War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

It can be said that Friedrich's fleet left with a lot of harvest. In addition to the shogun, the daimyo from various places also paid tribute to the Austrian Empire crazily.

After all, according to the content of the Treaty of Edo, the Austrian Empire had to reciprocate.

However, during this period, Friedrich also rejected a very tempting proposal. Because he admired the lord of the Choshu Domain (or had more fun), he returned to the Choshu Domain again before leaving Japan as agreed.

But this time Friedrich encountered an unexpected situation. When he walked into the castle tower, he found that Mori Noriyoshi had already put on his kimono, and Haori was sitting there with an unusually formal attitude, as if he was going to commit seppuku every minute. Show you the look.

"Mr. Mori, what's wrong with you?"

Friedrich asked with some confusion, because during this period of contact, he found that the Japanese could always find some weird reasons for committing seppuku.

Here I have to mention the language talent passed down from generation to generation in the Habsburg family. In less than two months, Friedrich was able to conduct basic communication in Japanese.

"Friedrich-san, please sell me your flagship! Please!"

Maori's method of respecting relatives is still the way of soil.

However, Friedrich would not agree to such a thing. After all, the "Prince Eugen" was his treasure and a symbol of the Austrian Imperial Navy (in his mind).

"That's impossible!"

Friedrich answered simply, and turned around to leave. He didn't want to waste time with the guy who coveted his fleet.

Maori Jingqi quickly knelt over and grabbed Friedrich's trousers.

"We, the Choshu clan, are willing to pay five hundred thousand taels of gold! Please consider it again! Please!"

Maori's respectful retainers quickly began to carry boxes with thousands of taels written on them into the house, and soon they piled up into a hill.

To be honest, the five hundred thousand taels of gold really shocked Friedrich, because the previous feudal lords and even the shogun often complained about poverty.

However, Mouri Norikin was able to take out so much gold in one go. This was mainly because the Choshu Domain was the richest vassal state in Japan at this time. At the same time, he was also shocked by Austria's new warships.

These five hundred thousand taels of gold were the foundation of the Mouri clan, but both Noriyoshi Mouri and Shoin Yoshida felt it was worth a gamble.

However, Austria did not come to Japan to alleviate poverty. For now, supporting the rule of the shogunate is the best solution for Austria.

"Mr. Mori, I am just the fleet commander. These ships belong to the country and I can't help them."

Friedrich really wanted to agree. After all, with the money, he could build at least two ships when he returned.

But before arriving, Franz repeatedly warned not to underestimate these East Asians, let alone sell any military technology to them.

In addition, the officers around Friedrich also knew about this, so they kept hinting that he refused to trade.

After seeing this scene, Mouri Jing still refused to give up. He didn't care about the samurai's face and continued to hug Friedrich's thigh and shouted.

"Any boat will do, even the smallest one!"

In desperation, Friedrich could only agree to Maori to return home to ask questions.

In fact, if Maori Jingqin really wins the bet, then the Choshu clan will have no one to govern in Japan, and it can even sail the ship directly to Edo Bay to start the country in reverse.

Then Franz's design will be completely messed up. If the Japanese and the Dutch or British reversely research Austrian technology, then the situation will really be reversed.

In addition, the Choshu Domain controls Shimonoseki and the Tsushima Strait. Almost all Japanese trade ships with Korea and the Qing Dynasty have to pass through it. That's why they are so arrogant. The Satsuma Domain next door has to sell things for every 20,000 taels they raise.

Soon the first batch of grain was delivered to Edo Bay, and the shogunate began to lower grain prices. After all, according to Kagura, Austrian grain would be continuously delivered.

The shogunate and daimyo everywhere are frantically suppressing grain prices, which makes Japanese businessmen think these adults are crazy, because the price of tribute rice will directly determine the income of daimyo and samurai.

This is completely a strategy of perish together. Although the businessmen have money in their hands, they will not choose to fight to the end with the shogunate and the daimyo who are about to be eliminated by society.

Therefore, merchants began to sell off grain in a rare move. This year, the shogunate rarely increased the salary of the nobles. Although the losses were not as big as those of the lower-level samurai, their lives were better than in previous years due to the drop in grain prices.

The riots expected by the merchants did not happen. In the days after the shogunate and the daimyo from various places took back the initiative on food prices, the grains successively sent from Hawaii and California allowed the feudal forces to regain control of the market.

After controlling the market, they can decide the food price independently.

Although Japan was an agricultural country at this time, domestic food prices were also falling, but they were still higher than those in other surrounding areas.

And whether it's California or Hawaii, food output is much higher than their own needs.

Therefore, a country with many people but little land and abundant gold and silver reserves is the best place for commodity dumping.

Austrian caravans usually have two routes. One is to directly send agricultural products from California to Japan, and then bring back people, daily necessities and local products from Japan to Hawaii for dumping.

Then they brought back pearls and coffee from Hawaii and sent them to California.

Another route is to start from California and sell its industrial products to Hawaii, then sell grain and sugar from Hawaii to Japan, and finally return to California with labor, precious metals, and local products.

In Japan, both the shogunate and the local Ming Dynasty like this trade model very much, because untouchables are their least valuable things.

In fact, in addition to the untouchables, there are also those low-level warriors who are disobedient to discipline, annoying monks, and the occasional robbers and criminals who are captured.

They wished that the Austrians could take away more, but unfortunately the Austrian ships had limited carrying capacity and were unwilling to put more people into the cabins, so the number of labor exports was still very limited.

As for the privileges that Austrians have in Japan, they are many and terrifying, but how many Austrians will travel halfway around the world to cause trouble in Japan?

Austrian merchants were eager to leave as soon as they loaded the ship, let alone enter the inland, because at this time Japan's service industry was far less developed than later generations. On the contrary, samurai and rogues often took risks to attack Austrian merchants.

The respect that Japanese locals have for Austrian businessmen is often regarded as abuse. For example, sitting in a sedan cage and stuffing a strong man into a space of less than one square meter cannot be said to be punishment, it is simply punishment.

Merely controlling food prices could not eliminate the influence of Japanese businessmen groups. Soon cotton cloth, sugar, and cheap industrial products from the Austrian Empire flooded into the Japanese market.