Chapter 113: Overnight in the King's Bed
Faced with the questioning of the Ming general, the Peninsula generals did not dare to answer and could only nod in agreement. In addition, their Chinese was not very good and they could not utter a complete sentence for a long time.

Korea under the Lee regime imitated the Ming Dynasty in almost every way, and the status of military generals was also similar. After hesitating for a long time, Anzhou Lieutenant General Jin Jun finally spoke of a feasible plan through an interpreter.

"Zhang Wan, the hero of the Yangban class, is the marshal of the eight provinces. Zhang Yuanjun is currently stationed in Seoul. Zhang Yuanjun can give an answer to the Ming court and the general commander on these matters. We are just lowly military generals and cannot make the decision. We don't know where our king is now."

Li Hao frowned and listened for a long time, and finally understood why the Anzhou defenders asked him to go to Seoul to find a civil official named Zhang Wan, who was the Marshal of Eight Provinces and the Prince of Yuchengbu.

There are only eight provinces in North Korea.

So to put it simply, Zhang Wan is the highest military commander of the peninsula, and the lord of Tamajiro Prefecture.

"Hey, you can't get involved in the Gwanghae traitor case, but the Yangban nobles can't escape, right? All civil and military officials from the Yangban must provide 200 dan of military rations to the Ming army. Marshal Mao from Dongjiang Town will arrive today. After we leave, Marshal Mao will temporarily take charge of Anzhou's defense, so that you won't be able to stop the Tartar soldiers from coming back."

Anzhou is a strong military town, but it is not the political center of the peninsula. To bring down the Lee regime, one has to go to Seoul.

The feudalism in Korea was much more serious than that in the Ming Dynasty. The civil and military nobles controlled the upper-level official positions and most of the land.

However, resources in North Korea were limited, and only legitimate sons among the yangban nobles could inherit official positions and land. Illegitimate sons were imprisoned and could only serve as translators, medical officers and other grassroots officials, and were called "middlemen."

In addition to the yangban nobles and their vassals, there are still a large number of untouchables, slaves, and tenants who farm on the farms of the yangban nobles. The entire social structure is similar to the caste system in India.

After the Anzhou defenders discussed with each other, Nan Yixing responded.

"Respected Great Ming General, we are happy to provide rations for the Ming soldiers. We can provide 200 dan per person, but there are a large number of soldiers stationed in Anzhou City. Can this amount of rations be transported from Seoul or the southern provinces?"

Li Hao did not respond to this. After asking Kong Youde and others who had stayed near Pi Island and Tieshan, he spoke directly to the North Korean translator.

"What's your name? Is it the West Party or the Great North Party?"

The party struggles in Korea were even more complicated than those in the Ming Dynasty. Generally speaking, they were divided into the Eastern Party and the Western Party, but they were also infinitely nested and divided layer by layer.

The party that supported Gwanghaegun was the Daebuk Party within the Dongin Party, while the Yangban nobles who supported the current King Yi Jong were mostly from the Seon Party.

"My name is Jin Zhengzai, I am a native of the East, and I am a bastard who was imprisoned."

The translator was in his thirties, with large eyes and a not-so-prominent chin, and was clearly of foreign descent.

"Okay. I will release you from your imprisonment and appoint you as a liaison envoy, specifically responsible for contacting the Ming Dynasty."

Kim Jung-jae is quite unlucky, being a Easterner and a bastard's son.

Li Hao first appointed him as an official, and then questioned him in detail about key matters such as taxation on the peninsula, the farms of the yangban nobles, and the musketeers among the Korean soldiers.

"In total, we can collect about 100,000 koku in taxes, and the expenditures of officials at all levels are about 110,000 koku. The farms of the yangban nobles can easily produce 500,000 koku per year, and the king also relies on his own farms."

"There are 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers in each region in name only, but only about 10,000 to 20,000 are actually capable of fighting. Most of these 20,000 to 30,000 are sword and spear soldiers, and there are only about 6,000 to 7,000 elite soldiers who can fire muskets."

The original cavalry of the peninsula was pretty good and had decent combat effectiveness. However, after the Ming Dynasty Emperor Chengzu took away their war horses one after another, the combat effectiveness of the Korean soldiers directly dropped a level. It was not until the era of muskets and bird guns that they recovered a little.

But they were attacked by Japan a few years ago, and lost a large number of elite troops in the Battle of Sarhu seven years ago. If there was no conflict with the Jurchens, they would have no chance to train their troops, so it is normal that there are few elite troops.

After roughly understanding the situation, Li Hao directly summoned the generals who were going to the expedition.

"Shang and Liu brothers, each of you will lead 100 soldiers to the farms in the countryside to seize the land. When Marshal Mao leads his troops to Anzhou, you will transport all the seized grain to Anzhou. The slaves and low-class people in various places will directly divide the farm land. The rest of the village guards and petty officials in charge of the farms will all be sent to Anzhou. Wait for me to come back and deal with them."

"The three Lis will each bring their own retainers, and two hundred elite soldiers each, to support these brothers who are trying to plunder the land. It's still the same old rules. The big fish will be handed over to me for distribution, and the small fish will be kept for yourself."

Excluding Shang Kexi, there were six brothers from the Shang family and seven brothers from the Liu family. That made thirteen land-grabbing teams, which were enough to plunder the countryside of Korea.

You can't write two "Li" characters with one stroke, and Li Hao didn't want to be polite to the King of Korea, Yi Jong.

After leaving 1,300 and 600 soldiers in Anzhou, the general of Qianfeng Town took the remaining 1,500 cavalrymen and went directly out of the city to chase the Tartar soldiers.

……

Incheon Protectorate, Ganghwa Bay, Korea.

More than a thousand yellow-armored and blue-armored Eight Banners soldiers surrounded the main general Ajige. Behind them was a mud puddle, and the waves kept hitting the shore, washing the battlefield of the first confrontation.

In front of them was the Ming Army-Korea Joint Forces that had been chasing them all the way. It was not quite appropriate to call them the Ming Army, because except for the main general Li Hao and hundreds of Han soldiers, the rest were all surrendered soldiers.

There were even five or six hundred people who were fleeing with the Ajige brothers a few days ago. After surrendering, they suddenly became elite cavalry under the jurisdiction of Liaozhen, following the Ming general to hunt down their former masters.

"I am the Khan of the Later Jin Dynasty, and I will never surrender!"

Ajige gritted his teeth. At this point, he no longer hated Li Hao who led the pursuit of him, but only hated those rebellious slaves.

"I am the Great Khan appointed by the old Khan. The old village of Hetuala was given to me. You proclaimed the Khanship yourself."

The young Dorgon pointed out his brother's mistake. The bannermen around him were all from Jianzhou, and they would not be in any good situation after surrendering, so they fled with his two brothers.

Before setting out from Hetuala, the entire Later Jin had only three Khans. The fourth Beile Huang Taiji in the north also claimed the title of Khan in the two red flags, and won over some small tribes of the Khorchin tribe. His momentum was much stronger than the two Khans in the mountains. Opposite them, Li Hao, who had been idle all the way, asked the opinions of the generals around him and finally made up his mind.

"Except for the traitors of the Aisin-Gioro family and the Ezhen of all levels, the Jianzhou Jurchen soldiers who surrender will not be killed. I will send them across the sea to fight Japan."

In the current situation, it is impossible to fight. Ships have been sent from Ganghwa Island in the west to assist the Ming army. This group of Tartar soldiers has little way out.

Several Jurchen soldiers with shaved braids went forward to read out the commander-in-chief's decision. After they had just said a few words, they were shot back by arrows by Later Jin generals such as Ajige.

But there was still some effect. At least the Jianzhou soldiers who had no intention of fighting knew there was a way to survive, and they began to run eastward in scattered groups.

He took off his armor as he ran and threw his weapons on the shore.

Ajige and several others quickly shot arrows to suppress the enemy, but there were too many defeated bannermen for them to handle.

In the end, only a dozen people were left.

The Korean warships finally arrived. They sent a small boat to approach the muddy beach, and the musketeers on the boat continuously shot at the dozen people.

The Ming army on the opposite side had no intention of attacking because the horses' hooves would sink into the mud.

After closing his eyes and sighing, Ajige took the lead in proposing a solution: "Minions, please kill me. I don't want to fall into the hands of the Ming army and be humiliated."

Dorgon had a different opinion: "Ahun, don't be discouraged. Let's wade over and grab those boats, and then run to Ganghwa Island."

They were originally heading for Ganghwa Island, but the Koreans who led them were cunning and led them to the mudflats, where they were surrounded by the Ming army.

The dozen or so men had no choice but to take off some of their armor and crawl towards the boat wearing only body armor.

Unfortunately, the Korean soldiers on the boat were also on guard against their approach, so they paddled westward. The cotton on the armor of Ajige and others absorbed water, and they couldn't even return to the shore, and were submerged by the sea water one after another.

"Send someone to find the bodies of Ajige and Dorgon, cut off their heads and send them to the Liao army camp."

After giving orders to the Korean generals who followed him in the battle, Li Hao led his troops toward Seoul.

The King of Joseon took only some of his ministers and the Queen Mother to Ganghwa Island for refuge, leaving many of the Joseon nobles in Seoul.

The two groups of Korean officials headed by Zhang Wan went out of the city to welcome them. They also imitated the gift-giving rules of the Ming Dynasty officialdom and gave gifts to the main Ming generals.

Unfortunately, North Korea’s people are so short of resources that they even resort to barter, so the gifts they give are really not very presentable.

In the rather shabby main hall of Gyeongbokgung Palace, Korean officials dressed in round-necked robes and black gauze hats held what they thought was a rather sumptuous banquet.

"Kelp and tofu soup, pickled radish, pickled garlic, pickled bean sprouts... The only two meat dishes are fried fish and barbecued meat with soy sauce."

Li Hao sighed, no wonder the Central Plains Dynasty had to provide disaster relief during the several wars to aid Korea.

The Ming generals naturally looked down on this night banquet. After finishing most of the meat dishes, they sat with their commander, preparing to have another meal after returning to their camp.

The two classes of Korean officials ate with gusto and ran to the table of the Ming general to toast from time to time.

The old man Zhang Wan, who was in the lead, also explained to the general of the Ming army the date of his king's return, "The day after tomorrow, our king will come to Seoul, and there will be a banquet at that time."

"Without the King of Korea accompanying him, his concubine should also come out to toast? You are the Marshal of Eight Provinces, are you qualified to host a banquet for the generals of the Ming Dynasty?"

Li Hao didn't think highly of the Peninsula banquet which was mainly composed of pickled vegetables. He forced the North Koreans to send out the remaining princesses to toast.

Zhang Wan and others were helpless. After delaying for a while, they felt that they could not get away with it anymore, so they sent people to invite several concubines that the king had not had time to take away, and took turns to toast the Ming general.

Li Zong was only 32 years old, and his concubines were also not very old. Except for one Han woman, the rest were from the Yangban aristocracy.

"It's you. You will serve me tonight."

The ancestors of this Han female concubine were from Shandong. Her facial features were much more beautiful than those of other concubines from the peninsula, and her figure was also well-defined.

Zhang Wan and other Korean ministers were shocked and stood up to dissuade them, and asked the concubines to leave quickly.

The generals of the Ming Dynasty smiled, and after their commander gave the signal, they quickly took away the shouting Korean officials.

"I am willing to serve the commander-in-chief."

The Han female concubine named Wang Qi did not show any pride in her status and agreed readily.

Li Hao laughed, picked her up by the waist, and went to the bedroom of the King of Korea through the back door of the main hall of Gyeongbokgung Palace.

He is now very interested in offspring. When he demands pay, he can rely on his personal prestige to summon the Liao soldiers to start an uprising. When he wants to rebel seriously, he must have a son, otherwise no one will follow him.

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(End of this chapter)