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“What? You’re unwilling?”
Yue Yun’s voice was cold. He didn’t want to waste any more words with the King of Sanmyo. If the king was disobedient, he could easily replace him.
He could easily control an island with a population of only 200,000.
A cold sweat broke out on the King of Sanmyo’s back. In fact, he had no ability to contend with this army. Moreover, before this army arrived, the kingdom’s power was controlled by Hu Hai. Now he only wanted to seize this opportunity to regain power.
“Willing, willing,” the King of Sanmyo said with a smile, “It’s just that, as the Celestial Envoy has seen, my kingdom has always suffered from Japanese pirate incursions. This time, the Celestial Envoy driving away the Japanese pirates is a good deed, but once you leave, these Japanese pirates will soon return, and then the kingdom will again suffer from their poisoning. Therefore, I hope that the Celestial Envoy can station troops in the kingdom to guard against the Japanese pirates and preserve the kingdom’s eternal peace.”
Yue Yun said indifferently, “As long as you obey Prince Qi’s orders, the position of King of Sanmyo will always be yours. I guarantee that figures like Hu Hai will not appear again. Of course, stationing troops is also within our consideration, but ultimately it depends on your performance.”
This time, when conquering the Sanmyo Kingdom, it was already planned to station troops according to Xiao Ming’s intention. It was precisely because of Great Yu Empire’s previous inaction that the Sanmyo Kingdom was eventually annexed by Japan.
Yue Yun held his trump card and knew that the current King of Sanmyo had no real power. His purpose in saying this was merely to completely control the King of Sanmyo.
Although they were going to incorporate the Sanmyo Kingdom into the state’s territory this time, Xiao Ming currently had no spare officials to send to the island, so the King of Sanmyo would still act as the island’s ruler. With the stationed troops supervising him, the Sanmyo Kingdom would truly become Great Yu Empire’s first overseas colony.
“I respectfully obey the Celestial Envoy’s command.” The King of Sanmyo was overjoyed.
When Hu Hai was on the island, he was merely a puppet. Now that he truly held royal power, he didn’t care who he paid tribute to.
Yue Yun nodded in satisfaction. The King of Sanmyo’s attitude pleased him, otherwise, he would have to go to some trouble to replace the king.
Next, Yue Yun and the King of Sanmyo clarified the tribute materials.
After Japan occupied the Sanmyo Kingdom, the Sanmyo Kingdom would provide large quantities of grain to Japan every harvest season.
Although there were only 200,000 people on the island, because of the pleasant climate, grain harvests were abundant year after year, and the amount of harvested grain was quite considerable.
“The Celestial Envoy has come at just the right time. The rice in the fields is about to be harvested. This time, the grain can be sent to Qingzhou, and I hope the Celestial Envoy can speak a few kind words for me before Prince Qi,” the King of Sanmyo said.
Yue Yun had briefly explained the situation in Qingzhou during their conversation, and now he had some understanding of Qingzhou.
“That is natural. As long as the grain arrives in Qingzhou, His Highness will certainly be very pleased. At that time, your position will also become more secure.” When landing, Yue Yun had noticed the rice in the fields. At this time, the rice ears were already yellow, and they could be harvested soon.
The King of Sanmyo thanked him again upon hearing this.
Besides rice, another source of income for the Sanmyo Kingdom was fishing. Regarding this, Yue Yun planned to teach the trawling technique to the artisans of the Sanmyo Kingdom upon his return.
In this way, the Sanmyo Kingdom would be able to continuously provide seafood to Qingzhou.
After discussing the grain supply, Yue Yun finally mentioned the construction of the star fort. Since it was decided to station troops, the star fort definitely had to be built.
The reason was simple: this time, he only planned to station a thousand men on the island. With these thousand men combined with the star fort for defense, even if Japanese pirates attacked here, reinforcements would have time to arrive.
After all, with grain in the star fort and cannons on the city walls, a thousand men would be enough to resist the Japanese pirates for a period.
After clarifying the island’s plan, Yue Yun then joined the King of Sanmyo for dinner at his invitation. Having arrived in the morning, it was now night, so he could only rest on the island.
The next day, he ordered one warship to return and relay the news of the Sanmyo Kingdom’s occupation.
Five days later, the news of the Sanmyo Kingdom’s capture reached the Qingzhou government office.
“The Sanmyo Kingdom can provide Qingzhou with 600,000 shi of grain this time?” Pang Yukun said, shocked.
Fiji, however, was confused, “Your Highness, Chang’an also has records of tribute from the Sanmyo Kingdom. The Sanmyo Kingdom only offered some coral and gold and silver statues as tribute. Why is it providing Your Highness with so much grain this time?”
“This time is different from that time. Then, the Sanmyo Kingdom was a vassal state of the Great Yu Empire, but now it is our colony,” Xiao Ming said indifferently. The Sanmyo Kingdom’s status in his mind was now only at this level.
After all, this was a country independent of the Great Yu Empire, and its common people did not yet identify with the Great Yu Empire. However, once he implemented education on the island, this place would eventually become Great Yu Empire’s Hawaii, not Japan’s Hawaii.
Fiji had only just encountered the concept of a colony. He said, “Your Highness, is this appropriate? To pacify the world, one should use the Kingly Way, not the Hegemonic Way. Without benevolence, all hearts will be lost, and in the future, which foreign land will still revere the Great Yu Empire as the Celestial Empire?”
Hearing this, Xiao Ming frowned. He said, “Elder Fiji, governing the world should be done with the Kingly Way, not the Hegemonic Way. But contending for the world should be done with the Hegemonic Way, not the Kingly Way. Now that the world is unsettled, isn’t the Kingly Way too early? Moreover, the surrounding barbarians fear power but do not embrace virtue. Our Great Yu Empire has been benevolent to the surrounding barbarians, yet whenever we are weak and poor, we suffer their bullying. At those times, did they ever consider the Great Yu Empire’s benevolence towards them?”
“Your Highness, this…” Fiji was suddenly speechless.
After a pause, Xiao Ming said, “You constantly speak of the Kingly Way, yet why have the emperors of the Great Yu Empire throughout history treated their own common people like dirt, but treated barbarians as honored guests?”
Fiji’s face turned pale then red, then red then pale. This time, Xiao Ming seemed very angry. He sighed inwardly, finally understanding why Qingzhou was so unique, because Xiao Ming’s ideas were themselves very unique.
Pang Yukun saw Fiji being reprimanded and swallowed the words that had reached his throat. In fact, his views were very similar to Fiji’s. Now that Fiji had taken the blow, he kept silent.
Originally, Xiao Ming was very happy about the news of the Sanmyo Kingdom’s capture, but now it was all ruined by Fiji. Waving his hand, he told Fiji and Pang Yukun to leave.
Fiji’s words this time were full of the so-called benevolence and morality of Confucianism, but the prevailing rules of the Age of Exploration were about who was more barbaric. And what he resented most was that throughout history, from ancient times to the present, there had always been this kind of “rather give to outsiders than to domestic servants” mentality, like Fiji’s.
In fact, many people misunderstood the tribute system, thinking that the Great Yu Empire gained an advantage from it. This was not true, because after each tribute, the Great Yu Empire would give back goods worth several times more to the envoy of the vassal state for them to take back.
Even during the Ming Dynasty, Japan greatly profited from tribute, even paying tribute twice a year, because it was a profitable business for Japan. This was like giving someone 100 kuai and calling them “boss,” and then the person called “boss” happily giving that person 10,000 kuai – utterly foolish.
Because of this, now that he had come to this era, he wanted to break this cycle of thought. From now on, the Great Yu Empire would not be a false gentleman, but rather a true scoundrel. He wanted to conquer and plunder externally, and be benevolent internally, because in his view, that was what a normal country should be.
However, Fiji’s words also finally made him understand why dynasties changed and the common people had no attachment to the court. In fact, the common people had their own scale in their hearts: if the ruler treats me as a national scholar, I will repay him as a national scholar; if the ruler treats me like dirt, I will repay him as an enemy.
*TN: “Hegemonic way” and “kingly way” represent contrasting approaches to leadership and governance, particularly in a historical and political context. The hegemonic way is characterized by dominance and control, often through power and coercion, seeking to impose its will on others. Conversely, the kingly way emphasizes virtue, moral leadership, and the well-being of all, aiming to create a stable and harmonious order through persuasion and positive influence, rather than force.