In the middle of September of the 11th year of Orthodoxy, the edict of the Orthodox Emperor finally arrived in Seoul, and Li Yuntian personally led the officials of Seoul out of the city to greet him.

Because Li Yuntian was in Seoul, the Ming Dynasty sent Liu Kunyu, the secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, to deliver the decree this time, although the authority of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites was limited, but Liu Kunyu's level was the same level as Hu Ying, the secretary of the Ming Ministry of Rites in the capital, and his status in the officialdom was noble.

At this time, the Nanjing officialdom was not as down-and-out as it was later, and although the people who could serve as court officials in the Nanjing Central Yamen were not very satisfactory, they had their own connections and heritage in the officialdom, and belonged to the powerful people of the upper class of the imperial court.

What is particularly important is that Emperor Hong Xi and Emperor Xuande guarded Nanjing when they were the crown princes, so they have a special feeling for Nanjing, which makes Nanjing officialdom not too lonely now, and it is not a "nursing home" in the future.

In fact, with the edict of the orthodox emperor of the Ming Dynasty, it is enough to send a seven-grade official of the Ministry of Rites to read it out, but the Korean State is stained with Li Yuntian's light, and Liu Kunyu, a member of the court from the first grade, came to deliver the decree, which is the highest specification of the Ming Dynasty.

Liu Kunyu is over sixty years old, he is a Jinshi at the beginning of Yongle, and when Li Yuntian went to Hukou County to take up his post, he was already the head of the Ministry of Rites, and now he is highly qualified among the officials of the imperial court.

"Lord Liu, it's been hard all the way." Outside the city of Seoul, Li Yuntian smiled and said to Liu Kunyu, who got off the carriage.

"The prince has been working here for two years, but he has worked much harder than this official." Liu Kunyu returned the salute to Li Yuntian with a smile on his face.

Although the officialdom pays attention to seniority, especially civil officials, they value their background and resume, although Li Yuntian's qualifications are not as good as Liu Kunyu, but he is not only an authentic two-list background, but also the left capital of the Ming Imperial Palace, plus the prince of the Ming Dynasty, his status in the officialdom is far higher than Liu Kunyu.

Even Hu Ying, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and Yang Pu, the first assistant of the cabinet, had to give three points of politeness when they saw Li Yuntian, so Liu Kunyu naturally had to be polite to Li Yuntian.

"Lord Liu has won the award, and this king has just done his duty." Li Yuntian smiled slightly when he heard this, and sideways introduced Li Xuan who was standing aside, "This is the King of Joseon." ”

"Your Excellency, the Envoy, has come from afar and worked hard." Seeing this, Li Xuan hurriedly stepped forward and bowed, because Liu Kunyu was an envoy sent by the orthodox emperor, so he respectfully called him "the envoy", if it wasn't for Li Yuntian here, he would not have seen such a high-level Ming official.

"King of Joseon, this time the emperor can issue an edict to be loyal to the prince, you must remember the prince's grace in the future." Liu Kunyu bowed slightly to Li Xuan, and then said quietly, although Li Xuangui is the king of Joseon, he really doesn't look at it, but he is just the leader of a barbarian country.

"Xiao Wang must remember it!" A look of gloom and loss flashed on Li Xuan's face, I am afraid that the annexation of North Korea to the Ming Dynasty was Li Yuntian's idea, otherwise Li Yuntian would not be able to hold back his loneliness and stay in Seoul, which made him have mixed feelings in his heart.

Liu Kunyu nodded when he heard this, and then went into the city with Li Yuntian in the four-wheeled carriage parked on the side, Li Xuan was also fortunate to be able to enter the car to accompany him, and the rest of the people only followed on foot, and the officialdom was strictly hierarchical, and they were not qualified to ride in front of Li Yuntian and Liu Kunyu.

When the people of Seoul were empty at this time, the streets were full of people with their heads stretched out and waiting for them, and when they learned that the envoys sent by the orthodox emperor to convey the holy decree had arrived, the people of Seoul could no longer suppress the excitement in their hearts, and they ran out one after another to join in the fun, gathering in groups to chatter and discuss.

Of course, the people didn't come to see Liu Kunyu, although Liu Kunyu was the scholar of the Ming Dynasty, they were used to seeing Li Yuntian, the dignified prince, so they were not interested in Liu Kunyu.

The reason why these people gathered here was to know whether the orthodox emperor agreed to the annexation of Korea to the Ming Dynasty, which was the thing they were most concerned about now and was closely related to their own interests.

Li Yuntian governed Korea in an orderly manner, and the people of Seoul benefited a lot, the market was prosperous, and their lives were comfortable, so they did not want to go back to the old days, and they all looked forward to the annexation of Korea to the Ming Dynasty.

"Lord, it is said that North Korea is a wild and remote place, but what appears in front of this official is a thriving and prosperous scene, and the prince has contributed a lot over the years."

Looking out the window at the shops and the bustling market, Liu Kunyu smiled and said to Li Yuntian, in addition to compliments, more admiration.

Before coming to Korea, he made a special inquiry about the situation in North Korea, and knew that North Korea was barren and poor, and even the most prosperous royal city, Seoul, was not as prosperous as an ordinary town in the south of the Yangtze River.

But now all the way from Incheon Port, Liu Kunyu found that there are many discrepancies between rumors and reality, looking at Incheon Port and Seoul and the towns along the way, they are all building construction with great fanfare, and the market is also quite prosperous, a vibrant scene, it seems that Li Yuntian has not spent all these days in North Korea in vain.

Liu Kunyu believes that among those officials of the Ming Dynasty, no one except Li Yuntian can govern Korea well, and Li Yuntian is not only a good hand in managing government on the battlefield, whether it is Jiaozhi, Liaodong, Mongolia, or the Western Regions.

At the same time, Liu Kunyu was also keenly aware that Li Yuntian was not simply trying to thoroughly investigate the murder of the king of Korea when he came to North Korea more than two years ago, but was planning for the merger of North Korea into the Ming Dynasty.

It's just that Liu Kunyu can't think of Li Yuntian's purpose in doing this anyway, you must know that North Korea is barren and poor, and it belongs to the barbarians of the Ming Dynasty, so it will be a burden for the Ming Dynasty to let it be incorporated into the Ming Dynasty, without the slightest benefit.

But then again, it is a good thing to open up territory for the Ming Dynasty, and after North Korea was incorporated into the Ming Dynasty, it was under the jurisdiction of Jiangwutang, and there was no need to spend the national funds of the household department, so no one in the court objected to this matter.

After all, this is the king of Joseon's request to annex Korea into the Ming Dynasty, and it does not violate the ancestral motto of Ming Taizu to "not conquer the country", so the next thing will come naturally.

"This is the emperor's grace, the emperor took pity on the Korean people for their suffering, so he sent down boundless grace, so there is the current scene." Li Yuntian shook his head when he heard this, and replied with a smile, he has never been a person who has made meritorious contributions.

"The prince is too modest, before the official came, the emperor was still talking about the prince who started in North Korea and didn't know what the situation was, and said that the prince had been gone for more than two years, and no one had to talk to him."

Liu Kunyu also laughed, he naturally knew that this was Li Yuntian's self-effacing words, and the orthodox emperor was now having a headache about the chaotic party struggle between the inner court and the civil official group in the capital, where did he have the heart to pay attention to the affairs of North Korea.

Li Yuntian couldn't help but have a helpless look on his face when he heard this, although he was in North Korea, he knew the pattern of the Ming Dynasty well, and with the prosperity of the Ming economy and the vigorous development of society, the conflict of interests between the inner court and the civilian official group was also increasingly intensified.

On the surface, it seems that this is a power struggle between eunuchs and civil officials, but in essence, it is a game between the monarch and the vassals, and the orthodox emperor hopes to use eunuchs to balance the civil officials in the court.

Compared with civil officials, the relationship between Xungui and the orthodox emperor is much more harmonious, after all, Xungui only has the right to command the army and cannot be involved in local government affairs, plus many aspects need to be attached to the orthodox emperor, so compared with civil officials, Xungui has no trouble for the orthodox emperor, but it is another weapon to balance civil officials, but it is not effective for eunuchs.

The so-called out of sight and out of mind, Li Yuntian is in North Korea, so he ignores the open and secret battles in the capital and the mutual conflict, anyway, no one is interested in the territory of the martial arts hall now, and whoever is full of food and good fortune will go to the remote and remote frontier to suffer.

Gyeongbokgung Palace's pennant was unfurled, beaming with joy, Li Xuan did not dare to slack off on this edict of the orthodox emperor, and had already prepared a grand ceremony to welcome the holy decree.

According to the rules, Li Xuan needs to burn incense, set up a table, bathe and change clothes, so as to show respect for the holy decree, and have a complete set of procedures for receiving the holy decree.

Although the content of the holy decree was still kept secret and kept by the chamberlains and guards who came out of the palace, Li Yuntian already knew the content of the holy decree, so he was not shocked in his heart, not as excited and nervous as Li Xuan and the others, and quietly waited for the progress of the matter.

"The king of Joseon receives the order!" In the square in front of the main hall of Gyeongbokgung Palace, after Li Xuan was ready to meet the various matters of the holy decree, Liu Kunyu took the holy decree from the hand of the chamberlain who was holding the holy decree in both hands, and shouted at Li Xuan and the princess and other royal family members who were standing behind the table in front of the main hall.

"The king of the courtiers, Li Xuan, greets the holy decree!" Hearing this, Li Xuan hurriedly knelt on a cushion placed in front of him, and said with a serious expression.

With Li Xuan's action, the princess and others who followed him knelt down with hula, and they all touched the ground with their heads and looked extremely respectful.

"Fengtian carrier, the emperor edict said......" Seeing this, Liu Kunyu immediately opened the holy decree in his hand and read out the content in a frustrated manner.

Li Yuntian stood quietly on Liu Kunyu's side, with a faint smile on the corner of his mouth, and the orthodox emperor naturally agreed to Li Xuan's request in the holy decree to allow Korea to be incorporated into the Ming Dynasty.

In order to maintain the stability of North Korean officialdom, the current officials in North Korea will remain unchanged for three years, and after three years, those who do not meet the requirements will be evaluated and eliminated.

At the same time, the central yamen of the Korean state were abolished and merged into the three divisions and one court of the Joseon state, and as a province of the Ming Dynasty, it was clear that the Korean state could not retain those central yamen.

As a matter of fact, Li Yuntian has been doing this for a long time, and when he established the three divisions and one court, he had already put all the central yamen of the Korean state under their respective departments, and the personnel of the three departments and one court were also drawn from which central yamen.

In other words, the central yamen of the Korean state has long been subordinate to the three divisions and one court, so they can operate normally as long as they change their signs.

This is also the reason why Li Yuntian wants to elevate Li Xuan, it can be said that he has no choice but to do it, in preparation for the annexation of North Korea to the Ming Dynasty, so that the decision-making power of North Korea's military and political affairs will be transferred from Gyeongbokgung Palace to three departments and one court, hoping that power can be smoothly transferred, which can be described as well-intentioned.

As the imperial examination that the two groups of students in Seoul are most concerned about, the orthodox emperor regarded the Korean imperial examination as a session, so that the two groups of disciples can step into the official career through it.

However, if he fails to meet the assessment standards after three years, he will lose his official position and be dismissed like other officials, Li Yuntian gave those two team members three years to make changes, and if they still only know how to eat, drink and have fun, they can only be replaced.

As Li Yuntian previously "predicted", the orthodox emperor also lowered his favor to those poor students, and added the martial arts of the Ming Dynasty after the end of the Korean imperial examination, the chief examiner was Li Yuntian, and the deputy chief examiner was Liu Kunyu, and all students in the examination could obtain the fame of the Ming Dynasty.

As soon as the news spread, the miscellaneous students who had come from Badao in North Korea cheered, which meant that they would be given a precious opportunity to change their fate.