My hotel is full of emperors throughout history.

Meanwhile, Nara

The spring day was warm and sunny.

The archaeological excavation site outside Nara was packed with people.

Media reporters from all over the world, armed with their cameras and microphones, lined up in a long queue of live broadcast vans, with satellite signals reaching all corners of the world.

Today, the Japanese archaeological community is about to announce a major discovery that is "enough to rewrite the history of East Asian civilization."

Three months ago, an archaeological team discovered an ancient site buried deep underground on the outskirts of Nara.

Preliminary exploration revealed that the site is large in scale and complex in structure, dating back to the 7th century AD—around the time of the most important "Taika Reform" in Japanese history.

The Japanese archaeological community is in an uproar.

"This is very likely the 'Nanba Palace' recorded in the Nihon Shoki!"

Ichiro Yamada, president of the Archaeological Society of Japan, was extremely excited at the press conference.

"If confirmed, this would be the most compelling physical evidence of the early civilization of our Yamato people!"

All of Japan is looking forward to it.

Major television stations reserved prime time slots well in advance, online platforms opened live streaming channels, and even the Prime Minister's official residence expressed "high attention".

Today is the day the excavation officially begins.

"To our viewers worldwide!"

A presenter from Japan's NHK television station stood in front of the camera, his voice filled with passion.

"We are about to witness history! This ancient capital, which has been sleeping for 1,400 years, is about to unveil its mysterious veil to us!"

The camera pans across the excavation site—under a huge sunshade, archaeologists are making final preparations.

A group of Japanese scholars in white lab coats surrounded the excavation square, their expressions solemn yet excited.

Among the crowd was a Chinese figure—archaeologist Wang Mingyuan.

He attended as an "international observer" at the invitation of the Japanese side.

At this moment, he stood at the edge of the crowd, his gaze fixed on the piece of land that was about to be excavated, lost in thought.

"Professor Wang,"

A young Japanese scholar leaned over, his tone tinged with a hint of boasting.

"What do you think we can dig up today?"

Wang Mingyuan smiled.

"I don't know. But whatever is unearthed, history is history."

The young scholar pursed his lips and said nothing more.

Those despicable Chinese!

The excavation officially began at 10:00 AM.

The excavator carefully dug away the topsoil, and the archaeologists, holding small shovels and brushes, cleaned up the gradually revealed remains bit by bit.

The first thing to appear was a row of neat stone bases.

"It's the foundation of a palace!" Yamada Ichiro's voice trembled with excitement. "It really is a palace! It really is!"

Reporters frantically snapped photos.

Then, more relics were revealed—stone walls, stone steps, drainage ditches…

"It's spectacular!"

The NHK presenter said to the camera.

"As we can see, the scale of this building far exceeds our previous expectations! It was definitely one of the most advanced buildings in East Asia at the time!"

Japanese netizens have already started celebrating on social media.

"Long live the Yamato race!"

"This is true civilization!"

"Let those who say our culture comes from China see this! A bunch of traitors to Japan!"

However, just as the excavation was halfway through, an archaeologist suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

All eyes were on him.

He was squatting beside a newly cleared pit, holding a... stone tablet in his hand?

Yamada Ichiro walked over quickly.

It was a bluish-gray stone tablet, about half a person's height, with its surface covered with mottled moss.

But when archaeologists gently brushed away the surface soil, clear writing was revealed—

Chinese character.

Moreover, the characters are extremely neat and tidy.

Yamada Ichiro's expression changed.

He reached out with trembling hands and gently stroked the words.

The first line of the inscription reads:

"In the tenth year of the Zhenguan era of the Tang Dynasty, the army conquered Japan and pacified it. More than 30,000 of its people were captured and forced into mining slavery in Dengzhou and Laizhou."

The entire room fell silent.

The reporters were stunned.

The hosts were stunned.

All the viewers watching the live stream were stunned.

"What...what does this mean?"

Someone murmured.

Yamada Ichiro's face turned deathly pale. He shook his head frantically.

"No...it can't be...this must be a fake..."

"Keep digging!!"

More stone tablets have been unearthed.

"At the Mutsu gold mine, the Japanese laborers number a thousand per day, and two hundred die each year."

"Dewa Silver Mine, captured Japanese women and children, built a mound of corpses, and used their ashes to feed the fields."

"In the Tsushima POW camp, the dead from the epidemic piled up like mountains, and the cremation of corpses continued for three days."

The words on each stone tablet were like a heavy hammer blow, slamming into the faces of all the Japanese.

Even more frightening is that there are others.

A huge mass grave has been discovered.

The pit was filled with hundreds of skeletons.

Forensic anthropologists examined the remains and found that most of them showed obvious signs of long-term strain, some had signs of binding on their hands and feet, and some had fatal wounds on their skulls.

"These...these are people who died from enslavement."

"It was a member of an international archaeological organization," a voice said solemnly.

The scene was deathly silent.

Then, someone dug up even more—

A pair of shackles. Iron, rusted, but their shapes were still clearly discernible.

"This is……?!"

One reporter exclaimed in disbelief.

A rusted iron cage was unearthed.

The cage was small, only big enough for one person to huddle inside.

The cage door was locked, but the lock was rusted shut.

Next to the cage, there was a wooden sign with words still faintly legible.

"The Japanese slave number seventeen, who repeatedly attempted to escape but failed, was imprisoned in a cage and displayed for seven days, where he starved to death."

The media cameras were focused on those shackles, on that small iron cage, and on those piles of bones.

Live broadcast worldwide.

Everyone is watching.

All Japanese people: ? ? ?

Japanese netizens are completely devastated.

"This can't be real!!!"

"It's fake! It must be fake!!!"

"It's a forgery by China! They must have planted it!"

"Exactly! It was definitely planted secretly by those cunning Chinese!!!"

Soon, the carbon-14 dating results came out—all the artifacts dated to the mid-7th century AD, with an error margin of no more than thirty years.

There is no possibility of forgery.

Immediately afterwards, an even larger stone tablet was unearthed.

The stone tablet is engraved with a complete set of "Regulations for the Management of Captive Slaves," and is signed by [signature missing].

"Cheng Zhijie, General Commander of the Tang Dynasty's Expeditionary Army against the Japanese Pirates, December of the tenth year of the Zhenguan era."

The articles of association clearly state:

"All captured Japanese slaves, regardless of age or gender, shall be registered as slaves. Males shall be employed as miners, and women and children as laborers. Each mine shall have a supervisor, with daily quotas. Those who fail to meet their quotas shall be flogged fifty times, and repeat offenders shall be beheaded. Those who die from disease shall be cremated and buried on the spot, and no graves shall be erected."

"Children born to Japanese slaves are also enslaved. Males are sent to the mines at fifteen, and females are assigned to labor service at thirteen. They will never be released."

At the end of the charter, there is a line of vermilion annotations, written in vigorous strokes.

"Approved. Li—"

There was another character after the character "Li", but it was deliberately erased.

But everyone knows who that is.

The entire venue was deathly silent.

Yamada Ichiro slumped to the ground, his face ashen.

Those Japanese scholars who were just moments ago so excited now all had their heads down, not daring to look anyone in the eye.

Reporters from around the world fell silent for a few seconds.

Then--

The flashbulbs were going off like crazy.

The sound of camera shutters clicking incessantly.

"Professor Yamada! What's your explanation for this discovery?!"

"Does the inscription on the stone tablet imply that ancient Japan was a source of slaves for the Tang Dynasty?!"

What is the Japanese government's response to this?!

"What do you plan to do with those skeletons?!"

Yamada Ichiro opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

A man who looked like an official suddenly rushed up and tried to block the camera.

"Stop filming! Stop filming immediately! This is a state secret! It may not be released without permission!"

But nobody listened to him.

Reporters surged forward like a tide, their cameras passing over him, focusing on the stone tablets, the skeletons, and the small iron cage.

"Baka Yaro!!!"

The signal is transmitted globally.

Chinese social media is in an uproar, with comments sections exploding.

"Holy crap!!! This is history slapping us in the face!"

"Hahaha, so the term 'Japanese slaves' really has an origin!"

"In the tenth year of the Zhenguan era, Cheng Zhijie—Cheng Yaojin! So you're the real 'Brother Cheng of the Society, ruthless and taciturn'!"

"There were children among those skeletons... I suddenly felt a pang of sympathy..."

"What's there to sympathize with? Their ancestors didn't hold back when they slaughtered Chinese people! This is retribution!"

On the Japanese internet, the scene is quite different.

"We...we were really slaves?"

"Impossible...this must be fake..."

"Carbon-14 dating is reliable..."

"Why dig it up... Why let the whole world see it..."

Many more people fell silent.

At the excavation site, the Japanese side finally reacted and deployed a large number of personnel to try to seal off the site.

But it was too late.

The whole world has seen it.

The live stream video was widely shared on social media.

The titles are varied:

"A shocking secret unearthed at a thousand-year-old Japanese archaeological site: Our ancestors were once slaves of the Tang Dynasty!"

"The Miracle of the Zhenguan Era: Ironclad Proof of the Tang Dynasty's Conquest of Japan!"

"Who's in that little iron cage?"

History Speaks: The Truth About Ancient Japan Emerges!

Ichiro Yamada was helped into an ambulance—reportedly due to a sudden brain hemorrhage.

The Japanese scholars looked like wilted eggplants, and when pressed by reporters, they could only lower their heads and say "no comment."

The official who had just tried to stop them was now surrounded by a group of reporters, sweating profusely but unable to utter a single word.

Wang Mingyuan stood at the edge of the crowd, quietly watching everything.

A Chinese reporter squeezed through the crowd and handed him the microphone.

"Professor Wang! You are an expert in archaeology. What is your assessment of today's discovery?"

Wang Mingyuan remained silent for a moment.

Then he spoke, his tone calm.

History is history. It doesn't cease to exist just because someone dislikes it.

He paused, looking at the stone tablets, the skeletons, and the small iron cage.

"What we see today is the reality of 1,400 years ago. It tells us that no civilization in this world is inherently noble. All glory and humiliation will be recorded by time."

All we can do is remember.

"Remember history, and then—move forward."

The reporter nodded, wanting to ask more questions, but Wang Mingyuan had already turned and left.

The setting sun cast its light on his shoulder.

Behind him, the excavation site was in complete chaos.

The Japanese side finally set up a blockade, keeping the reporters out.

But those cameras were still pointed at it from all angles.

Those stone tablets still stand in the same place.

The skeletons still lie in the pit.

That evening, major Japanese television stations urgently replaced all related programs.

But it's no use.

The whole world has already seen it.

The following day, major museums across China simultaneously launched a new special section on their official websites.

"The Tang Dynasty's Pacification of the Japanese Pirates: A Forgotten Chapter of History"

The homepage of the special feature features a photo of that stone tablet.

The first line of the inscription is clearly visible:

"In the tenth year of the Zhenguan era of the Tang Dynasty, the Japanese were conquered and pacified."

In the comments section, netizens left numerous messages:

"This is a textbook example of 'digging out your own history'!"

"What are the expressions on Japanese netizens' faces right now? I really want to see!"

Cheng Yaojin: You didn't expect this, did you? Fourteen hundred years later, I'm still trending on social media!

"First Emperor: You've only scratched the surface. My Terracotta Army is even armed with AKs..."

"Hahaha, don't mention AK! That's my older brother Li Chengqian's fault!"

"Upstairs, I suspect you're implying something, but I have no proof."

Many others remained silent.

The Japanese, in particular, were speechless, while those who admired Chinese culture seized the opportunity to praise it lavishly.

"As expected, I knew I was Chinese!"

"No, we slaves can't be considered proper Chinese people; we should be considered China's dogs!"

"You bastard, are you even Japanese anymore?!"

"A bunch of idiots! Hasn't history proven it? We're all descendants of slaves, and yet we keep shouting like that..."

"Baka!!!"