Trying to Eat Me Alive, Are You?
The bakufu hadn't launched a night raid after all. The reason was simple: today, the Hojo clan intended to step forward and settle things directly.
Unaware of this, the samurai had come flocking to the bakufu in the early hours of the morning. They understood that the bakufu was prepared to fight to the last man with their lives on the line.
After all, most of them were farmers at heart — if they failed to defend the bakufu, they would either become bandits or be forced back into the fields.
"Last night, I came to a decision. I will not ask for any more of your sacrifices. I will go out there myself and settle this — even if the price is my own head."
Nagatoki, who actually intended to buy his way out with money, spouted noble nonsense to deceive the samurai gathered before him.
"No! Lord Hojo!"
"For our sake!"
"Sniff...!"
"As expected, only the bakufu truly cares for us!"
The vast majority of samurai were farmers. They'd never had the chance to study, never had hobbies worth pursuing, so they couldn't think deeply — they saw only the surface and swallowed everything whole.
Huh? Something's off. Then why didn't he do this from the start?
A few of the better-educated, sharper ones felt suspicion stirring, but with nearly everyone else rallying to defend the bakufu, speaking up would only brand them traitors. They kept their mouths shut.
"Then I shall go and return. Wait for me..."
Hojo Nagatoki walked toward the Daehan camp, struggling to drag along his trembling, fear-weakened legs.
The moment he left, the remaining members of the Hojo clan began to step forward.
"Now! Are you all simply going to send our lord off like this?"
The eldest son of the Hojo clan stepped to the front of the crowd.
"Never!"
"We cannot let him go like this!"
"What should we do?"
Then the Hojo clan's planted lackeys began to stir up the crowd. Watching the samurai take up the cry and echo their sentiment in an instant, the Hojo clan had to fight to hide their smirks.
Everything is proceeding exactly as planned.
Their goal was to persuade the samurai and remaining estate lords to gather gold and silver. And then they would strip the manors nearby, collecting as much as possible.
Well, some of it will end up in our pockets anyway.
The eldest son felt a flicker of pity for the samurai about to be used by these men steeped in scheming.
"We intend to pay our lord's ransom to Daehan. Since the Daehan people are known to covet gold and silver, we plan to gather wealth. Help us!"
Clatter!
Gold and silver came pouring out of their sacks. It was an enormous fortune.
"This is all the gold and silver the Hojo clan has gathered. We ask for your aid."
With tears welling in his eyes and his head bowed before the crowd, the eldest son could have made a career on the stage.
He claimed this was every last coin of the clan's gold and silver — in truth, it was barely half. And if they quietly skimmed off whatever the men gathered now, wouldn't their stockpile only grow larger later?
"Very well! I'll hand over my entire fortune!"
"That's right! Isn't it wealth we piled up thanks to the bakufu anyway?"
"We can always earn it back later!"
"Let's collect a bit more from the manors around here as well!"
The Hojo clan had been racking their brains over how to get these people to commit robbery — and here they were, volunteering to raid the manors themselves. It seemed the Hojo clan would not fall just yet.
While gold and silver were being gathered in this fashion—
"Please, don't attack!"
Nagatoki had no audience for his pleas. Dragging his quivering legs, he somehow managed to raise a white flag high and made his way toward the harbor.
Because if the Daehan forces failed to see that white flag and attacked, he would die like a dog.
I'd spent the entire night deep in thought.
Thinking about how many of the children who died today would die again tomorrow made my chest tighten.
"Is this really the right thing to do?"
When you got down to it, we'd already secured a position as a superpower no nation could touch — greater even than America had ever been. So what was I really after, going this far? The doubts piled up.
"No. That's not it. Yes, this is right. It's better to stomp out hopeless weeds before they sprout."
Japan, at least, was beyond redemption. Even now, look at them — this was something they could have simply repaid and been done with, and instead they dragged it out. Hadn't they already attacked trying to seize both the silver mine and the gold mine?
Right. This was a rotten sprout. No matter how much I trampled it, it would grow back — but I'd make sure that no matter how tall it grew, it never became anything more than grass.
Let me think of it this way: one life now will save ten thousand lives in the future.
I'm truly sorry, children. I'll pray that you're reborn into a peaceful and prosperous future.
I thought and prayed through the night, and before I knew it, the sun was rising.
Watching it climb the sky, I steeled my resolve once more. Japan would be our resource warehouse for a thousand years — ten thousand, if need be.
"They're not launching a night raid? What are they scheming?"
They'd gone to all the trouble of setting ambushes yesterday, and now they were going to quietly sit through the night? Something was seriously strange.
"Young Lady!"
"What is it?"
Were we under attack? Why was she looking for me in such a hurry?
No — wait. No gunshots. So it's not an immediate emergency?
"The head of the bakufu has appeared!"
"What?"
Their leader? The man who hadn't shown his face once this whole time? He should've stayed hidden, honestly. What kind of nonsense was this?
"Why is he here?"
"Judging by his manner, it looks like a surrender?"
"If it's a surrender, just say surrender. What's with 'looks like'?"
"We're not entirely sure!"
Ugh, he should've said so from the beginning. I figured as much! I was already planning to go see for myself.
"I'll go."
"Yes, Young Lady!"
Thinking of the children who died yesterday, if I were in their shoes I'd have put a hole in his head the moment I laid eyes on him, white flag or not. The kids are too soft-hearted.
Following the children down to the waterfront, the harbor was already in an uproar, though it was still early morning.
Ah, right — the dead and the wounded were supposed to be sent back by ship, weren't they?
With the enemy's leader showing up waving a white flag, the atmosphere was bound to be ugly.
Thud. Whump.
"Ghk... khh... p-please, spare me!"
"Because of you, my brother—!"
"Should I just kill this wretched bastard right here?"
"Hold back..."
"How am I supposed to hold back?!"
Sure enough, he was getting beaten black and blue, rolling this way and that across the ground. I walked over slowly, on purpose. I felt exactly what the children felt. Part of me even hoped they'd beat him to death.
"The decision belongs to Haneul-nim."
"Ah..."
"Right..."
It was times like these their good hearts felt like such a shame. For the people who sailed together on the same ship, the person beside you was more than a coworker — their bonds ran deeper than anyone could imagine, close to family.
"The Young Lady is here. Make way."
"Ah!"
"You've arrived!"
"Please, we leave it to you!"
Well, I might decide differently than you're all hoping.
Still, I had to hear him out first, didn't I? Phew...
Tap.
"Young Lady, please sit."
"Thanks."
The man calling himself the clan head — those slitted eyes, that goatee. Something about his face just begged to be punched.
But with the kids having already beaten him half to death, hitting him myself felt a bit much. I'd hold back. For now.
"Hello?"
"..."
"Mm... right! You don't look much in the mood for hellos. So, what brings you?"
You blew this whole thing up yourself, so let's hear what excuse you've come to babble at me. Go ahead.
"This... this debt — strictly speaking, while it is partly our responsibility, isn't it also not our responsibility?"
What kind of novel nonsense is this? So is it your responsibility or not? No wonder the kids were confused.
"There are those who argue the debt should be collected from the Imperial family instead."
"And?"
"Then wouldn't we be spared from fighting like this?"
So he hadn't come to surrender or negotiate — he'd just come to spout garbage?
"Hey."
"Y-yes? Yes!"
"Suppose I go over there and take this entire country from your Emperor as payment for the debt. What then? Are you all going to drown in the sea?"
Did he think shoving the problem onto someone else solved anything? I really should just sink his ship.
"You can't possibly mean to sell an entire country?"
"If this debt goes unpaid, within twenty or thirty years you'll owe enough that you'd have to sell your country just to cover it. Is that so hard to believe?"
"..."
He still couldn't read the room?
"Do you genuinely want to go to war with Daehan?"
"Aren't we at war right now?"
"PWAHAHAHAHA!"
Oh, this guy's hilarious! He actually thought this was a war?
"About six hundred years ago, Daehan went to war with the Sui dynasty. Do you have any idea how large an army was mobilized?"
"Er... six hundred years ago... that was when we had no contact with foreign nations, so..."
You claim to engage in trade, yet you've never even heard rumors of it in your history books or from your trading partners?
"Over six million soldiers. Not counting support troops."
"I'm... sorry, what?"
"They mobilized a fighting force nearly the size of your entire population. Do you have any grasp of how massive that war was? That is a war. What's happening here isn't even one!"
I'd dismissed this land as worthless, figured I'd spare their lives and maybe mold them into obedient subordinates — and apparently they had no idea how terrifying the alternative was.
"Th-that must be a lie?"
"Six million six hundred years ago. How many soldiers do you imagine we have now?"
He clearly couldn't believe it. Was it finally sinking in? His face was starting to turn ash-white.
"Dear heavens..."
"Don't get cocky. Daehan is a country you couldn't even look in the eye with your head bowed — you'd only ever see its feet."
Who did some backwater island nation think it was, snarling at the sky like that?
"Do you truly want a war?"
I asked with complete sincerity. I could annihilate them so thoroughly that not a single blade of grass would remain. Honestly, it might be easier to let some other people settle the land and put them to work.
"N-no, of course not..."
"When you get the chance someday, do try to study up on Daehan. If you're going to pick a fight, you should at least know who you're fighting, shouldn't you?"
"I apologize..."
He was free to disbelieve me and act up if he liked. I really would grind him into powder.
"Anyway, that's beside the point. If you don't want a war, then what exactly are you proposing?"
"The money is simply too much for us to bear!"
"Hmm."
Forgiving the debt outright didn't sit right with me.
"Then mine whatever mineral resources you have — gold, silver, copper — as much as you possibly can, and offer them up. In exchange, I'll reduce the interest for the duration."
"You mean it?"
Was he thinking he could get away with a half-hearted effort? It wouldn't be that easy, my friend.
"Though if you bring in too little, I'll simply keep charging the full interest. Understood?"
"Ghk..."
"The interest you owe is 820,000 nyang of silver per year. Unless you're short by only a few tens of thousands, why would we trouble ourselves to accept anything else?"
"But it's far too much. Our technology is still lacking, and— please..."
I thought so. With their commerce only just beginning to grow, even the interest alone would crush them.
"Then let's do this. Daehan companies will come to Japan. You'll gather and support the laborers so those companies can mine the minerals."
"A-are you... recruiting slaves?"
"Of course we won't make anyone work for free. Wages will be paid so people can actually make a living. Honestly, they'll eat better working for us than farming."
At the very least, I'd make sure this didn't turn into forced labor that bled the common people dry.
"And in return, you'll reduce the interest?"
"Yes. But it had better be done with sincerity and diligence."
"Of course, of course! Thank you!"
Was he satisfied with just this? Well, I suppose that's what happens when it's not your own back doing the work.
"So is that everything settled now?"
"Hm? What is?"
"The fighting."
"No?"
"...I beg your pardon?"
What did he just say? This entire thing started because you attacked our mine?
"You're the ones who attacked our mine and started all of this, aren't you? Where's the compensation for that?"
"What? No — that is..."
What is wrong with this man? How does an idiot like this end up leading a clan and running a country?
"H-how much..."
"Counting the mine raid from before and this battle, you killed or wounded four hundred of our people. Add in the materiel, and you'll owe 4 million nyang of gold."
"KHHAAAK!"
Oh, he's choking! There it goes! Well, I do need to leave him breathing if I want him working hard.
"But that's a lot to pay in one lump sum, isn't it? You're carrying plenty of debt already, so out of the goodness of my heart, I'll let you pay it off in installments over fifty years."
"And the interest on that...?"
So he finally learned to fear interest?
"No interest on this one. In exchange, you'll pay every single year, without fail."
"Thank you! Thank you!"
"Keep it up, though, and the race called 'the Japanese' will vanish from the Earth."
"Gasp."
His face seemed to say, surely you wouldn't! But I meant it. This was not a joke.
"You'd best behave. I'm dead serious."
Eighty thousand nyang of gold per year...
They'd have to scrape together every coin they had, real or imagined. The aristocrats would be lucky to catch so much as a glimpse of gold or silver ever again.