Chapter 135: The Japanese Merchants Who Plundered Goryeo (Part II)
Although Goryeo is a peninsular country, backwardness and isolation can always be used to describe the country established by this ethnic minority who "does great things to protect the country". The original intention of the Heike family to go to Goryeo was to buy and sell some goods and to find out information about the Samhan region. However, due to the receipt of a secret letter from Lee Ki and specific instructions, he was asked to establish a basic base in the ten larger cities of Goryeo, and the personnel and facilities basically only need to be kept to a minimum level, and in the future, as the technical and management personnel at all levels sent by Lee Ki are increasingly perfected and expanded, the work of this front station is also an opportunity for the Heike to examine their situation and influence on Goryeo.
Everything is difficult at first, and doing business is nothing for the Heike family, but it is difficult to establish a network with the functions of information collection, cargo logistics, and personnel exchange center in many Korean cities. Among the talents cultivated by Cheonhuiwon, there are very few who can speak fluent Goryeo, and many of them can speak Chinese. Therefore, the Heike were very embarrassed, and there were many Goryeo refugees and smugglers who settled in the western country, but it was basically impossible for them to enter the vision of the Heike family. Is it possible that there are people who cannot survive in their home countries who have the talent to take on such important positions? The vast majority of Koreans are illiterate and servant families who farm the land, and there are almost no more than 100 people with writing and arithmetic skills. There are only about 30 'talents' who can work directly under the Heike and indirectly through partners, which is simply not enough to meet the needs of the people who travel through the Goryeo Raiders in terms of quantity and quality.
Although Goryeo is not valued by the cross-border public, Goryeo, which is comparable to the western region, is still a treasure that the Heike family cherishes. As long as this land is digested, the Heike can become the most powerful force in the entire Northeast Asian region, and the population under direct rule (within the sphere of influence, not in the fiefdom) can directly exceed 5 million.
The poor native population of the Jin State has survived 200,000, and the Khitans have a whopping 2 million, and such a small population of the ruling race can only be regarded as a precarious regime in which the minority dominates the majority ethnic group. You must know that the total population of the Liao State before the appearance of the Jin State was more than 20 million people directly under the central government (the tribes on the Mongolian Plateau and many marginal tribes under the jurisdiction of the Tieli Wangdu, Dongdan Wangfu and Murowei Wangfu in the northeast are not counted, and only the rural population of the four cities of the Eastern, Southern, Western and Zhongjing Provinces and their suburbs are counted) Although the land directly under the jurisdiction of the Pingjia family only accounts for one-twentieth of the entire area of the Western Kingdom, the population fully occupies more than 1/5 of the Western Region. If we take a few ports in Goryeo, it is not a dream to reach a population of 1 million. A monopoly is conducive to stimulating the efforts of the surrounding forces to enter a state of arms race, providing more government orders for the purchase of high-end products of arms and manufactured goods produced by the cross-border (stationery, books, fertilizers and agricultural machinery in the heavy chemical industry products necessary to increase competitiveness, etc., to provide a source of bulk commodities and balance the trade deficit).
In place of the vague feeling of the Heike family, Taira Masamori, who originally only felt that he had to get the trade routes and trade routes to the west, saw a ray of light, and the possibility of becoming the existence of Japan beyond the emperor. As long as they get everything in Goryeo, the land directly under the direct jurisdiction of the Hei family can not only justifiably surpass the emperor, but also surpass the population, resources, market, tax base, war potential, and so on in all aspects. He is the Emperor Taishang who is above the emperor, and the family is the strongest branch of the distant clan that surpasses all the royal families.
How can such a matter of fame and fortune not be handled as the top priority of the family? The adults in the family are busy collecting taxes and running industries in their respective fiefdoms, and they really can't find suitable cronies to preside over this important development task, otherwise it will definitely not be the turn of the eldest son Ping Zhongsheng to be the director. Although this was only a trial voyage and an attempt to open trade, it was an opportunity to show the family's power and the great expectations of the Hei family, and the crossing people were also very concerned about this voyage, which was an opportunity to prove their loyalty and ability.
The result was obvious, and the trial voyage with the participation of all the subordinates of the crossing would not fail, and it took two days from Hakata to the port of Busan. Ping Chungsheng happily stepped on this land, and excitedly announced to his fellow family elders and subordinates that Goryeo would become the bag of the Ping family in the near future.
Seeing the distant Japanese fleet entering the port, the officials of the city department of Goryeo also came to the front of Ping Zhongsheng, hoping to see the son of the largest prince in the western kingdom of Japan, according to the canonization of the Japanese emperor and his aristocratic system by the Great Song Empire, Emperor Shirakawa enjoyed the treatment of the rank of vassal king, and Goryeo as a new vassal state that had just defected to the Great Song Empire, and the rank of King Suzong Wang Hao was only equivalent to the king of the county. The corresponding rank is the son of the left minister Taira Masamori, who is the second rank of the main position, and in fact, Taira Tadasheng, who also holds the positions of Shikoku Island, Higo Kunemun and Dazai Shaoji, is equivalent to the high-ranking official of the fourth rank of Goryeo Guozheng, and is like a senior official compared to the Yamen of the sixth rank of the Ichibo Division. Although according to China's feudal ethics and institutional framework, the exchanges between vassal states should be equivalent to those between the vassal states of the Zhou Dynasty in China. When Pyongzhong went to Goryeo, the son of Xiangguo of Qi and a high-ranking official at the level of secretary of state for a diplomatic visit, the host country, as a landlord, should also send a secretary of the corresponding level to greet him, but the Kingdom of Goryeo was one level lower than that of the Kingdom of Japan, so it was naturally rude to send a high-ranking official of at least the third rank to greet him. If Japan used this faux pas as an excuse to invade Goryeo, it would be difficult for Goryeo to ask for assistance from the Great Song Empire. The anxious officials of the Busan Prefecture and various yamen felt like a mountain in their hearts. Ping Zhongsheng's eloquent appearance temporarily gave a sigh of relief to many Goryeo officials present.
In the following days, under the power of Pyong's carrot and stick, Pyong's tentative cooperation agreement was signed, stipulating that a formal bilateral treaty would be signed in Busan within the next three months, and that the kings of the two sides would send official envoys to Pusan to discuss the signing of the treaty.
After returning to the dynasty, he naturally did not dare to hide it after returning to the dynasty by the young and strong suppression of Ping Zhongsheng, and honestly told Goryeo that there had been a huge change in the upper class of Japan, and the young handsome Ping Zhongsheng came with the prestige of hundreds of big ships, and asked for the signing of the treaty, which made the Goryeo royal court, which had been defeated and signed a treaty of land cession and humiliation of the country signed by the Jin State, very disgusted, but after understanding the specific content of the cooperation agreement, Goryeo also had to be moved.