Chapter 1553: The Mountain Wind Roars

"..." Higashigō Shigekata's expression changed abruptly.

He was a retainer of the Shimazu clan, and many people outside knew his face. If the affair were truly exposed, even if he committed suicide, the Shimazu clan would still be held accountable. But at that point, the domain lord could shoulder all the blame himself, declaring that he alone had colluded with the Great Han, thus preserving the Shimazu clan's last foundation. Perhaps not long after his own suicide, the domain lord would follow by cutting his belly in atonement.

He understood. The domain lord had already made his final resolution.

Then, as if a weight of a thousand jun had settled upon his shoulders, he bowed his back slightly.

"Yes!"

Shimazu Tadatsune said nothing more. Riding his horse at an unhurried pace, he headed toward the place where his retainers were waiting.

When Zhou Pu and Shimazu Tadatsune returned to the place where they had met earlier, the attendants Zhou Pu had brought along all breathed a sigh of relief. During the time Shimazu Tadatsune had taken him away, Shimazu Tadatsune's retainers had also subtly encircled them, with the clear implication that they would act the moment an order was given. Even as they remained vigilant, they had all hoped that Zhou Pu could smoothly accomplish the predetermined objective.

"Sir, how did it go?" an official from the trading post asked him cautiously.

"Everything went smoothly. We have not, after all, failed the grace of our nation." In his excellent mood, Zhou Pu's face was now wreathed in smiles.

Then, he turned and pointed to the two Shimazu retainers following behind him. "These two have been sent by the domain lord to liaise with us. From now on, they will generally remain at my side. They are both familiar with the local conditions of Kyushu and can assist me. Also, work with him to figure out a way to deliver all the weapons in the trading post to the Satsuma Domain."

"Yes!" The official immediately became just as excited as Zhou Pu.

After introducing Enami Akitoki and Higashigō Shigekata to the attendants he had brought, Zhou Pu promptly took his leave of Shimazu Tadatsune. Shimazu Tadatsune did not make any further difficulties for him and directly let them depart.

As they were leaving, Shimazu Tadatsune's face was already filled with gravity, the earlier ease completely gone.

"Have all the domain's samurai been summoned?" he asked an elderly retainer beside him in a low voice.

"Secret summons have already begun. However, for the sake of secrecy, only the most loyal and reliable samurai are being summoned for now. Some of the less reliable ones have not yet been called..."

"Well done." Shimazu Tadatsune glanced at him approvingly. "It is still early; better to summon fewer people and maintain secrecy. Also, set aside all other tasks for this period. Investigate everyone within the domain showing signs of instability and compile a list. Not only those who have had private dealings with the shogunate, but also the remnants of Shimazu Yoshihisa's faction must be guarded against!"

The retainer lowered his head.

"Once the Han people's weapons arrive, prioritize issuing them to these summoned samurai." As he rode, Shimazu Tadatsune issued orders in an exceedingly calm tone. "Await my command. When the time comes to rise, you are to kill all of these people without exception. No one is to slip through the net."

The retainer's reaction, however, was extreme; his entire body shuddered atop the horse.

"Even the remnants of Lord Yoshihisa's faction..."

Before he could finish, Shimazu Tadatsune had already turned his head to look at him. That stern gaze made the retainer freeze instantly.

"Yes." He slowly bent his body forward, prostrating himself over the horse's back.

Shimazu Tadatsune's father was Shimazu Yoshihiro, who was the younger brother of the previous Shimazu clan head, Shimazu Yoshihisa. Shimazu Yoshihisa was a famous daimyo of the Warring States period. It was under his leadership that the Shimazu clan greatly expanded its power on Kyushu, and in the Battle of Mimikawa, they defeated the Ōtomo clan, then the largest daimyo house on Kyushu, becoming the most powerful force on the island.

With the assistance of his astute and capable younger brothers and retainers, they conquered more than half of Kyushu. Full of ambition, they sought to bring the entire island under their control and then march north to vie for supremacy. However, it was at this time that the regimes of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi on Japan's main island of Honshu suddenly rose to prominence, instantly turning their dreams to dust.

When Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched his campaign to conquer Kyushu, faced with overwhelming pressure, Shimazu Yoshihisa chose to submit to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, for his part, had no desire to fight them to the death. He merely restrained their expansion and recognized their fiefs in the two provinces of Satsuma and Ōsumi, as well as parts of several districts in Hyūga.

Later, Toyotomi Hideyoshi died of a severe illness, and his regime once again teetered on the brink of collapse. The Shimazu clan's ambitions stirred anew. However, during the Battle of Sekigahara, because the Shimazu clan had initially stood against the Tokugawa clan, they faced an extremely perilous situation after Tokugawa's victory.

To curry favor with Tokugawa Ieyasu, the Shimazu clan had Shimazu Tadatsune inherit the position of clan head. He then went to Edo to offer his apologies and obtained Ieyasu's forgiveness, ultimately averting the catastrophic consequence of the clan's annihilation and barely managing to retain most of the clan's previous territories.

However, although Shimazu Tadatsune had obtained the title of clan head, everything did not proceed so smoothly.

Although Shimazu Yoshihisa had nominally relinquished the position of clan head, due to his many years of tenure, he had cultivated a large number of trusted confidants. Through these confidants, he firmly grasped the real power within the domain, acting much like a retired overlord and continuing to throw his weight around.

Shimazu Yoshihisa had no sons who lived to adulthood, only three daughters. Therefore, to ensure the legitimacy of the Shimazu clan's territorial inheritance, he married all three of his daughters to members of the Shimazu family. Among them, his nephew Shimazu Tadatsune married his youngest daughter, Shimazu Kameju, and became his adopted son. Shimazu Tadatsune was thus chosen to be the clan head.

However, Shimazu Tadatsune's relationship with Shimazu Kameju, who was both his older cousin and his principal wife, was poor. After more than a decade of marriage, they still had no children, which sparked even greater conflict between father and husband. A fierce power struggle unfolded between Shimazu Yoshihisa and Shimazu Tadatsune.

Out of fear of the old domain lord Shimazu Yoshihisa's prestige and pressure, Shimazu Tadatsune consistently adopted a strategy of patient forbearance. It was only after Shimazu Yoshihisa fell gravely ill and then passed away that he began his extremely brutal retaliation.

A representative example was the Hirata family, retainers who had served the Shimazu clan for generations.

The chief retainer Hirata Masumune, because he had consistently supported Shimazu Yoshihisa, was ordered executed by him. Of Masumune's sons, one was ordered to commit suicide, and two were exiled to offshore islands. Hirata Masumune's younger brother, Hirata Munenori, was slaughtered along with his two sons. The Hirata family of chief retainers, once illustrious within the Shimazu sphere of influence, was thus forced to vanish into obscurity under his ruthless methods.

Intimidated by the fate of the Hirata family, other factions within the Shimazu clan dissatisfied with Shimazu Tadatsune were also silenced by fear and no longer dared to oppose him. As a result, Shimazu Tadatsune finally truly enjoyed the power of the clan head.

His principal wife, Shimazu Kameju, was ordered by him shortly after Shimazu Yoshihisa's death to reside in Kokubu Castle within the domain's territory, where she died in despondency a few years ago. After re-establishing his absolute authority, Shimazu Tadatsune could finally give free rein to his desires, successively taking multiple concubines and fathering dozens of children.

After Shimazu Yoshihisa's death, purging the remnants of his faction and consolidating his own power and authority within the Shimazu clan had been a policy Shimazu Tadatsune steadfastly pursued. Through his unremitting efforts, most of Shimazu Yoshihisa's supporters could only endure in silence, tacitly acknowledging Shimazu Tadatsune's rule.

No one could have imagined that he was still not satisfied with this state of affairs and was actually preparing to exterminate these remnants completely — and it must be understood that many of these people were members of the Shimazu clan, his own relatives.

Shimazu Tadatsune had already made up his mind to participate in the Great Han's operations against Japan. In his view, if he bet on the right horse, he would henceforth be the undisputed ruler of Kyushu. Moreover, with the Great Han's weapons support, he would never again need to watch anyone's expression or have any scruples. And there would no longer be any reason to spare the lives of those opponents.

The wind blew ceaselessly through the forest and the grass, rustling the vegetation from time to time, as if thousands of troops were marching through it. As if stirred by a premonition, Shimazu Tadatsune adjusted the buttons of his haori.

"The mountain wind is truly roaring today."

While Zhou Pu was making contact with the Shimazu clan, the Grand Secretariat in the Great Han capital finally received the message, relayed from the Nagasaki embassy, that the Dutch wished to ally with the Great Han to attack the Spanish.

Because the Nagasaki embassy held a very special position, receiving dual leadership from both the Ministry of Commerce and the Foreign Affairs Department, the envoy stationed in Nagasaki sent secret dispatches to both departments simultaneously to avoid offending his superiors. Then, recognizing the gravity of the matter, both departments forwarded the message to the desk of the Prime Minister.

Thus, upon receiving this news, the Great Han Prime Minister, Duke of Yong, Wang Zhaojing, immediately had his secretaries issue notices to the directly subordinate officials of the Ministry of Commerce and the Foreign Affairs Department, summoning them for an audience the following afternoon to discuss countermeasures.

This meeting was an ad hoc addition. According to regulations, it could not delay other matters and had to be handled by setting aside time outside of normal working hours. Both the Ministry of Commerce and the Foreign Affairs Department were offices burdened with numerous affairs, so the heads of these two departments — Commerce Minister Zhou Xuezhi and Foreign Affairs Director Kong Zhang — both groaned inwardly. But who would dare not come when personally summoned by the Prime Minister? Therefore, upon receiving the notice, they had no choice but to clear their entire schedules and come that afternoon to the Hall of Martial Valor in the Forbidden City for an audience with the Prime Minister.

Fortunately, the Prime Minister always handled state affairs with great speed. They did not have to wait long before the Prime Minister, accompanied by several secretaries and clerks, arrived at a side hall of the Hall of Martial Valor.

In keeping with his consistently pragmatic style, after brief formalities, the Prime Minister sat down directly and got straight to the point. "I have not yet reported the matter of the Dutch to His Majesty. However, this is a major issue and must be reported today. Therefore, we must discuss and formulate a recommendation today to attach to the memorial and submit to His Majesty together."