After some pushing, Xu Linhu first talked about his experience. From Edo, he bypassed the Boso Peninsula and first arrived at the Mito Domain, where the lord Tokugawa Yoribo was the uncle of the current shogun.

The Mito Domain does not have any specialties, only umeboshi and sake are excellent. Further north from the Mito Domain is the Mutsu Sendai Domain, the largest domain in Tohoku Japan.

Compared to the Mito Domain, the economy of the Sendai Domain was much more prosperous. The Sendai Domain also had a wide range of specialties, such as abalone and shark caught off the coast of Sanriku, and dried abalone and shark fin, which were considered to be of the highest quality in the Ming Dynasty. In addition, the Sendai Domain is cultivating the wetlands and swamps of the Kitakamigawa River basin and growing Tohoku rice, which is famous in Japan.

According to Chongzhen's requirements, it is possible that this place will become a food source base for Daming. Therefore, Xu Linhu deliberately went to Sendai Castle and inquired about the production and price of local rice.

According to his research, one Japanese stone is equivalent to 18 Chinese stones. And when the samurai sold the rice, it was 14 zhu per stone of gold. And when the merchant buys a large amount, it is one tael of gold per stone.

And now Japan's monetary system is: 4,000 bun, 6 zhu. However, the value of gold and silver was too high, and after the shogunate banned the importation of foreign copper coins, its own copper coins did not start to be minted, so the private trade returned to using rice as a general equivalent.

Although Japan's gold tael is only 15 grams, it is far from China's 1 tael equal to 375 grams. However, the price of rice in China has far exceeded that of China, so it is obviously not cost-effective to buy Japanese rice with gold and silver.

However, Japan's demand for Chinese goods can drive down the price of rice in Japan to a level similar to that of China's, or even lower.

In particular, the demand for cloth in the Tohoku region of Japan far exceeds that of other regions. In the Kansai region, more than 800 bun per horse of cotton cloth reached more than 900 bun in the Kanto region.

Whether it is a Chinese merchant or a European merchant such as the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, when they arrive in Japan with a large number of Chinese goods, they will naturally choose gold, silver, copper and other minerals that are more profitable, rather than the expensive Japanese rice.

At current prices, every three and a half pieces of cotton cloth can be exchanged for one Japanese stone of rice, which can be shipped back to the Chinese market and sold, making only about 20-30% of the profit.

After hearing this, Zhu Youzhen interrupted him and said, "Then you estimate how much rice the Sendai Domain can sell, or how much rice can be sold in the Northeast region of Japan." ”

Xu Linhu thought for a moment and replied: "I did inquire about the situation of the Sendai Domain, and after these Japanese vassal lords received the annual tribute rice from their fiefdoms, they would distribute a part of the rice to their samurai as a.

Some of them were sold at the market in exchange for money to maintain daily expenses and travel to Edo from time to time.

The Sendai Domain nominally had an annual income of 620,000 koku of rice, but in fact it had an annual income of more than 1 million koku through the reclamation of wasteland by the local lords.

However, according to the rules established by the Japanese shogunate, samurai and daimyo could not participate in commercial trade, but could only trade through merchants.

The merchant who sold the rice on behalf of the daimyo was called Kuramoto and Kakeya by the Japanese. Kuramoto was in charge of the custody and sale of the Daimyo's tribute rice and other tributes. Kakeya, on the other hand, was responsible for keeping the money received after the sale, or providing loans to the daimyo based on the annual tribute materials stored in the house.

According to my contacts with these traders, in addition to physical transactions, there is also a kind of rice coupons for sale with empty rice cutters.

Because of their poor financial situation, some daimyo of the feudal kingdoms asked Kurayashiki to sell next year's tribute rice in advance, with a denomination of 10 koku per rice coupon, paying one-third of the agreed price, and paying the remaining two-thirds when the tribute rice was delivered in the warehouse.

The Sendai clan sold 120,000 koku of rice annually in the domain and Edo markets, while the rest of the Tohoku region sold about 80,000 koku, adding up to about 200,000 koku. These merchants are very interested in exchanging goods with us.

In addition, the above rice is converted into the standard stone of my Daming, which is equivalent to 380,000 stones. According to my research in the market, this number is not the upper limit, and if the Tohoku feudal states can continue to develop wasteland and improve transportation, it should not be a problem to double it. ”

After listening to this, Zhu Youjian was quite interested, if he could stably transport grain back from Japan, it would be able to greatly alleviate the problem of food shortage in the Ming Dynasty in the future.

However, these Japanese daimyo dared to sell short and buy short without establishing an effective market mechanism, which should be said whether they did not know whether to live or die, or really did not want to live. But since they did this, then don't blame him for being rude.

Zhu Youzhen thought about it, and then said to Xu Linhu, who stopped and waited for his instructions: "Go on, after leaving the Sendai Domain, what else is there in the east of Japan?" ”

Xu Linhu immediately said: "Further north of the Sendai Domain, there is Ezo Land across a strait from Honshu Island.

At the southern end of Ezo is the Matsumae Domain, which is said to be 10,000 koku high, and the current lord of the domain is Matsumae Kohiro, 31 years old, who lives in Fukuyama Castle, which is close to the southernmost seaport.

However, when we stopped at Fukuyama Castle, the officials of the Matsumae Domain did not welcome us, urging us to leave as soon as possible, and demanding that we not stay in the Matsumae Domain. Therefore, we didn't hear much from the Matsumae Domain.

The northernmost point of Honshu Island, across the sea from Ezo, is the Tsugaru area. The owner of this place is the Tsugaru clan of the Hirosaki Domain, and the current daimyo is called Tsugaru Nobume, and the stone is 100,000 stone high.

Tsugaru Nobume welcomed us very much and summoned me to Hirosaki Castle. However, although he is only 43 years old, his health is not very good, and his sister-in-law Tsutsu Shinyoshi is only 9 years old.

The purpose of this lord's summoning of me was to start a trade with us, and although the Tsugaru clan produced copper, lead, tin, gold, rice, and fish, it was difficult to transport them out because of the inconvenience of transportation, so daily necessities such as cotton cloth were very expensive.

Second, he wanted me to hire a good doctor for him in Mingguo to diagnose and treat his condition. ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and said: "This Tsugaru Domain guards the Tsugaru Strait, and it is the object of our friendship." And if I can get a base there, it will be of great help to my Ming Dynasty to explore the regions north and east of Japan.

From my point of view, the reason why this Matsumae Domain refused to allow our Ming merchant ships to go was because they wanted to occupy the entire Ezo land alone... Ezo is the Japanese name, and since they haven't explored the entire island, it's a terra nullius.

I think it's called Fuso Island, and to the east of Japan is Fuso Island, so you have to explore and map the island as soon as possible, and then we can incorporate it into the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

As for the Tsugaru Domain, next year I will send a doctor from the Tai Hospital to accompany you. However, I hope you will convince the lord of the Tsugaru Domain to allow us to establish a supplementary port in the Tsugaru region. ”

Xu Xinsu hurriedly took over the conversation and said: "The minister should obey the order, and after the spring of next year, the minister will personally lead the ship to the Tsugaru Domain." ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded at him, and then continued to ask Xu Linhu: "Then will you continue to go north after that?" ”

Xu Linhu nodded and said, "Since the Matsumae Domain occupies the southwestern part of Fuso Island, we had to ask the people of the Tsugaru Domain to lead the way, re-cross the Tsugaru Strait, and go northeast and south along Fuso Island.

We first arrived at Muroran Port at the mouth of the Uchiura Bay, which was a natural harbor that unfortunately had been occupied by the Matsumae Domain. However, the Matsumae Domain set up a place to rule here, and it was not directly under its jurisdiction, so the administration was not strong.

Unlike the Matsumae Domain, the samurai leaders who manage this Etsuma Domain are happy to trade with us. According to him, the Matsumae clan had a monopoly on Fuso's trade with the outside world.

For these places and the Ezo people who always sell daily necessities at high prices, but refuse to sell them iron tools and weapons, making their lives extremely embarrassing, the Ezo people in the nearby Hidaka area are already very dissatisfied with the Wa people.

If we can sell them cotton cloth and ironware or weapons, they will be happy to help us as necessary. ”

Zhu Youzhen asked with interest what kind of system this so-called place was, and then asked Xu Linhu to continue.

"Because of some concerns, we only sold some table salt, cotton cloth, and tea, and did not sell weapons to them. However, the leader of Muroran Port was still very happy and found us a naturalized Ezo as a guide.

Under the guidance of this Ezo man, we went to the Hidaka area to the east of Muroran and interacted with some Ezo people.

According to our conversations with them, the Ezo tribe hated the Wato of the Matsumae Domain. For they are not counted as taking advantage of trade, but they are also taxed and forced to work for themselves.

One tribal leader put it this way: a few decades ago, the Wa people were only active in the southernmost port, but now they have occupied most of the island, driving them out of their homeland.

The leader also wants to buy weapons from us to defend his tribe, and they are willing to pay for the gold. ”

"Gold?" Zhu Youzhen was a little surprised, he knew that Hokkaido produced gold, but this was not after the Meiji Restoration developed Hokkaido.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Originally, they didn't know what gold was, but when people and outsiders arrived at their place, they searched for these things, and they learned that it was called gold.

Gold is of no use to them, but if it is known to those and people, it will destroy their homeland, so they have kept it a secret.

But when we arrived at their place, we did not show off our strength, and were willing to trade fairly with them, so he felt that we could trust, so he wanted to buy a batch of weapons from us to equip himself.

The leader also sent his own son, Xiangku Xiangying, to follow us and try to negotiate the deal. ”