Chapter 1004: The Japanese Samurai's Zhu Daddy (Please Subscribe)

As Luo Dagong listened to the Zhu Emperor's words, his face was full of admiration, but in his heart it was clear as a mirror — it must be that the Tokugawa family's little lady was too short and small, and didn't suit His Majesty's taste.

Zhu Cilang then instructed further: "If the Tokugawa family truly has sincerity, they should give that princess a hot-spring fief."

A hot-spring fief?

Zheng Zhilong and Luo Dagong were both stunned for a moment.

The Zhu Emperor was the richest man in the Great Ming — could he really be short of such a pittance?

Luo Dagong asked: "May I ask where Your Majesty would like?"

"Nagasaki!" Zhu Cilang said. "We want Nagasaki!"

"Nagasaki?" Luo Dagong was startled. He knew what kind of place Nagasaki was!

That was the gateway to Japan!

"Impossible," Zheng Zhilong shook his head repeatedly. "The Tokugawa shogunate will never give it!"

Zhu Cilang glanced at Zheng Zhilong and said with a smile: "They will give it! The Tokugawa family will certainly give it. Once they've been badly beaten by the armies of the Shimazu and Mori families, they will give it!"

"Your Majesty, the Tokugawa family's army is not that weak," Zheng Zhilong cautioned. "In recent years the Tokugawa family has imported quite a lot of cannon and horses from us, and since they could already manufacture firearms themselves, their military strength has greatly increased."

What? Zhu Cilang was briefly taken aback. The Tokugawa family had bought cannon and horses from the Great Ming? Who had sold them? It couldn't be the Zheng family, could it? Your family really would dare sell anything abroad!

"It's useless," Zhu Cilang said, not bothering to quibble with Zheng Zhilong, and instead continued on the matter of Japan's civil war. "Zheng Jiangong's memorial says that roughly two or three thousand Spaniards swam ashore at Kagoshima harbor. Once these men join the Satsuma army, the fighting strength of the anti-shogunate forces will greatly increase."

"But they're all navy men," Zheng Zhilong said. "What can navy men do once they're ashore?"

Zhu Cilang waved his hand: "In Europe the line between navy and army is not very clear; some men are trained in both sea and land. Moreover, the Spanish fleet certainly had many technically skilled gunners and craftsmen, and perhaps also dedicated marine infantry. Once they join, the Shimazu family's strength will certainly increase greatly."

"In addition, We intend to have Zheng Jiangong and Li Yuanyin abandon Sakurajima. They are to concentrate their forces on defending the Goto Islands, Tanegashima, and the town of Nagasaki, and also to recover the Ryukyu Kingdom."

The Ming army had seized Sakurajima earlier only to prevent the Spanish fleet from using Kagoshima Bay as a base for privateering and commerce-raiding.

Now the Spanish fleet had suffered a crushing defeat, losing more than two-thirds of its ships, and the remnants no longer posed a threat.

So there was no need for the Ming army to keep occupying Sakurajima — Sakurajima was not a good place for a large force to be stationed long-term. Its terrain was complex, and it was too close to both the Satsuma Peninsula and the Osumi Peninsula, making it easy for desperate Japanese samurai to infiltrate.

If not for the purpose of intimidating Kagoshima Castle and tying down the Shimazu family's forces, garrisoning Sakurajima would have been of little use.

Zhu Cilang said: "Let the Japanese fight among themselves for a while. Once the Tokugawa shogunate has suffered losses, they will naturally agree to Our demands. For now, we should go seize more territory in the Americas!"

"Tanegashima is already in hand. That island has a good deal of fertile land, with a rice yield of over ten thousand koku. This autumn we can already requisition a fair amount of grain. If we can get five thousand koku, that should support one thousand to fifteen hundred people migrating to the New World. So for the time being we don't need to obtain anything more from Japan."

Migration to the New World was a gradual process. The first group to go over was only thirty households — just to test the waters.

According to the plan, the second group crossing the ocean to the New World would be much larger: one thousand to fifteen hundred people. With the experience and lessons accumulated by the first group of settlers, their pioneering in the New World would be somewhat easier.

Once this batch of settlers had gained a firm foothold, the third batch sent over would number three or four thousand!

But even at this speed, immigration to North America was still too slow — three or four thousand a year, only thirty or forty thousand in ten years!

Therefore, in order to transport migrants quickly, well, economically, and efficiently to seize territory, after the Henan set sail last year, the Naval Command issued design contracts to the Great Ming's four major shipyards for a dedicated Pacific immigrant transport ship. The requirements were cheap and good quality, able to withstand the wind and waves of the North Pacific, able to carry many passengers and travel fast, and using as few sailors as possible in order to reduce costs.

In Zhu Cilang's view, the matter of migrating to North America to seize territory was in fact a contest of colonization costs. Whoever had the lowest cost could seize the largest share.

But merely having cheap and good dedicated Pacific immigrant ships could not guarantee sending people to North America at low cost, because the Great Ming was too far from North America and absolutely needed Japan as a springboard.

The distance from Japan to North America was two thousand to five thousand li shorter than departing directly from China without stopping in Japan. This meant ships could carry ten to twenty fewer days of supplies, and thus could carry many more passengers, so the per-capita cost would naturally be lower.

Do not underestimate ten to twenty days of supplies. A person needs to drink two thousand milliliters of water a day, which is about four jin. In ten days that is forty jin drunk, in twenty days eighty jin. Add in other consumption, and the weight of twenty days' supplies could match that of a grown man.

"Your Majesty," Zheng Zhilong asked, "do you want Nagasaki in order to replenish grain and wine for ships heading east to the Americas?"

"Of course not!" Zhu Cilang shook his head. "The best port for replenishing grain and wine should be in the Sendai domain area."

"Then Nagasaki is..."

Zhu Cilang smiled and said: "We want to recruit a samurai army in Nagasaki!"

Besides needing to replenish supplies in Japan en route to North America, Japan could also provide the Zhu Emperor's Celestial Empire with another essential commodity — cannon fodder, high-quality and cheap cannon fodder!

"A samurai army?" Zheng Zhilong was still baffled. "Aren't our Great Ming's heavenly soldiers stronger than those little short-legged Japanese samurai?"

Zhu Cilang sighed and said: "It depends on where they are used! On the grasslands, the snowy highlands, in Bashu, Yunnan and Guizhou, beyond the passes, and even in North America, they are not needed. But what about the miasmic pestilential lands of the Southern Seas? How many deaths from disease have the Golden Girdle Army, the Tranquil Sea Army, and the Eastern Pacification Army reported in recent years? The contest for North America is about transporting people; the contest for the Yellow Sect Mongols is about nomadic cavalry; the contest beyond the passes is about elite troops; and the contest for the Southern Seas is about whose soldiers' lives are worth less!"

"Those so-called samurai of Japan — apart from a small number with prosperous family estates — the vast majority may be called 'warriors,' but in truth they are just beggars who are good at hacking people to death. Their lives are not worth much. If We offered a stipend of twenty or thirty koku and recruited ronin in Nagasaki to serve in the Southern Seas, and then granted land in the Southern Seas according to each ronin's merits, could We not gather tens of thousands or even over a hundred thousand country and ronin warriors? A year's stipend would only amount to one or two million. If We had to recruit soldiers from the central lands, even ten million would not be enough!"

"And moreover, We cannot bear to send the sons and brothers of Our own people to die of plague and miasma in the wild lands."

In this age there was no quinine, nor artemisinin. Sending troops to the developed lands of the Southern Seas was somewhat better — those places had been cleared and developed, so there was less room for pestilence to breed, and plagues were less likely to break out. But if troops were sent to underdeveloped wilderness, it would not be surprising if half of them died of disease!

If the contest for North America was burning money, then the contest for the Southern Seas was burning human lives!

Zhu Cilang said: "It matters little if some Japanese country and ronin warriors die. These people were already a hidden danger to Japan. If more of them die, it does the Tokugawa shogunate no harm either!"

"This old subject understands!" A faint smile appeared at the corner of Zheng Zhilong's mouth.

The Son of Heaven truly possessed grand talent and great strategy. Now he was not only eyeing North America, but also casting a covetous gaze upon the Southern Seas...

Luo Dagong also said: "This subject also knows what to do now!"

Zhu Cilang nodded and lightly raised his hand, signaling the two to take their leave. He, Zheng Zhilong, and Luo Dagong had been talking while eating. Now that the confidential instructions had been given and the meal was nearly finished, he could begin the afternoon's imperial work.

"Huang Xiaobao, where are We going this afternoon?" After watching Zheng Jiangong and Luo Dagong leave, Zhu Cilang asked Huang Xiaobao, the senior eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial who attended him.

"Your Majesty, Miss Mary has invited you to her new home," Huang Xiaobao said.

"Her new home?" Zhu Cilang asked. "Where has it been arranged?"

"At the Hot Spring Villa," Huang Xiaobao said. "It is very close to Her Majesty the Empress's Hot Spring Palace. This slave had a covered passage built, so one can go directly from the Hot Spring Palace. It is very discreet and will not be discovered."

(End of Chapter)