In the middle of September of the second year of the Longhan Dynasty, the Holy Emperor of the Han Empire visited Seoul, the capital of Korea.

Originally, this was not on the emperor's itinerary, but because the king of Joseon suddenly became critically ill and could die at any time, the two classes of Korean nobles in Seoul were fighting fiercely over the heir of the king of Joseon, and they were in danger of getting out of control.

After receiving the report from Jinyiwei, Liu Jun decided to change his route to North Korea and go to Seoul to deal with this unexpected situation. After the annexation of Japan by the Han Dynasty, Korea, a vassal state of the Han Dynasty, became more and more prominent, after all, this is also a large country with a population of tens of millions, and if it gets into chaos, it will not benefit the Han at all.

At the wharf of the Han River, countless Korean nobles, officials and ordinary people came to greet the Son of Heaven. This is the second time in three years that Liu Jun has come to Seoul. However, the last time he came, Liu Jun was only the righteous son of Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, but now he is the son of the Han Dynasty. Today's North Korea has become more and more trusting of the Han people, both politically and economically.

At present, the southern bank of the Yalu River, the islands on the east coast, and even the islands of Tamna and Geoje in the southern sea have successively become military bases and concessions for the Han army, and the coastal ports of Korea have also been fully opened to trade with the Han Dynasty.

The navy and army of the Great Han were stationed all around Korea, and there was even a fleet stationed directly at the mouth of the Han River in Seoul, and in the words of the chief of naval staff of the Privy Council, if needed, this fleet stationed at the mouth of the Han River alone could capture the Korean capital in a single day.

Korea was weakened by the Japanese invasion and several Manchu invasions. No one in the DPRK objected to the stationing of the Han army in Korea, but most of them welcomed it, and the few officials who raised objections were immediately demoted and stripped of their posts.

In addition to the military, the greatest influence of the Han on the North Koreans was economic influence and control.

Adolescence. After suffering Japan's loss, the Koreans began to close themselves off from the rest of the country. When the Han came in, they fully opened up trade to the Han, and the result was that the Han capital entered North Korea in the past few years.

At present, there are eight provinces in Korea, from Gyeongshi Seoul to Busan in the southern port, and there are banks and money banks of Dahan everywhere. Even the Joseon royal family, the two classes of nobles, and even ordinary people all rushed to deposit their money in the banks of the Han Dynasty, and the Han Dynasty's silver dollar, copper dollar, and silver dollar coupon monetary system has even completely replaced the old Korean currency system.

North Koreans prefer the currency of the Han Dynasty, which is exquisite and easy to use, not easy to fake, and there is no shortage of catties and taels, and everyone is happy to accept it. In particular, the silver dollar coupon is just a piece of paper. Easy to carry because of its strong credit, it is now the settlement currency for large transactions.

The North Koreans deposited their gold, silver and copper coins in the bank, and there was interest to be earned. The Joseon court was also willing to borrow money from banks to purchase armaments and government expenses, and the royal family also borrowed a lot of money, and at the suggestion of the banks, they simply used the Korean salt tax, customs and customs duties as collateral. In order to ensure that the Han people could receive the benefits of the salt tax, North Korea simply gave these taxes the right to collect them. All of them were handed over to Dahan for collection.

Therefore, now the salt tax, customs and regular customs duties of North Korea are actually in the hands of the Han Dynasty.

In recent years, a wide variety of goods have been transported to North Korea by sea, ranging from ordnance to match soap, from glass perfume and other luxury goods. From small daily necessities such as iron nails and sewing needles, North Korea has almost become an important commodity sales place for the Han Dynasty.

A market of more than 10 million people, a big piece of cake.

Compared with the goods of North Korea, the goods of Dahan are more exquisite and cheaper. It's like a simple sewing needle. North Korea still uses the most traditional handmade products. From the reaming bars to the fine-tuned polishing, then the fine-sharpened needles, the nostrils behind the needles, and then packed into a carton, a skilled craftsman can produce no more than twenty needles a day. The price of this small needle is not cheap.

But Dahan's needle factory is completely different, they have produced eighteen processes for the manufacture of needles, each process is manufactured by a worker, and eighteen people form a complete assembly line. Each person does only one process, the first craftsman pulls out the wire, the second craftsman straightens it, and the third craftsman cuts it

In this way, each worker in this simple needle factory can complete the processing of 4,800 needles, and 18 people can make a complete needle, and on average, this group of assembly lines can produce more than 200 needles a day on average, which is more than ten times the efficiency of North Korean craftsmen.

And there is an even more powerful point that the North Koreans need skilled craftsmen to make needles and complete the entire process by themselves. In Dahan's needle workshop, everyone only needs to master one process, most of which are very simple, and ordinary workers can complete it without skilled craftsmen, and even many links can be processed with special tools.

Moreover, this production method is very restrictive, only a small number of skilled craftsmen, and then recruit a large number of workers, can replicate countless production lines, and expand the output by a hundredfold and a thousandfold.

The division of labor, as well as the expansion of scale, means lower costs and greater efficiency.

The quality of these needles is not inferior to that of North Korean craftsmen, but the price is much cheaper, and a large number of Han factories poured into various parts of North Korea, quickly seizing the North Korean needle market.

Needle-like things happen repeatedly in the inflow of various other commodities.

On the one hand, the craftsmen and businessmen of North Korea shouted wolf, but on the other hand, the North Korean people praised them, and they abandoned the local goods made in North Korea and bought more high-quality and inexpensive Dahan goods.

Even in some labor-intensive industries, some clever Han businessmen went directly to North Korea to set up workshops, recruited workers locally, and hired North Koreans at salaries several times cheaper than those in the Han Dynasty.

As a result, the North Koreans not only did not say that the Han merchants were black-hearted, but were grateful to the Han merchants for providing them with a channel to make money, and even the North Korean officials thanked the Han merchants for opening workshops here and creating tax revenue for them.

A large amount of raw materials from North Korea, such as cotton, minerals, medicinal herbs, and grain, were procured at very low prices and then shipped back to Dahan. All kinds of glass, candles, soap, wool, woolen, muskets, ships, carriages, and steel products processed in the empire were then sold in large quantities to Korea.

For Dahan, North Korea, with a population of nearly 20 million, has become a fairly mature market, both a supplier of raw materials and an exporter of processed goods.

Liu Jun doesn't want chaos in North Korea, which means it could affect the status quo.

"Your Majesty, the imperial doctor we sent has been diagnosed, and the king of North Korea is afraid that it will be a few days before he returns to heaven."

"What the hell is the disease?"

"Sudden stroke."

The current king of Joseon was completely supported by the Han Dynasty, and after he ascended the throne, he immediately married his daughter to Liu Jun, and followed the Han Dynasty closely. Liu Jun was very satisfied with the king of Joseon.

If he dies, it will also be a loss for Dahan.

The biggest problem now is that the king of Joseon has no son, and his son accidentally fell off his horse while riding together not long ago and died, and the stroke of the king of Joseon may not have been unaffected by this incident.

Now that the son of the Joseon king died before the Joseon king, and the Joseon king had no other sons, seeing that the Joseon king had a stroke and was going to die, the two classes of Korean nobles fought fiercely over who should be chosen to inherit the throne.

"Who do the two classes of Korean nobles want to support to inherit the throne?"

"Some people want to support Li Jun, the king of Linping, and some people want to support Li Hao, the king of Fenglin."

Both of them are the sons of King Injo Li Liang, Li Jun is the second son, and Li Hao is the third son. When the Qing army invaded Korea, Li Liang surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and his three sons, including Shizi, were taken back to Shenyang as hostages. Later, the Han army entered Korea, and some Korean ministers mutinied, abolished Li Liang, and welcomed the Han army into Seoul.

After that, the Han Dynasty recovered Liaodong, and the three Li Hao brothers were sent back to Korea.

After the son of the current Joseon king fell from his horse and died, the king of Joseon suffered a stroke, thus setting off a dispute between the sons of the dynasty. Originally, the most promising inheritance was Li Wei, the son of Li Wei, but Li Wei died in the palace not long ago, which was believed to be food poisoning.

As soon as Li Wei died, the nobles were divided, some people supported Li Jun, and some people supported Li Hao.

Liu Jun frowned, he was not satisfied with either of these two candidates, just one identity that they were the sons of Li Kun was enough to make the big man dislike. Their father was deposed by the Han-backed North Korean mutiny, and then died violently. If they succeed to the throne, who knows if they will hold a grudge against the Han and then do something irrational.

Moreover, after Liu Jun took Japan, he also had further thoughts about North Korea.

"I remember that many aristocratic ministers in Korea admired my Han affairs, and even heard that some people had proposed that Korea should be brought under the direct jurisdiction of the Han Dynasty and become the Korean province of the Han Empire."

When Feng Sheng, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, heard the emperor's words, his heart couldn't help but move. When the emperor said this, did he plan to swallow North Korea by the way?

"Nowadays, many Korean nobles do have their hearts set on the Han Dynasty, but if it is said that North Korea will become a province of the Han Dynasty, I am afraid that there will be many people who oppose it, especially the Korean royal family."

"What if the king of Joseon also agrees to be incorporated into the Han Empire?" Liu Jun asked with a smile.

Feng Sheng was silent, this is almost impossible.

"Feng Sheng, I think that the two heirs chosen by the ministers of North Korea are not suitable, you go to meet the king of North Korea and convey my intentions."

"Your Majesty, who can be the heir?"

Liu Jun smiled slightly, "I think that the prince of the Han Dynasty, Liu Hekun, the prince of Wu Guo, is very suitable, and the biological mother of Wu Guogong is a Korean princess, the grandson of the current king of Korea. In the case that the king has no children and no heirs, I believe that Wu Guogong, who has the dual noble blood of the Han royal family and the Korean royal family, is very suitable for the position of the prince of Joseon. ”

Feng Sheng was dumbfounded, and he couldn't turn around for a while, let Wu Guogong, the second prince of the Han Dynasty, be the prince of Joseon?

Is this going to merge the Han Dynasty? (To be continued.) )