Chapter 2779

While this group of powerful children were talking freely about foreign arms sales strategies, in another manor outside Hangzhou, Masato Masuyama, the envoy of the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate, was not so free and easy. He was having a headache over the new news he had received today - it is said that

The Satsuma clan also intends to purchase arms from Haihan, and its envoys have already arrived in Hangzhou.

If this news is true, it will undoubtedly add many uncontrollable variables to Masuyama Masato's mission, thus affecting his personal career.

As the uncle of the current shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna, Masato Masuyama has never held a position with real power in the shogunate in order to avoid the suspicion of "relatives interfering in politics." However, Tokugawa Ietsuna succeeded to the throne at a young age, and the shogunate leader was weak and his ministers were strong.

The situation is becoming more and more obvious. If it is not curbed, sooner or later the process of the imperial family being ousted by the shogunate will happen again.

Nowadays, there are probably only a few people like Masuyama Masato who are related to him who can hold up the scene for Tokugawa Ietsuna. So after some games, Masuyama Masato won this visiting Haihan

opportunity, if he can complete this mission well, then there will be sufficient reasons to participate in the subsequent formation of the new army, and the general will be able to naturally let him take control of the new armed force that the shogunate spent a lot of money to build.

When setting off from Edo, Masuyama Masato thought that the mission would be easy and enjoyable. After all, the general intention of the arms deal had already been discussed during the Kaihan mission's visit to Edo.

, his task is mainly to confirm the delivery date and verify whether the weapons and equipment Haihan will sell to the shogunate have the combat performance claimed by the mission.

Of course, if Masuyama Masato can further lower the price during his visit, or shorten the delivery period of combat ships, or even purchase some advanced equipment that was not originally on the sale list, that will be extra credit.

According to Masuyama Masato, it is not difficult to deal with the Haihan people. The main officials of the Haihan mission are all young people. It is said that all of them are children of prominent aristocrats. One young man is even a descendant of the Ming Dynasty's royal family. These

They behave politely, speak elegantly, know how to enjoy themselves, and are very pleasant to get along with. Masato Masuyama is very happy to complete subsequent negotiations with them.

After arriving in Zhoushan, Zengshan Masari, accompanied by Ha Jianyi and others, first inspected the bases and some ships of the East China Sea Fleet, and also took a boat out to sea to observe the navy's live-fire drills, and then returned to Ningbo Prefecture.

After a few days of inspecting the local customs and having a great time, everything went as smoothly as he expected.

But after arriving in Hangzhou, things seemed to be changing bit by bit. The first negotiation partner was no longer the group of enthusiastic young officials, but a senior official who was said to be in charge of all Haihan's weapons and equipment production.

As soon as they came into contact, Masuyama Masato knew that Bai Kesi was not easy to deal with. Bai Kesi had the majesty and decisiveness of a superior, but also had the cunning and slickness of an officialdom veteran. He was also well versed in military industry technology and the arms sales system.

, for Masato Masuyama, he is simply an invulnerable existence.

Zengshan's plan to purchase Majesty-class battleships, which he came up with during his trip to Hangzhou, was ruthlessly rejected by Bai Kesi. He tried to change the target again and inquired about the Haihan Army's active equipment, but it also met with disappointment.

Baikes insisted that the details could only be negotiated on the originally negotiated arms trade framework, and refused to join the new project proposed by Masato Masuyama. The details of the equipment price, quantity, settlement method, and delivery period can be further discussed, but the items he wanted to buy were not on the sale list.

The high-end equipment you buy is purely wishful thinking.

Zengshan is really coveting the advanced equipment of the Haihan Army, but he is determined not to sell it, so he can only give up this unrealistic idea and focus the negotiation on some details that are still controversial.

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For example, the shogunate hopes that the batch of exploration-class warships purchased can be delivered in the shortest possible time, and if they are new ships, Haihan insists that it is difficult to meet these two conditions at the same time, and it will take a long time to get new ships.

If the delivery time is short, if you want to deliver the ship quickly, you can only buy second-hand goods, and even the price increase is not easy to use.

The appearance of the North Korean armed fleet in Edo Bay caused a great impact on the shogunate. They realized that their maritime combat capabilities had fallen far behind their old opponents. Replacing the old Anzha ships with new warships with stronger combat performance became

Urgent and necessary measures were taken. The shogunate was eager to pay the money and deliver the goods immediately, but it was unwilling to accept a long delivery period.

As for the firearms and artillery weapons purchased by the shogunate, Haihan will also impose strict restrictions on the supply of ammunition and spare parts. This is obviously to control the shogunate's ability to launch foreign wars after installing these weapons, revealing the shogunate's preparedness.

Nothing left.

These restrictive measures made Masato Masuyama very dissatisfied. In his view, the shogunate was willing to spend real money to purchase arms from Haihan, which had shown enough sincerity and should not be subject to so many difficulties and restrictions.

.

If the force level of the shogunate cannot be improved because weapons and equipment cannot be arrived in time, then who will be the biggest beneficiary? Masato Masuyama has reason to suspect that the methods adopted by Haihan are actually helping North Korea suppress Japan.

After all, there is an alliance between Haihan and North Korea, and it seems to be a reasonable choice to favor North Korea in the competition between North Korea and Japan.

But before Masuyama Masato could think of a countermeasure, he received news about the Satsuma Domain envoy today. In his opinion, this may be the real trouble that the shogunate urgently needs to solve at the moment.

The Satsuma Domain is located at the southwest end of the Japanese archipelago, far away from the Edo area where the shogunate is located, so it has the most alienated relationship with the shogunate. Although it nominally submits to the shogunate, it actually listens to the instructions but not the declaration, and is divided on Kyushu Island.

Moreover, the Satsuma Domain has violated the orders issued by the shogunate both in and out, which has reached a stage that is almost unbearable for the shogunate. In particular, the Satsuma Domain has violated the seclusion order for a long time and carried out smuggling trade activities with the Ming Dynasty and Kaihan through Ryukyu, thus taking away many original rights.

The share of trade that should be completed at Nagasaki Port indirectly caused the shogunate to lose a lot of income.

If the Satsuma Domain could raise funds to purchase arms from Kaihan, it is not difficult to imagine that Masato Masuyama would have a considerable part of the wealth that should belong to the shogunate.

Use the funds obtained from poaching the shogunate to purchase weapons and equipment from Haihan to increase their military strength, and then increase their efforts to continue poaching the shogunate. Such an approach is of course an unacceptable vicious cycle for the shogunate. Masuyama, who represents the interests of the shogunate,

Masato couldn't just sit idly by and think about a feasible plan to prevent the Satsuma clan from obtaining arms from Kaihan.

At the very least, the Satsuma Domain must not be allowed to increase its military force faster than the Shogunate.
Chapter completed!