Chapter 198
A eunuch trudged into the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City.
He was a massive man, utterly unsuited to be a eunuch, with the indomitable spirit of a military commander who had spent his entire life on battlefields.
For an ordinary eunuch to stride in so boldly, the gathered ministers might normally have made some remark about his insolence despite being only a eunuch, but...
Not a single chancellor in the Hall of Supreme Harmony dared find fault with his imposing bearing.
That was because this huge eunuch who had appeared in the Hall of Supreme Harmony was Zheng He himself.
He was the commander-in-chief of the largest maritime expedition in Chinese history—the very man who led 80,000 troops and held off a 500,000-man army during the Jingnan Rebellion that Yongle launched when he was still known as Prince of Yan Zhu Di.
“I, your subject, Supervisor Eunuch Zheng He, have received Your Majesty's command and come here from Nanjing to the Hall of Supreme Harmony.”
“So, how is Nanjing? Do you think we can leave this Beijing and move the capital back to Nanjing within the next ten years?”
Ming's original capital was Nanjing.
Nanjing was well suited to rice farming, ensuring a smooth food supply, and because it stood at the starting point of the Grand Canal, it was also a hub where goods from across China gathered, making it advantageous for commerce.
However, Yongle, who had launched the Jingnan Rebellion, undertook the relocation of the capital because Beijing was his home base, even though Nanjing was far better situated as a capital, so...
Beginning in the reign of the previous emperor, Hongxi, they had started rebuilding Nanjing and planned to move the capital back there once reconstruction was complete.
Since Hongxi's reign, official documents had even described Beijing as the xingzaisuo, or temporary capital, and Nanjing as the jingshi, the capital established by Ming law, showing just how strong their desire was to move the capital back.
And the man placed in overall charge of this important project was Supervisor Eunuch Zheng He.
“If we put in a little more effort for about nine years, I believe the reconstruction of Nanjing will be complete.”
“Nine years, is it? Nine years...”
“Can you not shorten it a little further?”
“I am sorry, Your Majesty.”
The Xuande Emperor wanted to carry on his father's wishes, completely rebuild Nanjing, and then return to the former capital, Nanjing, but...
He could not exactly move the capital to a city whose reconstruction was still incomplete, as that would not suit an emperor's dignity, so in the end he had no choice but to wait.
“Put even more effort into the reconstruction and make sure that, nine years from now, you create a city worthy of My dignity.”
“I shall engrave it into my bones, Your Majesty.”
“Yes. And I have summoned you like this because I wish to entrust you with a new important task.”
“What exactly is this new duty?”
The Ming eunuchs, particularly the grand eunuchs, occupied positions that even the Ming chancellors found difficult to challenge recklessly.
Zheng He, in particular, was rarely seen because he was always away on foreign expeditions, but Yongle had granted this eunuch the authority to command tens of thousands of troops and independently resolve matters involving countries beyond Ming.
Giving him a new position was practically the same as saying that Xuande intended to launch a massive national project.
The chancellors perked up their ears, eager to hear what the emperor was thinking.
“Supervisor Eunuch Zheng He shall take command of the Western Ocean expedition.”
“Your Majesty, what do you mean...?”
“The Great Yongle Emperor spread the might of Great Ming to the Four Seas through the Western Ocean expeditions and demonstrated our majesty to the barbarians. Therefore, I too wish to follow in the footsteps of the Great Yongle Emperor and extend the civilizing influence of China beyond India and all the way to Africa.”
The Ming chancellors felt as though their vision had suddenly gone white upon hearing the emperor's words.
Yongle's expansionist policies had devastated the people's livelihoods in Ming, causing rebellions to erupt one after another throughout the country...
And now the emperor was trying to launch another great expedition that would drain an obscene amount of money.
‘Are we going to bankrupt the national treasury completely at this rate?’
If this had been Joseon, the chancellors would have joined voices and sent a flood of memorials insisting that an expedition costing an outrageous amount while yielding no practical benefit must not be undertaken...
But Ming was a country where the emperor's power was so absolute that, with a single word, he could have chancellors beheaded or branded as traitors without consequence.
The officials did not dare stop this bombshell declaration.
Yet Zheng He himself did not want to undertake another great expedition either.
He was so old that his entire body ached even when he merely sat still, and the thought of leaving Ming and traveling all the way to India in that condition left him utterly at a loss.
“Your Majesty, I am an old man nearly sixty years of age. My body has grown weak, and it has been many years since I was capable of taking on such a great undertaking.”
“I believe there is no one more suited to this expedition than Supervisor Eunuch Zheng. The others have never even ventured beyond the sea, so how could I entrust dozens of treasure ships, hundreds of warships to support them, and the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers and sailors to such men?”
“But, Your Majesty, I am advanced in years...”
“I believe Supervisor Eunuch Zheng must go. Therefore, obey the imperial command, travel as far as Africa, and make Great Ming's majesty known.”
Had Kim Daebung heard that, he would have laughed and asked what use there was in a show of prestige prepared by squeezing the nation's finances dry.
However, Xuande firmly believed that every country under Heaven ought to fall under Ming's rule, so to him, this was a somewhat costly but essential expenditure and national project for displaying Ming's majesty.
“And while you are at it, wipe out the wokou in Tsushima and Iki. Send a separate envoy to the King of Japan—the title Ming bestowed on the shogun—and order him to properly suppress the wokou.”
Xuande ordered Zheng He to wipe out the wokou in Tsushima and Iki in a tone as casual as if he were sending a child on an errand to a convenience store.
It was incredibly arrogant to speak as though suppressing the wokou were some child's game, but...
Zheng He's great fleet was a force capable of independently putting down even coups in the small kingdoms of Southeast Asia, let alone invading India.
Conquering mainland Japan was another matter, but suppressing the wokou in Tsushima and Iki was a piece of cake.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Show the King of Joseon Ming's might unmistakably while you are at it. Make sure they cannot even dream of daring to oppose Great Ming.”
Ming now believed that, whatever might be true of other countries, Joseon would never dare oppose it.
But to indulge in Ming's ultimate imperial cosplay—the fantasy that, because it was a great empire, every country in the world was China's colony—it felt necessary to stage Joseon prostrating itself before Ming's majesty.
Moreover, this was not merely a show for the Ming emperor's satisfaction; it was an indispensable performance for bolstering imperial authority and stabilizing the state.
As the star of this show, Xuande ordered Zheng He to make Joseon bow its head.
“Prepare the fleet.”
Before long, word also reached Joseon that Ming had begun preparing Zheng He's great expedition, which it called the Western Ocean expedition.
**
Ming has no naval force for coastal defense.
No one could deny that fact.
Yet it was equally undeniable that Ming still possessed Zheng He's great fleet, the most powerful navy in the world.
According to actual history, the final great expedition began in 1431, about a year from now.
Knowing that, I had made preparations in my own way.
But there was one thing I had overlooked.
“The Ming bastards are planning to attack Iki and Tsushima?”
To be perfectly honest, I do not care in the slightest whether Iki is looted or not.
They do buy a great deal of steel produced in Joseon, but all the merchants selling them those quantities are from Tsushima.
In other words, Ming has no grounds to take issue with Joseon over this.
For now, we could blame Tsushima, then produce a merchant caught trying to pull an absurd scam in Joseon and claim he was the one directing the smuggling. What could Zheng He do about that?
The problem, however, was Tsushima, which had a very close relationship with us.
“If the Tsushima lord and Tsushima itself are reduced to a wasteland by Ming, that will be a problem we truly cannot clean up.”
To Joseon, Tsushima was like an appendix.
It was certainly good to have an appendix attached and healthy, but just as removing an appendix did not seriously interfere with one's ability to live...
the island of Tsushima would not vanish just because its lord and people disappeared.
So it would not mean losing our means of obtaining silver, either.
We could simply find another daimyo family to serve as a channel for smuggling.
We could join hands with the Ouchi, or give the Hosokawa or Yamana clans a chance.
They all went crazy for Ming goods; how happy would they be if Joseon offered to procure them?
“The problem is that the secret pact between Tsushima's lord and Joseon might leak.”
To keep the problem from growing worse, the key was to temporarily evacuate the Tsushima lord and all the people of Tsushima somewhere else so Zheng He's expeditionary force could not capture them.
“I need to discuss this with the Minister of Rites right away.”
If we did not decide how to protect Tsushima and act quickly, something irreversible would happen.
Still, it was fortunate that we did have a way to spirit the people of Tsushima away.