Xu Qinghuan saw that it was covered in lines drawn with cinnabar and pine-smoke ink.
Apart from the long coastline along Great Qian’s eastern shores, the center of the map was encircled by layer upon layer of fine black dots, marking out a long, narrow island.
Red and black ink dots were scattered densely around the island, each accompanied by tiny annotations in writing no bigger than sesame seeds.
Inside the warm chamber, the clay kettle atop the little red-clay brazier gurgled as the water boiled.
Steam from the tea curled upward, shrouding Xiao Jingyan’s face in an air of inscrutability.
Xu Qinghuan lowered her gaze, letting it drift slowly across the dense markings on the map.
Xu Wuyou was the first to break the silence.
“Your Highness has quite a few tricks up his sleeve.”
He leaned forward, studying the red and black dots on the map. A clear note of wariness colored his voice.
Though Great Qian had never imposed a maritime ban, it knew virtually nothing about the lands across the sea.
To uncover such a clear picture of the strongholds scattered across that vast ocean was certainly not something a few copper coins could buy.
Xu Wuyou raised his eyes to Xiao Jingyan.
“If I’m not mistaken, the red dots on this map mark the domains of the various lords on the eastern islands.”
“And the black dots are pirate lairs occupying the Eastern Sea.”
The Third Prince’s influence along the southeastern coast ran far deeper than anything he had revealed at court.
At Xu Wuyou’s words, Xiao Jingyan froze for the slightest moment before the corners of his lips lifted.
Though he had no idea how Xu Wuyou had figured it out, the man had guessed correctly.
He leaned back into his seat with practiced composure.
Xiao Jingyan tapped one of the black dots on the map.
“Eldest Young Master Xu has a discerning eye.”
“This is Hirado Island.”
“Seven pirate clans are entrenched there, commanding more than three hundred ships. They make their living by robbing merchant vessels passing through.”
His finger followed the sea chart northward before coming to rest on a red dot.
“This is Nagato Province.”
“The lord there commands twenty thousand armored warriors.”
“Though they maintain a show of loyalty to the shogunate, they have secretly colluded with these pirates for years, dividing the profits of the sea between them.”
Xiao Jingyan withdrew his hand, unmistakable pride seeping into his voice.
“To compile this map, I spent thirty thousand taels of silver sending men across the Eastern Sea.”
“I wouldn’t claim to have mastered every shift in the wind and tide.”
“But at the very least, Jingyan knows where the reefs beneath the waves lie.”
Standing off to one side, Xu Zhan stroked his bristling beard, doubt written across his face.
Then he moved his finger over the map a couple of times.
“According to Your Highness’s map, if we set sail from Dengzhou in Great Qian and actually reach the opposite shore, there are only three islands along the way where we can stop to replenish our supplies.”
“If we really build those large ships and fill them with silver, what happens if all the pirates marked by those black dots join forces and ambush us halfway there? Our useless navy won’t be able to protect us.”
He turned to his sister, his voice rough and deep.
“Little Sister, this is a serious problem.”
“Without soldiers or cannons, we can’t just send all that gleaming silver off to fill the pirates’ bellies!”
Xu Qinghuan shook her head without answering her elder brother directly.
The smugness on Xiao Jingyan’s face abruptly froze.
He watched her movement, his brows drawing together despite himself.
Xiao Jingyan changed the way he addressed her. The ease in his voice faded, replaced by a trace of imperial authority.
“Princess Wanping.”
“Do you have some objection to this map of mine?”
Xu Qinghuan extended a finger and tapped the map.
“‘Objection’ may be too strong a word.”
“I merely want to ask Your Highness this: when was the information on this map collected?”
A flicker passed through Xiao Jingyan’s eyes.
“This… The information was naturally delivered at the beginning of spring this year.”
“As for the pirate strongholds, they change more frequently. Most of those details are from last year.”
Xu Qinghuan cut him off flatly.
“Impossible.”
Xiao Jingyan’s eyes turned cold.
Xu Qinghuan met his gaze without the slightest attempt to avoid it.
“Your Highness, forgive me for speaking so bluntly.”
“If I remember correctly, official communications between Great Qian and that island nation across the sea were completely severed after the fall of the previous dynasty.”
“The Maritime Trade Office has lain in ruins for nearly a century. The vast network spanning the strait was torn to shreds long ago.”
“Now that we’re completely blind to what lies beyond the sea, what makes Your Highness so certain that the silver you scattered bought genuine intelligence rather than whatever nonsense someone casually made up?”
Xiao Jingyan immediately straightened his back.
He was not some useless fool who could be frightened into retreat by a single remark.
His gaze was cold and solemn.
“Commandery Princess Xu, you are unaware of certain matters.”
“Though official communications were severed, private smugglers never disappeared.”
“Every year, some of the great merchant clans active along the Jiangsu and Zhejiang coasts risk their lives by making the crossing.”
“My men boarded their ships and pried open their mouths with real gold and silver.”
Xu Qinghuan suddenly let out a mocking laugh.
“Smugglers?”
“Then Your Highness has truly been taken for a fool.”
“The seven pirate clans of Hirado?”
“Three hundred ships?”
Xu Qinghuan lifted her eyes and stared straight into Xiao Jingyan’s astonished gaze.
“Your Highness, the pirates on Hirado Island have long since become rotting corpses on the ocean floor!”
Xiao Jingyan’s breath caught.
“That’s impossible!”
Xu Qinghuan’s voice rose sharply, edged like a blade.
“What’s impossible about it?”
“While Your Highness was enjoying song and dance in the capital and plotting over your sea chart, the lands across the water had already descended into chaos!”
“Those pirates of Hirado were wiped out root and branch by a local warlord three years ago.”
“Their people were slaughtered or absorbed, and their ships were seized.”
“The banner flying over Hirado Island now bears a unified clan crest—not the tattered flags of seven pirate clans!”
Her finger moved swiftly across the map and came to rest on another red dot.
“And this Nagato Province.”
“Twenty thousand armored warriors?”
“Your Highness, by now the heads of the lord you marked on this map have probably all been hung from the city walls to dry.”
“The place changed hands long ago. It is now ruled by another warlord who has painted the land red with blood.”
The air in the room suddenly turned frigid.
Xiao Jingyan stared at the sea chart on the table.
His usually steady breathing grew hurried and ragged.
“Absurd!”
“Commandery Princess Xu, you have never even left Great Qian. What gives you the right to make such wild claims here?”
“What do you take that island nation for?”
“The shogunate rules it as one.”
“Their great general may not be worthy of Great Qian’s regard, but he would never allow the regional lords beneath him to conquer one another.”
“Much less permit some blood-soaked warlords to run rampant!”
“Your baseless claims have no foundation whatsoever!”
Xu Qinghuan laughed again.
“A unified shogunate?”
This time, her laughter carried such chilling certainty that Xiao Jingyan felt a shiver run down his spine.
Her smile faded, and her voice turned cold enough to cut.
“Your Highness.”
“How long ago was that? You’re clinging to an old history book.”
Each word struck Xiao Jingyan squarely in the heart.
“On the eastern islands today, imperial authority has long since become an empty shell.”
“Even the shogun you claim can hold the situation together is now nothing more than a puppet, one the people beneath him can squeeze and twist at will.”
“Power has completely fallen into other hands. The entire island nation has already shattered into more than a hundred pieces!”
Shock filled Xiao Jingyan’s eyes.
“What kind of world is it over there?”
“A bestial world where those beneath their masters overthrow them, and kin murder kin!”
“Retainers rebel against their lords, and sons lead troops to hack off their fathers’ heads.”
“Hundreds of daimyos, great and small. Today, you join forces with one to attack another; tomorrow, I stab you in the back and seize your city.”
“War has raged year after year, with every inch of land fought over.”
Xu Qinghuan tapped her temple with one finger.
“The warriors and rebel armies over there have long since developed a taste for blood—and learned the rules of slaughter.”
“As for those pirates you assume are still acting independently, they’ve either been used as cannon fodder and fed to the sea, or forcibly conscripted into navies serving those daimyos.”
“The supposedly stable balance shown on this map is nothing but wastepaper!”
Xu Zhan swallowed, cold sweat breaking out across his back.
Xu Wuyou’s hand, which had been holding his teacup, froze in midair.
Xiao Jingyan’s face changed dramatically.
The calm confidence of a man who had everything under control had completely cracked.
He stared at Xu Qinghuan, suspicion and astonishment churning in his eyes, along with panic he could no longer conceal.
This was top-secret intelligence.
Even the Court of State Ceremonies, which oversaw relations with foreign states and tributary missions, had never heard so much as a whisper of it.
How could she possibly know?!
Even if she had gone to Northern Frontier Pass and earned great merit, there was no way she could know the secrets of a land tens of thousands of li across the sea!
Xiao Jingyan’s voice turned hoarse. He abruptly rose to his feet and leaned toward Xu Qinghuan.
“Princess Wanping…”
“Where, exactly, did you learn all of this?”
Of course Xu Qinghuan knew.
As someone who had painstakingly worked her way through the system’s loaned books, she could recite the entire backdrop of the naval wars that would come later with her eyes closed.
At this point in time, the island nation across the sea was at the height of its Warring States period.
Every day, the strong devoured the weak.
The intelligence Xiao Jingyan had bought was probably something those smuggling merchants had cobbled together to fulfill their assignment—taking his money and tossing him whatever nonsense they had on hand.
But she couldn’t say that.
Xu Qinghuan made no attempt to exploit the opportunity to inflate her own importance.
“Your Highness.”
“There are always channels in this world that cannot be brought into the light.”
“Since I dared to swear before the entire court that my failure would cost my whole family their heads, I naturally possess secrets capable of keeping me alive.”
She took a sip of tea, her gaze indifferent.
“As for where I learned them…”
“Your Highness need only know that every word I’ve said is true.”
“If you continue asking, you’ll be crossing a line.”
With a single lightly spoken sentence, she abruptly sealed off every probe and suspicion Xiao Jingyan had been making.
“Classified intelligence.”
Those four words were remarkably useful.
The Xu siblings had just earned tremendous merit at Northern Frontier Pass. Who would dare investigate what extraordinary means they might possess behind the scenes?
The way Xu Wuyou looked at his little sister changed completely.
He had originally thought that, at court, she was risking her life on nothing more than a burst of courage and that atlas.
Now it seemed that the cards in her hand ran so deep they were terrifying.
(Xu Qinghuan: Really?)
Xu Zhan wisely kept his mouth shut and stood to one side.
His little sister’s current bearing even made him, her elder brother, feel uneasy.
Xiao Jingyan collapsed back into his chair.
At that moment, this imperial prince looked as though all the strength had been drained from him.
He stared at the sea chart on the table—the very chart he had once regarded as a priceless treasure—and found it painfully glaring.
He let out a bitter laugh.
Xiao Jingyan’s voice was thick with exhaustion.
“Jingyan has been enlightened.”
“If the island nation across the sea truly is a den of ravenous wolves, as the Commandery Princess says, then Great Qian knows virtually nothing about them. We cannot even gauge their true strength.”
He raised his head and looked at Xu Qinghuan, his face filled with worry.
“We don’t even have a respectable navy under our command.”
“If we build large ships and send them out to bring back silver, won’t that be like delivering meat straight into a dog’s mouth?”
“How can this grand plan of borrowing another’s strength to profit from maritime trade possibly proceed safely?”
“The Princess never said any of this explicitly in the court!”
Great Qian had neither money nor soldiers.
Even if they drove every merchant ship belonging to the great noble clans out to sea, the other side could simply line hundreds of warships across the strait.
They would not even reach the edge of Iwami Ginzan. Every last one of them would sink to the bottom and feed the fish.
How could this dead end be broken?
Silence fell over the warm chamber once more.
Xu Qinghuan toyed with the teacup in her hand, slowly tracing the rim with her fingertip.
“Your Highness is overthinking this.”
A smile touched Xu Qinghuan’s lips.
She stopped moving her hand, and her gaze suddenly turned cold.
“Since the situation is unclear, and the other side is a pack of mad dogs tearing one another apart…”
“Then the only thing Great Qian can do…”
“Is…”
“To take Japan for ourselves completely!”
