Chapter 92: Ashikaga Yoshimitsu Was Left Dumbfounded!

Smack!

The swagger he had put on thirteen years ago had come back thirteen years later as one vicious slap.

Zhu Gaoxu shook out his hand and obediently stood behind the old Yongle Emperor.

“The Emperor of Great Ming, h-how could you do this to me...!”

Prince Kaneyoshi clutched his face, terror-stricken, and felt an absurd sense that he had been quarreling across some invisible distance, only to have the blow come flying straight along the wire.

During his years in power, he had never taken the Ming court seriously at all. He had never acknowledged the so-called tributary states. In his eyes, Japan stood shoulder to shoulder with Great Ming.

So his replies to Ming had always been arrogant. He addressed Zhu Yuanzhang as an equal in speech, and at times even made it seem as though he stood a little above him.

Every time an embassy was sent to Great Ming, pirate raids would flare up somewhere, all for the sake of irritating that overbearing emperor and, as a bonus, raising a bit of prestige.

He had never imagined that he would truly provoke the Ming Emperor so badly that the man would cross the sea himself!

The Hongwu Emperor’s gaze turned icy. “Have I given you too much face?”

Still acting this brazen?

Beside him, the old Yongle Emperor watched him coolly, as if looking at a dead man.

Zhu Gaoxu’s merciless iron hand was itching to move. With a single command from the old emperor, he could slap this old Japanese bastard to death, even now still daring to put on airs.

Prince Kaneyoshi’s whole body jolted. Lowering his head, he said bitterly, “Your Majesty, this humble subject overstepped!”

A sense of humiliation flooded him from head to toe.

A flash of malice crossed Prince Kaneyoshi’s eyes. Then he said respectfully, “Your Majesty, this humble subject cannot read Chinese characters. This letter was not written by me. It was entirely issued under the instructions of His Majesty the Emperor of Great Japan. I beg Your Majesty to see this clearly and confront the Emperor of Great Japan face to face!”

Go on, then. Fight. Just fight.

If you dare lay a hand on the emperor, the daimyos and local governors will all unite and tear you Ming men apart!

Calling that rabble of Japans the Emperor of Great Japan, and our sovereign merely “Your Majesty”?

Damn it, that insult was filthy beyond measure.

The old Hongwu Emperor’s face turned as black as the bottom of a pot. He shouted, “You insolent thing! A disgusting breed that defies the bonds of human decency and order—what makes you think you are fit to confront us?”

“Who gave you the nerve!”

In his fury, the old emperor’s oppressive presence crashed forward like a wave, making one’s hair stand on end.

Prince Kaneyoshi’s breathing grew ragged. Swallowing hard, and knowing escape was impossible, he stiffened his neck and cried, “Everything written in the memorial for restoring Ming was issued by the Emperor of Great Japan. This humble subject is innocent. If I am to die, I die clean. The Ming ruler’s invasion of this humble subject’s country has no just cause and will surely be reviled by later generations!”

Reviled by later generations?

What a joke.

In the Hongwu reign, the heads of officials had rolled by the tens of thousands. If he were truly afraid of the shame of posterity, then he ought even more to sweep across Japan and plow it flat.

Otherwise, would that not make him a bully only at home?

The old Hongwu Emperor shook his head. “Foolish!”

At that, the old Yongle Emperor shot Zhu Gaoxu a glance, and Zhu Gaoxu understood at once. His merciless iron hand flew out and slapped Prince Kaneyoshi’s face until his mind spun.

Just then, a messenger entered and reported, “Your Majesty, outside there is a Japanese who claims to be Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and asks for an audience.”

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu?

The Hongwu Emperor lifted his brows and said, “Admit him.”

“Yes!”

Before long, a burly little man wearing a Ming-style blue robe, looking absurdly out of place, walked into the tent carrying two strangely deformed Japanese captives, one in each hand.

The moment he saw the crimson dragon robe on the main seat, he tossed the two men aside.

Thud!

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu immediately dropped to the ground in full prostration, speaking in broken Chinese with excitement and fervor:

“This humble subject, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, bows before the resplendent and august Holy Emperor of Great Ming. May Your Majesty’s imperial majesty fill the four seas, and may your long life know no end!”

Oh?

Finally, someone who could speak!

Listening to him was wonderfully pleasing. The old emperor could not hide a smile in his brows and said with full dignity, “Rise.”

Before finishing, he even cast a glance at the dazed Prince Kaneyoshi being beaten senseless nearby.

That one was a mere club.

“Thank you for Your Majesty’s grace!” Ashikaga Yoshimitsu knocked his head to the ground three times before rising, his reverence for Great Ming unmistakable.

The old Hongwu Emperor glanced at the two trembling Japanese captives, each looking like a malformed child, and asked, “Who are these two you brought?”

Suddenly, Prince Kaneyoshi, having come to himself, bared his eyes and roared, “Ashikaga, you idiot!”

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu frowned, then said in astonishment, “Prince Kaneyoshi?”

He then spoke solemnly. “Please do not interrupt our Great Ming Holy Emperor. Such presumption on your part leaves me no choice but to assist you in cutting your own belly open and dying at once!”

“Bastard! Shut your mouth! How dare you be so rude to my Emperor of Great Japan? The daimyos of every province will tear you into dust!”

Prince Kaneyoshi raged helplessly, struggling against his bonds.

Then he looked again at the trembling Emperor Go-Kameyama beside him, and fear split his very liver and gall.

If the Ming Emperor demanded that he confront the emperor, what then? This nephew of his, Emperor Go-Kameyama, was not blessed with much sense!

One fright, and he would spill everything at once!

The old Yongle Emperor said rather unhappily, “Prince of Han, have you not eaten? Hit him harder. Make some noise.”

“Yes, Father!”

Zhu Gaoxu nodded repeatedly, then slapped Prince Kaneyoshi in annoyance. What kind of mad fit had this old Japanese bastard gone into? He had nearly scared him into thinking the man was having a dying burst of strength.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu looked at the howling Prince Kaneyoshi in confusion, thought it over for a moment, then respectfully addressed the throne:

“Reporting to Your Majesty, these two criminals are the ringleaders behind the offense against Great Ming. They are Go-Komatsu and Go-Kameyama, who style themselves emperors of Japan.”

“These two criminals have repeatedly violated Great Ming’s sea frontier and offended the majesty of Heaven many times. Though this humble subject has been in Japan, my heart has always been with Ming. For many years I have borne humiliation and carried a heavy burden, and at last, when Great Ming’s heavenly soldiers came to scour out the evil, I seized these two most wicked men in one stroke and brought them here to await Your Majesty’s judgment!”

The old Yongle Emperor glanced at him from the side. This boy was quite good at flattering people.

Zhu Yuanzhang was surprised. Though unexpected, it was not unreasonable. He nodded and asked, “Prince Kaneyoshi says the memorial for restoring Ming was written at your instruction?”

It was over.

Prince Kaneyoshi trembled with both fear and shame.

Emperor Go-Kameyama was frightened and bewildered.

He could not understand a word.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu bowed respectfully. “Reporting to Your Majesty, he speaks only Japanese and does not understand Chinese.”

Even learning Japanese had been a hell of a task, and even then he only had the level of a ten-year-old child.

He was also the last emperor of the legitimate line to possess his own direct military forces and territory.

In other words, he held direct control over a single mountain. A proper little mountain king.

His mind was poor, his power weak, and yet he loved to meddle. Anyone under him who proved smarter than he was would be hounded and dealt with.

Prince Kaneyoshi had been one of the earliest victims.

A master of micromanagement—Emperor Go-Kameyama.

He had been born more than two centuries earlier than the grand master of micromanagement in the Ming court, the Chongzhen Emperor.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu acted as interpreter and intimidated Go-Kameyama for a while. The emperor shook his head frantically.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu then respectfully said, “Holy Emperor, Go-Kameyama says he knew nothing of the memorial for restoring Ming. All affairs of the Southern Court five years ago were entirely in Prince Kaneyoshi’s hands!”

The Hongwu Emperor nodded, then turned his gaze to the still-aching Prince Kaneyoshi and asked, “Do you have anything else to say?”

Prince Kaneyoshi flushed with rage, but he did not dare insult the throne. Instead he turned and cursed Go-Kameyama, “You idiot! I should have had you plastered into a wall from the start!”

The translator, Officer Yang Zai, sucked in a cold breath and hurried to interpret for the emperor.

Hmm. Hmm?

The Hongwu Emperor blinked.

The old Yongle Emperor looked astonished.

Zhu Gaoxu was dumbfounded. “Huh?”

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was likewise stunned. “Nani?”

…