Chapter Summaries

Reinhard von Ritter celebrated his mercenary company’s French contract and vowed to plunder Italy, but Castilian knight Alvaro forced him to submit to Queen Isabella’s summons. Reinhard surrendered and agreed to lead his two hundred veterans on the expedition to Cipangu and India.

• Reinhard von Ritter announced that his Holy Roman mercenary company would join the French army in Italy and railed against the wealthy Italian city-states.
• Columbus drew his sword in anger at Reinhard’s plans, but could not challenge him to a duel and instead called on Alvaro for help.
• Alvaro demanded that Reinhard obey Queen Isabella’s summons, threatening to destroy the mercenaries if they refused.
• Alvaro warned that Aragon had closed the routes to France and offered the mercenaries sheep to eat if they submitted.
• Reinhard assessed the Castilian cavalry and his frightened men, dropped his greatsword, and pledged his company to Queen Isabella’s expedition to Cipangu and India.

Xiao Li lay awake on a snowy night, unable to go home, while the heater hummed and a cat purred. The chapter ended with a reminder not to catch a cold.

• Snow fell through the night as the heater hummed and the cat purred.
• Xiao Li lay tossing and turning, unable to go home.
• A voice reminded everyone not to catch a cold.

Morino Kiyoshi arrived in Ezo as the Tendai Sect’s envoy to ransom Juehui and deliver supplies, while Zuwaro prepared to receive the Shiba heirs. Kiyoshi urged Shiba Eido to marry into the Gold Clan and accept Zuwaro as his adoptive father, leaving Eido facing a forced new future for his house.

• Morino Kiyoshi landed at the Buyo-Kanham Tribe with Matsushita Shojiro, Monk Mizhu, and three ships carrying rice, salt, and gunpowder.
• Zuwaro welcomed Kiyoshi, agreed to compensate him for the Zheyang Ship he had seized, and confirmed that Juehui was alive and being held in the village.
• Kiyoshi handed the ships’ goods over to Zuwaro and asked about Juehui, then called for Shiba Eido, Etsu-hime, and their retainers to be brought ashore.
• Zuwaro recognized Shiba Eido’s clan spirit tablet, while Eido and Etsu-hime arrived frightened and surrounded by Sanda warriors.
• Morino Kiyoshi told Eido that the Gold Clan could restore the Shiba Clan through marriage and urged him to greet Zuwaro as his adoptive father.

Shiba Eido became Zuwaro’s adoptive son, and Morino Kiyoshi persuaded Zuwaro to protect the surviving Shiba retainers and preserve the clan’s ties to Echizen. When Etsu-hime was introduced as Eido’s adoptive daughter, High Priest Losanda interrupted the ceremony and proposed taking her to the Lake Kingdom to bear a child for His Majesty.

• Shiba Eido formally swore loyalty to Zuwaro as his adoptive son and received a golden Hummingbird Amulet.
• Morino Kiyoshi identified the surviving Shiba retainers and explained their ties to powerful Echizen warrior houses and their importance to restoring the Shiba Clan.
• Morino Kiyoshi asked Zuwaro to spare the retainers, and Zuwaro agreed to keep them under the Sanda Clan’s protection.
• Morino Kiyoshi presented Etsu-hime and the Shiba Clan’s important documents, then instructed her to greet Zuwaro as his adoptive daughter.
• High Priest Losanda stopped Etsu-hime’s greeting and proposed taking her to the Lake Kingdom to bear a descendant for His Majesty.

Zuwaro and the Western Sea leaders agreed to invest Shiba Eido as Ezo Protector and secure the Kakizaki Clan’s position through a land certificate and marriage alliance. As the leaders celebrated, Morino Kiyoshi confronted Juehui over his schemes, while Juehui cheerfully asked Losanda for more tobacco.

• Tami-kusa, Fushan, and Zuwaro supported offering Etsu-hime to His Majesty and investing a Western Sea Prince through divine descent.
• The Sanda warriors escorted Etsu-hime away, and Morino Kiyoshi watched her leave before speaking with Zuwaro about the Kakizaki Clan’s future.
• Morino Kiyoshi asked Zuwaro to guarantee the Kakizaki Clan’s fiefs and arrange a marriage alliance to protect it from the Nanbu Clan.
• Zuwaro and the kingdom’s leaders agreed to secure the Kakizaki Clan’s borders and have Tami-kusa and Fushan marry Kakizaki noble ladies.
• Juehui joined the feast, traded barbs with Morino Kiyoshi, and asked Losanda for Divine Smoke, prompting Losanda to throw his remaining Tobacco into the fire.

Morino Kiyoshi and Juehui returned toward Omi after completing a ransom and gold trade with the Sanda Kingdom, while planning further commerce and rebuilding the Tendai Sect’s strength. The chapter ends with the Sakai Port tribute fleet preparing to sail for Ningbo as Juehui and Morino weighed the sect’s future against the Hosokawa Clan’s ambitions.

• Morino Kiyoshi traded goods and seven hundred jin of gold for Juehui and ransomed warrior monks, then arranged future shipments and a Shogunate appointment document.
• Aboard the ship, Juehui told Morino that he could use gold and political connections to cover the sect’s missing warrior monks and ships, and proposed hiring ronin and building a new fleet.
• Juehui and Morino discussed how the gold trade had strengthened the Tendai Sect and drawn support from regional daimyo and merchants.
• Morino warned that Hosokawa Masamoto might eventually challenge the Tendai Sect, and Juehui suggested they could retreat to the Sanda before joking about seeking their divine smoke.
• The Sakai Port tribute fleet prepared to sail toward Ningbo as March ended and April approached.

In Ningbo in 1495, powerful gentry merchants prepared to control the profitable trade with the arriving Wajin tribute fleet while fearing a provincial official’s investigation of their landholdings. The Wajin fleet passed inspection and came ashore, leaving the merchants ready to begin their trade.

• Ningbo merchants gathered in a teahouse and discussed the Water Fleet’s deployment and the provincial administration commissioner’s review of land registers.
• Yang Maode and Lu Shougong emerged as leading figures among the merchants, who worried that scrutiny of their fields could expose their tax-exempt landholdings.
• Yang Maode announced that the Wajin fleet had brought eight large ships and laid down rules giving his Yang Clan priority in setting silk prices and claiming goods.
• The assembled merchants agreed to follow Yang Maode’s trade rules and report anyone who traded privately with the Wajin.
• Servants reported that the Wajin fleet had passed inspection under Water Fleet escort and had come ashore.

A Wagoku tribute fleet arrived at Ningbo under close Ming naval supervision, and its envoys debated Ming customs and power as they prepared to travel north. After the mission kowtowed before the emperor’s banner, Grand Overseer Lin Huai invited the envoys to the Guest House while Wang Zhe left the tribute arrangements to others.

• Eight Wagoku tribute ships entered Ningbo Harbor surrounded by Ming patrol vessels, and Miyoshi Mitsuhide complained about the inspections and required obeisances.
• Yaofu Shouhuang explained the tribute mission’s formalities, while Morino Kiyoshi said he would disembark to visit Ningbo’s temples and sights.
• Yaofu Shouhuang described the prosperous cities along the route to Shuntian Prefecture and the Ming’s northern elite troops, but Miyoshi Mitsuhide boasted that Hosokawa Samurai could defeat Ming sailors in a boarding fight.
• As Ming officials’ banners gathered onshore, Morino Kiyoshi revealed that he had prepared two gold cakes as a gift for Lin Huai.
• Yaofu Shouhuang, Morino Kiyoshi, and Miyoshi Mitsuhide knelt before the emperor’s banner, and Lin Huai invited them to rest and drink tea at the Guest House.
• Wang Zhe declined to handle the tribute dealings personally, instructed the Maritime Trade Office to manage them, and departed after giving Shi Wende a meaningful look.

At Ningbo’s Guest House, Morino Kiyoshi watched the Wajin merchants struggle to negotiate with local silk sellers and encountered Shi Wende, who had abandoned his family’s maritime trade for an official career. Shi pointed the merchants toward Eunuch Lin Huai, while Morino became intrigued by Shi’s past and possible usefulness.

• Morino Kiyoshi and Yaofu Shouhuang discussed the Guest House inscriptions while the Wajin and Ningbo merchants argued over trade prices.
• Konishi Taro recognized Shi Wende and asked him to mediate the dispute over silk prices.
• Shi Wende rejected Konishi’s request to resume their former trade, explaining that his clan had left maritime commerce behind.
• Shi Wende advised Konishi to approach Eunuch Lin Huai for cheaper silk and help negotiating with the Yang Clan.
• Morino Kiyoshi questioned Konishi about Shi Wende and grew interested in the former sea lord’s transformation.

Morino Kiyoshi took the Wajin mission to Xinglong Temple, where he impressed Abbot Ciku with his Chan understanding and presented a generous offering. The visit ended with Morino and the abbot arranging to meet privately for tea and Buddhist discussion.

• Morino Kiyoshi proposed visiting Xinglong Temple after Shi Wende refused to take the envoys to distant Siming Mountain, and Yaofu Shouhuang chose to stay behind.
• Morino led a small group of Wajin and Shi Wende to Xinglong Temple, where he exchanged Chan riddles with Abbot Ciku.
• Morino explained that the exchange recalled a visit by Monk Xiaoyun forty-two years earlier and the shared Buddhist traditions of Japan and the Ming Dynasty.
• Morino offered two gold cakes to the temple in gratitude for Master Dufang's gift of an annotated Heart Sutra.
• Morino asked to drink tea and discuss Buddhism with Abbot Ciku, who invited him to a quiet room.

Morino Kiyoshi maneuvered Shi Wende into a private meeting and tried to recruit him for private trade, using the Jingchuan Yang Clan’s likely retaliation and an offer of protection through the tribute mission as leverage. Shi Wende rejected Morino’s scheme in anger, but remained trapped with the Gold Talisman and the threat of conflict with the Yang Clan weighing on him.

• Abbot Ciku sent the other monks and Wajin away, then left Morino Kiyoshi alone with Shi Wende in a secluded tea room.
• Morino Kiyoshi revealed his Yoneya merchant identity, offered Shi Wende a Gold Talisman, and proposed private trade using the Chongming Shi Clan’s ships.
• Shi Wende tried to leave after realizing Morino wanted to draw him back into risky sea trade.
• Morino told Shi Wende that his advice had helped the tribute mission pressure the Jingchuan Yang Clan into cutting its silk price, making Shi Wende fear the clan would retaliate against him.
• Morino offered to have Shi Wende join the tribute journey to the capital and promised to mention his help in a memorial to the emperor.
• Shi Wende threatened Morino, while Morino argued that the Gold Talisman and a route to Wagoku could protect him from the Yang Clan; Morino then left him alone with the token.

Losanda and the fleet reached Divine Twin Smoke Port, where they unloaded livestock, salt, and Wagoku artisans during a five-day rest. He learned that Zidiao was farming potatoes at a warmer inland site and went to meet her.

• Losanda led the travelers in prayer as the two Zheyang Ships arrived at Divine Twin Smoke Port and ordered everyone to rest for five days.
• Caishan, Tetta Mune-yoshi, and eleven Wagoku artisans disembarked alongside warriors, sailors, and livestock bound for the Lake Kingdom.
• Losanda arranged for the horses and cattle to recover ashore and reconsidered how to handle the salt and the Mountain Tribe’s planned migration.
• Port residents told Losanda that Zidiao was tending a new potato field inland, where last year’s harvest had fed one person for a little over a month.
• Losanda took two trusted men and a bundle of gifts and set out to find Zidiao at the potato field.

Losanda reunited with his wife Mu Zidiao at her Mountain Tribe camp on the Kamchatka Peninsula and learned how the tribes had endured harsh winters and begun growing Potatoes. He brought her gifts and persuaded her to leave the unfinished fieldwork to spend time with him.

• Losanda followed a stream to Mu Zidiao's camp, where the dogs spotted him and Zidiao recognized her returning husband.
• Mu Zidiao told Losanda that her grandmother was ill, the tribes had expanded Potato planting, and a devastating Cold Wave had killed many Reindeer and damaged tents.
• Losanda promised that Tami-kusa's fleet would bring rice and Salt and that his people would take in Mountain Tribe members who needed support.
• As Mu Zidiao described her seasonal work and explained that she was gathering Feathers for Losanda's crown, he gave her clothes and accessories from his bundle.
• Losanda asked Mu Zidiao to go with him to the tent, and she agreed after he said he had missed her, promising that he would help her plant the next day.

Losanda and Zidiao prepared for the fleet’s voyage east, and Losanda struggled with leaving his wife for an uncertain future. After an emotional night together, Losanda sailed toward the Northern Continent while Zidiao returned to tending the tribe’s crops.

• Losanda introduced Zidiao to pickled radish and agreed that she would save seeds and plant it with the tribespeople.
• Losanda prepared the fleet and met with Mountain Tribe leaders, while Mu Quan accepted the kingdom’s gifts and returned to report the migration agreement.
• On the night before departure, Losanda told Zidiao to remarry if he never returned, then asked her to bear him a child and spent the night with her.
• Losanda led prayers at the shore and sailed east with two Zheyang Ships toward the Divine Revelation Island Chain.
• Zidiao watched the fleet disappear, wiped her eyes, and went to check on the tribe’s radish fields.

Xolotl visited the battlefield after the Mexica Alliance’s victory over the Mixtec breakout force and learned that thousands of Mountain River City’s last elite warriors had died. As the Mixtec dead were buried, he promised to preside over their funeral, while the city and the Mixtec Alliance faced their end.

• A scout told Xolotl that Yuchi had led a breakout attempt, but the Western Route Army had nearly annihilated his warriors and could not find him.
• Telavito killed a coyote with his bow, and Xolotl recognized him from an earlier encounter and gave him a protective Hummingbird Bagua Amulet.
• Xolotl spoke with Telavito about fairness for the Tlaxcala tribes and the Alliance’s goal of uniting its peoples as Rubber People.
• At the battlefield, Xolotl learned that more than three thousand Mixtec Samurai had died and few captives remained.
• Xolotl watched Mixtec Laborers bury the dead and announced that he would personally preside over a funeral for the Mixtec Samurai and the Mixtec Alliance.

After the Western Route Army found Great Chief Yuchi’s corpse, Xolotl tried to turn the Mixtec leader’s death into propaganda that would help govern the conquered tribes, while Montezuma II resisted his account and dismissed the surrendered Mixtec. Xolotl left after praising the army’s victory, but Montezuma confronted him over how the cloudland fiefs would be divided and what share his royal line would receive.

• The Western Route Army identified Great Chief Yuchi’s corpse, and Montezuma II described the Mixtec leader’s death as an honorable suicide rather than a sacrifice to the Main God.
• Xolotl pressed Montezuma to confirm fabricated last words that would portray Yuchi’s defeat as the Main God’s will, but Montezuma refused to profane the dead warrior.
• Xolotl explained that the Alliance would preserve the surviving Mixtec people and use Yuchi’s death to encourage their submission, while Montezuma dismissed them as conquered tribespeople.
• Xolotl reflected on how his encirclement strategy had starved Mountain River City and forced Yuchi’s breakout, which ended with thousands of Mixtec and Alliance casualties.
• Xolotl told Montezuma that the Western Route Army would receive a grand reward ceremony and that the warriors who captured Yuchi’s corpse would become hereditary nobles in the Shorn Guard.
• Montezuma confronted Xolotl about rumors that Avet planned to grant half the cloudland fiefs to Xolotl’s newborn children and demanded to know how much the Axayacatl line would receive.

On New Year's Day, the narrator drank beer, played with Silly Cat and Cloud Cat, and imagined a happier future before falling asleep drunk on the floor. He dreamed of success, a family, and love, while Cloud Cat settled beside his face.

• The narrator drank some beer and lifted Silly Cat into the air.
• Cloud Cat leaped onto the bookcase, and the narrator tried unsuccessfully to catch it.
• The narrator joked about being Cloud Cat’s father and crushed an empty beer can into a pancake.
• The narrator fell asleep, dreaming that the new year would bring him a family, career success, and a suitable woman.
• Cloud Cat jumped down from the bookcase and settled beside the sleeping man’s face.

Xolotl defended the Alliance’s policy of awarding fiefs by military merit against Montezuma II’s demand for the Mountain River City valley. After Xolotl returned Yuchi’s corpse to Divine King Avet, Avet revealed that the Mixtec remnants had already offered to surrender.

• Xolotl declared that the western Mixtec cloudlands would be divided among deserving Western Route Army officers and transferred Alliance nobles, while Yuchi and Yuluo would hold no direct fiefs.
• Montezuma II argued that the Western Route Army’s conquests and losses entitled it to most of the cloudlands, especially the Mountain River City valley.
• Xolotl defended the Central and Eastern Route Armies’ military achievements and counted the Lake Kingdom fleet’s logistical support toward the royal children’s claim to princely status.
• Xolotl rebuked Montezuma II, then brought Yuchi’s corpse to the Royal Tent, where Avet ordered Yuchi’s head preserved for the royal collection.
• Avet told Xolotl that Mixtec envoys had surrendered and said the Alliance would destroy the Mixtec inheritance by sacrificing the Cloud God-descendants and enfeoffing Alliance nobles.

After the destruction of the Mixtec Alliance, Avet celebrated with Xolotl and outlined how he would divide and govern the conquered Cloud Land while preparing to invade the Zapotec states. The chapter ended with Avet ordering the southern campaign to resume after the rainy season, despite Xolotl’s concern about the Royal Army’s dispersed forces.

• Avet celebrated the Mixtec Alliance’s destruction as Xolotl reflected on the enormous losses caused by the three-year campaign.
• Avet told Xolotl he would finish settling the Cloud Land and then invade the Zapotec Oaxaca Valley with two armies of forty thousand troops in total.
• Avet’s plan enfeoffed hundreds of nobles across the Cloud Land and transferred the Feather Goose Prince Mihoti from Sun City to a western Mixtec fief.
• Avet planned to reward the Flower Tree and Coiled Python chieftains, then later transfer them to Zapotec lands to balance the nobles’ power.
• Xolotl warned that the Royal Legions would be stretched thin by garrison duties and the two-front campaign, but Avet said he would add the Shorn Guard, Eagle and Jaguar Regiment, City-State Warriors, and Militia.
• Avet ordered the army to resume its march south after the September rains and destroy the Zapotec god-descendants.

After the Alliance conquered the Cloud Land, Avet and Xolotl planned a victory festival to destroy the old Mixtec ruling order and consecrate the territory to the Main God. They chose Tilantongo for a three-day sacrifice of 800 captives, leaving Xolotl to preside over the rites while Avet rewarded the new military nobles.

• Three days after the conquest, Alliance forces entered Mountain River City, replaced the old gods' statues with the Main God's emblem, and burned the Cloud God-descendants' ancestral temple.
• Alliance priests began converting twenty thousand starving Mixtec people and expanded their efforts into the Yodzocahi valley and the Mixtec coast, while Jaguar Warriors hunted Mixtec nobles and god-descendants.
• Avet asked Xolotl to divine the site of the victory festival, and Xolotl's second bone reading selected Tilantongo as auspicious.
• Avet chose 800 captives for the great sacrifice and ordered Xolotl to preside over it with eleven fourth-rank Chief Priests for three days.
• Avet planned to reward the newly enfeoffed Military Nobility as Xolotl prayed that the souls of the sacrifices would find the road to the Red Realm.