The skyrocketing fire rose, and the Dutch battleship, which had been hit by the suicide ship, began to sink slowly in the firelight. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info Immediately after that, two more suicide ships crashed into the port side of the battleship, and the battleship on the left, which was heavily flooded, quickly flipped to the left and sank into the sea.

Explosions sounded on the sea, and one Dutch battleship, cruiser, armed merchant ship, and small boat after another caught fire and sank. The rest of the Dutch ships desperately fled outside Edo Bay.

The Dutch also sent small boats to intercept the Japanese suicide boats, and although many of them were stopped, the Dutch boats also suffered heavy losses. The loyal Japanese samurai jumped directly onto the Dutchman's boat and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Dutch, capturing more than a dozen Dutch boats and sinking dozens of them by the way.

Trop fled from Edo Bay with the fleet in disarray.

Just as the Dutch fleet had escaped from Edo Bay, two hexagonal fast cruisers that had been lying in ambush outside Edo Bay took the opportunity to attack the Dutch fleet, sinking three cruisers and two armed merchant ships that were lagging behind.

The results of the Battle of Edo were reported, and a samurai came to report the results to Tokugawa Ietsuna: "Report to Tokugawa Shogun!" We sank four battleships, thirteen cruisers, six armed merchant ships and eighty-seven small boats! The number of enemies killed is unknown, and more than 1,200 red-haired ghosts who fell into the water were captured. The remaining red-haired ghosts have abandoned Edo and fled to the open sea, and according to the envoys of the Ming Kingdom, the red-haired ghosts will never come again. In addition, when the red-haired ghost fleet was fleeing from Edo, the warships of the Ming Kingdom also attacked the red-haired ghost fleet and sank several red-haired ghost ships. ”

The Dutch would never come again, and Trop and de Knight fled Edo Bay with their heavily damaged fleet, and the battered Dutch fleet embarked on a long voyage home. This "trip to the East" of the Dutch not only did not take advantage of the slightest advantage, but also did not achieve any purpose, but also lost dozens of large and small warships, and lost more than 6,000 officers and men of the navy and army, including more than 2,000 in Edo.

A year later, the Anglo-Dutch fleet fought a decisive battle in European waters, in which Tropp was killed, and de Knight commanded the fleet to counterattack and attack the city of London, inflicting great losses on the British army.

But that's all later.

Tokugawa Ietsuna asked, "What are the losses of our army?" ”

"Our army lost more than 900 suicide boats and more than 8,000 samurai killed in battle. But General Sakai returned. The Japanese samurai bowed and reported his losses.

"This is a great victory!" Tokugawa Ietsuna nodded solemnly, "With the help of the Ming people, our loyal and brave samurai, with their lives and blood, defended the honor of our Tokugawa Edo Domain!" This is the victory of our Tokugawa family, and the victory of our emperor! ”

"The loss is a little bigger, but after this battle, the red-haired ghost will no longer dare to provoke us Japan!" Hotta Masakyu bowed ninety degrees.

"Now it's time to talk about how to give back to the Ming people." Tokugawa Ietssuna turned his head to look at his group of civil and military officials, ready to ask for their opinions.

"General!" Kyohei, the minister of the Eagle Division, who gave his daughter to Wang Xinyu, proposed, "We should promise the Ming people that we will open the two ports of Edo and Osaka as trade ports with the Ming Kingdom!" We can also encourage other feudal lords to provide Japanese samurai as mercenaries to Ming Kingdom! We can also import weapons from the Ming Kingdom to replenish our own army. ”

"General! The opening of the port needs to be considered in the long run! The more conservative Masahiro Hotta objected.

Takaji retorted: "Opening the port and allowing the Ming fleet to enter our Tokugawa Domain is not only beneficial to the Ming Kingdom, but also a very beneficial thing for our Tokugawa Domain!" General Hotta, didn't you see that the Satsuma Domain had always opened its ports to trade with the Ming Kingdom? They are now the richest feudal clan in Japan! Their profits are all from sea trade! If they can, why should we close ourselves off from the country? ”

Hotta Masayu said: "With the opening of the port, we in the Tokugawa Domain can make money, but if the silk, ceramics and tea of the Ming Kingdom enter Japan in large quantities, our own silk, ceramics and tea production in Japan will be impacted, and the things produced by our farmers will not be able to be sold, and they will go bankrupt!" ”

Takaji replied, "Even if all our farmers go bankrupt, it won't be much of a problem!" The Ming not only need our samurai as their mercenaries, but also a large number of Ashigaru iron gunners and ashigaru pikemen! The bankrupt peasants could go to the ashigaru and let them help the Ming defeat the Tatars! ”

"But when the farmers go bankrupt, how can we guarantee our income? Although the development of maritime trade can make us a lot of profits at the beginning, but using the bankruptcy of farmers in exchange for our profits is tantamount to killing chickens and eggs! We can get more benefits at first, but what about the long run? Hotta retorted.

Tokugawa Ietsuna said expressionlessly: "General Hotta, but opening the port is one of the conditions for Ming to help us deal with the red-haired ghosts, so it's hard for us to break our promises, right?" ”

Hotta Masakyu bowed: "Tokugawa General!" We just need to open one port in Osaka! In this way, we will not be considered to break our promise to the Ming Kingdom! Moreover, if only one port is opened, the inflow of goods into the Ming Dynasty will be limited, and it will not cause a large number of bankruptcies of our peasants, and we will only import weapons and a small number of luxury goods. ”

"General!" "Even if we open a few more ports and let Mingguo's goods come into Japan, it won't have much impact on our income." We can direct the goods of the Ming Kingdom to other feudal domains and bankrupt their peasants so that it will not affect our future income. ”

"What if someone sees that the goods of the Ming Kingdom are highly profitable and sells them in our domain in defiance of our ban? Isn't that our peasants also going bankrupt? Hotta asked.

"Who said that we are going to ban the circulation of Ming goods in our domain? We don't have to ban it, we can raise the price! Even if some of the peasants in our domain go bankrupt, it will not affect us. Our output is so light that the Ming Kingdom wants to give us employment fees, and we can collect taxes from the peasants from the employment fees. In addition, the envoys of the Ming Kingdom promised us that they would set up textile factories and silk factories in our domain, hire our peasants to work in their factories, and pay us taxes in their factories. In this way, the income of our clan will not only not decrease, but will increase. Takaji said.

According to Wang Xinyu's request, Li Guangdi had previously discussed with the Eagle Division, Japan not only opened the port to the Ming Kingdom, but also allowed the Ming Kingdom to open factories in Japan and hire Japanese people to work, just like the Ming Kingdom did in Annam, open factories and mines, and hire local workers, so that both sides could profit.

The situation between Japan and Annan is somewhat different, Annan has fertile land and rich mineral resources, and the grain produced in Annan can meet the needs of the population under Wang Xinyu's current control, and Annan's minerals can allow the development of the steel industry in the Ming Kingdom, and Annan was conquered by the Qiongzhou army, which is basically equivalent to the semi-colony of the Qiongzhou army, and Wang Xinyu's Nanyang company opened various enterprises in Annan, and the tax paid to Annan was very small.

Although Japan's land is fertile, Japan does not grow three crops a year like Annam; There are not many minerals in Japan other than brass, sulfur, and gold and silver, and iron ore and coal are especially lacking. Another and more important point is that Japan is not a semi-colony of the Nanyang Company, but an independent country.

So to set up factories and businesses in Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate could collect taxes as per their own requirements.

In the end, it was Tokugawa Ietsuna who agreed to the signing of the Edo Treaty between the Tokugawa shogunate and the Ming dynasty.

The Edo Treaty reads: The Edo shogunate opened the ports of Edo, Osaka, Hyogozu, and Wakayama, and the Ming Dynasty helped Japan build a fort in the village of Yokosuka in Edo Bay, because Yokosuka was the gateway to Edo Bay, so the establishment of a fort in Yokosuka could deal with external threats.

As a reward for the Ming Dynasty's assistance in the construction of the fort, Japan set up the fishing village of Yokohama north of Yokosuka as a development zone, and the Nanyang Company entered Yokohama, opened factories, and established enterprises.

Nanyang Bank received permission from the Tokugawa shogunate to open branches throughout Japan for the convenience of the Ming people who came to trade in Japan.

The Ming Kingdom invested in Japan, opened trading companies and various factories, invested in the construction of roads, and in the future could also build railways and establish railway companies.

After returning to Japan about what he had seen and heard in Toban, Takaji Kyohei was very curious about a new type of road connecting the Toban Iron and Steel Works, the Gun Factory and the port, a wooden road paved with broken stones, and iron plates on top of the wooden bars, which could pull a very heavy vehicle with a batch of mules.

In fact, in Annam, the Nanyang Company also laid a lot of mule-drawn railways, and after the advent of the steam engine, these railways could directly run steam locomotives and passenger and freight trains.

In addition to the fact that the Ming and Nanyang companies were able to trade and set up factories in Japan, the Ming army and the Tokugawa shogunate also cooperated militarily.

Military cooperation projects include: the Tokugawa shogunate provided brass, sulfur, saltpeter and other raw materials for the production of weapons to the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty exported muskets, artillery, ammunition and armor to Japan; Japan provided the Ming with samurai and ashigaru and other mercenaries; The Tokugawa shogunate, like the Satsuma clan, sent people to follow the Ming to conquer the newly discovered lands.

Not only did the Tokugawa shogunate itself send samurai and ashigaru to Damei as mercenaries, but the Tokugawa shogunate also persuaded other minor feudal lords to send samurai and ashigaru to Damei.

Daming opened schools in Japan to export Chinese culture to Japan, and Japan will popularize Chinese education.

These treaties seem to be very beneficial to Japan, but Wang Xinyu knows very well in his heart that once the content of these treaties is implemented for a long time, Japan will completely become a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and from then on Japan will be the industrial production base of cheap labor and the source of mercenaries for the Ming Dynasty. (To be continued.) )