by Gai-Jin(Lit)
There was a silence. The mood reversed.
"My Master say, no prepare war." He saw Andreh gai-jin was translating meticulously. "Prepare defend only. So sorry, tair@o say all gai-jin must leave."
"Why not leave for a month or two and then return?" He laughed inwardly seeing the consternation this generated.
"My Master says, Treaty signed by Lord
Sh@ogun and made true by Bakufu leader
Tair@o Ii, and Most High Emperor, allow us Yokohama, Kanagawa, Kobe soon. Treaty is good treaty for Nippon, gai-jin. Tair@o Anjo, so sorry, wrong to be angry."
"Many daimyos do not think so. Tair@o
Anjo is the leader. You should do what he orders.
This is our land."
"My Master says Furansu want help
Nippon be great nation in world... as here too."
"Say to Serata-sama, the tair@o is the leader, what he says is to be obeyed, though sometimes," he said delicately, "even the tair@o may change if given the correct advice." He saw this register. "So sorry, we have explained a dozen times that Satsuma matters may only be resolved by Sanjiro, the
Satsuma daimyo."
"My Master say hope someone can give correct advice to tair@o. Satsuma daimyo must say sorry, pay indemnity agreed in Yedo meeting, punish killer openly."
He had nodded as if gravely concerned.
Abruptly, he got up to more consternation--no point in further talk with these underlings who were valuable in other ways, the Ing'erish Leader must be approached. This suited him perfectly. And while he kept his demeanor haughty and stern, he showed some friendliness and agreed, with pretended reluctance, to another meeting. "Misamoto, tell them we can meet in ten days, in Yedo.
They may come to Yedo for a private meeting."
Just as he was leaving the warship, the gai-jin
Andreh said, "My Master wish you Good New
Year." Dumbfounded, he learned that the gai-jin world had its own calendar, totally different from the Japanese--and Chinese--lunar calendar that had been the way to count the days and the months and years since the beginning of time.
"The first day of our year, Serata-sama,"
Misamoto explained, "is between 16th day of
First Month and 22nd day of Second Month depending on the moon. This year, the Year of the
Dog, First Day, which begins our season of festivals is the 18th of First Month. That's when all China says Kung Hay Fat
Choy."
All the way back to Yedo in the galley
Yoshi had wondered about these men. Mostly he was appalled--gai-jin were like monsters in the shape of men who had come from the stars, their ideas and attitudes the wrong side of yin and yang.
Yet for us to survive as a nation, Nippon has to have bigger ships and guns and more power to protect themselves from this alien evil. And for now, he thought, feeling nauseated, the Sh@ogunate must make an accommodation with them.
They will never go away, not all of them, of their own accord. If not these, others will come to steal our heritage, Chinese or Mongols or Hairies from the Siber Ice lands who eye us like slavering dogs from ports stolen from China. And always the
Ing'erish will be around us. What to do about them?
That was yesterday. Last night and in this dawn he had been deep in thought, hardly eating, hardly sleeping, conscious too of the emptiness of his bed and of his life--the seams of Koiko's compartment leaking--like Anjo's, and Ogama's and the others.
Many times during the journey here from Ky@oto he had thought of the clean sword, the cleanliness and peace of death, the minute and the hour and the day chosen with godlike power--to chose your own death time made you a god: from nothing into nothing. No more sorrow grinding you to petals of pain.
So easy.
The first ray of dawn came through the shutters, touching his short sword. It was beside the bed with his long sword, both within perfect reach, his rifle there as well, loaded, the one he had named
Nori. The short sword was an heirloom made by the Master Swordsmith Masumara and once possessed by Sh@ogun Toranaga. He saw the old used scabbard and through it, in his mind, the perfection of the blade. His hand stretched out, caressing the leather, then moved up to the hilt to rest on the small toggle secured to it.
His father had instructed their swordsmith to attach it before presenting the sword to him, formally, in front of their inner circle of retainers. Yoshi was fifteen then and had killed his first man, a ronin who had run amok near his family castle,
Eagle's Nest.
"This is to remind you of your oath, my son: that you will carry this blade with honor, that you will use only this blade to commit seppuku, that you will only commit seppuku to avoid capture on a battlefield, or if the Sh@ogun orders it and the Council of Elders confirms the order unanimously. All other reasons are insufficient while the Sh@ogunate is in jeopardy."
A terrible sentence, he thought, and lay back on his bed, safe for the moment in this room high up in his castle quarters where he had had so much pleasure. His eyes went back to the short sword. Today his need was very great. In his imagination he had rehearsed the act so many times that it would be so smooth and kind and releasing. Soon Anjo will send men to arrest me and that will be my excuse...
His sharp ears heard footsteps. Marching feet. His hands took up the short sword and the long sword and he was in defend-attack position.
"Sire?"
He recognized Abeh's voice. That did not mean safety, Abeh could have a knife at his throat or Abeh could be a traitor--after
Koiko everyone was suspect. "What is it?"
"The man Inejin begs to see you."
"Have you searched him?"
"Seriously."
Yoshi used the rope he had had rigged, allowing him to slide back the bolt on the reinforced door without moving.
Inejin, Abeh and four samurai waited there.
He relaxed. "Come in, Inejin." Abeh and the others of his personal guard started to follow.
"There's no need, but stay within calling."
His spymaster came in and closed the door, noticed the bolt arrangement but did not comment, and knelt ten paces away.
"You've found Katsumata?"
"He will be in Yedo within three days, Sire.
His first place of calling will be the House of
Wisteria."
"That den of scorpions?" Yoshi had not closed the trap on mama-san Meikin to learn the real extent of the plot against him before taking vengeance--vengeance best savored calmly. And he did not yet feel calm. "Could we take him alive?"
Inejin smiled strangely. "I doubt it, but may I tell the story in my own way,
Sire?" He settled his aching knee more comfortably. "First about the gai-jin: a development hoped for and encouraged since the beginning has happened. A gai-jin spy has offered their battle plans for money."
His attention soared. "Not false ones?"
"I do not know, Sire, but it was whispered they contained troop and ship movements. The price was modest, even so the Bakufu official did not buy at once and began to haggle and the seller became frightened. With Anjo at the head..." The cracked leather lips twisted with disgust at the name.
"He's baka, unworthy!--if the head is rotten the body is worse."
"I agree. Stupid."
Inejin nodded. "They forgot Sun-tzu again, sire: To remain in ignorance of the enemy's condition, begrudging the outlay of a few hundred ounces of silver is the height of inhumanity.
Fortunately an informant whispered about it to me."
Inejin took a scroll from his sleeve and put it on the table. Yoshi sighed, pleased. "So ka!"
"With the help of my informant, I bought it for you, a gift, Sire. Also at great risk to my informant, I substituted a false scroll the
Bakufu eventually will buy cheaply."
Yoshi did not touch the scroll, only looked at it with anticipation. "Please allow me to reimburse you," he said. Inejin covered his vast relief for he had h
ad to pledge their Inn to the
Gyokoyama to obtain the money. "See my cashier today. Is the information to be trusted?"
Inejin shrugged. Both knew another of
Sun-tzu's precepts: An inside spy is the most dangerous, one who sells secrets for money. It takes a man of genius to penetrate such. "My informant swears that the information is to be trusted and also the spy."
"And it says?"
"The gai-jin plan is frighteningly simple.
On Battle Day, ten days after their ultimatum is delivered--if not complied with--their whole fleet moves against Yedo. The first day the attack area is furthest from the coast, Sire, the extreme range of their heaviest cannon, designed to pulverize all bridges and roads leading out of Yedo--these are pinpointed, more knowledge given them no doubt by the traitor Hiraga. That night, by the light of the fires they have begun, they bombard the castle. The next day the coastal areas are decimated. On the third day they will land a thousand rifle soldiers and drive for the castle gates. There they will mount siege mortars and smash the gates and bridges and as much of the castle as they can. On the fifth day they retreat and sail away."
"To Yokohama?"
"No, Sire. The plan says they will evacuate all gai-jin the day before Battle
Day and retreat to Hong Kong until the spring.
Then they will come back in force. The cost of the war-- as with their Chinese wars, and is their custom--will be doubled, and demanded as reparations from the Sh@ogunate and the Emperor as well as complete access to all Nippon, including Ky@oto and an island ceded in perpetuity, to cease hostilities."
Yoshi felt a chill. If these barbarians could humble all China, Mother of the World, eventually they would humble us, even us. Complete access?
"This ultimatum? What further impertinence is this?"
"It's not in the scroll, Sire, but the spy promised details, as well as the Battle
Date and any changes."
"Whatever the cost, buy them--if true these could make a difference in the outcome."
"Possibly, Sire. Part of the information is about gai-jin countermeasures. Against our fire ships."
"But Anjo told me they are secret!"
"It's not secret to them. The Bakufu is a rice sieve for the interested, as well as corrupt, Sire."
"Names, Inejin, and I'll spike them."
"Begin today, Sire. Begin at the top."
"That's treason."
"But the truth, Sire. You enjoy truths, not lies, unlike any leader I have ever known."
Inejin moved his knees, the ache intolerable. "The matter of this spy is complicated,
Sire. It was Meikin who told me about him
..." Yoshi grunted. "Yes, I agree. But
Meikin told me, Meikin who diverted the intermediary from the Bakufu to me, Meikin who will substitute the false document, at great danger, for she must attest to its truth, Meikin who desperately wishes to prove her loyalty to you."
"Loyalty? When her house is a sanctuary for shishi, a meeting place for Katsumata, a training bed for traitors?"
"Meikin swears the Lady was never part of a plot against you, never. Nor was she."
"What else can she say--the maid was, eh?"
"Perhaps she speaks the truth, perhaps not, but perhaps, because of her grief, she now sees the error of her past, Sire. A converted spy can be most valuable."
"Katsumata's head would make me more sure.
If caught alive, more so."
Inejin laughed and bent forward and dropped his voice. "I suggested she should quickly provide you with details about the traitor Hiraga before you request his head."
"And hers."
"A woman's head on a spike is not a pretty thing, Sire, old or young. That is an ancient truth. Better to leave it on her shoulders and use the venom, wisdom, cunning or simple rottenness that any such a woman possesses to your advantage."
"How?"
"First by giving you Katsumata. Hiraga is a more complex problem. She says he is the intimate of an important Ing'erish official close to the Ing'erish Leader, named Taira."
Yoshi frowned. Another omen? Taira was another Japanese name of significance, an ancient regal family related to the Yoshi
Serata line. "So?"
"This Taira is an official, an interpreter-in-training. His Japanese is already very good--the Ing'erish must have a school like the one you proposed and the Bakufu "consider.""
"Consider, eh? Taira? Is he an ugly young man, tall with blue eyes, huge nose and long hair like rice straw?"
"Yes, yes that would be him."
"I remember him from the meeting of
Elders. Go on."
"Meikin has heard his grasp of our language improves rapidly, helped by a whore called Fujiko, but more because of this Hiraga who has cut his hair in gai-jin style, wears gai-jin clothes." The old man hesitated, loving the telling of secrets. "It seems this
Hiraga is the grandson of an important
Choshu shoya who was permitted to purchase goshi status for his sons, one of whom, this Hiraga's father, is now hirazamurai. Hiraga was chosen to join a secret Choshu school where, as an exceptional student he learned Ing'erish." He suppressed a smile seeing his Lord's face.
"Then the spy is not gai-jin, but this
Hiraga?"
"No Sire, but Hiraga could be a serious secondary source of intelligence. If he could be tapped."
"A shishi helping us?" Yoshi scoffed.
"Impossible."
"Your meeting yesterday, aboard the Furansu ship. It was profitable, Sire?"
"It was interesting." Impossible to keep those ventures secret. He was glad Inejin was so well informed so quickly. Abeh and half a dozen of his men had been present at the meeting. Who had spoken in their cups? It didn't matter.
It was to be expected. Nothing compromising was said by him.
"Abeh!" he called out.
"Sire?"
"Send a maid with tea and sak`e." He said nothing more until it had been served and accepted gratefully by Inejin, sifting the information, sorting it and coming up with new questions and answers. "What do you propose?"
"It would not be for me to propose what you have already surely decided, Sire. But it did occur to me, when and if the Ing'erish Leader sends his ultimatum, you alone would be the perfect person to mediate--alone, Sire."
"Ah! And then?"
"Amongst other things you could ask to see this
Hiraga. You could weigh him, perhaps persuade him to be on your side. Turn him to your advantage. The timing could be perfect."
"That could be possible, Inejin," he said, already having discarded that for a much better thought, one that fitted the plan he had discussed with
Ogama in Ky@oto, and his own need to begin the grand design. "Or an example might be made of this Hiraga. Catch Katsumata, he's the head of the shishi snake--if Meikin is the means to deliver him alive, so much the better for her."
A few miles away on the Tokaid@o
Road, at the Hodogaya way station,
Katsumata scrutinized the crowds from a
Teahouse window. "Be patient, Takeda," he said, "Hiraga is not due till midmorning.
Be patient."
"I hate this place," Takeda said. The village was in open country with few places to hide and barely three miles from the Yokohama
Settlement. They were in Teahouse of the First
Moon, the same that Katsumata and daimyo
Sanjiro had stayed at after Ori and Shorin had attacked the gai-jin on the Tokaid@o. "And if he does not arrive?" The youth scratched his head irritably, his chin nor his pate not shaven since their escape from Ky@oto and now covered with stubbled hair.
"He will arrive, if not today, tomorrow. I must see him."
The two men had been hiding here for a week.
Their journey from Ky@oto had been arduous, with many narrow escapes. "Sensei, I do not like this place or the change of plan. We should be in
Yedo if we're to carry on the
fight, or perhaps we should turn around and go home."
"If you want to go on, go. If you want to walk back to Choshu, go," Katsumata said.