After the Spring Festival of the Lunar New Year, on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, when Li Yongji officially began to pack his bags and planned to take a speedboat to California in the near future, he suddenly received a news of success.

That is, Seoul has fallen, the king of Korea and all the royal family members have been captured, after that, the king of Tongguò Joseon issued an edict, and Korea has officially surrendered to the Chinese Empire in the mode of announcing the world.

This made Li Yongji surprised, because he had always been clear about the battle of the dynasty, but he never expected Seoul to fall so quickly, and only then did he know what was going on when he asked someone.

It turned out that as early as before the Spring Festival, the First Route Expeditionary Volunteers set out from Andong under the leadership of Feng Zicai, advanced to the Yalu River, and confronted the defense troops of Uiju County in North Korea across the Yalu River.

Since then, Feng Zicai has been standing still on the side of the Yalu River, only firing artillery bombardment from time to time, and building pontoon bridges on the side of the Yalu River everywhere, making a gesture of leading the army to cross the Yalu River.

Seeing this situation, after many failed diplomatic attempts, the DPRK had no choice but to increase its troops along the Yalu River, and has successively invested 150,000 troops and horses along the Yalu River, and there are as many as 100,000 reinforcements in Pyongyang Province.

When the matter came to this point, Li Yongji still knew all the process, and he also knew that this was the plan set at the beginning, that is, to use Feng Zicai's main force and the Yalu River to attract the main force of the North Korean army and create an opportunity for the second crusading army to raid Seoul.

However, according to intelligence, even if Korea poured out, Seoul was still defended by 50,000 troops, coupled with the large population and the well-guarded Joseon royal palace, it was impossible for it to fall in such a short period of time under normal circumstances.

According to the original plan. The main purpose of the troops who raided Seoul on the second route was not to storm Seoul, but to make a gesture of storming Seoul, which was actually to encircle the point and send reinforcements.

To put it simply, the second route of the crusading army is to establish a blocking position near Seoul, cut off the supply lines of the North Korean army in the Pyongyang area, and break the morale of the North Korean army, so that North Korea will be divided in half.

You must know that the economic center of North Korea at this time was in Seoul, and almost all the food supplies collected in North Korea were also in Seoul. As soon as Seoul is surrounded, then the channels for delivering supplies to the front line will be cut off. At the same time, the siege of the rear capital will also cause heavy panic among the front-line soldiers, and severely weaken their combat effectiveness.

At that time, the Korean army on the front line will starve to death sooner or later, and if they go back to rescue Seoul, the Second Route Army will just be waiting for work.

Although the Second Route Army did not have much heavy firepower, it was slightly insufficient to attack the city. Or rather, the losses are too great, but their own firearms are quite advanced, and there are quite a few automatic weapons, if 30,000 people defend with all their might. North Korea is not afraid of 100,000 troops.

It should be said that this set of plans is still very reliable, and it has fully brought into play the advantages of the Chinese army in being good at field warfare, and it has waited for work at its own leisure. cut off the enemy's supply lines, mobilized the enemy's forces, and seized the initiative in the campaign. The overall winning margin is very large, and it is a fairly sound strategy.

The only disadvantage is that this strategy takes a long time, after all, although the main force of the DPRK in Pyongyang and the Yalu River mainly relies on Seoul for logistics, Pyongyang itself has a lot of food in stock, and if the commander is smarter, he will not return to the army, but continue to hold his troops, then he can defend for at least more than half a year.

However, Shi Dakai, the commander-in-chief of the Second Route Expeditionary Army, did not strictly follow this plan, but really came to a surprise attack on Seoul.

Specifically, after Shi Dakai led the army to forcibly land at Incheon, he asked all the 200-strong members of the Qianlong Special Combat Team to change into the clothes of the Korean army, and then arrived in Seoul before the Korean army was defeated with one person and two horses, with a few Korean interpreters.

Then, after these people disguised as Korean routs reached Seoul, they took advantage of the chaos to sneak into Seoul in the name of reporting news, and then it was easy, they directly seized a gate in Seoul, and defended on the spot by taking advantage of the geographical advantage, advanced weapons, and excellent suzhì.

There are very few 200 people, but these people are all modern weapons, using advanced weapons such as G36 assault rifles and AWP sniper rifles, plus grenades and gun grenades, and it will not be a problem for 200 people to hold the city wall until the ammunition is exhausted.

After these 200 men held for six hours, the first reinforcements led by Chen Yucheng quickly arrived. The troops led by Chen Yucheng numbered 5,000 people, all of whom were Chen Yucheng's pro-army, that is, the National Defense Army.

The reason why Shi Dakai asked Chen Yucheng's national defense force to be the first batch of reinforcements was because Chen Yucheng's subordinates were extremely experienced in combat, flexible and flexible, able to deal with complex shapes, and most importantly, they were all lightly armed.

Relatively speaking, although the Praetorian Guard troops under the Jingwu Army are a little better armed, they actually have a lot of recruits in them, who are better at dignified field battles, and most of them have a lot of equipment, not as light as Chen Yucheng's troops.

Of course, there is another point that cannot be said, that is, Shi Dakai is selfish, and he hopes that Chen Yucheng can get enough credit, so that their faction can also have a foothold in the future.

That's right, from this time on, Shi Dakai began to think about the faction issue, and there is no doubt that Chen Yucheng is the target of his focus.

In any case, after Chen Yucheng's 5,000 bicycle soldiers came to reinforce it, the section of the city wall guarded by the Qianlong Special Combat Team was impregnable, and the North Korean army could no longer take this city wall.

Another four hours passed, and the main force of 10,000 Janissaries and 10,000 National Defense Army also arrived, and it can be said that excluding the troops guarding Incheon Port, Shi Dakai's main force all came to Seoul, and the arrival of these people directly laid the victory.

Next, Shi Dakai first let his troops drive into the city, held on for a long time, and waited for his own troops to rest before starting to slowly advance towards Changdeokgung Palace, the imperial palace of North Korea.

It should be said here that although Seoul was the capital of Korea at this time, it was mainly built as an economic and political center, and the city was quite large, but it was quite weak in terms of defense.

To put it simply, at this time, Seoul is a city wall on the periphery, once it breaks through the wall of Seoul, there is no danger to defend inside, there is no inner city or outer city, and the so-called Changdeokgung Palace is not as well-defended as the Forbidden City or the Heavenly King's Mansion, it is a city within a city.

Therefore, as long as the outer walls of Seoul were occupied. The next attack on the palace of North Korea is no longer difficult at all, at least in terms of geographical advantages, it is not as complicated as attacking the Forbidden City in Beijing or the Heavenly King's Mansion in Nanjing.

Although Seoul was large in size and there were many ordinary people, these North Koreans were quite cowardly, and they did not dare to stop the army at all, and they all closed their doors and stayed at home, and did not dare to come out to resist at all.

As for those North Korean soldiers, they are even weaker than weak chickens, and the previous special combat team and Chen Yucheng's troops were afraid of what happened. It was just a simple defense, and at most I felt that the attack of the North Koreans was a little weak, and now that the Chinese army began to attack, the weak nature of the North Korean army was immediately exposed.

Basically, the most the North Korean soldiers were to fire a burst of bows and arrows from a distance, and when they found that the muskets with a range inferior to the Chinese army, they immediately retreated, and as for those who came up to play hand-to-hand combat, there was not a single one.

That's it. The Chinese army continued to advance, and the Korean army continued to retreat, and slowly came to Changdeokgung Palace.

After besieging Changdeokgong, the Chinese army led by Shi Dakai did not immediately launch a strong attack. Instead, a propaganda offensive was launched to demand the immediate and unconditional surrender of King Yi Yu of Joseon.

Li Yu is the Zhezong in the history of North Korea, this guy lived in Ganghwa Island in his early years and lived a depressed life. Later, he relied on the support of Andong Kim to ascend to the throne of the king of Joseon, but after he became king, the government has been controlled by Andong Kim. He doesn't have much power of his own.

So the matter is very simple, for the sake of his own power, Anton Kim thought that this kind of attack by China was just dissatisfied with the punishment of Korea's dependence on the Manchus, and thought that as long as he surrendered, it would be no problem, so for the sake of his own life, he asked Li Yu to surrender to the Chinese army led by Shi Dakai.

But in fact, the decision to continue to rely on the Manchu Qing was also a decision made by Anton Kim, because when the Manchu army that retreated to the northeast harassed Korea, the king of Korea meant to keep fighting, and then ask the Chinese Empire for help, but Anton Kim's forcible let Li Yu continue to submit to the Manchus in order not to suffer too much loss for his own interests.

At that time, Anton Jin's calculations were also very good, they hoped to first show their submission to the Manchus, and then secretly sent people to join the Chinese Empire, but unfortunately they miscalculated the form, and the result was not pleasing to both sides.

Despite this, Anton Kim is still a bit responsible after all, for example, the commander-in-chief of the Korean army in Pyongyang is Kim Zuogen of Anton Kim, in order to resist the Chinese army, he can be regarded as exhausting his family wealth and doing his best.

In short, at this time, the Korean king Li Yu was a puppet, and he was not bold, after finding that his palace was defended, after hearing the ultimatum of the Chinese army, he resolutely announced his surrender, his surrender, the Korean defenders in the palace immediately fell in morale, no one resisted, but obediently laid down their arms.

The Seoul Raid, which lasted less than a day, ended quickly with the early surrender of the Joseon king.

After the Joseon king announced his surrender, Shi Dakai did not care about himself, although he still controlled the important places inside and outside the palace and the city wall, but still gave the Joseon king due treatment and respect.

Then, Shi Dakai listened to Li Yu's crying, especially after hearing that the king put all the blame on Anton Jin's head, and immediately had a new idea.

Shi Dakai sued the king of Joseon, Li Yu, saying that the Chinese Empire was crusading against Korea because Korea was dependent on the Manchus and was not a subordinate, and now since there is something else hidden, you can announce it to the world and publicize the crimes of Anton Kim.

Then, Shi Dakai said that he could go back to meet the emperor and explain the situation to His Majesty, with His Majesty's kindness, he would definitely not embarrass North Korea too much, and it was likely that he would continue to let you be the king, you just need to submit to the table and continue to be a subject of the Chinese Empire.

This made the king of North Korea Li Yu very moved, and now he is a prisoner, and he does not rebel against Shi Dakai, so he listened to Shi Dakai's words, and really announced the world, not only counted the crimes of Anton Kim, but also asked North Korea not to resist, saying that Shangguo sent troops to come, and at the invitation of the king, came to suppress the traitors of the Kim family, and anyone who resisted the army of Shangguo was a fellow party of Anton Kim and a sinner of North Korea.

The power of this announcement is not small, at least it can serve the purpose of disturbing the hearts of the North Korean people, and it can also greatly shake the morale of the front-line soldiers, especially the North Korean troops in the area from Pyongyang to the Yalu River.

The back road of the Korean army was cut off, and some people were already panicking, but now they suddenly heard that even the country had been breached, and the king had been arrested, and even issued an edict of surrender, saying that the Chinese army was invited by the king to crusade against the traitors, so what else was there to fight in this battle? It doesn't make any sense!

North Korea at this time. There is no nationalism or nationalism, everyone is more loyal to the private person, or to the king, and once the surrender is announced abroad, unless another king is appointed and continues to resist, it usually means the defeat of the state.

The problem is that the DPRK has a small territory and limited manpower and material resources, and if it is against the Chinese army. It is simply a mantis arm as a car, which is the consensus of the top and bottom.

The reason why Jin Zuogen led his troops to resist was because there was no way, after all, the Chinese Empire simply ignored the envoys he sent and invaded North Korea with iron determination, so for the sake of North Korea, he could only stand up.

But the result was that Kim Zu-geun, who was wholeheartedly for North Korea, was beaten as a rebel by his own king. In this way, the crusade of the Chinese army has also become a crusade against Jin Zuogen, a traitor. This made him the culprit, and everyone put the responsibility for the invasion of the Chinese army on his head.

Eventually, in desperation. Kim committed suicide in Pyongyang, after which the Korean forces on the front line surrendered to Feng Zicai's forces, and Korea formally declared its submission to the Chinese Empire.

Just when Lee Yong-gil got the detailed news of the conquest of Korea. It is said that the king of Joseon was sailing directly to Nanjing on the battleship Jinwon of the First Fleet, in order to meet with Yi Yongji in person, explain to him the reasons before and after, and express Joseon's willingness to submit to the Chinese Empire.

"That's a bit of a problem." Li Yongji looked at Shen Shiming, "My Prime Minister, do you think I should receive this king of North Korea?" ”

"Why did Your Majesty ask this, the king of Korea personally came to ask for surrender, this is a great thing." Shen Shiming said.

"But if you see him, you will be embarrassed to annex North Korea." Li Yongji touched his nose, "The geographical location of Korea is quite important, and it is the stepping stone for attacking Japan in the future, so the best way is to turn Korea into one of our provinces, rather than continuing to maintain a relatively independent Korean kingdom." However, once I met with the king of Joseon, everyone was so low-profile, and it seemed that if I still forcibly annexed it, it would not have a good reputation. ”

"Why are you in such a hurry?" Shen Shiming said, "Although North Korea calls itself Little China, its language and customs are very different from ours, and the people are poor and the country is weak, so if we want to forcibly annex it under the current circumstances, it will actually be a great burden for us."

According to Wechen's view, it is better to learn from the methods of the autonomous province and continue to make this country our vassal state, but we are not allowed to allow the DPRK to have too many of its own troops, but to send troops from our country to the DPRK to protect the DPRK's national defense.

Then, we can slowly subtly influence the North Koreans, for example, asking North Korean children to learn Chinese pinyin and Chinese characters from elementary school, and after a long time, when all the North Koreans speak Chinese, it is not difficult to annex them. ”

"Well, you mean, for the first time to continue to keep North Korea in the posture of a kingdom?" Lee Yong-gil asked, "That is, to make North Korea a puppet state of ours?" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Shen Shiming said, "The North Korean people are weak, and forcibly annexing it into a province of our country is not a big problem, but the North Korean economy is very poor, and there are many problems.

It would be different for them to become independent first, we only need to control their defense and control their king, so that we can take the benefits, in case there is any public anger, but the target is the royal family of North Korea.

After a long time, when the Chinese language and Hanyu Pinyin will be used throughout North Korea, and the de-Korean movement will be almost complete, we can use the public opinion to depose the king of North Korea, and then go through a process similar to voting, and swallow North Korea openly. At that point, we won't have much resistance to swallowing North Korea, and it won't drag down our economy too much, don't you say? ”

"That's a good point, but it won't be too long." Li Yongji said.

"If it's done well, it won't be long." Shen Shiming said, "If we fully open the border between North Korea and China, treat Koreans and Chinese in China the same and treat them the same, such as exempting all kinds of taxes in China."

On the other hand, in North Korea, North Koreans will continue to pay all kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and the Chinese in North Korea will not have to pay those harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and make a difference, so that after a long time, North Koreans will soon discover the advantages of being Chinese and the disadvantages of being North Koreans, and then they will not be happy to be North Koreans. On the contrary, I like to be Chinese.

In this way, when the majority of Koreans want to defect to China and be proud to be a Chinese, but ashamed to be a Korean, they can officially change Korea from a vassal country to a province directly under our central government. ”

"It's a good idea." Li Yongji said, "According to what you say, it is indeed not a good time to annex North Korea." Then I should also continue to canonize that Lee or something as the king of Joseon? ”

"That's right." Shen Shiming said, "We should first support this obedient Li Yu to continue to be the king, and after that, except for the palace guards, the other local garrisons must be replaced by our people, and even the palace guards must obey our orders."

In other words, we want to treat the king of Korea as a puppet of us, so far. Even if Korea is still a kingdom, it is no different from our place, and even better than those autonomous provinces.

In the future, if this Li Yu is obedient. Let him continue to be king, and if he is disobedient, he will be killed, and then choose an obedient man from their royal family to be king. As long as the king of Joseon is charged. In the name of the Kingdom of Korea, we can pursue policies that are beneficial to us. We take all the benefits, but the black pot is all on the back of the North Korean royal family, at least the common people can't tell the difference, is there anything better than this? ”

"Uh-huh, that's what I said." Li Yongji smiled, "Okay, since that's the case, then I'll stay a little longer, don't rush to San Francisco first, and canonize this Korean king here first." ”

Due to the urging of Lee Yong-gil, the Jinwon, which was carrying the Joseon king Yi Yu, sped up its speed, and no longer walked slowly, but began to move at full speed.

Soon, the Zhenyuan arrived at the port of Shanghai, and then went up the Yangtze River and directly to the port of Nanjing. After that, the king of Joseon, Yi Yu, and a cadre of ministers disembarked in Nanjing, and under the escort and guidance of the guards, they took a carriage and ran directly to the State Council in Nanjing.

Along the way, Li Yu, who had never been out of the house, was very surprised by the prosperity of Nanjing, and kept exclaiming, especially when he saw many foreigners on the street actually pulling rickshaws for people, he was even more surprised.

"That's a foreigner, right?" Looking at the white man pulling the rickshaw, Li Yu asked Guo Songtao, the vice minister of foreign affairs who was specially responsible for receiving him, "How can a foreigner pull a cart?" ”

"What's this?" Guo Songtao glanced at it, and then smiled, "My country can't help foreigners, as long as foreigners come to our country through the normal way and abide by the laws of our country, we usually don't refuse to come." However, not all foreigners who come to China have money, and many foreigners find that it is different from what they imagined, and the money is spent again, so they have to make some living to make money.

Just like this kind of foreigners pulling cars, don't look at the coachmen, but their prices are generally much higher than the Chinese, not to say how good the foreigners pull, the key is a rarity. To put it bluntly, foreigners are willing to pull cars because they make a lot of money and have no technical content, so they chose this industry. ”

"That's incredible." Li Yu shook his head, "It's a foreigner." ”

"What's wrong with foreigners, except for their different appearances, they don't have one nose and two eyes." Guo Songtao smiled, "The status was won by myself, the foreigners were far inferior to me in the past, and later after the Manchu Qing rule, the foreigners rushed over us, now, hehe, the foreigners at least dare not bully us Chinese." ”

"Oh, I see." Li Yu nodded, and secretly made up his mind in his heart that after passing this hurdle, he would also implement reforms after he went back, and he would also learn from the example of the Chinese Empire and open up the country.

After a while, Li Yu came to the State Council, and then was directly guided to Li Yongji's study.

Next, Li Yu humbly knelt in front of Li Yongji, denounced Anton Kim's crimes, and put a qiē charge, mainly referring to the fact that Korea was still dependent on the Manchu Qing Dynasty at that time and did not submit to the Chinese Empire in time, all of which were put on Anton Kim's body.

Seeing the king of North Korea, who was much older than himself, kneeling on the ground with a nose and a tearful cry, Li Yongji nodded slightly.

Sure enough, it's a soft egg, and I'm relieved now. Perhaps, it would be good to keep Korea in the form of a vassal state first, and just like Japan in another time and space, support the puppet state first, and then annex it directly when the time is ripe.

After thinking about it, the next day, Li Yongji officially canonized Li Yu as the king of Korea in the central hall of the State Council, and gave him the golden seal of the king of Korea.

It was from this time that the king of Korea really became a puppet, and the Korean state officially became a puppet state of the Chinese Empire. (To be continued......)