My hotel is full of emperors throughout history.

Along the post road, the flags of urgent dispatches fluttered in the night wind.

The courier, draped in a black cloak and with a copper bell at his waist, sped along, the sound of the bell echoing through the post stations along the way.

The postmaster, who was in his sleep, sat up with a start. Before he could even put on his clothes, he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Change horses! Change horses!"

The horse's hooves pounded through the frost and dew, delivering an urgent imperial edict bearing the emperor's seal and jointly signed by the Secretariat and Chancellery to more than 300 prefectures in ten circuits.

Meanwhile, in Taipingfang, West Market of Chang'an, there was an inconspicuous innhouse.

The flickering candlelight illuminated several faces holding their breath in concentration.

They were informants stationed in Tang China for Silla, Baekje, Gaochang, Uyghurs... and even for countries as far west as the Pamir Mountains.

Tonight, news from Linde Hall has quietly spread to all directions through these intricate web of secret connections.

A Silla interpreter put down his pen, rolled up the still-wet secret report into a thin strip, and stuffed it into a wax pellet.

He looked out the window at the deep night and whispered.

"The Tang Dynasty... is about to launch an eastern expedition."

"But thankfully, they weren't attacking us!"

The following morning, Chang'an awoke in astonishment.

"The Japanese delegation committed a violent act in front of the palace, attempting to assassinate a courtier?!"

"His Majesty is furious and intends to personally lead the army into battle?!"

"Cheng Zhijie in command? 30,000 elite troops transferred to Dengzhou and Laizhou?"

The officials who were presenting the memorials exclaimed in surprise and immediately rushed out of the door, galloping on horseback to their respective provinces, prefectures, and counties.

Soon, the proclamation was posted outside all the city gates of Chang'an, in the East and West Markets, and beside the gates of all the wards.

The red ink dots and black characters make the writing stand out:

A Proclamation Against the Murder of the Japanese Emperor

Overstepping one's authority is the first crime; dishonest tribute is the second; spying on the border is the third... assassinating a court official is the ninth crime; and beyond these nine crimes, there is a tenth crime—

Startled!

The onlookers were unaware of the details; they only saw the written words in black and white, including shocking terms like "murder of the emperor," "assassination," and "terrifying the emperor."

"Absolutely outrageous!"

An elderly man with gray hair and beard suddenly slammed his cane into the ground, making a dull thud on the blue bricks.

"That tiny, insignificant country, no bigger than the palm of your hand, dares to touch the Emperor of my Great Tang?! Dares to kill an official of my Great Tang?!"

His voice was hoarse, yet it evoked a chorus of responses.

"An assassination attempt in front of the palace! This is an outrageous act that hasn't happened in years!"

"Even when Emperor Yang of Sui conquered Goguryeo, the Goguryeo people didn't dare to lay a hand on him in front of the emperor! This Japanese are even more arrogant than Goguryeo!"

"Fight! We must fight! How can our Great Tang Dynasty save face if we don't fight?!"

The scholars crowded at the front of the crowd, heads held high, reciting the proclamation.

When he read the lines, "The emperor guards the nation's gates, the monarch dies for the state; if we do not trample the Japanese islands, capture their false emperor, burn their ancestral temples, or avenge this humiliation that has startled my imperial carriage, I swear I will never return to court," his voice choked with emotion and tears welled in his eyes.

"The emperor guards the nation's gates, the monarch dies for the state—with such an emperor in our Great Tang, what need is there for the barbarians not to submit!"

A young scholar was so excited that he trembled all over. He tore off half of his clothes, bit his fingertip, and wrote a blood letter that read, "I am willing to abandon my pen for the sword and follow His Majesty on the eastern expedition." He then squeezed through the crowd and headed straight for the Recruitment Hall.

Chang'an, Daningfang, blacksmith shop.

Old blacksmith Zheng Daniu lifted the quenched longsword from the water, put it on the shelf without even looking at it, and turned to look for a larger iron ingot.

The apprentice, Xiao Liuzi, was dumbfounded.

"Master, aren't these swords due in three days? You've been working two nights straight, shouldn't you take a rest?"

"Stop taking a break, my foot!"

Zheng Daniu didn't even turn his head.

"Didn't you hear what's going on outside? Those Japanese bastards dared to draw their knives in the Linde Hall! They dared to lay a hand on an official of our Great Tang!"

He slammed a piece of iron weighing about twenty pounds onto the anvil.

"Even if I can't fight, I can still wield a sword! The more swords we forge, the more weapons our soldiers on the front lines will have, and the more of those Japanese pirates we can cut down!"

Xiao Liu stopped trying to persuade him and silently started working the bellows.

The roaring fire cast long shadows of the master and apprentice onto the wall covered with weapons, their blades gleaming coldly.

The disturbance of the coastal borders and the capture of soldiers were a disgrace to the Tang Dynasty, the Shandong Circuit, and the entire Central Plains.

"Why should our fine sons of Shandong be captured by the Japanese?!"

An old captain who had retired from the military for more than ten years pushed aside his children and grandchildren who were trying to persuade him, and pulled out the old armor that had been hidden at the bottom of a box.

The armor plates were rusty, and he wiped them inch by inch, his eyes filled with a chilling determination that had settled over half a lifetime.

"Back then, I followed Your Majesty to fight Liu Heita and Dou Jiande, risking my life without ever flinching. Now that Your Majesty wants to fight Japan, this old man can still tell the younger generation how to fight naval battles."

His grandson asked timidly.

"Grandpa, how do you fight a naval battle?"

The old captain remained silent for a moment, unable to answer.

He had never fought in a naval battle.

But he said.

"If Your Majesty wants to fight, then you have a reason to fight. Soldiers, obey orders and ask no further questions."

On the same day, at the Suzhou Wharf.

A merchant ship that had just arrived from Minnesota docked. The ship owner was an old seafarer who had been operating the East China Sea route for twenty years. His surname was Jiang, and he was known as "Jiang Sanyang".

Upon hearing the news from Chang'an, he was stunned for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, then suddenly slapped his thigh.

"Fight Japan? That's a good thing!"

Some people on the dock sneered.

"What's there to be happy about regarding the trouble caused by the Japanese?"

Jiang Sanyang's eyes widened.

"You know nothing! I've been sailing the East China Sea for twenty years. How many ships have those Japanese pirates robbed of, how many brothers have they killed? Report to the authorities? Where are the authorities? That's their territory! This time, the imperial army will go over and wipe them out completely. Let's see where those pirates can hide!"

He immediately auctioned off 100 strings of cash to donate to the military, which prompted dock merchants to contribute generously.

Some donated grain, some donated cloth, some donated iron, and someone even donated three boatloads of Korean ginseng—which was originally a high-priced commodity, but now they donated it without hesitation.

"What's the point of keeping it? To trade it for gold mines with the Japanese?"

The ginseng merchant was in a bad mood.

"His Majesty's proclamation clearly states that Japan possesses gold mines but fails to report it, deceiving the emperor! This mine belongs to the Tang Dynasty, and the copper coins obtained will be ours!"

The words may be crude, but the principle is sound.

The merchants were shrewd—although the eastern expedition was expensive, if they could actually capture Japan's gold and silver mines, the war would be an extremely profitable deal.

As a result, money, silk, grain, and provisions flowed northward from Suzhou, Yangzhou, Hangzhou, Yuezhou, and so on, like rivers flowing into the sea.

In the mountains of Huizhou, an old tutor took down a portrait of Confucius that had hung in front of his hall for decades, carefully wrapped it up, and placed it in a box.

The disciples were puzzled and asked their teacher why.

The old tutor pointed to the newly hung map of the Tang Dynasty on the wall, his hand trembling slightly.

"Have you all read His Majesty's proclamation carefully? The proclamation says that Japan is 'shameless, covetous of power but not of virtue, admiring the strong and bullying the weak,' and that its ruler has usurped the title of 'Emperor,' which is illegitimate and a grave crime!"

He paused, his cloudy old eyes reflecting the sunlight outside the window.

"Confucius wrote the Spring and Autumn Annals, and with a single word of praise or criticism, even rebellious ministers and traitors trembled. Today, Your Majesty has issued a proclamation, enumerating ten crimes of Japan. This too follows the style of the Spring and Autumn Annals, and is where righteousness lies!"

"This battle is to defend the Way, to destroy the heart, to clarify the distinction between ruler and subject, and to rectify the difference between Chinese and barbarians!"

"I am old and unable to take up arms on the battlefield, but I can still spread this proclamation. Make hundreds or thousands of copies of this proclamation and distribute them to my neighbors and scholars, so that everyone in the world may know the evil of Japan and the righteousness of the royal army—this is my duty!"

He spread out the paper, ground the ink, moistened the brush, and copied the proclamation that had spread throughout the world, word by word, in the most neat regular script.

I copied from dawn till dusk, and from dusk till late at night.

His disciples took turns grinding ink, and three red candles burned out, but he became more and more energetic as he copied.

When he copied the line "I, the Emperor, shall personally lead the royal army to cross the great sea to the east," a tear fell onto the paper, spreading through the ink.

He hurriedly tried to wipe his tears, but couldn't stop the torrent of tears.

That year, he also sent his son off to war.

Fight the Turks.

My son hasn't come back.

Now his grandson has grown up and is also listed in the military register.

My grandson will be among the first to lead this expedition against Japan.

He did not stop him.

He simply put away the books of sages that he had spent his whole life copying, cleared out his desk, and copied proclamations every day.

—Let the whole world know why this war is being fought.

Where my heart finds peace, there lies my home.