Chapter 114: Swallowing North Korea and Conflicting with Dongjiang
"You are worse than beasts, worse than beasts!"

In Incheon City, after Kim An-gil, the Right Governor of Gyeonggi Province, reported what happened in Seoul to the Joseon King Yi Jong, his king has been clearing his desk.

There were not many things on the table for him to throw, and after a period of helpless rage, the small-eyed king ordered his men to summon the judges, censors, and other officials from the six ministries and two departments.

The six ministries and two offices are the six departments and the Censorate of Korea. All the high-ranking officials from Seoul who fled with the king have come here.

Although this matter is indeed difficult to talk about, Li Jong was a very cowardly king. When he rebelled in the third year of Tianqi, he relied on this group of Western Party officials to succeed. After becoming king, he did not take care of affairs every day, and only asked his ministers for help when he was undecided.

Jin Anji then told the officials in the court about everything that happened in Seoul, and the Korean ministers then understood why they had to stay in Incheon Prefecture.

"How dare he stay in the king's bedroom and order the concubines to serve him at night? He is so bold. Order him to come to Incheon Palace immediately and kneel before the king to ask for forgiveness."

"Ming Dynasty Korea was a country that Emperor Taizu ruled not to conquer. Even Emperor Shenzong had to treat our country with courtesy. How dare he, a mere general of Liaodong, do such a beastly thing?"

"Your Majesty was personally canonized by the Emperor Tianqi. How can a commoner touch or desecrate His Majesty's bedroom? Why not send someone to Tianjin to file a complaint against Li Hao while the Liao Sea is still warm and ask the wise officials of the Ming Dynasty to help us?"

This group of yangban officials were naturally not indignant about the king's affairs. They were just concubines. Even if they were all sent to the Ming general to serve at night, the yangban officials might even feel honored.

After all, he was a high-ranking official of the Ming Dynasty. During the Imjin War thirty years ago, the Korean generals could only kneel in front of the general's tent and listen to orders. They were not even qualified to enter the tent to discuss matters.

The news of the land being seized in the northern countryside had spread, and the city of Anzhou was taken over by another Ming general. The two groups of officials felt that they could no longer protect their farms, so they decided to instigate the king to send someone to the Ming court to punish the rebellious general Li Hao.

"In fact, there is only one concubine serving at night. The concubines from the Yangban households were driven away. General Li thought they were ugly and short."

Jin Jian corrected the statement of one of the officials in the court.

This was the truth, but it also made many officials in the court even more angry.

"Who does he think he is? He actually despises our daughter!"

"The Ming Dynasty is a great country, is there no one to teach him the rules?"

"They should be arrested and sent to the wise officials of the Ming Dynasty for discipline."

The officials of the six ministries and two departments were in an uproar and urged the king to send troops to capture the Ming army in Seoul and the small groups of cavalry roaming around the north.

Every extra day the Ming army looted meant that the two shifts of officials would lose thirty or forty farms.

The salaries of North Korean officials are extremely low. Without the farm’s harvest, the officials’ living standards next year may be even worse than those of the landlords in the Ming Dynasty.

Although Li Jong is a coward, he still has some brains.

"If you want to arrest someone, do it yourself. Even the Later Jin soldiers can't beat this guy's cavalry. With those soldiers in Seoul, I'm afraid I'll lose my life if we fight."

In order to avoid the Tartar soldiers heading south, a lot of food was stored on Ganghwa Island. Li Jong even thought that if they hid on Ganghwa Island, after autumn, the Ming cavalry would run out of fodder and would naturally retreat to Liaodong.

Li Cao Minister Yi Gui was particularly radical. Many of his farm servants came running to him, and even more ran to Seoul to find him. It can be estimated that most of his farms in Hwanghae Province were killed.

Today's Yangban officials are from the Western Party. After coming to power, they have been seizing farmland in Hwanghae Province and Jeolla Province in the east. Hwanghae Province is the area with the most concentrated arable land in Korea. If the Ming army continues to rob land like this, Yangban officials will not have a good life in the next few years.

After discussing for a long time, the king and his ministers finally reached a consensus, which was to return to Ganghwa Island to hide, send troops to hunt down the Ming army that was looting in Hwanghae Province, and then send people to Seoul to deliver generous gifts and ask the Ming general to lead the army back to Liaodong.

Of course, Li Zong also specially ordered the Minister of Rites to go to the Ming Dynasty to file a complaint. Some officials from the Yangban class even wanted the Ming court to provide disaster relief funds to compensate the Korean officials for the losses caused by the robbery.

……

Gyeongbokgung Palace Gardens in Seoul.

Thousands of corpses were piled on the king's own farmland beside the garden, and the severed heads were piled up into a small hill. Tens of thousands of people in Seoul kept applauding and cheering for the Ming general.

Those beheaded by the Ming general were all yangban households and xiangban households. Their main crimes were collusion with the Later Jin, occupation of common people's land, and forcing good people into slavery. Gwanghaegun and his followers, who were originally exiled to Ganghwa Island, were also sent to Seoul by the King of Korea, so that Li Hao could chop them to his heart's content.

[Clearance rate: 5.2231%]

[HP: 10332|10476]

During the month in Seoul, Li Hao successively handled the case of Gwanghaegun, the case of meritorious officials encroaching on land, and the case of concealing people.

Similar to the four major cases handled by Emperor Hongwu, all the people involved in these three cases were killed immediately, and the core members were all killed along with their entire nine clans, which was enough to gather more than 30,000 criminals, successfully allowing Li Hao's clearance rate to break 5%.

The registered population of North Korea is about 7 million, but the actual population should be just over 10 million. After killing 30,000 parasitic people who only eat and do not work, the Korean people's evaluation of Li Hao, the general of the Ming Dynasty, has risen sharply. After all, after Li Jong rebelled against Gwanghaegun three years ago, the people's livelihood on the peninsula not only did not usher in a new atmosphere, but it was even worse because of the continuous occupation of farmland by meritorious officials. The speed of land annexation by the two-class nobles was much faster than that of the Ming Dynasty gentry.

"Today's beheading ends here, everyone retreat!"

Li Hao waved his hand to signal the people of Seoul to leave, and called in the Korean soldiers, ordering them to bury the bodies on the spot.

According to official history, this garden and the king's own farmland would be transformed into a building called the Blue House. Burying more corpses might help fight poison with poison and break the curse of this place.

In Gyeongbokgung Palace, General Li Hao, who had worked all day, lay on a hard couch that had been prepared long ago. While listening to reports from North Korean officials, he enjoyed delicious food that was rarely seen on the peninsula.

Even the Ming Dynasty's firemen could cook much more sumptuous meals than the imperial kitchen in Gyeongbokgung Palace when there were enough ingredients.

When it comes to food, China has always been the best in the world.

"Jeonra Province, Gyeongsang Province, and Gangwon Province did not allow the officials we sent to enter the city, and Cheongju Prefecture in Chungcheong Province did not obey our order to mobilize troops. The other four provinces accepted the middlemen we sent according to the normal appointment of officials."

Jin Zhengzai, who was the first to defect to the Liao army, analyzed the situation in various places one by one. Like many other illegitimate sons of the Yangban class, he was appointed by the Ming general as the new Minister of Six Departments and became a second-rank official.

The king hid on Ganghwa Island and refused to come back, and it seemed as if Korea had a new king.

While setting up a large-scale prison, Li Hao was also quickly sending people to take over the government offices in various provinces of Korea, and at the same time gathering the most capable Korean soldiers.

Similar to the Ming Dynasty's military service, the Korean military service was also a rotational service. Soldiers worked for a few months each year and brought their own weapons, dry food and clothing. The soldiers were healthy men between the ages of sixteen and sixty.

It seems that the tradition of universal military service on this peninsula can be traced back to the Joseon Dynasty.

The Korean soldiers were divided into the central regular troops and the local garrison troops. The most powerful soldiers were the six garrisons in the north, which were mainly used to deal with the Jurchens.

The Korean navy in the south is also quite large, but they work less than they achieve, and their combat effectiveness is far behind that of the Ming navy. The Dongjiang navy can beat them into a miserable state, so Li Hao doesn't take them seriously.

"The three southern regions are not obeying orders? Send Wu Sangui over."

For the peninsula, Li Hao's idea was to build a rear base with an annual output of 500,000 shi of grain and fodder, as well as a base for manufacturing light muskets.

North Korea does not have the rest of the supplies. Even if they send troops to plunder the land every day, they won’t be able to get any.

The young eldest son arrived soon.

"I will send you one thousand Jurchen surrendered soldiers and two thousand reorganized Korean regular soldiers. You will go to the three southern provinces to plunder the land one by one, go around the peninsula, and after you capture two cities in Gangwon Province, return to Seoul. I should be leading the troops back to Liaodong by then, so you will stay in Seoul and wait for my order."

Wu Sangui was delighted at first, but then he was shocked. "What identity should I use to guard Seoul? If the corrupt scholars in the court knew about this, they would curse my godfather and my entire Wu family to death."

"As a lieutenant general, a third-rank military commander, it is enough to guard Korea. When I return to Liaodong, I will report your merits to the court, and your father will be promoted. There will be a major war around the beginning of the year, and I will send someone to Seoul to take your place before the war."

North Korea's grain-producing areas are concentrated in Hwanghae Province in the central and western parts of the country, which is sandwiched between Gyeonggi Province where Seoul is located and Pyeongan Province near Liaodong.

Therefore, as long as Seoul and Anzhou were controlled, the peninsula could provide the Liao army with free food and muskets.

Wu Sangui was overjoyed. He was the only lieutenant general of his age in the entire Ming Dynasty.

"From now on, Lord Yangyang will live on Ganghwa Island and will not be allowed to go ashore. I have sent several hundred Jurchen soldiers to Incheon Prefecture to tell Lord Yangyang Yi Jong that if he wants to try out the Jianzhou longbow and beryllium arrows, he can go to Incheon.

When I am away, the internal affairs of Joseon will be discussed by the six ministries, with you as the head. The previous policy of abolishing the imprisonment of illegitimate sons and distributing farms in various places to slaves and untouchables must also be continued. "

Li Hao gave Jin Zhengzai the last order.

Upon hearing this, Kim Jung-jae hurriedly retreated to the desk of the Ming general and kowtowed three times.

The speed at which this bastard rose to power was unprecedented in history.

After a long delay, Li Hao was ready to lead his troops back to Liaodong. When passing through Anzhou, Tieshan and other places, he took the opportunity to annex Dongjiang Town.

The weather was turning cooler and navigation in the Liao Sea was about to stop. It would take half a year for what happened on Pi Island to be transmitted from the sea to the ears of the Ming court. So since they had nothing to do anyway, they might as well do some serious work by reorganizing the Dongjiang soldiers.

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(End of this chapter)