Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 694 Dividing the spoils
After a day and a night, Kagoshima City finally gradually regained its calm. The streets and alleys were filled with pools of dirty blood. Burned into a black skeleton.

Yang Menglong rode into the city with a group of men, and saw that most of Kagoshima city had been turned into a piece of scorched earth. He couldn't help but frowned, and murmured: "These bastards are more capable of harming their own people than fighting wars." Much stronger!"

Yuan Zongdi casually pulled out the spears and arrows stuck in several corpses, looked at them, and said: "Most of them are masterpieces of the Japanese. These arrows and this spear are their typical equipment." He also pointed out Looking at the samurai sword stuck in the back of a Japanese samurai who fell to the ground and died, he sighed: "I didn't expect that they would not only kill their own civilians, but also their companions. What a bunch of evil wolves!"

Yang Menglong said: "They are a pack of wolves, what's so special?"

After bypassing a street, Colonel Mace came over and said with a smile, "Governor Yang, why are you only entering the city now?"

Yang Menglong said: "I see that you are having a good time, and I don't want to disturb you. How is it? How did you gain?"

Colonel Mace licked his lips and said, "Big! The harvest is frighteningly large!"

Yuan Zongdi didn't believe it: "How much harvest can such a very poor place have? You are fooling us, right?"

Colonel Metz smiled and said: "Don't believe it! Japan is very poor, but these otherworldly names are not poor at all...Damn it, if I didn't see it with my own eyes, I wouldn't be killed." I can't believe that such a poor country can find so much treasure!" Seeing that the two still didn't believe it, he decided to speak with facts: "Follow me!"

Yang Menglong followed Colonel Metz to the Shimadzu's mansion.This mansion was originally quite luxurious, with red walls and green tiles, golden beams and jade pillars, carved beams and painted buildings. There are as many as thirty or forty small pavilions and waterside pavilions, as well as rockery and flowing springs. It is both luxurious and elegant.

"This is what you have gained?" Yang Menglong looked somewhat unfriendly.

Colonel Metz said: "Of course not! Look, it's here. I guarantee that you will be surprised, Mr. Governor!" As he spoke, he pushed open the door of the chamber and pushed Yang Menglong in.

The moment he was pushed in, Yang Menglong instinctively closed his eyes.

It's not that he saw some horrible scenes——hasn't he seen a lot during this journey?He was blinded by the shaking.

gold!

silver!

pearl!

agate!

The precious things fished out from the sea, the silver produced by Iwami Silver Mountain, the gold and gems shipped from South America, these things that can make people's hearts beat faster and make them full of fear were pushed into a small mountain in the conference hall. In addition, there are boxes of copper coins cast by the Ming Dynasty, and there are many silver coins and gold coins shipped by Europeans!No wonder Colonel Mace said so exaggeratedly, because their gains were indeed very exaggerated!
Yang Menglong swallowed a mouthful of saliva and asked, "How much are these... equivalent to silver?"

Colonel Mays said: "It's worth millions of taels of silver at least. How about it, didn't you expect it?"

Yang Menglong said: "I really didn't expect that! Damn, Kagoshima isn't that rich. How could the Shimadzu family save so much money?"

Colonel Mace said: "Give you a population of 10 people and charge them a tax of up to 200% to [-]% every year for one or two hundred years, and you will be as rich as the rest of the country."

———In ancient Japan, it was indeed very poor. The common people could not even afford rice, but those daimyos were not poor at all.At this time, Japan has a population of 1000 million anyway, and it is also a maritime country. The maritime trade is quite developed. If you want to search, you can still search for a lot of money. Of course, how much you can search depends on your own ability.To put it simply, the tax borne by the Japanese people is as high as 300% to [-]% of their total income for many years. This is much more severe than the tithe tax in Europe. The agriculture itself is not developed, and the tax is so heavy. It is called hell if you are not poor up.Relying on sucking blood from these poor ghosts, the daimyos lived a life of luxury and wealth, and also raised a large number of samurai, who made movies when they disagreed, and blood flowed in rivers in order to dominate Japan.For the common people, this is even more terrifying than the extravagance of the daimyos. No matter how much those daimyos spend money like water, they are only a few people after all. They can afford to support them, but these guys will pull thousands or tens of thousands of people to fight at every turn. , and it lasts several years, even if they cut off the kidneys and sell them, they still can't afford it.What is admirable is that this situation has lasted for two to three hundred years, but there has been no nationwide peasant uprising. The emperor and the daimyos still enjoy what they should enjoy, and fight when they should. The endurance of the ancient Japanese is really impressive. marvel.

Yang Menglong quickly came back to his senses, lowered his voice and asked, "Do these two guys, Kuroda Hayao and Hosokawa Yuuji, know about it?"

Colonel Mace said: "We attacked the general's palace together, they must have known about it."

Yang Menglong scolded: "Fuck, they all know, how can we secretly share the spoils?"

Colonel Mace had a fierce look in his eyes: "Why don't we kill them? Anyway, there are less than 2 of them now, so they are very easy to deal with!"

Yang Menglong waved his hand and said: "No, I promised them that as long as they remain neutral in our battle with Shimadzu and the Maori, I will share half of the spoils with them. We Chinese pay attention to credibility. Can not do."

Colonel Mace was anxious: "No, Governor, you really don't want to share half of the spoils with them, do you?"

Yang Menglong looked helpless: "I promised them, I must do it, otherwise how will I win people's trust in the future?"

Colonel Mace rolled his eyes, helpless.In his opinion, Yang Menglong is both wise and brave, and he is good at everything, but he is too rigid, so he must do what he promised?Haven't you heard of "Soldiers never tire of cheating"?Even I, a Dutchman, have heard of it, so there’s no reason why you don’t know about it!

However, the advantage of working with this kind of person is that you don't have to worry about him cheating you...

Regardless of whether Colonel Mace is happy or not, and no matter how furious Alfonso is, Yang Menglong still calls Kuroda Jun and Hosokawa Yuki to participate in the whole process of counting the spoils.The two were overjoyed and devoted themselves wholeheartedly. After a lot of nervous fuss, they finally counted out, as many as 60 taels of silver, 16 taels of copper coins, 2000 taels of gold, and two buckets of pearls were recovered from the Shimadzu's house. There are twenty square meters of beautiful jade and a lot of precious stones. If all these properties are converted into silver, their value will be more than 130 million taels.This is the accumulation of generations of the Shimadzu family, and now they can handle it all in one pot.

Facing the expectant gazes of those big names, Yang Menglong waved his hand, regardless of Alfonso's look of killing people, and said, "I mean what I say, we will take half of these treasures with the Dutch, and share the rest with you!"

Hosokawa Yuuji, Kuroda Hayao and others were so excited that their bodies swayed and almost passed out.They almost burst into tears, O God Amaterasu, they originally wanted to share a small portion and be satisfied, but they didn't expect that Yang Menglong actually kept his word and really wanted to give them half, what a good man!Where can I find such an honest person!These two kept bowing vigorously, "Ali Ado, Ali Ado" they jumped out in a row, and they almost didn't kowtow to Yang Menglong.

Alfonso lowered his voice and said to Yang Menglong: "Yang, you can't do this! If you do this, we will lose money, and it will be a serious loss!"

Yang Menglong said: "How can people break their promises! I told them to give them half of the spoils, so I will give them half!"

Alfonso said: "You can give them the captured weapons. In their eyes, these weapons are more useful than a pile of silver!"

Yang Menglong looked at this buddy with a bit of pity in his eyes.But he didn't say much. With his persistence, everyone divided this astonishing wealth in half. Fukuoka Domain and Kumamoto Domain were a blessing in disguise and made a huge fortune. With these 10 taels of silver, Life was much better for them.Kuroda Shun suggested that they could ask for less silver and more copper coins - Japan does not yet have the ability to independently mint coins. These copper coins shipped from China are more popular than silver in Japan. Yang Menglong readily agreed - ——10,000+ copper coins, that amount is quite scary. It would be troublesome to transport it back. If the Japanese want it, give it to them.

The money was distributed happily, Hosokawa Yukiji suddenly bowed to Yang Menglong, and said: "My lord, you defeated the crowd with a few and won a complete victory. The weapons you captured must be quite a few?"

Yang Menglong said: "There are quite a lot. There are six to seven thousand samurai swords alone, and they are still in good condition."

Hosokawa Yukiji said: "I have an unfeeling request, and I ask my lord to fulfill it."

Yang Menglong said, "Tell me about it."

Hosokawa Yukiji said: "As you know, General, our Kumamoto is a barren land, and it is very difficult to produce a batch of weapons with superior performance. Buying the knife saves you from spending a lot of manpower and material resources to make it later!"

Hayao Kuroda cheered up, and shouted, "That's right, why did I forget this? Hosokawa-kun, you can't have all those weapons, I want half of them!"

Hosokawa Yukiji said angrily: "Kuroda-kun, your territory is rich in iron ore, and it is very convenient to forge weapons. Why do you have to fight with me!"

Kuroda Hayao laughed and said, "Who doesn't want cheap things?" In fact, he didn't want to buy weapons because he wanted to buy them cheaply.You know, the fierceness and tenacity of the Kumamoto samurai ranks first in Kyushu, but the soldiers are scarce, the weapons are insufficient, and they have not been able to grow. If Hosokawa Yuuji gets a lot of weapons, the rapid expansion of strength is a certainty. For the Fukuoka clan , which is nothing short of a disaster.

Alfonso winked at Yang Menglong again and again, meaning to let him agree quickly, and now is an excellent time to ask for a price.But Yang Menglong's IQ is generally below the average line when he starts two. When such a good business came to his door, his reaction was to shake his head slowly: "You two, don't argue, I want to bring these weapons back to the South Temple of the Southern Festival in China. You won’t even sell it, you should die!”

(End of this chapter)