Chapter 1172 - The Tsushima Domain

Ping Qiusheng envisioned ships returning from Japan first sailing to Jeju Island to load Korean ginseng, then continuing to Shanghai. There they would sell the ginseng and take on local cloth, silk, and daily goods before shipping everything back to Japan for sale.

Whether reality would match his vision remained to be proven through practice. The most crucial end of the Japan trade—the Shanghai side—still depended heavily on Zhao Yingong's efforts. After all, ships, cargo sources, and docking facilities all required his organization. Before departing, Ping Qiusheng had already composed a lengthy letter to be delivered by special messenger to the Hangzhou Station.

Though he and Old Zhao weren't particularly close, surely Zhao wouldn't pass up such a merit-earning opportunity.

But Ping Qiusheng couldn't afford to wait for the Shanghai side to get organized. He decided to temporarily set aside his "five-island strategy" and begin with the most readily accessible Tsushima route.

The Sō clan on Tsushima Island, positioned between the Japanese archipelago and the Korean peninsula, held a nominal territorial yield of 100,000 koku. In reality, however, Tsushima's land was meager; counting their scattered enclaves, grain production barely reached 20,000 koku. A substantial portion of that nominal 100,000 koku actually derived from economic income generated through trade with Korea.

Throughout the Tokugawa period, although Japan followed a policy of national isolation and opened only Nagasaki as an official port, Tsushima had always retained special permission to conduct trade with Korea and Qing China. This trade channel theoretically operated independently of the shogunate and bore few restrictions—a convenient avenue that could be utilized immediately.

The Sō clan had proven themselves consummate survivors throughout Japanese Warring States history. During Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Korean invasion, clan head Sō Yoshitoshi and his father-in-law Konishi Yukinaga had played both sides adroitly, bearing undeniable responsibility for the failure of the first peace negotiations and the subsequent second invasion. In the end, Hideyoshi's death spared them from punishment.

When the Battle of Sekigahara arrived, the Sō clan sided with the Western Army alongside Konishi Yukinaga. Neither the Toyotomi generals who had defected to Tokugawa's camp nor their Western Army allies—Ishida Mitsunari and the various western daimyō—had looked kindly upon the Sō clan. Yet when the Western Army fell and Ishida and Konishi were beheaded, Sō Yoshitoshi was instead pardoned by Tokugawa Ieyasu. After the Osaka Campaign, he received assurances that his domain would never be reduced or abolished. His fortune far exceeded that of turncoats like Kobayakawa Hideaki.

Of course, the Sō clan's extraordinary luck might have had something to do with their domain's insignificance. For rulers and powerful daimyō on Japan's main islands, Tsushima was merely a poor, distant island. Much like the daimyō of Hokkaido—as long as they kowtowed and swore loyalty promptly, no general bothered to deal with them.

Nonetheless, bringing Tsushima to heel would still require some effort. Historically, after Japan's failed Korean invasion, the Sō clan had privately negotiated peace with Korea—technically a treasonous act. But with the Toyotomi regime's collapse and the Tokugawa rise to power, and since Tokugawa Ieyasu had not participated in the Korean invasion and showed scant enthusiasm for that enterprise, the Sō clan's peace negotiations transformed from treason into merit.

In 1607, the Tsushima domain signed another trade agreement with Korea. Relations between Tsushima and Korea were quite cordial: Tsushima nominally submitted to the Yi Dynasty and was considered one of its vassal domains, granting it legal basis to dispatch officials to the Japanese outpost in Busan for governance. Trade between the two was brisk.

Ping Qiusheng understood that this trade was essentially one-sided. Korean merchant groups generally didn't dispatch ships to Japan; it was primarily Tsushima merchants who sent vessels to Korea for trade. Counting on Korean ships, therefore, wasn't an option.

Moreover, Japan-Korea trade consisted mainly of Chinese goods transshipped through Korea, supplemented by Korean handicrafts, medicinals, and furs—none of which were Jeju's primary products. Consequently, Tsushima ships might visit Jeju only once every few years.

Sitting passively on Jeju waiting for Japanese trading ships to arrive could mean waiting indefinitely.

The first order of business was inducing Tsushima ships to come. With the current Song-Australian naval power dominating the Yellow Sea, making any vessel come or stay away was simply a matter of will.

Thus, before Ping Qiusheng's departure, Si Kaide had approached the Naval Department with a request: they would order the Jeju detachment to intercept Tsushima trade ships heading to Korea in batches and capture the vessels. The orders specifically emphasized that captured Tsushima merchants and Sō clan retainers should be released; ordinary crew and passengers who laid down their weapons were likewise to be treated well. Ships and cargo would be held on Jeju pending disposition.

Inspecting and capturing ships was routine naval work. By the time Ping Qiusheng reached Jeju, the Sō clan had already lost three or four vessels. By now, everyone in the Tsushima domain's administrative capital should be well aware that a band of formidable pirates was intercepting their shipping.

As trade represented the domain's largest source of revenue, they couldn't possibly ignore this matter—a point both Si Kaide and Ping Qiusheng were quite certain of.

(End of Chapter)