The two major copper mountains in Kanto are not far from each other, and the water system in Kanto is developed, so transportation after mining is very convenient. If this were in the Ming Dynasty or southern Xinjiang, then Gao Pragmatic would definitely have ordered the mining of copper mines without hesitation, and set up a mint in Edo or nearby areas to influence the entire Japan through financial means.
But Japan is not the Ming Dynasty, nor is it Southern Xinjiang. Even if no one underestimates the strength of the Maritime Trade Alliance, except for daimyo like the Matsuura family who rely on one trading port to survive, and "ambitious" people like the Shimadzu family who have other plans. In addition to the daimyo, other daimyo did not dare to treat Toyotomi Hideyoshi as if he were nothing, leaving gold, silver, copper and other precious metal mines to outsiders for development.
You know, Toyotomi Hideyoshi followed the habits of the Oda family and always took money very seriously. Even powerful lords like the Mori family had to hand over a large portion of the output of the Iwami Silver Mine to Hideyoshi after surrendering. Neither Date Masamune nor Satake Yoshigeage at this time, nor Uesugi Kagekatsu in the future, would dare to embezzle minerals.
As for Tokugawa Yorifusa in the future, there is no need to mention it. The Tokugawa shogunate saw that the Muromachi shogunate's strong branches and weak cadres led to the weakness of the center and chaos in the world, so from the beginning of Ieyasu's establishment, he continued to strengthen centralization of power. The specific management of mining is also extremely strict and has always been firmly in our own hands.
Unless the Tokugawa shogunate cannot be established at all, Gao Pragmatic will never hope to obtain the mining rights of Copper Mountain in the territory of one of the three imperial families.
The output of these major copper mountains in Japan was quite high at that time. For example, the annual output of Ashio Copper Mountain reached 1,200 tons, which is 2.4 million kilograms. What is this concept? This means that if all of them are used to make copper coins, at least 300 million coins can be made. Even based on the ratio in the Ming Dynasty, that is, 1,000 coins is equal to one tael of silver, then this is still the value of 300,000 taels of silver.
But this is only a proportional conversion. In fact, if 300 million copper coins were in Gao Pragmatic's hands and used in Japan, their value would not be comparable to a mere 300,000 taels. This power, which is equivalent to the "currency issuance power", coupled with Jinghua's sufficient production capacity, can give Gao Pragmatic the ability to influence Japanese prices at any time!
Controlling prices through currency issuance means that Gao Pragmatism can plunder all kinds of wealth produced by the Japanese at will - as long as he is willing and does not mind the consequences.
By the way, Ming Dynasty's current money shortage can basically only be solved by relying on external silver, but the shortage of copper coins can actually be solved through internal development.
For example, the famous Yunnan Copper, which is the copper mine produced in Yunnan, is currently only mined in the Ming Dynasty to a few hundred thousand kilograms per year. However, after the large-scale development of Yunnan copper during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the output of Yunnan copper reached more than 10 million kilograms per year during the Qianlong period, and its production accounted for 95% of the country. It was almost "the whole country relies on Yunnan copper to mint money." .
However, Gao Pragmatic has always adhered to the attitude of not digging if possible, and tried to find solutions from places other than the Ming Dynasty, so he has not proposed it so far. The development of Yunnan Copper.
Although he has some plans for the future of Japan, he is actually not very sure whether the Japanese strategy can achieve long-term success, so he is more interested in digging Japan's various minerals.
Besshi Copper Mine is located on the Seto Inland Sea of Shikoku Island. Not far away across the sea is Osaka Castle, which is equivalent to being right under Toyotomi Hideyoshi's nose. Moreover, the local situation is currently very stable, and Kato Yoshiaki is Hideyoshi's. Hardcore, so this Copper Mountain must be difficult to get at the moment.
Ashio Copper Mountain on Date Masamune's side will soon change its lord, and it is relatively far from the sea, which is very unfavorable for the Sea Trade Alliance to exert its deterrent effect, so it has to be temporarily excluded. Looking at it this way, the Satake family's Hitachi Copper Mine is slightly easier to handle.
To be honest, although Japan's three major copper mountains were once very prominent in the original history and became the starting point of several major chaebols, in fact, in terms of reserves and total output before the final closure, they are not as good as China's major copper mountains. Compared to Copper City, they are not that big.
For example, Besshi Copper Mountain, the largest, produced a total of 700,000 tons of copper in 280 years. Hitachi Copper Mountain, which currently interests Gao Pragmatic, was estimated by later generations of Japan to have produced a total of 440,000 tons of copper before the mountain was closed. tons of copper.
However, China only talks about one Dexing copper mine in Jiangxi, which has proven copper reserves of up to 10 million tons (and it is an open-pit mine), not to mention the Yunnan copper that has been mined for who knows how many years, and the name tells you that there is a lot of copper. "Tongling" and other places.
But it doesn't matter, because it's not yet the seventeenth century. With Gao's current development capabilities and demand, Japan's Tongshan can solve many of his problems. What's more, even if Japan is really difficult to deal with, he still has the Chuangkhouang Huishan Copper Mine and the Champasak Copper Mine in the Nanzhang Kingdom on hand to replace it. If he has a long-term plan, he also has the Luzon Islands.
However, from a certain emotional point of view, he is still more willing to mine Japan's mines first.
The biggest advantage of Hitachi Copper Mountain, which is located within the Satake family territory, for Gao Pragmatism at this moment is that it is close enough to the sea - this place is located in Hitachi City in later generations, and the city is originally a coastal city.
But there are still problems. The biggest problem is that there is no port there. From later generations until the 21st century, Hitachi City's Hitachi Port was never fully completed. There were only three jetties. A total of 16 berths were planned, but only 13 were built.
The number of berths is already very limited. What is even worse is that there are only 4 berths above 10,000 tons, and 6 for 7,500 tons. As for the rest, whether built or to be built, they are only small 1,000-ton berths.
The reason for this phenomenon is that the water depth in the port area is not enough. The deepest berthing area is only 10 meters, and the others are about 7 meters, and many are even only 4-5 meters.
Although Gao Pragmatic doesn't know why Japan in the 21st century did not choose to dig out the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Area, he doesn't have the ability to do so now anyway, so he can only discuss the matter as it is, knowing that this place is not very suitable for building a large port.
The failure to build a large port means that Jinghua or the Maritime Trade Alliance cannot form a strong force to stay here for a long time. In other words, once the copper mine is mined, even with Jinghua's strength, it will be difficult to ensure the security of this place for a long time.
Unless... Before that, the Sea Trade Alliance had obtained a large port in the Kanto region as a base.
Gao pragmatic stopped and faced Shichahai to think.
It doesn't seem impossible. For example, the Hojo clan is now facing a crusade, and I have already decided to provide a certain degree of secret support to the Hojo clan in order to prolong Hideyoshi's stay in Kanto longer and waste more of his money and food.
Because the Hojo clan is the overlord of Kanto, it was previously the main trading partner of the Sea Trade Alliance in the Kanto region (previously, Kyoka did not participate in Japan's internal struggle for hegemony and only did business), and now it accepts the "goodwill" of the Sea Trade Alliance's secret support, then if The Maritime Trade Alliance proposed to rent a port within the Hojo clan's territory, and the Hojo clan in crisis would not refuse.
As for the demise of Hojo after the Battle of Odawara, Hideyoshi transferred Tokugawa Ieyasu over...
Judging from Ieyasu's nickname of "tanuki", he should not be stupid enough to choose to offend the Sea Trade Alliance when his own foothold is not stable and Hideyoshi is still encircling and guarding him.
Gao Pragmatic's previous judgment that the Tokugawa family would not allow him to mine in Kanto was based on the Tokugawa family establishing the shogunate after the Sekigahara War. But before that, he was not worried that Ieyasu would do anything he was not sure about. thing.
The only trouble lies in Hideyoshi. This guy understands the value of the seaport, otherwise he would not build Osaka Castle near the sea, let alone use Ningbo as his future residence in his great plan to conquer the Ming Dynasty.
Tokugawa Ieyasu was given a port where the Maritime Trade Alliance could dock at will, which may have caused Hideyoshi's strong opposition, fearing that Ieyasu would be rich as a result.
However, based on Ieyasu's wisdom, if this port was leased to the Maritime Trade Alliance before the collapse of the Hojo family, then he would most likely seize this point to express to Hideyoshi that he just could not break his trust in front of the Ming people and thus lose Japan's face.
This is a face-saving statement, and Hideyoshi may not agree with it. However, the victory of the Odawara War meant that Hideyoshi's unification of Japan was a foregone conclusion. After that, Hideyoshi became more and more assertive and became more and more concerned about showing his honor.
Ieyasu would then take advantage of this and get Hideyoshi to acknowledge or at least acquiesce that the Maritime Trade Alliance had a port because of the Hojo clan's promise.
To take a step back, even if Hideyoshi is still dissatisfied, he should consider the strength of the Sea Trade Alliance itself and its ability to influence the situation in Japan - just as he hopes that the Sea Trade Alliance's headquarters in Japan will be located in Osaka instead of Satsuma.
After the Kanhe trade was interrupted by the Ningbo incident, Japan wanted to trade with the Ming Dynasty but was unable to do so, resulting in Japan's money shortage. Later, Gao Gong opened the sea, and Gao Pragmatic's fleet quickly came over and formed a sea trade alliance. The scale of trade between the two sides gradually expanded, and Hideyoshi also obtained great profits from it through various pursuits he set up.
This is the most direct one. In fact, due to the Sea Trade Alliance doing business all over Japan, many trading ports in Japan have become more prosperous, and various daimyo can gain a lot of profits from it. In the words of later generations, it probably "greatly promoted the commercial prosperity of major cities and castle towns in Japan."
Therefore, Gao pragmatically judged that if the Maritime Trade Alliance really rented the Hojo family's land to build a port, Hideyoshi would have no choice but to accept it after the Battle of Odawara. Of course, considering that Hideyoshi is extremely utilitarian in what he does, he may ask the Sea Trade Alliance to provide an additional tax.
Gao pragmatically thought that this would work, as he could use this matter to test Hideyoshi's views and attitude towards the Sea Trade Alliance.
After thinking about this, he turned around and looked at Huang Zhiting. She had already finished talking about what she had said before and was looking at the winter scenery of Shichahai.
"I was distracted just now, I'm sorry." Gao Pingshi saw that it was already night, and although it had not snowed today, the temperature under the snow was still not high, so he asked, "Is it cold? Do you want to go back inside?"
"Based on my experience last time, I'm wearing much warmer clothes this time. It's not cold yet." Huang Zhiting turned her head and asked, "I saw you were thinking so much that I didn't bother you... What are you thinking about?"
Gao Pragmatic didn't hide anything, he just covered up why he knew there was a copper mountain somewhere in Japan. He had done enough of this, and Huang Zhiting didn't care.
After listening to what he said, Huang Zhiting frowned slightly and said, "Before Ms. Liu left, I specifically discussed the situation in Japan with her. There is one thing that I find strange."
"Which point?" Gao Jingshi knew that Huang Zhiting didn't really care about Japan. The reason why she cared was just because she cared a lot about it. She would always change her goals according to her husband's goals.
"The situation in Japan has changed a lot in the past few years. If I had intervened a few years ago, maybe there wouldn't be so many problems now. But I didn't intervene in the past few years, but now I am pouring my energy into it. Why? ? Is it just because you were busy in the past few years? "
This is indeed very reasonable. The situation in Japan changed drastically after the Honnoji Incident in 1582. Oda Nobunaga had gained advantages on all fronts, and when he was only one step away from the "people of the world", he was suddenly besieged by the rebellious Akechi Mitsuhide in Honnoji Temple. After a fierce battle, he realized that he was inevitable and committed suicide in the temple.
At that time, Oda Nobunaga's prestige and power were at the height of his power, and he controlled the richest half of Japan centered on Kyoto. The surrounding separatist forces, including Mori, Uesugi, Hojo, etc., were far incomparable in scale.
For Nobunaga at this time, it was only a matter of time before he could reunify Japan and create a new form of central power that was different from the previous imperial court or shogunate. In the past few years, he had already begun to create several large regional legions, preparing to attack in all directions and mop up the remaining princes who refused to obey.
But when the Incident at Honnoji Temple broke out, all this became a dream. When this shocking change occurred, Hashiba Hideyoshi was surrounding Takamatsu Castle in Bitchu, where Shimizu Soji was located, and fighting against the Maori army.
Due to some strange combination of circumstances, the messenger Mitsuhide sent to the Maori Army went to the wrong camp. As a result, Hideyoshi received the bad news from Nobunaga on June 3 of that year and hurriedly sued for peace with the Maori.
Three days later, after seeing Mori withdrawing his troops, Hideyoshi also led his troops back and arrived at Settsu on the 12th. There he joined local generals Nakagawa Kiyohide, Takayama Ukon, Ikeda Tsuneki and others, and joined forces with Oda Nobutaka, Niwa Nagahide and others in Sakai to march to Kyoto. On the 13th, he defeated Mitsuhide in the Battle of Yamazaki and achieved his first victory in revolt.
After that, he gave full play to his strengths and mobilized all parties to fight against Shibata Katsuie, the famous fierce general of the Oda family. He first defeated Shibata at the Qingzhou Conference. The following year, around March of the eleventh year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, he won the "Bayue Battle" in one fell swoop. "In the battle, he defeated Shibata Katsuie, and then invaded Shojo Castle, where he lived in the north of the city.
As a result, Shibata Katsuie committed seppuku and his wife Aichi also died. After Nobunaga's death, most of the Oda power fell into the hands of Hideyoshi.
What Huang Zhiting wanted to express was very clear and pragmatic. She believed that based on her husband's grasp of timing, the period after Nobunaga's death was probably the most critical time. Even though Gao Pragmatic was very busy at the time, Jinghua was fully capable of intervening in Japan to a certain extent.
Whether it is supporting Shibata Katsuie as Hideyoshi's opponent to form a tug-of-war with him, or supporting the Mori family to take advantage of the situation, or even supporting Tokugawa Ieyasu in the subsequent Battle of Komaki Nagakute to severely attack Hideyoshi, etc., it seems that everything can be done Hideyoshi could not become a "people of the world".
Jinghua doesn't even have to send a single soldier, as long as it provides money or weapons to the target force, this thing seems to have a good chance. For example, Shibata and Mori can be supported with grain and grass, and Tokugawa Ieyasu can be supported with muskets. These are actions that are very likely to change the overall situation.
Even in Huang Zhiting's view, it is not a bad idea to support Hideyoshi in turn, because as long as Hideyoshi feels the power of Jinghua, judging from his style, he will not forget to share the benefits of Jinghua afterwards.
However, at that time, Gao Pragmatic chose not to interfere at all in the situation in Japan and only focused on doing business. This was very suspicious and did not look like his usual style.
It was difficult for Gao Pragmatic to explain why he wanted to see Japan send troops to Korea to bleed its own blood and train troops for the Ming Dynasty. He could only explain: "Trade with Japan was still in its infancy at that time, and Annan was settled. I was still thinking about it." Burma and other places. Compared with Japan, southern Xinjiang was my first target at that time, so I was not willing to get involved in Japan's affairs at that time."
Although Huang Zhiting was a little confused, she accepted the explanation, but she asked again: "However, it is too late to intervene now, let alone whether it is too late. The first target of the intervention is the Shimazu family, but I don't understand it either." .”
She paused and frowned: "Wouldn't it be better to choose Hojo or even Mori? According to what I asked Miss Liu today, the strength of these two companies is far superior to Shimadzu."
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Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward support and monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: I fell asleep while typing last night. When I woke up, it was already 4:30 in the morning. I looked at the 2500 words I had coded before, and then I finished coding at this point... It’s really embarrassing. This chapter was from yesterday, and today I try to update as early as possible because my biological clock seems to get messed up when I go on holiday.
