The chapter also doesn't need to be subscribed for now; it's expected to be revised to normal in three days.
After Zeng Cheng and Liu Heming left the Imperial Palace, Emperor Zhu sat alone in the Palace of Heavenly Purity, lost in thought.
This was a war with very low odds of winning—even the most brilliant and strategic rulers, the most wise and virtuous monarchs, might not be able to perfectly resolve the issue of a massive capitalist class.
Take, for instance, a certain Principal.
Many people considered that Principal to be useless. After all, with the moral high ground and the assistance of the foolish Eagle Nation, that Principal, who enjoyed expanding territories on maps, couldn't even last four years before retreating to Ryukyu.
In reality, this Principal was already considered a formidable figure compared to any era in history. No matter how bad things were, he would never be worse than the twelfth enlightened monarch and sage ruler of the Great Qing, nor would he be worse than the God of War Emperor of the Great Ming, the Emperor who demanded entry.
As for evidence… MacArthur, who had loudly boasted about ending the war before Christmas and allowing the boys to go home for Christmas, couldn't hold out for four years with seventeen subordinate divisions. Does that mean that Principal, who held out for four years before retreating, is less capable?
Yet, even this Principal couldn't do anything about the four great families of Jiang, Song, Kong, and Chen. Even when the Crown Prince Jiang Jianfeng personally went to Songjiang Prefecture to take charge, it was of no use. Finally, when they caught Kong Lingkan, Song Meiling made a single phone call to the Principal, saying, "Your son is trying to arrest my nephew." The smart, bald Principal then flew directly to Songjiang Prefecture, reprimanded Crown Prince Jiang Jianfeng, released Kong Lingkan, and the grand anti-corruption campaign led by the Crown Prince in Songjiang was completely declared a failure.
Fu Yisheng, a famous anti-Japanese general, once said that the reason this operation failed was that the smart, bald Principal loved women more than his country. However, if one were to delve deeper, the more profound reason was probably that the Principal could not confront the capitalist class.
Firstly, this smart, bald Principal entirely relied on the capitalist class to rise to power.
Old Man Chen and Old Man Hu, along with others, looked at Qi Feng, who was speaking eloquently, with bewildered expressions, unable to believe these words were coming from Qi Feng.
Old Man Hu's eyes lit up: "Are you referring to Zhang Wenhong of the Kinai Provinces?"
Daimyo and Daimyo are not the same.
Daimyo originated from the term "meishu," meaning land with a name, which referred to private land. Daimyo referred to those who possessed large amounts of land.
In the late Heian period, a vast amount of state-owned land and manors in Wa were granted to nobles like the Fujiwara clan or were encroached upon by nobles. Wa's original land distribution system also collapsed. The nobles governed and amused themselves in Kyoto, while their land and manors were managed by their house vassals. Later, these house vassals, who were skilled in archery and horsemanship, gradually evolved into the samurai of later times.
In the late Heian period, the cloistered emperors abdicated and practiced the "insei" system, drawing on samurai to act as their agents to counter the Fujiwara nobles. Because the nobles were unwilling to suffer damage to their interests, they also began to draw on samurai to counter the cloistered emperors. The conflict between the cloistered emperors and the nobles allowed the leaders of the Taira and Minamoto samurai groups, Taira no Kiyomori and Minamoto no Yoritomo, to seize the opportunity to establish the Taira regime and the Kamakura Shogunate, respectively. The lands owned by the samurai who served them were also legalized, and those samurai thus became "meishu." During the Muromachi Shogunate, the samurai leaders who followed Ashikaga Takauji in raising an army were appointed "shugo," governing one or several provinces, and were collectively called Shugo-daimyo.
After the Ōnin War, the "Gekokujō" (geksokujo) trend prevailed throughout Wa, leading to the decline of many Shugo-daimyo and the rise of minor lords, who became Sengoku-daimyo.
During the Edo period, the Shogunate divided the daimyo of the entire country into Fudai-daimyo (vassals of Tokugawa Ieyasu) and Tozama-daimyo (daimyo who had originally submitted to Toyotomi Hideyoshi).
Daimyo like Inukai Wenhong, who rose to prominence by currying favor with Tokugawa Ienari's daughter, had very little standing in society. This was because their own strength was not sufficient to be classified as Fudai-daimyo. The Shogunate did not care about their survival and often treated them as playthings.
Even more critically, the Wa imperial court also did not trust these daimyo who rose to prominence by relying on Tokugawa Ienari's daughter. As a result, daimyo like Inukai Wenhong found themselves in an awkward position of being unloved by their maternal and paternal families alike.
For such a situation, anyone with even a little backbone would find it unbearable. However, Inukai Wenhong could endure it. Not only could he endure it, but he even found a way to comfort himself—whenever he felt uneasy, Inukai Wenhong would recall how happy he was when he studied abroad in Great Ming. Then he would console himself: "It's not that I, Inukai Wenhong, am too useless, but rather that the entire Wa nation lacks the ability to recognize talent, and my skills have been buried in vain! If Great Ming were to rule Wa…"
Inukai Wenhong's incessant rambling naturally led to further dissatisfaction from the Shogunate and the Wa imperial court. However, no matter how displeased the Shogunate and the Wa imperial court were, and no matter how much they wanted to kill Inukai Wenhong with a single stroke, they ultimately had to tolerate it.
This was because Inukai Wenhong said, "If Great Ming were to rule Wa…"
This statement was absolutely correct in Wa. To oppose this statement by Inukai Wenhong was equivalent to denying Great Ming. And denying Great Ming… The last formidable figure who dared to curse Great Ming was Hamis, who was likely old enough to have started elementary school and be attending regular classes by now.
Therefore, Inukai Wenhong became increasingly arrogant. Besides frequently promoting how great Great Ming was to the samurai and commoners in his domain, he also privately produced a Wa version of a newspaper, where he often attacked Tokugawa Ienari and Kōkaku-tennō. He paid no heed to the fact that Tokugawa Ienari was both the Shogun and his father-in-law, nor did he care about Kōkaku-tennō's so-called divinity.
He even publicly declared that Kōkaku-tennō, as the King of Wa, possessed neither divinity nor humanity, had failed to bring welfare to the people of Wa, and had betrayed the trust of the Great Ming Emperor. Kōkaku-tennō should commit seppuku as a form of apology.
Given his bold and outspoken behavior in the strictly hierarchical Wa, Inukai Wenhong quickly gathered a large following, most of whom were samurai and rōnin who were extremely dissatisfied with the Wa imperial court and the Shogunate.
Now, Qi Feng's proposal to use Inukai Wenhong to destabilize Wa and make a profit naturally greatly appealed to the Great Ming merchants present, including Old Man Hu and Old Man Chen.
Old Man Hu chuckled, stroked his beard, and said, "With only Inukai Wenhong, at most he can cause chaos in one region under his rule. The money our brothers can earn will naturally be very limited. In my opinion, we should try to bring in more people."
Qi Feng smiled and nodded, uttering another name: "What about Yojiro Nishikage?"
Upon hearing the name Yojiro Nishikage, the Great Ming merchants present burst into laughter.
If one were to purely rank their social standing, Yojiro Nishikage was actually far inferior to Inukai Wenhong. This was because, no matter what, Inukai Wenhong was a daimyo, while Yojiro Nishikage was merely a rustic commoner who usually referred to himself as a scholar of Dutch studies.
The key point was that Yojiro Nishikage was not a mere scholar.
Although Yojiro Nishikage did not dare to openly attack the Wa imperial court and the Shogunate like Inukai Wenhong, and even dared to rally a group of dissatisfied Japanese to publish newspapers, Yojiro Nishikage played at desperately attacking the various feudal lords and daimyo of Wa, while also making sarcastic remarks about the Wa imperial court and the Shogunate.
In the eyes of the Wa imperial court and the Shogunate, Yojiro Nishikage was like a toad – it couldn't be killed but could be disgustingly bothersome. After all, he was cloaked in the guise of a Dutch studies scholar and was usually seen associating with Great Ming merchants. Thus, the Wa imperial court and the Shogunate dared not directly deal with him.
Now Qi Feng had remembered Yojiro Nishikage.
To put it bluntly, Wa, which was praised to the heavens by countless people suffering from incurable diseases, was quite similar to the situation in Tianzhu. Tianzhu had a caste system, and Wa also had social strata.
For example, why did those rōnin samurai who had lost their masters remain rōnin instead of finding jobs?
This implied that if Tokugawa Ienari wanted to complete the blockade, he had to first deal with those rōnin.
The daimyo of Chikuzen, Chikugo, Buzen, Bungo, Hizen, Tsushima, Hyuga, and others also responded, while the other daimyo and lords couldn't help but frown.
This geographical difference naturally led to unbalanced development among the various domains. Some domains were relatively prosperous, while others were extremely poor.
The difference in wealth and poverty would directly reflect the number of rōnin in each domain.
The poorer the domain, the more rōnin it had.
More importantly, Satsuma Domain and the daimyo of Chikuzen, Chikugo, and others also shared a common designation: the Kyushu Domains.
These domains were originally located on the island of Kyushu. Satsuma Domain had even sent troops to conquer Ryukyu, forcing the King of Ryukyu to pay tribute to Wa.
If one were to say they were willing, they were definitely unwilling. Shimazu Hisamitsu and the daimyo of Chikuzen, Chikugo, and others had also considered resisting. At the very least, they wanted to secure a good territory, right?
Then Shimazu Hisamitsu and the others nimbly moved to Ezo, completely ceding the island of Kyushu.
If they were to obey the orders of their daimyo and ignore Tokugawa Ienari, what would the Shogunate think? If they mutually hindered and bickered, how could they possibly clean up the rōnin?
This was even more unacceptable to the daimyo than directly providing financial support to Tokugawa Ienari!
After Tokugawa Ienari finished speaking, the daimyo present, while secretly relieved, couldn't help but feel a little suspicious.
As is well known, besides his lasciviousness, Tokugawa Ienari's greatest flaw was his greed. The insatiable greed of his sons and daughters could be said to be inherited from Tokugawa Ienari.
Shimazu Hisamitsu, this Ezo idiot, was so poor he was like a dog, yet he still sent samurai and foot soldiers to help Tokugawa Ienari. Now he was the first to jump out and scold the other daimyo, acting like a loyal dog willing to shed his last drop of blood for the Edo Shogunate. Yet Tokugawa Ienari seemed displeased?
After pondering for a moment, Matsudaira Nobunobu's mind suddenly flashed with an idea. If he thought about it positively, Tokugawa Ienari might genuinely want to purge those samurai, and his current performance with Shimazu Hisamitsu was merely an act to lure the other daimyo into a trap.
If he thought about it negatively, perhaps Tokugawa Ienari's true objective was not to completely purge the rōnin, but to target them, the daimyo! Once the Shogunate's samurai and foot soldiers were allowed to enter the territories of various domains in large numbers, anything that happened afterward would be difficult to predict!
Thinking of this, Matsudaira Nobunobu's expression couldn't help but become somber. Then, he glanced at Shimazu Hisamitsu and said loudly, "Lord Shimazu is absolutely right. This is precisely the time for us to unite and overcome the difficulties together. We cannot hesitate at this moment!"
Following the pronouncements of Shimazu Hisamitsu and Matsudaira Nobunobu, the other daimyo had no way out. Whether they understood or not, they had to follow Shimazu Hisamitsu and Matsudaira Nobunobu in their declarations, expressing their willingness to dispatch samurai and foot soldiers to help the Shogunate purge the rōnin.
Tokugawa Ienari, however, was inwardly resentful.
Old Man Chen and Old Man Hu, along with others, looked at Qi Feng, who was speaking eloquently, with bewildered expressions, unable to believe these words were coming from Qi Feng.
However, Qi Feng paid no attention to their gazes. Instead, he said to Old Man Chen, Old Man Hu, and the others, "What do you say? If you're willing to do this with me, Qi, then we'll do it together. If anyone is unwilling, they can leave on their own. As long as you don't cause trouble for me, Qi, we'll still be good brothers."
Old Man Hu couldn't help but frown: "Brother Qi's idea is good, but where can we find a daimyo willing to cooperate with us? According to Brother Qi's statement, this daimyo must first not have too much power, secondly must not be too intelligent, thirdly must not be too stupid, and crucially, must be able to fool those short, ugly Japanese. It's not easy to find such a daimyo, is it?"
Qi Feng couldn't help but sneer: "Frogs with three legs are hard to find, but aren't there plenty of people with two legs? To tell you the truth, I have already chosen a daimyo. This person also studied in Great Ming for a period and has some rudimentary medical skills, which should be enough to fool those short, ugly Japanese."
Old Man Hu's eyes lit up: "Are you referring to Zhang Wenhong of the Kinai Provinces?"
Just as Matsudaira Nobunobu had surmised, the reason Tokugawa Ienari proposed that the Shogunate dispatch samurai and foot soldiers to purge the rōnin was partly to truly purge the rōnin, so as to avoid any unexpected incidents during the subsequent blockade.
As for sending ninjas or people already suffering from leprosy to plague the territories of Kōkaku-tennō and his son, Tokugawa Ienari genuinely had no such thoughts for the time being.
Unfortunately, Tokugawa Ienari's well-laid plans were now being disrupted by these two scoundrels, Shimazu Hisamitsu and Matsudaira Nobunobu.
The daimyo and lords present were somewhat bewildered, unsure of what this scoundrel Tokugawa Ienari intended to say next.
The daimyo and lords continued to be bewildered – Great Ming was the superior nation, the father of Wa, wasn't that only natural?
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