Soza thought that if Masanobu Arima felt that restoring his country was hopeless, perhaps he would go all out? Then he could have him charge forward and do the work…
So he asked,
"Lord Arima, I have a concern, and I don't know if I should ask? Uh… was your last return to your country not very smooth?"
Arima Masanobu snorted and said through gritted teeth,
"General Soza, Yoshimoto Imagawa, Nobunaga Takeda, and others are simply useless! They only want your firearms for free and are unwilling to exert themselves to attack Nobunaga! General, forgive me for saying so, but last time I said that dealing with those Ming people required no reasoning at all, just land and fight! Slaughter a few cities, and they would agree to everything! It wouldn't be so complicated!"
Soza snorted inwardly, thinking: Is it that easy? When your Oomura landed, did they attack people, or were they attacked?
But at this moment, he had no one to use, so he had to agree,
"Lord Arima, what you say is very reasonable… I was too careless last time. As you Easterners say, I should have handed over my assets to a hero like you…"
A flash of inspiration struck him. He pulled Arima Masanobu out, walked to the corridor, leaned in, and whispered, "Lord Arima, I have a plan. If you succeed, there will be hope for restoring your country…"
"What plan?"
Arima Masanobu asked with the peculiar ferocity of the Japanese.
Heh heh,
Soza whispered, "Assassinate Zhu Mo…"
He looked at Arima Masanobu's astonished expression and continued, "Only if that Zhu Mo dies will everything change… I swear in the name of my lord that I will give you a thousand matchlock rifles and thirty cannons. If necessary, I can even send a hundred ships to help you restore your country! Will you consider it?"
Arima Masanobu had no room to consider. He immediately replied,
"Lord Soza, I hope you Franks are true to your word! How do you plan to do it?"
The two discussed the matter and quietly formulated a plan.
It should be known that
Soza had been considering this matter for some time. Now, it was no longer possible for him to organize a fleet and troops to fight a decisive battle with the Ming Dynasty. The only way was to kill Zhu Mo. If the Ming Dynasty fell into chaos, he could then unite with various factions to rescue Lì Gǎng. Only then could he account for himself to his country's regent.
Returning to the hall, Soza hastily concluded the meeting and made a promise,
"I have received a letter from our Regent, Bishop Henry. Within two months at most, our country will send troops from Malacca for assistance, two hundred Frankish ships, and three hundred cannons… After you return, report to all lords that the siege of Zhoushan will be lifted by autumn at the latest. At that time, we will officially go to war! Therefore, the so-called Ming Dynasty's almanac is completely ineffective, and all the countries in the Ryukyu alliance will not obey it!"
…
Several days later,
The third batch of pamphlets was also released.
By now, Yu Dayou and others had already taken away more than 1,600 people from Zhoushan. It was estimated that there were at most 2,000 combat personnel left on the island.
On this day,
Zhu Mo decided to issue a general amnesty: irrelevant merchants and civilians on the island could voluntarily petition. As long as they were found to have committed no war crimes, they would all be released.
With this move, the morale on the island immediately collapsed. Leaders such as Masazumi Omura and Torres were helpless. In just three days, only more than 1,300 pirates remained on the island. Everyone else had boarded the large ships and gone to Zhenhai Guard for identity verification.
…
The next day,
Zhu Mo returned to Hangzhou. As soon as he entered the Cí Rén Ancestral Hall, Zhang Juzheng came over with a gazette and said with a smile,
"Zi Xuan, this is the latest court dispatch from the Grand Secretariat. I heard that Yan Song has claimed illness, and some censors and officials went to the Altar of Heaven to worship Confucius, but they were driven out by the Eastern Depot. Yan Shifan caused trouble for two days, and then things quieted down.
As for Elder Xu and the others, they have formally replied to the twelve countries, and their decision is consistent with yours: the declaration of war from the twelve countries will not be accepted."
Zhu Mo thought for a moment—
Indeed, such matters were part of the normal exchanges between vassal states and foreign countries, but the problem was that military affairs could not be involved. Xu Jie could not be unaware of this. It was likely that he was still following Yan Song's wishes…
"Brother Taiyue, I think it's time to resolve this matter. Think about it, our Huating silk trading post is becoming increasingly prosperous. The reason is that Zhoushan's Lì Gǎng is under siege, and we are trying war criminals. Normal merchants dare not smuggle. Otherwise, the smuggling ports would still be the liveliest.
Since such private pirates originated from the Franks, they should also end with the Franks. I think it's time to expel the Franks. First, vassal states cannot have foreign garrisons. Ryukyu has already committed a crime, and we can explicitly prohibit it. Second, many Franks who have been tried have said that their leaders are two people, one named Torres, who is still on the island, and the other is this Soza.
In other words, this Soza is also a war criminal… Brother Taiyue, I think it would be best if the Zhoushan Office, the Zhejiang and Straight Governor's Office, and your Ministry of War jointly petitioned the Grand Secretariat to formally expel the Franks from Ryukyu. What do you think?"
Zhang Juzheng pondered for a moment and thought: Since Xu Jie has already taken a side, there should be no problem. Yan Fenyi is temporarily unable to move. Now is the right time to expel the Franks. However, the Franks are very powerful, and this matter must be handled with discretion…
"Zi Xuan, of course, it is feasible. However, I believe it would be best to target Soza personally… As you said, Soza is one of the leaders of the Japanese pirates. The East India Company renting land in Shuri without the consent of the suzerain state is something we can naturally expel. But we cannot speak too much about the Frankish country; by directly mentioning Soza, we can leave room for maneuver. If a high-ranking official from the Frankish country protests from Malacca in the future, it will be another troublesome matter."
Heh heh,
Zhu Mo smiled and said, "You still think more comprehensively. Let's do it this way. Only target Soza!"