ebookland Chapter 74 "Golden Country"
Chapter 74 "Golden Country"
【Why is Japan called the Golden Country? 】
(The topographic map of Japan is shown first)
[The Travels of Marco Polo is known as "one of the greatest wonders of the world". It was written by an Italian named Marco Polo during the Yuan Dynasty based on his experiences along the way. It is a book that allows Westerners to understand the East.
The book also writes about the Japanese Islands and other places, describing Japan as the Treasure Island dreamed of by ancient Westerners, where there was endless gold and silver in ancient times.
"Japan is an island located in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The area of Japan is very large. The inhabitants are handsome, strong, civilized and worship Buddhism.
They are not controlled by any foreign power, but only by their own king. Their gold production is very large, but the king never lets the gold be sold at will.
Few merchants from the Barbarian Province (Southern Song Dynasty) came to this country, and there was little maritime traffic between other places and Japan.
Gold is the wealth that countless people dream of, and Japan, known as the country of gold, satisfies everyone's fantasy about gold. The Japanese island is even called the "Treasure Island" by Westerners.
Japan sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty several times, and Tang officials were very surprised by the annual salary of about five kilograms of gold for the Japanese envoys. Those Japanese students who came to the Tang Dynasty bought luxury goods, musical instruments and books on a large scale while living in Chang'an.
Copper coins were still used more often in Japan most of the time. Due to the relative scarcity of copper, Japan exported gold to the Song Dynasty in exchange for copper coins, and used gold to import medicinal materials, spices, condiments, silk fabrics, paintings and other commodities from the Song Dynasty.
During the Qing Dynasty, trade with Japan mainly involved exchanging Chinese porcelain, silk, etc. for Japan's gold, silver and copper.
According to the "Eastern Japanese Research", "Generally speaking, if the price in the mainland is one, you can get five in Japan; and when you return, you can get two for one."
In other words, mainland China's goods can be exchanged for five times the profit when they arrive in Japan, and the money can be used to buy Japanese goods back home, which can bring back double the profit.
It was not until later that Japan realized the importance of gold and silver reserves to the economy that it began to prohibit the outflow of gold and silver.
＜Some of Marco Polo’s descriptions are a bit exaggerated, but it’s still worth reading＞
＜I remember that Japan seemed to always like to use our copper coins?＞
＜In ancient times, Japan was rich in gold and silver, and traded with other countries to exchange copper coins＞
＜emm, scarcity makes things valuable＞
＜Did ancient my country know that Japan had such rich gold and silver mines＞
＜If you knew, you would probably wipe out Japan [dog head]＞
＜I think of the Korean War during the Wanli period. Ming and Japan fought to the death. Although Ming won in the end, the treasury was empty. It won face but lost substance. Japan went back and established the Tokugawa Shogunate...＞
＜I really hate Japan. When the other powers came, they basically robbed gold, silver, jade and other things, while Japan robbed cultural classics, ancient music scores, etc.＞
＜The "Three Alls Policy" implemented by Japan during its invasion of China, which meant burning everything, killing everything, and looting everything, was really implemented. Many books were burned at that time＞
＜All good things from Japan are directly copied and pirated from my country. The samurai sword is a copy of the ring-handled sword from the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty's Tang sword. The Japanese mythology is also a copy of Fuxi and Nuwa from my country... Anyway, they really copy everything. I am speechless＞
......
Was ancient Japan like this? Li Ranran was puzzled. Her previous impression of ancient Japan was that it was always learning from ancient my country. She didn't expect it to be like this.
When I saw later that it said Japan plagiarized so many things from ancient China, I secretly cursed Japan for being such a bad person!
The people watching the light screen gradually came back to their senses, so, Japan really is a treasure island.
The light curtain triggered everyone's frenzy for war.
The Qin and Han dynasties were originally only interested in the west, but after hearing what Guangmu said, they couldn't help but turn their attention to Japan, which was separated by a sea in the east.
During the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, there were merchants from coastal areas trading with Japan, and the profits they made from it were indeed considerable as Guangmu said.
Li Zhi, who was already preparing for war, obtained a full picture of Japan and a topographic map, and had someone carefully copy it down and send it to the military camp after the light curtain ended.
The failure of the previous expeditions to Japan was due to the discord between two generals within the Yuan Dynasty, and the influence of the weather caused heavy losses to the Yuan army.
Kublai Khan wanted to invade Japan again. This time there was less discussion in the court, and many Mongolian nobles wanted to get a piece of the pie and were unusually active.
Zhu Chong, the Prince of Qin, Zhu Tan, the Prince of Lu, and Zhu Gui, the Prince of Dai, who were named by Zhu Yuanzhang to go to Japan, were originally dissatisfied, but they dared not resist due to the majesty of their father Zhu Yuanzhang.
Now that they know what Japan has, they all showed great interest.
During the Jiajing period, the threat of Japanese pirates was already serious. When common people heard that Japan was a country of gold, many of them threw their lives away just to make a fortune.
Some time ago, Emperor Jiajing Zhu Houzhao also promoted Hu Zongxian to be the Inspector and Censor of Zhejiang Province, in charge of the anti-Japanese war. After Hu Zongxian took office, he promoted many young people, including Qi Jiguang, the commander of Dengzhou Guard.
During the Wanli reign, Zhang Juzheng had an idea of what to do with the Korean War after hearing Guangmu say it. It seemed that Japan was really ambitious, so he had to sort out the domestic problems before resolving this future trouble.