"General manager, this time the matter is messed up, please punish!" In the only three-story building in Kushiro Port, Chen Shuo, general manager of East Coast Japan, felt a little helpless in front of several Japanese ronins kneeling in front of him.

These middle-aged people with frosty faces were the leaders of a group of ronins recruited by the Japanese company, and they were all recruited by the Dong'an people themselves through some accidental channels, not the kind of Japanese no-wild samurai or ronin introduced by the Matsumae clan - because Tongguò came to the Dong'an people in this way, it was inevitable that there would be spies sent by the Matsumae family and even the Date family.

But these people are different, they are recruited by the East Coast themselves, and they are relatively reliable. In addition, these people were all unfortunate people who had suffered a lot in society, and they had no feelings for the shogunate itself, so they were able to do some "shameful" things for the people of the East Coast that others could not do, such as going to the interior of Japan to kidnap shogunate officials or local daimyos.

Chen Shuo, a student of the East Coast Japan Company (the general manager of the East Coast Japan Company, who was actually in charge of the development of the Ezo Land and had a lot of contact with the Japanese), launched a jaw-dropping operation - Chen Shuo, who was in charge of the East Coast Japan Company at the private behest of Wei Boqiu, contacted a group of privately recruited ronin (many of whom had a bitter hatred for the shogunate) and asked them to go to the Kii Domain of Japan to kidnap the lord of the domain, Tokugawa Yorinobu, and the funds and equipment required for the operation were secretly paid for by the Japanese company. In addition, in order to ensure that the operation can go smoothly, Chen Shuo also uses the name of a Japanese company. Bring in a company-leased ship. In the name of exploration. In fact, dozens of heavily armed ronins were loaded and went to Wakayama to kidnap Tokugawa Yorinobu.

In the eyes of people who don't know the inside story, this matter is really incomprehensible and nonsensical enough. Who is Tokugawa Yorinobu? The uncle of the current shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan, he is highly respected and has a great reputation! Wei Boqiu concealed from Shao Shude and privately instructed his student organization to kidnap this gentleman, so why did he come? Do they have a vendetta? Apparently not!

The reason why Wei Boqiu took a big risk and did such a "strange thing". In fact, there are still deep considerations. First of all, the kidnapping of Tokugawa Yorisen, a high-profile name like Sufu, was not to get him to the East Coast Control District, but to take advantage of the attempted coup d'état in Edo this year in history aimed at targeting the shogun, and to create as much chaos as possible in the name of Tokugawa Yorinobu in the name of Tokugawa Yorisen.

The coup d'état was missed due to various mistakes, and the main plotter of the coup d'état, Yubi Masayuki, was forced to commit suicide, and Maruhashi Tadaya, who was unfortunately arrested and leaked, was killed by the shogunate. In particular, the former Mr. Yubi, who had rejected the shogunate's high-ranking officials. Unswervingly committed to the great goal of overthrowing the shogunate, the number of students under his command was at most in the thousands. It can be described as a response. If the coup d'état is successful, the shogun will be killed, and the situation in Edo Castle will change drastically.

After that, the shogunate-loyal troops (mostly stationed outside the castle) and Yubi's ronin were bound to engage in fierce battles, and if Tokugawa Yorinobu was able to come out and raise his arms, he would be able to bring even greater chaos to Edo Castle, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. That's almost certain, because do you think that the retainers under Lai Xuan's command didn't want their own heads to go further when they saw the shogun's head fall to the ground and Edo was in chaos?

Even, with the help of some well-intentioned people, spreading this kind of chaos to other regions is likely to create a great chaos that will affect many regions. Don't think this is alarmist, in today's Japan, unemployed samurai have almost become a serious social problem, these people have the ability, force, and organization, but lack of the current situation, if the situation in Japan is turbulent, someone will come forward to instigate these samurai ronin or something, and eventually cause nationwide turmoil. In this way, it has given many people the opportunity to create a zào - including, of course, the Japanese company on the East Coast that has roots in Ezo.

As a student of Wei Boqiu, Chen Shuo naturally knew some of his teacher's calculations. For example, over the years, his teacher had been trying to marry some upper-middle-class samurai or retainers of the Matsumae Domain, and he had spent a lot of money on it. And the ultimate purpose of his doing this qiē is really appalling to say, that is, to pass on a son born to his newly married concubine in Shandong to the Songqian family, and finally achieve the goal of controlling the Songqian Domain.

Chen Shuo has always been a little helpless about his teacher's "grand idea", and he himself privately feels that this plan has basically no possibility of success. But since his teacher is obsessed with the implementation of this plan, as a student he has taught for many years, he can only pinch his nose and do it. What the? You said there are other heirs to the Matsumae family? It's okay, let them become monks. What the? You also said that the shogunate would not recognize the heirs of the Matsumae family? Uh, this requires the Matsumae family to take a good look, in short, it's up to people. Moreover, Chen Shuo has always suspected that this Matsumae family has a somewhat twisted relationship with the Tokugawa family, and his teacher will not want his son to become a shogun in the end, right? Of course, this idea was a bit absurd, and Chen Shuo wisely didn't think much about it.

However, the current situation is really like Chen Shuo's own imagination - there is basically no possibility of success. No, the gang of ronins who were secretly sent to Kii Domain to kidnap Tokugawa Yoshinobu have returned! They launched some old relations in the Kii Domain (all of them were familiar ronin), and when they heard that the feudal lord wanted to go to a certain place on a certain day of the month, they set up an ambush in advance, planning to rob Lai Xuan and hide him halfway - anyway, according to the urine nature of the Japanese, it was common for the feudal lord not to see a human figure for ten days and half a month, and it was not worth making a fuss at all.

It's just that their luck is too bad, and Tokugawa Yorinobu, who has only a few followers in Pingsuri, actually followed a large group of attendants that time, and as a result, this group of ronins who suddenly broke out in trouble were beaten to the head, and a total of more than ten people died before and after, and finally the wolf bèi retreated to the beach to board the ship and escape. As for the plan, it was naturally miscarried, and Tokugawa Yorito had gone through this catastrophe, and the next time he went out, he must have a lot of guards around him, and it was almost impossible to kidnap him.

"Forget it, this is not a crime of war, Lai Xuan's servants are like clouds, and it is normal for you not to succeed. However, if you fail to discover the increase or decrease in the number of guards around Lai Xuan in time, until the plan fails, you will be guilty of neglect and cannot be punished. In this way, one person will be fined half a year's salary, and when you go back, you will immediately pack your things, take your family, and prepare to board the ship and return to the mainland of the east coast, where you can no longer stay. Chen Shuo waved his hand in frustration and said.

Now that the plan has failed, it is time to think about the consequences, that is, whether the conspiracy they have carried out has been revealed, and what the consequences will be. Chen Shuo was a little unsure about this, the ships of the people on the east coast were flagged with the Dutch flag, and the ships were also the most common Dutch flute-type ships in the East Asian seas, so it was easy for people to suspect that the Dutch red hair was on the head. And the ronins who went out to fight are also hard-mouthed, so they should not take the initiative to reveal their details, and no one has been captured alive by the enemy, so things are much easier to handle - even if the Japanese suspect the heads of the people on the east coast based on some clues, then the people on the east coast can refuse to admit it, and there is no evidence anyway.

"Huh......" After the group of ronin Nono retreated, Chen Shuo took a long breath and began to think about the next step. Today, the Japanese companies on the East Coast have basically established themselves in the Kushiro port area, the settled population (mostly from Qingzhou Prefecture in Shandong) has grown in the thousands, the coal mines have entered a state of steady production, and the farmland on the outskirts of the city has also reached a certain size (although the output is uneven, but more or less output), all of which mean that the company's business is beginning to flourish.

What we need to do now is to continue to attract investment, and then continue to transport more Ming people from the mainland to Ezo Tei Island, and then the expansion of the wharf, the construction of water conservancy, the planning of pastures, the development of fishing grounds, and the construction of building materials factories all require a large amount of capital and personnel. Chen Shuo is confident that with sufficient funds, as long as he is given five to ten years, he will be able to establish a number of settlement towns in the eastern part of Ezo Land, so that the company's profitability will further increase - at worst, he will be able to establish a prefecture with Kushiro Port as the core, so that the Japanese company can maintain no losses.

The only factor that could organize Chen Shuo to realize his plan now is probably the reaction of the Japanese.

"If only these ronins succeeded this time." Thinking of this, Chen Shuo sighed softly again: "The secret report given to me by the teacher said that Yubi Zhengxue was going to launch a coup d'état this year, but after this toss, I am afraid that not only the Kii Domain will be shaken, but even the shogun will be angry." In the days that followed, the large number of ronin who had gathered in Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka were about to fall for a long time, and the shogunate would probably clean them up. I just don't know if Mr. Yubi Masayuki still has the courage to launch a coup d'état aimed at overthrowing the shogunate, so it's unlikely......"

"Forget it, it's useless to think too much, if the shogunate really turns its anger on us, and then instructs the Matsumae clan to make trouble for us, then we can just go on, is it possible that we are still afraid of them? It's a big deal that the copper coin business is not done! Anyway, the copper coin trade plus other fragmentary businesses only makes a profit of more than 200,000 yuan a year, and it is still the government's business, so what do we have to do! Chen Shuo dispelled the negative feelings in his mind, and then sat down at the desk, planning the construction of the brick and tile wheel kiln of the building materials factory, which was much more important to him than the wind and rain in Japan, and it was related to the construction of Kushiro Port in the next few years, but it was not sloppy. (To be continued......)