Chapter 724: I Heard There's Gold on Sakhalin Island!

Contrary to what Dorgon had learned, the victor of the first Qing–Japan clash on Sakhalin Island was actually the Great Qing side!

Although the hundred-odd "sable-collecting cavalry" (mainly Solon people, with a small number of old Eight Banners men) dispatched by the Nurgan Meiren-i Janggin Mulima were repulsed in a skirmish by over a hundred and twenty men of Japan's Matsumae Domain (more than twenty mounted samurai, the rest all foot soldiers), with eight killed and six wounded — in fact the Matsumae Domain army's casualties were about the same, but the Qing troops withdrew first, so the victor in this engagement was Japan's Matsumae Domain.

But the Qing "sable-collecting cavalry" were no pushovers either. Although they were no match for the Matsumae Domain's spear formation and arquebus fire in the skirmish (the sable-collecting cavalry carried no firearms), one troop of cavalry, while the main forces of both sides were engaged, followed native guides and located several small wooden boats the Matsumae Domain was using to transport supplies and baggage, and set them ablaze.

What burned was not only the wooden boats and supplies, but also the fishing gear carried by the Matsumae Domain's foot soldiers — this Matsumae Domain was a "no-kokudaka domain," because its territory produced no rice, and its economy was sustained entirely by commerce and fishing. The twelve-garrison magnates who formed the ruling foundation of the Matsumae Domain were in fact a group of low-ranking samurai engaged in commerce and fishing. In Japan's Warring States chaos they had run off to the part of Ezo Island near Honshu, seized a patch of land, traded furs with the Ainu and gathered a bit of seafood themselves, and were able to trade with merchants coming over from Honshu, earning enough to eat and drink and live their own little lives.

So the Matsumae Domain's samurai were all "merchant samurai," and the foot soldiers were mostly fishermen. As long as they carried their fishing gear, they could catch fish on Sakhalin Island and eat.

After all the grain and fishing gear they carried had been destroyed, the Matsumae Domain army had no way to remain on Sakhalin Island — they had no food! Without fishing gear they could only hunt, but the Matsumae Domain's fishermen and samurai were not much good at hunting, and they were also afraid of being attacked by the Qing troops and the natives of Sakhalin Island, so they had no choice but to withdraw.

Who asked them to be the Matsumae Domain? They were not a strong domain like Satsuma Domain, Choshu Domain, or Hizen Domain. Those had all been carved out through real sword and spear fighting in the Warring States chaos; their samurai were highly effective in battle, they had many men of samurai status, and their equipment was comparatively fine — very hard to deal with.

But the Matsumae Domain could not manage that. In the Warring States era the Matsumae Domain had been nothing more than a soy-sauce daimyo, and had never fought a hard battle. Encountering a strong enemy like the Qing troops on Sakhalin Island, the commander Matsumae Norihiro was instantly thrown into a panic. How would he dare remain on the island without supplies? Best to "open the road and run for it" at once!

And once he "opened the road," the Qing cavalry sent to the island to collect sable became the only armed force capable of symbolizing a nation's sovereignty.

In other words, Sakhalin Island had, without the Great Qing even knowing it, become part of the Great Qing!

Matsumae Takahiro, the lord of Matsumae Domain, who lived in the domain's Edo residence and sold salted fish on the side, received his son's report and was scared half to death. This was because his dead father Matsumae Ujihiro, in order to curry favor with Tokugawa Iemitsu, had in 1644 proposed to draw maps of all Japan — the Shoho Imperial Map — and had drawn the whole of Sakhalin Island (which the Japanese called Karafuto Island) into it, treating it as Japanese territory.

Moreover, Matsumae Ujihiro had never carefully surveyed the size of Sakhalin Island, and as a result had drawn Sakhalin Island very large, almost as big as the Japanese home islands!

Now the great big Sakhalin Island had been lost by the Matsumae Domain — how was this to be explained? This was a grave crime of losing national territory! It required seppuku! Seppuku.

Seppuku is very painful! Matsumae Takahiro feared both death and pain, so of course he refused to cut.

So an excuse for the Matsumae family's failure had to be found — it was not that the Matsumae family did not try hard, but that the Qing army was too powerful!

But they dared not say that the other side had only a hundred-odd men, that a hundred-odd men had seized such a large Karafuto Island — then it would not be Matsumae Takahiro alone who had to commit seppuku!

Therefore Matsumae Takahiro falsified the report, inflating the Qing force thirtyfold, claiming it was more than three thousand men, and all of them elite Eight Banners troops.

The problem was that Tokugawa Iemitsu and the Elder Matsudaira Nobutsuna were not easy to deceive; they would not listen to the Matsumae family's one-sided account, and would find ways to investigate and verify.

And the easiest way to investigate was to go to the Great Ming embassy in Uraga to verify. Moreover, there had recently been word that the Great Ming Emperor had dispatched a high-ranking envoy on a visit, who would arrive very soon.

When the time came, the Shogun would surely go ask in person!

So Matsumae Takahiro immediately sent his own purveyor merchant, Omiya Kojiro, to go and communicate with Zheng Zhibao — Omiya and several other merchants from Omi Province had formed the "Ryohama-gumi merchant guild" in 1600, becoming the Matsumae Domain's purveyor merchants.

The Matsumae Domain's business, of course, was a salted-fish monopoly shop.

When Luo Dagong and Zheng Zhibao arrived, the central hall of the Great Ming embassy in Uraga was filled with a rich stench of salted fish!

The salted-fish smell came from several baskets of pickled fish, shrimp, and other seafood piled in the central hall!

The smell was not at all foul, and the pickled fish and shrimp, as well as the abalone, were all quite large — clearly good things.

Luo Dagong, who had grown up by the sea, also liked seafood, but he had just been seasick for a month or so, and now the mere sight of the character "sea" made him want to vomit!

"Ambassador Zheng, what is all this?" Luo Dagong asked Zheng Zhibao, covering his nose.

Zheng Zhibao also looked astonished, as if he knew nothing at all.

One of Zheng Zhibao's stewards immediately explained: "Master, these were sent by the merchants of the Ryohama-gumi, who said it was a small token of regard from the lord of Matsumae Domain for the Great Ming envoy."

"The lord of Matsumae Domain? Who is he?" Luo Dagong asked, fighting back his nausea. "Why would he send seafood to this official?"

"This humble one does not know. Perhaps the lord of Matsumae Domain wishes to ask Prefect Luo for help?" The Zheng family steward clearly knew, but simply would not say.

Luo Dagong turned and looked at Zheng Zhibao. Zheng Zhibao merely smiled, then waved his hand to dismiss his steward, and led Luo Dagong to his study.

After host and guest were seated and the embassy servants had served tea, Zheng Zhibao came straight to the point: "Prefect Luo, you have come at the right time. Right now no one in Japan cares about the matter of our threatening them a while ago, because everyone's attention has been drawn to the occupation of Karafuto Island — what we call Kuwu Island — by three thousand Qing iron cavalry."

"What? Kuwu Island? Where is that?"

Zheng Zhibao said: "It is a piece of territory under the old Nurgan Regional Military Commission. In earlier years we even established the Nanghaer Guard, the Wulie River Guard, and the Boluo River Guard on the island. Later the Nurgan Regional Military Commission was abolished, and gradually these guards could no longer be administered."

"We could not administer it, so the eastern barbarians and Japan went and occupied it?" Luo Dagong was somewhat puzzled. "That godforsaken place — was it worth sending three thousand troops to seize? What good things are on that island?"

"I hear there is sable fur."

"How many sables are on that island?" Luo Dagong was taken aback. "Was it worth sending three thousand troops? In that kind of savage wilderness, if you send three thousand troops, what about logistics? Is there food on the island?"

Luo Dagong understood a bit of military matters, so as soon as he heard Zheng Zhibao's words he knew something was off.

Zheng Zhibao laughed. "That is why they sent you seafood!"

"What does that have to do with seafood?"

Zheng Zhibao chuckled: "Brother Dagong, don't play dumb while knowing perfectly well!"

What did that mean? Luo Dagong was displeased by these words — he was an honest official! He had never taken bribes or engaged in graft; the entire Shanghai commercial world knew it.

Incorruptible and impartial Luo Dagong — that was him!

And besides, his family fortune was over a million; would he care about this bit of seafood? If they wanted to give gifts, they should give something better.

Zheng Zhibao looked at Luo Dagong's stern, incorruptible-judge expression and said with a smile: "I knew you, Luo Dagong, are an honest official and cannot accept their seafood. Then I will accept it on your behalf — but you still have to help with this!"

Zheng Zhibao knew that the seafood was only spread on the surface for show; underneath it was all gold! Bribery — he was an expert at it himself! Yet Luo Dagong actually did not know this rule, which showed he was a truly honest official; it was a mystery why his official reputation was so bad, and why he had so much money.

Zheng Zhibao continued: "If you do not help, the Shogunate in Edo may abandon Kuwu Island and ally with the eastern barbarians! If you do help, Japan and the eastern barbarians may go to war over Kuwu Island! Would not our Great Ming then reap the fisherman's profit?"

"This..." Luo Dagong narrowed his eyes. "Then what should I say?"

"Just say that on Kuwu Island there is not only sable, but also a great gold mine, and that is why the eastern barbarians sent three thousand troops to fight for it!"

(End of Chapter)