Archeologist Warlord: Book 2

by E. M. Hardy

  Ishida was taken aback by the playful, mocking smile that graced Isin’s lips from underneath her veil. “Thanks for confirming.” The walker froze, chuffed, and then chuckled. “Damn it,” Martin shot back ruefully. Isin joined Martin with a chuckle of her own even as the two generals looked at one another with varying expressions on their faces. General Bai Yu eyed his compatriot with a questioning look, while General Shen Feng responded with a barely perceptible shake of the head. Shen Feng then eyed Martin’s walker carefully, almost nervously, before forcing himself to look back at the apparently suicidal representative of this so-called League of Merchants.

  “As I was saying,” continued Isin, “Inagaki Nobumoto left a young, inexperienced empress at the helm of a weakened Empire. This, after destroying the last institution keeping it together—the Three Sages. You can execute those thirty thousand captives of yours, claim justice for the wrongs inflicted upon your people. You do that, however, and you will lose the support of the one Daimyo willing to work with the Empire. The Empire is weak and has few friends left in the world; losing one potential friend is something you cannot afford right now.”

  Isin nodded her head, softening her words as she continued. “We, the League of Merchants, would like to consider ourselves a friend of the Empire. And as a friend, we are willing to assist the Empire in dealing with its Taiyo problem.”

  Alarm bells began ringing in Ishida’s head. It was his turn to nervously shift his eyes at the two generals ogling Isin with suspicion. He groped for a weapon that was not there, cursing himself and his circumstances. The Isles would be able to repulse an Imperial attack, especially with his troops and his ghurka allies providing support to the beleaguered islands. But this League of Merchants? He didn’t know how many soldiers they could throw at his people… or what they could do in the first place.

  And then there was Martin. He eyed Martin’s walker with trepidation. He thought the walkers were bad enough, but those oversized beetles capable of burning entire armies to the ground? Martin could promise all the peace he wanted, but his endless army of clay constructs would grind the Isles to dust if he decided to join the attack.

  “How, exactly, can this League of yours help deal with our Taiyo problem?” General Bai Yu asked, his expression dark and doubtful.

  Isin smiled from underneath her veil, a triumphant smile akin to a cat that has caught its prey. “We have the resources to help you support a new Shogun, one friendly to the Empire.” She gave Ishida a knowing look, and he immediately blanched at the idea.

  “No!” Ishida immediately shot back. “I will not sail to the Isles an Imperial dog, leading an Imperial army to invade my own homeland!”

  “Who said anything about leading an Imperial army?” Martin commented gently, inserting himself into the discussion.

  Ishida whirled on Martin, confused for a few moments. His confusion turned to disbelief, then anger as he surprised himself with the heat in his own voice. “Your captive Shogunates? Do you think that they will follow me, invade their own homeland only to give it to the Empire? They would kill themselves before allowing that to happen! No, I did not come here to fight the Empire’s battles for it. I came here to negotiate for the release of my fellow Taiyo on the slim chance that I can somehow convince the Empire to spare them instead of put them to the blade. Or at the very least, to negotiate for the lives of those who had nothing to do with Inagaki’s mad slaughter of innocents.”

  “Ah, but you have nothing to offer the Empire in return,” replied Isin with cool calm. “You cannot possibly ask for something so great without giving something in return. You need to do something for others if you expect others to do something for you.”

  Isin continued talking as she pulled out a case beside her feet, laid it atop the negotiating table, and pulled out a sheaf of papers. “Without firm rule, the Isles of Taiyo will slide back into another period of internal war. This is already happening to the north of the Empire’s borders, in the steppes where the various khans are embroiled in a civil war of their own.”

  Shen Feng growled his reply. “And how is that our problem? I’d say we can count ourselves lucky that the khans are busy fighting amongst themselves instead of against the Empire. I would shed no tears for these Shogunate barbarians if they end up slaughtering themselves.”

  Martin chuckled at that statement, drawing everyone’s attention to himself. Instead of quieting, however, Martin’s chuckle devolved into a roaring, mocking laughter that worried Ishida.

  “Funny how people think. Shen, remember what I told you about coming from a different world?” It was a rhetorical question, for Martin didn’t even wait for the general to reply before continuing his spiel. “Well, some empires in my world thought it would be a wonderful idea to divide the people of the lands they invaded. It worked, until they found their empires overextended, no longer able to support their conquests. They left these lands, not bothering to leave a functioning government behind them. A couple decades passed, and chaos ruled these lands—chaos that petty warlords took advantage of. They didn’t even provide security or stability; they simply redirected the anger and frustration of the people to suit their purposes.”

  Martin’s false cheer faded away, replaced by a chillingly grim tone. “Those lands eventually filled with blood, dust, and bones. Their great histories, their potential, their sense of order—all gone in a blaze of violence. Those lands now breed hatred, and that hate spilled over into the ‘safe’ lands of the old empires. All new attempts to tame those lands failed, for the great empires of my world hemorrhaged men and money in their futile campaigns to reinstate order in those hate-filled lands. The people became so inured to the chaos that none would accept order, especially a type of order imposed by a foreign empire. One warlord would fall only for another to take his place, and the cycle of violence continued. In the end, these failed states became a dangerous threat to the empires that indirectly created them—a threat they could no longer control.

  “The Empire of Ren is rife with plague and famine and disorder. How easy do you think it would be for your disgruntled people to vent their dissatisfaction? All it takes is another Inagaki Nobumoto to rise up, to reorganize the Order of Rats to whisper sweet nothings into the ears of Imperial citizens. It already happened in Yan Bao and Wu Er, where the people believed rumors instead of the leaders administering their lands. They need only listen to the siren song of hate, and they will grab the opportunity to lash out at the Empire that failed them.”

  Isin quickly inserted herself into the discussion, wrestling the speaking time away from Martin with a disapproving glare before the generals could react. “Martin has a point: the Empire is too weak right now to invade the Islands anyway, especially if its independence is backed by the Sahaasi Dominion. A Dominion, may I remind everyone in this room, that is perhaps the only nation left relatively unscathed from this war. Their people are fresh, unburdened by the demands of war, and ready to campaign at a moment’s notice. But what if someone here brings home thirty thousand sons and fathers as a gift to the various clans of the Taiyo? What if this gesture of goodwill buys enough trust from the various clans for them to come together and work out a government that unifies the Isles without threatening the Empire of Ren?”

  “What do you mean?” asked Ishida after a moment of silence. Isin ignored him, arranging the papers in front of her and organizing them into batches as she turned toward the Imperial generals.

  “General Shen Feng, General Bai Yu, would you be willing to spare the majority of the Taiyo army if you instead executed the Daimyo and the higher officials responsible for ordering the blood-harvests?”

  “You said it yourself,” responded Shen Feng, sarcasm lacing his words. “You cannot possibly ask for something so great without—”

  “In exchange,” interrupted Isin, meeting the general’s glare. “The League of Merchants as well as Martin’s constructs will make sure that Ishida Nagatoshi becomes a ‘toothless’ Sho
gun—one that will keep the Isles of Taiyo from falling into anarchy without having enough power to unite the Isles against the Empire.”

  Isin stood up and began handing out sheaves of documents. Ishida received one sheaf, as did Shen Feng and Bai Yu. Oddly enough, even Martin received a bundle.

  Ishida glanced at the document and his eyes lifted in surprise as he saw Taiyo characters on his copy. His surprise soon turned to doubt, then disbelief as he continued reading the document.

  “An Assembly of Representatives? A Court of Judges? A Shogun bound by rules and regulations? What madness is all this… this Rule of Law!?” he finally blurted out.

  “Think of it like you would the ideals of bushido,” Martin quipped from his corner, as his walker kept its nonexistent eyes glued to the document before him. “It’s like a list of self-imposed rules that guide your behavior, that define how you live your life with honor and courage. Instead of just eight vague principles, however, you have a formal structure for making rules complete with limits and restrictions on how you implement them.”

  Ishida grimaced at first, then nodded as the connection made sense… sort of. He still had great difficulty wrapping his mind around the concepts he saw.

  Shen Feng dropped a sheet of paper to the table. “This seems awfully… bureaucratic.” The last word came out with so much distaste that the general couldn’t help but twist his face in disgust. Truth be told, Ishida felt the same way.

  “And it is intentionally so,” said Isin with a nod. “This system of government is meant to organize a disparate people, to spread the power out instead of concentrating it in the hands of a single person or group of people. The Isles will avoid slipping into anarchy, but the weight of these rules will prevent another Shogun from taking over and leading the Isles to attack the Empire.”

  Ishida and Shen Feng were ready to put down the documents, already shaking their heads in disbelief. General Bai Yu, however, continued reading while mumbling to himself.

  “Yes. Yes, I can already see how this can work,” whispered Bai Yu, as his eyes widened. Ishida was surprised by the sudden injection of life into the man’s face. Where once was a man shriveled by the ravages of war now stood a man who seemed to shed years with each passing second. This sudden interest caught Ishida by surprise, and he picked up the papers to give them another read.

  The Assembly of Representatives

  The Assembly of Representatives will be responsible for crafting laws, collecting taxes, spending funds, defining the budget of the military, declaring war, ending war, and approving the treaties signed by the Shogun. Each representative will also be responsible for overseeing their respective clan’s militia and guards during times of peace. During a state of emergency, the Assembly may at its discretion vote to declare martial law—giving the Shogun complete control over selected regions or the entire nation for the duration of the emergency.

  Each clan will send representatives based on how many people they have; one representative for one two hundredth of the total Taiyo population. At two million people, that means one for every ten thousand individuals. Smaller clans will be entitled to one representative even if they do not possess ten thousand members, but the representation in the Assembly will be limited to two hundred representatives. Larger clans will take precedence over smaller clans until the Assembly draws up two hundred representatives. These representatives will then put forth proposals that the Assembly will vote on. If the proposal gets more than fifty percent approval, then it passes and becomes law. The representatives will serve for seven years before another representative for a clan will be chosen. The clans must then choose another representative, one who must never have been a representative before.

  The Court of Judges

  The Court of Judges will be responsible for studying and interpreting the law as defined by the Assembly. It will review these laws to see if they uphold the interests of the Taiyo people, and will either approve or nullify these laws as it sees fit. The Court will also be responsible for handing out judgments based on their interpretation of the laws.

  The Shogun will select fourteen judges—one from each island—to serve in the Court of Judges. The Assembly of Representatives will then vote to either approve or deny the Shogun’s appointees. This process will repeat until fourteen Judges are appointed. Intellect and integrity defines these judges, and they will be held to the highest standards for they will serve as the cornerstone for justice in the Isles. The decisions they hand down will serve as the basis for future judgments; if a judgment will apply to one case, then it must apply to similar cases. Judges will serve as long as they are capable, when the Shogun no longer requires their services, or when the Assembly of Representatives ejects a Judge with a two-thirds majority vote.

  The Office of the Shogun

  The Shogun is the de facto ‘face’ of the Shogunate in diplomacy, negotiating treaties with other nations as he sees fit, and leading the nation during times of emergency. He is responsible for upholding the law passed by the Assembly of Representatives and interpreted by the Court of Judges. He is responsible for overseeing the professional armies of Taiyo, working with the warrior class to lead the military during times of war.

  The Daimyo of the Clans will select one of their own to serve as Shogun for five years. Each Shogun can only serve a maximum of three terms. The Shogun can form treaties with other nations, but these treaties will need to be approved by the Assembly of Representatives. The Shogun can also choose to strike down any laws passed by the Assembly, but the Assembly can override the Shogun’s strike if more than two-thirds of the Assembly chooses to push through with the law. During times of emergency such as war or disaster, the Shogun can declare martial law for a maximum of six months. The Assembly can then choose to uphold or revoke this declaration. If the Assembly upholds the declaration, it will give the Shogun its unanimous support, approving everything he needs to deal with the emergency. Once six months pass or the emergency ends, the Assembly can then vote to lift or maintain Martial Law as long as it is needed.

  “What is all this nonsense?” Ishida groaned, as he put the sheets of paper down, unable to understand the point of it all. “The leader gives orders, those orders are obeyed, and the leader takes responsibility for the consequences. Why complicate it with all this… this pointless bureaucracy!”

  Isin shrugged, then pointed to Martin’s walker. “I believe this is the part where you explain how the system works?”

  The walker nodded before straightening up. “This whole system is about splitting power into three factions, taking it away from the Shogun and the Daimyo and distributing it to the clans through the representatives. Under this new charter of laws, the Assembly is the real power behind the Isles, dictating policy and holding the purse strings of the Taiyo. Having two hundred representatives serving for only seven years minimizes the risks of someone fouling up the system and taking control of the country for himself.”

  Bai Yu nodded, a genuine smile forming on his lips. “Yes, like how Inagaki Nobumoto corrupted the Empire during his time as a Sage. As Ye Heng, he had decades to plot against not just the Imperial family but the other Sages as well. In the end, he almost succeeded; the Empire would be lost if Martin did not provide aid to help put down the Shogunate army.” Ishida grimaced at that reminder of Inagaki’s sins, even as Bai Yu continued sharing his thoughts. “Cutting down the length of service to a few years and splitting power with so many others? That ought to make it much harder for anyone to pull off conspiracies on Ye Heng’s scale.”

  Shen Feng studied the documents with a scowl before nodding crossly. “Yes, and this Court of Judges can further even out the scales between the Office of the Shogun and Assembly of Representatives. The Judges can strike down laws that do not serve the interests of the Taiyo, but they in turn can be struck down from their positions by both the Shogun and the Assembly.”

  Martin stepped in to explain even further. “The whole point of thi
s system, Ishida. If the three branches in this system act to advance the benefits of the people as a whole, then there will be few reasons for them to oppose one another. The system will not work flawlessly or quickly and there will inevitably be disagreements, but the system will steadily chug development along. If people like Inagaki Nobumoto seek to usurp power for personal, selfish ambitions, then they will have a much harder time gathering the support they need. The Shogun is no exception; Representatives that do their work well gather the support of their clansmen. Soldiers coming from these clans will turn on the Shogun if he decides to overstep his boundaries in an attempt to take absolute control.”

  “And in times of great need?” interrupted Ishida, still skeptical about the proposal. “Will the Assembly have the luxury of meeting and voting when people are dying or an enemy nation is invading?”

  Martin nodded, apparently ready with an answer. “That’s when the Shogun exercises his right to declare martial law. He will provide rapid leadership when it is called for during emergencies. And even this right to declare martial law depends heavily on the will of the Assembly. If the Shogun uses martial law in a power play, the Judges can rule against the Shogun while the various Representatives of the clans call on their kinsmen to put down the Shogun, ejecting him from power.”

  Ishida grimaced as he pondered about a recurring theme. “But why the obsession with these term limits? Why not just have one ruling class, one family dedicated to doing their jobs well and passing their knowledge on to their descendants?”

  “Because blood does not guarantee competence,” Isin retorted in a huff, apparently unable to contain herself. She seemed taken aback by her own outburst, eyes wide with surprise, before finally regaining control of herself. “What I am trying to say is that this new type of government is not to safeguard a dynasty, but to safeguard the nation it serves. If the family does a decent enough job, then they can keep winning the positions they desire. But if that same family produces incompetent offspring, these term limits can easily put another more competent individual into the position without having to dismantle the entire system to do so.”