"Your Excellency is right, but you have to be careful in everything." Liu Jing agreed with him.

"By the way, I have an idea." Zhou Pu seemed to suddenly think of something.

"My lord, please?"

"Aren't we going to find a way to send that Japanese imperial envoy to the mainland? Let's just do it, Lord Liu, you will prepare a ship for the sake of transmitting news to the country in the past few days, and then you will send someone back to China, and this person can also be put on the ship, you have such a major mission, the shogunate will definitely strictly inspect it, but will send it out of the country as a gift......" Zhou Pu suddenly laughed when he thought of this, "How could this old man never think that there would be a Japanese envoy who would set off before him......?" ”

"Your Excellency...... That's a great plan! Liu Jing thought for a while, and immediately agreed with the other party's opinion, "This group of people likes ghost tricks, let's also give him a dark Chen Cang!" ”

Then the two of them laughed together.

……………………………………

After a few days of turbulence, the prince and his entourage arrived in Busan.

What he did in Seoul before had already spread throughout the territory of Goryeo and shook the people of the government and the opposition, but because Li Hui was not popular, the people of Goryeo did not all oppose his actions, but they just felt that China and the DPRK were too domineering.

After being canonized as an heir by the crown prince, Li Hui continued to serve as the lord of the country, but because of his advanced age and disability, he no longer held real power, and only lived in seclusion in Gyeongbokgung Palace.

As soon as Kim Sung-kook took power, he directly issued an appointment to make Li Ke, who had been the special envoy to Dahan, the post of observer envoy of Gyeongsang-do, and at the same time directly issued an official letter, demanding that the next magistrates of Gyeongsang-do must fully cooperate with Li Ke's orders, and if there was any slackness, they would be severely punished, and at the same time ordered these local officials to prepare supplies in advance, especially grain and horse fodder.

The very stern tone of the official document soon made the local officials have a general fear, originally they were deeply apprehensive about the resolute actions of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of China and Dynasty, and now they dare not slack off when the future is related to their lives, although they do not know what the purpose of preparing materials is, but they can only obey the order and begin to step up the preparation of materials.

However, Goryeo was originally a weak country and a poor people, even if they tried to raise it, they could not raise much materials, and it was impossible to supply the ordnance and ammunition needed by the army.

At this time, after many years of operation by the Goryeo Imperial Court and the commercial prosperity brought about by the joint efforts of merchants from several countries, Pusan was already a large city, and it became an important trade transit port between China and Japan.

The prince's entourage, who had just arrived in Busan, was soon received by local officials with the highest standards. The civil officials at the highest level in Busan are the envoys of the Dongnae Metropolitan Protectorate, and the military attachés are composed of two top levels, one is the Gyeongsang Left Province Metropolitan Manhu, who is responsible for the land garrison, and the other is the Gyeongsang Left Province Water Army Festival Envoy, these three people came to the outside of the city to greet them together, because they were notified in advance, so they did not organize a large-scale welcome ceremony, but they were originally very afraid of China and North Korea, and now they are even more respectful when facing the prince, and even some seem to bow down.

And the prince just greeted them a few words, and didn't even say much polite words, and directly asked them to hand over the local governance and the command of the navy and army, and then asked them to restrain their subordinates as much as possible, and not to allow spying or spreading any news about the Han in Busan, of course they agreed, and then the prince dismissed them, and then under the guidance of a special person, the group walked towards the accommodation arranged for themselves outside the city.

After settling down a little, the prince gathered several of his principal subordinates.

"We came to Busan this time to prepare for the war." As soon as the people came, he went straight to the point, "No matter who anyone, including myself, must fulfill their duties, and there must be no slackness." There are a lot of things that need to be done, and I ask you to get the charter first. ”

Several ministers of civil and military affairs stood respectfully and solemnly and bowed their heads to express their obedience.

"First of all, the most important thing is to give the assembled soldiers a place to live and train," the prince continued, "I have already told Li Ke that he should set aside a large area outside the city for our soldiers to use as a barracks, and that the Goryeo Navy Division will assist our soldiers in training. ”

Then, he looked at Zhang Daoyan, the deputy envoy in Goryeo, "Deputy Envoy Zhang, you are responsible for coordinating with Li Ke and other Goryeo officials, in addition, you are also responsible for the daily food supply of the soldiers, the maintenance of the camp and epidemic prevention, and other big and small affairs, and there must be no problems." ”

"The minister understands that the minister will take care of the camp and will never let the soldiers have to worry about their lives." Zhang Daoyan hurriedly bowed down to receive the order, "But ...... Now that time is pressing, I am afraid that it will be difficult to assemble the barracks in a hurry......"

"Let's requisition the dwellings first, let the Liaodong troops who arrived first live in them, and then step up the urging to build barracks, and the troops from other areas that were assembled later will live in those barracks. Explain this to Li Ke and the others, asking them to stay as far away from Busan Port as possible when demarcating the camp, and at the same time it is best to have some villages, and at the same time let them send people to hurry up and cut wood, send building materials over, and build barracks as soon as possible. The prince made a decision immediately, and after a while, he added another one, "By the way, when you move away from these Goryeo people, you must give them some compensation, and our **** army can't rob it." Besides, if they are displaced and complaining, or if they commit chaos, it will be very bad for our plans. ”

"What the prince said is very true." Zhang Daoyan immediately agreed with him, and then added his own opinion, "But ...... If compensation is given, it is better to give it directly to them, so that the Goryeo government will not be greedy for ink. Moreover, in order to make up for this part of the expenditure, the minister suggested that the local government treasury should be requisitioned first, and the money from the official treasury should be given to them as compensation. In doing so, we will not only be able to prevent the displacement of the people, but also allow our army to reduce some of its expenditures. ”

"This statement is very reasonable, and Deputy Envoy Zhang's idea is very good." The crown prince readily agreed with him, "Just do it according to Deputy Envoy Zhang's opinion, and this matter will also be handed over to the deputy envoy to be responsible." ”

"His Royal Highness Prince Xie! The minister must work seriously and never let His Highness down! Zhang Daoyan hid the joy in his heart well, and just kept thanking the prince.

"How's the Navy's preparations?" Then, the prince looked at Gao Ze, an officer of the navy next to him, who had come to Busan before and was in charge of the transportation and storage of supplies in Goryeo.

"Back to His Royal Highness, although there were a lot of things at the beginning, but through the efforts of my colleagues up and down, now the transportation of materials has become regular. We use merchant ships for transportation, and no one can see the clues on the surface. As he spoke, Gao Ze stepped forward, and then handed the prince a thick booklet in his hand. Your Highness, this is the register of our warehouse, and every time a material arrives in Busan, we will count and register it, and there will be a count of the total number of materials, and then we will send these materials to our respective warehouses. ”

"Good." The prince took the book, and after a cursory flip through it, he found that it was full of dense numbers, and it was filed accordingly according to the date and the variety of materials, and it could be seen that it was done very carefully. "You've worked hard, please keep up the good work, what do you need me to help with?"

As the crown prince, he is responsible for strategic planning and overall arrangement, and there will naturally be many people to help him do too trivial problems, and he doesn't have to do everything himself, which cannot reflect his diligence, and can only show ignorance.

"Back to Your Highness, everything is generally going well, but...... Some things are annoying. Gao Ze looked at the prince cautiously, "Busan is a commercial port, and there are many merchant ships from various countries that usually come and go, and they will crowd the berths, which will affect our transportation efficiency, and in front of them, we are not good at transporting troops and materials in a big way...... Chancellor hopes to reduce the flow of merchant ships in the near future. ”

"Of course it should be done." The prince bowed slightly, "Dahan has recently reduced the number of sea ships sailing through Busan, and I will order that from these days onwards, not a single Han merchant ship will come, as for the merchant ships of other countries...... Under the pretext that the harbor needs to be renovated, and if they are not allowed in, the navy can also expel those merchant ships from the open sea. ”

"What about the Japanese sea vessels? It's always hard to startle the snake. Zhang Daoyan asked.

This is indeed a big problem, and Busan, as the closest commercial port to Japan, is a convenient place to gather troops. However, the commercial port is both an advantage and a disadvantage, the characteristic of the commercial port is that the flow is too large, and when a large number of soldiers and materials are assembled, there is no way to keep secrets, and there are already Japanese merchants' merchant houses in Busan, and some Japanese merchants are stationed here. Because of the shogunate's directive that "Japanese nationals are not allowed to return to Japan if they stay overseas for more than five years", they often had to have people return to their home countries, and even if they were not aware of the Han's decision to attack Japan, as long as they reported the signs of these materials and troop build-up to the shogunate, the shogunate would be aware of it.

This question made the prince difficult.

"Why don't we just set fire to their merchant house first, and then say that there is a fire, and then we will send people to guard the outside and arrest all the widows who have fled." At this time, an official suddenly suggested, "There are not many of these widows, as long as we arrest them all, they will have no one to report to them." ”

"Isn't that too loud?" Zhang Daoyan hesitated, "What if the Japanese ask?" ”

"I can't care so much, let's do it first." The crown prince made a decision, and then looked at Gao Ze again, "Is there anything else needed?" ”

"One more thing, Your Highness. The minister is responsible for the management and storage of materials, so the warehousing is also under the management of the minister, and other problems are okay, but this problem is the most annoying, and there are not enough warehouses to use before the port of Busan...... His Royal Highness also knows that the warehouse is the most important thing in the rear of the army, and there is no slack at all, especially since our army also uses a large number of firearms, and ordnance and gunpowder must be managed by special warehouses...... But now there is a shortage of manpower everywhere, and it is difficult to achieve this goal, so we have been worrying about this lately. ”

"Since it is urgently needed, then do not delay, the construction of warehouses can be put in the first place, and the construction of barracks can be carried out in parallel." The prince immediately made a decision, "As for the problem of insufficient manpower...... I will personally go with the magistrate and ask them to stop all the other projects and recruit the people of Goryeo to cooperate with our work. Hmmm......"

After pondering for a moment, he came up with another idea, "Since we are going to build a barracks to relocate a large number of local villagers, and it will definitely affect the livelihood of the fishermen, why don't we hire the young men among them as hired laborers to build various facilities for us?" This will not only speed up the construction of our various facilities, but also allow them to have a good place to go. Moreover, I will make the local government have to cooperate with us and recruit young men from other places, so that the labor force should be sufficient. If I had pressed it myself, they would have been able to get it. ”

"Your Highness is wise!" Gao Ze was overjoyed and hurriedly thanked the prince.

"By the way, the cost of hiring Goryeo migrant workers, as well as the cost of building warehouses and barracks, you all have to register and make a book, and then count the detailed accounts, and then transfer them to my side, and I will let someone do the accounting." The crown prince added, "When the reparations were liquidated to Japan after the war, such an expenditure would also be counted on the heads of the Japanese." ”

First, it is for the settlement of reparations after the war, and secondly, it is also to prevent the relevant handlers from being greedy. Although the laws of Dahan are extremely strict, there should still be supervision.

"Yes, Your Highness." Gao Ze obeyed his fate.

Then, the prince looked at Zhao Song again.

"Zhao Luzheng, you are the main general of this battle, what else do you want?"

"Back to Your Highness, the minister has two requests." Zhao Song bowed and saluted, "The troops on this expedition, except for one regiment that is directly under the minister and has been led, the remaining two regiments are all transferred from the army in other places, and they are not particularly familiar with each other. Moreover, Chenhe and this regiment directly under him have always fought in Liaodong, while they have been fighting in the south before, and there may be differences in combat methods and experience. Therefore, the ministers need to spend some time training and running-in them, and implore His Highness to designate a remote area outside the port of Busan for the ministers and their subordinates to train; In addition, in the minister's battle plan, the coordination and mobility of the navy and army are particularly important, and many times it is necessary to land at sea, so the minister needs to let the navy personnel come to accompany us in training, and strive to make the navy and army cooperate skillfully before launching an attack. ”

"Zhao Luzheng is really a good general for me, and it is true that training before fighting is the most important." The prince nodded, "Okay, then the brigade is continuing to work hard, we must let the officers and soldiers be trained before sending the troops, so that the brigade can be like an arm." ”

"That's what the minister is for." Zhao Song continued, "But...... Your Highness, the area around Busan is densely populated, and if the army has been training, it may be difficult to keep it secret......"

"Don't be strict about secrecy now, we are only a hundred miles away from Kyushu, how can there be no trace of the army? We couldn't count on surprise attacks in the first place. The crown prince comforted Zhao Song and signaled that he didn't have to worry, "Luzheng doesn't have to worry too much about this matter, even if he shows a little clue, the Japanese may not be able to react quickly." ”

"I hope everything will be as His Highness thinks." Zhao Song bowed, "By the way, Your Highness, since there are so many engineering things to do now, why don't you just call our sappers up to assist in the project?" They all have experience in construction and are very reliable enough to act as stewards of the Goryeo people. ”

"Are all the sappers here?" The prince asked.

"The minister has counted it, and now there are about eight hundred people, which is enough to accomplish a lot of things, Your Highness." Zhao Song hurriedly replied.

The prince wanted to agree to his advice immediately, but when the words came to his lips, he changed his words. "That's good, then let's just do this, since there is a need for people everywhere, then we just set up a labor bureau, and I will be personally responsible, and any place where labor is used must be applied and reported with me, so that it can be managed in a unified manner, and it can also avoid unnecessary disputes between all parties because of the distribution of labor, what do you think? These sappers will also be incorporated into the Labor Bureau for the time being, and now I will deploy them everywhere, so that they will not disobey my orders, right? ”

In addition to the above reasons, the prince has other thoughts. He has already seen that the most important thing in Busan now is labor, and he wants to indirectly control the situation in Busan by personally controlling the use of labor, and at the same time speed up the preparations. He had no experience in the army, and he had no control over the army, so he could only start with the labor in the rear.

"Your Highness is wise!" Of course, no one else will contradict the prince's opinion.

"Is there anything else else to say?" The crown prince looked around at these civil and military ministers.

No one spoke anymore.

"It seems that no one has an opinion at the moment? Good...... Then let's get busy first, and finish all the things that are pressed on you from today. The prince made a gesture to adjourn the meeting, "Ladies and gentlemen, I will always be here in the future, and if any of you encounter any problems in the matter for which you are responsible, just tell me, and I will help you solve it." In addition, I will go to patrol everywhere at any time, and if anyone fails to do things well, they will be punished. ”

"Your Highness!"