Chapter 880: What? The Great Qing Is Gone! — Chapter 21 (Seeking Subscriptions)

In the sixth month of the Western year 1654, on the Whale Sea.

The waters of the Whale Sea were a deep, clear blue, like a length of shimmering blue satin, swelling layer upon layer in the wind, rising and falling, and beneath the sunlight every inch of it glittered with light. Across that vast, boundless expanse of blue water, five small galleon-style sailing ships rode wind and wave, cutting through the gently heaving swells as they sailed northward.

These little galleons had weathered who knew how many storms, drifted who knew how long at sea, and passed through who knew how many perils. Every one of them was now battered and ragged; seen up close, you could make out the makeshift patches stitched onto their hulls and sails.

At that moment, from the masts of the five sailing ships, triangular white flags bearing a golden dragon were slowly rising — this flag had a history: it was the national flag shared by the Great Qing Dynasty and the Great Mongol Nation, and it was also the military ensign of the Great Qing (Great Mongol) Pacific Fleet.

Now that both the Great Ming and the Great Qing had established their states and both had sent embassies to Europa, they had of course followed international custom and made national flags. The Great Ming's flag was called the "Sun and Moon Shining Together" flag — sun and moon make ming! It also symbolized the eternal endurance of the Great Ming Dynasty's mandate, shining together with the sun and moon. It further symbolized that the Great Ming Dynasty was like the sun and moon in the sky, looking down upon the lands and seas of the Eastern world, relied upon by all the nations of the East.

The Great Qing and Great Mongol, for their part, added a golden dragon to a white flag. The white flag symbolized the Mongols — the symbol of Mongol authority was the nine-tailed white banner — while the golden dragon symbolized the Great Qing, whose predecessor was the Great Jin (historically called the Later Jin). Thus the combination of white and gold represented the union of Mongol and Qing. And the dragon symbolized the Emperor, meaning that the Great Qing (Great Mongol) was a supremely noble imperial state, the leader of the Eastern world.

Judging from the ambitions expressed in the national flags of the Great Ming and the Great Qing, a decisive contest between Ming and Qing was unavoidable. Now the contest had been decided: Ming survived, Qing was gone! Only gone, not destroyed.

But the officers and men aboard these five galleons belonging to the Great Qing Pacific Fleet still did not know that the Great Qing they served was already gone!

Still less could they know that the five galleon sailing ships they rode upon were the last military force in the world still flying the banner of the Great Qing.

Oboi, Admiral of the Great Qing Pacific Fleet, still did not know the Great Qing was gone. His mood at present was quite good — he was someone of consequence now, was he not? He had "ridden the wind east across the Pacific, and trod the waves to the New World"!

On this journey of tens of thousands of li back and forth, he had at last learned how vast the world was and how boundless the seas. He had also kept a record as he traveled, writing a book titled Journey to the East, recording how he and Baturu de Velasco, fleeing pursuit by Ming naval forces disguised as Japanese pirates, had been forced to round the Japanese archipelago, then sailed east before the wind for several dozen days and reached an immeasurably vast New World; thereafter they had explored the west coast of the New World, and finally returned west by way of the North Equatorial trade winds.

To prove that the travelogue he had written was true, while visiting and sightseeing at the port of San Diego, Oboi had ordered his Jalangga Colonel Zhu Guozhi to "acquire" a very hard-to-obtain Pacific sea chart. Now the "great navigator Oboi" was holding this precious chart and studying it closely.

There were quite a few fine places along the Pacific coast! The Great Qing now held only a stretch of cold, poor land — that was something of a loss. They really ought to seize all of Joseon!

Only by taking Joseon could the Great Qing's route out of the Whale Sea and into the Pacific be unobstructed!

Oboi was just pondering the occupation of the Korean Peninsula when a knock came at the door, followed by de Velasco's voice: "Admiral, land at Vladivostok is already in sight!"

Home at last!

Oboi hastily put away the sea chart in his hands — he knew this chart was no ordinary thing. The Hispanians guarded it closely; he had asked de Velasco for it several times and each time received only half (the western Pacific half). In the end he had no choice but to have that boy Zhu Guozhi steal it — no, not steal, "acquire" it. After putting away the chart, Oboi rose and went to open the door for de Velasco.

"Admiral, we have arrived!" De Velasco's sunburned red face was all joy. To evade the Ming navy, he had led the fleet in drifting at sea for far too long, and every day he had worried about an outbreak of scurvy — though, come to think of it, it was rather strange: the Great Mongol Nation's Pacific Fleet seemed never to have had a case of scurvy! Could it be that Easterners had some special constitution? No, that couldn't be — there were many Westerners aboard too! They hadn't gotten scurvy either. How was that possible?

"Excellent!" Oboi laughed. "Damn it, eating pickled vegetables and salted vegetables with bread every day — I've eaten till I want to puke! Those Joseon people are too stingy. Next time we mustn't let them prepare our provisions. Damn it, just smelling kimchi now makes me want to vomit!"

De Velasco laughed: "But then again, these stinking pickled vegetables do have their merits — they keep for a long time, and they're extremely cheap, practically free."

Oboi nodded, deeply agreeing. Joseon kimchi was indeed cheap — nothing could be cheaper, because he hadn't paid a single coin for it!

The Great Qing's heavenly troops had come to protect Joseon — and they were supposed to pay for a bit of kimchi?

Chatting about kimchi, Oboi and de Velasco climbed up to the forecastle of the galleon and together raised their telescopes to observe the Vladivostok naval harbor they had not seen in so long.

The naval harbor looked somewhat desolate. The fortification works at the entrance to Golden Horn Bay seemed to have halted construction, no fast boats patrolled the harbor mouth, and no Qing soldiers drilled on the docks.

"How can they be so lax?" Oboi shook his head, lowered his telescope, and his expression had already turned grim.

He had only been away for how long, and already no one was looking after the fleet? This would not do!

Oboi sat in sullen anger for a while. The galleon he was aboard had already docked at the naval harbor pier. Near the pier stood a timber-and-earth castle, the seat of the Great Qing (Great Mongol) Pacific Fleet Admiralty. Guards still stood watch outside the yamen gate, so when they saw five galleons flying the white flag with the golden dragon enter the harbor, they dashed inside to report. A moment later, a group of men in Qing military officer uniforms rushed out, led by none other than Shang Ke'ai.

Oboi and de Velasco had already come down the gangplank and stood upon the soil of Vladivostok.

"Admiral! Admiral! You're back — waaah!" The moment Shang Ke'ai saw Oboi, he burst into loud wailing, and the officers around him all wept loudly as well.

Oboi was utterly baffled by this crowd of mourners, and cursed: "Damn it, has someone in my family died or what?"

Shang Ke'ai actually nodded: "Yes, someone in your family has died. Your elder brother Jorbutai is dead. Your younger brother Murima is also near death. And two of your nephews are dead too. And it seems several of your cousins have died as well."

"What? What? How did so many die?" Oboi grew frantic at once. Had plague broken out in his family, or what?

Shang Ke'ai wiped his tears: "Every family is the same. These days, among us Manchus, every household is in mourning and every family is holding funerals!"

In truth, no one in Shang Ke'ai's own family had died. Shang Kexi had been enfeoffed in Pingyang Prefecture, Shanxi, and had not sent troops; Shang Ke'ai's sons were all serving in the fleet, so they too had escaped disaster. But Shang Ke'ai still had to contribute mourning gifts — with so many people dead, how much in mourning gifts would he have to give? How could he not cry?

"What in the world happened?" Oboi roared.

Shang Ke'ai wiped his tears: "Admiral, I'll tell you, but you must not be alarmed."

"What on earth has happened?"

Shang Ke'ai sighed: "Admiral, our Great Qing is gone!"

Oboi did not understand. "Who's gone?"

"The Great Qing is gone!"

"What? The Great Qing is gone!" Oboi leapt up. "How can this be? How could the Great Qing just be gone? Then — then what country is this place we're in?"

"For now... it's called the Jin State," Shang Ke'ai said. "Temporarily called the Jin State. If the Ming Emperor agrees, then from now on we'll be Jin people!"

"Jin people? Why do we need the Ming Emperor's agreement? Could it be — could it be that our Great Qing has already been—"

Shang Ke'ai sighed again: "Defeated. We were defeated. And so it is gone!"

(End of Chapter)