Chapter 1551: What Do You Want

"How can Mongol bandits like those possibly be compared to our Great Han!" His voice rose unconsciously. "Back then, the Mongols only broke into the Central Plains by exploiting the chaos there. They knew nothing but burning, killing, and plundering — what did they know of naval warfare? Their army had no unity from top to bottom; the moment the situation turned against them, they collapsed and scattered. Our dynasty is entirely different. Our dynasty's navy is unmatched under heaven. Even the Westerners' ships can only steer clear of our warships. As long as we wish to fight, crossing by sea, no one in the shogunate can stop us. With the shogunate's current strength in Kyushu, as long as we have your cooperation, Domain Lord, seizing the entire island of Kyushu will be as easy as turning over a hand!"

He lavishly boasted of the Great Han navy's strength — ostensibly to embolden Shimazu Tadatsune by saying the shogunate could not stop them, but in truth also to covertly threaten him, letting him know that the Great Han did not depend on his cooperation, and to urge him to make up his mind sooner.

"Furthermore, the Kamakura shogunate's ability to withstand the Mongol invasion back then relied heavily on luck." Seeing that Shimazu Tadatsune still remained silent, Zhou Pu continued, "At that time, the Mongols knew nothing of maritime seasons and ran into two typhoons. As a result, their fleet and transport ships all ended up as fish food, and the expeditionary army became an isolated force. Their morale then crumbled, and they lost their will to fight before the shogunate's army — that was why the entire army collapsed. Now, with the Great Han navy's strength, we can very well choose a favorable season to launch our attack. Can such luck possibly repeat itself?"

Shimazu Tadatsune's white beard quivered slightly.

He was the domain lord of Satsuma and had seen something of the world; he knew the fearsomeness of the Great Han navy. Back in the day, how arrogantly the Dutch and Spanish had swaggered across the seas, yet now, before the Great Han navy, they could only sheathe their sharp edges and honestly trade with the Great Han and Japan — this alone showed the Great Han navy's strength.

"With the full support of the Great Han navy, it would indeed be possible to seize Kyushu before the shogunate can react." He conceded this fact, but then quickly shifted tone. "However, the shogunate holds all of Japan, not just the single island of Kyushu. After Kyushu is taken, the shogunate can muster the great armies of all Japan and return to fight a decisive battle with you. When that time comes, can you win? I know your Great Han armies are battle-hardened and skilled in war, but Japan is Japan, and you are crossing the sea to fight — how different is that from the Mongols? Your Great Han armies are not guaranteed to defeat the Mikawa warriors!"

His expression was extremely solemn, and his tone was very harsh. He clearly harbored some doubts about whether the Great Han could ultimately defeat the shogunate.

Zhou Pu remained impassive at first, listening quietly. Then, suddenly, he threw his head back and laughed loudly.

This sudden loud laughter startled Shimazu Tadatsune. He furrowed his brow and stared at Zhou Pu, not understanding what madness had suddenly seized this Great Han envoy.

In truth, Zhou Pu himself did not know what he was laughing about. He was merely imitating the strategists from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms storytelling tradition; it was said that a loud laugh could seize the initiative and give others an impression of supreme confidence.

"Domain Lord, those words are mistaken! Our Great Han's great army has campaigned south and north for so many years, conquering vast territories and defeating countless enemies. The weapons our Great Han army uses are also exceedingly fine — how could the shogunate's great army possibly defeat them? Moreover, did the Tokugawa house ever fight any particularly brilliant battles relying on the Mikawa warriors back then? If the Mikawa warriors were truly so formidable, how was Tokugawa Ieyasu driven nearly to suicide beneath Osaka Castle? Besides, the shogunate has been at peace for so many years; from top to bottom, they neglect military preparedness. Where are there any Mikawa warriors left now? There are only some Edo brats lost in debauchery! Relying on these Edo brats who know only eating, drinking, and pleasure — can they possibly stand against our Great Han's great army?"

Zhou Pu spoke while laughing, looking utterly disdainful of the shogunate's military strength. Shimazu Tadatsune remained silent, yet faintly seemed to somewhat agree with his view.

During the wars to conquer Japan, the Tokugawa house had never been renowned for overwhelming martial might, nor had they ever displayed any particularly brilliant performance in battle. For this reason, many powerful daimyo had always nursed resentment in their hearts. Tokugawa Ieyasu had seized the opportunity of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's sudden death to break with his colleagues and usurp Japan's political power, but he had suffered heavy losses in both campaigns against Osaka. There was even a legend that during the second campaign against Osaka Castle, when enemy troops charged all the way to his main camp, he was nearly driven to perform seppuku. Whether this legend was true or not, the very fact that it spread widely indeed proved that there had always been those who refused to accept him.

It had been decades since the shogunate seized Japan's political power. Under years of peace, the original military preparedness had begun to slacken. Moreover, the shogunate's organs and most of its military officers resided in the flourishing city of Edo, where they quickly became steeped in idle and indolent habits. Over the years, "Edo brats loaf about idly, knowing only eating, drinking, and pleasure" had become a common impression throughout Japan. In Satsuma Domain, which had always harbored opposition to the shogunate, this discriminatory notion had sunk even deeper into people's hearts. To be honest, it was precisely because of doubts about the shogunate's fighting strength that the Shimazu house had dared to respond to the Great Han's overtures.

Shimazu Tadatsune had, back in the day, followed Konishi Yukinaga and his father Shimazu Yoshihiro on the campaign against Korea and had clashed with the Ming dynasty's most elite troops at the time. During the Battle of Sekigahara, when surrounded by Tokugawa forces, he had followed his father in directly charging through the Tokugawa army's formation and escaping safely from the Sekigahara battlefield. He had never particularly feared the Tokugawa army's fighting strength; it was only because the disparity in territory and scale between the two sides was too great that he had to swallow his anger and keep silent.

"Even if the shogunate army is no longer what it once was, the Great Han is, after all, mounting an expedition far from home. There is still no certainty of victory." Perhaps to save face, Shimazu Tadatsune maintained his skepticism, though his tone had softened considerably.

"The shogunate may be powerful, ruling all of Japan, but how can its national strength compare to the Great Han? The Great Han's territory is dozens of times that of Japan; its population and financial resources are far beyond the shogunate's reach. If the Great Han were to commit the strength of the entire nation to an offensive, how could the shogunate possibly withstand it?" Zhou Pu continued, "Domain Lord, you went to Korea back then and crossed swords with the Ming army. You cannot be unaware of how strong the Ming frontier forces were at the time. Yet even such formidable Ming frontier forces would absolutely be no match for the Great Han army. When the Great Han army masses its troops and bears down, does the Domain Lord still fear they cannot defeat the shogunate army?"

Shimazu Tadatsune was, after all, far away in Japan and did not know the specific details. He only knew that back when he faced the Ming frontier forces, the fighting had been extremely difficult, and he had repeatedly been left battered and humiliated. Since a dynasty change had occurred, the Great Han's army must surely be even more elite than those frontier forces. How could he know the later truth — that the frontier forces had utterly collapsed into corruption and decay, fleeing at the mere sight of the Manchu slaves?

Shimazu Tadatsune thought to himself: as long as the Great Han army possessed the strength of the Ming frontier forces of old, and then mustered tens of thousands of troops to come over, that should be enough to defeat the shogunate army.

To give Shimazu Tadatsune confidence, Zhou Pu deliberately exaggerated the expeditionary force's strength, making it sound as if the Great Han was about to commit the entire nation's might to defeat the shogunate. He also approached the matter through Shimazu Yoshihiro's personal experience, which added further persuasiveness. He reckoned that Shimazu Tadatsune could never imagine how strong the Great Han army truly was. To prevent the other party from wavering, he had no intention whatsoever of telling him the truth — that the Great Han was only dispatching a few thousand troops, not launching a nationwide offensive. Whether by deception or by threat, he would get the Shimazu house onto the Great Han's warship. Once he boarded the warship and assisted the Great Han army in occupying Kyushu, would there be any fear of the Shimazu house reneging then?

Shimazu Tadatsune continued to ponder deeply. Zhou Pu waited quietly at first for the other party to consider; after a while, he spoke up to urge him.

"How goes the Domain Lord's consideration?"

Just at that moment, Shimazu Tadatsune suddenly raised his head and looked at him with an extremely stiff expression.

"What is it, exactly, that you want from Japan?"

"The Great Han Son of Heaven, as sovereign of all nations, seeing the shogunate bully and sideline the rightful ruler of your noble country, has been roused to righteous indignation. He wishes to restore proper order for your country and let the treacherous ministers and rebels meet their deserved end!" Zhou Pu paused for a moment, then answered immediately.

"If you speak such words again, I will have someone kill you," Shimazu Tadatsune said coldly. He was utterly unmoved, and then glanced at his retainer Tōgō Shigehō, who sat on horseback not far away.

He would never believe that the Great Han's emperor had decided to attack Japan for the sake of the great righteousness between sovereign and subject. Ever since the Kamakura shogunate began — even since the Fujiwara house's regency government before that — the emperor had been sidelined for nearly five or six hundred years. Countless storms and upheavals had passed in that time, and who knew how many dynasties had risen and fallen in the Central Plains. Yet none of those dynasties, save the Mongols, had ever conceived the idea of chastising Japan's traitors to defend proper order. Although he did not know the Great Han's emperor well, judging by his deeds, he appeared in every way to be a treacherous rebel who harbored disloyal ambitions and seized the moment to rise — where was any love for proper order in him?

Besides, speaking of treacherous ministers and rebels, was the Shimazu house itself not also one of treacherous ministers and rebels? Speaking of defying the imperial court, he himself counted as one as well.

"Domain Lord, do not be angry — I was merely speaking offhandedly..." Seeing the other party's reaction, Zhou Pu also laughed. "In truth, our dynasty is angered that the shogunate has consistently failed to show proper respect to our dynasty and has repeatedly imposed restrictions on trade, greatly harming our nation's interests. The shogunate has always kept the country closed and restricted trade between our two nations, bringing enormous trade losses to our country. Moreover, the shogunate's trade officials are greedy and tyrannical, causing our nation's merchants to suffer tremendous losses. Our dynasty's punitive expedition against the shogunate is both to restore proper order in Japan and to enable our two nations to maintain normal, friendly trade, and to consolidate economic and commercial exchanges between us."

He glanced at Shimazu Tadatsune and found the other party still noncommittal, so he added another line. "Furthermore... our dynasty has only just changed its mandate; the realm is still somewhat exhausted. We need to increase the import of some Japanese gold and silver to stabilize the common people."