Infuriating

Seeing that he was so furious he was practically about to burst into flames, Gong Xia hurriedly urged him to sit and mediated between the two with a pounding headache.

Gong Xia invited Steward Jiang to take the seat of honor.

Steward Jiang did not stand on ceremony either, sitting down in the principal seat. Perhaps he had truly been angered, because he began listing Commander Jiang's family background, connections, achievements, and career history.

Commander Jiang was fifty-nine years old and already the third-rank commander of the Quanzhou Guard. Looking across the realm, he could be considered one of the finest.

Commander Jiang, too, came from a distinguished family. His father had been a Jingnan meritorious official, and he himself had earned military merits, though they had been won in the north. Years ago, when Japan came to offer tribute, two delegations arrived, each holding tally permits and claiming that theirs was the genuine one.

The tally permits bore serial numbers and half-seals, while the other halves were kept by the Ming Dynasty. Once the halves were matched, it would be clear which was real and which was false.

The Imperial Court could tell them apart, but at the time, it did not wish to tear all decorum to shreds. It decided to recognize both delegations, accepted the tribute goods from each, and bestowed identical return gifts upon them.

The Imperial Court had already sternly rebuked Japan and forbidden such a thing from happening again.

The Ming Dynasty had thought the matter ended there. They had, after all, given Japan face.

Yet when the two delegations returned to Quanzhou and were only one step away from leaving the border, they began quarreling among themselves and attacked one another.

Just as the Imperial Court was preparing to send someone to mediate,