In the Xuanzheng Hall of Changdeok Palace in Seoul, North Korea, the king of North Korea, Yi Liang, looked at the ultimatum written by Li Zhi, and his face was red and white. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

In his ultimatum, Li Zhi counted the crimes of North Korea after the Qing Dynasty and demanded that North Korea pay 15 million taels of atonement, which made Li Zhi a little overwhelmed. North Korea's annual income is less than 5 million taels, and these taxes have to support the army and officials, and there is almost no surplus. As soon as Li Zhi opened his mouth, he asked for fifteen million taels, which made Li Liang unable to get it out of smashing the pot and selling iron.

However, Li Zhi's words in the ultimatum were very harsh, and there was a great tendency to not give up until the goal was achieved. If Ri refuses, I'm afraid North Korea will meet Ri Sik's crusade next.

North Korea knows how powerful Li Zhi is.

Although Korea was a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, it was a first-hand witness of the wars in Northeast Asia over the years. Whether it was Japan, which rose after the Warring States period, or the Later Jin, who unified the Jurchens during the Nurhachi era, they invaded Korea many times. North Korea can be said to be on the cusp of Northeast Asia, so it has always been very sensitive to the change of power of various nearby forces.

The DPRK has always implemented the "Great Doctrine of Doing Things", that is, the Later Jin, the Ming Dynasty, and the Japanese are the most powerful forces, and the DPRK will fall to whoever is strong. The Ming Dynasty was stronger than Japan, and Korea insisted on uniting the Ming Dynasty against Japan; The Ming Dynasty was stronger than the Later Jin, and North Korea insisted on serving the Ming Dynasty as Zhengshuo; In the ninth year of Chongzhen, Huang Taiji's Manchu Qing Dynasty seemed to be stronger than the Ming Dynasty, and North Korea took refuge in the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

The DPRK, which implements this national policy, of course, understands that Ri Sik is now strong and strong.

Li Zhi is still nominally the Duke of Jinguo of the Ming Dynasty, but in fact he is highly self-reliant, and both domestic and foreign affairs are carried out alone. Last summer, Li Zhi went on a northern expedition to the Qing Dynasty and neatly destroyed the Taqing who had attacked the Ming Dynasty countless times. Of course, North Korea had sentry agents in Liaodong, and the information reported back was that the Qing State was vulnerable in front of Li Zhi's artillery guns.

After witnessing Li Zhi's terrifying strength last year, the monarchs and ministers of North Korea were deeply afraid, fearing that Li Zhi would take advantage of the situation to conquer Korea after winning Liaodong. However, it was too difficult for the iron-blooded and ruthless Li Zhi not to punish the Qing Dynasty, and the North Korea finally chose to do the work of the Ming court.

King Li Liang sent envoys to the city of Beijing, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods to bribe the civil officials in the court, and finally won the praise of the civil officials, and finally got the forgiveness of the Ming court, and was re-admitted as a vassal state.

I thought that the vassal who was renamed the Ming Dynasty would be fine. However, he didn't expect that the identity of this vassal state did not stop Li Zhi, and Li Zhi still poked at North Korea for the crime of surrendering the Qing Dynasty and asked North Korea to pay money to make amends.

Li Liang let out a long sigh, and said with a sad face: "The silver that can be saved in the treasury every year is only more than 200,000 taels, how can I get this fifteen million taels?" ”

Li Wei's eldest son, the son of North Korea, said: "Father, there is no refutation of the surrender of my Korea. So far, there is only one side to send an envoy to Tianjin to ask for a grace period and reduce the amount. If we can reduce the amount to less than 10 million, we can still take it out. On the other hand, the imperial court should collect special taxes from the landlords according to the amount of land, whether it is two classes of nobles, middle-aged people, or good people, and collect special taxes together to make up the silver. ”

Yi Wei was the person in the Joseon court who knew Li Zhi's strength best. He served as a hostage in the Qing State for a long time, and witnessed first-hand how Li Zhi destroyed the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Last year, after the Manchu Qing were conquered by Li Zhi, they fled without a fight and fled to Alchuka. Li Wei bribed the guards, escaped halfway and returned to North Korea, and since then he has been in awe of Li Zhi.

So after Li Zhi asked for money, Li Wei immediately put forward the idea of discussing it with Li Zhi.

The king of Joseon, Yi Liang, let out a long sigh and said with some discouragement: "I am afraid that such a heavy tax will provoke a popular uprising." ”

The leader of the government, Park Dajing, arched his hand and said: "The minister thinks that what the prince said is not possible. Although our Korea is not strong in war, it has never been conquered by any foreign race! Even if the Wa Kingdom occupies the entire territory of our Korea during the Imjin War, it will not be able to rule over our Korean subjects. At that time, civil uprisings broke out one after another, and in the end, the Japanese army of more than 200,000 people invaded twice and was defeated twice. ”

"In the ninth year of Chongzhen, the Tatar Qing invaded our Korea, captured our royal city, and occupied countless cities, and my North Korea finally surrendered only in name. Every year, the tribute grain is only 1,000 taels of silver and 10,000 bales of rice. Now that Li Zhi has sent a messenger to send a piece of paper, His Royal Highness will scrape the ground and collect heavy taxes and tribute, I am afraid that not only Li Zhi will gain an inch, but the two classes of nobles of the people will be even more angry, and it will eventually cause chaos! ”

"Although Li Zhi is strong, the Chinese people are not afraid. If His Royal Highness surrenders to Li Zhi against the will of the people, will he not see the end of Kwanghae-kun against the will of the people? ”

The parliamentary government was the highest executive branch of North Korea, equivalent to the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty. The head of the parliamentary government is called the leader of the council, and he is a figure similar to the prime minister.

The politics of North Korea was governed by the king and the "two classes" of nobles, and Park Dae-kyung represented the power of the nobility as the leader of the government. After all, the money that Li Zhi asked for was paid by the landlord class in North Korea, and it was unacceptable for the common nobles to hand over 15 million taels of silver to Li Zhi for no reason.

Park Dajing's proposal aroused the general approval of the officials in the Xuanzheng Palace, and all the officials came out to sing the peace.

Li Qi looked at the ministers in the hall and sighed again.

"Appeal to the Son of Heaven and ask the Son of Heaven to stop the strong Li Zhi for my North Korea."

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Zhu Youzhen sat in the Qianqing Palace, his eyes closed.

After processing more than a dozen pieces in a row, Zhu Youjian was extremely tired. He rubbed his temples and asked Wang Chengen, "Have you finished reading the concert sent by the cabinet today?" ”

Wang Chengen looked at the table next to him and said, "I have finished reading the domestic recital, but the king of North Korea, Li Liang, has a recital coming up, does the emperor read it?" ”

Zhu Youzhen frowned when he heard that it was a piece from North Korea, and said: "These Yi people went to Qin and Chu, and as soon as the Eastern slaves were destroyed, they bribed the civil officials of the imperial court to force me to accept them again. What's to bother me with this time? ”

Wang Chengen sang, opened Li Kun's recital, looked at it for a while, and took a breath.

"Emperor, Li Zhi is going to extort fifteen million taels from North Korea this time!"

Zhu Youzhen was stunned and turned to look at Wang Chengen.

Wang Chengen put the piece next to Zhu Youzhen and said: "Look, Emperor, Li Zhi said that North Korea once reduced the Qing Dynasty to help the Emperor abuse, and asked North Korea to give Tianjin 1,500 taels of atonement silver!" ”

Zhu Youzhen glanced at the piece and did not speak.

Wang Chengen read the recital again and said, "Emperor, the Korean Emperor begged the Holy Lord to stop Li Zhi. North Korea says that they are a small country, and they can't scrape so much silver even if they scrape the ground. ”

Zhu Youzhen still didn't speak, sat on the chair and thought about it.

After a long time, he stood up and paced a few steps, and finally stopped by the window.

Zhu Youzhen said slowly: "Send someone to ask Li Zhi, how can he blackmail North Korea without going through the imperial court." ”

Wang Chengen rolled his eyes and asked, "What does the emperor mean?" ”

Wang Chengen looked at the Son of Heaven and thought for a long time before he smiled and said, "I understand, the emperor is asking Li Zhi to give out some silver." He ate fifteen million taels in North Korea in one bite, so he had to hand over five million taels to Neiku! ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at the light rain outside the Qianqing Palace and did not speak.