The reason why almost any transaction cannot be successful is because the price cannot be agreed upon. In the same way, the necessary prerequisite for the success of almost any transaction is that the price can not be agreed upon.
However, if the Toyotomi family wants to find Jinghua to customize the warship, although the hull itself is not a problem, there are still some troubles beyond the price that need to be avoided in terms of shipboard weapons.
In fact, the laws of the Ming Dynasty can be regarded as civil law to a large extent, that is, statutory law. The emphasis on private rights is "freedom without prohibition by law." However, the Ming Dynasty did not impose a ban on the sale of iron or weapons against Japan. . In theory, Gao Pragmatic can indeed sell any weapons to Japan, including muskets and artillery.
Why is there no ban on Japan? Because Japan ranks among the fifteen "countries not to be conquered" designated by Emperor Taizu, and the official relationship between the Japanese court and the Ming Dynasty is not bad.
Yes, although the Japanese pirates issue has troubled the Ming Dynasty for more than a hundred years, the Japanese pirates issue itself is a private cooperation between Japanese pirates and Ming pirates, and has nothing to do with the Japanese court (actually the shogunate). Even when the shogunate was relatively strong, they assisted the Ming and Qing Dynasties in suppressing Japanese pirates. However, the Muromachi shogunate... was too stretched, and the so-called strong period was really too short.
Since Gao Pragmatic's "debut", the issue of "a country without conquest" has always become a shackle for him to some extent, which is a very bad thing.
These fifteen countries are in order, and the order is North Korea, Japan, Da Liuqiu, Xiao Liuqiu, Annan, Chenla, Siam, Champa, Sumatra, Western, Java, Pahang, Baihua, Srivijaya, Bohai mud.
Some of these countries have died naturally, let alone mention them. Regarding Annan alone, Zhu Di's reason for sending troops back then was all based on "God's gift." The specific reasons have been mentioned previously, so I will not repeat them. In short, he sent troops under the banner of restoring the Chen Dynasty. As for why they occupied it directly...because the Chen family was exterminated by the rebels.
Later, it was even more troublesome for Gao Pragmatic to send troops. He relied on luring snakes out of their holes and framing them, and then only used private soldiers and chieftain wolf soldiers to complete the conquest. He did not use a single Ming Dynasty's economical army in the whole process. This approach is largely to avoid Zhu Yuanzhang's setting of a "country without conquests".
The setting of "a country without conquests" is similar to some of Zhu Yuanzhang's other arrangements, making the mistake of "still looking". In other words, when Zhu Yuanzhang was alive, there were good reasons not to attack these countries. The problem was that it was impossible for the situation at that time not to change after a period of time, but Zhu Yuanzhang did not consider these possible changes at all, and simply threw away the ancestral system and banned it. Therefore, even if the descendants of the Zhu family were able to conquer, they could only Ability glared.
During the Hongwu period, the main energy of the Ming court was to restore production and maintain internal governance. In addition, the main targets at that time were still the Mongolian tribes in the north. These "countries that did not conquer" actually had no energy to conquer in the first place.
After the "Huangming Ancestral Instructions" was completed and promulgated, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang required the subsequent emperors to strictly follow and implement it. In fact, he was still worried that the temptation to expand the territory would cause the subsequent emperors to ignore the threat from the north and fight against those in remote areas. A small country in a corner. Zhu Yuanzhang probably thought this was a foolish waste of people's power, so he banned it.
In the fourth year of Hongwu's reign, Zhu Yuanzhang said in an edict: "If any overseas barbarian country causes harm to China, it must be punished. If it is not a patient of China, it is not possible to raise an army on its own. The ancients said that a vast land cannot be settled for a long time, and it is easy to plan the work of the people. The source of chaos.
For example, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty recklessly raised troops to conquer Ryukyu, killed the barbarians, burned their palaces, and captured thousands of men and women. The land he obtained was not enough to provide food, and the people he obtained was not enough to command. All historical records will be ridiculed by future generations.
I have used the small barbarian countries to block the mountains and seas, and secluded them in a corner. They are not a patient of China, and I will never attack them. However, the Hu Rong in the northwest are a danger to China in the world, so we must be careful. Your Majesty, please take note of what I said. You know what I mean. "
The above is Zhu Yuanzhang's explanation for setting up a "country without conquest". Simply put, it is "it is inconvenient to fight, and it is useless to defeat it." Therefore, it is reasonable not to fight.
However, if you take a closer look at Zhu Yuanzhang's original words, you will find that he actually left a backdoor: "If he is not a Chinese patient, I will never attack him" - then, if "he is a Chinese patient", can it be done? Cut it down? In theory it should be.
At this point, the key factor changes and becomes how to define "the other is China's trouble."
Yang Guang's reasons for attacking Goryeo are actually the same as Li Shimin's reasons for attacking Goryeo. For example, Li Shimin said: "Today we have made a decision, but Liaodong is not the guest. The descendants have strong soldiers and horses, and the advisers lead the conquest, and the chaos will begin. I therefore sincerely Take it without leaving any worries for future generations."
Look, for a pioneering emperor like Li Shimin, when he decided who to attack, his thinking was not that the other country was already "inflicting trouble on China", but just "not to worry about future generations." Relatively speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang's thinking was too conservative. He seemed to really believe that "governing all nations from within China" was the absolute truth. He had never imagined the changes in the situation due to the changes in time, and whether these changes could be "based on "Stay unchanged and adapt to all changes."
Of course, given the situation Zhu Yuanzhang faced at the time, this made sense. For example, North Korea was speculative in the late Yuan Dynasty, but there were several hidden dangers after Li Chenggui seized power. Its internal political power needs to be integrated, and there are Japanese pirates nuisance externally. During his reign, he solved the Japanese rebellion, and the measures he took against the Ming Dynasty were small things but big things, and he was very respectful.
This kind of obedience comes first from the powerful military power of the Ming Dynasty, and secondly, it is to use the momentum of the Ming Dynasty to maintain its rule. In fact, as early as the second year of Hongwu, the Goryeo Dynasty had already sent envoys to pay tribute. Li Chenggui After seizing power and establishing North Korea, Zhu Yuanzhang held the title of King of North Korea for many years in the name of usurping the throne.
As for Annan, his political consciousness was also very high at that time. In the second year of Hongwu, at Renwu, King Chen Rixuan of Annan sent his young and middle-ranking officials Simong Min, chief officials Ji Ti, Li Anshi and others to pay tribute to Fangwu and ask for a title.
Because of his good attitude, the Ming Dynasty also received good feedback. He ordered Zhang Yining and Dianbo Niu Liang, academicians of the Imperial Academy, to go to his country. He named Rixuan the King of Annan and gave him a camel button coated with gold and silver seals. At that time, Annan came to pay tribute from time to time, and also liked to pay tribute to elephants, which made Zhu Yuanzhang quite satisfied.
Later, during the Yongle Dynasty, Li Dabiao committed a taboo. He thought that the tribute system was the diplomatic program of the Chinese Empire. You could just kill Prince Annan's family and pretend to be one, but you still had nothing to do with it? So it was natural for Zhu Di to send General Zhang to slap him in the face.
All in all, Zhu Yuanzhang's setting of these "countries without conquest" was not only related to the current situation at that time, but also related to the diplomatic principle of the tributary system that China had always insisted on implementing, and also related to Zhu Yuanzhang's understanding of these small countries at that time - an intuitive view The benefits are limited.
Most of these countries that were not conquered were included in the tribute system, which was a manifestation of the Ming Dynasty's maintenance of the so-called Celestial Dynasty status. As for these settings that restricted the Ming Dynasty's diplomacy and expansion... Zhu Yuanzhang's considerations were obviously different from Gao Pragmatic. For him, what could he gain by conquering Vietnam? Even later, Zheng He went to the Western Seas to conquer the natives along the way. What could he gain in the eyes of the emperor? coconut? Sumu? spices? Or a giraffe?
From the perspective of most people at that time, none of these things were necessities. Considering the distance of the journey and the high cost of maintaining these territories in the future, it was probably a loss-making business. It would be better not to fight them than not.
Most of the small countries in the south have been accepted by Beijing, so there is no need to talk about them for the time being. Just talking about Japan, in fact, it has escaped from the "tasteless food" situation in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes at that time. The huge amount of silver output alone is what Gao Wushu must pay attention to when carrying out currency reforms, and is even indispensable.
Because of the restrictions of the country without conquests, Gao Pragmatic could not take the initiative to send troops to Japan, and had to wait for Toyotomi Hideyoshi to send troops to Korea. However, in the original history, after the Ming Dynasty defeated the Korean War, it not only crippled the main force of the Li family army in Liaodong, but also emptied the national treasury and internal funds.
These two major problems forced the court to rely on Li Chengliang's prestige and let him control Liao for the second time. The emperor sent Gao Huai to conquer Liaodong to make up for the shortfall in internal funds. In the end, Liao's difficulties became more and more uncontrollable, and Nurhaci took advantage of the opportunity to become powerful.
Gao Pragmatic's current suppression of Nurhachi is pretty good. Of course, he mainly needs Nurhaci's military threat to ensure the loyalty of Ye He, Hada and other ministries to the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, it is inconvenient for him to kill Nurhaci in advance. Now he has to play with balance.
Nurhachi cannot die now, which actually means that Liaodong cannot be crippled and exhausted during the North Korean war, so that he can lose his suppression and quickly unify the Jurchen tribes. This requires that the central government of the Ming Dynasty have enough financial resources to support the Korean war, and it is best not to fight for six years, but to try to win the war as quickly as possible.
To sum it up, we need to have money and enough transportation capacity to support overseas operations. Only in this way can the army be concentrated and push the Japanese army directly into the sea.
Before Luo Yuan came to Japan, Gao Jingshi personally briefed him on the matter, and then granted him quite a lot of authority, including authority over arms transactions.
However, the authority Gao Pragmatic gave him was not to allow him to trade, but to tell him what he could not trade. Gao Pragmatic's original words at the beginning were "I cannot teach others what I value."
However, it was Luo Yuan's first time to take on an important responsibility, and he was afraid that his understanding would be biased, so he asked "what is an important weapon?" Gao pragmatically replied: "The most powerful and latest weapons among the equipment assigned to the garrison are the heavy weapons." Now Luo Yuan was relieved.
According to Gao Pragmatic's explanation, Luo Yuan believes that the arms purchase proposed by the Toyotomi family is overall feasible - because the largest battleship they want is less than the size of an armed transport ship, and the armament on the ship is of course mediocre, at least it is impossible to carry the No. 1 gun .
The No. 1 gun is the largest artillery currently equipped by the Beijing Guards and the various armed servants in the Ming Dynasty. It is generally used for bastion defense in key areas, mainly in southern Xinjiang.
Of course, more of them may be installed on battleships in the future - only pure warships will be installed, and armed transport ships will not be installed, because the load-bearing capacity of the artillery deck is not enough, and the deck may be damaged during a salvo. Since the number of pure warships is currently limited, there have never been many "production lines" for the No. 1 gun, and the production capacity is also relatively limited.
In Luo Yuan's view, the No. 2 cannon is no longer within the highly pragmatic ban on sale, and can be sold to the Toyotomi family - in fact, the Toyotomi family had already obtained it from some nobles in the Sea Trade Alliance. Some, in fact, I can’t help but think the difference is not big.
So Luo Yuan asked Toyotomi Hidenaga in detail, and the latter said that the new Daifuku ship they wanted should be equipped with twenty giant barrels (No. 2 guns), but Luo Yuan told Toyotomi Hidenaga based on his own professional vision that with the new type of ship The size of the Dafu ship cannot carry more than eighteen artillery pieces. Otherwise, if the cannon is fired, the deck may be shattered. Secondly, it may also affect the speed and seaworthiness. It is definitely not worth the gain.
At first, Toyotomi Hidenaga thought that Luo Yuan was just selfish and didn't want Japan to get more artillery. After careful questioning, he found that Luo Yuan spoke clearly and clearly. He didn't understand many of the explanations at all - but he "didn't know how serious it was", so in the end Adopting Luo Yuan's opinion, the number of guns carried by the Dafu ship was set at eighteen, including six No. 2 guns and twelve No. 3 guns.
The new small Fukusen is actually not small, and is one size larger than the ordinary Kansai ships in Japan. It was finally determined to carry two No. 2 cannons and ten No. 3 cannons.
Next it’s time to talk about price.
Although Luo Yuan is not from the shipyard, he has worked his way from an ordinary technical employee in Jinghua to the captain of the pure warship "Left Cavalry", and he knows the cost price and ex-factory price of ships very well. Therefore, he first quoted a price of 60,000 taels of kuping silver for a new big fortune ship and 40,000 taels of kuping silver for a new small fortune ship.
Toyotomi Hideucha was shocked when he heard this and asked why Luo Yuan was so expensive? Luo Yuandao: "After all, it is customized. Jinghua has to specially redesign and form a new production system to build it. The price is naturally a bit more expensive."
The good one is "a bit" more expensive. The armed transport ship is about 30% larger than the new Daifuku ship. It carries 28 guns, including eight No. 2 guns, but the price of a single ship is only 55,000 taels. He actually quoted a price of 60,000 taels for the new big fortune ship that was obviously smaller than it, and for the new small fortune ship that was only two-fifths the size of an armed transport ship, he actually quoted 40,000 taels. This is not a rip off, this is killing. Pig!
However, Toyotomi Hidenaga had done his homework and knew the price of armed transport ships within the Ming Dynasty, so he immediately raised a tactful question. However, Luo Yuan said plausibly without any red face or heartbeat: "Your Majesty the Great Nayan said something a bit unprofessional. My master is not His Majesty the Emperor. How can this important matter of selling military weapons to neighboring countries not be taken care of from top to bottom?" What’s the point? How expensive is it to manage this? You might as well think about the Japanese ministers.”
Toyotomi Hidenaga was stunned and speechless. What you said makes sense, but I am speechless. However, he finally came up with a trump card and said: "What if our Toyotomi family purchases in large quantities? This can always be a little more flexible on the price, right?"
Luo Yuan had been waiting for the words "bulk purchase" for a long time. When Toyotomi Hideucha said this, he immediately asked: "What is a large quantity? How much is this large quantity?"
Toyotomi Hideucha laughed loudly: "Your Highness, to be honest, our Toyotomi family will need as much as these two new types of lucky ships Kyoka can build!"
----------
Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi" and "StephenXIE" for their monthly support, thank you!
