July 20, 1685, Sunny, Fukuyama Castle of Matsumae Domain.

After fifteen years, Genic Yoshizo came to Ezo Island again. In 1669, he came to the Matsumae Domain as a Shogun's direct subordinate Banner and Shogunate Patrol Envoy to investigate the Matsumae Domain, because the lord of the Kii Domain, a close domain of the Shogunate, accused the Matsumae Domain of colluding with pirates to burn and loot the Shikoku Island.

Genic Yizo came to Ezo Island to spy on the news, and got a lot of surprising insights, but because he was discovered by the samurai of the Matsumae Domain, he had to reveal his identity and end the investigation early. But no matter what, the Matsumae Domain, a small and remote feudal clan that was so poor in the eyes of most Japanese daimyos, has finally shown its mystery to the world.

Fifteen years later, Nemoto Yoshizo is - well, he's still an envoy, and he's once again in the territory of the Matsumae Domain. He came here because Tokugawa Tsunyoshi, who had served as the fifth shogun of the Edo shogunate for a few years, suddenly became interested in this remote small feudal domain, which was said to have no stone high, and wanted to send someone to investigate.

It is said that although the business of the Matsumae Domain has soared in the northeastern region of Japan in recent years, its reputation in China, Kyushu, Shikoku and other places is still not big enough. Even some lonely and unheard of guys subconsciously feel that the Matsumae Domain is so small that it is not as good as some of the Date clan's branches in the Mutsu area. Clans such as the Morioka Domain (100,000 koku, Nanbu clan), Iwanuma Domain (30,000 koku, Date clan), and Mizusawa Domain (30,000 koku, Date clan) were considered stronger than the Matsumae Domain, not to mention the Sendai Domain, which was managed by the Date family with 620,000 koku (in fact, after the development of some new river valleys and wetlands as fertile fields, the stone height of the Sendai Domain was said to have exceeded one million), and the Matsumae Domain was the poorest, most broken, and smallest of the domains in the Okugoshiwa region.

Of course, the really well-informed and insightful will not think so. In fact, after so many years of development, the economic strength and population of the Matsumae Domain have greatly improved, and the population has remained at 60,000 or 70,000 for many years, even after being attracted by most of the people from the east coast. The amount of fertile land reclaimed in the territory is increasing, and due to the high-yielding, cold-resistant wheat seeds that have been cultivated and screened for many years provided by the Omari Botanical Garden, the actual stone height of the entire Matsumae Domain is not 200,000 koku (the stone does not exactly refer to grain production), which is already the output of a medium-sized daimyo fiefdom - although the outside world has some doubts about the actual economic strength of the Matsumae Domain, there is still a general guess, that is, it is generally believed that it should be more than 150,000 koku. This can be seen from the fact that the amount of grain they import has not increased significantly in recent years.

The feudal clans of the Tohoku Ougoe region, which had close trade ties with the Matsumae Domain, should have known better, especially the Sendai Domain, a powerful Tohoku feudal province that exported grain to the Matsumae Domain for many years, had already met with the envoys of the people from the eastern coast and reached an agreement to supply grain for a long time. Merchants who feared the loss of the grain market because of the Matsumae Domain's growing self-sufficiency in grain could now breathe a sigh of relief, and representatives of the Higashi-Coast Japanese Company were open to buying all kinds of rice, seafood, dried fruits, or other foodstuffs at a good price. In addition, they pay for the goods very quickly, partly in cash, partly in kind, and everyone is satisfied with either payment method.

The real thing is very good! Silk, tea, porcelain, and other specialties from China, as well as skins, medicinal herbs, and livestock from the Outer Northeast, are also the bulk goods that Japan is eager for. Speaking of which, I have to mention that the Sendai Domain, which is very powerful both openly and secretly, has a very large degree of freedom in action. At first, they traded with the people of the east coast in the territory of the Matsumae Domain in the name of Shandan trade, and the amount and scale were not large at that time. However, seeing the win-win space of this trade, the trade volume between the two sides began to increase and the variety of goods became more and more diverse, and the Sendai Domain exported grain, seafood, dried fruits, sulfur, daily necessities (to meet the shortage of its own production), lead-zinc ore and Japanese handicrafts to the Japanese companies on the east coast, and then imported silk, tea, porcelain, leather, medicinal herbs, and war horses from the Japanese companies on the east coast!

Yes, you read that right! Although the Japanese are not tall, they have a soft spot for the oily, cool, high-shouldered and strong Blackwater Malaysia, which is imported in large quantities every year. In the case of the Sendai Domain, for example, this powerful local feudal lord had imported more than 2,500 horses from the people of the East Coast. It would not have been impossible if it had not been for the fact that East Coasters had restricted exports to Japan because of the same high demand elsewhere. You know, how could a samurai or an official who had ridden such a tall horse still be able to endure the inferior "poisoning" of the incoming horse? That kind of horse, not so much a horse, I'm afraid it's not as good as a donkey, and if you encounter a blackwater horse in battle, it is estimated that you will be washed away in one photo, which is not an exaggeration.

Of course, the Sendai clan was also interested in some of the luxury goods, crafts, arms, books, and other goods that the people of the East Coast had at their disposal. Since the Tokugawa shogunate was not very interested in the Tohoku feudal domains, led by the Sendai Domain, the Sendai Domain received very little of the Nanyang specialty goods that the Dutch brought for trade. Or even if you can buy it, you have to pay a lot of money to the merchants in Kyoto and Osaka, which is very cost-effective. Now, the people of the East Coast can also provide a large number of special goods from the South Seas, although the price is slightly higher than that of the Dutch, but the price is much lower than that of the Sendai Domain, which can be said to be very happy.

In addition, musical instruments, clocks, glasses, etc., produced locally on the east coast, Type 32 Suifa rifles produced in the Kurosui area, and other military materials were also the focus of procurement by the Tohoku feudal domains such as Sendai. The equipment and training of the new Hakodate group of the Matsumae domain were seen by everyone, and the Sendai, Hirosaki, Morioka, Iwanuma, and Mizusawa feudal clans all sent personnel to see there.

In particular, it was noted that this new army was an all-firearms unit, fully armed with flintlock rifles and many artillery pieces, which was very different from the old armies of other Japanese feudal lords. Moreover, in terms of the form of the army, this army did not have a privileged class such as samurai, and the selection was all honest and responsible peasant children, who trained hard day and night, and now shine in the battle against the indigenous Ainu people of Ezo Island, and have seized large tracts of land.

This kind of military reform of the Matsumae Domain, everyone has mixed feelings when they see it. However, this kind of new army is not something that any cat or dog is capable of forming. First of all, this requires a lot of resources, and if the social economy is not developed enough, then I am afraid that it will not be able to support much. Moreover, even if it was formed, the samurai in the domain would not have any positive comments about it, right? The samurai, a privileged class that weakened their position, should be hated by the samurai. Finally, and most importantly, now that the Tokugawa shogunate is strong and Japan is in the midst of a peaceful era, if you don't want to rebel, why do you need to spend a lot of resources building a new army? What would the shogunate or neighboring feudal clans think if they found out? Therefore, the new army was destined to be an expensive toy in the hands of a large and powerful feudal clan like Sendai, and not something that a small and medium-sized daimyo could afford to play with without a complete political, economic, and military structural reform.

None of the Hakodate-gumi recruits trained or fought, but neither he nor his men would hear people talk about how well the army was fighting, how many victories it had won against the Ainu, and so on. Therefore, there is more and more interest in this army, but it has been impossible to see it for many days.

And since it was impossible to see the new army of the Hakodate group, it was only natural to focus on the smuggling trade that General Tsunayoshi was most concerned about. In today's Japan, the smuggling trade has really reached a very rampant point! In the southwest, there were Satsuma and other feudal lords, who violated the shogunate's ban and secretly traded with foreign merchants, especially the group known as the yellow-clothed thieves, who had been doing business with Satsuma and other feudal lords for many years, and from time to time they had sent ships to do some unprofitable trading along the coast of Japan, which was very arrogant.

In the Tohoku Domains, for many years, they have been playing the edge ball of the Shandan trade, and they don't know how many goods they have bought and sold, so that the wealthy merchants in Osaka are all red-eyed, and even have to send people to come over to stay there and get a piece of the pie. Root Yosan still remembers the first time he intercepted copper coins on a smuggling merchant ship sailing from Sendai to the Uwajima Domain! The fineness and exquisiteness of the yellow copper coins blinded his eyes, making him feel that the coins made by the shogunate in his pocket were like shit!

In addition to copper coins, it is said that large quantities of leather from Katai Island and other places are also pouring into the Japanese market. Cowhides for armor, sheepskins for armor, sheepskins, dog skins, mink skins, fox skins, bear skins, sea animal skins, and so on, were landed in large quantities in Matsumae Domain, Hirosaki Domain, Sendai Domain, and other places, and then sold to local merchants, samurai, and even daimyo himself. These products were processed locally and then resold to other parts of Japan, making huge profits. The scale of this trade was so great that the Dutch who traded on Dejima complained that the leather could not be sold at a high price, which shows how mad the smuggling of leather has been!

This kind of smuggling is already not in the eyes of the shogunate! The generals of the previous generation did not manage it for various reasons, or the degree of control was not enough, so that this trade has continued to the present. But now Shogun Tsunayoshi decided to ask about it, and he first summoned the lords or heirs of the Sendai and Matsumae feudal domains who lived in Edo Castle, and asked them about some information, but naturally he couldn't ask about it. So, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi summoned the envoy Nemoto Yoshizo, who had been to the Matsumae Domain once fifteen years ago to spy on the news, and asked him to go to the Matsumae Domain again to investigate the situation, and this time it was above board!

The arrival of Nemoto Yoshizo did not cause much panic among the people of the Matsumae Domain. Matsumae Masahiro, the heir to the situation in the feudal domain, who was in charge of the situation in the domain on behalf of the lord Matsumae Juhiro, sent people to contact them, and at the same time arranged other tasks in a step-by-step manner, except for ordering some shady business to be covered up a little, he did not make any special arrangements, and was very calm.

It is worth mentioning that Matsumae Masahiro, who has just turned 20 this year, was formerly known as Wei Chengzhong, and was the youngest son of Deputy Commander Wei Boqiu, who was formerly in charge of the East Coast Korea Company and the East Coast Japan Company, and presided over the entire Ezo development process. But how to say that Wei Boqiu is awesome, people found a good family for their youngest son more than ten years ago: Wei Chengzhong was passed on to the fifth generation lord of the Matsumae Domain, who had no children in history, and later succeeded other people's children as heirs), and suddenly became the first heir to the Matsumae Domain, and after his cheap father Matsumae Juhiro was transferred to Edo by the Tokugawa Shogun the year before last, he almost became the de facto lord of the Matsumae Domain, and began to handle the affairs of the domain with full authority.

Although Matsumae Masahiro was passed to Matsumae's family since he was a child, he received a true East Coast education, and the Blackwater Transportation College sent excellent teachers to Fukuyama Castle all year round to teach Matsumae Masahiro all kinds of knowledge alone, so that he could have enough talent to lead this feudal town with infinite possibilities. In addition, for more than ten years, Wei Boqiu has also arranged for some henchmen or students to serve in the Matsumae Domain, and now they themselves or students have held important positions in the domain, controlling all aspects of the territory, and have become Matsumae Masahiro's excellent weapons to reflect his will. Otherwise, even as the official heir to the daimyo family, Masahiro Matsumae may not be able to control the entire domain like this, and it will still take a process.

Matsumae Masahiro certainly knew that the shogunate was a little dissatisfied with the increasingly prosperous smuggling trade, so it was not at all surprising that the arrival of the Patrol Envoy Nemoto Yoshizo and the like. It's just that he really can't give up this smuggling trade now, because the subsidy to the feudal treasury is too big! Without this income, many of his plans would not be able to be carried out, and the Matsumae Domain would not be able to develop rapidly, which he could not tolerate.

Moreover, even if he was dizzy and succumbed to the pressure of the shogunate and voluntarily closed the trade, the lords of the other domains in the Ougoe region would probably not agree! How can we do this thing that blocks everyone's financial path? For example, the only trading place for copper coins, Box House, once this market is gone, so the various forces that are eager to get the goods will not eat him alive? For another example, the Japanese company on the east coast has an agreement with the Matsumae Domain, and some military trade locations are located outside Fukuyama Castle, and if this business is also lost, there may be even more people who jump to scold their mothers!

Anyway, the shogunate can check it, and when the sky falls, there are tall people (Sendai Domain, East Coast Japanese Company) on top, and the back of the Matsumae Domain is not empty and no one supports it. If the shogunate really messed up, it would soon be clear what the consequences were! Rather than worrying about the shogunate here, it would be better to devote your energies to the establishment of a new school in the domain that taught Togaku.