The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 684: Dependence

On October 12, the fourth year of Guangde, at the Hizen Domain Office, Saga Castle.

The residence of the head of the Nabeshima family was bustling with singing and dancing, and singing girls in kimonos were dancing among the crowd.

Two newly made skull wine glasses were neatly placed on the imperial desk next to the retired emperor.

The gilded surface shone brightly under the whale oil lamp, reflecting the glittering talismans on the Taoist robe of the retired emperor, showing an inexplicable festive atmosphere.

The commanders and instructors of the various corps of the Central Army were now sitting at the lower seats, accompanying the retired emperor in the banquet.

In front of each person was a small table similar to a tatami mat, filled with Japanese delicacies:

Mullet miso soup, fish cake, mullet sashimi, scallops, raw seaweed, fish cake miso soup... Of course, radish is always indispensable.

I don’t know if it was the densely packed radishes that ruined the emperor’s appetite, or the two human head-shaped wine glasses on the desk that made him feel uneasy.

The emperor sighed and groaned, not knowing where to put his chopsticks.

Crafting wine glasses from enemy heads is nothing new.

The Huns did it. In 177 BC, the Huns' old Chanyu defeated the Yuezhi and made a drinking vessel with the head of the Yuezhi king.

"Records of the Grand Historian: Biography of Dayuan" records: "At that time, the emperor (Emperor Wu of Han) questioned the Xiongnu who had surrendered, and they all said that the Xiongnu had defeated the Yuezhi king and used his head as a drinking vessel. The Yuezhi fled and always resented the Xiongnu, so no one joined in the fight."

At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the three states of Jin, Zhao, Wei and Han divided the Zhi clan. Zhao Xiangzi resented Zhi Bo and painted Zhi Bo's skull with lacquer and used it as a drinking vessel. This is probably the most famous skull figurine.

As for the various deeds of foreign barbarians, they are too numerous to list.

Dongfang Zhu whispered beside him:

"Your Majesty, the food is getting cold..."

The retired emperor glanced at the eunuch with a sharp and cruel look that frightened Dongfang Zhu.

"Oh, then let her cool down."

The emperor said this with a double meaning.

Japanese cuisine is really too shabby and unremarkable.

It's nothing but radishes.

No wonder.

In Japan, where food was severely scarce, the only thing that allowed the Japanese to barely fill their stomachs was radish.

The Japanese word for radish is 大根 (daikonon), so radish cooking has another misleading name:
Big roots burn.

When radish was first introduced to Japan, it could only grow to the thickness of a finger. After the Japanese people's painstaking cultivation, it has now grown to the thickness of an adult's arm.

It has to be said that the residents of the island nation can achieve perfection in everything.

Eating should be done to perfection, drinking tea should be done to perfection, killing should be done to perfection, even suicide should be done to perfection...

During the few days that Liu Zhaosun was in Hizen Domain, he heard a lot of jokes about samurai.

For example, they would draw their swords to duel for a bite of tempura, or fight for Xiao Xing...

Those who are free from anger, resentment and desire are gods.

The emperor was becoming increasingly confused about this ethnic group.

What’s more, they cannot understand the inherent murderous nature of the Japanese pirates.

Understanding can be postponed, but revenge cannot.

Moreover,

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Since you are in Japan, you must abide by Japanese culture.

In everything, either don't do it at all, or do it to the utmost. Just like this radish banquet, it aims to exhaust all the possibilities of radish.

Boil radish, stir-fry radish, deep-fry radish, roast radish...

We should have the spirit of craftsmanship not only for food, but also for people.

I will search up and down.

Therefore, the emperor ordered the two lords to be executed by slow slicing and their heads made into wine glasses, which was considered to be exhausting all possibilities.

The emperor not only took full care of the feelings of the living, but also did not neglect the two dead people at all.

The lord of Hizen Domain was Mitsushima Nabeshige, and the lord of Fukuoka Domain was Tadayuki Kuroda.

At this moment, the two dead men sat quietly at the desk, watching the Qi king and his ministers laughing and feasting with cold eyes.

"I didn't expect Japanese food to be so bad. It's hard for the monkeys, as they live like ascetics every day."

The retired emperor picked up a piece of tempura, took a sip of sake, frowned, and drank it all in one gulp.

He glanced at the Nabeshima and Kuroda skulls and smiled with satisfaction.

A group of civil and military officials began the banquet only after seeing the retired emperor start eating.

Dongguanzi stood up, raised his glass, and said loudly to the emperor:

"The Hizen and Fukuoka clans have been destroyed. Of all the clans in Kyushu, only the Satsuma clan remains. The rest of the Japanese pirates are not worth mentioning! I congratulate Your Majesty on unifying Japan and sweeping away all the evil!"

"May Your Majesty conquer Japan soon and achieve unparalleled achievements..."

A group of ministers immediately rushed to bow to the emperor and say similar words.

The Emperor waved his hand, interrupting the ministers' flattery, and said with a slight smile:
"The two lords of Hizen and Fukuoka have been transformed into wine vessels, which I am quite pleased with... However,"

Hearing this, everyone's face suddenly changed.

"As long as Tokugawa Iemitsu is not eliminated, I will not be able to sleep or eat in peace. If I don't kill this man, I cannot become an immortal, and the Great Qi will never have peace."

Simply put, Ge Min has not yet succeeded, and comrades still need to work hard.

Although the island nation's food culture is nothing special, the food served in the Nabeshima clan's office is just barely passable.

The graceful Japanese singer is still dancing the prawn dance.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do, of course, not only refers to the food aspect.

It is said that Oda Nobunaga, the "Sixth Heavenly Demon King," owned three golden skull wine cups. These were made from the skulls of three generals he conquered during his lifetime (Asakura Yoshikage, Asai Nagamasa, and Asai Hisamasa), coated in gold clay. Nobunaga loved to display them after banquets, admiring them while singing and dancing.
Since we have come to Japan, we naturally have to carry forward its traditional culture.

The retired emperor was either killing people or on his way to killing people, and occasionally he would promote some royal teachings.

For example, instructing a samurai on how to properly perform seppuku;

For example, cutting off the heads of enemy generals and making them into wine vessels (or toilets);
For example, killing innocent people at will;
Regarding the last point, it needs to be added that the emperor firmly believed in this truth: there was not a single innocent soul killed by the iron hoofs of the Eastern Expedition.

Since the Japanese pirates had spared no effort to cause trouble to China over the past few hundred years, in return, the emperor also tacitly allowed the various legions to carry out a planned "clean-up" of the occupied territories.

In the autumn and winter of the fourth year of Guangde, the Qi army was invincible in Kyushu, Japan. The central and southern armies captured cities and territories with unstoppable force.

As the Chikuzen, Hizen, and Satsuma domains were conquered one after another, brutal massacres unfolded vigorously in the domains of Kyushu.

In just two months, the Qi army killed or captured more than 100,000 Japanese foot soldiers and samurai in Kyushu. By the end of October, there was no organized resistance force on Kyushu Island.

The Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, who had come to Nagasaki to command the army's westward expedition, immediately fled back to Edo without looking back after hearing that the Hizen and Satsuma domains had been captured by the Qi army.

Under the repeated explanations of the Da Qi instructors, everyone from the commanders of each corps to the ordinary soldiers fully realized the evil nature of the Japanese pirates.

More than half of the soldiers in the Eastern Expedition came from coastal provinces. In their distant memories, the Japanese pirates were equivalent to demons, so when the training officers of each camp came up with the conclusion that the Japanese were descendants of evil gods, all the massacres seemed less unacceptable.

The Qi army's relentless advance, burning, killing and slaughtering drove the defeated Tokugawa Iemitsu into a state of madness.

(End of this chapter)