Shi Diwen stood on the side of the ship and waved goodbye to Nabeshima Mitsushige and others on the dock.
The short visit to Saga Domain came to an end, and Shi Diwen and his party immediately set off for the next stop.
Seeing that the faces of everyone on the shore were gradually blurring, Shi Diwen stopped his greetings, turned to Shiro Amakusa and ordered: "The results of our negotiations in Saga Domain, try to disseminate them as soon as possible, especially to Fukuoka Domain, we must ensure that Kuroda Hikaru The message was received.”
Amakusa Shiro understood and said: "This humble duty requires the Military Intelligence Bureau to handle it as soon as possible. Your Majesty, do you want the Saga Domain to become a role model for the Kyushu feudal clans?"
Shi Diwen said solemnly: "It is not just a role model. I hope that the agreement we have negotiated with the Saga Domain will put pressure on other daimyo who are holding a wait-and-see attitude, so that they can quickly stand in line and express their attitude."
The hesitant Fukuoka Domain is adjacent to the Saga Domain. The strength of the Saga Domain is bound to create a sense of crisis for the Fukuoka Domain. If the Fukuoka Domain still lacks the ability to perceive this change, then Shi Diwen would not mind driving the tiger to devour the wolf and letting the Saga Domain practice with the neighboring Fukuoka Domain first.
Amakusa Shiro said: "But if this happens, the shogunate will definitely get the news, and I'm afraid they will try to prevent these daimyo from joining us."
Shi Diwen said: "Don't underestimate the power of the shogunate. Even if we don't publicize it, these agreements can't be hidden from the shogunate. It's just ten days and a half month later in getting the news. The shogunate will definitely take action to disrupt the situation, so we We must reach an agreement with each family before the shogunate.”
"When the shogunate finds that it cannot influence the positions of these powerful lords, and a civil war will inevitably break out, it will come to us to discuss a solution."
Amakusa Shiro responded understandingly: "Then the price of arms sold to the shogunate will have to rise!"
Shi Diwen smiled and said: "We must do things fairly...it is only reasonable for everyone to have an increase!"
When the cannon goes off, there is a thousand taels of gold. Provoking a civil war and then selling arms to the warring parties was one of Shi Diwen's purposes.
The larger the civil war, the greater the demand for arms. As the only arms dealer capable of providing weapons and equipment to all warring parties, Haihan is bound to become the target of various parties competing to win over.
Even though the shogunate knew clearly that it was Haihan who was instigating the feudal clans to rebel, in order to ensure that the strength of their own army would not fall behind, they still had no choice but to go to Haihan to buy arms.
Not only that, in order to win Haihan's support, the shogunate will probably have to agree to some additional conditions to have a chance to buy the required arms from Haihan.
When the time comes, Haihan arms will become a rare commodity, and it is reasonable to increase the price.
Moreover, Haihan can maintain a delicate balance between the warring parties by controlling the quantity and delivery time of arms sold to all parties, allowing Japan's war situation to continue protracted.
The next stop is Kumamoto Castle, which is only a hundred miles away from Saga Castle.
Kumamoto Domain is the most powerful domain in Higo Province and was founded at the beginning of this century, so Kumamoto Castle was only built half a century ago.
However, the founder of the Kumamoto Domain was not the Hosokawa family who currently serves as daimyo, but Kato Kiyomasa, who had followed Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu successively. This man was known for his expertise in city building and management. He participated in the construction of Kumamoto Castle, Nagoya Castle, Edo Castle, Ulsan Japanese Castle and other castles. After establishing the Kumamoto Domain, he built water conservancy and developed trade with overseas countries. However, because he was loyal to his former master Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he was not very popular with the shogunate.
After Kato Kiyomasa died in 1611, he was succeeded by his eleven-year-old third son Kato Tadahiro. The shogunate took the opportunity to reduce the Kumamoto clan and ordered it to demolish several already built castles in the territory and accept personnel appointments from the shogunate. .
In 1632, Kato Tadahiro was dismissed from his post by the shogunate because of his involvement in the internal strife of the Tokugawa shogunate and was exiled to Dewa Province in the northeastern region of Honshu Island.
A year later, Hosokawa Tadori, the original daimyo of Kyushu Bunzen Province's Soso Domain, was transferred to the Kumamoto Domain. Since then, the ruler of the Kumamoto Domain has become the Hosokawa family. The current ruler is the Kumamoto Domain who took office seven years ago. The third generation lord of the feudal lord, Hosokawa Tsunato.
It is worth mentioning that Hosokawa Tsunato was only seven years old when he succeeded, which was not the legal age recognized by the shogunate. For this reason, the Hosokawa family also spent a lot of time to open up joints, and finally helped the young master. Take the position.
Mitsuyuki Kuroda of the Fukuoka Domain and Mitsushige Nabeshima of the Saga Domain are already considered very young daimyo, but Tsunato Hosokawa is ten years younger than them. The age gap between Shi Diwen and him is even bigger, and whether he can communicate with him smoothly is also a major suspense of this visit to Kumamoto Domain.
However, the actual difficulties seemed to be greater than expected. When the fleet arrived at the coast near Kumamoto Domain, no team came to greet them on the shore, which gave Shi Diwen some bad premonitions.
Shi Diwen did not let Zhoushan dock rashly, but first asked Amakusa Shiro to arrange for a small boat to dock at the dock to see what the situation was here.
Shi Diwen's visit arrangements had been informed to the Kumamoto Domain a few days ago, and the fleet had previously crossed the Ariake Sea to Saga Domain. The neighboring Kumamoto Domain should have also received the news, but the other party did not arrange any reception. Ceremony, such a reaction is obviously not normal.
The diplomats who came ashore to inquire about the news soon brought back a retainer of the Hosokawa family. According to this person, the feudal lord Tsunato Hosokawa was seriously ill recently and was recuperating in the city. He was unable to receive guests, so he hoped that Shi Diwen could take the initiative. The visit was cancelled, and the two sides would discuss organizing another meeting after the feudal lord recovered.
This person also produced an official document stamped with Hosokawa Tsunato's seal, allowing only the Kaihan fleet to send a small number of personnel ashore to obtain supplies, but refusing to allow the fleet's ships to dock at the port.
Shi Diwen couldn't tell whether the news was true or false at the moment, but it was impossible for him to force his way into Kumamoto Castle to check whether the other party was really sick or just pretending to be sick.
It was just a trip from such a far distance without even formal contact. It was inevitable that he would be a little unwilling to leave like this. Shi Diwen asked: "Is there no other person in the Hosokawa family who can make the decision?"
After hearing this, the retainer's face changed slightly. He obviously felt that Shi Diwen's words were a bit offensive to his master, but he still explained patiently, saying that the Hosokawa family was orderly, and no one dared to step forward to receive guests on the lord's behalf. .
For this reason, Shi Diwen was no longer interested in continuing to deal with Kumamoto Domain, and even canceled the arrangement to visit Kumamoto Domain.
After sending the retainer back to the shore, Amakusa Shiro muttered: "Sir, this is really weird! Although the Kumamoto clan is not close to us, it is far from the point of not having any contact with us. And I heard that the humble position The young feudal lord was very interested in things from our country and built several large rooms in Kumamoto Castle to store various products produced in our country.”
"This disease will come sooner or later. It's just too much of a coincidence that I couldn't get up when the adults visited me. I'm afraid there's something else going on!"