Why is it that Lao Wang, who is so smart, didn't notice anything wrong after careful consideration?

Because Lao Wang's family is the only one that grows rapeseed, he can indeed use the money to purchase the necessary food and supplies in large quantities from other families' territories, so the 'rapeseed economy' curse will not be triggered.

But the problem is that in this extremely inward-looking Kyushu Island, seeing him become rich and powerful by growing rapeseed, the Ryuzoji family and the Shimazu family do not want to be eliminated, so they can only quickly follow suit in order to maintain the balance.

There was not much arable land on Kyushu Island to begin with. As grain fields were replaced by rapeseed fields on a large scale, the entire island was bound to have a food shortage and would begin to rely on imports.

Both Sakai Trading Co., Ltd. and Tamra Chamber of Commerce were controlled by Mr. Zhao, so whether Kyushu Island purchased food from its own country or imported it from overseas, it could not escape Mr. Zhao's control. The economic colonization of Kyushu Island was realized.

As for Honshu, it is not so easy to capture because its population and economic scale are ten times that of Kyushu. We have to create several depressions first to completely collapse the already primitive industrial structure on Honshu before we can slowly refine it.

Moreover, Mr. Zhao had already taken action. He accepted the request of the merchants in Sakai City and provided them with protection, which was to cultivate the comprador group. Then, through this comprador group, he imported a large amount of cheap porcelain and cloth into Japan, and carried out a dimensionality reduction attack on the two pillars of Japan's handicraft industry - pottery and hemp textile industry.

At present, Japan is still at the stage of pottery, and porcelain can only be imported from China. They have always wanted to imitate it, but because of the lack of technology, only Owari Seto can produce glazed pottery. Once cheap porcelain floods in, who will use rough pottery? The blow to Japan's pottery industry is naturally devastating.

The same is true for the linen industry. Because Japan does not produce cotton and does not have cotton spinning technology, the rich wear silk and the poor wear linen. Of course, 99% of people wear linen... Cheap cotton cloth can naturally destroy its linen industry.

And the interesting thing is that the dumping of these two products does not affect the huge profits of other commodities because those are sold to the rich.

But once these two industries were destroyed, half of Japan's handicraft industry would collapse. Once the protection of the handicraft system was lost and it could no longer be self-sufficient, it would be easy for others to control it and completely control it.

Don't worry, take your time. Japan will be in chaos for another decade, there are plenty of opportunities to make moves...

~~

The trial fleet rested for one night on Ukushima Island, replenished fresh water and food, and then continued northward along the coastline of Japan.

With the combined effect of the southwest wind and the Kuroshio Current, the fleet had a smooth sailing and passed through the Tsushima Strait at noon that day.

This is also the daily patrol route of the main fleet led by Wang Rulong, so he will be responsible for the following explanation work... or in other words, complaining.

He told Zhao Hao that smuggling was most frequent in this area, especially the clan of Tsushima Island and the Matsuura Clan of Iki Island. They were completely unstoppable and dared to go out to sea with goods in their "three no boats".

"This is normal," Zhao Hao said with a smile, "The other side of the strait is Busan, North Korea. The one who is close to the water gets the moon first. Besides, the land on these two islands is very barren. Apart from fishing, they make a living by smuggling."

He sighed and said, "We should help them get rid of such a terrible living environment."

"Yes, leave no one behind, move them all away!" Wang Rulong understood immediately. Although Tsushima Island is large, there are only 20,000 people, and even fewer people on Iki Island. He would ask Matsuura Zhenxin to move all these people back to Hirado to grow rapeseed!

"This is a good thing. We need to let that kid do a good job of propaganda so that they can go back and live a good life. If they can't be persuaded, then use force." Young Master Zhao said indifferently. He is a narrow-minded nationalist. The more he loves his own nation, the more cruel he is to other nations.

Fraternity? It doesn't exist.

"It's not enough to just move them." Wang Rulong said:

"In fact, most of them are from the Joseon Dynasty. When they were caught, they cried and shouted that they didn't know the rules. They only became honest after being sentenced to life reeducation through labor and admitted that several big families in Busan were involved in smuggling." Wang Rulong spat:

"This business is extremely profitable. They still make money if they catch two fish and miss one. After all, the lives of the untouchables are not their own lives. And we can't make the Joseon Dynasty people unable to go to sea like we did with Kyushu Island. Our police force is also limited, so there are far more fish that slip through the net than those that are caught."

"Well, it's a problem." Zhao Hao touched his chin with a painful look on his face. Smuggling will seriously affect the monopoly profits and must not be left unchecked.

"We can't cause any trouble this year. I've made note of this. Let the Lee Dynasty merchants from the Tamra Chamber of Commerce solve it first. If they can't solve it, we'll find an excuse to deal with them next year."

"Yes, I'm just afraid that those guys are also involved." Wang Rulong said in a muffled voice.

"Well, no one is content, especially the people of the Joseon Dynasty." Zhao Hao nodded. There must be people of the Joseon Dynasty who were unhappy with only accounting for 10% of the trade among the three countries.

"If all else fails, I can disguise myself as Japanese pirates and kill them, and they will behave themselves for a few years!" Wang Rulong said angrily.

"Haha, that's a bad idea, a bad idea." Zhao Hao laughed and said, "We are a righteous and civilized army. How can we do something that would bring shame upon us?"

After saying that, he sighed and said, "It seems that we really need a group of people to do the dirty work."

Everything has its pros and cons. Prince Zhao wants to restore the glory of the Celestial Empire to gain a strong claim to the four seas. This will certainly greatly reduce the difficulty of colonization, and there is no need to kill like the Western powers.

If they don't kill, they can't survive. If they kill too few, they will only attract hatred and won't be able to truly establish their rule. But if they kill everyone...they can only engage in the slave trade. Then every pore will be dripping with blood and filth.

But the Celestial Empire model is not perfect either. Once the archway is erected, it will be restricted and will definitely suffer losses when competing with scumbags who have no taboos.

As the saying goes, where there is sunshine, there must be shadows. People in the sunshine can always be great and glorious because people in the shadows have already done all the dirty work.

"How about organizing those Japanese Tang people?" Wang Rulong suggested softly.

"Don't be in a hurry. Let me think about it first and see if there is a better option." Zhao Hao shook his head slightly. He didn't like pretending. If he wanted to do it, he would do it for real.

~~

The next day at noon, the boat arrived at Wenquanjin.

"It's so fast." Zhao Hao didn't expect it to be so fast. It was more than 600 miles from the Tsushima Strait to Onsenzu, but it arrived in just one day and one night.

It seems that we have underestimated the combined effect of the warm current and the monsoon.

"This is good news." Wang Rulong said with a smile, "After receiving the alarm, we can arrive in two days, and the safety of Wenquanguan Water Police Station will be guaranteed."

According to the original plan, when the time is ripe for the "Iwami Ginzan Strategy", the garrison district will set up a special water police station on the Nishi Island of Oki Island, 100 kilometers away from Iwami Ginzan, to protect the silver mine and silver transportation, and provide supply guarantees for the transit fleet.

However, plans cannot keep up with changes. After the Battle of Kanmon Straits, the group passed the Treaty of Shimonoseki and forced the Mori family to cede Iwami Ginzan.

The reason why the Mori family agreed so readily was that the remaining retainers of the Amago family, such as Kanosuke, with the support of Otomo Sorin, used Oki Island as their base, raised the banner of the Amago revival, and quickly seized Izumo Province. Iwami Ginzan was located in Izumo, so it was not in the hands of the Mori family at the time, so naturally they would not feel any pain.

However, the humiliating Treaty of Shimonoseki did bring back for the Mori family an army to expedition to Kyushu, and more importantly, Yoshikawa Motoharu and Kobayakawa Kagetaka.

As soon as the two returned to the west, they immediately began to suppress the rebellion. They first concentrated their forces to deal with the Ouchi army, which had been dealt with, and to establish their authority to suppress the old ministers of the two families who were ready to make trouble. At the same time, they did not let Kanosuke have an easy time, and returned the head of the Oki clan, Oki Tamekiyo, to make the rear of the Amago army unstable.

Kanosuke had no choice but to give up the opportunity for expansion and turn to attack the rebellious Oki clan.

In accordance with Master Zhao's orders, Jin Ke and Wang Rulong had been closely monitoring Kanosuke's situation, and led their fleet to the battlefield where the Niwa army and the Oki navy were fighting fiercely, helping Kanosuke completely destroy the Oki navy.

Kanosuke was naturally very grateful, so he took a small boat alone and boarded the Zhenwo to meet Wang Rulong.

When he learned that the other party was the "protector" of the Otomo family, the Ming navy that defeated the Mori army in the Kanmon Strait and was here to take the Iwami Silver Mine, Kanosuke hesitated for only three breaths before deciding to offer the newly recaptured silver mine and expressed that the Amago family was willing to be a vassal of the Ming Dynasty.

It doesn't matter where the other party comes from, or whether they are qualified to accept their loyalty...

In fact, he was desperate and tried any possible means. The Niwa clan had been destroyed for five years. Kanosuke knew that if the revival failed, people's hearts would be completely lost. So he didn't care where the other party came from. As long as he could help him fulfill his long-cherished wish of "reviving the Niwa clan", he was willing to endure all kinds of hardships, let alone make a deal with the devil.

The wisdom of this decision soon became apparent. In the first month of last year, after taking the head of Ouchi Teruhiro and destroying the Ouchi army, the Mori army, led by Mori Terumoto, with Yoshikawa Motoharu and Kobayakawa Takakage as assistants, led 20,000 elite troops and marched non-stop to Iwami and Izumo!

Although Kanosuke was both wise and brave, he had only 7,000 soldiers, and he was facing two opponents who were better than him. As a result, under the attack of Motoharu and Takakage, the Amago army was defeated and suffered heavy casualties. Kanosuke led the remaining troops to retreat step by step.

The Mori army pursued the enemy and soon broke into Izumo. The Amago family fled to Onsenzu and were about to be driven into the sea.

At this time, the Mori family's pursuers stopped because according to Article 4 of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, their army was not allowed to enter the 40 miles around Onsenzu.

Maori Terumoto was a good boy, and his two uncles did not dare to take the initiative to tear up the treaty before the ink was dry. So they hurriedly asked for permission from Motonari.

Maori Motonari pondered for a long time before replying with two words: keep the promise.

So the Mori army had to let go of the remaining Amago army and withdrew in anger.

After this battle, those who opposed Kanosuke's surrender to the Ming Dynasty all changed their attitudes and clung tightly to the garrison.

Jin Ke was a good person and asked Master Zhao to lend them Yinqi Island as a place to recuperate.

The reason why it is said "borrowed" is that according to Article 3 of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Mori family has ceded the Oki Island and its Western Island under its jurisdiction to the Tamra Guard District forever.

The planned water police station was built directly on the outlying island of Wenquanjin, so it was named Wenquanjin Water Police Station.