My hotel is full of emperors throughout history.

"Japanese country?"

Liu Che frowned.

"Where is this? Why have I never heard of this place before!"

Old Zhu glanced at him and said leisurely.

"Japan is the place that Xu Fu reached when he sailed out to sea in search of the elixir of immortality."

"Oh~!"

Liu Che said "Oh," and glanced at Ying Zheng out of the corner of his eye with a mocking expression.

Sure enough, Ying Zheng was instantly enraged by Liu Che's gaze, like a tiger whose tail had been stepped on.

"What are you looking at! Don't worry! I've already locked all those sorcerers up in jail!"

His chest heaved, clearly indicating that he harbored deep resentment towards Xu Fu.

"Now all that's missing is some punishment to give them a proper lesson!"

Comrade Zhu, who has always had a “special enthusiasm” and “rich practical experience” for fighting corruption and punishing treacherous officials, immediately lit up when he heard this.

He slapped his thigh hard, moved closer to Ying Zheng, and with an excited expression that was almost like "passing on his experience," he patted his chest and said.

"You mean this? We have experience with this! I'll write a book for you sometime; it'll be full of our experience—skinning people alive, using straw to make them appear higher in rank, slow slicing, scrubbing… we're experts at all! We'll make sure they confess everything they know, down to how many times they wet the bed as kids!"

Li Shimin: ? ? ?

Liu Che: ? ? ?

Zhu Di: ...

The group looked at Old Zhu.

Old Zhu spoke with great enthusiasm, his tone even carrying a hint of... pride?

Fusu and Ying Zheng were alright; I'd seen it before.

But Li Shimin and Liu Che were truly dumbfounded.

They're speaking human language, but why do they sound so unfamiliar when put together?

Liu Che's lips twitched slightly as he thought to himself.

"He's ruthless! Although I am also decisive in killing, skinning someone alive... slow slicing... this..."

Li Shimin even felt a chill run down his spine.

His Tang Dynasty law was quite strict, and the death penalty was divided into hanging and beheading, but such a deliberate pursuit of the ultimate pain in punishment was beyond his understanding and... bottom line.

The look in his eyes as he gazed at Zhu Yuanzhang carried an indescribable complexity and apprehension.

Seeing the two men looking at him, Zhu Yuanzhang straightened his back with a smug look on his face.

He didn't think it was anything shameful!

Let them be brutal!

Whatever!

Especially when he thought about what the civil service group did later, he wished he could do something even more ruthless!

Unfortunately, human physiology limits prevented him from putting his ideas into practice.

"Ahem! Let's not talk about that now."

Chen Mo coughed lightly, preparing to steer the conversation back on track, but then looked at Ying Zheng as if he had just remembered something.

"Xu Fu can be spared. Although he was indeed hateful, we must also admit that he was a master navigator."

"Keep them for now. We can kill them later when we've learned what we can and found Japan."

Ying Zheng's eyes lit up.

"That makes sense! Even if it means his death, I'll squeeze every last drop of value out of him!"

"As punishment for his deception!"

Chen Mo nodded and spoke.

"There is a silver mine in Japan called the Iwami Silver Mine, which dates back to around the 16th or 17th century..."

Seeing the emperors' confused expressions, Chen Mo simply spoke up.

"Anyway, there was a lot of silver inside, so much that it accounted for a third of the world's silver at the time!"

"How many?"

Old Zhu's eyes widened suddenly.

Chen Mo had mentioned before that Japan had silver mines, but I didn't expect there to be so many!

Damn!

When I get back, I'll find a reason to get back to it!

I had always thought it was just a small, poor, and dilapidated country, not worth occupying.

And now you're telling me there's a huge silver mine up there?

What is Lao Zhu's mood like right now?

It's like discovering mold in a large oil field; you can't wait to fly over and start mining.

"However, I still have one question..."

A hint of apprehension flashed across Zhu Yuanzhang's face.

"Could they be protected by divine winds?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Mo scoffed.

"What a load of rubbish, Kamikaze!"

"Why did the Mongols always encounter strong winds that led to their defeats when they tried to conquer them?"

Chen Mo scoffed again.

"The Mongols' two defeats, in essence, boiled down to four words—they didn't understand the timing of the weather and the sea conditions!"

"First of all, in that region of Japan, the period between summer and autumn, which coincides with the Mongol invasions, is the season when storms (typhoons) are frequent!"

"That's not some bullshit divine wind, it's the monsoon that comes every year! It's a natural phenomenon!"

"Those Mongol Yuan people were used to galloping across the grasslands; they were completely blind at sea!"

"They have absolutely no idea how to predict the weather, let alone how to choose the right time and route during storm season. To put it bluntly, they've just walked headlong into a storm, committing suicide!"

He paused, looking at the emperors who seemed to be deep in thought.

"Secondly, their warships also have major problems! In pursuit of troop transport capacity, many were hastily converted flat-bottomed riverboats or captured Goryeo ships, which are completely unsuitable for long-distance sea voyages and have extremely poor resistance to wind and waves!"

"Those kinds of ships, let alone typhoons, they'd probably fall apart in even a moderately rough sea!"

"Furthermore, their navigation skills are also poor, and they know almost nothing about the reefs, ocean currents, and tidal patterns in that area."

"They lacked the right timing, the right location, and the right people; failure was inevitable, and it had absolutely nothing to do with divine intervention!"

Chen Mo paused, then said enticingly.

"Therefore, you all have absolutely no need to worry about any divine wind protection."

"As long as we make full preparations, we can try to launch our campaign during the winter or spring when the seas are relatively calm, and at the same time find generals who are familiar with the sea and suitable ships."

"I can provide you with the blueprints for the ships, but you'll have to train the generals yourselves."

Chen Mo's gaze swept over the emperors whose eyes were growing brighter and brighter, especially Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Che, whose breathing had become noticeably heavier:

"When the time comes, your massive army will press in, landing with overwhelming force. What will those poorly equipped so-called samurai of Japan use to withstand your ferocious army?"

"The Iwami Silver Mine, the Sado Gold Mine..."

Chen Mo deliberately dragged out his words.

"Then we'll just wait for you all to take whatever you want!"

Zhu Yuanzhang slammed his hand on the table.

"Damn it! So that's how it is! I knew it! There were no ghosts or gods here! It's all because those Mongol Yuan dynasty cowards were useless! We have to deal with them!"

Zhu Di clapped his hands and laughed.

"To not take what Heaven has given us is to suffer the consequences! This mountain of silver should rightfully be used by our Chinese nation!"

Liu Che pondered for a long time.

He doesn't lack money in the Han Dynasty now. The main reason is that he doesn't need a navy to fight the Xiongnu. If he is distracted by conquering the Japanese, it will delay his subsequent conquest of the Xiongnu.

The current priority should still be to deal with the Xiongnu.

However, that doesn't mean he's stopped fighting!

We still have to fight!

After all, that's a lot of hard-earned money!

Li Shimin hesitated, showing some reservations.

"But wouldn't attacking a small country without any reason damage the decorum of our Celestial Empire?"

"Don't worry about that!"

Chen Mo laughed loudly.

"The more polite you are to those bastards, the more they'll think you're easy to bully!"

"The more you treat him like a dog, the more he'll wag his tail and stick his tongue out at you!"

"It should be treated like a sewer lapdog. After squeezing all the profits out of it, just throw it a leftover bone, and it'll be happily eating it!"

"If you treat it like a person and put it on the table, its first thought won't be to thank you; instead, it will think it's really capable!"

Li Shimin nodded slightly, seemingly pondering how to find a suitable reason to start a war.

Old Zhu pondered for a moment, then decided to stop thinking about it and turned to look at Chen Mo.

"Where were we? The silver standard? And then?"