Continuation 86: I Am That Dragon

(Previously: Volume Three, Chapter 345—Liu Chang'an told Li Hongfang about people from the Central Plains traveling to Japan during the Kamakura period.)

The Kamakura period was considered the beginning of Japan's feudal age, as well as the first stage in its transition from aristocratic lordship to a system ruled by warrior lords.

By then, the Fujiwara family was no longer what it had once been. Throughout the entire Kamakura period, there were only two shoguns with the surname Fujiwara.

Before that, only Fujiwara women had been qualified to bear emperors; the emperor was always the Fujiwara family's grandson.

For quite a long time, the Japanese had desperately sought support from the Central Plains. If they received an audience with and an investiture from the Chinese Emperor, it was a symbol of Heaven's mandate.

During the Kamakura period, the Fujiwara family was exceedingly eager to restore its former glory. It was then that a man from the Central Plains, leading a fleet and singing as he rode the waves, arrived in Japan.

He was dashing and charming, and every Japanese woman longed to receive his favor. His gaze was clean and clear, possessing a brightness Japanese men did not have.

He was tall, so tall that one had to look up to meet his gentle eyes. The Japanese men of that era always hunched over as they followed at his side, like children beside an adult.

Those Japanese with bloodlines tracing back to migrants who had crossed eastward from the Qin and Han eras of the Central Plains regarded him as the glory of their ancestors. Standing beside him, the spirit and radiance on their faces made it seem as though they had become people of the Central Plains once more.

The head of the Fujiwara family at the time had