None of the countries surrounding the Ming Dynasty were worried.
The news of Gaochang's surrender to Xiliao had not reached Luoyang, but the Goryeo coup came first.
Zheng Zhichang was urgently summoned to the palace to have an audience. He was a Korean from a wealthy family in Pyongyang and was now a member of Jizi County, Pyongyang Prefecture, Liaoning Province, Ming Dynasty.
Moreover, he served as the Yousi Cheng of Honglu Temple (from the sixth grade).
"Your Majesty, Zheng Zhichang, pays homage to Your Majesty!" Zheng Zhichang bowed with dignity.
"Come and sit."
Ju Ming waved and said, "Who is the Anshan Jin family?"
Zheng Zhichang sat down cautiously and replied: "Decades ago, the Ansan Jin family was the largest family in Goryeo. Because they had controlled the government as a foreign relative for a long time, they were regarded as powerful traitors and were eliminated. Although the family has since declined, it still remains the same in Ansan.
The foundation is deep.”
"This is an urgent report from Pyongyang's commander-in-chief," Ju Ming handed the information to the eunuch. "Ren Yuanhou, the head of the Goryeo Kingdom, is fighting for power with the powerful minister Kim Pushi... By the way, where is this Kim Pushi?"
Zheng Zhichang replied: "Kim Boushi comes from the Gyeongju Kim family and has nothing to do with the Ansan Kim family."
Ju Ming was very puzzled: "How come they are said to be the aristocrats of Beijing?"
Zheng Zhichang explained: "The Kaijing faction and the Xijing faction are not both based in the two capitals. The Kaijing faction comes from the south of Goryeo, and they support Kaizhou as the capital. The Xijing faction comes from the north of Goryeo, and they support Pyongyang as the capital. In fact, the dispute between the two Beijings
It’s the dispute between the north and the south. In addition, although the aristocrats of Kaijing are not based in Kaizhou, they have already separated their tribes and taken root in Kaizhou.”
"You should read this emergency report first. I'm already dizzy anyway." Zhu Ming asked the eunuch to pass the information over.
Zheng Zhichang took it and read it carefully, then smiled and said: "Congratulations, Your Majesty, Goryeo is in chaos."
Ju Ming asked: "Didn't the King of Goryeo be rescued?"
Zheng Zhichang said: "In Goryeo, there are many large and small clans, and the king cannot eliminate them. In order to win over the clans, each generation of kings accepts daughters from various ethnic groups as concubines. The reason why the founding king of Goryeo allowed his children to intermarry, and brothers and sisters to have children, is
In fact, it’s just to prevent my relatives from getting bigger.”
"Have you grown bigger yet?" Zhu Ming said with a smile.
Zheng Zhichang nodded and said: "In the past generations of kings, the children of brother-sister marriages were always disabled or short-lived, and the successors were often the young grandsons of wealthy officials. At this time, the head of state took the opportunity to assist the queen mother in regent, thus controlling the power and being arrogant and domineering.
He also married the daughter of the family to the prince and ruled the country for two or three generations, before being eradicated by other powerful families."
This has become the curse of Goryeo. A relative has been in power for decades, and after being eradicated, another relative is replaced.
Zheng Zhichang continued: "As the head of the country, Ren Yuanhou should have been in charge. However, the power of Goryeo was controlled by Jin Fushi. How could Ren Yuanhou be willing to do so? It was only a matter of time before the two of them fought among themselves."
Ju Ming said: "It makes sense."
Zheng Zhichang returned the information to the eunuch: "But Jin Fushi's power was too great for Ren Yuanhou to contend with. This time he used public opinion to win over middle and low-level officials and poor people, and divided the Cui clan to join forces with him. Anshan
The Jin family was a wild card. Taking advantage of the fight between these big clans, they went straight to Kaijing and killed Jin Fushi and Jin Fuzhe's brothers."
"It can be seen from the official positions in the official documents that the Ren family and the Cui family jointly controlled the central government, but the Ansan Jin family controlled the military power. Moreover, the Ansan Jin family also attracted the Renzhou Li family. This Renzhou Li family
, the last powerful family that was eradicated."
"The four powerful men are in power together, and if they are provoked at the slightest provocation, there will be another coup."
Ju Ming finally understood that the current situation in Goryeo was a composite version of the Han, Jin, Sui and Tang Dynasties.
Although there are also imperial examinations, it is difficult for children from poor families to get ahead because of the interference from the family.
However, the children of wealthy families can easily become officials through kindness. Moreover, the wealthy families marry each other and put their daughters into the palace to control the court as relatives.
Half a month later.
Pyongyang Governor Li Chun and Pyongyang Commander-in-Chief Zhao Li also jointly sent a memorial.
The content is very simple. Wang Gou, the leader of Goryeo, announced reforms to strengthen the country.
Moreover, it completely imitates the Ming Dynasty system!
But the soup did not change the medicine. The father of the country Ren Yuanhou became the prime minister, and Cui Yunyi, Li Zhidi, Jin Xinjian and others served as deputy prime ministers.
Cabinet candidates are divided among several major families.
The military was reformed with a general military system, the old and weak were eliminated, and a new army was organized and trained. The king of the country, Wang Gou, personally controlled a forbidden army, but many of the generals of the forbidden army came from the Anshan Jin family, or were in-laws of the Anshan Jin family.
In addition, increase the number of Jinshi scholars every year and vigorously promote scholars from poor families who came from the imperial examination.
But the cabinet and the staff are controlled by powerful families. No matter how many Jinshi from a poor family are useless, if they are not attached to the powerful families, a scholar from a poor family will not be able to rise at all.
The key point is that the tax system has not changed, but rather light corvee and low taxes have been introduced to show the benevolence of the king. Most of the land is occupied by wealthy families, and light corvee and low taxes are essentially a tax reduction for the wealthy families. In order to maintain the operation of the court, it must be disguised to improve the income of poor families and common people.
of taxes.
This is a reform that is destined to fail and will even exacerbate social conflicts.
However, people in Goryeo were very excited, and everyone felt that the country was about to prosper and sooner or later the Ming army in Pyongyang would be driven away.
…
Datong River, South Bank.
The King of Goryeo announced that the corvee would be light and the tax would be light, and the people of Li would celebrate. Near the Datong River, the people at the bottom stow away one after another, trying to cross the river and become people of the Ming Dynasty.
Especially the untouchables.
Wang Jian, the founder of Goryeo, also tried to free slaves.
However, due to the interference of powerful family members, they changed to follow customs and traditions, and whether to release slaves was entirely voluntary.
The voluntary result was that a large family that originally had few slaves had more and more slaves by purchasing war prisoners or annexing land.
Even the Goryeo court owned a large number of slaves.
Official slaves are called official slaves.
A private slave is called a private slave.
Shashu was a lowly official. His ancestors were from the Sha family of Baekje, and he had been a captive and an official slave for generations.
In the darkness, Sha Shu took his wife and two children and approached the Datong River little by little.
Due to the increasing number of refugees, Korea sent troops to patrol two years ago.
They were very strict at first and would behead anyone caught. At one point, the Korean border residents were so frightened that they did not dare to escape.
Gradually, the people at the border discovered that the patrol soldiers had become lax and were sleeping by the river when they should be patrolling.
"Don't make any noise."
Shashu warned, put his young son in the wooden basin, and asked his wife and daughter to hold on to the wooden board.
Afraid of his son crying, he even gagged his son's mouth.
They swam forward bit by bit, and when they approached the center of the river, they were no longer nervous because the Korean army did not dare to pursue them again.
After crossing the river and reaching the shore, I was already paralyzed from exhaustion. The whole family lay on the shore panting.
They took out the only bag of dry food from the wooden basin, gorged themselves on the river water, and slept together waiting for dawn.
Early the next morning, while walking for a while, I met another family of refugees.
And he is a real untouchable, he doesn’t even have a surname, he is only named after everyday things.
The male owner of this untouchable family, Lu Gu, has been weaving reeds for his master for generations. They have no knowledge, and they were very happy when they met Shashu: "You also escaped from the south?"
"Yes." Shashu was also very happy, after all, he met someone of the same kind.
Moreover, Shashu also found a sense of superiority because he was wearing linen clothes, while Lu Guang and his family were wearing reed clothes.
Lu Kung asked: "Did the Ming government give you food after crossing the river?"
Shashu said: "As long as you are willing to farm, you can get five acres of land, and the government will also lend you seeds and grain."
"That's good, that's good." Lu Kang said to himself repeatedly.
Shashu smiled and said: "I have already found out clearly that the people in the north are all good people, and the emperor is not allowed to raise lowly slaves. People like you who don't have a surname can still be given a surname when you settle down."
Lu Kang grinned happily: "The emperor is so kind."
At this moment, transactions are taking place on the Datong River.
A Goryeo officer led his soldiers in rowing several small boats and met the Ming Dynasty ships on the river.
"How much did you bring this time?" asked a Ming Dynasty merchant from the Koryo tribe.
The Goryeo officer said: "Seventeen of them are all women."
The merchant from the Ming Dynasty started to inspect the goods, and soon frowned and said: "Just an unmarried woman?"
The Goryeo officer said: "It doesn't matter. Married women are easy to have children."
"That's okay." The merchant from Ming Dynasty nodded.
But the Goryeo officer said: "The investigation has been tight recently, and it is difficult to get women."
The Ming Dynasty merchant suddenly changed his face: "You still want to raise the price on the ground?"
The Goryeo officer apologized and said with a smile: "The investigation is really tight. There have been too many women abducted in the past two years, and the government and wealthy families are keeping an eye on them."
After some haggling, the married woman paid for five pieces of linen and the unmarried woman for eight pieces of linen.
They are all made of good cloth, the kind worn by civilians in the Ming Dynasty.
After the transaction was completed, the Goryeo officers immediately returned to the south bank, but the Ming merchants sailed to Nanpu Port.
This Goryeo merchant from the Ming Dynasty sold the woman to a Han ethnic merchant from the Ming Dynasty. The woman would then be docked in Shandong, then transported all the way to Youzhou, where she would be sold to a bachelor on an installment plan.
The governments along the way turned a blind eye to this because merchants had "legal" procedures.
Before boarding the ship and leaving the port, they registered the woman as an overseas servant. When they arrived in Shandong, they registered and went through the employment formalities. It was not until they shipped to Youzhou that they terminated the employment contract and settled there.
No matter what, it did increase the population of Youzhou and allowed many singles to find wives.
But he said that the Korean officer returned to his barracks and saw his colleagues arguing about pay.
He smiled, not too lazy to get involved.
"His Majesty said that the new army should be organized and prepared. How come we still have less food and pay when we become a new army?"
"That's right, the rations get smaller and smaller, and I'm hungry every day!"
"We want to eat!"
"..."
It was useless. The newly transferred general Quan Chengxiu was the son-in-law of the Anshan Jin family.
When a new official takes office, of course he must first make money. After all, building relationships also costs money.
"Whoever dares to make trouble again will be beaten with a military stick!"
Quan Chengxiu came with his own soldiers, all of them were equipped with armor, brandished their scabbards and started beating people.
The soldiers who were making noise broke up and fled back home.
Their wives and children were nearby, and the whole family had to farm land for the chief, serving as both soldiers and tenants.
Because their food and wages were withheld, more than a hundred soldiers took their families and their families across the river that night and fled to the Ming Dynasty.
Kwon Sung-soo was furious about this, but he didn't take it seriously.
