Chapter 980: The Americas Since Ancient Times (Please Subscribe)

This has been the case since ancient times.

Wu Sanfu and Huang Binqing, who knew the inside story, were utterly bowled over by Emperor Zhu's gift for hoodwinking people!

After all, not long ago, for lack of sea charts, the Ming navy had not even known how to use the ocean currents to travel between the two shores of the Pacific, and now they had only made a one-way voyage — no one even knew whether the Henan had arrived safely — yet here he was, bold enough to claim "since ancient times"! If the Henan were to come back right now, would he be claiming all of the Americas?

"Is this true? Did you really discover the New World back in the Tang dynasty?"

"Is the narrowest stretch of ocean between Asia and America really only a few dozen miles? Where is this strait?"

Marvell and Kirkbear both found it hard to believe and pressed him with a rapid stream of questions.

Zhu Cilang nodded with great certainty. "Once we have finished off the Satsuma Domain and the Spanish Oriental Invincible Armada, we shall organize a joint expedition fleet, and then We will be proven truthful."

What Zhu Cilang said was of course not false — unless this place was not Earth!

And the reason he proposed organizing a joint expedition fleet was that the Ming navy still needed high-caliber English navigators to lead the way on expeditions!

The age of sail was built on a century-old navy; without long accumulation, there could be no leap forward in navigational skill — unless one could obtain an excellent opportunity to learn.

Now, by learning navigation from the Dutch, Ming had already produced a body of naval officers and men capable of long voyages and of fighting on the open sea. But sending them out to explore was still not quite workable — exploration meant not only being able to get there and get back, but also being able to draw maps and sea charts, to find good harbors, to face all manner of complex sea conditions, to repair one's own ship when damaged, and sometimes to deal with a crew of crazed sailors!

And the number of navigators Zhu Cilang had on hand was limited, so they had to be used sparingly. If he could coax the foreigners into helping scout routes and survey, then coax them he would!

Marvell and Kirkbear exchanged a glance, then nodded together. The opportunity was rare enough; perhaps they could use it to find a shortcut through the waters along the edge of the Arctic Circle between Europe and Asia.

After Marvell and Kirkbear agreed to Emperor Zhu's proposal for a joint exploration of northwestern North America and northeastern Asia, Emperor Zhu went on: "Ming's territorial demands on Spanish America are not high. They are limited to the region north of the port of San Diego, including the port of San Diego and its surroundings."

Zhu Cilang set forth his territorial claims on the New World — not greedy in the least. He did not ask for Mexico, the very heart of New Spain, but only for California, which was still a desolate wilderness.

As for the lands north of California, those had been so since ancient times.

When Marvell and Kirkbear heard Emperor Zhu's demands, neither expressed an opinion at once — not because they opposed Ming's occupation of California, but because they did not have the authority to make such a decision.

Moreover, the two of them could hardly bring themselves to believe that the combined strength of England, France, Ming, Portugal, and Holland could truly shatter the Spanish world empire.

Spain was not so easily shattered!

Do not imagine that with France's army, England's navy, and the silver of the Celestial Ming, one could shatter that Spanish kingdom which God alone knew whether He favored or had driven mad!

Defeating Spain might be easy enough, but shattering it — or even forcing that stubborn old man Philip IV to admit defeat — was in fact extremely difficult. The old fellow could not fight, but he truly could endure, and sometimes he really did receive the Lord's favor.

Japan, Kagoshima Bay.

On the sea north of Sakurajima lay thirteen small galleons at anchor, drifting lightly on the calm water like leaves.

By this time, most of the armed galleons of the Spanish Oriental Invincible Armada had already left Kagoshima Bay and were lying in wait along the China–Japan and Korea–Japan trade routes.

Because of their deployment, the routes between Ming and Japan and between Korea and Japan had been temporarily cut, so Tokugawa Takako, who should already have been delivered to Emperor Zhu's palace, was still stranded in Nagasaki.

And the thirteen Spanish warships remaining in Kagoshima Bay were also a huge obstacle for the Tokugawa shogunate, which was planning a campaign against the Satsuma Domain.

For at any moment they could sortie and sever the water routes between Kyushu and Honshu and Shikoku.

Once the water routes were cut, the shogunate's army deep in Kyushu would be isolated.

Therefore, after declaring the Satsuma Domain an enemy of the court, the Tokugawa shogunate had made no further move — it had neither issued an order to attack nor shown any intention of reconciling with Satsuma, as though it had fallen into confusion.

The Satsuma Domain, for its part, seemed encouraged. From the tenth month of the second year of Mingri (1656), it had openly raised the banners of "Revere the Emperor, Overthrow the Shogunate" and "Restore the Toyotomi," calling on men of purpose throughout Japan to come to Satsuma and join the great cause.

At the same time, Satsuma sent secret envoys to "strong domains" such as Choshu and Tosa, attempting to contact these two domains, which likewise faced a severe surplus of samurai, to rise together in arms against shogunate rule!

Within the Satsuma Domain, Shimazu Mitsuhisa, supported by domain retainers such as Nejime Kiyoo, resumed the position of family head, and issued a domain-wide mobilization order, commanding all retainers and country samurai capable of taking the field to assemble at Kagoshima Castle and await the domain government's military commissioners, who would select loyal and brave stalwarts from among them to form the army to overthrow the shogunate.

The moment the mobilization order was issued, the two provinces of Satsuma and Osumi under the Satsuma Domain instantly boiled over. Country samurai laboring in the fields dropped their farm work at once, went home to fetch their carefully maintained suits of armor, spears, bows, and matchlocks, and then surged like a tide toward Kagoshima, the Shimazu clan's main castle, every one of them as delighted as if it were a festival!

Even the neighboring domains of Kyushu stirred in unison, as countless country samurai, masterless samurai, and even low-ranking retainers all poured toward the Satsuma Domain.

Even after Dutch merchant ships — still neutral for the time being — brought word to Kyushu that the Celestial Empire was organizing an eight-nation allied army to attack and destroy the Satsuma Domain, the Kyushu samurai's fervor for overthrowing the shogunate and revering the emperor did not diminish in the slightest.

Admiral Garcia, who was a guest at Kagoshima Castle, watched this scene with great astonishment — did the Japanese have to be so enthusiastic about going to war?

An eight-nation allied army!

The very sound of it was terrifying, and the Ming emperor was even offering high prices to recruit armed galleons for the war! So even Admiral Garcia himself was afraid — yet how could those little dwarf samurai of the Satsuma Domain not be afraid at all?

The samurai encamped outside Kagoshima Castle were growing more numerous by the day, surely no fewer than fifty thousand men.

But their equipment was very poor; they had virtually no cavalry and no flintlocks. Their most common equipment was the katana — surely these people did not think that with a single slender blade they could cut down the eight-nation allied army commanded by the Prince of Conde?

"Admiral! Admiral! Good news!"

Just as Admiral Garcia was mulling over slipping away back to the New World, Caballero, Spain's envoy to Ming (now become ambassador to Japan), came bursting excitedly into Garcia's quarters in Kagoshima Castle.

"What good news?" Garcia looked at Caballero, who had just come from Shimazu Mitsuhisa.

"Admiral," Caballero said, "the Satsuma Domain has decided to organize a new army. They will bring out all their stored weapons to equip the samurai gathered outside the city. His Highness the domain lord hopes we can provide officers versed in the Spanish tercio to help train them. He hopes to complete the formation and training of the new army before the end of the year, and to begin the Kyushu campaign after the New Year."

Although the Satsuma retainers had raised the banner of overthrowing the shogunate and revering the emperor, what they truly wanted was no more than to carve out Kyushu for themselves — overthrowing the entire shogunate was beyond their wildest hopes!

"Can they win?" Garcia was still somewhat worried. "They would have to win quickly, wouldn't they? Ming is already forming an eight-nation allied army, and before long their expeditionary force will be crossing the sea."

"That is why Shimazu Mitsuhisa has decided to stake everything on one throw. He hopes to seize Kyushu before the allied army arrives." Caballero said, "Once he holds Kyushu, he can raise a samurai army of over a hundred thousand men, and then he will truly have nothing to fear!"

(End of Chapter)