With the contemporary level of telegraph communication, even if it is thousands of miles apart, information communication will not become an obstacle, as for transportation, if you go to North Korea by sea, it is very convenient, if the railway from Liaoyang to North Korea is opened in the future, it may be too late, but it will not take a few days, which is much closer than going to Kokand Province.

If it is useless to say that North Korea is barren, it is useless to come, Siberia is even more barren, and Xindong Province is a frozen land, and there is nothing to ask for, let alone Alaska, but the empire still spends a lot of effort to fight for it.

As for North Korea, the temperature is more suitable for survival, and there are a lot of mineral resources.

It is also a false proposition to say that the North Koreans do not accept the king's transformation and are difficult to govern.

Central Asia was also a foreign race, and it was not yet the territory of the Empire.

How to deal with the resistance of foreign races, how to expand the territory, the ancestors gave us a mature solution thousands of years ago: kill a group and merge a group.

As long as the empire is willing to pay a certain price, then many military generals are sure that in a few decades, there will be no Korean nation, and the Korean Peninsula will be an inseparable part of the Chinese nation.

There are still many people in the empire who want to conquer Korea and make the Korean Peninsula an imperial territory.

And Yuan Baoheng is one of them.

It's just that his starting point is naturally not for the glory of the Chinese Empire, nor for the living space of any nation, his starting point is simpler and purer.

If this matter can be promoted, this is a great credit, the DPRK said that it is not small, but it is not small, it is more than 200,000 square kilometers.

And right on the edge of the empire, if it is possible to annex Korea. Then the entire northern region, then all of them will be imperial territory, there will be no possible threat on land, and there will be no historical Japanese use of Korea as a springboard and then a full-scale invasion of China.

As long as Korea is annexed, then the subsequent threat of the empire in the north is only Russia. In the northeast, the coastal defense threat is dominant, and Japan has been dismembered, so there will not be much external threat to the empire on the subsequent northern Pacific coast.

This is also the reason why Yuan Baoheng is tempted by this matter, as long as he can do it, a noble title will be easily captured.

In recent years, it is not difficult to say that it is difficult to obtain a noble title, and it is not easy to say that it is not easy. As long as it is a general and official who is involved in expanding the territory, then a title can be easily obtained.

And among the civilian officials who have more contact with the expansion of the territory, that is, there are more diplomats.

Therefore, among the nobles of the civilian faction, there are not a few nobles who are diplomats.

Li Bocang, Song Guanqian, and Zhou Suoquan are very typical examples, among which Li Bocang successfully used diplomatic means during his tenure as the imperial minister to Japan. And with the cooperation of the military, Japan was dismembered into three countries. With this huge credit, Li Bocang's title has risen again and again, and he is now a count, although he is still an untitled earl, but this is already a rare dozens of high-ranking nobles in the empire.

It is also the only nobleman with five titles above the title of five counts since the founding heroes of the empire were awarded.

The five high-ranking nobles who were newly sealed. Two in the Army, one in the Navy, and two in the civilian service.

The army is two veteran generals, and the navy is Shen Tongdeng, who led the navy to win the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary and is now the chief of the navy.

And in the civil service. One is Huang Mingchao, the former co-minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce who implemented and presided over the reform of the textile industry and vigorously promoted the cotton spinning industry, and he was also awarded the title of earl before Zhishi.

And the rest of the person is Li Bocang.

At present, Li Bocang still stays in Japan all the year round, but since Japan was divided into three countries, in order to show the empire's unwillingness to see Japan's reunification again, he removed the post of imperial minister in Japan, and instead established consuls in Hokkai, Edo, Nagasu, Satsuma, and Kyoto.

However, although Li Bocang did not serve as minister to Japan, he still operated in Japan for a long time in the name of deputy director of the East Asia Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and minister plenipotentiary for the affairs of various Japanese countries, and the consuls of various consulates also obeyed Li Bocang's arrangement.

Li Bocang's success can be said to have pointed out a shortcut for the diplomats of the empire to win the title of high-ranking official.

Over the years, many diplomats of the empire have tried to replicate Li Bocang's success, and then promoted to knighthood, Hao Mubai, the minister of the Kingdom of Ningning, Shi Yezhi, the minister to the United States, and others have done this, although the results are not as successful as Li Bocang, but they have also been rewarded.

Now Yuan Baoheng naturally hopes to be able to make a career in North Korea like Li Bocang and other predecessors.

It's just that if you want to succeed and attract the attention of the people above, it is not enough to just calm down the turmoil, what Yuan Baoheng needs is greater credit.

And in the post of minister of North Korea, there is no greater credit than the annexation of the whole of Korea.

After arriving in North Korea, Yuan Baoheng planned this matter, but he also knew that this kind of thing could not be done in a short time, and even a year or two was far from enough.

Because there are no special circumstances, such as the case of a major event such as North Korea raising the flag and openly rebelling against the empire, the top of the empire will not consider directly sending troops to the lower ranks.

Although many people in the military and political leadership of the empire want to annex Korea, there are also many people who have the same idea as the Yuan Dynasty, and most of the people who support the annexation of Korea are military generals, and those who want to maintain the status quo are mainly civilian officials.

Therefore, for Yuan Baoheng, it is not the best choice to directly use means and then conquer North Korea by force, because in that case, even if he finally conquers North Korea, the credit will go to the military generals, and it has nothing to do with him Yuan Baoheng.

What Yuan Baoheng had to do was to avoid the means of annexation by force as much as possible, and to use peaceful evolution, preferably to let the Koreans choose to join the empire on their own initiative, which was the best choice.

And how can the Koreans take the initiative to merge into the empire?

This is the problem that plagues Yuan Baoheng.

Now Yuan Baoheng doesn't have a complete idea, and now he is just taking one step at a time, it is best to be able to evolve peacefully, if not, it's a big deal to do something at that time. Directly forcing the conservative troops in the country to send troops to North Korea, although the credit will be smaller, it will be better than nothing.

And the premise of doing this is that North Korea wants to mess up first.

If it was calm, whether it was the empire or him Yuan Baoheng himself, he wouldn't have a chance to speak!

The current relatives led by Concubine Min have set off an opening up to the outside world and introduced British and French forces. In addition, there is also a Li Yuying who was ousted from power and lost power, which constitutes the source of the chaos in North Korea.

After Li Yuying went back, he soon began to contact the old ministry, Li Yuying has served as regent for many years, and has already woven a huge net on the Korean court, and the relatives led by Concubine Min have just come to power, although they have begun to clean up Li Yuying's forces, but the time is too short. For a while, Concubine Min still failed to completely control the power of the court.

As the conspiracy planner standing behind, Yuan Baoheng also started to act, he helped Li Yuying to liaise, and soon sent a batch of military aid to Li Yuying, although they are some old-fashioned 1858 rifles and the like, but the military equipment in North Korea is poor, many are still using bows and arrows, knives and guns, this 1858 Linde rifle is enough. It would be a waste to give them the 1864 Linde rifle.

As for the 'special technical army' that is planned to be trained according to the new type of army. Now Concubine Min and the others have just put it forward, and they haven't made it yet.

After gaining the support of the Empire, Li Yuying moved very quickly, and some of his loyal troops soon launched a rebellion in the name of unpaid wages.

For a while, the city of Seoul was in complete chaos!

The army loyal to Li Yuying and the army loyal to Concubine Min's relatives fought fiercely in the city of Seoul, although the degree of the battle was still in the era of cold weapons, but it was also very tragic.

In this case. As one of the original promises, Yuan Baoheng also made his decision!

More than 200 soldiers of the Imperial Army stationed at the embassy quickly dispatched troops to take control of many important positions in the city near the consulate under the pretext of protecting the lives and property of the imperial merchants.

Of course, the soldiers of the empire would never say that this was aimed at Concubine Min and other relatives, let alone interfering in the internal affairs of North Korea. They were only there to protect the merchants of the empire as well as their possessions.

Of course, in the course of the operation, more than 2,000 troops loyal to Concubine Min were accidentally defeated, and it was purely accidental, who let them try to storm the area where the Chinese merchants lived.

As a powerful figure who has controlled the power of North Korea for many years, Li Yuying still has the means, and it only took two days for his troops to enter Gyeongbokgung Palace, and then put his own son Li Xi under house arrest.

At the same time, she deposed Concubine Min in the name of women interfering in politics and mutilating ministers, and then was given a hanging beam of white silk and died.

As for the other relatives and ministers led by Concubine Min, they were also arrested one after another, and then those who should be killed and those who should be imprisoned.

In less than three days, Yi Yuying successfully declared that he had regained control of the Joseon Kingdom and forced his own son Yi Xi to reappoint him as regent.

But that's not all!

Immediately afterwards, under the auspices of Yuan Baoheng, the imperial minister in Korea, Li Yu deposed Li Xi on charges of **** pleasure and indulging women in politics, and then appointed Li Xi's only son Li Yuan as the new king.

This Li Yuan is just a five-year-old child!

This move is naturally an important move for Li Yuying to try to control the power of North Korea for a long time, and a young child's grandson is always easier to control than an adult son.

On the imperial side, the top leaders of the empire had already ignored North Korea, and after seeing Li Yuying's ********, they continued to move closer to the empire and ban exchanges with Western countries such as Britain and France, coupled with the support of Yuan Baoheng, the imperial minister in Korea, so they acquiesced to Li Yuying's actions.

Half a month later, an envoy from the empire arrived in Korea and canonized Yi Rong as the king of Korea.

Subsequently, Li Yuying signed a series of treaties with Yuan Baoheng on behalf of the Kingdom of Korea, thus setting off a wave of the empire's comprehensive penetration of Korea. (To be continued.) )

PS: Today's Children's Day, I went to the festival on a rainy day, alas, it's annoying to be eight years old, I really want to grow up quickly!