Chapter 1699: This Is Only the Beginning (A Few Words at the Chapter's End)

The Crown Prince of the Celestial Dynasty was coming to Japan in person? When Tokugawa Tadanaga and Ii Naotaka heard this news, both were utterly astonished.

But they quickly calmed down. As the Celestial Dynasty's Crown Prince and the nominal supreme commander of this campaign, whether to sign agreements or to display his nation's military might, his coming was perfectly justified and entirely normal.

If the Great Han Crown Prince were to arrive in person, then this trip to Kyoto became absolutely unavoidable for them — although they had surrendered to the Great Han, in the eyes of others they were still sinners of the Tokugawa house. If they could seize the chance of welcoming the Great Han Crown Prince and gain his approval, it would be a tremendous boon for stabilizing their own positions.

"In that case, we shall certainly go to Kyoto to receive His Highness's instructions!" The moment this thought struck them, both men immediately cast aside their earlier hesitation and, with the utmost deference, requested to proceed to Kyoto.

After issuing them their orders, Zhou Pu sent them on the road to Kyoto the very next day, while he himself remained temporarily in Nara City, continuing to issue proclamations, pacify order across the various regions of Japan, and accept the surrender of local daimyo.

Although the scale of this war was vast, the Great Han's advance had been extremely swift, taking only three months to decisively crush the shogunate. By the time many regions received the shogunate's calls for reinforcements, they simply could not send aid in time — or rather, dared not and were unwilling to send aid at all. Thus, the war ultimately unfolded as a campaign in which the Great Han moved along Kyushu, landed on Honshu, struck directly at the Kinai region, and finally drove straight into Kanto. Most areas, in fact, were never even touched by the Great Han armies.

To reduce both time and casualties, and to create a spectacle of universal submission before the Crown Prince's arrival, Zhou Pu began incessantly urging the powerful clans of these regions to surrender promptly — houses such as the Maeda, the Uesugi, and the Date, as well as the two great daimyo who dominated the entire island of Shikoku: the Hachisuka house of Tokushima Domain and the Yamauchi house of Tosa Domain.

Both of these houses were great daimyo recognized by the shogunate, ruling nearly all of Shikoku. However, after the Great Han attacked, they wisely chose, like the other families, to stand by and watch from the sidelines, ultimately preserving their lives and fortunes. Zhou Pu was confident that under his overwhelming pressure, these two houses would also hasten to present themselves before the Crown Prince and bow in submission.

From the Great Han's landing on Kyushu, through Nagasaki and Kurume, on to Himeji, then to Osaka and Kyoto, then to Nara, and finally all the way to the Tama River — in every successive battle, the Great Han had achieved total victory in an open and aboveboard manner. These brilliant triumphs not only allowed the Great Han to defeat the shogunate, but also earned Zhou Pu an unchallenged prestige in Japan. Zhou Pu was now brimming with pride and satisfaction; he did not believe anyone would dare defy his orders.

Under the efforts of Zhou Pu and Zhao Song, the previously chaotic order across the Japanese archipelago gradually moved toward pacification. Under the Great Han's overwhelming pressure, the powers and powerful clans everywhere who had not yet directly clashed with the Great Han one after another unequivocally declared their submission.

And with Japan swiftly pacified, the moment for the Crown Prince to personally arrive in Japan had finally come.

On an early autumn morning, the Great Han Crown Prince, accompanied by his retinue of officials, arrived outside Busan Port, preparing to board the seagoing vessel bound for Japan. Since His Highness had not yet arrived, they were all gathered in scattered groups, chatting as they awaited him.

Among these officials, some were adjutants assisting the Crown Prince in this war, while others were civil affairs officers whom the Great Han court, at the request of the Japanese court, was preparing to temporarily second to them to handle local administration. The former were in high spirits from the war's victory, knowing that for such meritorious service, the court would surely bestow rewards upon their return to the capital. The latter were also brimming with ambition, knowing that backed by the Great Han's military might, they would certainly become officials whose word was law once in Japan — some among them were even secretly calculating how to exploit the opportunity to line their own pockets handsomely.

For these very reasons, they all felt an exceedingly pleasant lightness of heart. Everyone was in soaring spirits, merely waiting for the ships to hoist sail and set forth.

Yet at this very moment, seated inside his carriage en route to Busan Port, the Great Han Crown Prince's mood was not nearly as relaxed and carefree as that of his officials.

It was not that he was dissatisfied with the war, nor with the meritorious deeds his subordinates had accomplished. It was simply that, as Crown Prince, he knew that defeating the opponent militarily was only the beginning of all problems. Many more issues still awaited him to handle and resolve.

"So, Father Emperor intends to forcibly introduce paper currency in Japan?" Inside the speeding carriage, the Crown Prince calmly asked a young official beside him.

"This is indeed His Majesty's will," the young official replied with the utmost respect. "Your servants have been dispatched by the court precisely for this matter; we dare not allow the slightest mishap."

This official was named Yu Yingchao, a functionary in the Ministry of Finance who had previously specialized in fiscal and monetary affairs. For his contributions in assisting the Finance Minister, Marquis of Pingyuan Chen Hong, in establishing the Great Han Bank, he was highly regarded by the Commerce Minister and considered one of the Great Han's most promising young officials. He was currently an assistant manager of the Great Han Bank.

"This matter is of immense consequence. I must ask you, my minister, to proceed with the utmost prudence — absolutely no negligence can be tolerated!" Having received his affirmative reply, the Crown Prince was not surprised, but solemnly admonished him once more. "The fruits that our frontline soldiers have won with blood and sweat must not be squandered lightly by us!"

"Your Highness, please rest assured. Your servants have been studying and planning for this matter for a long time and have made every preparation. Even the initial banknotes to be used are already prepared," Yu Yingchao immediately bowed his head and replied. "So long as we can act without hindrance, your servant is confident of accomplishing the mission. We would never dare to chill the hearts of our soldiers!"

"That is good." The Crown Prince nodded.

In the Great Han court's scheme, they planned to extract vast quantities of precious metals such as gold and silver from Japan, and even copper, as a vital strategic resource, would be shipped in large amounts back to the Great Han. But this posed a problem — Japan would clearly experience a massive outflow of precious metals.

If nothing were done about this massive outflow of precious metals, it would lead to soaring prices. By then, nearly all officials and commoners in Japan would sink into extreme poverty, and they would not simply obediently starve to death; they would surely stir up rebellions everywhere, exhausting the Great Han's suppression forces.

If the Great Han wished to plunder Japan at the lowest possible cost, it could not simply think, like ordinary barbarians, that killing everyone and looting everything was enough. As a nation of tens of millions of people, if they were driven to utter desperation, the Great Han would have to spend enormous military expenditures to pacify them, completely defeating the original purpose.

Thus, how to maintain general stability in Japan while allowing the Great Han to extract the maximum benefit became the problem laid before the Great Han court and the Crown Prince.

To address this potential situation, after deliberation between the Chancellor and the various relevant cabinet ministries, it was decided that after the two nations began signing the peace treaty, a special Great Han agency would be established in Japan — the Currency Administration Bureau — specifically tasked with gradually using paper currency to sustain Japan's domestic currency circulation and economy amid the massive drain of precious metals, so as to prevent the country from total collapse.

China had a long history of using paper currency, but previous dynasties had never exercised very rigorous fiscal control. They tended to issue paper currency recklessly, eventually rendering its credit utterly worthless. These lessons had naturally been absorbed by the Great Han court. Yu Yingchao and his colleagues would go to Japan specifically to use paper currency to stabilize prices and uphold the currency's value.

Yu Yingchao and his team planned to first introduce paper currency on a small scale, backed by the credit of the Great Han. Each time gold and silver were taken from Japan, paper currency would be gradually injected at a fixed ratio, until Japan ultimately adopted paper currency as its primary medium of circulation, coping with the predicament of precious metal loss.

Of course, while assisting Japan in stabilizing its economy, the Currency Administration Bureau would also become the institution controlling Japan's economy — by then, the power to issue currency would rest entirely in the Great Han's hands. How much to issue and how to issue it would all be decided by the Great Han court. The fragmented Japan would see its entire economy become a vassal of the Great Han.

At the same time, the Great Han court's ambitions did not stop there. They also wanted the Currency Administration Bureau in Japan to serve as an experimental institution, accumulating experience in using paper notes to sustain a nation's economy, and eventually gradually implementing the use of paper notes to supplement and replace gold and silver coinage in circulation within the Great Han itself — His Majesty, in particular, was very interested in this.

Although he did not fully understand why his Father Emperor was so interested in paper currency, since it was his Father Emperor's will, the Crown Prince would naturally cooperate fully. Moreover, Japan's situation genuinely required an institution to stabilize the massive outflow of precious metals, so he too placed great hopes on this Currency Administration Bureau.

Since Japan's most prosperous economic area was the commercial district stretching from Osaka to Sakai, the Currency Administration Bureau would in the future be stationed in Osaka, using the information it gathered to control the circulation and issuance of paper currency at any time, remotely regulating Japan's prices and economy.

By then, the legation stationed in Kyoto, the Currency Administration Bureau stationed in Osaka, and the garrisons stationed across the country would form a three-pronged approach — military, economic, and diplomatic — becoming the three pillars by which the Great Han dominated and controlled Japan. Through these arrangements, the Great Han would be able to hold this nation firmly in its grasp, just as it now treated Goryeo.

After concluding his discussions with Yu Yingchao and the others, the Crown Prince finally arrived at Busan Port. Under the reverent gazes of his officials, he was the first to board the seagoing vessel.

Escorted by a large number of warships, this fleet majestically departed the mainland. After a voyage of nearly two days, they arrived at Osaka. By this time, Zhou Pu had already come to Osaka Castle, quietly awaiting the Crown Prince's grand arrival.

Thanks to Zhou Pu's prior arrangements, the Crown Prince and his party received an enthusiastic welcome in Osaka. Not only Zhou Pu and the local officials, but also many townsfolk lined the streets everywhere, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Celestial Dynasty's Crown Prince in person.

However, after his experiences in Goryeo, the Crown Prince no longer regarded such vanity of public appearances with any interest; he instead found it somewhat wearisome. Therefore, he did not stay long in Osaka and soon set off for Japan's Kyoto.

Zhou Pu also traveled onward with the Crown Prince. The thousand-odd Great Han officers and soldiers he had brought with him on his campaign now became the honor guard for the Great Han Crown Prince. They had all changed into brand-new uniforms, each one brimming with spirit — a truly awe-inspiring and majestic sight.

After another two days of stop-and-go jolting travel, this mighty procession finally reached Kyoto.

Because the shogunate army had abandoned Kyoto without fierce fighting in the earlier war, Kyoto had not suffered the destruction of battle and largely retained its former character — only the Tokugawa's Nijo Castle had been burned down. After the Japanese court returned to Kyoto, order was swiftly restored everywhere, and the cityscape gradually regained its bustling prosperity.

The Japanese court, for its part, had made welcoming the Celestial Dynasty's Crown Prince a matter of paramount importance, preparing for it practically since the war ended, sparing no expense to curry His Highness's favor. Through their efforts, the whole of Kyoto was festooned with lanterns and colored banners everywhere. Combined with the lush, verdant season of late summer turning to early autumn, it was almost like stepping into a garden.

Beneath the brilliant azure sky, the outskirts of Kyoto were already a scene of clamor. People had gathered here in droves, awaiting the arrival of the Celestial Dynasty's Crown Prince.

Just as the appointed hour was about to arrive, a mass of dense crimson clouds appeared on the horizon. This thick cloud was dazzlingly vivid, and in everyone's sight it seemed to ignite a blaze.

To show off their military might, the Great Han troops accompanying the Crown Prince today had specially formed marching columns for review. The officers at the front all wore brand-new uniforms, sat ramrod straight on horseback, and bore various dazzling medals on their chests. Every brass button on their uniforms gleamed so brightly it hurt the eyes.

Every soldier was also full of vigor, displaying faces brimming with energy, as if rejoicing at the honor of traveling alongside the Crown Prince. Each cavalryman had polished his equipment to a mirror shine, and the warhorses had all been meticulously groomed, their coats shimmering with the luster of satin.

Watching this vast, overwhelming army pressing forward, though everyone knew in their hearts that these were merely guards, each person could not help but feel their breath quicken — over these past months, the Great Han's military might had been thoroughly etched into nearly everyone's heart, causing these Japanese, submissive to the strong, to instinctively feel dread.

Under everyone's watchful gaze, a carriage drawn by four pure-white horses came speeding along the broad road beside the tree line. Surrounding the carriage was a large cluster of attendants in uniform and mounted guards, marking the identity of the person inside the carriage in unmistakable fashion.

As the distance closed, the rumbling thunder of hoofbeats grew louder and louder, until at last it seemed to trample upon every heart. Just as everyone began to hold their breath in reverence, the carriage finally came to a halt.

Then, under everyone's gaze, the carriage door opened. A youth took the lead in stepping down from the carriage, and several others behind him followed in succession.

When this youth stood upon the earth, he quietly swept his gaze over the people before him. His manner was steady, yet held an ineffable authority. The moment he stood firm, nearly everyone knelt, paying homage to this Celestial Dynasty Crown Prince in a form of heartfelt submission.

The Crown Prince was unmoved by this. He merely waved his hand calmly, gesturing for everyone to dispense with formalities, and then strode directly forward.

Leading those welcoming him was naturally Japan's former Retired Emperor and current Sovereign, Masahito. This middle-aged man, having previously taken the tonsure, was now growing his hair back, but it was still only a short crop. Dressed in the sovereign's robes, he looked somehow thoroughly incongruous no matter how one viewed him.

Seeing the Crown Prince arrive before him, Masahito dared not be remiss and hastily bowed his head slightly once more.

"Your subject Masahito pays respects to His Highness the Crown Prince!"

"Sovereign, please rise." The Crown Prince immediately raised a hand to bid him stand, at the same time smiling at him. "Sovereign, now that your nation's insurrection has been eliminated and the treacherous villains have been executed, your nation has returned to your hands. I ask you henceforth to govern with clarity and to nurture the myriad people!"

"The Celestial Dynasty's profound grace to your subject is such that not even ten thousand deaths could redeem it." Masahito bowed his head slightly again, then rose somewhat unsteadily, looking at the Crown Prince with heartfelt gratitude. "For generations without end, we shall forever serve as the Celestial Dynasty's protective screen!"

Both men knew these were mere formalities. In his heart, Masahito disliked groveling before the Great Han even more, but they both delivered their formal lines well, displaying sufficient harmony and, from the very first moment, demonstrating the disparity in status between the two nations.

The Japanese were generally short in stature, while the Crown Prince was sturdily built and had never lacked food or drink since childhood. Thus, though only fourteen years of age, he stood roughly equal in height to Masahito. Moreover, tempered by these recent days of experience, he carried an added air of martial valor. Standing together with Masahito, he made Masahito appear utterly inferior by comparison.

The Crown Prince of the Central Dynasty truly deserves his reputation as the finest of men! Even among Japan's court nobles and ministers, quite a few thought the same.

After the initial ceremonial pleasantries concluded, under Hidetada's guidance, the Crown Prince and his large retinue entered Kyoto. At first, Hidetada wanted the Crown Prince to stay in his own imperial residence, but because of his prior experience in Goryeo, the Crown Prince no longer wished to live under the same roof as a monarch. At his request, Zhou Pu specially found him another lodging — the Daitoku-ji Temple in Kyoto.

Daitoku-ji was founded during Japan's Kamakura period. It is one of the largest temples near the capital region and a fundamental stronghold of the Zen sect, particularly famous throughout Japan for its tea ceremony culture. In the wars following the Kamakura period, Daitoku-ji was burned down amid the flames of battle, but later, the renowned Master Ikkyū, after decades of wandering and preaching, assumed the abbotship of Daitoku-ji at the advanced age of eighty and rebuilt it. To this day, Daitoku-ji still preserves Master Ikkyū's original calligraphy.

Making this temple, with its Zen and Chinese atmosphere, his place of lodging left the Crown Prince quite satisfied.

And it was here that he summoned, one by one, the Japanese daimyō who had come to Kyoto to pay homage. Whether it was the Shimazu and Mōri families who had surrendered early, or the Maeda, Date, and Uesugi families who submitted later, and even former enemies like Tokugawa Tadanaga and Ii Naotaka, the representatives of the Tokugawa house — the Crown Prince received them all with great warmth, leaving a deep impression on them.

When Great Han wages war, it is ruthless and merciless, yet to those who submit to them, they are as gentle as a spring breeze and soft rain — truly, the might of Heaven is unfathomable.

It was also within Daitoku-ji that peace negotiations between Great Han and Japan began intensively.

At the very start of the negotiations, Great Han first established its status as suzerain and designated Japan as a tributary vassal. No one opposed this point, because the Japanese court had already made such calculations when it previously requested military aid, so this was merely fulfilling a promise. The other daimyō were even more indifferent; in their view, as long as they could preserve their own domains, having one more Great Han court above them was of no consequence.

After securing the title of suzerain, Great Han immediately followed up with demands to cede Nagasaki as Great Han territory and to open bilateral trade, using Nagasaki as a commercial port. This point also met with no opposition — the imperial court had never held these territories and thus did not care, and the other daimyō were unconcerned as well. The entire island of Kyūshū was now in the hands of the Shimazu family, and they had no interest in quarreling with Great Han on the Shimazu's behalf.

The subsequent terms, however, did not proceed so smoothly. Once the previous conditions were settled, Great Han formally presented the military expenses and reparations for this campaign, demanding the entire nation of Japan pay thirty million taels of gold and silver in compensation.

This colossal sum terrified the attending court nobles and daimyō. Although they had anticipated that Great Han would certainly demand a large amount of wealth, this figure still exceeded their expectations. They all protested that the amount was too great and that the land truly could not bear such a burden.

Even the Japanese court, which had previously promised wholeheartedly to do everything in its power to repay Great Han, changed its tune, stating that such an amount was truly unattainable and begging the Celestial Dynasty to show magnanimity and grant a reduction as circumstances allowed.

Great Han had come all this way precisely for these things — how could there be any reduction now? Just as the negotiations began to deadlock, the Crown Prince personally made his entrance. Compared to his demeanor upon first arriving, his attitude had completely changed. He coldly rebuked the Japanese court and daimyō, declaring that their apparent loyalty was in truth deceitful and treacherous, and that they harbored contempt for Great Han in their hearts.

Under the Crown Prince's personal reprimands and threats, everyone began to recall the terror of the Great Han army. Although some were unwilling in their hearts, they had no choice but to accept the terms proposed by Great Han.

But accepting these terms did not mean they could produce the money.

After years of suppression by the shogunate, the daimyō across the land and the Japanese court were all deeply impoverished, their finances already strained. Where could they possibly find so much money to pay Great Han? Even the shogunate itself, due to the great war of these past months, had its finances on the verge of collapse. Its treasury was essentially empty and could no longer produce much money to compensate Great Han.

This, however, did not stump Great Han's negotiating officials in the slightest. They had long prepared measures for this situation. They demanded to take over all of Japan's gold and silver mines until the reparations were fully paid, and simultaneously to take control of customs houses across the land to levy special commercial and travel taxes. These methods were intended to accumulate the reparation payments, with the goal of having the sum fully paid off within thirty years.

Although this approach was a realistic solution, it still drew opposition from some daimyō. Japan's gold and silver mines were unevenly distributed, with most in the hands of various daimyō across the country. These mines could be considered the lifeblood of their domain finances, and they were not easily willing to give them up.

Great Han's officials, however, were extremely forceful. They stated plainly that this matter was non-negotiable and must be resolved according to this method. Moreover, behind the scenes, they continuously threatened that if anyone dared resist, they would raise troops to subjugate those powerful clans. At this time, because the matter did not concern them, the Japanese court and some other daimyō chose an evasive attitude, further isolating the dissenting daimyō and leaving them without support.

After several days of stubborn resistance, when the increasingly impatient Great Han officials issued the threat, "If you will not give them, our Great Han army will come and take them ourselves," these daimyō finally agreed to the terms proposed by Great Han, reluctantly handing over the mines within their domains to be managed and operated by Great Han.

Under the Great Han court's plan, all these gold and silver mines were to be placed under the jurisdiction of the Osaka Mint Bureau, becoming assets of the Great Han Bank. The gold, silver, and other precious metals they produced would be continuously shipped to Great Han, transported under the name of "annual tribute" into the Great Han Bank, fueling the nation's ceaselessly booming economic development. This would also allow those in charge of the Great Han Bank to reap sufficient profit from the war, sustaining their continued desire for warfare.

The Mint Bureau itself would also serve as an economic institution, beginning an attempt to operate an economic structure supported by paper currency in Japan, accumulating reliable experience and problem-solving methods for Great Han's future currency reforms.

Once all these conditions were settled, every expectation Great Han had held toward Japan before the war had been fulfilled. Of course, this was achieved not through negotiation but through the military force of Great Han's army and navy. Through the efforts of the Great Han military, an island nation that had originally been isolated overseas and refused to submit to civilizing rule for many years was finally drawn into the system of the Chinese Empire, becoming a tributary vassal of Great Han.

Seeing that he had accomplished such a glorious deed, the Crown Prince was deeply satisfied.

However, he also knew that conquering Japan was merely a beginning. For their Zhao family's Great Han, for the myriad people of Huaxia, he and his father still had an exceedingly long road to walk.

When he left the capital, the Crown Prince had composed a poem, one line of which read: "Let not the island barbarians falsely claim the name of Sun; only our nation's might shall shine upon ten thousand states." But having learned enough geographical knowledge, he knew that although Great Han now dominated one region, it was still far from reaching the stage of "spreading the nation's might to ten thousand states." Yet he had confidence; he was full of ambition. He firmly believed that as long as he followed the path laid by his imperial father, Great Han would ultimately reach that point.

Even if his generation could not achieve it, his sons, his grandsons... they surely could. Of course, the prerequisite for all this was to maintain the nation's most powerful military force.

And with Great Han's population and wealth, he believed that as long as he walked the right path, this was absolutely no delusion.

Right after the peace treaty was signed, he made a request to the Japanese court and these daimyō: he wanted to hire large numbers of rōnin samurai and take them overseas to fight.

This request was immediately agreed to by them, though they had no idea why. During the Warring States era, the samurai under each domain's daimyō had swelled enormously. Once the nation was at peace, these multiplying samurai became a major problem, because there was not enough land or stipends to settle them. As far back as the shogunate era, the shogunate's senior officials had found these rōnin extremely troublesome. Now that Great Han wanted to take them away, these daimyō instead felt a great sense of relief.

They did not know that these rōnin would become cannon fodder in Great Han's wars against the Spanish and future enemies. Even if they knew, they probably would not have cared.

Because work has been busy, and because I have some new ideas of my own, after posting updates I no longer chat much with everyone like I used to.

Today, having finished writing the Japan arc, and it being the first day after the holiday with not much to do, I'll say a few words.

I tried many new things in the Japan arc, not just for this book, but also for the next one. This kind of change and experimentation is much more tiring than writing according to my own heart, and experiments have successes and failures. I will keep and learn from the successful experiences and avoid the failed ones.

Nearly a year of experimentation has made me realize something: Te Bie Bai is not suited to writing ornate, delicate, romantic things. I am suited to writing accumulation, iron and blood, windblown sand, and cold severity. So, I will write what I am suited for.

The reason I experimented was that from "Wicked Ming" to "Great Ming Warrior," although readers liked them very much, adapting the rights was very difficult. Old Bai really wanted to have a TV drama, a movie, or a game, so I tried to change, wanting to write some kind of literati or civil official for the next book. After all this struggling, I now understand — this path is a dead end.

To hell with rights adaptation. I'll just write what I'm good at. Readers liking it is the only truth. I've always used this saying to teach others, yet I ended up confused myself. Truly ashamed.

Having said all this, I don't know if I can rely on these words to win back everyone's support. Whether you support me or not still depends on how Old Bai's new book turns out. Only if you like reading it will you support me.

In the next few days, I will intermittently write a chapter or a few chapters, depicting the look of the new dynasty in the book, to relax myself and return to my accustomed writing style, and then finish the book.

Barring any surprises, the new book will be about a border garrison...