Wokou Can Be Put to Good Use (9)

There are truths that never change, no matter how much the times change.

One of them is the saying that a person even their parents couldn't raise into a proper person can never be fixed.

No matter how much time passed, even Soda Uemon Taro, a person his parents couldn't raise properly—or rather, someone addicted to Wako raiding—still couldn't quit Wako raiding.

"Hahaha, at this rate we'll be in Ningbo soon! Jiro, how much farther until we arrive!"

"I checked the North Star last night, and it looks like we'll arrive this evening."

"This evening, huh? Excellent. We'll get plenty of sword work in before sunset, have a drink of Ming liquor at night, and head back after that."

The Ming had focused only on blocking the Mongols and Jurchens in the north, and paid very little attention to countermeasures against Wako raiders in the south.

Because the cost of holding off the northern barbarians was so enormous that they had no room left to invest enough in southern anti-Wako defenses.

The barbarians might, if mishandled, have the power to bring down the Ming, but the Japanese bastards were at most capable of killing a few thousand people along the Ming coast—they were not a catastrophe that could destroy the country.

Therefore, the Ming relatively neglected Wako defense. For the sake of efficient budget use, of course...