Chapter 1168: It Was All to Repay the Retired Emperor's Retirement Money!

"It seems this is the only way!" The Foolish Prince Zhu Cihuan had been persuaded.

He had no choice but to accept it! Here he was, a prince, along with Shimazu Mitsuhisa, Hoshina Masateru, and the thirty-seven or thirty-eight hundred samurai below them (originally over five thousand, but nearly two thousand had died in the Battle of Flood Mountain Valley), all living in carefree poverty!

Before the Foolish Prince led his troops south into the Satsuma river valley, the America Prefecture office had given him one hundred thousand taels of silver as "military funds." Later, when Zhu Cihuan proposed carving out territory and requesting enfeoffment, the America Prefecture office stopped giving him money and only supplied rice and grain on a monthly basis.

Yao Daqiao's personal fortune was also limited. Supporting Zhu Cihuan and his two thousand guards had already nearly bled him dry, and now that the number had grown to thirty-seven or thirty-eight hundred, how could he possibly afford it?

Moreover, the cost of moving Zhu Cihuan and the Shimazu family from Satsuma Valley Castle to the City of Angels had all been borne by Yao Daqiao. Moving a household is ruinous!

Settling so many people around the City of Angels, including many widows and orphans who had lost husbands and fathers, could not have been easy. It was only thanks to Boss Yao spending money to buy large quantities of daily necessities, production tools, and livestock from Peninsula City and ship them to Angel City for distribution that everyone was barely able to settle down.

So Zhu Cihuan truly felt too embarrassed to make the man spend more. He reckoned that if the spending continued, Yao Daqiao would go bankrupt too.

Without Yao Daqiao's money, Zhu Cihuan and his samurai would become penniless paupers with no income. If they didn't establish a vassal state and sell some noble titles, how would they get by in the days ahead?

The City of Angels was so desolate that developing it would require pouring in a huge amount of money as investment!

Still, Zhu Cihuan the Foolish Prince had some awareness that what he'd been doing lately was rather serious, and it might anger his imperial brother the Emperor.

So when Yao Daqiao left the City of Angels for Yingtian Prefecture, Zhu Cihuan gave him a long string of admonitions and instructions at the dock.

"Chief Clerk Yao," Zhu Cihuan sighed, "what We have done now has, after all, set a bad precedent. We fear His Majesty will be thunderously enraged. Fortunately, His Majesty is a filial son. As long as the Retired Emperor and the Retired Empress plead for Us, he will most likely forgive Us. So when you reach Yingtian Prefecture, you must first seek out the Retired Emperor. When you see the Retired Empress, tell her that everything We have done was to repay His Eminence's two hundred fifty thousand taels of retirement money."

At the mention of those two hundred fifty thousand taels, tears welled up in Zhu Cihuan's eyes.

He was now buried in debt. If he couldn't establish a vassal state and sell noble titles, he feared he would never repay his Imperial Father's retirement money before he died.

Yao Daqiao knew Zhu Cihuan was being foolish again. The man was about to found a state, so why repay any money at all!

So he smiled and reassured him: "Rest assured, Your Highness. The Retired Emperor and Retired Empress will certainly speak on your behalf. The Son of Heaven will also surely reward you according to your merits and grant you great commendation. Carving out territory and enfeoffing a vassal state will be no problem at all."

Zhu Cihuan nodded and said: "If that is the case, then excellent. Chief Clerk Yao, if His Majesty truly grants Us a vassal state, you shall be the first Commissioner of the Memorial Transmission Office, and the matter of selling noble titles shall be entrusted entirely to you. Remember, once you get some money, first repay His Eminence's two hundred fifty thousand taels of retirement money."

What a "fine deadbeat" — about to establish a vassal state, and still not forgetting to repay the money!

"This subject understands," Yao Daqiao said with a smile. "As long as the Son of Heaven enfeoffs you, His Eminence's retirement money will be no problem."

"There is one more matter," Zhu Cihuan continued. "Naiji's brothers and sisters are all in the hands of the Japanese royal court. Once I am enfeoffed as king of a vassal state, I will stand shoulder to shoulder with the Queen of Japan. At that time, go speak with Japan's memorial transmission officer and see if you can ask the Queen of Japan to release the Shimazu family members, so they can all come to California and reunite with Mitsuhisa and Naiji."

Yao Daqiao nodded again. "Please rest assured, Your Highness. This subject will certainly see the matter through for you."

Zhu Cihuan let out a breath, reached out and patted Yao Daqiao on the shoulder, then added: "Daqiao, this time We owe you a great deal. If Our vassal state is granted, you shall be Our great meritorious minister, and together with Shimazu Mitsuhisa and Hoshina Masateru you shall all be enfeoffed as marquises, each with a thousand li of fief!"

The Foolish Prince's vassal state naturally couldn't have only barons. It also needed viscounts, counts, and marquises, with marquis being the highest title below the king.

The greater the title, the more land, of course. A baron was said to have a fief of ten li, a viscount was enfeoffed with fifty li of land, a count had two hundred fifty li, and a marquis had a thousand li — that is, four hundred thousand mu of land! A great landlord indeed!

Yao Daqiao, having received the great enfeoffment of marquis, was naturally overjoyed and hurriedly knelt to express his gratitude. Zhu Cihuan caught him by the arm and laughed: "What We have today is all thanks to you, Masateru, and Naiji. What is Ours shall be yours. This journey ahead spans ten thousand li of sea routes. Brother Daqiao, you must take good care of yourself. In the future, we shall share wealth and honor together in this City of Angels!"

Upon hearing this, Yao Daqiao bowed once more. After straightening up, he wanted to say something else, but someone from the Pacific sailing ship had already come to urge him on.

The wind was just picking up now — a fine time to set sail and head out to sea!

So Yao Daqiao gave Zhu Cihuan one final salute, then boarded the sailing ship with Takeda Nobuyuki, Hoshina Masayuki, Togo Shigetada, and the rest of his retinue, embarking on the ten-thousand-li sea journey back to the Great Ming. By the time Yao Daqiao returned to the Great Ming homeland he had been away from for so long, it was already the spring of the sixteenth year of Hongxing.

The Shanghai–Nanjing area was as prosperous and thriving as ever. Even the stock market had climbed out of the shadow of its crash and begun rising again. But Yao Daqiao no longer cared about the ups and downs of the stock market. He was no longer a mere wealthy merchant, but a founding meritorious official of a vassal state under the Celestial Dynasty — a grand marquis of a vassal state, and a marquis with a thousand li of fief at that, far more impressive than those marquises of the Great Ming who only had one or two thousand mu of title fields.

After arriving in Yingtian Prefecture, he took several samurai attendants, carrying Zhu Cihuan's memorial and letter of instruction, and headed straight for the Great Ming Ministry of Foreign Affairs office at Old Mountain north of the Yangtze.

A commandery prince of the Great Ming sending an envoy to request enfeoffment of a vassal state was a matter of tremendous importance. The officials of the Foreign Ministry's Reception Department dared not be negligent, and immediately reported it to Minister of Foreign Affairs Luo Dagong, who was presiding in the office.

"What? The Commandery Prince of Chongqing wants to request enfeoffment of a vassal state?"

Luo Dagong, upon meeting Yao Daqiao, could hardly believe his ears — in fact, the secret memorials from Wei Zhongcheng, Qi Yuanbi, and Yu Daren had long since arrived in Yingtian Prefecture. But those secret memorials had been submitted through the Marshal's Office channel, and after Zhu Cilang read them he had only written three characters in response: "Noted." He had not brought them out for discussion, so Luo Dagong, as a member of the Grand Secretariat, did not know.

"Exactly so," Yao Daqiao said with a smile. "His Highness the Commandery Prince has opened up new territory on the New Continent, and now holds thirty thousand li square of land south of California Prefecture, sufficient to establish a vassal state. I beg the Minister to present His Highness's memorial to the Son of Heaven."

Luo Dagong picked up the memorial and examined it again, then picked up the letter of instruction (which was actually a letter of introduction) and looked it over — there should be no mistake! The Reception Department had verified it; it should not be a forgery.

He had no choice but to say to Yao Daqiao: "Chief Clerk Yao may first settle in at the Foreign Ministry's guest quarters. This official will go immediately to see His Majesty. His Majesty should summon you soon."

Yao Daqiao smiled and cupped his hands. "Then I must trouble the Minister."

After ordering men to escort Yao Daqiao and his party to the guest quarters, Luo Dagong immediately went to see Chief Grand Secretary Wei Zaode. The two then submitted a joint request for an audience, and before dinner that same day they met the Great Ming Son of Heaven, Zhu Cilang, in the Hall of Imperial Supremacy.

Regarding Zhu Cihuan's request for enfeoffment of a vassal state, Zhu Cilang was also somewhat surprised — the secret memorials from Wei Zhongcheng, Qi Yuanbi, and Yu Daren had not mentioned the matter of establishing a state, only the matter of a fief. Zhu Cilang had assumed that this fifth brother of his only wanted to be the lord of a military governorship under the Great Ming. He hadn't expected his ambition to be greater — directly wanting to become a vassal state.

"Impressive! He actually wants to be king of a vassal state!" Zhu Cilang nodded repeatedly. "This boy has more promise than the third and fourth brothers. We underestimated him!"

"Your Majesty," Wei Zaode said, "the Commandery Prince of Chongqing is far across the ocean, and situated between the United States and New Spain. He still needs to be handled with care. Perhaps it would be best to first speak kindly to him and invite him to come to the capital for an audience."

Zhu Cilang smiled: "Chief Grand Secretary, are you suggesting We plant some axemen in the Hall of Imperial Supremacy and seize the Fifth Prince the moment he arrives?"

Wei Zaode smiled awkwardly. "Your Majesty is wise. What the Commandery Prince of Chongqing has done does indeed show disloyalty."

Zhu Cilang then looked at Luo Dagong. Luo Dagong said: "Your Majesty, the Chief Clerk of the Commandery Prince of Chongqing's household is waiting at the guest quarters in Yingtian Prefecture. Your Majesty might as well hear what he has to say first."

Zhu Cilang smiled: "Hearing him out won't hurt. We will summon him after the noon court session tomorrow."

(End of Chapter)