Chapter Summaries

Wang Xuan organized the mass relocation of Guangxi’s wealthy families and commoners to Annam, then ordered campaigns to subdue mountain communities and reforms to the army and civil administration. News of his treatment of the great clans reached the Chu Faction, whose leaders recognized that his policies threatened their power and resolved that he must be stopped.

• Wang Xuan’s migration moved more than a hundred wealthy families and over five hundred thousand commoners to Annam, with the Five Poisons Cult helping protect the settlers.
• Wang Xuan ordered Li Liangbi, Hong Chengchou, Cao Wenzhao, Yuan Chonghuan, Yu Leyou, Qi Xinghui, and Di Haokuo to subdue minority groups in four Guangxi prefectures, while Shen Zhengqing’s institute supported the operation.
• Wang Xuan instructed Sun Chengzong to recruit forty thousand soldiers, discharge unfit troops, and establish local security teams, while Fan Wencheng helped formulate rules separating military and civil administration.
• Wang Xuan called for policy trials, a civil service Imperial Examination without participation restrictions, and greater focus on economic development and basic education.
• The head of the Wu family and other Chu Faction leaders discussed Wang Xuan’s actions and concluded that his policies undermined the power of the great clans.

The great clans, political factions, and imperial court planned ways to contain Wang Xuan, from purging his supporters and reshuffling garrisons to recruiting Japanese forces and disrupting his territory. Wang Xuan learned of some plots but remained unaware of the Donglin Party and Zhe Faction’s plan to enlist Japanese Pirates.

• The Gu and Wu family heads and other clan leaders agreed that Wang Xuan threatened their survival and planned to seize control of the Huguang-Guangxi border garrisons.
• The Gu family head proposed giving soldiers land and executing Huguang residents who had ties to Wang Xuan, and the other clan leaders agreed.
• Donglin Party and Zhe Faction members met secretly in Nanjing and agreed to seek Tokugawa Shogunate support for raids by Japanese forces, their own troops, and pirates along Wang Xuan’s coast.
• Fang Congzhe ordered transfers for officials in Wang Xuan’s territory to leave it without proper administrators, while the court considered extra taxes and new armies.
• Wang Xuan received some reports about the opposition’s plans but did not know about the Japanese Pirate scheme.

Wang Xuan ordered officials to announce that they could stay in his territory or leave, and directed troops to conduct exercises along three provincial borders. In the capital, officials dismissed Qi Hongliang’s memorial requesting rewards, then attended Li Shantang’s banquet, where removing their shoes exposed them to an embarrassing stench.

• Wang Xuan told Ye Huo and Sun Chuanting to publish the officials’ options, report the pacification of Annam, and protect the families of those who stayed or relocated.
• Wang Xuan ordered troops near Huguang, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang to advance thirty li for what he called a combat exercise.
• Officials in the capital mocked Qi Hongliang’s memorial requesting commendations for the Annam campaign and threw it away.
• Li Shantang invited the leaders of the court’s four major parties to a banquet at his residence.
• Fang Congzhe, Gao Panlong, and the other guests removed their boots and were embarrassed by the smell of their feet on the heated floor.

Li Shantang hosted the faction leaders, warned them about Wang Xuan’s stance on the Fujian transfers, and confronted them over Qi Hongliang’s memorial. After throwing them out, he learned the next day that the Grand Secretariat had discarded the memorial.

• Li Shantang told Fang Congzhe and the other faction leaders that Wang Xuan would not obstruct the Fujian officials’ transfers and would protect the families of those who stayed on his side.
• Li Shantang asked the leaders about Qi Hongliang’s memorial, but Fang Congzhe claimed he had not seen it.
• Li Shantang ended the meeting and drove the leaders from his residence into the freezing wind before they could properly dress.
• The next morning, Fang Congzhe and the other leaders demanded Qi Hongliang’s memorial at the Grand Secretariat.
• A Grand Secretariat official said the memorial was in the trash bin and collapsed in fear.

Fang Congzhe and the inner cabinet learned that Wang Xuan had sent seventy thousand troops into Zhejiang and Jiangxi, with another force entering Huguang, and feared he was starting a war. Li Shantang said the troop movements were an “Actual Combat Military Exercise” meant to pressure the court, and the officials agreed to issue the decree granting Wang Xuan’s demands.

• Fang Congzhe read Qi Hongliang’s memorial, which demanded an earldom for his military service and three earldoms in total, and the senior officials angrily objected.
• Fang Congzhe received urgent reports that Wang Xuan had sent thirty thousand troops into Zhejiang and forty thousand into Jiangxi; another dispatch revealed thirty thousand more had entered Huguang.
• The officials debated whether Wang Xuan was preparing an attack or coercing the palace, while news of the troop movements spread through the capital and prices rose as merchants hoarded goods.
• At Li Shantang’s residence, Li Shantang said Wang Xuan’s deployments were an “Actual Combat Military Exercise” unless an outside force intervened.
• Fang Congzhe and the others agreed that the court would issue the decree, though he warned that the people of the realm would judge Wang Xuan’s pressure on the court.

After Wang Xuan’s demands forced the court to grant Qi Hongliang and his generals real fiefs, Japanese pirates spread across the southern seas and frustrated his naval forces. Wang Xuan ordered the crossbow ban lifted and merchant ships allowed to install ballistae, despite Sun Chuanting’s objections.

• Fang Congzhe and the Four Parties agreed to reorganize garrisons, transfer them to the border, and send sixty thousand frontier troops to the three provinces.
• The court granted Qi Hongliang a real fief as Marquis of Dingnan and made Qi Xinghui and Di Haokuo earls, after which Wang Xuan withdrew his troops.
• More than eight thousand people sent by the Tokugawa Shogunate arrived with returning merchants after the Tokugawa family received iron from Wang Xuan’s allies.
• Japanese pirates launched hundreds of scattered attacks across the southern seas, and Wang Xuan’s naval forces struggled to suppress them.
• Wang Xuan ordered the crossbow ban lifted and authorized merchant ships to install ballistae, while Sun Chuanting warned him that the policy would cause danger.

Wang Xuan’s public crossbow sales armed merchants and coastal communities, helping them crush the Japanese Pirates while causing fear among Jiangnan’s wealthy families. The great clans recognized that their scheme to destabilize Wang Xuan had backfired, as the weakening Ming Dynasty drove them to prepare their own escape plans.

• Wang Xuan put three models of crossbows on sale, and demand surged despite the court’s ban.
• A merchant ship used a ballista and crossbows to devastate a Japanese Pirate vessel and force its survivors to surrender.
• Coastal communities and the navy wiped out more than ten thousand genuine and fake Japanese Pirates in just over a month.
• Crossbows spread into Jiangnan, where wealthy young men were secretly shot and powerful families became afraid to leave home.
• The great Jiangnan families realized that the Donglin Party and the Zhe Faction’s scheme against Wang Xuan had prompted the crossbow sales instead.
• As the Ming Dynasty weakened, families in Nanjing began making fallback plans in case it collapsed.

Xu Hongji decided to secretly take his son, Xu Wenjue, to Fujian to seek a way out as the Great Ming weakened. After seeing Fuzhou’s extraordinary prosperity, they sent Wang Xuan a calling card, and Wang Xuan found their visit interesting.

• Xu Hongji rebuked Xu Wenjue for repeating others’ criticisms of Wang Xuan and urged him to judge people for himself.
• Xu Hongji told Xu Wenjue that the Great Ming might be nearing its end and that the Xu Family needed a way out, then arranged to travel secretly to Fujian.
• Xu Hongji and Xu Wenjue arrived in Fuzhou and were astonished by its enormous port, wealth, strict order, and bustling city.
• Xu Hongji and Xu Wenjue rented two rooms in the crowded new city and sent a calling card to Wang Xuan’s residence.
• Wang Xuan examined the Xu Family’s calling card and found their visit interesting.

Wang Xuan met secretly with Xu Hongji and discussed whether to invade Japan, learning that the old duke wanted Japan conquered to end its raids. Xu Hongji’s son Xu Wenjue objected in the name of virtue and civilizing instruction, prompting Wang Xuan to mock his bookish beliefs and offer him two lessons.

• Xu Hongji and Xu Wenjue arrived discreetly at Wang Xuan’s residence, where Wang Xuan received them in his study.
• Xu Hongji asked how Wang Xuan planned to deal with Japan, and Wang Xuan suggested that conquering it would be easy.
• Xu Hongji admitted he wanted Wang Xuan to invade and occupy Japan, ideally dealing with it as he had Annam.
• Xu Wenjue protested that massacres would disgrace the Duke of Wei’s Estate and argued that Japan should be taught the sages’ principles instead.
• Wang Xuan teased Xu Wenjue’s grasp of the supposed deeper meaning, and Xu Hongji angrily rebuked his son.
• Wang Xuan told Xu Wenjue that believing everything in a book was worse than having no book and that history was written by the victors.

Wang Xuan showed Xu Hongji that he had a detailed route for invading Japan, then agreed to help the Xu Family settle on Kyushu Island in exchange for three million people. The chapter ended with Xu Hongji realizing the island might be worth the cost but wondering how he could gather so many people.

• Wang Xuan rebuked Xu Wenjue’s view of historical rulers, and Xu Hongji made his son thank him.
• Wang Xuan showed Xu Hongji and Xu Wenjue a detailed sea route from Fujian to Kyushu Island and said he had no personal need for Japan’s wealth.
• Xu Hongji revealed that he wanted Japanese land as a refuge for the Xu Family if the Ming realm collapsed.
• Wang Xuan agreed that the Xu Family could settle on Kyushu Island but demanded three million people instead of money.
• Wang Xuan argued that Kyushu Island’s land and mineral wealth justified the price, leaving Xu Hongji struggling to imagine where he could find so many people.

Wang Xuan arranged to relocate hundreds of thousands of people southward with help from the Duke of Wei and the Duke of Dingguo, while preparing a route for a possible expedition to Japan. He also ordered measures to grow and protect the population, and the chapter ended with him eager to go to Japan after the scouting fleet returned.

• Wang Xuan proposed using grain and ships to recruit and transport displaced people, and Xu Hongji agreed to the plan with the Duke of Wei and Duke of Dingguo branches.
• Wang Xuan ordered Sun Chuanting to survey a sea route to Japan and establish three ports, while Sun Chuanting warned against an unnecessary invasion.
• Wang Xuan revealed that a client had offered three million people in exchange for action against Japan, then ordered childbirth rewards and the establishment of a Huaxia Medical Academy.
• A fleet of twenty ships carrying two thousand soldiers sailed for Kyushu Island to survey the route and remove Satsuma forces from Ryukyu.
• After more than three months, the fleet returned, leaving the soldiers in Ryukyu, while Wang Xuan had already moved hundreds of thousands of people south with the Xu family’s help.

Wang Xuan led a massive fleet toward Japan, insisting that his invasion be recorded as a humanitarian rescue while sending merchant ships to sell goods. After imposing treaties on Ryukyu, the fleet split near Japan, and the chapter ended with Shimazu forces scrambling to defend the docks at Kagoshima.

• Wang Xuan rebuked Sun Chuanting for calling the expedition an invasion and instructed him to describe it in the histories as a rescue of Japan’s suffering people.
• Wang Xuan’s fleet reached Ryukyu, where the king welcomed him and signed treaties requiring the kingdom to adopt Chinese language, characters, clothing, and customs.
• After leaving Ryukyu, Wang Xuan’s fleet reached the vicinity of Japan and split into four groups near the Osumi Strait, with the main fleet heading for Kyushu Island.
• The Shimazu clan’s Ashigaru gathered in disorder at the docks in Kagoshima as they prepared for the fleet’s arrival.

Wang Xuan’s Ming fleet attacked Kagoshima, and Cao Wenzhao’s troops routed the Japanese defenders. Shimazu Tadamasa had assembled five thousand Ashigaru to counterattack the Ming, unaware that his forces were already being overwhelmed.

• An Ashigaru spotted Wang Xuan’s approaching fleet, and Japanese harbor watchers gathered without recognizing the danger.
• Wang Xuan transferred soldiers onto the warships and ordered volleys of arrows to clear the crowded pier.
• Cao Wenzhao led Ming troops against the Japanese formation, whose samurai were cut down by a coordinated arrow volley.
• Cao Wenzhao dismissed the wounded Shimazu general’s accusation of a dishonorable attack, then ordered his men to pursue the fleeing Ashigaru.
• Shimazu Tadamasa had mobilized five thousand Ashigaru to retake the Ryukyu Kingdom and raid Ming territory, confident that his warriors would prevail.

Wang Xuan landed in Japan after his army routed the Shimazu forces at the dock, while Shimazu Tadamasa learned of the defeat and prepared to lead troops against the Ming. He dismissed Nishihara Daisuke’s warning that the fleet held more soldiers and set out believing his army could easily defeat them.

• Wang Xuan stepped in human waste on the dock and angrily complained about the Japanese lack of public toilets.
• Nishihara Daisuke fled to Kagoshima Castle after the Ming troops routed the Ashigaru and killed Shimazu Shigeaki and his warriors.
• Shimazu Tadamasa interrupted Nishihara Daisuke’s report several times, then grew furious when he learned Shimazu Shigeaki had been killed by a volley of arrows.
• Shimazu Tadamasa tried and failed to pull his sword from a low table, fell over, then took Kikubu Touma’s sword and ordered the warriors to assemble.
• Nishihara Daisuke warned Shimazu Tadamasa that more Ming soldiers were likely aboard the fleet, but Kikubu Touma dismissed the warning and Shimazu Tadamasa marched out to confront the Ming.

Shimazu Tadamasa led the Shimazu clan’s warriors to confront Wang Xuan’s forces, dismissing Nishihara Daisuke’s warnings until he saw the overwhelming army. Wang Xuan killed Shimazu Tadamasa and ordered the battle to begin, leaving the two forces closing in as the Special Operations Team prepared to fire.

• Nishihara Daisuke begged Shimazu Tadamasa to retreat, but Shimazu Tadamasa had him restrained and marched with a thousand warriors toward the harbor.
• Shimazu Tadamasa saw Wang Xuan’s three thousand Special Operations Team members and the larger Daimyo army behind them, then learned from Nishihara Daisuke that the force ahead was only a small part of the enemy.
• Wang Xuan interrupted Shimazu Tadamasa’s introduction, challenged him to choose between a one-on-one fight and a group battle, and beheaded him when he answered.
• Wang Xuan ordered the Special Operations Team to kill the remaining warriors, and Yu Sheng led the charge as both sides rushed toward each other.
• As the Japanese warriors readied their sword strikes, someone in the Special Operations Team shouted, “Fire!”

Wang Xuan’s Special Operations Team routed Shimazu Tadamasa’s elite warriors with crossbows and throwing knives, then captured Kagoshima Castle. He explained that he spared the Japanese civilians because he planned to enslave the men and send Japanese women to his territories, including brothels.

• The Special Operations Team fired volleys of crossbow bolts and throwing knives, killing the Japanese warriors without losing a soldier.
• Wang Xuan ordered his men to advance and finish off the remaining enemies, then explained to Sun Chuanting that protecting his own soldiers mattered more than battlefield honor.
• Sun Chuanting admitted he had been wrong, and Wang Xuan forgave him.
• Wang Xuan’s forces captured Kagoshima Castle an hour later and found farmers, rather than elite soldiers, defending its walls.
• Wang Xuan prohibited his troops from harming the civilians and later told his officers he intended to enslave Japanese men and send Japanese women to his territories.

Wang Xuan began conquering Kyushu Island, focusing on exterminating its aristocracy and controlling its population while presenting the seizure of the Shimazu treasury as nationalization. As his forces advanced toward Higo Province, Otomo Tensho prepared an ambush, unaware of the Ming army’s strength.

• Wang Xuan told Sun Chuanting that Japanese people would accept being taken away and joked about Japanese surnames and women’s clothing.
• Wang Xuan and his companions inspected the Shimazu treasury, where they found millions of taels in silver and gold; Wang Xuan called the seizure nationalization and joked about awarding honors to the dead.
• Wang Xuan split his fifty-thousand-man army, sending Cao Wenzhao, Yu Leyou, Qi Xinghui, and Di Haokuo to conquer Kyushu while warships blocked escape routes.
• Wang Xuan’s forces quickly conquered Hyuga, Satsuma, and Ōsumi, killing the aristocrats and samurai they encountered.
• Otomo Tensho learned that the Shimazu clan had fallen and gathered twenty thousand troops to defend Higo Castle, believing the Ming army had won through a surprise attack.
• Otomo Tensho and a Nanzhili merchant waited with their forces in ambush, and the merchant spotted the approaching Ming troops.

Wang Xuan’s forces began conquering Kyushu Island, targeting its aristocrats while blocking escape routes, and Otomo Tensho prepared an ambush against Cao Wenzhao and Yu Leyou’s army. The ambush failed, and Otomo’s troops broke under the Ming army’s counterattack.

• Wang Xuan divided his fifty thousand troops, sending Cao Wenzhao, Yu Leyou, Qi Xinghui, and Di Haokuo to conquer Kyushu Island and ordering them to eliminate the aristocratic class.
• Otomo Tensho learned that the Shimazu clan had fallen and gathered twenty thousand troops to ambush the approaching Ming army outside Higo Castle.
• A Nanzhili merchant recognized the army as Wang Xuan’s and warned Otomo Tensho that it had come in retaliation for the Tokugawa Shogunate’s failed expedition.
• Cao Wenzhao and Yu Leyou learned of the ambush from their scouts and prepared their soldiers to counter it.
• Otomo Tensho ordered his men to roll logs and boulders down the hillside, but the prepared spear formation stopped their force.
• Cao Wenzhao led a charge up the slope, killing thousands of Otomo’s soldiers and sending the remaining peasant troops fleeing.

After Otomo Tensho’s peasant army was crushed outside Higo Castle, he devised a plan from Romance of the Three Kingdoms to bluff the Ming forces with the Empty Fort Strategy. The next morning, Cao Wenzhao and Yu Leyou recognized the ruse as Otomo Tensho sat on the wall pretending to play a zither, leaving them wondering what was happening.

• Cao Wenzhao’s forces overwhelmed Otomo Tensho’s twenty thousand peasant soldiers, killing more than fifteen thousand, while Otomo Tensho and his samurai retreated to Higo Castle.
• Cao Wenzhao ordered the dead buried where they fell and their heads piled into a Jingguan outside the castle.
• Otomo Tensho reassured his retainers that his six hundred samurai remained intact, then announced a strategy inspired by Romance of the Three Kingdoms; the fat merchant secretly feared the plan and hid among the townspeople.
• The next morning, Otomo Tensho opened Higo Castle’s gates and staged the Empty Fort Strategy by sitting on the wall with a zither he could not play.
• Cao Wenzhao and Yu Leyou recognized Otomo Tensho’s performance as the Empty Fort Strategy and wondered aloud what was happening.

Cao Wenzhao’s army stormed Higo Castle, overcoming the Japanese defenders with disciplined siege tactics and specialized shield units. The castle’s samurai were nearly wiped out, and Cao and Yu Leyou reflected on the long history of conflict between peoples as Cao wondered whether Wang Xuan could ever pacify the grasslands.

• Yu Leyou and Cao Wenzhao mocked the defender’s apparent Empty Fort Strategy, but Cao fired an arrow at Otomo Tensho and the samurai-sword-wielding maidservant deflected it.
• Cao Wenzhao ordered the assault, and his soldiers climbed Higo Castle’s walls despite the defenders’ arrows.
• Otomo Tensho sent Honda Johei and six hundred samurai to drive the Ming troops from the battlements, where their initial attacks inflicted heavy casualties.
• Cao Wenzhao deployed shield, spear, and crossbow teams that overwhelmed the samurai, and Honda Johei died after breaking through several shields.
• Yu Leyou reminded Cao Wenzhao of the Japanese Pirates’ atrocities, and Cao thought of the suffering Shanxi had endured from the grassland tribes.
• Yu Leyou predicted the Japanese would vanish, while Cao wondered when Wang Xuan would march north and whether he could pacify the grasslands.