Chapter 54 13. The Echigo Dragon Rises on the Clouds

To be honest, it is not unreasonable that copper coins were replaced. One guan weighed more than four jin. Putting aside gold, five hundred guan of Xiaopingtai coins weighed two thousand jin, which is equivalent to more than one ton. In this way, it is no wonder that cloth and colored silk were still used as general equivalents in the Tang Dynasty. Even when the Uighurs and Turks extorted the Tang government, they did not want copper coins, gold and silver, but various silks.

Some people think that this is because the money was insufficient, but in fact, during the Kaitian period, the annual casting volume of Kaiyuan Tongbao had reached an astonishing one million guan. Even though the Anshi Rebellion destroyed the money supervision in the north on a large scale, it had recovered to more than 360,000 guan when Daizong Liu Yan was in charge of finance.

Referring to the Tang government, whether it was the early rent and labor adjustment system or the two-tax system during the reign of Emperor Dezong, grain and silk still accounted for the majority of the in-kind taxes. It is often seen in history books that 50,000 silks were issued from the Dayingku to entertain the army, and 100,000 colored silks were issued from the Ministry of Households (this money refers to property) to assist the army.

The crux of the matter is that the value of copper coins is not large enough to meet the large-amount payment needs of market exchange. Of course, its status as a subsidiary currency has not been shaken even in the 21st century.

After all, with the increasing vitality of the commodity economy, transactions of hundreds or thousands of kan have become common. Although ordinary people are still eager to earn dozens or even dozens of kan every day. But it still cannot stop the trend of precious metals gradually becoming the mainstream currency in the market.

Anyway, most of the money and gold were used to buy silk, and they were tied up and put on two small carts. After saying goodbye to Uncle Tsunayoshi and the mothers and mothers at home, they took Aji to escort Yamauchi Yoshikatsu to Kyoto.

Relying on the escort of fifty brave and brave warriors, they arrived at Ejiri without any obstacles, changed to a round ship, and went to Minami Ise Tsuminato.

Now the Ise provincial governor Kitabatake clan has become more powerful, and has completely defeated the Kobe clan, stuffed a son over, and almost made the Kobe clan a vassal, and the environment in Minami Ise has improved greatly. Even the Nagano clan in northern Ise began to slowly lose to the Kitabatake clan. With the death of Nagano Daigeki Ueto, their power declined.

Others may not feel so sensitive. There was no day when no daimyo was defeated during the Warring States Period. But Kobayata knew that the Ise Kingdom, known as the small Warring States of Japan, had already seen the dawn of unification. The fierce annexation war had begun, and the unification of the world would be achieved within one or two generations.

In this way, they arrived in Kyoto smoothly and without any danger. Yamauchi Yoshikatsu immediately sent someone to report to the Imperial Palace (I'm here to give money again! Big brother, please arrange for me to join the queue to meet), and by the way, inquire about the whereabouts of Nagao Kagetora.

The rest of the people were settled separately, and Kobayata also had to deal with silk. First, let Aji contact the big merchant in Kyoto, and the other party sent two experienced users (I'm not sure whether the names of bantou, temyo, and apprentice are popular, but calling them users is definitely correct) to check the quality of Koshu silk and silk cloth.

Xiao Pingtai thought, these are the best goods that I spent a lot of time and effort to buy and snatch, how can they be bad? The merchants in Yamauchi Fuchu Town must be bleeding in their hearts now. Xiao Pingtai got the goods at the purchase price, which is equivalent to cutting their flesh.

As expected, the two users were experienced in purchasing. One of them checked the color, quality and weight of Koshu silk. The other rolled up his sleeves and used half of his arm as a ruler to estimate the length of the silk cloth piece by piece to see if it met the standard. Then he looked closely at the warp and weft weaving of the silk cloth to see how many horizontal and vertical lines there were, and judged the density of the silk thread.

It didn't take long for the two of them to move quickly. For merchants, time is money. The two said they were very satisfied with Xiao Pingtai's goods, took out the abacus, and clattered a price. Xiao Pingtai looked at the number on the abacus and dialed two more beads. The two users said they accepted it. Kobayata calculated in his mind that after deducting the freight of 1,000 kan, the goods would have a profit of more than 200 kan, so the cooperation was happy.

Soon, a clerk came with two horses and took away all the silk, and brought a certain amount of gold and silver. And weighed it on the spot for Kobayata to show that he was honest.

Kobayata shook the box of money, which was indeed heavy in his hand. People who opened the door to do business would not be less than a few taels on such things.

He opened the box and took a look. The silver from the West was also beaten into the style of silver. It was mainly the Tajima Ikuno silver of the Yamana family and the Iwami silver of the Mori family. The silver content was very guaranteed and was commonly used in the West. They were all standard hard currency, without any problems. Kobayata wanted to see if there was a seal of Mori Motonari on the Ishima silver, but unfortunately, there was none.

Before he finished counting the money, he heard Aji running to say that the samurai who went to the Imperial Palace had returned.

Kobayata quickly asked Aji to collect all the money, and then he went to listen to the news. As expected, Nagao Kagetora was still in the capital, living in the Konoe family's annex, and he had an army of more than 2,000 followers, who were encouraging the general to quickly attack the rebel Miyoshi clan.

Yamauchi Yoshikatsu immediately sent a message to invite Nagao Kagetora to meet at the Imperial Palace, and the other side quickly agreed to set a date.

After two days of restlessness, Kobayata put on the Wufu under Aji's clothes, asked someone to trim and comb his braids, and let his beard grow slightly, and Muramasa also wiped it meticulously. Wearing a folded black hat and deerskin boots, he went to the Imperial Palace with Yamauchi Yoshikatsu in high spirits.

The Yamauchi family's team was still very large, with more than 50 warriors who served as both guards and ceremonial guards, and dozens of servants carrying gifts in front and behind. After all, the reason was to congratulate the general's family on the May Festival, and a large number of gifts, local products and copper coins were to be sent.

This was the second time that Kobayata met the shogun. This time, because of his greatly improved status, he was able to observe him closely. Although the situation of the shogun was not very good, and it was very likely that Miyoshi Nagayoshi would soon drive him out of Kyoto, His Highness the shogun did not look sad. After all, he had successively mediated the fights between the Mori Niko, mediated the conflicts between the temple and shrine forces, and accepted the tribute of the powerful daimyo Otomo clan in Kyushu. The prestige of the shogunate was rising, and now the Echigo guardian Nagao clan also came to pay homage, which was a time of high spirits.

According to the shogun's thinking, he had some face now. Miyoshi Nagayoshi would not come to slap him in the face directly. Although the majesty of the shogunate and the shogun had been pressed to the ground many times, it was not the time to go all out, so he took a gamble.

After Kobayata glanced at the shogun, he did not dare to look at him directly, and he waited for Nagao Kagetora to arrive with Yamauchi Yoshikatsu outside the Great Hall.

After a while, there was a crisp sound of bells, and Herodius neighed a few times. A pure white horse with a body as white as snow jumped into view. Under the sunlight, it exuded a strange spirit, like a divine horse from heaven stepping on clouds and descending to the earth.

Then I heard, "The Echigo Guardian, Nagao Dansho Shaobi has arrived."

Repeat it, one thousand eight more! Thank you, brothers!