Chapter 2731
Chapter 2731
Chapter 2731
Compared with the several cities that the mission had visited during their visit to Japan, the inner outline of Edo Castle is indeed higher than one level in terms of architectural scale and decoration level.The palaces you see are all white walls and green tiles, bucket arches and double eaves, and high upturned owl tails at both ends of the roof ridge, which are very close to the shape of traditional Chinese architecture.
Among the young officials of the mission, Shi Chengwu has been in Jiangsu and Zhejiang all year round, and has been to Nanjing City many times, so he naturally knows that this architectural style is a legacy of Tang and Song Dynasties.The few people from Hainan Island usually see square-shaped Haihan-style buildings. They rarely have the opportunity to see Chinese-style palaces, and they are quite novel about what they see.
The only person who feels familiar with this scene is Zhu Zian, who has a special identity.He was born in a palace, and he is very familiar with palace architecture. The palace he saw in Seoul earlier, he only felt that it was a low-quality imitation, and even the appearance was not up to the standard.The palace buildings seen at this time are far less gorgeous than the Daming Palace, but their shape is much stronger than the Joseon Palace.
However, at this time, everyone's minds were not on the scenery they saw in front of them, and they were all thinking about the next meeting with the Japanese side.
Everyone was taken to one of the halls, waiting for the arrival of the shogun.But there are no seats here, there are only a few silk cushions and two low tables on the bare straw mat floor, and everyone can only sit on the floor.Fortunately, the mission had been to Jinshi Castle, Nagasaki Castle, and Osaka Castle before, and everyone was used to the picky and searchy Japanese home style, so they didn't think there was anything wrong with it.
Not long after, the sound of footsteps was heard in the corridor outside the house, and then the grilled paper door was pulled open, and a group of people walked in, surrounded by a young man in a purple robe and a tasseled crown.Everyone in the mission knew that the Lord had arrived, and they all stood up and bowed to greet him.
The young man said a few words in a low voice, and someone beside him translated it in Hai Han dialect, asking everyone to sit down and talk.
Although Ma Boran had heard about the situation of the current shogun before coming here, but after seeing the real person, everyone was somewhat surprised.
This young man who inherited the position of general four years ago when he was just ten years old is currently the most powerful figure in Japan, the fourth general of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Iezuna.But he looked short and thin, with a pale complexion, obviously not at the level of physical development that a healthy teenager should have.
He is the second son of the previous general Tokugawa Iemitsu, but his elder brother died at birth, so he became the first heir.Or because of family genetic defects, Tokugawa Iemitsu passed away at the age of 47, his eldest son died young, Tokugawa Ietsuna was also born with physical weakness, often fell ill, and his physical condition was far from healthy.
It is precisely because of these reasons that the government affairs of the shogunate are more shared by high-level officials, but the status of Tokugawa Iezuna has become somewhat similar to that of the emperor. Most of the time, he does not deal with practical affairs, but is just a symbol of power.Fearing that his image would affect the authority of the shogunate, Tokugawa Iezuna rarely left his residence and appeared in public.
Of course, despite this, the deep background of the Tokugawa family is still enough to ensure that Tokugawa Iezuna can continue to hold power. Even if his powerful ministers can control the government, they still dare not easily challenge the status of the shogun.
Although Tokugawa Ietsuna was not in good health, he had been a general for several years after all, and his performance was relatively calm. After taking his seat, he first expressed his gratitude to the Haihan Executive Committee for the greetings and gifts, and then asked his servants to present them as well. A gift list, as an official gift in return.
After the simple greetings, both parties can get to the topic.The Haihan Mission actually prepared a lot of topics for this trip, not only related to trade, but also related to international relations.But in the end, it will depend on the performance of the mission on the spot.
Although Japan signed a trade treaty with Haihan under the coercion of force at the beginning, after several years of operation, the shogunate has obtained real money from bilateral trade, and the benefits are all real. This is an important reason for Han to carry out dialogue and consultation.
The issues raised by the mission are very practical, such as building a special port area for Haihan in Nagasaki, providing more convenient transportation conditions for merchants, so as to attract more Haihan merchants to station in Nagasaki Port; allowing Haihan to operate in more Haihan Bank offices are set up in the region, so that merchants engaged in trade activities can use Haihan banknotes to denominate settlements; reduce the tax rate for Haihan products entering the Japanese market, so as to promote the growth of trade scale, etc.
When it comes to specific affairs, the young shogun obviously has a lot of links that he doesn't understand well, so after listening to each topic, he has to have a long question and discussion with the officials around him before making a response.
Although the mission stated in detail the benefits that these measures would bring to the Japanese side, it was still not strong enough to persuade Tokugawa Iezuna to accept these issues.The shogunate still has many concerns about the follow-up impact of these measures, fearing that it will reduce its own control over these trade activities, thereby creating uncontrollable risks.
After some consultations, the shogunate did not reject all the issues raised by the mission, but they also failed to reach a consensus on any of them.Tokugawa Jiagang said that it will take some time to confirm the feasibility of these issues. This cycle may last for several days, and some details are still to be discussed.
Such a reply was not beyond the expectations of the mission. Ma Boran had vaccinated them a long time ago. The shogunate was not harmonious, and the young generals were relatively weak, and their prestige was still difficult to convince.Therefore, the negotiation process is unlikely to be smooth sailing. Half of the issues raised by Haihan can be recognized by the other party in the end, which is considered a relatively ideal result.
As for international relations, the matters mentioned by the mission caused a shock in the shogunate.
The mission proposed that after Ming surrendered to Haihan last year, all Ming vassal states were also taken over by Haihan. However, most of the Ryukyu Kingdom is still under the control of the Japanese Satsuma clan Shimadzu.Haihan hoped that the shogunate would focus on the overall situation and persuade the Shimadzu family to give up control of Ryukyu and withdraw from the area voluntarily.If the Satsuma domain can comply, then the local industry and trade rights can still be fully preserved.
The Ryukyu Kingdom has become a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty since the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. Not only did the king accept the canonization of the Ming court, but even the year name was directly copied from the Ming Dynasty.But in the 37th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, the Satsuma clan sent troops to invade Ryukyu, and even the king was captured. Later, Ryukyu was forced to sign the "Fifteen Articles", acknowledging the control of the Satsuma clan over Ryukyu, and the Amami Five The island was assigned to the direct jurisdiction of the Satsuma clan, and since then it has entered the period of one country and two dependencies.Ryukyu is still nominally a vassal state of Ming Dynasty, but in fact it is under the control of the Tokugawa shogunate and the Satsuma clan.
(End of this chapter)
Compared with the several cities that the mission had visited during their visit to Japan, the inner outline of Edo Castle is indeed higher than one level in terms of architectural scale and decoration level.The palaces you see are all white walls and green tiles, bucket arches and double eaves, and high upturned owl tails at both ends of the roof ridge, which are very close to the shape of traditional Chinese architecture.
Among the young officials of the mission, Shi Chengwu has been in Jiangsu and Zhejiang all year round, and has been to Nanjing City many times, so he naturally knows that this architectural style is a legacy of Tang and Song Dynasties.The few people from Hainan Island usually see square-shaped Haihan-style buildings. They rarely have the opportunity to see Chinese-style palaces, and they are quite novel about what they see.
The only person who feels familiar with this scene is Zhu Zian, who has a special identity.He was born in a palace, and he is very familiar with palace architecture. The palace he saw in Seoul earlier, he only felt that it was a low-quality imitation, and even the appearance was not up to the standard.The palace buildings seen at this time are far less gorgeous than the Daming Palace, but their shape is much stronger than the Joseon Palace.
However, at this time, everyone's minds were not on the scenery they saw in front of them, and they were all thinking about the next meeting with the Japanese side.
Everyone was taken to one of the halls, waiting for the arrival of the shogun.But there are no seats here, there are only a few silk cushions and two low tables on the bare straw mat floor, and everyone can only sit on the floor.Fortunately, the mission had been to Jinshi Castle, Nagasaki Castle, and Osaka Castle before, and everyone was used to the picky and searchy Japanese home style, so they didn't think there was anything wrong with it.
Not long after, the sound of footsteps was heard in the corridor outside the house, and then the grilled paper door was pulled open, and a group of people walked in, surrounded by a young man in a purple robe and a tasseled crown.Everyone in the mission knew that the Lord had arrived, and they all stood up and bowed to greet him.
The young man said a few words in a low voice, and someone beside him translated it in Hai Han dialect, asking everyone to sit down and talk.
Although Ma Boran had heard about the situation of the current shogun before coming here, but after seeing the real person, everyone was somewhat surprised.
This young man who inherited the position of general four years ago when he was just ten years old is currently the most powerful figure in Japan, the fourth general of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Iezuna.But he looked short and thin, with a pale complexion, obviously not at the level of physical development that a healthy teenager should have.
He is the second son of the previous general Tokugawa Iemitsu, but his elder brother died at birth, so he became the first heir.Or because of family genetic defects, Tokugawa Iemitsu passed away at the age of 47, his eldest son died young, Tokugawa Ietsuna was also born with physical weakness, often fell ill, and his physical condition was far from healthy.
It is precisely because of these reasons that the government affairs of the shogunate are more shared by high-level officials, but the status of Tokugawa Iezuna has become somewhat similar to that of the emperor. Most of the time, he does not deal with practical affairs, but is just a symbol of power.Fearing that his image would affect the authority of the shogunate, Tokugawa Iezuna rarely left his residence and appeared in public.
Of course, despite this, the deep background of the Tokugawa family is still enough to ensure that Tokugawa Iezuna can continue to hold power. Even if his powerful ministers can control the government, they still dare not easily challenge the status of the shogun.
Although Tokugawa Ietsuna was not in good health, he had been a general for several years after all, and his performance was relatively calm. After taking his seat, he first expressed his gratitude to the Haihan Executive Committee for the greetings and gifts, and then asked his servants to present them as well. A gift list, as an official gift in return.
After the simple greetings, both parties can get to the topic.The Haihan Mission actually prepared a lot of topics for this trip, not only related to trade, but also related to international relations.But in the end, it will depend on the performance of the mission on the spot.
Although Japan signed a trade treaty with Haihan under the coercion of force at the beginning, after several years of operation, the shogunate has obtained real money from bilateral trade, and the benefits are all real. This is an important reason for Han to carry out dialogue and consultation.
The issues raised by the mission are very practical, such as building a special port area for Haihan in Nagasaki, providing more convenient transportation conditions for merchants, so as to attract more Haihan merchants to station in Nagasaki Port; allowing Haihan to operate in more Haihan Bank offices are set up in the region, so that merchants engaged in trade activities can use Haihan banknotes to denominate settlements; reduce the tax rate for Haihan products entering the Japanese market, so as to promote the growth of trade scale, etc.
When it comes to specific affairs, the young shogun obviously has a lot of links that he doesn't understand well, so after listening to each topic, he has to have a long question and discussion with the officials around him before making a response.
Although the mission stated in detail the benefits that these measures would bring to the Japanese side, it was still not strong enough to persuade Tokugawa Iezuna to accept these issues.The shogunate still has many concerns about the follow-up impact of these measures, fearing that it will reduce its own control over these trade activities, thereby creating uncontrollable risks.
After some consultations, the shogunate did not reject all the issues raised by the mission, but they also failed to reach a consensus on any of them.Tokugawa Jiagang said that it will take some time to confirm the feasibility of these issues. This cycle may last for several days, and some details are still to be discussed.
Such a reply was not beyond the expectations of the mission. Ma Boran had vaccinated them a long time ago. The shogunate was not harmonious, and the young generals were relatively weak, and their prestige was still difficult to convince.Therefore, the negotiation process is unlikely to be smooth sailing. Half of the issues raised by Haihan can be recognized by the other party in the end, which is considered a relatively ideal result.
As for international relations, the matters mentioned by the mission caused a shock in the shogunate.
The mission proposed that after Ming surrendered to Haihan last year, all Ming vassal states were also taken over by Haihan. However, most of the Ryukyu Kingdom is still under the control of the Japanese Satsuma clan Shimadzu.Haihan hoped that the shogunate would focus on the overall situation and persuade the Shimadzu family to give up control of Ryukyu and withdraw from the area voluntarily.If the Satsuma domain can comply, then the local industry and trade rights can still be fully preserved.
The Ryukyu Kingdom has become a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty since the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. Not only did the king accept the canonization of the Ming court, but even the year name was directly copied from the Ming Dynasty.But in the 37th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, the Satsuma clan sent troops to invade Ryukyu, and even the king was captured. Later, Ryukyu was forced to sign the "Fifteen Articles", acknowledging the control of the Satsuma clan over Ryukyu, and the Amami Five The island was assigned to the direct jurisdiction of the Satsuma clan, and since then it has entered the period of one country and two dependencies.Ryukyu is still nominally a vassal state of Ming Dynasty, but in fact it is under the control of the Tokugawa shogunate and the Satsuma clan.
(End of this chapter)