Chapter 210: Crossing the Sea and Entering the DPRK (3)
"boom!"
There was a loud noise that shook the entire Gyeongbokgung Palace. {Updated by book friends} Li Hao almost fell down while sitting on the throne. And more than half of the two rows of ministers and waiting guards could not stand steadily, and He fell to the ground. The whole hall was in chaos.
After a while, the fallen ministers and guards all got up from the ground and looked at each other to see what had happened. Some even wondered if there was an earthquake.
Li Haomian forced himself to calm down, his ears were still buzzing, and then he said: "My lords, what happened?"
All the ministers looked at each other in shock, and no one could say anything. But at this moment, another palace official crawled into the golden palace, his voice changed with fear, and said: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, this is a big event. Unfortunately, Sungnyemun Gate was blown up by the Chinese army. The Chinese army claimed that if they did not surrender, they would march into Seoul."
There was another burst of exclamations and discussions in the main hall, and Yuan Doupiao immediately said: "Your Majesty, the only solution now is to surrender. Please do it for my Joseon ancestor's plan and leave the city to accept surrender."
It turned out that the Chinese army was approaching the walls of Seoul, and Cui Chenggao was ordered to leave the city, make peace with the Chinese army, and express his willingness to sever all ties with the Qing court, serve China as the suzerain country, and remain a vassal forever.
However, Zhou Shaohuan refused to comment on the terms of peace proposed by North Korea. Instead, he claimed that he was ordered by the Emperor of China to raise troops to challenge North Korea. Because North Korea had sent troops to help the Qing court and participate in the Central Plains War, North Korea's monarchs and ministers must surrender unconditionally and immediately. He left the city to accept the surrender and invited the Chinese army to enter the city to show his repentance. As for other conditions, we will discuss them after entering the city. If the Korean monarchs and ministers refuse to surrender, the Chinese army will immediately attack Seoul. After the city is broken, the Korean monarchs and ministers will only have Both jade and stone will be burned, and there will be a dead end.
When Cui Chenggao asked for an order to leave the city, he came with the Chinese Army in his arms. He could just use the power of the Chinese Army to overthrow the Luo Party and take control of the power. Although the Chinese Army captured Ganghwa Island as soon as they arrived in North Korea, he thought that However, the Chinese army wanted to gain a foothold. After North Korea returned to China as its vassal state, it would naturally withdraw its troops and return them to North Korea. Therefore, they did not pay too much attention to it, so they took the initiative to request an order and came out of the city to face the Chinese army. They thought that the Chinese army The army could give itself some face. But it did not expect that the Chinese army's request was for the Korean court to surrender unconditionally and then talk about other things. (_--)
Therefore, after Cui Chenggao heard this, he was a little stupid, because in this way, it would be equivalent to handing over all the life and death of the Korean monarchs and ministers to the Chinese army, and he would have no power to resist. And Zhou Shaohuan did not talk nonsense to him. , directly told Cui Chenggao, and immediately went to the city to inform the North Korean monarchs and ministers that within one hour, after the time limit, the Chinese army would begin to attack the city.
Cui Chenggao did not dare to neglect, and hurried back to the city and entered Jingde Palace to report to Li Hao and his ministers.
After learning the conditions proposed by the Chinese Army, Li Hao was also very dissatisfied. Isn't the Chinese Army planning to betray people? Li Hao has just turned thirty this year, which is when he is young and vigorous, and he is also in full swing. He always loved practicing bow and horse, so he was unwilling to be controlled by the Qing court. Now the Chinese army was also aggressive, which naturally caused Li Hao's displeasure. However, now that the Chinese army was approaching the city, Li Hao did not dare to act rashly, so Then I asked the ministers what should be done?
By this time, the Luo Party had calmed down from the initial shock. They knew that once they surrendered, their doom would come. Therefore, some people advocated recruiting troops to defend the city with all their strength and wait for reinforcements. Others advocated fleeing Seoul immediately and retreating to Pyongyang. Go to garrison, and then ask Qingting for help.
Although the ministers of the original party were also shocked by the demands made by the Chinese Army, the original party was already riding a tiger and was unable to dismount, because their power in the court was not as powerful as the Luo Party, so they could only rely on the power of the Chinese Army to defeat the enemy again and again. According to the Luo Party's suggestion, if you defend the city or escape, you will never get ahead. Therefore, they all opposed the Luo Party's suggestion. At the same time, they persuaded Li Hao to go out of the city and ask for surrender. They believed that the Chinese army was just a gesture. North Korea Even if you just show off, nothing will happen.
As a result, the two parties refused to give in to each other and started quarreling. Instead, they forgot about the Chinese army waiting to be heard outside the city.
Seeing that the time was approaching one hour and there was still no result from North Korea, Zhou Shaohuan couldn't help but become a little anxious, so he wanted to make some noise. Because when sending troops to North Korea, Shang Yi had already told Zhou Shaohuan that although the troops were sent this time, The purpose is to force the Korean court to surrender, but the attitude towards the Korean monarchs and ministers must be tough. There is no need to deliberately win over the Luo Party or the original party, because in the face of absolute strength, all other machinations and tricks are ineffective. Of course, against The pro-Qing ministers in the DPRK and the DPRK must suppress the pro-Qing ministers and must not be lenient and polite in order to achieve the purpose of killing the chicken and the monkey, so that the DPRK court will submit to China from now on, and they will not dare to have any dissent and be in the Chinese army. During the attack on Liaodong, including the subsequent attack on Japan, we did not dare to act rashly or act against the will of others.
And now it seems that because the attack launched by the Chinese army was indeed sudden, North Korea was unprepared, and the Chinese army hit Seoul all at once. There was no major battle, so the shock to the North Korean court was not strong. It seems that It was necessary to show muscles to North Korea and demonstrate the strength of the Chinese army. So Zhou Shaohuan ordered the launch of ten demolition vehicles to blow up Sungnye Gate.
Because it is located in the north of the Han River, Seoul was also called Hanyang in ancient times. In the Han Dynasty, it was the "Lelang County" of China. In the Tang Dynasty, it was under the jurisdiction of the "Andong Protectorate", one of the six major protectorates of the Tang Dynasty. In 1068, Nanjing was upgraded to one of the Three Small Capitals by the Goryeo Dynasty and became the capital of the Joseon Dynasty from then on.
After the establishment of the Lee Dynasty of Korea in 1392, Taizu Li Chenggui established his capital here and renamed it Seoul. In 1421, the third year of King Sejong's reign, he sent 300,000 Taoists to build the city, which reached its current scale. The entire city wall was evenly built of stone. The circumference is 41 miles and 175 steps. It is 40 feet and 2 inches high. There are six pheasant cities, one curved city, and seventy-five city corridors. There are eight gates in total, including four gates and four small ones. The gates are Heunginmun and Hyehwamun in the east; Sungnyemun and Gwanghuimun in the south; Donuimun and Sodeokmun in the west; Sujeongmun and Changuimun in the north. In addition, they are in the western suburbs outside the city. There used to be a "Yingenmen" to welcome Chinese envoys.
There are five buildings and fifty-four squares in Seoul. In its heyday, the population reached 300,000. Most of the city was used to build palaces. In addition to the main palace of the dynasty, Gyeongbokgung Palace, there were more than ten royal palaces. With the size of the city, , although it cannot be compared with Nanjing and Beijing, it is still a very large city.
In 1626, when Hou Jin invaded Korea for the first time, the general Amin, who was one of the four great belles of Hou Jin at that time, was envious of the magnificence of North Korea's palaces and cities, and for a time was unwilling to return to the bitter cold land of Manchuria. Therefore, the wealth and luxury of Seoul also
It's obvious.
Zhou Shaohuan planned to blow up Sungnye Gate to send a warning to the Korean court.
Although there were North Korean soldiers guarding Sungnyemun Gate, they were strictly ordered not to open fire without authorization, and the Chinese army did not look like they were sending out a large army to attack the city. They just piled up ten small carts and placed them in front of the city gate.
They didn't know what it was for, so the North Korean soldiers didn't dare to stop it. As a result, after a loud bang, Sungnyemun Gate was blown into a pile of ruins, and more than 200 North Korean soldiers guarding the city were also killed in the explosion.
After learning that Sungnyemen Gate had been destroyed, Li Hao quickly led his ministers to a higher place to see what was going on. As a result, he saw that the tall and majestic tower in the past had turned into a pile of broken bricks and rubble.
Li Hao was so frightened that his face turned pale, remembering that he had served in the Qing court
When I was a hostage, I also heard some rumors about the Chinese army. It was said that the Chinese army was good at using firearms. Whenever they attacked a city, they would first bombard it with artillery and blast it with gunpowder. No matter how strong the city wall was, it could not withstand it. Therefore, any Chinese army could not withstand it.
All the cities they attacked were defeated.
At that time, Li Hao thought it was an exaggeration and it was just the Qing army making excuses for their failure, because firearms of this level were indeed beyond Li Hao's imagination. But now that he has seen the results of Sunglimen, Li Hao finally
Knowing that all this turned out to be true. Therefore, Li Hao also realized that North Korea is not an opponent of the Chinese army at all. If the Chinese army wants to attack Seoul, it will not waste its efforts at all. Only unconditional surrender is its only way out.
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Although Li Hao is said to be full of blood and ambitious, he is not stupid after all. Of course he will not rashly show strength when he knows he is outmatched, otherwise he would have turned against the Qing court long ago. So he smiled bitterly and said
Cui Chenggao said: "Cui Qing, please tell the Chinese army that we will leave the city to surrender immediately."
After Li Hao's statement, everyone in the original party immediately became happy and congratulated him as "the great king." However, the members of the Luo party also looked gloomy, with Jin Zidian as the core, gathering in low voices from time to time.
Of course, Li Hao also discovered that the Luo party was discussing in private, but at this time he did not bother to ask what they were discussing. He immediately returned to the palace, changed into white clothes, and asked others to tie him up, and then led a group of civil and military officials
, left the west city to ask for surrender from the Chinese army.
At this time, Zhou Shaohuan had also received Cui Chenggao's report, so he also came to Xicheng. He saw Li Hao leading the North Korean ministers out of Xicheng and kneeling on the roadside waiting.
Zhou Shaohuan did not dismount, but said from behind: "Are you the kings and ministers of the Korean royal family?"
Li Hao also knew that he was under a low eaves and had to lower his head, so he knelt down and took a step forward, saying: "The sinner Li Hao, please see the general of the Celestial Dynasty."
Zhou Shaohuan nodded and said: "Are you Li Hao? You just know the current affairs. Just know the crime. Let's talk about it after entering the city."
At this moment, a man jumped out from among the ministers of North Korea, pointed at Zhou Shaohuan and said sternly: "We, North Korea, were still granted the throne by Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty and designated a country without conquests. How can you be so unreasonable to invade and be rude to our king?"