Beiyang new warlord

Page 316

"I'll wait until the end of this month. If the Tokugawa family doesn't reply, I'll be a general and acquiesce!"

Chapter 297. Chronic death

The Kanto Plain, the most fertile land in Fusang, is experiencing the same anxiety as Daming when natural and man-made disasters broke out.

There is no right to stand, a group of farmers in short and ragged clothes knelt on the ground tremblingly, watching the fierce samurai master carry the little rice grain in his house, the village chief kept kowtow at the entrance of the village and begged with.

"My lord, our village has run out of food this year! General His Royal Highness will supply another wave of military rations from the Western Kingdom. If there is another round of levies, the villagers will starve to death. I beg you, please take it easy! Increase the levies next year too! "

"idiot!"

The answer was that the knife came out of its sheath with a bang and rested on his neck, and the banner warrior of the Jingyi family yelled and cursed arrogantly.

"The Autumn State Expropriation Order was personally issued by the General to protect you untouchables from being slaughtered by the barbarians of the Western Kingdom. You unrequited bastards are ungrateful and dare to pick and choose? One more word, work hard! Retire Down!"

A samurai has the right to kill those who offend him at any time. With a gleaming samurai sword on his neck and beads of sweat on his forehead, the village chief staggered and kowtowed and quickly backed away, watching the last harvest. The samurai carried away the baskets.

It's just that the eyes of those farmers kneeling on the ground trembling became terrifying.

This village is still cooperative. Musashi State Issei, the first generation of Koryo County, even used a knife and saw blood.

There are more than a dozen grinning and ferocious heads hanging on the roadside trees, on the narrow and dilapidated official road, one by one, the same sad farmers are pushing the carts, transporting grain, the setting sun is shining bitterly, the loess is steaming, and a desolate scene is everywhere. Both are.

The old middle-aged Aoyama Xingcheng who came to supervise this scene could not help twitching the corners of his old mouth, and his wrinkled forehead was even tighter. He had three campaigns a year, even during the days when the world was most turbulent during the Warring States period. , They were not so ruthless in the collection. This year's military mobilization has already caused a lot of casualties in the rural ashigaru. Now that they are expropriated again, the great famine in the Eastern Kingdom this winter is inevitable.

Moreover, this kind of collection will destroy the hearts of the people of the Tokugawa family. The family members of the people who died of hunger will remember the tyranny of the shogun. To be honest, he would rather let the terrible cavalry of the Western Army sweep in, and let the samurai of the Eastern Kingdom fight to the end with their swords However, even if the Xiguo Toyotomi family seized the food, they had to exchange it with blood instead of letting the shogunate bear the infamy.

It's a pity that all major families, including the Tokugawa clan, were frightened by the mountain of blood and corpses in the Osaka Sanzhizheng. The elders of the Edo side decided to negotiate peace with the West Country no matter what, but the weak and the strong How can there be real peace between them? These cowards have all forgotten how the Tokugawa family attacked and destroyed the Toyotomi family back then.

Now such a large-scale expropriation of people's grain has only accelerated the corruption of the shogunate and slow death. Maybe the Toyotomi family did not fight over. This winter, there will be a war in the Kanto Plain!

"If Lord Jiakang was still here, it would definitely not be like this!"

With a sigh, the old man Qingshan suddenly turned his head helplessly, and waved to the horses of the Qingshan family behind him.

"Go back to Edo, take out all the tea utensils, screens, clothes, etc. at home, and send them to the Imperial Palace!"

"My lord, this is the wealth of the Qingshan family! Besides, the general didn't order the retainers to clean up the family. If the Qingshan family dumps the wealth and other families don't, the Qingshan family will be jealous!"

Just like the death of Matsudaira Nobuzuna, everyone was drunk and I was sober, but at this time, Aoyama Yukinari waved his hand again, not caring at all.

"If you tell you to do it, do it!"

Immediately he sighed deeply.

"It's good to save a few people from dying!"

After all, Mao Jue didn't do anything. In August, a steady stream of food and property was transported from the Kanto Plain into Omi, passing through the city of Kyoto, and was transported to Osaka in the Settsu Kingdom amidst the red eyes of the nobles in Kyoto. city.

66 shi does not seem like much, but it really cannot stand the accumulation of time. In 15 years, 90 million shi, it is the old life of the shogunate. The daimyo's tribute amount has also increased by 600%, and the shogunate has only collected about 400 million shi, and the rest can only be repaid with money. According to Mao Jue's pricing, two liang of silver is one shi of grain, and the shogunate paid again. 20 million taels of silver, [-] taels of gold, and even a lot of imperial objects like Ukiyo-e screens, famous paintings of the Japanese dynasties, famous knives, famous tea sets, the Edo Tokugawa Great Castle that was not attacked last time, was used by Mao Jue Another way to get a clean shave.

Posterity

Du Mu's "Ode to Abang Palace" has such a description, Yan Zhao's collection, Han Wei's management, Qi and Chu's elites, for several generations, plagiarized their people, leaning against mountains! If you can't have it, lose it.Now Mao Jue is as tough as the Qin people. He is in Kyoto, and the little emperor also gave him a house, which is like a museum.

"Famous and Great Ceremony! Mikazuki Zong is approaching! Boy Che Anzuna!"

With a bang, the one-meter-long samurai sword was pulled away, and under the sunlight, countless exquisite sun and moon patterns emerged, just like a country daimyo who has never seen the world, the old fox Kuroda Tadyuki was gasping for air. , just like stroking the delicate skin of a beauty, stroking the blade obsessively.

"Five swords in the world, Mao Fengxing got the third!"

"More than that, there are also these tea utensils, the Yansi evening bell, the teapot Sanriyue, the tea bowl Tianmu, Dao San, the incense box Hirate, these two boxes, a total of 130 tea utensils, almost all of the general's collection of Liuying royal objects are here Oh my god! There is also Chuhua Jianchong, this is Taiko Hideyoshi's most beloved famous tea set, and it is here!"

As Mao Jue's hard-core subordinate, Mao Lixiu also regarded himself as a bellows, and kept breathing back.

The Mori family and the Otomo family used to fight for hegemony in Kyushu, and the Otomo family was a famous hunting maniac. This set of first flower shoulders was dedicated to Toyotomi Hideyoshi by the Otomo family in order to ask for help from the Toyotomi family. It is just such a set of tea sets. The Toyotomi family intervened in the Kyushu affairs, and the Mori family plotted against the Otomo family, not to mention the failure, and he had to surrender and bow his head. After that, the head of the Mori family also developed the habit of hunting for famous objects.

But even if Mao Lixiu had collected it all his life, it was not one-tenth as valuable as the tea sets in front of him.

Mao Jue didn't have that much research on porcelain, swords, and asked in surprise when he saw that the eyes of the two princes were straight.

"You all love it!"

They can't wait to shake their heads like fans, the eyes of the two of them looking at Mao Jue are so hot that they are about to smoke, and they managed to maintain the unique reserve of the East, waving their hands again and again.

"How dare the lower officials covet General Mao's famous item!"

However, the unspoken plot in both of their hearts was that Mao Jue gave it to the Qing family with a chic wave of his hand, and after a little politeness, the two of them took the Xuanwu famous knife into their pockets and took it back as a family heirloom.

But what made the two of them vomit blood was that Mao Jue himself, with his eyes shining, shook his head repeatedly and muttered.

"Both daimyos like it so much! From the looks of it, the Tokugawa family didn't dare to lie to me! Come here! Box it! Seal it up!"

The two high-ranking daimyos watched as their own daughter-in-law followed others into the small hotel, watching several Dongjiang warehouse managers carry these hibiscus treasures into the warehouse.

It was also Grandet's gaze to watch the Xuanwu being carried away, and then Mao Jue squinted his eyes again, looking at Mo Lixiu and Kuroda Tadyuki in some astonishment.

"You two are here, what's the matter?"

It can be regarded as pulling out the eyeballs from the direction of the warehouse, and the two poor names rubbed their hands together.

"Master Mao, I heard that the Tokugawa family's compensation for food has already been escorted to Osaka one after another!"

"We, imagine borrowing food from Toyotomi Sheguan!"

To be honest, the West Country is even worse than the East Country. At the beginning of the year, the Maori family raised troops. The flames of war started from Zhoufang, Anyun to Beihou. Turned into ashes, Kii landed, and Lee's North Korea was scrambling in the rich Kii Peninsula. Most of the western countries were affected by the flames of war, and most of the cultivation this year was abandoned.

Kyushu Island has been cleaned up by Mao Jue before. Although there is no military disaster this year, it can supply 17 to 42 troops to fight in Osaka Castle for half a year, which is also a cost. The country is [-] shi, but neither of them has the ability to develop it. If they want to appease the people and win the hearts of the people, they can only borrow from the Sheguan family.

It's just that just after saying this, the two of them couldn't help but feel a sense of regret, because Mao Jue's eyes lit up again in an instant, as bright as a light bulb, emitting a dangerous divine light.

After some haggling, Mr. Mao was happy, and each of them rewarded a famous item, but Kuroda Tadayuki was holding Odaita, and Mao Lixiu was holding the set of Chuhua shoulders to make tea, but the expressions of the two were happy no matter what. I can't get up, but I feel like crying.

After saying goodbye to the two of them, Mao Jue, like a giant dragon guarding his own wealth, once again ordered the treasures compensated by the shogunate to be moved out, fiddling with one after another with his eyes full.

But who knew this time, there was another rush of footsteps on the porch, this time someone broke in without even announcing it, and Mao Jue couldn't help being dumbfounded.

Full of exasperation, Yuan Dushi, who came all the way from Osaka City and was dumped by Mao Jue to do rough work, squeezed out those words straightforwardly through his teeth.

"General! Silver!"

Chapter 298. How to Govern?

The weather is getting colder and colder, but the depth of Omi, Wakasa, and Ibuki Mountains is almost 200 miles, but there are countless Japanese people who are busy.

Large blocks of stones were blown down by explosives from Ibuki Mountain and other mountainous areas, and then they were carried by densely packed Japanese people to this narrow line. Together with the cement transported by the Dongjiang River, a city wall was erected on the horizon. .