Chapter 950: Off to America — and Send the Japanese Girls Along!

At this moment, the crew aboard the Soaring had no idea that disaster was bearing down on them — the New Spain alone, a thousand-ton vessel, was more than the Soaring could stand against in a head-on fight, and the New Spain authorities had also dispatched four other warships of eight hundred to six hundred tons to accompany the New Spain on its voyage to the Far East!

Moreover, King Philip IV of Spain had issued orders to form an Eastern Fleet, transferring from the Caribbean one of the seven great captains of the Spanish Empire who had fought in the Battle of the Downs — García de Toledo y Mendoza — to serve as commander of the Eastern Fleet!

This García de Toledo y Mendoza was a formidable figure indeed. After the Battle of the Downs, he had become recognized as one of the seven great captains of the Spanish navy — in that battle, a Spanish fleet numbering as many as seventy-seven ships was caught off guard at anchor in the Downs by one hundred and seventeen Dutch warships, and in the end only seven of the bravest captains managed to fight their ships out of the encirclement...

In any case, García de Toledo y Mendoza was still an acknowledged renowned commander of the Spanish navy. After the Battle of the Downs, he had been fighting pirates in the Caribbean and had never once been defeated!

Such a formidable man, such powerful warships — all of them now heading east in one surge. It seemed Philip IV truly intended to teach the newly risen Great Ming Celestial Dynasty a lesson in the western Pacific.

Meanwhile, on the pier at Uraga harbor, Tokugawa Iemitsu and Sakai Tadakiyo, who had come to welcome the Soaring and the visiting Great Ming embassy, were staring blankly at the great heap of barrels and wooden crates on the dock.

"What is all this?" Sakai Tadakiyo asked.

"Elder Sakai, this is the supplies the embassy has prepared for the Soaring." The speaker was Zheng Hongkui, the Great Ming ambassador to Japan. He had been in Japan for many years and was well acquainted with the upper ranks of the Tokugawa shogunate; with Sakai Tadakiyo he was on terms of drinking and dining friendship.

"So much?" Sakai Tadakiyo looked at the mountain of barrels and crates. "How long can these keep the Soaring at sea?"

"There are more than ten thousand shi of fresh water and provisions here — enough for the Soaring to remain at sea for twelve to fifteen months!"

"That long?" Sakai Tadakiyo was startled. "A whole ship's crew just stays out at sea like that?"

"Sometimes that is how it is. Terribly boring!" said Zheng Hongkui. "The seas are not very safe at present, and the Soaring still has to go out and suppress pirates!"

"Are there any young ladies along?" Sakai Tadakiyo asked with interest.

"Usually there are no young ladies..." said Zheng Hongkui. "However, the embassy has arranged for prostitutes, and the crew will be rotated ashore."

According to Tokugawa shogunate regulations, Japanese women were not permitted to leave the country, but Japanese prostitutes were allowed to provide paid services to visiting foreigners... In Nagasaki, prostitutes were permitted to go onto Dejima!

And when Great Ming navy warships docked at Uraga or Nagasaki, they followed this same custom and required the Ming embassy and trading houses in Japan to act as procurers — a dignified ambassador, actually moonlighting as a pimp! So ordinary scholar-officials could not handle the job; only Zheng Hongkui did not mind, which was why his posting as ambassador to Japan went on without end...

Sakai Tadakiyo nodded, then asked another question: "Are there any page boys?"

"None either," Zheng Hongkui hastily shook his head. "Even pederasty is forbidden!"

Sakai Tadakiyo shook his head sympathetically. "In that case, going to sea must be truly arduous!"

"It is!" Zheng Hongkui said with a smile. "But a short sea voyage can still be rather interesting... Elder, would you be interested in taking a trip out to sea aboard the Soaring? You may bring young ladies and page boys — as many as you like!"

"Is that so?" Sakai Tadakiyo showed a trace of interest, but did not agree at once. Instead he looked at Tokugawa Mitsukuni. "Lord Lieutenant, would you care to go to sea?"

"I have no interest," Mitsukuni said. "I still need to discuss the schedule with the Great Ming Chancellor Wei. You go aboard and take a turn at sea — broadening your horizons would do you good."

"Very well, then I shall go out to sea and have a look!" Sakai Tadakiyo turned his head to gaze at the "great ship" now dropping anchor, his expression grown very grave, as if deep in thought.

Before his eyes was the most powerful warship of the Celestial Empire — a burden of thirteen or fourteen thousand shi, mounting forty great cannon... When would Japan ever possess a warship like this?

With such warships, Japan would no longer need to fear Spain or the Great Ming. Japan would be able to rise!

Japan certainly dreamed of rising; they had dreamed this dream for a long, long time... It was not until Toyotomi Hideyoshi seized power that they finally dared put it into practice, and in the end they gained a precious lesson: dreaming and doing are not the same thing!

So for now they still had to play the submissive, and make good use of the Great Ming and Spain, getting them to supply arms for the Tokugawa shogunate's war of unification — only by first unifying Japan, turning it into a kingdom firmly controlled by the Tokugawa clan, could it then become strong and rise!

But Sakai Tadakiyo did not notice that Zheng Hongkui, standing beside him, had also set his dark face into a grim frown, looking extremely grave, as though some great matter had to be attended to.

Zheng Hongkui was indeed busy with a great matter — a matter called smuggling.

According to the orders he had received from the Grand Secretariat of the Great Ming, he was to prepare as much as ten thousand shi of assorted supplies for the sailing ships that would be smuggled to the Americas... and he was also to prepare at least thirty Japanese young ladies!

Ten thousand shi of supplies was easy enough, but thirty Japanese young ladies was not. Although Japan in this era had no shortage of women — the system of primogeniture and the rigid social structure meant many men without family property could not marry, which also lowered the value of girls... the Tokugawa shogunate strictly forbade Japanese women from leaving the country, except by special approval.

So Zheng Hongkui, for all his money, could buy thirty young ladies in Japan, but getting them out of the country was a bit troublesome.

Moreover, he had no idea how the smuggling ships were to enter Uraga harbor.

It was true that Great Ming ships could enter Uraga harbor, but that did not mean they could come and go freely, without supervision. Not to mention that Japan had not opened its country; even if it had, even if it were a vassal state of the Great Ming, it would not permit Great Ming ships to come and go without oversight. The Treaty of Suzerainty and Vassalage would contain no such unreasonable demand — the Great Ming's suzerainty was not meant to cover smuggling and tax evasion, still less to cover people-smuggling...

And because Japan had not opened its country, nor signed the Treaty of Suzerainty and Vassalage, it imposed extremely strict supervision on Great Ming ships entering its ports!

Apart from a fixed annual quota of merchant ships permitted to enter and trade, all other vessels could only purchase a prescribed amount of supplies — after all, Japan's farmland was limited and its food supply insufficient; it could not let ship after ship carry grain away. And the time these ships were permitted to remain was also very limited.

Of course, special shogunate permits would always exist!

For instance, the Soaring now entering port was a special case: it could take on a full ten thousand shi of supplies, and was exempt from inspection.

But other ships could not enjoy this privilege. The moment they entered Uraga harbor, they would be watched by the officials of the Uraga magistrate's office... to say nothing of putting thirty young ladies aboard, even filling the hold with supplies would not be permitted.

With his head full of questions, Zheng Hongkui received Wei Zaode, who had arrived from the Great Ming, and escorted him off the ship. Then he mentioned to Wei Zaode the matter of Japan's Elder Sakai wishing to go to sea aboard the Soaring — this was not something he raised on his own initiative, but was being handled according to instructions from the Ministry of Rites.

Wei Zaode proved very agreeable, and at once directed his eldest son, Wei Zhongcheng, who was accompanying him on the visit to Japan, to make the arrangements. Wei Zhongcheng was efficient in handling matters; he immediately discussed it with Davy Jones and Hao Feng, and it was decided to rest for three days, then take Elder Sakai out to sea.

They would not go far — just a circuit around the Izu Peninsula, returning in three to five days.

With the Soaring's sightseeing voyage arranged, Wei Zaode set off for Edo together with Tokugawa Mitsukuni and Sakai Tadakiyo. Edo was not far from Uraga harbor — about a hundred li, a day's journey at a brisk pace.

So Sakai Tadakiyo could first escort Wei Zaode to Edo, then return to board the ship... At that time he would also bring along the shogunate's Navy Commissioner to observe the Great Ming navy's capabilities up close and assess the gap between the two countries' naval forces.