Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 458 The Destruction of the Japanese Island

In a small fishing village with only a few hundred indigenous households on the central coast of Japan.

In this natural deep-water harbor, which will later be known as "Tokyo Bay" on another world line, the Ming Dynasty's black ship fleet was docked end to end.

The ships stood tall, their masts arrayed, their sails and Ming Dynasty banners fluttering in the wind, resembling a moving Great Wall at sea, truly majestic and awe-inspiring.

Whenever the Japanese civilians on the shore carried sacks of sand and soil across the bank, they couldn't help but stop for a moment and worship those human creations that seemed like miracles from afar.

They didn't know how those ships were built, nor why those enormous creatures had come to their remote and impoverished land.

But they all knew that these ships came from the other side of the sea, from a supercontinent called "Huaxia".

The Chinese are truly amazing; they can even create such a colossal object.

But why did Lord Hua, who is like a god, travel all this way by boat to our place?

They were menacing and had fierce expressions; the number of these boats was almost greater than the number of people in our village.

Have we somehow offended Lord Hua?
This can't be done, right?

Who could possibly have such great abilities?

Let alone any ability.

Anyone who has witnessed the might of the invincible fleet and still dares to have such thoughts is simply a bit dim-witted.

"I heard it's that guy from Naniwa Castle, the one who claims to be a descendant of Amaterasu. He offended His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty."

The knowledgeable village chief explained the situation to the bewildered villagers.

The first reaction everyone had was – wow, those Kansai people are amazing! They dare to mess with such a high-level civilization that's like a god descending to earth to strike.

My second thought was—what does the crime committed by the Yamato Kingdom have to do with my Musashi Kingdom? Why did the Ming army come to our place in their invincible ships? And why did the Ming Emperor force us to carry sandbags, expand the port, and dig canals for them?
Yes, the so-called "prosperity pilgrimage between Japan and South Korea, and conquest of the mainland," and the so-called "all land under heaven belongs to the king."

It was nothing more than the Japanese chieftain's fantasy before he was knocked unconscious by the guards.

The truth is that Japan has long been in a fragmented state, and the decrees of Naniwa Palace never reached Musashi Province, which is hundreds of miles away.

The two places have essentially been under separate administration.

However, Lord Ming doesn't care about this or that.

"Get to work! Don't even think about slacking off!"

Several crisp swishing sounds.

Just as the Japanese villagers were stunned and chatting, Lord Ming's whip fell like raindrops.

Without warning, he struck the village chief and several villagers hard, knocking them to the ground, scattering the sand they were carrying on their shoulders.

"Hey, Mr. Ming! Please stop hitting me, I was wrong, I was wrong, I was wrong..."

The beaten Japanese man rolled on the ground, clutching his head and begging for mercy.

The Japanese soldiers standing by dared not be angry or speak out, nor did they even dare to watch. They quickly shouldered their bundles and continued to work hard for Master Ming.

As for what kind of work these Mingye made them do, why the canals had to be dug from the sea to the land, and why waterwheels had to be built on the saltwater side.

They didn't know, and they dared not ask.

"If you slack off again, I'll bury you all alive with this sand!"

The man holding the whip—actually just an ordinary Ming Dynasty laborer—waved his tired arm and threatened the Japanese soldiers who were lying obediently on the ground, dazed and confused from the whipping.

"Get the hell to work! Don't try to slack off by pretending to be dead, or I'll kill you all if I find out!"

Although the Japanese on the ground could not understand the refined Central Plains dialect spoken by the Ming official, they could guess what it was from his furious expression.

They quickly covered their swollen buttocks, helped up the village chief who was nearly beaten to death, cleaned up the sand and gravel scattered on the ground, and left with bows and scrapes.

The Ming Dynasty overseer glanced at them sideways and spat disdainfully:
"Bah! The Minister is absolutely right. These barbarians are 'afraid of power but not of virtue'."

The grumpy old man wasn't always grumpy, nor did he look down on laborers. Back in the Ming Dynasty, he was a refined and easy-going worker.

However, even the most sympathetic working-class comrades would involuntarily tighten their whips whenever they thought of the Yellow River flooding the Central Plains and the Yangtze River overflowing the South.

"If you don't want to be thrown into the sea to feed the fish, then get to work!"

…………

On a cliff overlooking the construction site, Xue Wanche was remotely directing operations without pause.

"Here, here! No, no, not there! Oh right, right, it's there, not here... Is this right?"

Just as he was engrossed in micro-management, his good friend Qibi Heli coughed dryly behind him:
"Cough cough!"

Xue Wanche reluctantly turned his gaze away from the bustling work site, then turned back and asked in a gruff voice:
"What's going on?"

"His Majesty has sent a letter." Qibi Heli handed him the "imperial edict."

The only thing that could interrupt Brother Civil Engineering's rhythm is His Majesty's golden words.

Xue Wanche squinted, glanced at the page in the slanting winter sunlight, then handed it back, saying succinctly:

"Okay, I know."

Qibi Heli glared at him:

Do you know what His Majesty means?

Xue Wanche nodded frankly:

"I know, it's just loading all the Japanese onto ships and hauling them back to the Ming Dynasty. Is there a problem?"

"..." Qibi Heli knew he couldn't play mind games with this stubborn blockhead, so he made his point clearer.

"His Majesty intends to abduct the Japanese and take them back. Don't you think there's something wrong with doing that?"

He felt that even if they couldn't wipe out all the Japanese, they should at least be left to fend for themselves on the barren, salty island.

Xue Wanche immediately opened his big, round eyes even wider than Qibi Heli's, and raised his voice to a great shout:
"If you have any objections, you can write a letter to His Majesty! If your letter makes sense, His Majesty will listen to you!"

Upon hearing that he was to have a thorough discussion of the advantages and disadvantages with the beloved Divine Emperor, the sycophantic Qibi Heli immediately shrank back:

"Me? Hehe, no thanks, no thanks."

"How could I possibly be as clever as those prime ministers and generals who stayed behind in the capital, especially with the wise and mighty Emperor on the other side? I'm simply not up to the task..."

"But the Japanese owe so much blood debt..."

“Since they are in debt, let them spend the rest of their lives repaying it,” Xue Wanche said.

Qibi Heli couldn't help but raise his head and look at him.

This blockhead could suddenly utter a philosophical remark, leaving his old friend utterly astonished.

Xue Wanche had already returned to micro-management, pointing at the ant-like crowd on the beach in the distance, and said:

"Old He, look, those Japanese are doing a pretty good job, aren't they?"

Qibi Heli followed Lao Xue's hand and looked down the hillside.

Under the supervision of the foreman, countless workers are working hard.

They faithfully and diligently contributed to the Ming Dynasty's "harmless" project by expanding ports, digging canals, transporting stones, and setting up waterwheel machinery.

Needless to say, the foreman holding the whip was an ordinary craftsman or laborer from the Ming Dynasty.

Those diligent laborers were Japanese.

Some were caught locally, while others were transported from other places.

Forcibly bringing together different types of Japanese people can still produce some strange chemical reactions.

For example, they discriminate against each other, fight and insult each other, and expel each other from the country. However, no matter how fragmented they are internally, they almost never acknowledge that they belong to the same country.

However, these varieties all exhibit a common characteristic—

Obedience, damn obedience.

They simply assigned a few ordinary laborers from the Ming Dynasty to oversee the work, and then anchored a few slave transport ships in the open sea, without using any of the Ming army's armed forces.

So these tens of thousands of Japanese people obediently started working.

This is very sensible, saving precious troops for the front lines and a large sum of military expenses for the Ming Dynasty.

As long as those Japanese are given some food, they can be beaten and insulted without consequence; those creatures seem to have no sense of resistance or dignity whatsoever.

Compared to these lackeys, the hardworking and honest Chinese people are made to look like unruly peasants.

"They're so obedient. They do whatever they're told, and they destroy their own land if they're told to."

"They are born slaves, born beasts of burden."

As the Minister of Justice, Xue Wanche was quite satisfied with the performance of the Japanese.

Those born to be dust collectors are obedient and eat very little.

Minister Xue and his contractors were given very easy orders.

Of course, the Japanese were not without their flaws.

That is, when a group of Japanese people gather together, everyone's minds seem to suddenly disappear, and they will only blindly follow the first person forward.

Even if there's a wall in front of them, they'll blindly charge straight at it.

If a smart person in the team raises an objection, they may even be ostracized by other members and be angrily accused of "not being able to read the room."

How to pronounce "air" was utterly absurd to Xue Wanche, who was always straightforward and single-minded.

However, he didn't want to understand those little Japanese gadgets.

Anyway, it works, it's easy to use, and I wouldn't feel bad even if I used it to death, which is great.

"Therefore, taking them back to the Ming Dynasty and having them contribute to its construction would not be a bad idea."

It can be regarded as waste utilization.

Looking down at the bustling scene of labor, Qibi Heli couldn't help but exclaim:
"It's truly unbelievable. These gentle and docile Japanese people today are actually the same species as the Japanese people who once plotted to destroy the Ming Dynasty..."

"What's so hard to imagine?" Xue Wanche shrugged.

"The Japanese are like a herd of livestock; wherever the lead sheep goes, they follow."

"This kind of group is naturally incapable of producing reliable leaders, and will eventually lead themselves to their doom."

"However, their arrival in the Ming Dynasty is quite timely."

Xue Wanche patted his chest confidently.

"With me as the leader, I guarantee that those brainless sheep will be tamed and made obedient, so that they will go east and never go west."

Qibi Heli was genuinely surprised this time, almost unable to believe it.

Is the person standing opposite him really Xue Wanche, who was so foolish that his wife kicked him out of their newlywed bedroom?

He collected himself.

"You do have some insight into the Japanese!"

"They've understood it so thoroughly that they could submit a memorial to His Majesty!"

Xue Wanche almost burst out laughing when he heard this.

However, he held back in the end and patted his brother Qibi on the shoulder in a pretentious manner.

"Come to the front lines more often and you'll broaden your horizons."

Having said that, he left his dumbfounded old colleague behind and summoned someone to relay the order:
“Tell those Japanese that as long as they work hard, they will have the opportunity to migrate to the Ming Dynasty with us.”

"but."

He abruptly changed the subject, his tone suddenly becoming stern.

"If they cannot complete the project on time, or if there are any defects in quality."

"Then there's no chance of ascending to the continent. I'll just spend the rest of my life on this isolated ghost island!"

what? !

Qibi Heli was truly shocked this time, and just stared blankly at Lao Xue's crazy move.

Good guy!
The extremely cruel things like "abduction and forced relocation" were packaged into precious rewards in just a few words by that guy!
He listened in disbelief to the cheers of the Japanese people below the mountain, watching their sudden burst of enthusiasm for labor as they destroyed the land on which their ancestors had depended for generations.

"It's good to do ash removal, but I need to learn how to do it..." Qibi Heli muttered to himself.

…………

The Ming Dynasty's actions achieved results in Japan that exceeded expectations.

After the emperor was captured, high-ranking officials were beheaded, and the capital was burned down, Japan was essentially left in a state of chaos and uncertainty.

As it turned out, Li Ming's timing was perfect.

Japan is in a transitional phase where power is centralized but not fully centralized.

Local autonomy was already in the process of disintegration, while the authority of the central dynasty had not yet been fully established.

During its weakest transition period, the Ming army's brutal and violent intervention drastically interrupted its progress, leaving it with virtually no ability to resist.

On the battlefield, the Ming army swept through the enemy forces, destroying one city-state after another and annihilating tens of thousands of enemy soldiers.

If we disregard the issue of future rule, the Chinese army can fight even more freely than the nomadic tribes of the grasslands.

All the Japanese local militias and powerful clansmen who were unaware of the situation and dared to confront the Ming army were wiped out as easily as cutting melons and vegetables.

Meanwhile, our own casualties were in the single digits.

The number of troops lost in battle was even less than that lost in daily training.

Outside the battlefield, the Ming Dynasty's progress was equally smooth.

The project of "diverting seawater to flood the land" was completed much earlier than the Ministry of Works had anticipated.

The massive influx of seawater has transformed vast tracts of fertile farmland into saline-alkali land unsuitable for the growth of almost any plant.

This was of course inseparable from the strong support of the Japanese people.

In order to please the Ming Dynasty's Empress Dowager and secure a ticket to the mainland to become a second-class citizen, she recklessly squandered farmland.

Since everyone's doing it this way, anyone who dares to question it would be incredibly insensitive.

Soon, the Ming Dynasty's campaign against the Japanese pirates came to an end—

They forced the Japanese to migrate to the mainland.

Large numbers of Japanese civilians living in the inland mountains were transferred to the coastal mudflats and then gathered at various newly built temporary ports on the Japanese islands to wait for loading and transportation.

The entire journey was on foot, and many people died during the harsh season of deep winter and early spring.

However, they are all resources.

As for those who were unwilling to leave their homeland, the Ming army granted their wish and buried them forever in their native soil.

(End of this chapter)