After all, even without internal strife, the Fujiwara family could only muster about 10,000 troops at most, and their strength was far from strong.
Once they lose their equipment advantage over the local powerful families, their foundation will be seriously shaken.
"this"
Emperor Goreizei panicked and said, "If that's the case, then isn't the imperial court in danger?"
"Da Tai Zheng."
He quickly looked at Fujiwara no Yorimichi and asked, "What should we do?"
Fujiwara no Yorimichi frowned.
After a moment, he said in a deep voice: "The Abe clan must be eliminated. The most important thing is the attitude towards the Song Kingdom in the future."
"Is the Grand Secretary planning to send an envoy to the State of Song?"
Emperor Goreizei asked.
Fujiwara no Yorimichi nodded and said, "Of course we must send an envoy to express our willingness to establish a lasting friendship with the Song Dynasty."
"But it's about Tsushima Island."
Emperor Goreizei frowned.
There is a record of Tsushima Island in Chen Shou's "Records of the Three Kingdoms".
It was already Japanese territory at that time.
However, the island had little land and was not suitable for farming, so the population was very sparse, with only a few thousand people. It was not until the Warring States Period in Japan that the population reached 12,000.
It has also long served as a trade transit hub between Japan and Goryeo, and is a very important external channel for Japan.
Therefore, the Japanese top leaders were still very disgusted with the Song Dynasty's stationing of troops here.
But they had no way to deal with the Song Dynasty.
If Japan were to bow down to the Song Dynasty like the Tang Dynasty did, wouldn't Tsushima Island be occupied by the Song Dynasty forever?
Fujiwara no Yorimichi naturally understood the Emperor's intention and said, "This is a tactic of feigning compliance. If it succeeds, perhaps Japan will become stronger."
"oh?"
Emperor Goreizei hurriedly said, "Grandpa, please explain in detail."
"Although local powerful families occasionally rebelled in the past, they were always intimidated by Your Majesty's divine power and never dared to offend. However, many powerful families now harbor rebellious intentions, especially in Iwami, Mutsu, and Echigo."
Fujiwara no Yorimichi said, "All this is because they traded with the Song people and their power grew."
"Um."
Emperor Go-Reizei nodded in agreement.
In fact, not only did the local forces grow stronger, but the power of the Fujiwara family also grew a lot.
Because the Iwami Silver Mine was originally built to prevent the emperor from interfering, Song Cai and Su Jian not only bribed local dignitaries, but also gave some shares to the emperor and the Fujiwara family.
This is also what Zhao Jun meant.
After all, the Song Dynasty had not yet completed its reforms and was not very powerful. If they wanted to seize resources from Japan, they had to ensure the safety of these resources first.
If the Japanese high-level officials opposed it at that time, or even sent troops, the Song Dynasty might not be able to spare the time to protect their interests in Japan given the powerful enemy Liao in the north and the harassment from Western Xia in the northwest.
Therefore, the best option is to bribe the Japanese high-ranking officials and let them turn a blind eye to it.
Because of this, the Fujiwara family made a lot of profit, so they continued to expand their estates and recruit farmers, which resulted in the Fujiwara family having a large number of troops in recent years.
Even forces as far away as Heian-kyo benefited from it, not to mention the areas where the mines were directly produced and the local powerful families.
Fujiwara no Yorimichi continued, "If Japan wants to become strong, it must trade with the Song Kingdom. What if those weapons and armor don't belong to the Abe clan, but to your Majesty?"
Emperor Go-Reizei thought to himself that, after all, it still belonged to his uncle.
However, he did not say it out loud, only saying: "Then I will be able to truly wipe out all rebellions."
"Yes."
Fujiwara no Yorimichi said: "Therefore, the Abe clan must be eliminated, and at the same time, the Hiraizumi gold mine, the Echigo gold mine, and the Iwami silver mine must be recovered."
"this"
Fujiwara no Kyomichi said hurriedly, "The Song people have taken over most of the Iwami Silver Mine. We want to take it back, but what about the Song people?"
"That's what I meant to say."
Fujiwara no Yorimichi looked around at the crowd and said, "We must therefore establish good relations with the Song Kingdom. We must be humble and begin sending envoys to the Song Kingdom to learn from their advanced knowledge. Then, we must find a way to persuade them to withdraw their troops from Tsushima Island."
Emperor Goreizei frowned and asked, "Will they agree?"
"Han people are all generous. As long as we are a little more humble, they will be happy to show their generosity."
Fujiwara no Yorimichi smiled and said, "As long as we can get them to withdraw their troops from Tsushima Island, we can recover the gold and silver mines. Then, by sending our own merchant ships to Song State to purchase weapons and armor, we can build a powerful army ourselves."
He continued, "This way, we'll have the confidence to defend our homeland. Even if Song isn't happy, they probably won't send troops. We're too far away. Even if they do send troops, they won't be numerous. We can easily defeat them. We'll just have to apologize to them afterwards."
"Is that so?"
Everyone looked at each other.
Fujiwara no Yorimune thought for a moment and said, "It seems like a feasible plan."
"That's natural. No one understands the Han people better than me."
After saying this, Fujiwara no Yorimichi smiled.
He knew too well what the Han people were thinking.
It is a great country with vast territory and abundant resources, and it considers itself a country of etiquette and propriety.
Therefore, starting from the Han Dynasty, the ancestors of the Japanese, who were then called Wakoku, paid tribute to the Han Dynasty in exchange for the golden seal as a reward from the Han emperor.
During the Tang Dynasty, Japan paid tribute to the Tang Dynasty many times, and not only received the name of the country of the rising sun, also received many rewards, and learned a lot of advanced systems, knowledge, culture, and technology.
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