In history, why has China failed to control the entire Korean Peninsula that is just around the corner?
This is a question that future generations will always be pondering in their minds.
Because from the perspective of future generations, the Korean Peninsula is such a wonderful place!
It has a large population, and its technology and economy are relatively developed, especially South Korea. It is separated from Japan by the Korean Strait. If North Korea is in your hands, if you feel unhappy, you can go up and slap the little book anytime, anywhere.
Beautiful things.
In addition, the two provinces of Heilongjiang and Kyrgyzstan also have access to the sea. I wonder how much economic growth it can stimulate.
But in fact, in the entire history of mankind, the Korean Peninsula is really not a good place.
Look at this terrain, it's a broken peninsula, but it has tall mountains that reach into the clouds and almost run through the entire peninsula.
The bigger part was almost cut in half, making transportation on the west coast and east coast of Korea extremely inconvenient in ancient times.
Most of the entire peninsula is mountainous. Only the Daedong River, Han River, and Nakdong River that come down from the mountains barely reach the sea, breaking out of the three small plains of Pyongyang, Seoul, and Fusan. The entire peninsula
More than half of the people on board were crowded in these three places.
This has led to a strange situation. There are few and small plains, and people are concentrated in these small plains. There are too many people, and it is difficult to have enough food and clothing.
If the situation is a little better, within a few years, the per capita food shortage caused by the explosive growth of population will lead to widespread starvation of the people. Such a wave of natural elimination occurs almost every 20 to 30 years.
The people living in the mountains are like fucking monkeys, barely cultivating a little land in the rock crevices and valleys, living on half grain and half wild vegetables and fruits, and they are as miserable in good years as the people in the Central Plains are in disaster years.
Moreover, it is extremely cold in this place. At certain times, strong cold winds blow, and the temperature can rival that of Heilongjiang.
What is even more speechless is that the situation on the Korean Peninsula has made their transportation with the Central Plains extremely inconvenient. From North Korea to the Central Plains, there are only rugged mountain roads to travel, and there is no way to rely on water transportation.
For a place like this, whether it's tribute or taxes, it's worth a thousand cash at the time of departure. If you send it to Luoyang or Chang'an, you may still owe several hundred cash for shipping. Not to mention the value, it's still a complete loss.
This means that it is okay to collect some tribute every year, but the amount is not large anyway. The central court raises the price, so that I gain face and you gain respect. But if it is a tax, it is completely unnecessary.
The only possibility was sea transportation, but before the Ming Dynasty, it was very inconvenient to travel from Shandong to the Korean Peninsula.
Because the sea is not a river, it does not have enough power like a rushing river, so general ancient shipping relied heavily on ocean currents and monsoons.
Both of these are weak near the Bohai Bay.
The ocean current is the younger brother among younger brothers. In future generations, it will not even be able to carry out the eutrophic seawater produced by cities near the Bohai Bay.
The monsoon is also of little use due to the fact that it is surrounded by the Bohai Sea on three sides.
And it mainly blows from the Shandong Peninsula to the Liaohai Sea. In other words, if it depends on the monsoon, there is a high probability that the ship departing from Dengzhou will be blown to either Dalian or Yingkou.
So starting from Shandong to North Korea, you have to gamble on luck. If you are lucky, you will arrive directly in North Korea. If you are not lucky, you will be blown to the Liaodong Peninsula. If you are unlucky, your boat will be blown over directly.
To sum up, North Korea, a poor place, is really of no use to the Central Plains court.
Firstly, it cannot carry the extra population, and secondly, it cannot pay taxes. Instead, it will waste military expenses to station it, so it is free to occupy it!
After collecting some tribute of three melons and two dates, wouldn't it be better to tell him to go away and play in the mud by himself?
Moreover, the Central Plains imperial court’s efforts in this direction on the Korean Peninsula have always been aimed at digesting Liaodong.
It was a great place, much better than the peninsula, so I was impatient to tinker on the peninsula.
Then some people may ask again, since setting up the four counties of Han Dynasty to govern them directly like Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty did is completely thankless, why can't they be like Zhang Yan and send his son to North Korea to become the king?
What I said is that he is his own son, not someone he picked up on the street!
In a place where even a poor dog cannot lick up the ashes, how could you let your son become a beggar king? How cruel is this!
Not to mention the Han and Tang Dynasties, even now, the peninsula is relatively richer than before.
When the news came out that Zhang Yan wanted to take Murong Nobunaga to South Korea and join the Japanese Kingdom, many people felt that I, Zhang Shengren, was too cruel.
Cao Yuanzhong complained in person so many times, but Cao Sanniang supported him in person, but secretly her tears were almost gone.
Even Cao Shishi and Cao Yanming had a serious talk with Zhang Yan and gently advised him not to treat Murong Nobunaga too harshly.
But Zhang Hao knows that the Korean Peninsula is actually not as bad as these people currently think.
After the desperate struggles of Silla, Baekje and other countries, although it is still a poor place, it can still support about one million people, and the coastal plain can support at least four to five million people.
Although it is still hard work to be a king in a place like this, it does not mean that you can be considered a beggar king.
And at this time, it is the last chance to control the Korean Peninsula.
During the Han and Tang dynasties, the place was too bad to give up, but by the early Northern Song Dynasty, it was possible to let go of a normal title of king.
The reason why history has not reached this point is because the Song Dynasty was too powerful. They couldn't handle the Khitans, let alone the Korean Peninsula, and they didn't even have the Sixteen Youyun Prefectures.
At the same time, the Liao Kingdom was also the eldest brother, not to mention the second brother. The Yelu family was incompetent in attacking and shameless in retreating. They put a lot of energy into how to protect the sweet potato of Youyun Sixteen States.
As a result, they fought against Goryeo several times, but because they were afraid that the Song army would march north, they did not dare to mobilize a large army, so they ended up in petty fights. The Goryeo people just knelt down and settled the matter.
Why can’t you put a lot of effort into developing Liaodong and the peninsula? Send out tens of thousands of troops just to ask the Koreans, ‘Are you convinced?’
You said these two things, as long as there is a point of striving for unification, there will be all the nonsense behind them.
This is also the reason why Zhang Yan agreed to hand over South Korea to Murong Nobunaga. There are too few good places, and there are only three highlights in the entire peninsula.
The West Korea Bay, dominated by three rivers: the Cheongchon River, the Daedong River, and the Yalu River, is home to Pyongyang, Pyongcheng, and Sinuiju in later generations.
Ganghwa Bay, which is dominated by the Han River, includes the current Gaekyung (Kaesong), the capital of Wang's Goryeo Dynasty, and Seoul, the cosmic metropolis of Nambang in later generations, are all located here.
Andongbu, which is mainly located in the Nakdong River estuary area, is also the area of Nambangfusan and Ulsan in later generations.
At the same time, the only place in Japan that could be called prosperous at this time was Honshu Island in the Heiankyo and Nara areas.
The rest of the country, whether in Shikoku or Kyushu, occasionally has some good land, but overall it is still very backward, especially the Kanto region.
Therefore, instead of saying that Murong Nobunaga was going to conquer Japan, he actually just targeted Heiankyo and Nara. The other places may take decades to slowly develop and establish a firm foothold.
So this small area around Ping'an Capital is still too backward compared to the Central Plains. So many of Murong Nobunaga's heroes have to settle down, and the hundreds of thousands of people who went with him have to live a good life. Zhang Hao hopes that the elders can go here.
Firmly control the Japanese state.
With so many people and such high expectations, it is inappropriate to be so stingy as to only give it to a Japanese country.
So Zhang Chang prepared to take back the three pieces of land on the Korean Peninsula, including Pyongyang and Sinuiju, opposite Dandong, to the imperial court.
The sixth son of the emperor, Zhang Xianjiong, born to Yelu Abli, is already seven years old. Now it is impossible to grant him the Liaodong title originally promised, so he might as well give it to Pyongyang.
The remaining Ganghwa Bay, Fusan, and Ulsan will all be given to Murong Nobunaga, so that the good man can use them to settle his ministers.
At the same time, the taxes from these two relatively wealthy areas and the Heiankyo and Nara areas were used to cover most of the costs of heading east to find America.
What? What should you do if you are worried that the descendants of the great son will seek independence like the Tang Dynasty and Silla in history?
Don't be kidding, Silla is a pure local who is the king, and we all know what kind of virtue the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty had when they went abroad.
In the eyes of these soldiers, although Silla is known as the vassal and ally of the Tang Dynasty, how can they treat Silla equally and teach these stick men how to behave with a slap on the left and a slap on the right?
Besides, Silla maids were so valuable in Chang'an, whoever stayed there for a period of time would not think about bringing some "local specialties" to sell, and then go home to build a big house or something.
This openly invaded the benefits of the upper class of Silla and secretly robbed the profits of the middle and lower classes. In addition, the upper class of Silla were extremely dissatisfied because the Tang Dynasty did not give them the old land of Baekje, and they continued to sow discord between the Tang Dynasty and the local people in a premeditated manner.
In this case, it would be strange not to rebel.
But this time Murong Nobunaga went not to protect the vassal state and attack Goguryeo, but to directly become the king. He had nearly half a million people under his command.
With so many people gone, how many people from the middle and upper classes in the southern part of the peninsula can survive?
Zhang Yan has already sent his lieutenant to go and tell the truth to Murong Nobunaga. The upper echelons of Goryeo and Japan must execute at least 50,000 men, and these are all men. There are hundreds of thousands of women and children behind them.
It can be said that by killing these 50,000 people, the local upper class was almost wiped out.
The people who followed Murong Nobunaga were all Han Chinese. They would not suffer discrimination from their motherland. At the same time, they would completely change the local race and culture. Their descendants would be no different from the Central Plains people. Only those who are free will seek independence.
Even if there is trouble, the Central Plains Dynasty has such a large and good territory, but it cannot quell the rebellion in the southern part of the peninsula and the Japanese country, so it deserves it.