Yuan Jixian stood in front of the sand table, looking at North Korea and Japan, which had now planted the dragon flag of the Han Empire. "It is unbelievable that Japan was destroyed in half a year, and Korea was incorporated into the empire. When Lao Chen first received the news of Korea's annexation to the empire, he thought it was a joke. ”

"This thing seems to be a bit magical, but if you think about it, it is not surprising, and it can only be said that it is just a matter of course." The annexation of Japan and Korea, which is also the most successful and miraculous opening of the Han Empire since the founding of the country,

By annexing the two countries, the Han Empire increased its population by nearly 50 million, and Korea and Japan added a new territory to the Han Dynasty, equivalent to 16 Taiwan islands.

It is roughly equivalent to the sum of the four provinces of Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, and Shandong of the Han Empire.

In terms of newly opened territories, Korea and Japan combined were not as good as the newly opened territories outside the Guanwai of the Empire, not to mention the four provinces of Saishang, Mobei and Southwest, and there was also a more expansive province of Sipol.

But although those places are big, there are few people, all rely on the imperial court to immigrate over, and they can really develop in a few decades. However, unlike Japan, North Korea is an already well-developed agricultural area, and the 50 million people alone are a huge and valuable resource.

The merger of these two regions is no worse than that of the Guanwai in terms of importance, and when it comes to economy, population, and arable land, it throws the frontier provinces behind 108,000 miles.

With this 50 million people, the Han will be put on the engine.

"The imperial court originally thought that it would take five years or more to conquer Japan, and as for Korea, no one thought that the empire would annex them."

"I believe there must be a lot of people who criticize the merger of North Korea, right?" Liu Jun smiled.

"Yes, there are many people who think that there is no need to merge North Korea, and that it is not benevolent to do so. Many people believe that Korea has always been a vassal of the Central Plains and is loyal. The imperial court merged with Korea, and it was not authentic enough. ”

"Benevolence? Tunnel? Liu Jun shook his head, "Maybe, but if God doesn't take it, he will be blamed." Now there is a great opportunity for the imperial court to merge Korea. This will be extremely important for Dahan and will benefit from it for a long time. Why should I miss such an opportunity by worrying about those false names? Don't think that North Korea is our vassal, and really treat them as your own. ”

Liu Jun's act of annexing North Korea does have some meaning of bullying. But from the point of view of the state, this behavior is the right one. It's not about what is right or wrong, it's about profit. Don't think that North Korea is harmless if there is a big difference in strength between the two countries. Naturally, the DPRK does not dare to think anything, but if the Central Plains weakens, who can guarantee it.

"But now it seems that they are really too worried, and the whole North Korea is still very supportive of the merger." Yuan Jixian also felt that the emperor was a little too domineering, destroying Japan and swallowing Korea, and this set came down. It's not benevolence, but it's for the big man. Indeed, it has benefited for thousands of years.

But the most surprising thing to the court was the attitude of the Koreans, although the Han used the word merger, but annexation is annexation, but the matter went so smoothly that a small number of Koreans who stood up against it were quickly suppressed. Then Dahan and North Korea happily completed the merger.

It's incredible.

"Back then, the Japanese also wanted to invade Korea, and the invasion troops were dispatched, and the war lasted for several years, with countless casualties. In the end, he returned home. Yuan Jixian sighed, "The Japanese planned for a long time, and when they first entered Korea, they were almost swept away when they entered the land of no one, but the Korean king and the court would rather go into exile than surrender." Many of the Korean people spontaneously rose up to resist and vowed not to surrender. ”

"How can that be the same? Japan was an invasion back then, they were bandits, invaded Japan, burned, killed and looted, and did everything. But the Han Dynasty is different, not to mention that the Han Dynasty has always been the suzerainty of Korea, and the Wanli period aided the DPRK to resist Japan, and it has the grace to rebuild Japan. After that, I led my troops into the court, and also relieved him of the suffering of being enslaved by the Jurchens. ”

When Liu Jun said this, he was indeed a little proud.

In that year, Liu Jun entered the dynasty and supported the pro-Han faction to depose the former king Li Ju, and single-handedly supported Li Juan as king. At that time, the DPRK had already been purged once, and since then, the whole of the DPRK has basically been pro-Han. In addition, in the next three years, the Han set up concessions in Korea, stationed troops, and traded with each other.

Under this influence, Dahan had a good reputation in Korea, which provided an excellent environment for the merger.

And Liu Jun also gave a lot of benefits to the North Korean authorities, protecting their property, retaining their official positions, setting up a parliament, sending officials to Beijing to study, allowing the two groups of disciples to study in the Central Plains, and allowing them to participate in the imperial examination.

This is not the attitude of the occupiers towards the occupied at all, but a real merger, and with the help of grace and power, unless the whole of Korea is in their brains, they will not resolutely oppose this matter.

Liu Jun gave a lot of sincerity to the merger of Korea, which was a real merger rather than an annexation, especially with the support of the king of Korea, and there was less resistance.

Without the opposition of the royal family and the two classes of nobles, the ordinary people of North Korea would not have objected. This kind of thing is not something that ordinary people can participate in. At that time, many rebel militia members rose up to resist the Japanese invasion, because the Japanese invaded Korea, burned, killed and looted, and the Korean people were greatly harmed, and the king and Korea called on them to rise up and resist. Now the king and the nobles are not against it, and their own lives will not be affected, and even since the arrival of the Han people, their lives have been better, how can they object.

In this era when nationalism is not very prevalent, the state and the nation are just tools used by the establishment to maintain their interests.

Isn't it better to be a lord and nobleman of the Han Dynasty than the nobles of North Korea?

"Your Majesty is far-sighted and has already calculated everything." Yuan Jixian smiled, as the first assistant of the cabinet, presiding over the administration of the country, of course, he also clearly saw the great benefits to the Han after the annexation of Japan and Korea. Japan, in particular, was completely annexed, and Japan's population of more than 20 million people became an important labor force of the empire, opening up land for the empire, building roads, bridges, and mining for the empire. Especially the money that Japan has acquired. Almost the entire wealth of Japan fell into the imperial treasury, and this money filled the imperial treasury like never before.

He, the first assistant, will not have to worry about financial income for at least ten years.

Just a merger of the DPRK. More modestly, there are too many rights reserved for those North Koreans. But he can also understand that North Korea is not Japan, and it has to be treated differently. The generous treatment given to the North Koreans now is also a complete disintegration of the last bit of resistance of the North Koreans.

As for the somewhat exorbitant status of the North Koreans, this is not a problem. Only after the imperial court gradually took over control of the situation in Korea, these people naturally could no longer maintain this transcendent privilege, and even if they were unwilling, nothing could be changed.

"I have appointed Zhang Guowei, the secretary of the Ministry of War, as the governor of Korea. In the future, a large number of North Korean officials will be sent to Beijing to study. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the cabinet should quickly select a number of competent officials to serve in the DPRK. The imperial court sought to take over Korea within five years. ”

"From Korea onwards, it will be a military region of the empire, and the provinces of Goryeo and Silla will also have to implement the same institutional laws and tax laws as the Central Plains. This is a relatively heavy workload, and the cabinet will work hard to complete the reshuffling of officials in the two provinces of the Korean Military Region by the end of the year, and to implement the laws and taxation systems of the DPRK and the DPRK. ”

As long as the Han system is implemented in Korea. Then in the case of the separation of military and political affairs and finance and taxation, there is a Han garrison in Korea. Even if the former North Korean officials will be the main ones in the early stage, under the framework of the Great Han, Liu Jun is not worried about what chaos will happen in North Korea.

"By the way, the census registration of the DPRK will be completed within this year, and the property of the DPRK nobles will be renewed with new contracts. Protect their property from infringement and exchange deeds free of charge. ”

When the Han Dynasty opened the country, he took the opportunity of exchanging the contract to impose a property tax on those noble landlords, but now Liu Jun does not plan to collect this tax from the Koreans. There's no need to go for some money. And to provoke the North Koreans, anyway, the imperial court is not bad for money now.

"Comprehensively implement the laws and taxation system of the imperial court in Korea?"

"Of course, since Korea is already a military region of the Han Empire, how can it be one country, two systems?"

"Don't worry, although the country's tax laws and regulations may have some impact on the Korean nobles, they will not suffer, paying some taxes is just a little blood, but they have more opportunities to participate in the business activities of the empire, and their money is invested in the empire's commerce casually, and they save more than the little tax they save."

"The right privy envoy Liu Yunsheng was promoted to the governor of Nanyang, and now Zhang Guowei, the secretary of the military department, has been appointed as the governor of Korea, and Liu Yunzhen, the admiral of the East China Sea Fleet, is the governor of Japan. Yuan Jixian reminded the emperor.

"Does the Taishi have any opinion on my preparation to use troops in Nanyang?" Liu Jun heard the meaning of Yuan Jixian's words.

Yuan Jixian said, "The old minister just thinks that one piece and one gallop is the king's road, and the imperial court has used troops one after another this year, first destroying Japan and then annexing Korea, and the southwest is also full of soldiers. ”

Compared to North Korea's unexpected progress in the East China Sea, the war in the west has been a difficult one. Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting stabilized the tranquility in the northwest, and the Han Dynasty reached a suzerain-vassal relationship with Gu Shi Khan, who entered Tibet, and there was no war for the time being. But in the southwest, Zheng Zhilong entered Burma to fight, but it did not go well at the beginning.

The tropical climate of the southwestern rainforest is not even much better than that of the plateau climate in the Qinghai-Tibet region. It happened that it was the rainy season when he sent his troops, and the rainy season plus malaria and other epidemics in the rainforest, as well as the Sino-South anti-Han alliance that the Donghu people unexpectedly pulled up, all made Zheng Zhilong's progress unfavorable.

Because of the rainy season, epidemics and the resistance of the Donghu people, the artillery and muskets of the Han Dynasty seemed to be a little difficult to exert there, especially since the previous imperial court miscalculated the resistance strength of the southeast, resulting in Zheng Zhilong's insufficient troops to launch a large-scale sweeping attack.

So far, Zheng Zhilong has lost more than 10,000 people, although the real imperial army has lost less than 3,000, and most of them died from epidemic infection, and the rest are mostly indigenous militias from Dali, Laos and other places. But this loss also shocked the imperial court.

Since the founding of the Han Dynasty, it has never experienced such a large number of casualties.

Whether it was a contest with the Jurchens in Liaodong, or a conquest of Mongolia in the steppe, or even an eastward conquest of Japan, there was no such a large casualty in Yunnan-Guizhou Rebellion.

Because of this matter, many officials in the court even impeached Zheng Zhilong and wanted to remove him from his post as the governor of Central South and the general of Zhengnan.

Yuan Jixian and other prime ministers even felt that it was difficult to transport supplies in the southwest, and it was far away from the Han Dynasty, so there was really no need to go to the conquest, and some people even felt that the conquest of the Donghu State should be stopped, as long as the current control of the three provinces of Yunnan, Dali, and Laos in central and southern China could be maintained.

However, as soon as the emperor conquered Japan, he did not consult with the prime ministers and politicians, and directly appointed Liu Yunsheng, the general of the expedition and the right privy envoy, to be reappointed as the governor of Nanyang.

The empire currently has only a small island of Singapore in Nanyang, and Liu Yun was promoted to the governor of Nanyang, and the dignified privy envoy went to a small island to be the governor, isn't this intention obvious.

In particular, the Rearrangement and Adjustment of the Empire's various naval fleets, and the Imperial Navy has begun to deploy multiple fleets to the South Seas, which further proves their speculation.

Far from withdrawing troops, the emperor also planned to comprehensively expand the war in Nanyang, which was a situation in which he was preparing to clean up with Nanyue, Nanzhang, Donghu and other countries, and even prepared to carry out a large-scale encirclement strategy, and the navy cooperated with the army to copy Donghu's backyard.

Many ministers think that the emperor is a little too belligerent, and they already feel unacceptable to fight Donghu, and now they actually want to fight together with South Vietnam and other countries, this thousands of miles away from the miasma, there is really nothing to fight, when the Qin and Han dynasties had South Vietnam, didn't they also lose it successively, and the Ming also recovered South Vietnam, but later withdrew. Those places, too far away.

Liu Jun had heard of this kind of remarks for a long time, and he didn't intend to ignore them at all.

"Taishi, do you know that the countries of the West and the West in the South Seas are currently planning to send troops to commit my Han? Intending to seize the territory of our Han South Seas and blockade the merchant ships of our Han maritime trade? ”

"Is that really the case? Aren't these Xiyimo crazy, how dare they? Yuan Jixian was extremely surprised.

"Driven by profits, there is nothing that you don't dare." Liu Jun said.

"These Xiyi are really crazy." Yuan Jixian asked, "Then the transfer of Privy Envoy Liu to the governor of Nanyang, as well as several fleets going south, is it not to deal with Donghu and South Vietnam?" ”

"No, those who dare to offend my Han Tianwei will be punished even if they are far away. It doesn't matter if he is Donghu or South Vietnam, or Spain, Holland, or England, anyone who dares to provoke the Han will fight back. ”

Yuan Jixian didn't know what to say anymore, the emperor was not only going to send a fleet south to fight Donghu and Nanyue, but also to fight the countries on the Nanyang Islands together. (To be continued.) )

PS: Thank you for the reward I love my sister and my brother, thank you for the monthly pass, thank you!