Chapter 185 There is always something going on in Liaodong (Part 2)
On the fourth day after Nurhaci returned to Hetuala, a not-so-fierce confrontation took place in the Fuyuan Yamen in Liaoyang.
The conflict was about opinions: Li Song, the governor of the Liao Dynasty, believed that Nurhaci's war within the Jianzhou Left Guards was of the nature of "crusade against unsubordinates" because the latter was originally the commander of the Jianzhou Left Guards appointed by the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, Nurhachi's attack on Nurhaci this time was
Ming Dynasty had neither the need nor the position to oppose sending troops, it could just "wait for it to change".
Cao Yan, the deputy commander-in-chief of Liaoyang, expressed his disapproval of this. He believed that although Nurhachi was the commander of the Jianzhou Left Guard, the relationship between Dong'e's tribe and the Ming Dynasty was not bad, and he was usually "respected to be deferential". The Ming Dynasty should ensure his existence.
Moreover, Cao Yu believes that the most critical issue is not just the "submission" of Dong E's tribe, but the geographical location of its tribe is very important - Dong'e's tribe is located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yalu River (further south is near Dandong in later generations).
Nurhachi's Suksu Huhe headquarters and its expanded territory are located to the north of Dong'e tribe - in other words, once Nurhachi completely controls Dong'e tribe, his territory will directly border North Korea.
Li Song believed that Nurhachi's border with North Korea was completely indifferent, but Cao Yan was firmly opposed. He had received pragmatic guidance from Gao before, and knew that Nurhaci's only intention was to revitalize Fushun Pass trade and bring him greater financial resources. But now Dong E's Ministry is blocking it.
Between him and North Korea, the trade price difference of some North Korean goods was taken away by Dong E's Ministry, and Nurhachi had nothing to do with him.
What goods can North Korea trade with the Ming Dynasty, and how does it trade with the Ming Dynasty?
In fact, North Korea and the Ming Dynasty were engaged in a kind of "envoy trade", but I will not discuss this issue for now (I will talk about it during the war to aid Korea, because it will be related to the logistics system of the Ming army).
I only describe the types of trade between the two parties and some of the main goods.
The envoy trade between the Ming Dynasty and North Korea can be roughly divided into two categories, one is free trade and the other is expropriation trade. Among them, free trade generally includes public trade, private trade and prohibited trade.
Public trade means that North Korean envoys, under the instructions of the state, purchase items that are in short supply in North Korea on behalf of the country or the king. Most of the trade items are books, silk, etc.
Books are in short supply in North Korea and play a role in maintaining rule. This makes North Korea attach great importance to the purchase of books. Many books in North Korea are obtained through trade between North Korean envoys and Liaodong, and Liaodong is an important place for Ming Dynasty books to flow into North Korea.
aisle.
For example, the envoy from North Korea saw the "Collection of Rites of the Ming Dynasty" in the Ministry of Rites. The King of North Korea attached great importance to this book and personally instructed Qianzhenglang Jin He to go to Liaodong to try to get it in Liaodong.
Since the Great Ming Dynasty."
The Joseon Dynasty attached great importance to books, which made Korean envoys keen on trading books in Liaodong. The trade of books between Korean envoys and Liaodong was also very fruitful.
For example, Zhao Xian of Shichen used an inkstone and nine fans to obtain one of the nineteen volumes of "The Encyclopedia of Nature and Theory" with one missing volume and the "Supplement to the Explanations of the Great Learning". Someone in Liaodong had a collection of "Hu San Sheng Chong Lu" and wanted to sell it, and Korea Tongshi obtained it.
After learning about it, he made a purchase contract with the people of Liaodong and finally bought it for fifteen pieces of linen.
In addition to books, horses, donkeys, and mules are also important items in North Korea's public trade. However, there is an interesting point here. Originally, North Korea was a country with many horses, but later North Korea often came to Liaodong to buy horses and livestock.
This seems to be the case: since in the early Ming Dynasty, a large number of horses were needed to recover the remnant Yuan forces and restore production in the Liaodong area, so the Ming Dynasty sent horses to North Korea many times to buy horses. The Hongwu Dynasty, Jianwen Dynasty and Yongle Dynasty all had
In addition to the transaction of buying horses from North Korea, horses were also continuously exported to the Ming Dynasty as tribute items and trade-in items.
As a result, the purchasing power of the Ming Dynasty was too strong, so a large number of horses from North Korea were imported to the Ming Dynasty through purchase and tribute. On the one hand, it caused a sharp decline in the number of horses in North Korea. On the other hand, it caused a serious decline in the quality of the horses in North Korea. They were old and weak.
Most of them were slave horses. Over time, Liaodong horses were mostly used for border defense, so there were more good horses. However, North Korea urgently needed to trade Liaodong horses to improve the current situation of its domestic horses.
So in the 13th year of Yingzong's orthodoxy, the Korean parliament issued a proposal to order Korean envoys to trade Liaodong horses, donkeys and mules. "Liaodong female horses can be used as stallions and donkeys and mules. Every year during the official pilgrimage and the Holy Festival envoys' trip,
He ordered the two ministers to use the Yellow Sea and Ping'an Ranch to trade horses and cloth. They also asked for the method of raising donkeys and mules, so that they could enjoy peace." The king of Joseon followed the advice of the Uijeongbu government.
During the Munjong Dynasty of Joseon, trading horses from Liaodong was once again proposed. The king of Joseon convened the government to discuss the matter of trading horses from Liaodong. The king of Joseon said: "The horses from Liaodong have strong trunks. I heard that there were many private traders from the border people of Yiju. The country also went to trade.
How about giving a good horse to Yi Yi and planting it in my land?"
At that time, North Korean officials firmly opposed the horse trade with Liaodong and believed that the country was not suitable for private trade.
The horse and the staff are eighty, and they are sent to the army. This is a good example."
This North Korean official named Qian also pointed out that the private trade of Liaodong horses may result in the consequences of being condemned by the Ming Emperor for illicit border crossing: "Moreover, the horses of the Chinese soldiers are all official horses. If there are profit-seekers who sell them, they will be sold to the market."
If this is revealed, the emperor will definitely accuse me of having an affair with the border. How will he respond?"
However, the King of Joseon did not give up trading horses because of the penalty imposed by Lianshan Pass for intercepting horses and the possible serious consequences of trading Liaodong horses. He still insisted on trading horses with Liaodong.
It turned out that the Ming Dynasty was very concerned about this, and not only strictly controlled the trade of war horses, but also imposed strict quotas on the trade of cattle, mules and other livestock.
However, after Jinghua worked hard to promote corn cultivation in Liaodong in the past two years, although the Ming Dynasty still controlled the war horse trade, it opened the door to facilitate the cattle and mule trade.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! As Gao Pragmatic expected at the beginning, with the introduction of high-yielding corn, although due to the influence of taste, folk planting habits, eating habits and other issues, it is still temporarily unavailable.
It was not enough to quickly become the main food, but as an excellent feed raw material, corn quickly brought qualitative changes to the livestock industry in Liaodong.
In just two years, the output of cattle, donkeys, mules and other livestock in Liaodong increased by 30%, and the original barely self-sufficient situation quickly became a sufficient source of export goods.
Due to the sudden increase in the number of livestock among the people, the army and people in Liaodong not only continued to open up wasteland quickly, but also had to export some.
The above public trade are all national tasks for North Korea. In addition, North Korean envoys will also trade some of the items they need. This behavior is called private trade. Private trade appears along with public trade, and
Since private trade has huge profits, it accounts for an increasing proportion of envoy trade.
The private trade of North Korean envoys in Liaodong was quite serious. When Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty gave the auspicious occasion, he wrote to the court about the North Korean envoys who asked for more carriages and horses to transport private trade and stayed in Liaodong for a long time: "There are also Yi people in Jianzhou, and North Korea accompanies the ministers in Liaodong."
When paying tribute, they all leave Liaodong. They often ask for carriages and horses to carry private goods, pretending to be delivering them and staying in the mansion for a long time. Their ambitions are untamable."
At this time, the silk and colored satin of the Ming Dynasty were extremely popular in North Korea, and there was no distinction between upper and lower classes. They competed for silk and colored satin for clothing, marriages, and homes, and even poor families competed for luxury.
The pursuit of silk and colored satin in North Korea has made silk and colored satin the main items for private trade by North Korean envoys in Liaodong. "When it comes to Liaodong, the wanton trade of silk, colored satin and other items is extremely obscene." "Tong
When traveling to and from Liaodong, I often trade colorful silks."
The North Korean envoys' private trade in Liaodong became more and more serious, and there was even a situation where merchants went to Liaodong to do business under false names. "In addition, merchants from Beijing sneaked to the Yalu River, lured the escort troops, pretended to be agents, and went to Liaodong to do business, which made China laugh.
.”
For this reason, the North Korean parliament recommended that "from now on, the envoys' trips will be strictly inspected, and they will not be carried out as before. Their gifts and carry-on baggage shall be in accordance with the prescribed weight, and no leftovers shall be allowed to be overloaded."
In the fifteenth year of Yongle, the reign of Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, the King of Korea specifically stipulated the number of items confiscated by envoys sent to Liaodong: "The number of items confiscated by envoys envoys sent to Liaodong shall be in accordance with the rules for envoys to Beijing to entrust items."
However, the introduction of restrictive measures had little effect in limiting the private trade of North Korean envoys in Liaodong. Private trade by North Korean envoys in Liaodong is still very popular: "Officials from the Department of Translation and Interpretation who serve in Liaodong are mostly merchants.
Accompany others, bring many cloths, and sell them wherever you like."
The official slaves, soldiers and civilians of Yizhou were also entrusted by the wealthy businessmen in Beijing and Kaesong Prefecture, and they also sneaked into Liaodong secretly outside of their missions: "Moreover, the official slaves, soldiers and civilians of Yizhou, etc., mostly received the goods from the wealthy businessmen in Beijing and Kaesong Prefecture, and every day
After a few trips to Beijing, he was implicated in sneaking to Liaodong and exchanging Tang items."
The Korean court was deeply worried about this, "If this continues, profit-seeking people will come and go one after another, and there will definitely be those who deceive and fight to cause trouble to the country above. It's not a small matter."
All in all, North Korea's domestic pursuit of Ming Dynasty goods ensured that North Korea's envoys always had a market for private trade in Liaodong.
In recent years, Gao pragmatically started the tussah silk industry in Liaodong. The tussah silk, which is slightly inferior to silk but relatively cheap but more durable, is also extremely popular in North Korea and has become a favorite of the North Korean middle class.
According to statistics from Jinghua this year, the total price of tussah silk "exported" from Jinghua to North Korea alone will soon reach as high as 130,000 taels - the absolute value of this amount may not be high in the Ming Dynasty, but considering the size of North Korea
, that would be quite astonishing.
The third category is prohibited trade. In order to maintain military security, the Ming Dynasty strictly prohibited foreigners from privately trading military supplies in the Ming Dynasty. However, North Korean envoys ignored the Ming Dynasty's prohibition and conducted trade secretly. North Korean officials called this kind of trade "
Hidden trade", while people in the Ming Dynasty called it "forbidden trade".
Hidden trade mainly focuses on military supplies such as bow horns and smoke gun. None of the bow horns, smoke gun and the like are produced in North Korea, and they all rely on the Ming Dynasty.
." When the Liaodong side asked about the source of North Korea's gunpowder, the North Korean envoy also answered frankly that Shangguo was the only source of gunpowder for North Korea.
The trade of bows and horns was once relatively free. Later, due to the Mongols and Jurchens' constant intrusions into the border, the Ming court banned the trade of ironware, bows and horns.
The Ming Dynasty resolutely cracked down on prohibited trade and formulated severe measures to punish lawbreakers. For example, Ma Wensheng, the right minister of the Ministry of War of the Xianzong Dynasty, suggested that pedestrians should accompany the tribute tributes from the Northeastern barbarians out of the country, and ban their weapons from the city, and offenders would be banished to the frontier.
Xianzong followed Ma Wensheng's suggestion and increased the penalties for trading prohibited items.
However, the severe punitive measures of the Ming Dynasty did not prevent the occurrence of prohibited trade. The Liaodong region has never been a pure land, and there were also a large number of prohibited trades by North Korean envoys in the Liaodong region. "... all the goods owned by the family were easily exchanged, regardless of the prohibited trade."
Moreover, under the high pressure of strictly prohibiting prohibited trade, prohibited trade was carried out in Liaodong in a more covert manner. For example, in the 23rd year of Chenghua, Liu Xun, the North Korean envoy to celebrate the Thousand Autumn Festival of the Ming Dynasty Crown Prince, and his party privately purchased bow horns in Liaodong.
When the Ming Dynasty opened a new era of "private military industry", this kind of prohibited trade became even more difficult to ban. The key here is that although the private military industry enterprises after the private military industry have to accept the supervision of the Ministry of War and other yamen, they can directly provide
In the Ming Dynasty, all levels of the Ming Dynasty "were free to supply weapons to yamen, health clinics, etc."
This leads to trouble. As we all know, the Ming Dynasty's army is not entirely a "economic army". There are also a large number of servant troops allowed by the imperial court. There are especially many servant troops in Liaodong. These servant troops seek military services from Jinghua and other military industries.
After private companies purchase weapons and equipment and then quietly sell them to North Korea, there is really no psychological burden at all.
In particular, the muskets and gunpowder produced by Jinghua are hard currencies in private trade with North Korea, and their prices usually more than double, making them extremely popular.
In fact, North Korea still wants to buy Jinghua's artillery. Unfortunately, this is different from muskets. The Ministry of War inspects them very strictly. Each artillery piece has a serial number. Therefore, North Korea can only quietly obtain a very small amount of second-hand artillery, which is from some servant troops.
Reported "battle damage".
As for the expropriation trade...it's a bit difficult to call it trade.
The local specialties brought by the Korean envoys to the Ming Dynasty usually included ginseng, oiled glutinous rice, fans, white tissue paper, pen and ink, white rice, bows and other items. Among them, the ginseng, white rice and other items were of high quality, and the oily glutinous rice, fans, bows and other items were also well-made.
All very detailed.
Excellent quality and good craftsmanship make North Korea's local products deeply loved by the people of Liaodong. Even local officials in Liaodong have a soft spot for some North Korea's local products: "I heard that your country's copper bowls and white porcelain bowls are exquisitely made."
, the body is clean, and if I want to see it, I must give it to you as the prime minister."
The word "send" is very precise. The "trade" between Liaodong officials and Korean envoys is obviously an unequal exchange. The result of this "expropriation trade" is usually that local officials in Liaodong get the items they want to trade, while
The North Korean envoys on the other side of the trade did not receive due compensation.
This is of course not that the North Korean envoys took the initiative to ignore trade remuneration, but that the local officials in Liaodong on the other side of the trade were the holders of power and had the power to send vehicles to the North Korean envoys, appoint companions to deliver food, etc., so this kind of "exquisition for trade" was just
The helplessness of the North Korean envoys under the heavy pressure of the power of local officials in the Ming Dynasty was not so much about trade as it was about asking for bribes. (I will not elaborate on this without giving examples. I will write about it in the war to aid Korea.)
In short, under these trades, Ming Dynasty had a huge trade surplus with North Korea. North Korea's goods had to trade quantity for quality because of insufficient trade added value, providing Ming Dynasty, especially Liaodong, with a large amount of raw materials, medicinal materials, etc.
Judging from the current situation, most of these things went directly to Yizhou and into the southeast of Liaodong, while the other part went to Dong'e's tribe and entered Fushun Pass and into eastern Liaodong. Therefore, Dong'e's tribe had enough financial resources to maintain its resistance against Nurhaci.
Cao Yan adhered to the highly pragmatic idea of suppressing Nurhaci's Suksu River Guard Department and believed that once Nurhaci captured Dong'e Department, it could basically be regarded as monopolizing the Fushun Pass trade, and officially became the three Jurchen strongholds alongside Yehe and Hada.
One of the chiefs.
Of course, this was something Gao Pragmatic could not agree to, so Cao Yu could not accept it either. He insisted that Nurhachi must be allowed to withdraw from Wengguo Luocheng and the territory of Dong E tribe, and vowed not to invade Dong E again without the permission of the Ming Dynasty.
However, Li Song was the governor of Liaodong, and Cao Yu, the deputy general, was just a military general. He was quickly criticized by Li Futai, "It's winter, there was a bloody battle at Beiguan, and the military supplies and food supplies are insufficient. How can we be so prestigious in Jianzhou?"
And refuse.
Cao Yu expressed his dissatisfaction, believing that after the Battle of Northern Liaoning, the Ming army was threatening a great victory, so Nurhaci would not dare to confront it rashly. As long as Liaoyang made a gesture, Nurhaci could be forced to retreat. As for the military reserves, whether they were sufficient or insufficient for Nurhaci
How do you know this?
However, Li Song refused to listen and only said, "Military and state affairs require caution." It happened that Li Chengliang's letter also arrived, saying that he was aware of the dispute between the Sukesu River Department and the Dong'e Department. However, he found that there had been a lot of Chaha attacks in the Liaohe Hetao area recently.
Erji Horqin's troops were patrolling on horseback. Considering that the border wall project in the Liaohe Hetao area had not yet started and the area's defense was very tight, he planned to personally lead his troops there to expel and suppress the troops. Therefore, people east of the Liaohe River could not act rashly to avoid being attacked from both sides.
Cao Yu was furious when he heard about it. Although he did not dare to direct his anger to Li Futai, he immediately wrote a memorial after returning and asked the Ministry of War to make a decision. The emperor made a decision.
Therefore, Gao Pingshi, the Minister of Hubu, received the summons again, and together with a group of cabinet ministers and Liang Menglong, the Minister of War, went to the Wenhua Hall to meet the Holy Spirit.
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