Chapter 946: Let Us All Become Traitors and Rebels Together! (Seeking Subscriptions)

Tokugawa Mitsukuni now understood completely!

The Celestial Emperor was not courting the Tokugawa shogunate at all — he was warning it!

What "joint administration of Ryukyu"? This was simply opening a great gate for the Satsuma domain to import flintlock muskets and bronze cannon! If the Tokugawa shogunate did not behave, then there would be Ming muskets and Ming cannon in great plenty — let the Shimazu clan take them at once and overthrow the shogunate!

What "elevating Japan's national standing," what "recognizing the status of the Japanese emperor"? This was simply exalting the emperor and belittling the shogunate! It was meant to show every samurai in Japan that the world now recognized the emperor and slighted the shogun...

And these two bitter fruits the Tokugawa shogunate would have to swallow with a smile, and even cry out: how sweet the bitter fruit, how delicious the bitter fruit!

Only in this way could the daimyo and ronin in Japan who did not know the truth be made to believe that the Great Ming Celestial Court supported the shogun.

And after swallowing the bitter fruit with a smile, the Tokugawa shogunate simply would not dare fail to support the Great Ming! Not supporting the Great Ming would mean supporting Spain, that western barbarian!

If the Tokugawa house dared do such a thing, that would be colluding with barbarians — without the Ming Emperor even needing to send troops, Shimazu Mitsuhisa would be crying "Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians!" in Satsuma province!

Tokugawa Mitsukuni sighed: This Ming Emperor — his conscience is greatly, greatly bad!

Tokugawa Mitsukuni, having at last realized that the Ming Emperor Zhu Cilang's conscience was greatly, greatly bad, returned dejectedly to the legation in Nanjing. He was just about to arrange for several trusted men to return home and report the bad news to the shogunate's elders, and have them prepare grand ceremonies to receive the Ming imperial envoy Wei Zaode, when one of his page boys hurriedly reported: "My lord, a distinguished guest has arrived in secret!"

"A distinguished guest? Who?"

The page boy answered: "It is the Spanish envoy Caballero."

"What? Spain... where is he? Did anyone see him arrive?"

"He is in your study." The page boy said in a low voice, "No one discovered his arrival, because he came directly from Shanghai in a carriage transporting bales of goods."

Caballero had originally been Spain's ambassador to the Great Mongol Nation. Now that the Great Mongol Nation was gone, annexed by the Great Ming, the Spanish embassies to the Great Ming and the Great Mongol Nation had likewise been merged. After the merger, the Spanish envoy originally stationed in the Great Ming had been transferred to the Philippines as Governor-General, while Caballero had been appointed the new ambassador to the Great Ming.

However, the most important task Madrid had given him was not developing friendly relations with the Great Ming, but developing relations with the Great Ming's neighbor, Japan.

Madrid also understood that Japan was a country on the fringe of the East Asian civilizational sphere, a maverick existence.

At present, apart from Japan, the countries of East Asia were basically all members of the Celestial Court's sphere. Only Japan lay outside this sphere, forming a world of its own on its edge.

And Japan's position, neither too far nor too near, happened to sit squarely upon the throat of the Great Ming Empire's eastward advance to the New World.

To put it somewhat dramatically: if the Great Ming Empire wished to advance eastward into the Americas, it must first advance eastward into Japan!

And after the collapse of the Great Mongol Nation, if Spain wished to keep the Great Ming out of the Americas, the most effective method was to win over Japan and form an anti-Ming alliance with it.

From this angle, Spain and Japan shared common interests, so winning over Japan should not be difficult — in Caballero's view, as long as Spain was willing to set God aside for the moment and provide Japan with advanced European firearms and cannon, Japan would surely be willing to cooperate with Spain.

If Japan gained the strength to defend itself, then even if it did not stand with Spain and go to war against the Great Ming, it would still refuse to provide the Great Ming with ports and supplies.

As long as Japan said no to the Great Ming, Spain could gain the advantage in the Pacific...

But the problem was that the men in power in Madrid were all somewhat abnormal in the head! So the task given to Caballero was likewise somewhat abnormal.

If the Ming Emperor's conscience was greatly, greatly bad, then Spain's King Philip IV's brain was greatly, greatly bad!

He demanded that Caballero somehow obtain the consent of the great lord of Japan for the Kingdom of Spain to recruit fifty thousand mercenaries in Japan for use in war against the Great Ming!

At the same time, Philip IV also hoped that Japan would secretly provide one of its fine ports for the use of the Spanish expeditionary fleet... A vast fleet would be arriving from the direction of the New World, and after refitting at the port provided by Japan, it would be thrown into the war against the Great Ming!

Caballero also knew that the Madrid authorities had not given up on Dodo, who had already submitted to the Great Ming, and were still continuing to supply Dodo with weapons and ammunition.

That Spanish King Philip IV seemed to be fantasizing about joining with Japan, the Manchus, and perhaps some Mongol tribes to launch a fierce assault on the Great Ming Celestial Court from every direction, by sea and by land, and deal it a fatal blow!

But how could such a thing possibly succeed? To say nothing of the fact that fifty thousand Japanese mercenaries were hardly formidable compared with the Great Ming's army of several hundred thousand — even those fifty thousand men could not be raised in the first place!

How could the Tokugawa shogunate possibly permit a Catholic madman of a country to recruit tens of thousands of starving ronin as mercenaries on its own territory? Once they were actually armed, who would be the one getting beaten?

Although he knew the thing could not succeed, Caballero still had to carry out the king's orders. That was why he had taken a carriage out of Shanghai carrying dried seafood to the Japanese legation, and secretly slipped into the Japanese legation.

"What? What did you say... fifty thousand mercenaries?"

Tokugawa Mitsukuni could scarcely believe his ears. He had met this ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain several times before, and the man had seemed quite normal — how had he come up with such an insane proposal?

"Your Excellency," Caballero said in Chinese, "His Majesty the King of my country believes that the Great Ming Empire possesses vast territory, an enormous population, and a gigantic economy, sufficient to endure a prolonged war. Moreover, in more than ten years of war against the Qing, they have already mastered advanced Western weapons. They not only know how to use them, but can produce them in great quantity.

The population and financial resources of our two countries cannot compare with the Great Ming Empire. Once we are drawn into a protracted war, we will very likely be dragged to ruin. His Majesty therefore believes we should seek a quick decision — deal the Great Ming Empire a sudden, heavy, fatal blow! The Manchus and Mongols on the East Asian continent will stand with us. They will rise in rebellion and draw the main force of the Ming army northward. Meanwhile our navy will transport fifty thousand Japanese mercenaries armed with Western muskets and cannon in a surprise assault on the Great Ming's southeastern region... If this raid succeeds, the Great Ming Empire will disintegrate, and Japan will then be able to seize vast colonial interests on Ming soil!"

Tokugawa Mitsukuni's face went white with fright. How had he run into a madman? The man wasn't going to bite him, was he?

"This, this, this..." Tokugawa Mitsukuni did not dare say "impossible"! He was not the shogun, after all — what right did he have?

"Ambassador," Tokugawa Mitsukuni said, "what you have said has taken me far too much by surprise... I have no way to answer at all. I can only invite you to travel to Japan at a suitable time."

Caballero had not expected Tokugawa Mitsukuni to agree on the spot. In fact, he had not expected the Japanese shogun to agree either — unless the Japanese shogun was, like King Philip IV, a religious fanatic with an abnormal brain! But it did not matter if the Japanese refused outright. As long as he could gain an audience with the Japanese shogun, he could secure the most ideal outcome for Spain.

As long as Japan remained armed and neutral, the Great Ming would have no way to engage the Spanish navy in battle around the Japanese archipelago... Then the battlefield would shift to the Philippines.

Once battle was joined in the Philippines, Spain could use diplomatic means to draw in Holland and England to mediate. The Dutch East India Company in particular surely did not wish to see the Great Ming Empire make major advances among the islands of the South Seas!

So if the Great Ming moved south, it would not be a conflict with Spain alone, but would provoke Holland and England as well!

And if the Great Ming moved east... on the west coast of the New World there was only Spain. One could not expect Holland and England, which had likewise been refused entry, to come help Spain resist the Great Ming.