In 1277 some merchants from Japan appeared in China with a quantity of gold, which they desired to exchange for copper cash.  The following year the “coast authorities”—­probably meaning at Ningpo and Wenchow, where even now, as I found in 1884, immense quantities of old Japanese copper cash are in daily use—­were instructed to permit Japanese trade.  But preparations for war still went on, and the head-quarters of the army were fixed at Liao-yang, where General Kuropatkin fixed his more recently.  Naval preparations were particularly active during 1279, and Corea was invited to make arrangements for boats to be built in that country, where timber was so plentiful—­evidently alluding to the Russian “concessions” on the Yalu.  Large numbers of ships were also constructed in Central China.  During this year a defeated Chinese general in Mongol employ, named Fan Wen-hu, advised that the war against Japan should be postponed “until the result of our mission, accompanied by the Japanese priest carrying our letters, shall be known.”  When this priest was appointed, by whom, and to do what, there is nothing to show.  To a certain extent this enigmatical sentence is supported by the Japanese annals, which announce that “in the summer of 1279 the Mongol generals Hia Kwei and Fan Wen-hu came and sent aides-de-camp to Dazai Fu to discuss peace, but Tokimune (the regent) had them decapitated at Hakata in Chikuzen.”

Hia Kwei was certainly another defeated Chinese general, but I do not think he ever went to Japan.  It is in the spring of 1280 that the Chinese record the execution by the Japanese of “Tu Shi-chung,” etc.  But it is quite evident that Fan Wen-hu cannot possibly have been executed in 1279, for later on, in 1280, after Hung Ts’a-k’iu and others had been appointed to the Japan expedition, “it was decided to wait a little, and Fan Wen-hu was consulted as to the best means of attack; meanwhile prisoners of war, criminals, Mussulmans, etc., were enlisted, and volunteers were called for.”  It is difficult to account for “Mussulmans” in such company, for the villanous “Saracen” Achmat was just then at the height of his power.  The King of Corea meanwhile personally paid a visit to Peking, and gave the assurance that he was raising thirty thousand extra soldiers to serve in the Japan war.  Fan Wen-hu was now placed in supreme command of one hundred thousand men.  “The King of Corea with ten thousand soldiers, fifteen thousand sea-men, nine hundred war-ships, and one hundred and ten thousand hundred-weight of grain, proceeded against Japan.  Hung Ts’a-k’iu and his colleagues were provided with weapons, Corean armor, jackets, etc.  The troops were given strict instructions not to harass the inhabitants of Corea.  Corean generals received high rank, and the King was given extra honors.”

In 1281 the generals Hung Ts’a-k’iu and Hintu (a Ouigour Turk) went in command of a naval force of forty thousand men via “Kin Chouin Corea.”  Another force of one hundred thousand men was sent across the sea from modern Ningpo and Tinghai, the two forces arranging to meet at the islands of Iki and Hirado.