "What is Shi Gao?"
Gao Pragmatic had no choice but to explain to him Japan's Ishigao system. This system was from Japan's Warring States Period. It was a system in which the area of a fief or allotment was calculated not by area but by the legal standard harvest amount or inversely calculated.
Like ancient China, "stone" in Japan is also a unit of volume, 1 stone = 10 buckets = 100 liters = 1000 units, and one stone is equivalent to about 30 kilograms of rice; "high" here does not refer to height or degree, but to quantity.
(Note: Please refer to Baidu for details on the Japanese Ishigao system. However, please note that the Ishigao of major forces often changed during this period, and there is a gap between Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Taikaku inspection area and the later Keicho rural account data. Historiography The industry generally believes that the Taige Inspection data are inaccurate, and there may be human factors that have increased or decreased the data.)
After listening to Gao Pragmatic's explanation, Zhu Yingzhen suddenly said: "It turns out that Japan is not too bad. It can produce almost 22 million shi of grain a year?" After a pause, he asked again: "Seeking truth, you He is a great farmer, but I wonder how much food we can produce next year?"
Good question, but the Ministry of Household Affairs does not actually have this data, because Ming Dynasty did not conduct statistics according to this system. However, facing the curious baby Zhu Yingzhen, Gao Pragmatic had no choice but to give him a very rough estimate.
"About two hundred and thirty million," Gao pragmatically replied.
That is 2.03 billion shi. This data may not be accurate, because Gao Pragmatic’s rough calculation method is as follows: the total number of cultivated land in China during the Wanli period was about 1.1 billion acres, and the yield per mu in the Ming Dynasty was about 174 kilograms. Then the total grain output of the Ming Dynasty It is 191.4 billion kilograms, equivalent to 2.03 billion stone. (Again, this figure is only a rough estimate.)
When Gao Pragmatic said this, Zhu Yingzhen felt relieved and laughed: "It is indeed a small country, but it is only one hundredth of my Ming Dynasty."
Unexpectedly, Gao Pragmatic shook his head and said seriously: "My lord, this account cannot be settled like this."
Zhu Yingzhen said in surprise: "Why?"
Gao pragmatic sighed and asked: "The Duke is the governor of the five prefectures. Do you know how many soldiers I have in the Ming Dynasty?"
"There are millions of heavenly soldiers!" Zhu Yingzhen said with his head held high.
Gao pragmatically nodded: "It sounds like a lot, but the Duke of Guo calculated that our two hundred million Shi Gao's troops are only one million. If we switch to Japan, how many troops should they have?"
This question is not difficult, just one hundred and one is sufficient. Zhu Yingzhen smiled and said: "Isn't that just one... uh, ten thousand?" His eyes widened as he said that.
Gao pragmatic smiled slightly: "Now the Duke knows that this account cannot be settled like this, right?"
Yes, Zhu Yingzhen knew it, but he still looked shocked: "But they only had so little food in total, how could they raise so many troops? If I remember correctly, this time the Japanese regent sent troops to attack the Shimazu family. , and dispatched a hundred thousand troops!"
Gao Pragmatic nodded and sighed: "This is a system problem. In addition... Japan's plundering of ordinary people is at least ten times more severe than that of the Ming Dynasty."
Zhu Yingzhen was stunned for a long time, then jumped to his feet and said: "These damn Japanese are so cruel! I'm confused. They raided so hard, but the Japanese people didn't rebel?"
Gao Pragmatic was too lazy to answer this question because what he wanted to say would go too far, so he shook his head slightly: "The regent of Japan required that for every 10,000 shi of stone height, 250 troops would be needed in wartime... I would like to add that this number It should be a result that is fully calculated and something that the Japanese can afford."
Although Zhu Yingzhen doubted this, he did not dare to question Gao Pragmatic, so he had to change his mind and muttered: "Ah... Then they are 22 million stone tall, so they can have a total of... more than half a million An army?”
Zhu Yingzhen said, he was startled, his eyes widened and he said: "This damn thing is enough for half of our Ming Dynasty's troops!"
Gao Pragmatic nodded: "Normally, it is 550,000 standing troops."
Zhu Yingzhen swallowed and coughed dryly. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly remembered that there was a problem and said hurriedly: "That's not right. According to what you just said, Qiu Zhen, the Shimazu family originally had a stone height of 770,000 shi." , then there should be a standing force... uh, how many people are there?"
Gao pragmatically replied: "More than nineteen thousand, nearly twenty thousand."
"Hold on! But as far as I know, the Shimazu family only has more than 10,000 troops."
Gao pragmatically smiled: "That's just because his family is very poor and has been hit by disasters in recent years. Therefore, even though he has such a high figure, he usually refuses to raise so many soldiers and deliberately shrinks them."
"Oh..." Zhu Yingzhen suddenly realized.
But Gao Pragmatic continued: "But precisely because of poverty, this time after Toyotomi Hideyoshi took back some of the territory that his family had seized in the past, they reduced the price from 770,000 koku to 600,000 koku. This The financial hit is even more severe.”
"That's terrible." Zhu Yingzhen said in astonishment: "The Shimazu family was already poor, and now they have been cheated. Isn't it even poorer? Then what do they use to buy firearms?"
At this point, Cheng Guogong suddenly became angry: "Do these Japanese people still want to attack our own prince... against our autumn wind!"
In Cheng Guogong's eyes, it has nothing to do with him that the Shimazu family is extremely poor, but if you want to beat him, you must not do it. Anyone who dares to have such an idea should be cut into pieces.
However, Gao Pragmatic seemed to be quite calm, and said with a slight smile: "To say that the autumn breeze is blowing is a bit exaggerated. I don't think the Shimazu family is so courageous... I guess Shimazu Yoshihiro probably wants to get credit."
Zhu Yingzhen's eyes widened: "Credit? Why?"
"Of course he thinks that if he takes our firearms, he can snatch them back from others." Gao pragmatically said with a smile.
"This..." Zhu Yingzhen thought for a while, shook his head and said: "I don't think this is very reliable. Although Wanli One and Wanli Two are powerful, their troops are too small. I still don't think they can beat that one. .
To be honest, I don’t think we can let them get this account on credit. If they lose the battle and the regent directly withdraws from the vassal in anger, who should we ask for the account? "
Gao Pingshi smiled and said: "It makes sense, so I think the Duke can give them some more constructive suggestions."
"What's your opinion?" Zhu Yingzhen was stunned.
"Let them carry out vassal reform first and consolidate financial resources."
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