The Korean envoy Choi Chonghong was now becoming more and more anxious and uneasy, and he could not understand why the high-ranking officials and emperors of the Ming court had refused to see him again.

Cui Chonghong originally wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of this visit to Daming to implore Daming to stop demanding that he build a Confucius Temple and a Confucius Institute in North Korea, and to forgive the loan he had made from the World Investment Bank.

Of course, Cui Chonghong also knew that it would be difficult to move the Ming Emperor in this matter.

Therefore, he thought about bribing the Ming officials with money and asking the Ming officials to help him achieve this, but he didn't expect that his bribery was rejected by the Ming officials' Zuo Shilang Xishu!

And now, I don't even see a weighty Ming official.

Even, there were no gifts and feasts that the tributaries should have given in return, let alone allowing the envoys to trade with the people of the capital.

And after a long time, Xi Shu, the left attendant of the Ministry of Rites, came to see this Cui Chonghao.

As soon as he saw this Cui Chonghao, Xi Shu handed over a newspaper on the new foreign policy of the Ming Dynasty to Cui Chonghao: "Cui Envoy, you will take this later, this official only asks you now, is your country a vassal of the Ming Dynasty?" ”

Cui Chonghao didn't know that Zhu Houzhao had changed the foreign policy of the Ming Dynasty, and when he saw Xi Shu taking this newspaper in front of him, he also knew that this was a relatively popular thing in the Ming Dynasty at the moment, and knew that this was called a newspaper, but now he only saw that the front page of this newspaper was written "The Cabinet's Resolution on Reforming the Tributary System and Foreign Policy", and he didn't know the specific content, so he listened to Xi Shu's question, and only subconsciously replied:

"Daming is naturally the suzerainty of our country, and my North Korea is naturally a vassal of Daming!"

"In that case, now I have three tips for you:

First, you need to go back to North Korea now and give me a copy of your North Korean population book;

Second, you need to provide the same amount of silver dollars as a tribute for the population, and of course you can use the same amount of silver dollars as collateral for the right to mine and lease the territory and the right to tariff, and you need to negotiate it yourself;

Third, you can now rent a house in my Ming Dynasty as an embassy in your country, and have your king send an official to stay in my Ming Dynasty! ”

After Xi Shu finished speaking, he said goodbye to Cui Chonghong.

And Cui Chonghong was directly confused after listening to Xi Shu's three prompts, he had to pick up the newspaper and read it seriously, but the more he looked at it, the more angry he became, and finally he couldn't help but slap the newspaper on the table:

"It's too much to deceive, it's too much to deceive! How can this be the work of a suzerain! Our DPRK must not accept such a suzerain! ”

Cui Chonghong was furious, he did not expect that the Ming court would propose such a foreign policy.

Of course, Choi Chonghong now knows that it is impossible for him to get the Ming court to cancel his request for the DPRK to build a Confucius temple and a Confucius Institute, and it is even more impossible to forgive the DPRK from the loan of the World Investment Bank.

But.

Cui Chonghong was still unwilling, unwilling to return to North Korea empty.

Cui Chonghong now only hopes that Da Ming can give back the gift and give himself the opportunity to trade with the mission, after all, they have brought so many goods, they need to sell them.

At the same time, Cui Chonghong also hoped to get the opportunity to give a banquet, so that he could personally lobby the Ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao, hoping to make the Ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao give up this excessive demand, so as not to lose the opportunity of his own Korean state.

But.

Zhu Houzhao didn't want to give a banquet to Cui Chonghong, for the officials of Daming's own country, as the head of the empire, he naturally wanted to give a banquet to enhance his feelings.

But for foreign officials like Cui Chonghong, he doesn't have this mind, after all, there are only eternal interests between countries, and there can be no so-called feelings.

Because once Zhu Houzhao wants to help a certain country because of his feelings for a certain country, it will only lose the interests of his own people.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao did not plan to return the tribute paid by the Korean mission.

Originally, North Korea is still a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, and there is naturally no need to return the tribute offered by the vassals.

Besides.

Zhu Houzhao also issued an expulsion order, directly asking the cabinet to convey Jun's decree to the Ministry of Rites, asking the Ministry of Rites to demand that Cui Chonghong must leave Daming within a month, and inform Daming of his country's decision in North Korea before the Mid-Autumn Festival next year.

As a foreigner, you are not allowed to stay in Daming for a long time.

As a result, Cui Chonghong had no choice but to leave Beijing when the one-month deadline was about to arrive.

When Cui Chonghong left the Beijing Normal Hall, he stomped on the ground of the hall a few times, and then got into the carriage directly and galloped back to North Korea.

The king of Joseon, Li Yi, was furious when he learned of the new foreign policy of the Ming Dynasty, and directly overturned the desk, and immediately said that the Korean state would no longer regard the Ming Dynasty as the suzerain.

Moreover, the Joseon king Yi Yi also ordered the construction of the existing Confucius Temple and Confucius Institute to be stopped, and no longer repaid his Korean loan from the Daming World Investment Bank, and was not even willing to send the so-called ambassador to the Daming Jingshi City, in their eyes there was no difference between sending an ambassador and sending hostages.

Therefore, the officials of the North Korean state also passed the buck to the point that no one wanted to come to Daming as an ambassador.

Zhu Houzhao guessed that the Korean National Assembly refused to do this, but he was not upset by this, and he did so to force out these so-called vassal states, so as to prevent the Ming Dynasty from being able to carry out capitalist expansion without pressure in the future.

And now these vassal states, such as Korea, betrayed the Ming Dynasty and no longer recognized the Ming as their suzerain, so that the Ming Dynasty would have no pressure to destroy these countries in the future.

However, Zhu Houzhao still asked the spokesman of the Ministry of Rites, the host and guest Siguan Zhengjinshi Xu Jie, to make an official statement on the fact that North Korea no longer recognized the Ming Dynasty as the suzerain.

"I and the Ming court express great regret that the Korean State no longer recognizes my Ming as the suzerain, and at the same time, the Ming Dynasty is also extremely angry at the betrayal of the suzerain!

Therefore, Daming hopes that North Korea can correct its current mistakes as soon as possible, and wants the king of North Korea to apologize for his reckless behavior, and to compensate Daming with a sum of money, otherwise, Daming will crusade against the whole country! ”

After Xu Jie's words were reported in the newspapers, they caused great repercussions among the people of the Ming Dynasty, and therefore, they also brought a great shock to the conservative Confucian ministers.

But.

As a result, Zhu Houzhao asked the General Staff of the Border Army to begin to establish the main strategy for future operations, especially against the DPRK.

However, Zhu Houzhao also knew that if he wanted the Ming Empire to continue to control Korea and get more benefits from Korea, the Ming Dynasty needed to control Liaodong first and improve Liaodong.

Because of this, the development of Liaodong is still the most important thing.

But there is still an unstable force on the flank of Liaodong, and that is the flower of Duo Yanwei.

Zhu Houzhao has now received many requests from Hua Dang to increase the number of tribute envoys, but he did not agree, because he knew that increasing the number of tribute envoys of Duo Yanwei would increase the number of rewards, and the Ming Dynasty would lose even more.

Nowadays, the southern part of the Ming Dynasty began to industrialize the production of steam, and the industrial revolution brought by steam power made the goods of the Ming Dynasty rapidly seize the global trade market.

And the treasury revenue of the Ming Empire also increased dramatically.

However, the drawbacks brought about by the steam industry also began to appear, especially after Zhu Houzhao allowed the Royal Industries Company to sell steam spinning machines and looms, the major traditional textile workshops were replaced or bankrupt, and the original textile workers were laid off and unemployed.

The problem of increasing unemployment is what Zhu Houzhao wants to solve, after all, the people have to earn money to support their families.

Zhu Houzhao's solution was also very simple: increase military strength, expand armaments and warfare, and suck a large number of unemployed people into the army.

"When the common people cannot become producers, then they can only become the fighters of the empire's foreign wars, so that they can gain wealth in foreign wars!"

Zhu Houzhao said this to the Ministry of War.

Now he found himself in no other way than to wage war to solve the problem of the country's unemployed.

But what is the purpose of waging war, to take away other people's property for your own enjoyment? It can only be a primitive way of plundering, a way of survival for animals, inheriting everything you have by depriving you of your life.

And the reason why human beings are more intelligent than animals is because human beings are civilized and have more reasonable ways of exploitation.

Zhu Houzhao wants to start a war now, not to deprive anyone of his life, but to let more people pay protection money for himself through war, and it is better to rule a person than to kill him, and ask him to pay a certain amount of protection money for himself, which can ensure that he will not kill him, so that he can rule this person for a long time and gain benefits for a long time by collecting protection money.

If the unemployed people in the south do not move to the north to compete for interests by waging war, then they will only launch rebellions in the south to compete for the interests of all strata of people in the south, while moving to the north can avoid the turmoil in the south, and at the same time, they can also achieve migration through war and transfer a large number of surplus labor in the south to the north to exploit resources.

But all this is easy to say, but it is not easy to do, it takes time, and it needs to be done in all aspects.

And the situation in the outside world is not always the same, and even the inconvenience of transportation and the lag of news, it is difficult for Zhu Houzhao, the emperor, to do something in a short period of time to achieve direct results in a short period of time.

Now, the only thing he can do is to let the Ministry of Rites announce the betrayal of the Ming Dynasty to the world and say that the Ming court is angry, and give the final warning to the DPRK, so that all the officials and gentry of the Ming Dynasty will know about it, so as to gain the popular support for the next military action.

For example, this time, Zhu Houzhao asked the Ministry of Rites to speak, denouncing North Korea's betrayal of the Ming Dynasty and warning North Korea, some Confucian scholars contradicted the mainstream arguments, saying that the Ming Dynasty was unjust first, and the Ming Dynasty should have forgiven North Korea's reckless behavior, favored North Korea, and took the initiative to forgive North Korea's debts.

Fortunately, the people of the Ming Dynasty are not all this kind of Virgin, at least most of them are not, and some people ridicule these Confucian scholars for not knowing that they can live in this peaceful and prosperous era, and they can have the strength to criticize the imperial court because the imperial court has avoided the chaos of the people through the wealth plundered by foreign countries, so that the world is still peaceful, and even scholars can get the education subsidy of the imperial court.

Because of this, Zhu Houzhao's subsequent edict on the recruitment and expansion of the army did not attract the opposition of the majority of the people in the world.

In addition to expanding the army and increasing military expenditures to solve the problem of unemployment in the south and enhance the deterrent effect on Duoyanwei, Zhu Houzhao also asked the cabinet to issue a decree again, encouraging the people in the Guannai to go out of the customs to settle down in Liaodong, and not only sold the fields in Liaodong cheaply, but also allowed the people to reclaim the land by themselves, and said that the land reclaimed by the people themselves would directly belong to them and would be exempt from tax for the first three years.

After all, to really control Liaodong, it is not enough to just station the army, a large number of people must move here, in order to provide sufficient logistical support, especially in this situation where there is no convenient means of transportation and transportation conditions, if Liaodong really becomes a place where the Ming rule is stable, there must be enough Han people.

Moreover, if there are enough people in Liaodong to move here, it will also be more beneficial for the Ming Dynasty to operate the Nuer Gandusi area further north outside the Guanxi in the future.

In fact, in this aspect of immigration outside the border, non-governmental immigration has never stopped, especially after the abolition of the road guidance system.

A large number of Han Chinese migrated to settle in the Hetao and Liaodong regions, either by cultivating land or by doing business with the Mongols and Jurchens.

At this time, Kaiping City was already an important trade distribution center of the Ming Dynasty in the north of the Luan River outside the Guanwai.

Some tribes belonging to the Yongshebu tribe, the Ordos tribe, and the Tumut tribe, as well as the Mongolian people of Duoyan Sanwei, as well as some Jurchens, would gather here to trade with the Ming people.

Originally, Kaiping City was the Kaiping Wei of the Ming Dynasty before Xuande, and it was the gateway of Xuanfu and a military town!

But because from the beginning of the Yongle period, the climate began to turn cold, the Ming Dynasty in Kaipingwei's tuntian became more and more difficult, and the transportation of grain became increasingly difficult, Ming Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji ordered Kaipingwei to move to the monolithic fort.

And now, Kaiping City is under the territory of the Ming Dynasty, because the little prince was eliminated, and the border army recaptured the city.

Of course, because the climate is getting colder, mainly because the Xiaoice River climate phenomenon is gradually aggravating, today's Kaiping City is still not suitable for Tuntian, but fortunately, there is trade to maintain, coupled with the increase in the financial resources of the empire, can maintain the food supply in this area, and Kaiping City has convenient transportation to Xuanfu and Datong, and can also be directly connected to the capital through the Datong cement road.

Therefore, today's Kaiping City has not become cold and decaying, but is becoming more and more prosperous.

Of course, they will also come to Kaiping City at this time to trade with the Han people, sell the beef and mutton accumulated in the winter to the Han people, and the Han people will make canned food and sell it to the mainland, and the Mongolian people will also buy tea and salt from the Han people.

Kaiping is now a county of the Ming Dynasty, but it is under the jurisdiction of the Xuanfu, although the Xuanfu is already the government, but it is still one of the nine military towns of the Ming Dynasty, and the army of the Ming Dynasty is still stationed in Kaiping City.

At present, a regiment of the border army is stationed in Kaiping, with a total of more than 2,000 people.

However, the more than 2,000 people of the border army did not manage the government affairs of Kaiping City, and the government affairs of Kaiping City were managed by Zhang Cong, the magistrate of the county, and Zhang Cong also served as the commander of the regiment of the border army, responsible for the logistics and political work of the regiment of the border army.

Moreover, Zhang Cong, the magistrate of the county, is also a person from the army, but because he is mainly engaged in civilian work, he was arranged by the chief Wang Shouren to be the magistrate of Kaiping County.

Of course, Zhang Cong did not manage the military tasks of the border army, and it was the guerrilla general Gui Yong of the regiment who managed the military tasks of the regiment of the border army.

But there is no war at the moment, and the border army, the regiment stationed in Kaiping is only because of the recent change of blood in Xuanfu, it has changed from the Guards to the border army, and then it was arranged to Kaiping to strengthen the defense.

Therefore, in addition to the daily routine dispatch of reconnaissance overnight to investigate suspicious signs, Gui Yong still thinks about when to let the above transfer him back to the Guards every day, so that he can open up territory with the original brothers of the Guards.

However, there are also officers and soldiers who are not Gui Yong, and Tian Deng now only thinks about settling down in this Kaiping City and honestly being a border army officer who maintains the safety of Kaiping.

Therefore, Tian Deng is very serious about maintaining the peace of this area, and he will also mingle with the Mongolian people in Kaiping City, and he does not bully others because he is an officer of the Guards.

Not only Tiandeng, because of trade, the Han people in Kaiping City and the Mongolian people got along very harmoniously.

"Uncle Kule, this time, you brought a lot of wool this time, this car is enough for you to exchange for a hundred silver dollars!"

Shan Tai, a soldier of the Guards of the reconnaissance company, was chatting with this Mongolian man of Kule at this time, he himself was a person from the Monolith Fort, and he was also familiar with the Mongolian people, and this Kule also jumped out of the car with a pleasant face: "But isn't it, it's all thanks to you teaching us the method of epidemic prevention, otherwise the plague on the Daning side last year will only make us lose a lot of sheep!" ”

Shan Tai just smiled and said, "Then you hurry up and ship it to the city to sell, and I'll go over there to have a look!" When the time comes, load the tea bricks into the car, remember to call me for help! ”

As he spoke, Shan Tai rode his horse and walked towards the Mongolian people who were resting on the opposite side, because these masked people were very raw, and he was originally cautious as a night.

But at this time, Kueller couldn't help but sigh, and then turned around and couldn't bear to see the scene behind him.

"This military master, we are from the Horqin Department, and it is the first time we have come to Kaiping City to do business, dare to ask if the taxes in Kaiping City are high now?"

At this time, as soon as Shan Tai got off the horse, a Mongolian man took the initiative to come over and ask Shan Tai.

Shan Tai had no choice but to reply: "The tax is not high, the same as Yulin, because of the plague last year, the imperial court also exempted thirty percent of the tax, you only need to go to Kaiping County and City to pay taxes once After getting the certificate, you will not be taxed again in the customs." ”

Poof!

As soon as Shan Tai finished speaking, he was stabbed by this Mongolian man, and then he was covered by another Mongolian man, and his head was twisted off.

Shan Tai fell to the ground like this, his eyes wide in shock.

The old Mongolian man Kule heard the sound of Shan Tai being killed, but he still only sighed and continued to greet the other Han Chinese.

At this time, another frontier soldier of the reconnaissance company of the regiment was attacked by a Mongolian and hacked to death by a knife in the back of the carriage.

The commander of the reconnaissance company of the regiment, Soda Deng, saw that the appearance of artillery was exposed in the car loaded with wool in Nakule, and he also noticed it for a while, and immediately turned around, and when he was near Kaiping City, he immediately shouted: "Close the city gate quickly!" Let all the people withdraw to the city! ”

At the same time, Tian Deng ordered several people around him not to accept it at night: "Enter the city immediately and inform the guerrilla general and Zhang Zhixian!" Tartars are not here to trade! ”

As he spoke, Tian Deng fell back and shouted loudly: "The reconnaissance company will immediately drive the people back to the city with me!" These Tartars are here to kill! ”

As Tian Deng spoke, he immediately organized his own people and drove the Ming people who had left the city to trade with the Mongolian people into the city.

……

As soon as everyone entered the city, the gates of Kaiping City were immediately closed.

After the arrival of spring, Kaiping City opened for the first time to surprise everyone with this situation, but at this moment, they gradually gathered outside Kaiping City, and the dense Mongolian cavalry like a jungle directly told all the officials and people in Kaiping City that these Mongolian people were indeed not good, they came to attack the city, they came to plunder, and they came to kill!

This is also evidenced by the corpses of several border soldiers who lay in pools of blood outside the city at night.

"Grandma, I'm going to kill these Mengren!"

The border army was holding muskets and was about to shoot at the Mongolian people who were also hiding in Kaiping City, but the Mongolians outside the city took advantage of the trust of the border army to bring a large number of Mongolian cavalry here, and killed his brother, which naturally made him lose his mind.

Kaiping City, like other newly built cities in Daming Border Town, is also a mixture of Han and Mongolian, and even in Kaiping City, Mongolian people still occupy the majority.

These Mongolians have settled in Kaiping City, engaged in construction, mining, transportation and even trade, and even studied and taught in Kaiping City.

And now, the appearance of the Mongolian army outside the city has also moved these Mongolian people who have settled in Kaiping City and regard themselves as Ming people are also very moved, surprised and panicked.

When Yan Heng couldn't control himself and wanted to shoot these Mongolian people, these Mongolian people were even more frightened, and the scene became even more chaotic for a while.

"Stop!"

But at this time, the guerrilla Gui Yong shouted, and walked over with a newly made short-handled handcuff made by the imperial court, directly snatched the musket in Yan Heng's hand, and shouted: "What kind of ability is it to kill the people here, save a bullet and kill the Tartars outside the city!" ”

"But the generals treat them as people, but they don't treat us as their own!"

Yan Heng replied loudly, this border army was originally adapted from the Guards, and it pays attention to the equality of officers and soldiers, so this Yan Heng also dared to loudly reply to Gui Yong.

"Then do you want to force them to rebel?!" Gui Yong also questioned loudly.

Yan Heng couldn't argue for a while, so he only stepped back and arched his hand: "In that case, be punished for your humble duties!" ”

Gui Yong snorted and ignored Yan Heng.

And at this time, Tian Deng came over: "General, I think that even if I don't kill them, because I drive them out of the city, my people will have different hearts, although they are all defenseless people, but it is difficult to ensure that there are spies mixed with them, and now so many Tartar cavalry are coming to attack Kaiping City, if Kaiping City wants to defend it, it is necessary to prevent spies from dealing with Tartars outside the city!" ”

After Gui Yong heard this, he felt that what Tian Deng said was quite right, and was about to agree, when a Mongolian man suddenly shouted: "General! The grass people beg you, don't drive us out of the city, we really have nothing to do with those people outside! When we go out, we will only be taken away by them as slaves, we finally come here to settle down, get married, have children, and settle down, if you drive us out of the city, we will be homeless, woo! ”

"Yes, General, don't drive us out of the city, they'll kill us!"

These Mongolian people are all begging and pleading, they know better than anyone that the cavalry of their Mongolian nobles is no softer than killing the Han people, and basically everyone who crosses the wheel will be killed! Therefore, they did not want to be driven out of the city.