Black Corporation: Joseon

Chapter 744

Episode 744: Generation Change (2)

When Louis

* * *

The Lancastrian dynasty, founded by Henry IV, who overthrew Richard II, had lost its luster during the reign of Henry VI, who was defeated in the Hundred Years’ War.

In order to revive his authority, which had fallen due to defeat in the Hundred Years’ War, Henry VI held the York family, the regents, responsible.

In response, Richard, Duke of York, the head of the York family, claimed that the cause of the defeat was not his fault, but Henry VI and his associates who did not provide proper support.

As the situation reached its extreme, the Duke of York and the York family began to dream of a rebellion.

This also had its own basis.

When Richard II died, the successor to the throne was Edmund Montimer.

However, Henry IV argued that since Richard II had no children, the right of succession to the throne should naturally go to his brother.

However, if the throne was to go to Edmund Monttimer, as originally decided, it would then pass to Richard of York.

On this basis, the War of the Roses, a civil war between the House of York and the House of Lancaster, broke out.

In the turbulent battle that followed, Edward, Earl of March, son of Richard, Duke of York, was victorious and became King of England as Edward IV.

Edward IV took the throne after a bloody struggle, but it was not the end.

The most powerful collaborator of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the greatest contributor to his rise to the throne, had become his most powerful political opponent.

* * *

Interestingly, the biggest reason why Edward IV and Richard Neville became political enemies was the empire.

Edward IV wanted a royal power as strong as that of an imperial emperor.

In order to have such a strong royal authority, Richard Neville had to be eliminated.

Richard Neville was also influenced by the Empire, but not directly.

The person who had the strongest influence on him was the Duke of Braganza of Portugal.

-All power is concentrated in the king, but the person who moves the king is the prime minister, the Duke of Braganza.

Richard Neville wanted to have the same position as the Duke of Braganza.

“I am the master of England! Not Neville!”

If this was Edward IV’s idea, Richard Neville’s idea was different.

“Edward? He’s got nothing but good looks! Ah! He fights a bit, but other than that, he’s a useless guy who only drinks and wants women! It’s thanks to someone that he’s wearing a crown!”

Of course, Edward IV was well aware that his power was weaker than that of Richard Neville, so he made efforts to resolve this.

Using his looks and charm, which even Richard Neville recognized, as weapons, Edward IV began to increase his power.

Even though they disliked each other, their love affair continued.

This was because there were still people from the Lancaster family remaining.

Since it was a war that was fought for the survival of the family, the victor could not be tolerated.

Therefore, even though they were in conflict with each other, Edward IV and Richard Neville joined hands and did their best to eliminate the Lancastrian family.

It was a collaboration that was sure to end in disaster.

* * *

“It would be difficult to simply bring in nobles.”

Edward IV analyzed his situation as coolly as possible. According to his judgment, there were pros and cons to attracting nobles and increasing their power.

The advantage was that it would quickly and easily expand its power and become powerful.

But the downside was that he had to share his power. There could have been many cases in which another Richard Neville should not appear.

“Then, should we take possession of the free people?…”

Deadward IV had the free people in mind. Of course, the only free people he was thinking of were the free people of the city. Serfs belonging to rural manors were not free people.

In steadily growing cities like London, free people engaged in commerce and industry began to have increasingly powerful economic power.

If you gently scratch their itch and cajole them, it was certain that they would become the most powerful sword against nobles and a sturdy shield to protect themselves.

Edward IV, who was contemplating how to obtain free people, sighed softly.

“Is the problem still money?”

In order to get free people on their side, the best way was to introduce imperial institutions.

Cities like London had many problems with poor sanitary conditions. Thanks to this, all kinds of infectious diseases spread whenever possible, and large-scale fires broke out, causing great damage.

If he introduced the empire’s public health and disaster prevention systems to these cities, it was certain that the free people of the cities would enthusiastically support him.

But this was something that cost a lot of money.

Due to the aftermath of the last civil war and the Hundred Years’ War, England’s finances were in disarray.

In this situation, the introduction of a system that required large-scale financial execution would cause complaints from free people.

“What should I do…”

Edward IV, exhausted from thinking about the best way, turned his gaze to his surroundings to cool his head for a moment.

As Edward IV was looking around, the imperial gold pen caught the eye.

Edward IV, who was holding a gold pen in his hand, looked at the map hanging on the wall. Edward IV, who was looking blankly at the map, muttered quietly.

“We need places like Calais.”

In the Hundred Years’ War, England lost most of its territories in France, but kept Calais until the end.

Through Calais, British wool was exported to Italian city-states, and Italian city-states such as Florence were making famous cotton fabrics from this wool and exporting them.

Thanks to this, England was covering about 35% of its financial needs with Calais alone.

Therefore, Edward IV thought that a trading port like Calais was necessary.

But soon Edward IV sighed.

“Whoa, there’s someone who owns a good place.”

As he said, all the good places in Europe were already owned.

“We need another way…”

Edward IV struggled to find a way to solve financial problems, achieve successful ‘imperialization’, and lay a solid foundation on this.

Edward IV, who was pondering so much, looked at the map again. Edward IV, who was inspecting the Mediterranean area, glared at Suez and muttered.

“Is there any way to intervene in that?”

* * *

While England and France were suffering from various changes due to the change of kings, the Japanese kingdom was also busy.

Year 6 of the Imperial Calendar (1454).

Ouchi Mochiyo, who made Ouchi the master of Japan, has died.

He was 60 years old.

When Ouchi Mochiyo died, Ouchi Morimi’s surviving son, Ouchi Norihiro, took over the government.

“Follow the will of our ancestors and make Japan a powerful nation!”

With these slogans, Norihiro Ouchi became more progressive in changing the Japanese country.

“We must also engage in trade! We cannot escape from being a poor country by only exporting cotton!”

Following Norihiro’s order to promote active foreign trade, the officials of the shogunate prepared to jump into trade.

However, officials sighed at the grim reality.

“Compared to the Empire and Ming, it is too poor…”

“I expected it, but…”

These were the officials of the shogunate who sighed at the poor quality of the products made in their country.

“It would be best to focus on cotton and raw silk.”

After receiving the officials’ report, Norihiro was frowned upon.

“Isn’t there a strong connection between cotton and raw silk? And cotton and raw silk give a large harvest even if the weather is a little bad. Let’s make this the main product of trade? Do you think it makes sense?”

The officials fell flat at Norihiro’s reprimand. But even in such a prostrate situation, officials talked about reality.

“That’s true, but the quality of the items we made is very poor.”

“The quality is very poor compared to what the Empire and Ming make and sell.”

Norihiro’s expression became serious at the officials’ words.

“In the last war, we brought in many craftsmen. And there are more than one person who learned and learned from them. Does this mean that the situation is still like that?”

“Of course, we brought many craftsmen, but most of them were related to steam engines and weapons production…”

“Oh…”

Norihiro stopped talking at the officials’ answers.

* * *

In the last war, Ouchi brought a large number of craftsmen from the Ming.

Ouchi, who brought the artisans with him, actively settled them. Thanks to his active actions, sometimes threatening and sometimes taking women into his arms, the brought artisans began to cooperate with Ouchi.

Once the artisans were settled, Ouchi moved on. They selected boys who seemed to have some dexterity from the craftsmen in the estate and had them trained by the craftsmen.

The Japanese government, which secured technical staff through such efforts, devoted itself to the development of steam engines and gunpowder weapons.

That wasn’t all.

In the last war, the empire lost a significant amount of weapons to the Ming, and the Ming carefully inspected these weapons and improved their own.

Ouchi, who received this information, paid a large amount of bribes and smuggled the empire’s weapons from the Ming Dynasty. He then thoroughly analyzed the stolen weapons and compared them with the weapons the empire had sold to him.

And when it created its own barrel and artillery, the empire sold Eulsik long rifles in large quantities.

Ouchi spent a lot of money to introduce a large number of Japanese style long guns because they had overwhelming performance compared to the long guns they had.

And the Japanese nation was once again caught up in the empire.

This was because of the bullets used in the Japanese style long rifles and freight cars.

Although the Japanese technology was very advanced, there was no technology for mass-molding copper bullet casings or manufacturing detonators.

To acquire these technologies, the Ouchi shogunate made efforts both yin and yang. However, aside from the shell casing molding technology, the Noehong manufacturing method used in the detonator was a top secret.

“Everyone will find out eventually, but hold on as long as you can!”

Following this decision, the empire prevented technology outflow as much as possible. And for this purpose, many of Milwi’s agents disappeared in the dark.

* * *

“Hmm…”

Norihiro, who was thinking about this while holding the fan in his hand, found a way.

“Let’s sell weapons.”

“yes?”

“The weapons we made are far inferior to those of the Empire, but they are on par with those made by the Ming Dynasty. Isn’t that right?”

“It’s on par with famous snacks.”

“The countries in the south also want the weapons of the empire. But the weapons of the empire are expensive and do not sell well. Let’s sell them the weapons we made. If we sell them a little cheaper than those made by the Ming Dynasty, they will sell well.”

“ah!”

In this way, the Japanese government began selling weapons to various southern countries and sultanates.

It was targeting a so-called niche market.