Chapter 948: Someone Wants to Smuggle Themselves Across! (Please Subscribe)

Under the domain-shogunate political system, Japan had always suffered from the problem of strong warriors but a weak state!

This was because the core of the domain-shogunate system was, in essence, the nurturing of warriors! Most of Japan's manpower and resources went to supporting warriors — supporting a countless number of samurai, who not only had to be fed but also educated and cultivated, diligently shaped into feudal warriors developed in all respects: moral, intellectual, and physical.

It must be emphasized that the Tokugawa shogunate's system was not, in fact, the shogunal dictatorship later generations have assumed. There was no dictatorship at all — no shogunal dictatorship at the central level, and no domain-lord dictatorship at the local level either. Because the shogun's house kept producing eccentrics, the power of the Senior Councilors grew ever greater.

Meanwhile, the local domain lords and their heirs had all become Edo men because of the alternate attendance system. In this age there was no telegraph and no telephone, and Japan did not even have a six-hundred-li express relay. How could a bunch of Edo men dictate affairs back in their home provinces? So the various domains were usually governed by a council of senior retainers.

And those domain senior retainers were not actually all that senior — their stipends were only a few hundred to a thousand koku, which in China would make them nothing more than a somewhat larger landlord.

The real power of Japan lay in the hands of this group! So what Japan as a nation supported was precisely this crowd of samurai who produced nothing and devoted themselves solely to the study of the art of cutting people down.

The individual combat prowess of these samurai was unquestionably formidable, and they were generally accomplished in both literary and martial arts, their minds also washed into fearless disregard for death — they were excellent warriors and could serve as low-ranking officers.

But anyone who imagined that Japan, with this crowd of professional people-cutters, was a military power would be talking nonsense!

Because "Japan" was merely a geographical name, and these professional people-cutters were divided among roughly three hundred domains, with a batch who had fared poorly simply becoming troublesome masterless samurai. And Japan's upper stratum was a suffocating, rigid feudal system in which the shogun guarded against the daimyo, and the daimyo suppressed their senior retainers. Those at the top, though compelled to support warriors, supported them without using them, and devoted all their energy to guarding against rebellion from below.

Therefore, as long as Japan's domain-shogunate polity existed, there was no way to convert the fighting strength of the samurai into the fighting strength of the nation.

Moreover, Japan also faced the intractable problem of the separation between legitimate authority and actual power!

The Emperor, who held legitimate authority, had the name but no real power, while the shogunate held real power but lacked legitimacy — so between legitimacy and actual power there existed a relationship of mutual restraint.

Now that the external situation in East Asia had undergone drastic change, the shogunate in power had to choose between joining the Celestial Dynasty and opposing the Celestial Dynasty.

Yet the lack of legitimacy and the mutual restraints between domains and shogunate left the shogunate in a dilemma. If it joined the Celestial Dynasty, the shogunate would have to act as a treacherous subject and traitor, depose the Emperor, and turn the shogun into the King of Japan — the Tokugawa shogunate was still very strong, and with the Celestial Dynasty's full backing, such a treasonous undertaking might not necessarily fail.

But the problem was... the Tokugawa house needed a bold and visionary lord to accomplish the usurpation of the throne!

For example, if that brilliant middle counselor of the Mito domain, Tokugawa Mitsukuni, were the shogun, and he set out to usurp the throne, the matter would have hope of success. But as it stood, the shogunate happened to have a foolish shogun... how could a foolish shogun usurp the throne?

If it chose to oppose the Celestial Dynasty, then it would have to thoroughly transform the domain-shogunate system and establish imperial centralization... which would mean the end of the shogunate!

But the problem was that the Tokugawa family was too powerful, while His Majesty the Emperor's prestige was too low... under such circumstances, if the shogunate were ended and power returned to the throne, would the Tokugawa side's related domains and hereditary vassals agree?

And the foolish shogun himself could not make decisions — which of the Senior Councilors could undertake such a thing?

So faced with the two choices presented by Tokugawa Mitsukuni, the assembled Senior Councilors of the shogunate all fell silent.

No one knew how long the silence lasted before Hoshina Masayuki let out a long sigh: "If only, if only the Great Ming could be defeated by the Spanish! Then... perhaps everything could remain as it is!"

Tokugawa Mitsukuni said, "The Spanish cannot possibly defeat the Great Ming. Spain has a population of only a little over five million, and at most five thousand men could be sent to the vicinity of China. How could five thousand men possibly defeat the Great Ming?

He paused, then looked at Hoshina Masayuki: "Lord of Aizu! Do you wish to be a loyal subject of the Emperor?"

Hoshina Masayuki hastily shook his head: "No, no, that will not do... Our Aizu domain exists to protect the shogun's house! Even if the whole world curses us as treacherous subjects and traitors, we will not hesitate!"

Indeed — Aizu and Dewa, a great fief of five hundred thirty thousand koku! How could it possibly be handed over in exchange for the title of loyal subject? How many koku of rice per catty does a loyal subject fetch?

"Lord of Izu, will you be a loyal subject of the Emperor?" Hoshina Masayuki then passed the ball to Matsudaira Nobutsuna.

"The Emperor?" Matsudaira Nobutsuna snorted. "Don't know him! My family has been country samurai for generations. We owe our present position to following the Divine Lord — we do not know the Emperor!"

Sixty thousand koku in Musashi's Kawagoe domain! That was to be passed down to his sons and grandsons — if he gave it up in exchange for being a loyal subject, there would be no filial sons and worthy grandsons left in the family!

"Our Sakai family has loyally served the Tokugawa house for generations!" Sakai Tadakiyo, lord of the Kōzuke Umayabashi domain, also declared his position.

There was nothing more to say — with the surname Sakai, he was bound to help the Tokugawa house cut people down! This was the year 1656 by the Western calendar, not 1856! Sakai Tadakiyo had not forgotten how to cut people down!

Of course, his domain was not large — only thirty-three thousand... he needed to cut down a few more people and earn merit! The domains of those "Emperor loyalists" to the west all looked very large!

Abe Tadaaki, regarded as the most capable of the Senior Councilors, frowned and said in a low voice: "Is the chaos of the Warring States era to come again? Once the realm falls into great disorder, the people will suffer untold misery... This mess clearly belongs to the Ming dynasty — how has it spread to Japan? We Japanese have had little to do with them since the end of the Tang!"

"Abe-dono!" Matsudaira Nobutsuna said, looking at the rambling Tadaaki. "What use is there in saying these things now? Say something useful!"

Abe Tadaaki sighed: "We retainers of the Tokugawa house know only the Tokugawa, and do not know the Emperor!"

Seeing that all the Senior Councilors had declared their positions, Tokugawa Mitsukuni nodded and said in a grave tone: "Since everyone knows only the shogun and not the Emperor... then let us all become treacherous subjects and traitors together!"

"How do we proceed?" Hoshina Masayuki asked with a stern face, looking quite fearsome — was this about going to Kyoto to cut down the Emperor?

"First," Tokugawa Mitsukuni said, "is of course to grandly receive the Celestial Dynasty's envoy, Duke Wei Zaode! Although the Celestial Emperor has handed us two bitter fruits, we should swallow them with a smile!"

"And then?" Hoshina asked again.

"Then we sign a secret treaty with the Celestial Dynasty's envoy..."

"A secret treaty of submission?" Hoshina asked.

"No." Tokugawa Mitsukuni replied. "Unless the Celestial Dynasty defeats Spain and becomes the hegemon of the Pacific, we must not submit to the Celestial Dynasty. Because that would invite Spanish attack... If Spain, with arms support, backed a powerful domain attempting to overthrow the shogunate, the shogunate could face defeat. The shogunate cannot take such a risk!"

"Then what secret treaty are we to sign?"

"Naturally, a secret treaty of nominal neutrality but actual covert assistance to the Celestial Dynasty..." Tokugawa Mitsukuni said. "We can permit the Celestial Dynasty's navy to secretly use the ports of Mito, Aizu, Kishū, Ezo, and other places, on the condition that the Celestial Dynasty must provide us with coastal defense cannon, field cannon, siege cannon, and artillery instructors. I have studied many battle examples from the Ming-Qing wars and found that field cannon play a decisive role in formation battles. The shogunate must establish artillery as quickly as possible, and only then can it launch a campaign against the southwestern domains! Once the scheming southwestern domains are crushed, the shogun can take a further step and become the King of Japan!"

"How do we deal with the Spanish envoy?" Hoshina Masayuki asked. "Should we expel him?"

"Of course we cannot expel him!" Tokugawa Mitsukuni said with a laugh. "Spain is a world empire, a great power Japan cannot resist... So Japan, compelled to uphold the principle of neutrality, must permit the Spanish navy to make brief stops at the ports of Nagasaki and Uraga to replenish food and fresh water.

Of course, our Tokugawa shogunate admires the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty — it is only out of necessity. Once the shogunate has strengthened its armaments and eliminated the scheming powerful domains, it will surely follow the Celestial Dynasty into war against Spain!"