On August 12, Li Zhi rode into Seoul, the royal city of Korea, with a gorgeous guard of honor for the Okim. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The west gate of Seoul and the main street to the west are illuminated for inspection by the conqueror Lee Sik. Li Laosi and Zhong Feng followed Li Zhi's guard of honor and slowly entered Seoul.

On both sides of the road, the people of North Korea saw this gorgeous guard of honor and walked out, whispering one by one. The soldiers of the Tiger Ben Army do not offend the ordinary people these days, but the people of Seoul are not afraid of the officials and troops of the Ming people.

They hadn't seen the Ming Dynasty's guard of honor, and they didn't know who it was. But seeing the momentum of more than a thousand Tiger Ben soldiers and personal guards, they knew that this must be a big official, and they didn't dare to speak loudly.

After walking a few steps, Zhong Feng looked at the people of Seoul who were standing and frowned. He suddenly waved his hand and shouted at the ten guards behind him: "Shoot and demonstrate!" ”

Ten guards quickly loaded their charges and fired their guns into the air.

"Slap" "Slap" "Slap"!

The loud gunfire frightened the onlookers of Seoul, and these North Koreans knew that they were afraid, and they knelt on the ground in a panic one by one.

Many people in Seoul wore black peaked caps called Korean hats. However, the North Koreans were frightened by the gunfire at this time, knelt on the ground and did not dare to wear hats, so they took off their black hats and put them on the ground. Looking at it from Li Zhi's point of view, he only saw a black pressure on his head.

Li Zhi smiled and rode his horse towards the center of the Korean city.

Li Laosi rode up on horseback and said, "Boss, our action of raiding the two classes of nobles this time was the most fruitful in Ping'an Road and Hamgyong Road at the beginning. The two classes of nobles in these two provinces do not know how powerful we are, and they often guard the manor. After the soldiers of the Tiger Ben Army rushed into the manor and killed the lord of the manor, they could often raid all the property of the two classes of nobles. So we seized twenty-five million taels of goods in these two ways. ”

Li Laosi rushed back from northern Korea yesterday and rushed to Seoul to report to Li Zhi on the results of the Tiger Ben division in northern Korea. Fighting and commanding abroad made Li Laosi very tired, he didn't seem to sleep well, and his eyes were bloodshot. But because the war was going well, he seemed to be very energetic, and he spoke with a lot of energy.

Li Zhi looked at Li Laosi and asked lightly: "I heard that you have made a decision to distribute five buckets of grain to every peasant in North Korea." ”

When Li Laosi heard this inquiry, his face was stunned. Obviously, Li Zhi did not have the power to distribute the spoils of war to Li Laosi. Li Laosi made this decision on the front line, and he was a little self-conscious.

This matter has a lot to do with it, and Li Laosi did not report to Li Zhi in the letter a few days ago, and was going to come to Tianjin to talk to Jin Guogong face to face. Unexpectedly, Li Zhi already knew in advance, which made Li Laosi look very passive.

Li Laosi hurriedly jumped off the war horse, half-knelt on the ground and arched his hand and said, "The minister has exceeded his authority without permission!" ”

Li Zhi smiled and stopped the horse.

As soon as Li Zhi stopped, the guards and honor guards of more than 1,000 people all stopped.

Li Zhi smiled: "It's okay, Li Laosi, you did the right thing." If the peasants were not enlisted, the occupation of Korea would encounter great resistance. The so-called general will not grant the order of the foreign king, and you have done nothing wrong. ”

Li Laosi was a little apprehensive, and half-knelt on the ground wondering if he had made Li Zhi unhappy.

Li Zhi said this incident, just to remind Li Laosi to report major events in a timely manner in the future. He was not ready to continue dwelling on this topic, asking: "At first, the harvest was great, but then what?" ”

Li Laosi sang, stood up and replied: "Dongjia Mingjian, after Zhong Feng attacked Seoul and captured the king of Joseon, the resistance of the two classes of Korean nobles was broken. These manor owners understood that it was impossible for them to stop the raids of the Tiger Ben army, and often disposed of the property in the manor in advance, and then led their family members to surrender directly to our army. ”

Li Zhi continued to move forward and asked lightly, "What do they do with their property?" ”

Li Laosi hurriedly turned over and got on his horse, rode his horse to catch up with Li Zhi's mount, and said, "If these manor lords hide the silver and grain, we are not afraid. As long as you torture them, you can always find out the hidden goods. But these manor owners were very cunning, and they knew that we wanted to unite the Korean peasants, so they gave all the grain and silver to the local peasants before the Tiger Ben army arrived, buying people's hearts. ”

Li Zhi was stunned, he didn't expect the two classes of nobles in North Korea to still play this trick.

In fact, although the two classes of nobles in Korea continued to annex the land of small peasants, their style was better than that of the gentry of the Ming Dynasty, and their relationship with the peasants was better. The two classes of nobles in Korea did not evade taxes, and they paid the same taxes as the peasants. Moreover, these two classes of nobles were more attentive than the gentry of the Ming Dynasty in running the grange, and almost all the water conservancy facilities built in various parts of Korea were made by these two classes.

On the whole, although the two classes of nobles were of little value for improving the overall strength of the country, they were not as corrupt as the gentry of the Ming Dynasty to play themselves to death, and they were not so corrupt as to force out a peasant uprising. In fact, in the original history, two classes of nobles ruled Korea until the beginning of the 20th century, and it was very stable.

In the face of the threat of the Tiger Army, these Korean nobles were still able to make basic trade-offs - instead of leaving their wealth to the Tiger Army, it was better to give all the goods to the common people and buy the hearts and minds of the people.

The Tiger Ben Army would not force the peasants to hand over the grain and silver from household to household, and as soon as the silver entered the peasants' pockets, it naturally could no longer be dug up. Moreover, it is not good for the Tiger Army to punish the two classes of nobles for this, otherwise the peasants who have benefited from the two classes of nobles sympathize with the two classes, and it may provoke a large-scale popular uprising.

"Well, allowing the peasants to get a sum of money and food will also help stabilize the mood of the North Koreans when we annex North Korea." Li Zhi thought for a while and asked lightly, "Then how much is the overall harvest at present?" ”

Li Laosi replied: "At present, the Tiger Ben Army has invaded Huanghae Province and Gangwon Province, and occasionally they can catch some two classes that have not scattered their wealth, but the gains are getting smaller and smaller. In the four provinces, more than 30 million taels of goods were confiscated. ”

Li Zhi nodded and said, "More than 30 million taels is a lot, which is more than double the compensation we demanded before the war, which is already a lot." With this money, we can run a fiscal deficit for another year or two. Combined with the four million taels of tax revenue from North Korea in the future, we can expand the army. ”

Li Laosi arched his hand and said: "The owner is Mingjian! ”

Li Zhi looked at the North Korean citizens kneeling on both sides of the road and said slowly: "But the most important thing at the moment is to change the public opinion and culture of North Korea and support our annexation of North Korea." ”

After thinking about it, Li Zhi said: "Select a group of capable people to come to North Korea to run newspapers and schools. The first is to run a newspaper to ensure that our policies and culture are disseminated throughout North Korea. This matter is very important, so let the head of the newspaper, Huan Yihua, personally lead a team to North Korea to manage the newspaper and the school! ”

Zheng Kaicheng, who was standing in the back, thought for a while and asked, "Dongjia, are we going to build North Korea into a rich land like Tianjin and Shandong in the future?" ”

Li Zhi shook his head and said, "Our definition of North Korea is a colony. Tianjin, Shandong, and Northeast China were the suzerainty of North Korea from then on, and North Korea had to transfuse blood to the suzerainty every year. Advanced industries are concentrated in Tianjin, while North Korea is a source of raw materials and dumping of industrial products. ”