Chapter 819: Wokou, You'd Better Confess Honestly!

By the time Zong Yizhen returned once more to his family's castle at Fuchu, he was already a captive of the warriors of the Great Mongol Nation.

The heir to a domain with a proper stipend of one hundred thousand koku, taken prisoner by the Mongol invaders of Japan in his very first battle — what a disgrace!

But it wasn't his fault!

After he found himself utterly routed by the Mongol invaders, he had resolved to commit seppuku. But real seppuku hurt too much, so he chose the "fan-cut" death instead — pretending to cut his belly with a fan while his second cut off his head to finish the job. In practice, it was just beheading.

But he had to make a fuss about it. He was already doing a fan-cut, so why bother taking off his armor and stripping off his clothes? All he had to do was squat somewhere out of the way and let his second raise the blade and bring it down — done. Instead he dawdled for ages, and just as his second raised the sword, a volley of gunfire rang out. Zong Yizhen didn't have a scratch on him, but the samurai acting as his second was riddled with bullets by the Mongol invaders and died on the spot. And when the Mongol invaders rushed up to seize him, all Zong Yizhen had in his hand was a fan.

So now Zong Yizhen found himself trussed up and brought before a bald, big-bearded "Mongol invader" chieftain.

And in his own castle, no less!

Because after Zong Yizhen marched out to battle, the "loyal retainer" left to hold the castle, Sasu Moriya, saw that his lord had been defeated and didn't dare hold the castle any longer. He simply led his men over the mountains and fled — there were still some fishing harbors on the northwestern side of Tsushima's southern island, and Sasu found a fishing boat with his retainers and sailed to Geoje Island to seek help from the Regional Commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Ukita Hideie.

Now Zong Yizhen knelt in the great hall of his own former keep, watching as crate after crate of gold, silver, and treasure was carried out by the Mongol invaders and set before him.

That was the fortune the So clan had accumulated through decades of trade between Japan and Korea!

Now it all belonged to the Mongol invaders. And the big-bearded Mongol invader who had struck it rich still wore an angry look — could he think it was too little?

Just as Zong Yizhen's thoughts were running wild, the big-bearded Mongol invader spoke. He didn't speak Mongolian, but Chinese — and not to Zong Yizhen, but to another big-bearded older man with a baby face.

"Look at this, just look. These wokou are wicked beyond measure — they've plundered this much gold and silver. Their crimes are monstrous!"

Zong Yizhen understood Chinese — he was a vassal of Joseon, after all! In Joseon, anyone of standing had to speak Chinese, or they'd be taken for a barbarian.

So Zong Yizhen had studied Japanese, Chinese, and Korean from childhood.

Thus he could understand what the big-bearded Mongol said. That man was, in fact, Oboi.

Hearing those words, Zong Yizhen nearly cried out that he'd been wronged.

What do you mean, wokou? Who's a wokou? How is this plundered gold and silver? It was all earned through trade! You Mongols can't turn things upside down like this! You're the ones who robbed me, and now you slander me as a bandit?

The baby-faced Mongol invader was Shang Ke'ai, now vice admiral of the Pacific Fleet and concurrently garrison Meiren Zhangjing of the Guryongpo base.

Hearing Oboi say this, he nodded vigorously: "Exactly! He's plundered this much gold and silver — this wokou leader must have committed countless evils. Better to just cut him down and be done with it!"

Huh? Zong Yizhen's face changed color. You people not only rob, you want to kill too!

Oboi waved a hand: "How can we just cut him down? Our Great Qing is not so unreasonable!"

How did it become Great Qing? Zong Yizhen was confused again. Didn't the sails say "Mongol"?

Oboi continued: "Besides, we know little about the true strength of the wokou Combined Fleet on Geoje Island. We should interrogate this wokou leader thoroughly and extract from his mouth the details of the wokou Combined Fleet."

What? Interrogation too? Zong Yizhen thought to himself: How would I know anything about the wokou Combined Fleet? It wasn't far away, but he didn't dare go make contact — casually getting in touch with "Commander Ukita" would be asking for death, wouldn't it?

What if the shogunate thought the So clan of Tsushima was colluding with the remnants of the Toyotomi?

"Admiral, then hand this wokou leader over to me for interrogation!" said Shang Ke'ai. "I guarantee I'll make him unable to live and unable to die!"

Disaster. Utter disaster.

Zong Yizhen, already a prisoner, had been listening to the two Mongol fiends talk and was on the verge of a mental breakdown. Now, hearing "unable to live and unable to die," he could hold back no longer and began shouting in fluent Chinese.

"Injustice! Mine, not wokou, no! Mine, very good man, not wokou! Mine is vassal of Joseon king!"

Oboi and Shang Ke'ai exchanged a glance and both laughed. They were putting on an act!

They had come with Joseon diplomats who had visited Tsushima before — did they not know what the So clan of Tsushima was about?

Shang Ke'ai said with a smile: "Since you're a good man, then tell us about this Japanese Combined Fleet that invaded the Kingdom of Joseon. Don't say you don't know! This official and Grand Commander Oboi are no fools — we're not so easily fooled!"

Zong Yizhen's heart was bitter. It looked like he was going to get beaten after all.

Even if Shang Ke'ai beat Zong Yizhen to death, he couldn't confess anything, because he simply didn't know. But his chief retainer Sasu Moriya reached Okpo Harbor on Geoje Island the day after the fall of Fuchu Castle on Tsushima.

But Sasu Moriya did not see a single Japanese person at the home port and main base of the Japanese Combined Fleet. Saiga Fu and the others were not at Okpo Harbor at that time; they had gone elsewhere on Geoje Island to suppress "mountain bandits" — who were in fact Koreans resisting the wokou's colonial rule.

And the Okpo Harbor that Sasu Moriya saw had already been built into a fortress that was hard to assault from either sea or land.

At the entrance to Okpo Harbor, on the two "gatekeeper" peninsulas, two batteries had been raised with sandbags and wooden stakes, named the "South Battery" and the "North Battery" respectively, each mounted with sixteen 12-pounder bronze long guns. The water between the two peninsulas was also blocked with chain-boats.

And on the land behind Okpo Harbor, following the mountain contours, a timber-and-earth wall twenty-six li long and thirteen timber-and-earth bastions had been built. The wall connected directly to the north and south batteries, forming a quite secure place for quartering troops and mooring ships, called Okpo Fortress and Okpo Water Fortress.

By the time Sasu Moriya was escorted into a camp built right beside the docks within Okpo Harbor, two regiments of Ming New Army troops (army) and several hundred naval infantry were already garrisoned inside Okpo Fortress. And in Okpo Water Fortress — that is, the bay naval harbor — twenty or thirty warships of Chinese and Western design were moored.

These warships had sortied in force just days before, to attack the Mongol fleet concentrated in Guryongpo Harbor (that is, Oboi's fleet), but had found nothing. They had returned to port only last night, just as Oboi was storming Fuchu Castle on Tsushima.

Zheng Jiangong, David Jones of the Flying, Vice Admiral Zheng Cai, and Shen Xiaofeng, a Vice Regional Commander of the Northern Fleet dispatched by Shen Tingyang, had just rested for one night and were gathering at the Admiral's Office inside Okpo Fortress to discuss where to search next for traces of the "Mongol fleet" when Sasu Moriya was brought in.

The men who captured Sasu Moriya were Shen Xiaofeng's subordinates. They couldn't speak Japanese, but they all recognized Japanese dress, so they seized him and his retainers as wokou. Seeing from their clothing and bearing that they looked like big wokou, they sent them before Zheng Jiangong and the others, who were in the middle of a meeting.

Zheng Jiangong looked Sasu Moriya over and asked in Japanese: "You wokou, skulking about — what are you up to?"

Sasu Moriya had of course already recognized that the "wokou" here at Okpo Harbor were the Ming navy in disguise — one look at the uniforms and banners told him that!

Now, hearing this Ming high official who could speak Japanese question him, his anger flared up at once, and he snorted: "We are retainers of the Fuchu domain of Tsushima. We heard that pirates of unknown origin on Geoje Island in the Kingdom of Joseon were impersonating our Japanese navy, so we came to investigate!"

Zheng Jiangong had spent many years in Japan and certainly knew the situation of the Fuchu domain of Tsushima. He smiled at once and said: "So you are retainers of So Yoshinari! Go back and tell So Yoshinari that we are the Ming navy. The reason we fly the flag of Japan is to confuse the enemy. We have absolutely no intention of making an enemy of Japan."

Sasu Moriya shook his head, his face full of righteous indignation: "I will not go back!"

"Why not?" Zheng Jiangong was taken aback.

Sasu Moriya said: "Because Fuchu Castle on Tsushima has already been occupied by the Mongols!"

(End of Chapter)