"Establish Shandong, the capital, and the coast of Zhejiang as a free trade zone to allow us to trade freely with the people. The court cannot set up checkpoints to collect commercial taxes, and cannot restrict the flow of merchants and the circulation of merchants." After a conversation, Wan Lei finally spoke. The conditions for sending troops to assist the DPRK were established.
Dong Lun was shocked when he heard this. He thought that Wan Lei would take the opportunity to ask for more money or the palace's collection of books. Unexpectedly, Wan Lei's appetite was much greater than he expected, and he directly asked the Ming Dynasty to open the sea ban and allow them to Free trade, and he also knew that this was impossible, so he hurriedly said: "This, this condition is too harsh, and our government will never agree to it."
"Since you are not sincere, what is there to talk about?"
"It's okay to ask for money, but it's definitely not feasible to establish a sea ban."
"Money? How can this small amount of money help the people of our northern province? What we lack is materials, a lot of materials. Many of these materials must be imported from Japan. Since you want us to go to war with Japan, you have to open the sea ban to let us Free trade to compensate for the foreign trade losses caused by the war against Japan."
"And what I ask for is not high. I just open the southeast coast. I don't ask you to open the mutual trade on land. This is already the end of benevolence. If you don't agree to this, what's the point of talking about it?" Wan Lei said sternly, very Obviously, he is bound to win this free trade right.
In fact, even if the Ming Dynasty did not lift the maritime ban, the goods from the North Parallel Province could still be sold to the Ming Dynasty, but it was just smuggling. The Ming Dynasty did not even have a decent navy, so it was impossible to ban the maritime smuggling trade. Wan Lei The insistence on this trade right actually has other motives, more of a political consideration.
Because, once the coastal trade zone is opened, the number of compradors who trade with the North Parallel Province will increase. This means that the number of "compradors" who make money from trade will increase, and the relationship with the North Parallel Province will become closer. If the court goes against its promise in the future, After closing the trade area, the court would face not only the Peking Army's crusade, but also those merchants who had been cut off from their financial resources. They would also attack the Ming court.
Because of the copying of books, it lost the support of the gentry class; and because of the opening of the sea and the ban on the sea, which caused strong dissatisfaction among wealthy merchants and coastal people, the Ming court would rush towards the road of defeat. If it is not attacked, it will destroy itself. Even after the Ming Dynasty Keeping his promise, Wan Lei could not help but use trade to squeeze out those small-scale peasant economies (peasants) that mainly rely on handicraft production. The peasants' lives would become increasingly poor and desolate, and they would eventually raise a hoe to attack the Ming Dynasty.
"I want to report this matter to the imperial court for approval. However, North Korea has been invaded by the Japanese country and is now in critical condition. I would also like to ask the young master to come forward to restrain the Japanese country and order it to suspend its offensive." Dong Lun said again.
"Please forgive me for my difficulty in helping. Anyway, it was not my province of Beiku that was invaded, and it was not my interests that were lost. I can wait patiently for the court's reply. You don't have to be anxious, and we can discuss it slowly. Anyway, North Korea is just a vassal state. Bang, we are not from the same roots." Wan Lei said nonchalantly with an expression that showed he was convinced of you.
Seeing that Wan Lei was so unconcerned, Dong Lun turned pale with anger, clasped his fists and left. Wan Lei looked at the old man's leaving figure, feeling somewhat pitiful for him: He was still sent to the police at such an old age. It's really hard for him to be an envoy.
You must know that the so-called diplomacy is to use the most polite words and deeds to do the most "dirty" things. Without a strong heart and thick skin, you cannot do it. And Dong Lun is over 90, and his heart can't stand this. It's a high-load job. If you work for a few months, you might be so angry that you die.
Because I can't bear it, Wan Lei is speaking publicly and privately. He will never compromise just because the other party is old, let alone sacrifice the interests of the Peking Province.
"Master Wan, why didn't you just take the opportunity to ask for the palace collection of classics?" After Dong Lun had gone away, Yu Zhenmu, who was sitting aside, asked in a low voice. As the assistant to the editor-in-chief, he knew that there was still a shortage of some books in Peking Province.
"Don't worry, there will be free trade rights, and there will be books. Let's take our time." Wan Lei smiled lightly and continued to browse the pile of books on the table. This leisurely look also infected other people. They all put their thoughts on checking and proofreading books.
People far away on the Korean Peninsula do not have this kind of leisure. In fact, the dispatch of troops to conquer Korea was led by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the son of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. Although Ashikaga Yoshimochi has nominally inherited Although he held the position of shogun, it was his father Ashikaga Yoshimitsu who held the real power, and Ashikaga Yoshimitsu doted on his youngest son, Ashikaga Yoshitsugu, with the intention of abolishing the elder and establishing the younger.
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was naturally unwilling to hand over power, so he incited his father to launch a war of aggression against Korea, and falsely promised to make his younger brother Ashikaga Yoshimitsu the leader of Korea after conquering Korea. Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was old and confused, and saw that Ashikaga Yoshimichi said this, so he believed it and agreed to let him lead troops to invade Korea.
Although the promise to make his younger brother the leader of North Korea was false, Ashikaga Yoshitomichi's coveting of North Korea was true, and he coveted the rich Central Plains even more. Occupying North Korea was just a stepping stone for him to attack the Central Plains.
No, after preparing for the meeting for half a year, the young and energetic Ashikaga Yoshimichi sent his trusted general Yoshitsune as commander, leading 170,000 infantry and 60,000 naval troops across the Korean Strait, and landed in the Jeolla Province area. In just over half a month, they occupied the three provinces of Jeolla Gyeongsang and Chungcheong Province, and directed their troops towards Hanyang City, the capital of North Korea.
Hanyang, actually also called Seoul, was originally named Yangzhou. When North Korea was founded more than ten years ago, Li Chenggui changed its name to Seoul to show his determination to serve the Han Dynasty. This city is located on the north bank of the Han River. According to the theory of "Hebei is Yang", That’s why it’s also called Hanyang.
As the capital of North Korea, Hanyang City has never been at peace for more than ten years. First, North Korea launched a prince's war, and then it was captured by the "thieves" sent by the King of Liao. It was not easy to regain the country, but the city was damaged long ago. It was unbearable, and it was not possible to repair it now. The wolf-like Japanese invaders came again. King Li Bangyuan of Korea thought that he would be invincible. He issued an order from King Qin to ask soldiers and civilians from all walks of life to come to help defend, and at the same time sent envoys to ask for help from the Ming Dynasty.
However, there was a parallel province between the Ming Dynasty and North Korea, and even if the Ming army was unable to rescue them, they would not be able to get through. Li Fangyuan saw that the situation was not good, so he sent an envoy to Peiping, expressing his willingness to become a vassal and pay tribute, and asked the Peiping army to send troops. However, Wan Lei's original intention was not to ask North Korea to surrender, but to want North Korea's territory, so naturally he would not agree to send troops.
The Japanese troops outside continued to attack fiercely, but the reinforcements from the Ming Dynasty could not come, and the Peking army refused to come. Li Fangyuan was one of the first and two larger, so he had to send people to negotiate with the Japanese for a temporary truce, and at the same time send two more teams. Among the envoys, one team went to urge the Ming Dynasty to send out its navy, and the other team went to ask the Peking Army to send troops to rescue them.
This is because Li Fangyuan is anxious and does not want to be the leader of the country.
In this tense situation, July passed by in a hurry, and as soon as August came, the weather became colder, and there was no hope of reinforcements from the Ming Dynasty. Although there were a lot of city defense weapons provided by "smugglers" , but after being violently attacked for more than a month, Hanyang was still captured.
Li Fangyuan led the remaining troops to break out of the encirclement and ran westward. They retreated to Pyongyang before stopping. It was not that he did not want to retreat further, but that there was no way to retreat. If he retreated further, he would enter the border of Liaodong, and the Peking Army stationed in Liaodong was , if you go there without permission, you will definitely be arrested.
After the fall of Hanyang, Gangwon Province and Hwanghae Province in Gyeonggi Province also fell into the hands of the Japanese army one after another. Six of the eight roads were captured, leaving only Ping'an and Ning'an. The country was about to face the desperate situation of national subjugation. Li Bangyuan was anxious. He sent an envoy to Peiping. At this time, there was no need to talk about reinforcements. He only wanted to cross the river and move in.
The reason why Li Fangyuan was so humble was because he had no other choice, because the Japanese general who invaded North Korea, General Bo Yi, was notoriously ruthless. He did not agree to an armistice at all and kept fighting, attacking the city as soon as he saw it. Kill, they are just a bunch of lunatics.
Of course, the main reason why the Japanese soldiers were so crazy was to rob. Although North Korea was in poverty, there were still some good things. As invaders, the Japanese soldiers could certainly rob as much as they could. Moreover, the Japanese soldiers' food supply was from the sea. Naturally, there was not enough food, so we could only support war with war. Since there was already a shortage of food in Korea, the Japanese army would of course massacre local people crazily to reduce food consumption.
On one side were the Japanese troops who were massacring madly, and on the other side were the Peking troops who closed their doors. At this time, Li Fangyuan was no better than a lost dog. He also wanted to lead his troops to fight to the death with the Japanese troops, but it was a pity that no matter whether it was the army In terms of quantity, equipment, and quality of soldiers, the Korean army was inferior to the Japanese army.
The Japanese army had just finished fighting the North-South Separatist War, and every one of them was brave and fierce. The Korean army had not fought any wars since the Jin and Yuan Dynasties. The people did not know the soldiers, and any thieves could attack them. Moreover, North Korea Not long after they were attacked by the Liao army, the number of civilians was reduced sharply to more than 200,000, and the total number of people recruited as troops was only 200,000. Naturally, they could not defeat the Japanese army.
Not only was the land battle defeated, but the naval battle was also a complete mess. A month ago, the Korean navy and the Japanese navy had a great battle at sea. How could the North Korean navy, with its small number of men, defeat Japan's large fleet at sea? As a result, the entire army was wiped out and control of the sea was completely lost.
After defeating the North Korean navy, the Japanese army began to adjust their strategy. On the one hand, they stepped up their attacks on the remnants of the North Korean army that retreated to the north, and on the other hand, they killed Koreans in the occupied areas and implemented the three-kwang policy. The Japanese navy had just begun to transport people to North Korea. This is the official colonization of Korea.
On August 15th, the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Japanese state officially sent envoys to congratulate Wan Lei and also presented many gifts, many of which were collected from the capital of North Korea. They also brought their credentials, clearly stating that North Korea was a sinner. Japan is a country where Heaven is angry and people are resentful. Japan is fighting against Heaven. Now it will accomplish all its feats. I would like to express my gratitude to the Peking Army for their support and assistance.
Wan Lei did not shy away from anything. He directly accepted the gift and handed it over to the North Korean envoy. In front of the Ming Dynasty envoy, he said to the North Korean envoy: "Don't blame me." The reason why we refuse to save you is because you are not our friend, and we have no reputation. If you want to blame us, it is your fault in diplomatic relations."