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Deep down, Shimazu Matsudaira was still willing to trade with the Japanese. His main purpose was to increase his tax revenue, but this behavior conflicted with Tokugawa Iemitsu's policy. Now that Shimazu Matsudaira had signed the Concession Treaty with Tang San, he had a talisman that allowed him to trade openly. As for whether selling Japanese products to Japan would make Japan's economy even poorer, Shimazu Matsudaira was not happy about it.
For a small foreign country struggling to survive, for an ambitious Japanese daimyo, whether Japan was rich or poor was actually not of much concern to him. What was important was to rely on a big force. Therefore, Shimazu Matsudaira was reluctant before signing the contract, just wanting to gain some advantages for himself. After the contract was signed, Shimazu Matsudaira saw that he not only saved his life, but also found a backer, so his spirits naturally recovered, but it made Tang Yu suspicious.
Shimazu Matsudaira's behavior was just like Yuan Shikai and Sun Yat-sen in later generations. He did not think about the country first, but the interests of his own circle. Even Tokugawa Iemitsu did not do anything for the sake of Japan, but for the interests of his Tokugawa family. Japan's strong economic trade made the tax revenue under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate less and less, so naturally he would refuse to continue trading with Japan.
Tokugawa Iemitsu was naturally very unhappy with Karasuma's military behavior, but Karasuma had signed a contract with the Satsuma clan. If Tokugawa Iemitsu wanted to interfere, he would have to provoke a war with Karasuma and the Satsuma clan, and the outcome would be hard to say. At that time, the surrounding foreign countries were eyeing his shogunate's rule covetously, so Tokugawa Iemitsu did not dare to act rashly.
Tang Li was not idle during this time. On the one hand, he sent troops to fight pirates everywhere and intercept merchant ships from Da'an. After selling most of the goods, Tang Li ordered the captured merchant ships and pirate ships to return to Da'an to organize a larger trade.
The grain production in a place like Japan is very low, and Tang Qi did not want to transport grain from Daqi to feed the Japanese, so he asked Hei Pi to take five of his men and nearly 10,000 Japanese, and sail nearly 8,000 small boats obtained from pirates to Goryeo to get food.
Tang Qi wanted to build a city in the concession, so the laborers for the construction could not be transported from Dayuan, so he had to recruit local Japanese. Since they were paid two kilograms of rice a day and provided two meals a day by the person in charge of the construction site, such treatment not only attracted young and strong Japanese from Satsuma, but also Japanese from other foreign countries who got the news came, so Tang Qi had nearly 40,000 young and strong Japanese as laborers.
With so many people, the food consumption is huge. Tang Qi had no choice but to send Hei Pi to get food. Of course, this food was not for Hei Pi to buy, but for Hei Pi to take people to rob. In order to make this business last for a long time, Tang Qi specifically instructed Hei Pi that if the other party did not resist, he would not be allowed to kill people indiscriminately. In particular, he had to restrain those Japanese and not let them do whatever they wanted. Only in this way, there would be fewer people resisting next time they went to rob food. After all, except that the Koreans liked to brag, they were still very obedient and knew that their lives were the most important.
As for the city planning in the concession, Tang Qi planned it according to the commercial city of later generations. The area of 50 square kilometers is neither big nor small. Half of it is mountainous. According to Tang Qi's idea, these places will all be villa areas in the future. The commercial city area is about 20 square kilometers. A cross-shaped main road was designed by Tang Qi to be 30 meters wide, followed by two types of streets with a width of 25 meters and 20 meters. Large sewers were also paved on both sides. This was a huge project, of course, it could not be completed in a short time, so Tang Qi built a cement plant in Satsuma, and planned to complete the cross-shaped main road within a year. At the same time, he began to sell land to the outside world.
The land in the central area costs two taels of silver per square meter, the land in the next area costs one and a half taels of silver per square meter, and the land in the outermost area costs only half a tael of silver per square meter. This price is not expensive in a place like Jinling, but it is ridiculously expensive in a place like Satsuma. After Tang Qi announced the price, except for a dozen foreign countries that wanted to establish relations with Tang Qi and bought some land to set up offices, no one was interested in it for more than a month. Those merchants who came from other countries would rather stay in the hotels run by Tang Qi at high prices, or simply stay in their own cargo ships. No one even thought of building their own trading company here.
Tang Qi is not worried about this situation. If those who come to Japan to do business do not sell goods here, heavier taxes will be imposed. As for those who do not pay taxes, they will be smugglers, and their goods and ships will be confiscated. Tang Qi believes that if these people do not buy, they will be the ones who suffer in the end, and it will be the merchants who will not be able to bear it in the end.
The most important point is that Tang Qi now has sufficient funds on hand. Some time ago, he not only seized more than ten thousand ships, nearly eight thousand small boats, and four thousand cannons, but also goods and silver totaling nearly twenty million taels. All of Tang Qi's men have fallen in love with this kind of looting life. If they were not short of manpower, these people would have wanted to go south to Southeast Asia to set up the Nanyang Development Co., Ltd.
Hei Pi sent back two batches of grain, about 23,000 dan. When Tang Qi asked about the process, he found out that Hei Pi was quite powerful. He actually captured two small cities of Goryeo and got 30,000 dan of grain from the government warehouse. He also robbed a lot of other things. He also got the government silver from the warehouse, more than 40,000 taels. Tang Qi took 10,000 taels and gave the rest to those meritorious personnel, naturally to encourage them to continue to carry forward their style.
When Tang Qi distributed food to the Japanese laborers, they became very motivated. After all, this place was too poor, and being able to stop their families from starving was their greatest happiness. This also accelerated the construction of Kokura City.
Speaking of the name of this city, Tang Qi's men were all confused. They didn't understand why Tang Qi called a city that would be very magnificent in the future Kokura Castle. Is there any point in not mentioning it? The name was too petty. When Tang Qi told everyone the name, Zhang Yiheng looked at Tang Qi who was trapped in memories very carefully, and asked Tang Qi in an even more cautious voice why he chose such a name. The answer was that Tang Qi sighed slowly and told everyone that this was to commemorate a great Japanese woman who made great contributions to the entertainment industry of men all over the world.
As for what his contribution was, Tang Qi did not say, and everyone did not dare to ask again. They only remembered a new term, the entertainment industry. It was not until Tang Qi organized some purchased Japanese women to open a nightclub in Kokura City that everyone finally understood what the entertainment industry was. A few years later, Kokura City's entertainment industry also became a world-famous signboard.
Time passed quickly and it was the fourth year of Chongzhen. The second batch of goods from Da'an was also shipped to Xiaocang City. This time, many merchants who had connections with Tang Qi learned that Tang Qi had made a fortune at sea, and they also organized goods to come. In a few months, Tang Qi not only repaid the silver he borrowed from these people, but also paid a fine of ten taels of silver to Emperor Chongzhen, and purchased more than ten thousand taels of silver worth of goods. Everyone knew that Tang Qi had made a fortune this time at sea.
Merchants are profit-driven, just like sharks that smell blood, they don't know what to do. By virtue of their relationship with Tang Qi, these people also purchased goods, joined Tang Qi's fleet, and came to Kokura City.
Most of the main crossroads in Kokura Castle have been built. Looking at the large cement road, these people realized that the one built in their hometown was not a road at all. At most, it was just a small path for carriages.
Most of the merchants who came this time had business dealings with Tang Qi, and they admired Tang Qi's ability to make money. Moreover, Tang Qi had been promoted in the officialdom, and these people also knew that this Lord Tang would be a big tree that they must climb in the future. So they paid money to buy land in Xiaocang City, and Tang Qi also gave this group of people very favorable tax conditions. The tax levied on others was 0.1%, but the tax given to these people was 80.1%. In addition, he gave these people an official position in Xiaocang City, which was not too big or too small, such as positions in the Environmental Protection Agency, the Price Bureau, the Urban Planning Department, and the Urban Management Office.
In the Great Dynasty, the status of businessmen was not very high. After the conquest of Xiaocang City, these people got an official position. Although they were not in the system of the Great Dynasty, they were still very happy. This also made some other wait-and-see businessmen determined to start buying land in Xiaocang City. After all, this amount of money was nothing compared to the business taxes. The preferential tax for two trips would make the money back, because if you don’t do business in this place, the tax levied would be 0.15%. If you don’t pay, you will be treated as a traitor. However, these people did not get any preferential taxes, and it was still 0.1%. Such high taxes naturally made those businessmen have objections, but in the face of muskets and cannons, they had no choice but to submit.
For those who paid more for the land, Tang Qi also arranged a position for them. Tang Qi thought that a city like this needed people to manage it anyway. Giving some unimportant positions to these people could not only sell a place to them, but also save himself a lot of expenses.
As more and more merchants came to Kokura Castle, it gradually became prosperous. However, this situation made one person salivate and secretly regret that he had not thought of it in the past.
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