I

Page 710

The North Korean monarchs were really frightened this time. They didn't know how many troops China sent, so they thought that Zhao Han wanted to destroy North Korea directly.So, surrounded by ministers, King Li Wei took the royal family and ran away, only taking away the palace guards, but let the other troops continue to defend the city.

The Datong army didn't want to destroy North Korea, so they didn't bother to surround Hanyang, and the North Korean monarchs and officials ran away easily.

The guarding army, seeing the king and ministers running away, began to surrender one after another.

"Is this down?"

The commander of the army is called Jin Yanjun, who joined the Datong Army in Hunan, and has now been promoted to deputy division commander.

His task is to intimidate the North Korean monarchs and ministers as much as possible.Unexpectedly, after a few volleys of artillery fire, the North Korean monarchs and officials abandoned the city, and the defenders in the city also put down their weapons.

What the hell is this?

Jin Yanjun ordered: "Separate half of the soldiers into the city and don't harass the people."

Three thousand Datong troops entered the city of Hanyang, and the Korean people were terrified. Some escaped from the north gate with their wives and belts, and most of them hid at home shivering.

It didn't take long to see Anmin's notice posted that the Korean monarchs and ministers conspired to rebel, and this crime has nothing to do with the Korean people.The Holy Son of Heaven is benevolent and ordered not to hurt the people in the slightest, and everything in Hanyang City remains the same.

Gradually, some merchants took the courage to open stores, but there were no Datong soldiers to harass them.

On the contrary, it was the Korean rebels. Some people took advantage of the chaos to rob and were caught and beheaded by the Datong army.

Chapter 945 [North Korean Peasant Uprising]

On the day when the Datong Army occupied Hanyang, the city was stabilized inside and outside.

Due to the severe punishment of robbers who take advantage of the chaos, the social security in Hanyang City has even improved unprecedentedly, and even petty thefts have temporarily disappeared.

"Party ambassador, what should I do?" Jin Junyan asked.

Dang Chongjun was also a little confused: "Wait for North Korea's monarchs and ministers, and send someone with weight to negotiate."

The emperor's order that the two received was very simple, that is, to bite off a piece of land from North Korea, and the specific operation was up to them to decide.

So the two made a plan to have the army bombard the city walls.Rejecting the first three rounds of negotiations from North Korea, under the continuous shelling, you can receive the fourth round of envoys, from the lion's mouth to the landing to pay back the money, and finally extort a large piece of land.

Dang Chongjun and Jin Junyan never imagined in their dreams that the monarchs and ministers of North Korea abandoned the city and fled!

"Ambassador, there are North Korean merchants asking to see you."

"Bring him in."

A North Korean businessman in his 40s knelt down in front of Dang Chongjun: "The grassroots of the country, Hong Daoquan, kowtow to the angel!"

Dang Chongjun said, "Get up."

"Thank you, my lord," Hong Daoquan stood still stooping after he got up, "The king of our country is on a hunting trip to Kaesong, and sent the little people to apologize to the angel."

Dang Chongjun became more and more speechless: "Why don't you send a minister to beg for mercy, but actually send a merchant over?"

Hong Daoquan said: "The king sends ministers, and ministers send businessmen."

"What does the lord of North Korea want to say?" Dang Chongjun asked.

Hong Daoquan replied: "I don't know."

Dang Chongjun almost spit out a mouthful of old blood. It's such a ghost situation. The king of North Korea still doesn't know what to say?

Hong Daoquan explained: "The king and the ministers are arguing endlessly in Kaesong, and no one can come up with a charter to serve the public. The grassroots were sent here to find out what the angels said. The angels can ask for half of the land even if they ask for a price. The grassroots will be honest. Go back and return to life."

Dang Chongjun became more and more confused: "Which country are you a businessman? Why don't you speak for North Korea?"

Hong Daoquan replied: "Report to the angel, Caomin is Songshang."

Next to him, a spy who had been in North Korea for a long time, walked up to Dang Chongjun and muttered: "Dang Ambassador, among the merchants in North Korea, Beijing merchants, Song merchants, and Wan merchants are the most powerful. Beijing merchants monopolize Hanyang trade, and most of them are concubines separated by nobles. The family. Wanshang is Baozhou merchants, who trade on both sides of the Yalu River. Songshang is Kaesong merchants, spread all over North Korea, but suffered heavy suppression."

Dang Chongjun understood, and asked with a smile, "Your heart is for China?"

Hong Daoquan replied unabashedly: "Every Song Shang always thinks about enclosing the Celestial Empire!"

Kaesong was called Songak in ancient times, and it became the capital during the Goryeo period, so it was renamed Kaijing.The merchants in Kaesong were very prominent at that time. After the establishment of the Lee Dynasty, not only the capital was moved to Hanyang, but the imperial examinations for Kaesong scholars were banned.

As a result, more and more people in Kaesong started business because the road to imperial examinations was cut off.The scale of Songshang continued to grow, and "Songfang" was opened across the country, forming a business network throughout North Korea.

The trade between China and North Korea in Datong became more and more prosperous, and North Korean monarchs and ministers once again suppressed Songshang.The port of Kaesong was directly closed, and the goods purchased by Songshang had to be sold to Jingshang in Hanyang, and Jingshang directly traded with Chinese merchants.

This is equivalent to the pine merchants all over the country. They can only be inland suppliers, and they can't make a lot of money after working hard.Even to receive goods in the country, two groups of nobles have to issue licenses, and each business license must be exchanged for bribes.

Very rich, not much land property, unable to take the imperial examination, business network all over the country, and being suppressed by the court everywhere... What do these Song merchants think?

Of course, I want to attach China, divide the land at will, kill all the monarchs and ministers of North Korea, and do business unimpeded in the future!

Moreover, the children of Chinese merchants can also take part in the imperial examination, and maybe their descendants can also be officials.

Hong Daoquan said: "The kings and ministers of North Korea are in Kaesong at this time. There are only 1500 firecrackers following them, and there are 500 Kaesong defenders. If the Chinese army attacks the city, the Kaesong merchants are willing to set fire to cooperate, and they will definitely be able to win in one battle!" "

"Retire now." Dang Chongjun said.

After the North Korean businessman left, Dang Chongjun and Jin Junyan looked at each other.

The behavior of the North Korean monarchs and ministers was unexpected everywhere, and the merchants in Kaesong clearly wanted to lead the way, which made them completely unimaginable.

Dang Chongjun said: "General Kim, I know what you are thinking. I also want to make meritorious service, but the imperial court only allowed part of the territory in the north of North Korea to be cut off, and it is impossible to swallow it all after the country is destroyed. Although it went smoothly, it took a lot of effort to suppress the rebellion. North Korea is more complicated than Guangnan, and the annexation may be simple, but it will cost countless money and food every year to suppress the rebellion. Moreover, Guangnan is rich in rice, and North Korea has nothing. Complete occupation is purely A loss-making deal."

"Then take half and keep the other half?" Jin Junyan said.

Dang Chongjun said: "North Korea must be left with enough land, and the North Korean monarchs and officials cannot be killed. North Korea's monarchs and officials ceded the land, and all responsibilities rest with the North Korean monarchs and officials, which can greatly reduce the resistance of the people."

"That's right." Jin Junyan nodded.

Dang Chongjun said: "In addition to expanding the territory, the imperial court also wants to cancel the silver ban in North Korea, so that my Chinese silver dollars can pass through North Korea without hindrance. This matter is more important than expanding the land."

North Korea's currency reform has changed a bit to make people laugh and cry.

Copper coins from China are distributed to various places through merchants, but Chinese silver dollars are resolutely not used.Even, silver trading is officially banned, and only copper coins are allowed in North Korea.

This ban on silver has lasted for more than 200 years.

Initially, North Korea needed to pay tribute to Ming Dynasty with a small amount of silver, 700 taels of silver per year.In order to pay tribute to silver, the monarchs and ministers of North Korea not only searched temples, but even mined several silver mines for hundreds of taels of silver.Those silver mines will stop working after mining enough 700 taels, and start working again before the next tribute.

It was not until the Jiajing period that Ming Dynasty allowed North Korea to no longer pay tribute to silver.

In the early years, the ban on silver made sense, because copper coins were not popular, and barter was popular in North Korea.However, with the development of the economy and the increasing trade volume, it is pure nonsense to continue to ban silver, and the North Korean monarchs are simply messing around.

This kind of nonsense is for better control of the place.

First issue licenses to merchants, take out part of the tax in kind, hand it over to merchants, and then sell it to domestic officials and people.Every link is firmly controlled by the North Korean monarch and ministers, and the two classes of nobles can make a fortune in every link.

In the past few years of reform, Chinese copper coins were introduced, and the two groups of nobles controlled the distribution channels of copper coins through merchants—the nobles controlled the Beijing merchants and let the Beijing merchants issue copper coins.The Beijing merchants gave the copper coins to the Song merchants, and the Song merchants distributed the copper coins to the localities.Only the issuance of copper coins has been subcontracted layer by layer in the capital.

North Korea's ban on silver once made both China and Japan very speechless.

Japan originally mined the Iwami Silver Mountain and suddenly became a silver exporting country.The Japanese envoy Anxin Dongtang, with 8 taels of silver, ran to North Korea to make a deal.As a result, one tael of silver was useless to go out, so they had to return the same way with the silver, making it look like they came to North Korea to show off their wealth.

When Daming assisted North Korea, due to the inconvenience of transporting grain, he brought a large amount of silver and wanted to buy grain and grass on the spot in North Korea.The money of the Ming army was also useless, which led to a serious shortage of food in the early stage of the war.

With the smooth issuance of Chinese copper coins, businessmen all over North Korea now hope to break the silver ban, because it is too tiring to use copper coins for large transactions.

The two discussed together and decided to continue to march.

Thousands of Datong troops arrived near Kaesong the next day in battleships.

Before they had time to communicate with each other, the North Korean monarchs and ministers ran away again, fleeing all the way north to Xinxi, leaving the soldiers of the Datong Army in a mess in the wind.

What the hell?

The news that the monarchs and ministers of North Korea kept fleeing was deliberately disseminated by Wan merchants (Baozhou merchants).

Since Baozhou was occupied by China, many Taiwanese merchants have become Chinese citizens, monopolizing the commercial trade of the Yalu River.However, their business network covers the entire Pyongan Road, Hamgyong Road, and Hwanghae Road, and they have fierce competition with Songshang.

Song merchants want to attach to China because they want to overthrow Beijing merchants and engage in maritime trade.

The Taiwanese businessmen want North Korea to destroy the country because they want to extend their business tentacles to the central and southern markets of North Korea.

At this moment, the Taiwanese merchants took the opportunity to make trouble, and used the "wanfang" to spread the news of the North Korean king's escape.

The North Korean farmers in Ping'an Road have known for a long time that the farmers in Baozhou have a good life. Every year, farmers smuggle into Baozhou with their families.Outside Baozhou City, with a radius of tens of miles, is actually controlled by China, and the land has already been divided.

The peasants who could not obtain land in Baoju felt extremely resentful towards the King of Joseon.Moreover, the North Korean monarchs and ministers still stationed a large number of troops on the border, arresting and killing farmers who tried to smuggle.

What about the land conflict in North Korea?A bit like the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Since Yan Shanjun, land transactions have been legal by default.The land of the two classes of nobles was initially concentrated in Gyeonggi-do, and then expanded to Gangwon-do, Chungcheong-do, Jeolla-do, and Gyeongsang-do in the south-central region.

In the south-central part of North Korea, land annexation has become more and more serious, and a large number of hidden fields do not pay taxes.

As a result, taxes were transferred to Pyongan Road, Hwanghae Road, and Hamgyong Road in the north.Those places are already poor, so they have to double their taxes, and military service is also the most common of these three.

In the past few decades, the peasant uprising in Hamgyong Province first persisted for three months and was suppressed.During this period, a big landlord named Li Shi'ai joined the uprising team, claiming to be a descendant of the royal family, and wanted to change the dynasty.

Then there was the peasant uprising in Hwanghae-do, led by Lin Juzheng.This time it was even more troublesome, defeating the imperial army many times and persisting for a full year and two months.During the period, the King of Korea was also forced to exempt Hwanghae Road and Pingan Road for one year to prevent more farmers from joining the uprising.

But it is said that after the kings and ministers of North Korea fled to Xinxi, the peasants of Ping'an Road broke out.

Ping An Road in North Korea can be understood as Shaanxi and Shanxi in China.Famines have continued these years, but taxes have been getting higher and higher. There is a Baozhou where the farmers live and work in peace and contentment. The farmers in Ping'an Road are envied to death.If things go on like this, can we not rebel?

In the beginning, only more than 1000 peasants revolted. In just a few days, the uprising force grew to tens of thousands.Killing the gentry and landlords, capturing the prefectures and counties, frightened the Korean border troops, and all ran to Baozhou to ask for the protection of the Datong Army.

Immediately afterwards, the peasants of Hwanghae Province also rebelled, and the two peasant armies attacked from the north to the south, and even defeated the city of Pyongyang.

Then Bingfeng headed southeast, toward Xinxi where the king of Joseon was located.

The Peasant Army has a distinctive uprising slogan: "Be a citizen of the heaven, cultivate the land of the sky, and live a good life in the sky!"

The North Korean monarchs and ministers were terrified. While retreating towards Jinhua, they ordered the whole country to serve the king, and at the same time sent ministers to contact the Datong army.

Chapter 946 [Datong secret work is making trouble]

"Hamgyong Dao is not our land at all, and the people who escaped from the service in the previous dynasty all belong to their land. In my Sejong dynasty, six towns were first established, and the savages would like to rely on them for their lives."

This sentence was spoken by Korean Minister Han Hyungyun to King Li Yi of North Korea 100 years ago.

When Zhu Yuanzhang was chasing death and chasing the north, the Goryeo Dynasty also took the opportunity to expand northward, not only capturing the Shuangcheng Governor's Mansion of the Yuan Dynasty, but also all the way to the territory of the Liao and Jin dynasties.After the establishment of Lee's North Korea, they recruited and captured Jurchens across the border and went south to enrich these newly occupied territories (many of the savages Han Hengyun said were Jurchens).

During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, Wang Keren of the Jurchen tribe said: "Xianzhou (Xianxing) is northward, and it was the land of Liao and Jin in ancient times." He asked Zhu Di to take it back and give it to the Jurchens to multiply.

Zhu Di did not ask North Korea for territory, but only asked North Korea to return the Jurchens under its jurisdiction to the north.North Korea then sent great Confucianists to Beijing to dig out words with "History of Liao Dynasty" and "History of Jin Dynasty".

This is nonsense, those place names were taken later, of course they cannot appear in the history books!

The two sides argued endlessly, which annoyed Zhu Di so much that they had to let it go in the end.

In another time and space, North Korea took advantage of the Qing Dynasty to evacuate the population in the Northeast, and quietly continued to expand its border to the north.Finally, in the last years of Kangxi, he once again used sophistry and nonsense to fool the ministers of the Manchu and Qing border surveys, and completed the theft of the land south of the Tumen River.

That is to say, even in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, some of the land south of the Tumen River was not Korean.

Xianjing Road, the mountainous area outside Huining City.

Han Qiyuan rose up and said to hundreds of Korean and Jurchen farmers: "Do you know what the 'three-handed rice' is collected for? It was a miscellaneous tax collected by the Japanese invaders decades ago to train soldiers. Now, the Japanese pirates We have been driven away a long time ago, even the Jianzhou Tartars are dead, but the imperial court is still asking us for 'three-handed rice'! Let's comment on whether 'three-handed rice' should be levied or not?"

"No, no!" Hundreds of farmers roared.

Han Qiyuan also said: "The imperial court promulgated the Datong Law and paid taxes according to the amount of rice per acre. But corrupt officials and landlords colluded. We obviously have no land, but the tax is counted on us, and the landlord has land but does not pay the land tax. Come and judge. This land tax should be paid. Shouldn't we hand it over?"

"No, no!"

Farmers became increasingly irate.

Han Qiyuan continued: "The imperial court does not allow us to collect ginseng from the mountains around Huining. We risked our lives to collect ginseng from the mountains of the Celestial Dynasty, but when we came back, we were arrested by the government and confiscated all our wild ginseng. Everyone comes to judge, corrupt officials corrupt officials not bad?"

"Bad, bad, bad!"

"Last winter, there was a heavy snowstorm, and this summer was drought. The harvest in the fields is not good, and the landlord has to increase the rent, and the peasants died of freezing and starvation. Is there any reason for this?"

"No reason, no reason!"

"I often go to the mountains of the Chinese Dynasty to collect ginseng. There are Han, Jurchen, and Korean people in the north of the river (Tumen River). No matter which ethnicity they live in, life is good. Although there are droughts and snowstorms, the Chinese government has been reducing or exempting taxes. People reclaim wasteland, tax exemption for the first five years, and tax reduction for ten years. We are separated by a river, but our taxes are getting heavier and heavier. Are you willing to rebel against me and be the people of the Celestial Dynasty from now on?"

"Yes, yes!"

"Shout with me, live as a citizen of the Celestial Dynasty, die as a ghost of the Celestial Dynasty!"

"Born as a citizen of the Celestial Dynasty, die as a ghost of the Celestial Dynasty!"

"..."

Han Qiyuan is not only a farmer in North Korea, but also an off-line of Datong's secret work.

The rule of the Datong court in the Tumen River is very weak, where the land is vast and sparsely populated, not only are there not many Han people, even the Jurchens are rare.

Therefore, the imperial court only established a small town at the mouth of the Tumen River with [-] immigrants.A branch office of the National Security Institute was also set up, with only a few clerks in total. If this manpower wanted to investigate the news, he had to bribe North Korean people to go offline.

Han Qiyuan ran to China to dig ginseng and was arrested. The national security saw that he was smart and smart, so not only was he not fined, but the money was returned to him.