"What is the sin of the lord of the kingdom? It's me who bothered the lord of the country. While his mouth was humble, the prince held back the discomfort in the center of his nose and let go of Li Hui's hand, "After all, the lord of the country is old, so there is no need to come to greet him in person, I will come to Gyeongbokgung Palace to visit the lord after entering the city, why bother so far." ”

"The minister is the lord of the vassal country, and His Royal Highness is the **** prince, where is the reason why the prince goes to visit the minister." Li Hui smiled bitterly, "Please also ask the prince not to kill the ministers." ”

Goryeo is usually self-unified in its own three thousand miles of rivers and mountains, although it is necessary to respect the Son of Heaven in the Central Plains, but in the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty basically did not interfere in the internal affairs of Goryeo, but occasionally sent envoys over in the change of the lord of Goryeo or important ceremonies, so the lord of Goryeo has always been able to close the door and regard himself as the Son of Heaven, but when the prince of the Han Dynasty came in person, there was no longer such convenience, and he could only honestly call himself a minister.

Seeing the blind old man trembling slightly in the cold wind, the prince felt even more unbearable. "Although I am the prince of the Han Dynasty, I am just a young man now, the lord of the country is old, I should be a senior, I am a junior, as a junior, how can I work on my elders? It's cold here, so please take me back to the city. ”

Then, he turned his head to look at the civil and military ministers of the two countries kneeling in the distance, and waved his hand. "Don't kneel anymore, get up."

His voice was not loud, but the ministers of the two countries who had been kneeling on the ground and watching him could certainly understand what he meant, but only the Han envoys and military attachés who were present stood up one after another, and the ministers on the Goryeo side did not move.

According to the predetermined procedure, the chamberlain who followed the lord of Goryeo to the Yeeun Gate walked into the open space, and then shouted to everyone who came to greet him.

"Welcome to the city!"

"Welcome to the city!" The other chamberlains also shouted, and the shouts and shouts suddenly made this somewhat bleak suburban place suddenly become noisy and lively, and many birds were also frightened, and fluttered up from the trees, as if they were cheering for the arrival of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in the place of the people of Goryeo.

As these people shouted, the Goryeo ministers who were still kneeling on the ground bowed to the ground again, their movements smooth, as meticulous as Kim Sung-guk, the minister of the Parliament who had met the prince for the first time. It was only after the prostration was completed that they slowly stood up.

Their respectful behavior not only surprised the crown prince a little, but even the Han ministers present were a little embarrassed, after all, they knelt down and were not active at all.

However, such a grand scene did not impress the prince. In addition to being surprised, he was also a little impatient, in his opinion, these people were really cumbersome and meaningless to make such vain manners. From his father, he learned a truth, governing the world depends on knowing people and being good at their duties, and the scriptures are martial arts, so that the heroes of the world can have a place to stand. What is the point of making the heroes kneel and knock other than to kill their enterprising spirit? A king who spends his time and ambition in rituals and pastimes can enjoy the pleasure of being worshipped by all, but how can he govern a country well?

Daming and Goryeo are both in decline, I'm afraid that part of this is the reason, I have to avoid this kind of thing in the future, the prince thought to himself.

Then, together with the lord of Goryeo, Yi Hui, he sat on the palace prepared for him in advance, and then slowly marched towards Seoul surrounded by a large group of people.

It has to be said that the Goryeo monarchs and the Han envoys attached great importance to the ceremony and safety of welcoming the crown prince, and they mobilized a large number of soldiers from the two countries to guard the surroundings, and almost photographed from the Yeeun Gate to the city wall of Seoul. It is precisely because of the vigilance of the soldiers of the two countries that the road is a little deserted, and not many Goryeo villagers dare to watch. When we came to the bottom of Seoul, some residents gathered.

Although Goryeo revered Confucianism, it added its own national characteristics after the introduction of Confucianism, and after many years of practice, its country began to divide and distinguish its citizens according to rank. Standing at the top were the two classes, the aristocratic class that had monopolized the imperial court and imperial examinations for generations, and these people possessed a great deal of wealth, annexed land by various means of grabbing, and owned a large number of slaves and maids.

As time went on, the population of the two classes of nobles also grew, and the limited official positions and wealth resources of Goryeo could not be infinitely supplied to these noble families of scholars. Therefore, in order to compete for resources, there was a struggle within the two classes, and in order to control the rapid growth of the population of the two classes, since the time of Taizong, the provision of "confinement of the sins" was made. In order to slow down the population growth rate of the two classes, the population of the two classes of concubines has been reduced to another class that is separated from the circle of the two classes, called "middle people", and they are not allowed to enjoy the treatment of the two classes, but can only act as low-level grass-roots officials such as translators, medical officials, astronomy, and school catchers, and control the number of top-level nobles through this artificially controlling the number of concubines.

After these two classes, there are the commoners and the untouchables, the commoners are the ordinary people, who are regarded as good citizens, and the untouchables are those who are engaged in lowly trades, as well as the descendants of scholars and doctors who have been degraded to untouchables because of crimes, and the middle class, this class is the most discriminated against class, and they are born untouchables and cannot enter the household register, even if they are highly educated, they cannot participate in the imperial examinations, and there are very few opportunities for education.

Originally, these four classes were clearly divided in the Li Dynasty, and the differences and discrimination between them were deeply rooted, but in the Japanese rebellion a few decades ago, due to the loss of a large amount of land and wealth by the government, the number of good people who could be recruited in the war was reduced, and it could not afford the resistance of the entire battlefield, so it had to rely on the rebellion to fight. Therefore, during and after the war, a large number of public and private slaves and servants who were not good citizens of the two classes were rewarded by the government for their participation in the rebel army, or they got rid of their lowly status, or even entered the two classes because of their merits.

In addition, in order to restore the social economy that had been very damaged after the war, the government of Goryeo also took measures to sell officials, and under the official positions given by the imperial court, a group of rich peasants or merchants who were willing to pay grain or goods also obtained the official positions of Goryeo and joined the ranks of the two classes.

Later, as the state of Goryeo was declining and the government's finances became more and more corrupt, this system of selling officials became a common practice. The current lord of the country, Li Hui, after being supported and reinstated by the Han Dynasty, took the initiative to buy and donate officials several times in order to make up for the very embarrassing government finances. Under the guidance of these decades of policy, the number of classes in the two classes has swelled unprecedentedly.

Because it is the national capital, Seoul's commerce is the most developed place in the whole of Goryeo, and the proportion of wealthy families among the commoners is naturally the highest, and many of these commoners have obtained two class titles for their families by donating officials. Although the two classes of nobles from the traditional scholarly aristocratic families despised them, the mud-legged men who had climbed in by the times, and did not associate with them at all, this did not prevent them from being complacent about this, and considered themselves to be one of the old men.

Therefore, unlike the cowering villagers, they were full of curiosity about the arrival of the prince of China and the DPRK, and many people dragged their families to the city gate, curiously looking at this group of people and horses pouring towards Seoul, and regarded this as a rare lively event in a century. With so many people gathered together to watch the excitement, it naturally caused crowding, and the crowd was crowded around, and even the soldiers who maintained order next to them became a little uneven because of this.

The prince kept looking at the surrounding scenery in the middle of the public opinion, and from time to time he politely talked with Li Hui next to him, which was originally quite boring, but when he arrived at the crowded city gate, he felt a little interesting.

Although it is the national capital of Goryeo, after all, the financial and manpower and material resources are very limited, so the city walls of Seoul are not high, and the city gate is not wide, so this large group of soldiers and attendants who led the way was blocked at the city gate, and they could only pass slowly, and they were also mixed with the onlookers, and the order of the city gate was a little chaotic.

"Your Highness, do you want to maintain order, there seems to be some chaos ahead." The guards who had been riding horses and following the riders next to them originally wanted to drive away these crowded crowds, so as not to endanger the safety of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

But the crown prince immediately stopped their action. "Do the people of Goryeo have the warmth to greet me, don't get in their way? Goryeo is a loyal vassal state of our country, and the people are naturally very loyal, so how can it be unfavorable to me? ”

As he spoke, he stood up from his seat and looked around at the soldiers who were surrounding him and looked at his Goryeo people.

When he came to the gate of Goryeo, he waved his hand heavily, and the sleeves of his robe moved with him, looking high-spirited, as if he was greeting these Goryeo people who had come to pay their respects.

If an adult did this, he might seem a little unstable and indecent, and he would not be worthy of the identity of the crown prince, but a young man like him did this, but he seemed vigorous and full of enthusiasm, at least he had an appetite for these onlookers.

On the one hand, there are young people who are full of spirits and like the rising sun, and on the other hand, there are old people who are depressed and disabled, and there is an extremely strong contrast among these Goryeo people—especially that Li Hui is still a 'tyrant' who is unpopular with them.

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Chitose!" I don't know who led the way, but soon such shouts came one after another, and finally gathered together and turned into the cheers of everyone.

The prince only smiled slightly on the surface, but in fact he was very happy in his heart, and he enjoyed the cheers. The Goryeo people, like the Han people, only want peace in the world......

And Li Hui, who was sitting next to him, couldn't help but be as happy as him. When the prince of China came to Goryeo, he let the people cheer and enjoy the honor that should have been enjoyed by him, which really made him feel calm, not to mention that he also understood that these people were more or less dissatisfied with him and went to cheer for the prince of China and Korea. He also knew that what he had done when he first came to power had not yet been forgiven by the people, and that it would have been impossible for him to maintain his rule if it had not been for the military support of the Han Dynasty.

Unpopular to such a point, if I am really driven off the throne by the Han, what should I do? As soon as this thought came to him, he was forcibly pressed down, but his back was already cold.

As if infected by the cheers of the city gate, when the public opinion entered the castle of Seoul, the cheers did not stop, but the more faint they became, because the closer they were to the palace, the more sparsely populated they became.

Finally, when he couldn't hear the cheers around him, he came to Gyeongbokgung Palace.

They entered through the front Guanghua Gate on the south side, which consisted of three Hongni gates, of which the Hongni Gate in the middle was for the king to pass through, and the two Hongni Gates on the left and right were for the ministers to enter and exit, and as the crown prince of the Chinese Dynasty, he naturally entered the palace through the middle gate. The size of the royal palace was not large, not only because of the financial constraints of Goryeo, but also because Goryeo was a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and the regulations of the royal palace strictly followed the suzerain-vassal relationship with the suzerain. Like the treatment of clothing, Gyeongbokgung Palace was built as a princely palace, so all the buildings were distinguished from the golden yellow of the Chinese imperial palace by the color of danqing.

After entering Gyeongbokgung Palace, out of curiosity, the prince looked around, and found that the surrounding walls were old, some were decayed and dilapidated, and some of the palaces even had traces of being burned by fire, so he couldn't help but be secretly surprised.

A few decades ago, Japan invaded Korea and the Imjin War broke out. Because the Goryeo court, which was weak and infighting, could not resist the Japanese army, the royal family fled Seoul early. And the general Jin Mingyuan and the deputy marshal Shen Ke only led more than 1,000 troops, Tunji Chuanting, they saw the great momentum of the Japanese army, and did not dare to resist desperately, so they sank their weapons in the river, and then fled on horseback, and the armies naturally broke up in the case of the commander's escape.

Japanese general Kiyomasa Kato led the Japanese army across the Han River and captured Seoul. Before and after the Japanese army entered the city, Seoul had already suffered great damage. On the eve of the escape of the lord at that time, the palace, the community, the government office, the city gate, the treasures in the palace, the classics of the past dynasties, and the cultural relics and rituals have all been burned, leaving only the temple of the Li royal family alone. After the Japanese generals entered the city, they used it as their residence. Later, the Japanese generals even burned down the Jongmyo Temple, and then moved to the South Betsugu Palace, where they commanded the Japanese army to pursue them north.

After the Goryeo monarchs borrowed reinforcements from the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese army began to withdraw its troops south and left Seoul because of the strength of the Ming army. However, before leaving, in order to vent, they actually slaughtered the people in the city. When King Seonjo returned to Seoul that year, Gyeongbokgung Palace was already full of ashes, the city was full of thorns, and hundreds of officials could only sit against the walls, and he had to use the old mansion of a royal family as his palace. After the death of Seonjo, the current lord of the country, Li Hui, succeeded to the throne, and at his urging, the original temple and palace began to be restored.

Because Gyeongbokgung Palace occupies too much land and has many palaces, the wealth that needs to be consumed is really difficult for the current Goryeo court to support, so he just hastily maintained Gyeongbokgung Palace, and then focused on Changdeokgung Palace, which was originally a separate palace, and once regarded it as the main palace.

Later, however, due to Yi Hui's perverse behavior, the Goryeo ministers staged a coup d'état, rushed into Changdeokgung Palace, where he lived, with their troops, and abolished him as king. Changdeokgung Palace was also burned down during the coup.

His nephew, who usurped his throne, lived in another palace, and Changdeokgung Palace was abandoned. Later, Li Hui was finally restored under the threat of the Han army, and in addition to executing Li Ju and his children and relatives, Li Hui had planned to rebuild Changdeok Palace again and use it as his own dormitory.

However, in the Han Mission, "Gyeongbokgung Palace is the main palace, and the monarch can only justify its name when he resides in it." Moreover, Gyeongbokgung Palace lived in Seoul Fortress, which was conducive to defense so that similar things would not happen again", and he gave up the idea of rebuilding Changdeokgung Palace and moved his dormitory back to Gyeongbokgung Palace.

Although Gyeongbokgung Palace has been renovated over the years, after all, the scale of the palace is large, so the Goryeo court, which has limited financial resources, only focused on building a small part of the palace, and there are still many traces of military disasters left by the Imjin War, which can be seen at a glance by the observant prince.

The main hall of Gyeongbokgung Palace is the Qinzheng Palace, which is the seat of the throne and the place where the lord of the country holds various ceremonies and listens to the government.

Qinghui Tower is a pavilion built on a huge artificial lake, it is a banquet for the king to entertain the ministers and foreign envoys, and now it is very suitable for the residence of the prince of the Chinese Dynasty. At the edge of the huge pool, the crown prince and the lord of Goryeo walked down together, and the others were also lined up on both sides.

Then, under the guidance of the chamberlain, they walked along the narrow stone aisle, crossed the artificial lake, and walked into the Qinghui Tower in the middle of the lake, and the spring breeze mixed with the fragrance of flowers kept blowing on the prince's face, making him feel a lot more comfortable.

Qinghuilou was originally a place for the lords and ministers to drink and feast, so the place is also very spacious, but because Li Hui rarely invited ministers after the reinstatement, so it has not been properly used and protected here for several years, but it was hurriedly cleaned up again before the prince came, although it was clean but it always seemed a little deserted, the rockery was overgrown with weeds, the stone steps were also uneven, and the temples in the distance that had not been completely repaired added a bit of gloom to this place.

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