Chapter Summaries

Zuwaro tested Tetta Mune-yoshi’s blacksmithing knowledge and heard him explain the principles of forging Tamahagane blades. Impressed by Tetta’s skill and generosity, Zuwaro rewarded him with twenty jin of gold and promised him a place of honor.

• Matsushita Tessuke challenged Tetta Mune-yoshi to prove his skills by forging a blade, but Tetta presented Zuwaro with an illustrated scroll of Yamashiro School methods instead.
• Tetta explained iron smelting, fold-forging, annealing, clay coating, and quenching, revealing how each process affected a blade’s quality.
• Matsushita listened as Tetta explained that clay thickness and the choice of water or oil controlled how quickly steel cooled.
• Tetta recommended a heavy axe, horse saber, or wolf-tooth mace for Tiger Slave and said a master blade smith could forge other weapons as well.
• Zuwaro declared that Tetta was a true grandmaster and ordered Tiger Slave to give him twenty jin of gold, doubling the expected payment.

Zuwaro bought skilled Japanese craftsmen and their apprentices from Morino Kiyoshi, while learning about their trades and the complex fortifications used in southern wars. He rewarded Yachiku Jiro and directed Tiger Slave to place five Gold Talismans on Morino Kiyoshi, recognizing the merchant’s pointed warning about the southern Wajin.

• Morino Kiyoshi returned the extra gold to the ship, and Zuwaro arranged for Tami-kusa to take Tetta Mune-yoshi to rest while the old master summoned his apprentices and granddaughters.
• Morino Kiyoshi waived payment for five blacksmith apprentices, and Zuwaro agreed to buy each of the seven experienced artisans for five Gold Talismans.
• Tokou Ichiro confirmed Potter Shinro’s skill with kilns and painted pottery, and Zuwaro paid for him and allowed his apprentices and family through.
• Zuwaro paid Kuruki Sadakichi for his carpentry and puppet-show skills, then bought Woodcarver Zenshu for his ability to carve Buddhist statues.
• Yachiku Jiro described the defensive works he had built during southern wars, and Zuwaro recognized the sophistication of the Wajin techniques.
• Zuwaro ordered Tiger Slave to put five Gold Talismans on Morino Kiyoshi, acknowledging the merchant’s warning about southern powers.

Zuwaro traded with Morino Kiyoshi for skilled Japanese artisans, paying generously for their knowledge and techniques. Their profitable deal ended with both proposing a new trade route to obtain even more artisans.

• Zuwaro used Tiger Slave to intimidate Morino Kiyoshi, then continued trading with him.
• Zuwaro acquired hemp-growing artisan Aso Kaida and skilled weaver and dyer Orisome Yui, planning for her to train apprentices and learn cotton weaving.
• Morino Kiyoshi presented silversmith Kawasaki Ginzo, and Zuwaro paid ten Gold Talismans for him after learning of his ties to rival temples.
• Morino Kiyoshi calculated that he had received sixty catties of gold for the artisans and considered sharing part of the profits with the Kakizaki Clan.
• Zuwaro and Morino Kiyoshi each proposed a new plan, including a trade route to Joseon for more artisans.

Morino Kiyoshi negotiated with Zuwaro for funds to open a Joseon trade route and obtain physicians, artisans, and books. Zuwaro paid a larger deposit than requested, and Morino handed him several books before turning to the remaining military supplies.

• Morino Kiyoshi told Zuwaro that he could not find physicians skilled in variolation in Wagoku but could seek Joseon doctors and artisans.
• Morino Kiyoshi proposed opening a Joseon trade route and requested thirty Gold Talismans as a deposit.
• Zuwaro ordered Tami-kusa to give Morino fifty Gold Talismans and demanded medical and artisan books as well.
• Morino Kiyoshi sent Matsushita Shojiro to store the gold and bring books from the ship, then gave the volumes to Zuwaro.
• Zuwaro picked up Jian Deng Xin Hua, and Morino Kiyoshi explained that it was a banned book before urging him to finish trading for the remaining supplies.

Zuwaro forced Morino Kiyoshi to sell two ships, then bought their cargo of rice and weapons with enormous amounts of gold. Morino prepared a final serving of Gyokuro tea before departing with more than 220 jin of gold and reflecting on the upheaval its return to the Capital Region might bring.

• Zuwaro grabbed Morino Kiyoshi and offered to buy two ships with their cargo, while Tiger Slave and Xiong Da blocked Morino’s Warrior Monks.
• Morino agreed to sell two Benzaisen Ships for twenty jin of gold each, and Zuwaro paid him forty jin.
• Morino’s crew disembarked, and Morino sold Zuwaro rice, armor, spears, swords, and bows for another fifty jin of gold.
• Tiger Slave brought another fifty jin of gold, and Morino offered the remaining rice wine, tea, and salt without charge.
• Morino asked Rong Dong to bring the finest Echizen Gyokuro Tea and whisk it for a farewell cup as Morino prepared to leave with more than 220 jin of gold.

Zuwaro and Morino Kiyoshi completed a hugely profitable gold trade in Ezo and exchanged gifts before Morino sailed south. As the Kakizaki fleet departed, Kudo Shigeyasu wondered whether the growing Sanda tribes would eventually take Ezo from the Kakizaki Clan.

• Zuwaro and Morino Kiyoshi shared tea while Morino explained Shiba Eido's family history and praised Zuwaro's growing power.
• Morino tested whether Zuwaro intended to interfere in Wagoku, then exchanged a Kyoto folding fan for Zuwaro's obsidian necklace and announced he would return after the autumn harvest.
• Zuwaro considered plans for the Kingdom's future support fleet, while Morino calculated that the Ezo trade had brought Yoneya enormous profits and resolved to bind the Tendai Sect, warrior houses, and Omi Merchant Group into future ventures.
• Morino's ships carried the Kakizaki samurai south, and he promised the escorts a bale of brown rice on the next voyage.
• Kudo Shigeyasu watched Ezo recede and worried that Sanda arms and growing strength would threaten Kakizaki rule over the northern land.

Zuwaro planned to expand the kingdom’s alliances and trade network in Northeast Asia, then studied a banned Ming book to learn about the region’s history and culture. Meanwhile, Si Cheng prepared to seek an audience with the Provincial Administration Commissioner in Ningbo.

• Zuwaro planned to recruit and arm Buyo tribes, transport supplies and artisans to Shenhuatai Port, and strengthen the Maha Tribe’s defenses.
• Zuwaro reaffirmed his mission to unite Rubber People tribes and imagined extending the kingdom’s influence to Joseon, Mongol, and Great Ming alliances.
• Zuwaro prayed for wisdom, then began reading New Tales of the Lamp-Clipping Record, noting its Hongwu-era preface and place names.
• Si Cheng read the same banned book in Great Ming and reflected on maritime trade and his clan’s rise.
• Si Cheng sent a servant to deliver his calling card, letter, and gift to the Provincial Administration Commissioner’s residence and request an audience in three days.

In 1494, Shi Wende sought a meeting with Zhejiang Right Provincial Administration Commissioner Wang Zhe to pursue a Tally Permit for his clan’s maritime trade. After hours of waiting, he was finally brought to Wang Zhe’s study, where he saw the official reading a booklet.

• Shi Wende worshiped at King Ashoka Temple and planned to use the visit to build rapport with Provincial Administration Commissioner Wang Zhe.
• Shi Wende reflected on the sea ban, the risks of illegal maritime trade, and his clan’s need for a Tally Permit.
• Shi Wende bribed the gatekeeper and entered Wang Zhe’s residence for his scheduled audience.
• Shi Wende waited for four hours before the steward led him to Wang Zhe’s study.
• Shi Wende stood waiting as Wang Zhe read, then glimpsed the title Collected Works of Duke Li Wenxi on the booklet.

Wang Zhe studied Li Chun’s collected works to map the connections among Zhejiang’s literati-officials and considered how those ties shaped local governance. After recognizing Shi Wende as Liu Daxia’s disciple, he turned to the waiting juren and asked what he thought.

• Shi Wende waited respectfully while Wang Zhe read Li Chun’s collected works and traced the relationships described in its poems.
• Wang Zhe connected Li Chun to Zhang Chun through their Huguang origins and to Xu Jingwen through their shared examination year.
• Wang Zhe praised Li Chun’s poem condemning Shi Heng and identified the political faction linking Li Chun and Li Shijie.
• Wang Zhe reflected on the duties of provincial governance and recognized Shi Wende as one of Liu Daxia’s disciples.
• Wang Zhe turned to Shi Wende and asked what he thought after listening from the side.

Provincial Administration Commissioner Wang Zhe tested Shi Wende’s deference and warned him about the dangers of his family’s maritime power. He used Liu Shiyong’s destruction of Zheng He’s nautical charts to explain his opposition to overseas voyages, leaving Shi Wende facing Wang Zhe’s demand that Great Ming prioritize agriculture and peace over maritime trade.

• Shi Wende praised Wang Zhe’s teachings and bowed, and Wang Zhe judged his temperament before inviting him to sit.
• Wang Zhe pointed out the Chongming Shi Clan’s reputation as local strongmen, prompting Shi Wende to insist that his family followed farming and study.
• Wang Zhe traced Shi Wende’s courtesy name and examination connections through Ma Qin, Liu Shiyong, and Duke Li Wenxi, but Shi Wende failed to grasp the political ties he was being offered.
• Wang Zhe told Shi Wende that Liu Shiyong had hidden and claimed to destroy Zheng He’s nautical charts rather than enable another voyage to the Western Ocean.
• Wang Zhe declared that Great Ming should make agriculture its foundation, keep military affairs restrained, and regard maritime trade as a source of chaos.

Shi Wende sought guidance from Zhejiang Provincial Administration Commissioner Wang Zhe after hearing him condemn maritime trade as a source of disorder. Wang explained that the Ming prioritized the northern frontier and depended on Jiangnan’s agricultural taxes and goods, leaving Shi worried about his family’s maritime business and sailors.

• Wang Zhe lectured Shi Wende that Zhu Xi’s teachings made agriculture and stability the foundations of good governance.
• Wang described his inspection of Zhejiang’s farms and explained why Ningbo Port was the final stop on his tour.
• Shi Wende cautiously asked how to counter arguments that maritime trade had enriched the Southern Song.
• Wang argued that the Song’s trade wealth had not protected its northern lands and that Ming policy had to support the frontier and the capital.
• Wang warned that expanded maritime trade would enrich Jiangnan, weaken the Kaizhong Law, reduce frontier supplies, and invite unrest.
• Wang criticized Zhejiang’s farmers for converting rice fields to mulberry cultivation, while Shi worried about his family’s trade and sailors.

Provincial Administration Commissioner Wang Zhe instructed Shi Wende that agriculture, waterworks, and grain production were the foundations of Great Ming, while maritime trade harmed the countryside and the realm’s finances. He left Shi questioning who truly profited from the trade and how much of Ningbo’s foreign commerce was controlled by coastal gentry and local strongmen.

• Shi Wende listened deferentially to Wang Zhe’s arguments against maritime trade but privately recalled how land loss and poverty drove commoners to seek work at sea.
• Wang Zhe taught Shi to memorize Zhu Xi’s Essay on Encouraging Agriculture and outlined seasonal cultivation, diverse crops, irrigation, and the protection of draft oxen.
• Wang Zhe warned that changing rice fields to mulberry reduced grain supplies and increased dependence on grain shipped from Huguang.
• Wang Zhe praised Liu Daxia’s Yellow River repairs as a greater achievement than military or civil accomplishments.
• Wang Zhe argued that maritime trade drained copper cash, increased silver and urban prices, and asked Shi who gained the greatest profits from Ningbo’s foreign trade.

Wang Zhe questioned Shi Wende about Ningbo’s illicit maritime trade, then spared the Shi Clan from immediate punishment in exchange for using them to investigate the Wa Kingdom’s fleet. He warned Shi Wende to prepare for the Wa tribute mission next year and to reduce the clan’s risks before Wang retired.

• Shi Wende revealed that most foreign merchant ships used false Ming identities or unverifiable Tally Permits, while maritime trade profits flowed to eunuchs, gentry clans, shipowners, and Wa merchants.
• Shi Wende knelt before Wang Zhe and argued that maritime trade gave landless commoners work after powerful gentry clans had absorbed their farmland.
• Wang Zhe decided not to ban maritime trade outright, fearing that displaced commoners would become refugees, but lamented his inability to challenge the powerful clans.
• Wang Zhe ordered Shi Wende to scout the Wa Kingdom’s fleet before its tribute mission next year and have the Shi Clan serve as interpreters when it arrived.
• Shi Wende promised to obey, and Wang Zhe assured him the Shi Clan would be protected while he remained in office but urged the clan to make plans for his retirement.

Shi Wende asked Provincial Administration Commissioner Wang Zhe whether Eastern Barbarian Island barbarians could pay tribute to the Ming court, hoping to secure trade credentials for his clan. Wang Zhe rejected their request, declaring that the Zhejiang Maritime Trade Office would not accept their tribute.

• Shi Wende stopped Wang Zhe from dismissing him and asked whether a group from Eastern Barbarian Island could pay tribute.
• Wang Zhe questioned whether the visitors were genuine barbarians, and Shi Wende insisted they came from the Jilong Tribe.
• Shi Wende hoped to obtain tribute-trade credentials so his clan could establish a branch on Eastern Barbarian Island and conduct maritime trade legally.
• Wang Zhe explained that tribute was reserved for recognized states and strategically important frontier groups, and that the court had not granted new overseas tribute status in recent reigns.
• Wang Zhe refused to accept the Eastern Barbarian Island group's tribute.

Shi Wende sought Provincial Administration Commissioner Wang Zhe’s guidance on overseas tribute and learned that Wang opposed accepting it, while authorizing Shi to report news about the Wa people. Leaving the residence with a protective name card, Shi wondered whether his family should abandon its maritime trade and Eastern Barbarian Island arrangement, as Ningbo’s prosperity remained vulnerable to the officials who controlled it.

• Wang Zhe weighed the political risks of overseas tribute and decided that the Dongfan tribesmen should return on their own, with no unrest permitted.
• Wang Zhe instructed Shi Wende to keep the Wa people in mind and report important news, and his steward gave Shi a name card that could protect him from local authorities.
• Shi Wende gave the steward a sealed packet and left the residence by the rear gate, exhausted but clutching the name card.
• Shi Wende reflected that scholarly status was the only secure path for protecting the Shi Family and questioned whether the family should end its maritime trade.
• Shi Wende looked over Ningbo Port’s prosperous fleet and recognized how easily the sea trade and coastal livelihoods could be crushed by official power.

Zuwaro prepared Shenhuatai Port for a northern voyage while considering how the Kingdom could consolidate its influence through trade and diplomacy on Mashiri Island. He set sail with three galleys toward the Maha Tribe and the great river Sahaliyan Ula.

• Zuwaro inspected Shenhuatai Port’s potato fields, workshops, livestock pens, and fishing boats as its people and artisans developed the settlement.
• Tiger Slave brought Zuwaro roasted roe deer and kidneys, while Zuwaro recalled how He-nu had become his chief wife and taken charge of the other women.
• Zuwaro reviewed the peace agreement between the Buyo and Ishikari Clans, which divided territory and coalfields and established trade in coal and iron sand.
• Zuwaro decided to maintain the new order on Mashiri Island through reconciliation, trade, and preaching rather than risk conquering the Ishikari Tribe.
• Two days later, Zuwaro and Tiger Slave joined the crew and warriors aboard three galleys and sailed north toward Sahaliyan Ula and the Maha Tribe’s camp, Nurgan Miaojie.

Chimer sent Losanda and two Zheyang Ships west with gold and orders to recruit Western Sea artisans, while Chiwako and Cedar Shaman discussed the new ships and the delayed southern expedition. The northern fleet received the latest Wind God Ships, leaving the southern voyage for next year and giving Chiwako time to visit his family.

• Chimer bid farewell to Losanda and the two Zheyang Ships as they sailed west toward the Divine Revelation Island Chain and the Ice and Snow Peninsula.
• Chimer painted the voyage on a wooden board and added a four-fingered Priest Apprentice he recognized as a returning figure from Wajin Island.
• Chiwako inspected Soybean, corn, and Rice fields while kingdom priests recorded how the crops were growing.
• Cedar Shaman told Chiwako that Lao Jin had launched four Wind God Ships, but they were assigned to the northern exploration fleet instead of the southern fleet.
• Cedar Shaman said the southern fleet would have to wait until next year to sail toward Lima, and Chiwako celebrated the delay by giving Cedar his tobacco pouch and planning to visit his family.

The Lake Kingdom’s expanding agriculture and cassava fields supported a growing population, while the Coastal Alliance traded weapons and supplies with Red Crow tribes for captured laborers and valuable goods. After gathering more than nineteen hundred people, the fleet sailed south toward Golden Bay City, leaving the Red Crow chiefs to prepare for further raids.

• The Lake Kingdom’s fields, canals, fertilizer, and tools spread across the plateau as its population approached two and a half million.
• Cassava planting and composting expanded along the Gulf coast, drawing tribes to fields that supplied their daily food.
• Red Crow chiefs traded captured laborers and furs, feathers, gold, and silver ore to the Coastal Alliance for grain, salt, and weapons.
• The Coastal Priest ordered the fleet to sail south with more than nineteen hundred laborers, planning to stop at Crow City and then Golden Bay City before sending them on to Maya lands.
• A Red Crow headman returned with new supplies and resolved to capture more tribespeople, keeping women while sending male laborers to the port.

A repaired Hot Air Balloon, powered by fuel refined from seaside crude oil, rose over Kanul Salt Village and terrified Maya onlookers, giving the Main God priests a chance to display a supposed divine miracle. As the priests prepared a grand festival, Tonavewe and Xo Mole discussed Xolotl’s beliefs and the political consequences of his growing religious influence.

• A Golden Eagle fled as the red Hot Air Balloon rose above the Maya coast, and tribespeople prostrated themselves in fear before what they believed was a god’s eye.
• Tonavewe and Xo Mole inspected the balloon and its fuel, then planned to report to Marshal Bertad so he could summon the Maya tribes for a Main God festival.
• Tonavewe asked Xo Mole about the gods and the Red Kingdom, and Xo Mole recounted Xolotl’s teaching that priests should improve life in the present world.
• Tonavewe wondered how Xolotl’s idea of benevolence would affect the Alliance priesthood and the succession to High Priest Uger.
• The two young priests prayed beside the balloon as Maya laborers built a highland-style city and military camps around Salt Village.

Bertad learned that the repaired Divine Giant Eye was ready and ordered a grand miracle ritual at Salt Village to draw Maya leaders and tribesfolk to the Kingdom’s faith. He focused on consolidating the Kingdom’s three western Maya strongholds through fortifications, diplomacy, and missionary work, leaving the story with the coming Sky Festival poised to begin that effort.

• Bertad learned that Xo Mole and Priest Tonavewe had repaired the Divine Giant Eye and that its test flight had amazed workers and soldiers.
• Bertad ordered envoys to invite Maya royalty, Canul nobles, Boa headmen, and Pudun chiefs to Salt Village for the Main God’s Sky Festival at the end of the next month.
• Bertad reviewed Black Wolf’s coastal campaigns and Tupa’s role guarding the Mayapan royal banner and fighting alongside the Canul against the Xiu.
• Bertad explained that he had pulled the Kingdom’s main forces back to the western coast and was building up Salt Village, Canu City, and the fortress outside Kapok City instead of seeking a decisive jungle battle.
• Bertad planned to use the Divine Giant Eye, missionary work, intermarriage, and new strongholds to displace Maya old-god worship and establish lasting Kingdom control.