Chapter 422: The Agreement

“By the way, you mentioned the Great Lord of Edo. I happen to want to write him a letter. There is one thing I don’t understand, and I would like to ask for your guidance.”

Seeing that the other party was beginning to ease the atmosphere, the two envoys breathed a sigh of relief. However, the black-bellied type always strikes at such times:

“Should he be called ‘Great Lord of Japan’ or ‘King of Japan’?”

“Since Lord Hideyoshi refused the seal of the King of Japan, the ruler of our country has been called the Great Lord.”

“Very well.” Ping Qiusheng took out a folder. “Look here, the seal on this state letter from Lord Hidetada says ‘King of Japan’.”

In 1607, when Japan and Korea made peace, the Tsushima domain was entrusted by Tokugawa Ieyasu to request that Korea send an envoy. The Korean side demanded that Japan submit a state letter and extradite the criminals who had destroyed the royal tombs. So Yoshitoshi, his chief elder Yanagawa Tomonaga, and the monk Genso forged a state letter and randomly grabbed a few criminals, made them mute, and sent them over. The Koreans, knowing that the other party was faking it, still sent a “response and repatriation mission.” Bilateral relations were restored, but one lie had to be covered up by a thousand lies.

Since the shogunate had not actually submitted a state letter, the Korean side’s reply, a state letter, put So Yoshitoshi on the spot again. So the trio of the So family forged the Korean state letter. The Tokugawa, unaware that Korea was replying with a state letter, sent another one back to Korea, which the trio of the So family forged again… And so it went back and forth, the trio of the So family forged more than a dozen state letters until they all died of illness. Their descendants then inherited the glorious tradition of their ancestors and continued the cause of forgery until 1634, when Yanagawa Shigeoki stirred up trouble and exposed the matter. In the end, after repeated deliberation, Shogun Iemitsu once again spared the So family and exiled the Yanagawa clan. From then on, the state letters seen by the rulers of the two countries were the genuine ones.

This incident is the famous “Yanagawa Incident” in East Asian diplomatic history. Such things, which seem incredible from a modern perspective, were not uncommon in East Asia at that time. For the sake of “face,” “legitimacy,” and “national dignity,” the three East Asian countries had no shortage of such troubles. During the Wanli Emperor’s aid to Korea, similar incidents of fake envoys and fake state letters also occurred between China and Japan. At that time, news was blocked, and the speed of information dissemination between countries was very slow. There were few people who were fluent in foreign languages, and even those in high positions had to rely on a very small number of people to send envoys, which provided ample room for fraud.

Before D-Day, Yu E’shui had specially collected many PDFs of forged state letters from the electronic libraries of Japan and South Korea. In this time and space, Yanagawa had not yet exposed the secret… The two envoys were now sweating profusely.

Although Nagafune and Takeya had heard rumors about this at drinking parties, they had no proof. Now, this group of Ausong people of unknown origin had thrown something identical to the original on the table.

In fact, at this time, both sides were thinking of the same person—the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu.

Tokugawa Iemitsu was given the name “Takechiyo” at birth, which was the hereditary childhood name of the eldest son of the Tokugawa family. Before his death, Ieyasu specially arranged for the second shogun, Hidetada, to abdicate and let Iemitsu succeed as the third shogun, which shows the great expectations this great retired shogun had for Iemitsu.

And Iemitsu did not disappoint his grandfather’s expectations. He was almost the personification of Japanese family politics, inheriting the black-bellied and cautious nature of the Tokugawa family, the stubbornness and conservatism of his mother’s Asai family, and the domineering and decisive nature of his maternal grandfather’s Oda family… In short, he was a powerful figure who could make all the daimyo of the world tremble and submit. The “military rule” of the Tokugawa family reached its peak in his hands. Not only did he add many new laws for the samurai families, but he also enforced them without mercy. Many famous daimyo from the Warring States period were tragically changed or had their domains reduced for various “violations.” Whether they were related domains, hereditary vassals, or outside lords, no one dared to challenge the authority of the shogunate.

At this time, Tokugawa Iemitsu did not yet have the formidable reputation he would have later. However, since the death of the second retired shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada, in January 1632, Iemitsu had formally taken over the government and held sole power, and he had gradually shown his true colors as a strongman.

The difference between the two sides was that for the Fuchu domain, the shogun was an existence that could decide their own lives, their families’, and even their lord’s life and death with a single word. In the eyes of the Lingao side, Iemitsu was just one of many opponents whose rule was relatively stable. At most, it was a matter of how to make him submit with the least cost.

Nagafune Genchiro Hyoe and Takeya were sweating profusely after flipping through only a few pages of the document. Since this group of so-called Australians could get a rubbing or something of the evidence from back then, they naturally had a way to get it to the shogun. This was a matter of life and death. As the people directly involved, Nagafune and Takeya could not afford to offend not only the shogun or their lord, but also the elders like Yanagawa and Susa. Not only would their deaths be insignificant, but their reputation and loyalty would also be shattered. When the matter came out, it was almost certain that their domain would be changed. The senior retainers involved would most likely all have to commit seppuku. At that time, the Nagafune family would become the sinners of the Fuchu domain. Even if they were lucky enough to survive, they would be hunted down and their entire family would be killed.

The only thing to do now was to consider how much of a price they had to pay. The other party had shown their cards, and it was clear that they did not want the Fuchu domain to be changed.

Genchiro bowed and said, “Please enlighten me, my lord!”

“Our Great Song only befriends loyal and righteous people. Can you two be considered loyal and righteous?” Seeing the two envoys sweating profusely and trembling like sieves, Ping Qiusheng threw them the life-saving straw he had prepared.

“We have been loyal for generations!”

“Since you are loyal and righteous people, our Great Ausong is willing to make a three-point agreement with your family…”

Next, of course, was the discussion of the trade agreement. The trade agreement mainly stipulated three articles:

1. The Tsushima domain, following the example of Japan and Korea, shall be a vassal to the Ausong. The Ausong shall enfeoff the So family as the Deputy Commander of the Tsushima Militia. At the same time, the So family shall be appointed as the communication bugyo between Lingao and the Edo shogunate, and shall try to establish trade relations with Edo.

2. Jeju and Tsushima shall open their ports to each other. The merchant ships of both sides can freely enter and exit with a seal and enjoy most-favored-nation treatment.

3. Both sides shall establish consulates to negotiate tariffs and trade quotas. The Tsushima domain shall send an illegitimate son to preside over the consulate in Jeju Island, which is equivalent to a hostage. The business shall be handled by Takeya. The Ausong can establish a trade consulate in Tsushima, and at the same time, send several special personnel to Takeya in Nagasaki. This point is mainly for the intelligence department.

The appendix to the treaty had very few restrictions on the types of goods exported from Japan. Except for the prohibition of transporting Japanese swords, all other goods were allowed. In general, Japan at this time could export very few things: mainly Japanese swords, fans, gold, silver, copper, tawaramono (dried seafood), and silk fabrics. Anyway, all these things, except for Japanese swords, were useful to the Senate, at least for re-export. In order to increase Japan’s exports, it was also specifically pointed out that Japan could sell timber—but for an island domain like the Fuchu domain, which had no mountains or forests of its own, there was probably not much profit in felling and transporting timber from the main island for re-export.

Takeya was greatly shocked after seeing the samples of goods displayed by Ping Qiusheng. Forty years ago, the Sakai merchant Naya Sukezaemon, who later brought Zichuan Hideji to the South Seas, smuggled a batch of blue and white porcelain from Quanzhou and presented a few pieces to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, claiming that they were Luzon porcelain. Toyotomi Hideyoshi had never seen such good utensils and rewarded him with more than a hundred thousand koku at once. Then he and Rikyu sold “Luzon tea bowls” together and made a fortune from the daimyo of the world. After Hideyoshi’s death, this person had to flee to Cambodia. Now, the Australians not only had top-grade blue and white porcelain, but also bone china that was like jade, and various kinds of glassware that were like crystal. The prices were not expensive in the eyes of the Japanese. The profit from reselling them would be ten or a hundred times!

In particular, the complete sets of glass and porcelain tea sets were subdivided into Ming style and Ausong style—the so-called Ausong style was the English-style black tea set and the oolong tea set from their old world. Of course, there were also the strange shapes and colors used in the Japanese tea ceremony.

As for bulk consumer goods, there were various qualities of cloth, which was also a major import commodity for Japan at that time. The shogunate at that time stipulated that commoners could only wear cotton and linen products, and the cotton on the main island of Japan, whether it was kapok or herbaceous cotton, was not enough to meet the demand, so cotton cloth had to be imported from the Ming Dynasty and Korea every year. In particular, the kapok cloth of Korea was a major commodity in the Japan-Korea trade.

Although the Senate had not yet established its own cotton textile factory, the East India Company had imported a large amount of cheap cotton cloth from India. Songjiang Prefecture in the Ming Dynasty was also a place that clothed the world, and Hainan and Guangdong were traditional kapok producing areas, and the amount of home-woven cotton cloth was also considerable. So, they could provide as much as the Japanese wanted, and the cost-performance ratio was much higher than that of Korean goods.

As for the other various samples of goods, especially the small hardware and mechanized agricultural tools, they were even more dazzling to the So family. Although these things were not of high value, they had always been popular goods on the market, and they could sell as much as they had. Not to mention that the iron quality of the products provided by the Australians was obviously very good.

The Ausong samples filled dozens of boxes, making the Tsushima envoys ashamed of their own gifts. Of the 200 Japanese swords they brought, most were ordinary goods used to deal with ordinary Japanese pirates—the kind that were exported to the Ming Dynasty for three taels of silver each. At Ping Qiusheng’s instruction, Zichuan Hideji first rebuked the other party for the unreasonable gift, then, with his right arm bandaged, he used a light sword as thin as a willow leaf in his left hand to cut several of them on the spot.

On the contrary, the art works with Japanese characteristics were well received. The folding fans and screens, with their unique Japanese aesthetic taste, were very much to Ping Qiusheng’s liking and could be sent to Lingao as gifts to the various Senators. There were also Japan’s special silk fabrics: velvet. This was Japan’s main export silk fabric and was very popular with Europeans at that time. However, Japan imported a large amount of raw silk from China mainly to manufacture silk fabrics for export.

The gifts presented to Ping Qiusheng were obviously carefully selected and quite valuable: a fine tachi and a wakizashi. Although they were “new swords,” they were also made by famous blacksmiths and could be considered valuable. Two bolts of velvet, ten gold koban, and fifty silver chogin.

Only then did Ping Qiusheng show a smile. Although all gifts had to be handed over to the Planning Commission, this generous gift fully demonstrated the Tsushima side’s “respect” for him. Flattery was always something that people enjoyed.