Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1868

The main force of the Japanese army in southern Korea is planning a gamble, and Gyeonggi-do in central Korea is not peaceful.To be precise, it should be that Wang Jing Hanyang is in a situation where dark clouds are overwhelming the city and want to destroy it.

The cause of the incident came from Wang Jia's return to the capital—that is, the Joseon king Li Yan returned to his king's capital Hanyang again.Although this great king has come and gone in recent years, came and left, left and came again... But anyway, it is always a great joy to be able to return to Beijing this time, but King Li Yan really can't give birth to any joy. Heart.

In fact, in his opinion, since Magui officially sent troops to the south, the situation of "black clouds overwhelming the city" has already appeared, but at the beginning, everyone did not realize the danger.

At that time, Magui went south, and one hundred thousand heavenly soldiers entered Pyongyang in a mighty manner. Among them, there were as many as 1 to [-] cavalry (in fact, they were half-armored, as mentioned in the previous article. No more explanation), plus the artillery composed of more than [-] people, dragging hundreds of artillery pieces of different sizes, which really shocked the entire city of Pyongyang.

Never have the Koreans seen so many cannons gathered in one army!Those hundreds of cannons looked like half-squatting black giant tigers, and the black muzzles shone with a cold light.

Coupled with the high-headed horses and sabers of the cavalry of the Ming Dynasty, all the Koreans who watched the "entry ceremony" were overjoyed, thinking that the destruction of the Japanese pirates was just around the corner. One thought: If Daming really wants to use North Korea's brains, does North Korea have the strength to oppose it...or even the courage?

No one dared to express their worries. The North Koreans in Pyongyang cheered with the most enthusiastic expressions to welcome the Ming army into the city, and then they began to be dazed.

Because Ma Gui’s first order was to take over the defense of Pyongyang, including the palace of the Joseon king, and the reason he gave was very simple: the admiral did not approve of the capabilities of the Korean army, and the defense of Pyongyang must be fully controlled by the Ming army.

Of course, the North Korean side raised objections to this. Whether it was Liu Chenglong, Yi Dosu, or other high-ranking North Korean officials, they all found Ma Gui and Song Yingchang who had not left at that time, hoping that Daming would take back his order and at least let North Korea more or less The military participates in part of the defense, otherwise it will be too ugly.

However, this time they were not satisfied.First, Song Yingchang refused to receive any visitors on the grounds that he had received the imperial decree to return to the imperial court, and that the post of economics had actually been transferred to Gao Ge Lao, so he had no right to interfere. He patted his ass and left immediately after packing up and saluting.

Then Magui was more direct. Counting the countless incompetent performances of the North Korean army before, he strongly refused the North Korean army to join the city defense system, and asked the North Korean army to withdraw from Pyongyang City and stationed outside the city or in nearby small towns. "Those who violate the order will be punished." Expel the Celestial Soldiers!"

The North Korean side gasped, so they had to settle for the next best thing, and asked Ma Gui again that at least the palace should be guarded by the North Korean army.However, Ma Gui didn't give much face. The only accommodation was that he could allow the Joseon king to keep 200 palace guards in the palace to guard the inner court, and the defense of the palace itself still needed to be handed over to the Ming army.

Liu Chenglong, Yi Doushou and the others, regardless of their different positions, came to the door together hoping to persuade Ma Gui, but Ma Gui threw out a letter directly after seeing them, telling them that this move was based on Jinglue's orders, It is impossible for a military general to defy him.

Ma Gui said to the stunned North Korean ministers: "I want to teach you to know that all these years, even the emperor has never interfered with the military command of the Marquis. Therefore, no matter how you hinder this admiral, this admiral will not interfere with you." I dare not disobey orders, so I have no choice but to take over forcibly... Presumably your king doesn't want to see this scene either?"

Speaking of this point, there is naturally nothing to talk about, and the North Korean side did not dare to wait until Magui "forcibly took over", so after hastily reporting to Li Yan, they had to swallow their anger and withdraw the North Korean army from Pyongyang.However, they refused to actually send these troops to the "nearby town", but ordered them to camp outside the city to avoid any accidents.

In Magui's view, this move by the North Koreans was meaningless. Their strength in Pyongyang was only a few thousand at the time, and as "a hundred-defeated soldiers", no matter what "accidents" the Ming army had, they would not dare to stop them. Even more powerless to stop.In Ma Gui's eyes, this kind of behavior is nothing more than the self-consolation of North Korea's second class, and it is not worth talking about at all.

Since then, the king of North Korea, Li Yan, has been under the "tight guard" of the Ming army. Even if he meets with two groups of important ministers, there must be tall and majestic soldiers of the Ming army standing at the door. They didn’t dare to use the Chinese used by the upper class to talk, but completely used Korean spoken language—but what they didn’t know was that the Ming army outside the door was selected from the Liaodong Army, and they used to be stationed in the In Shuanglian City and other places close to North Korea, everyone can understand Korean.

However, in any case, since there is no North Korean soldier in the city, the only thing that Joseon King Li Zan can rely on is the "two classes", and his "rule" over North Korea can only be achieved indirectly by relying on the two classes.However, the question is, can North Korea's Liangban really be relied on?

If you have watched the Korean costume dramas of the later generations, you will definitely find that there are often some male and female protagonists who seem to have their own halos. They often report themselves as "two classes of descendants" with noble blood and natural superiority, just like Europeans. "Blue-blood nobles" are average, and each of them has an extraordinary expression in their eyes.

Who is this "two classes of descendants", and why is it so cool?In fact, the so-called "two classes" means "two classes of civil and military affairs". North Korea has long learned the Chinese system. The literary class is called the Wen class, and the martial class is called the Wu class. Together they are two classes.

But if you directly regard the North Korean Liangban as civil servants and generals of the Ming Dynasty, it will be different.The two classes in North Korea can be said to be the backbone of its ruling class.They have political privileges (eligible to be officials for generations) and economic privileges (exemption from land taxes and corvee) that ordinary people dare not imagine.When ordinary people see them, they have to respectfully call them "two Benny" (Ni, which means master in Korean).

From Wang's Koryo to Lee's North Korea, these people have always been veritable important roles in the ups and downs of the peninsula's political arena for nearly a thousand years.

The word Liangban first appeared in the period of Wang's Goryeo Dynasty. "History of Koryo" records that in the first year of Taizu (918 A.D.), the Jiawu article: "Practice rituals in Wuting, and learn both civil and military skills."The two classes here simply refer to civil and military officials.In the early years of the Goryeo Dynasty, the ranks of civil and military officials were scattered, and the officials were all founding heroes and local tyrants.People other than them are called "common people", their official careers are limited, and politics is basically monopolized by the "two classes" composed of these nobles.

These bigwigs are dangling around in the court, and they have created a heroic politics, which is too big to lose. If things go on like this, they will of course be a great threat to the royal power.So when he went to the grandson of Goryeo Taejo, the sixth king of Goryeo, and Goryeo Seongjong, he learned about China and started the imperial examination system.

Of course, the imperial examinations here are not the ones that were generally carried out in the Song Dynasty, but the ones that did not shake the aristocratic politics in the Tang Dynasty.After all, reform should still be based on stability, and we can't take a step too far.

So in fact, what they did was to allow the children of the nobles of Goryeo to get a good grade in the exam by entering the "private study" of the imperial examination cram school, so they opened the imperial examination.However, although doing so puts more pressure on the nobles, they are still the same people.

This is like the general children of later generations. It is indeed difficult to compete with those children in the school district who have taught eight foreign languages ​​​​in elementary school and attended ten cram schools.

But after doing this, it is still beneficial to the royal family, that is, it has created a culture of Chongwen.Liberal arts are the most important in the imperial examination, so the status of civil servants has been greatly improved.

Similar to China, the royal family continued to place more emphasis on civil affairs than military affairs out of the need to maintain its own rule, so the actual focus of the two classes was the "literary class".Later, the Goryeo Dynasty implemented the "civil and military scattered title" system, and the status of the civil class was also higher than that of the generals.Later, the "Shibata system" was implemented, that is, the official salary system, and civil officials were also much higher than military generals.

In this way, especially after a long time, the generals will quit.I led troops to fight and went through life and death, so why can't I compare to you literati who have no power to restrain chickens?So in 1170, the military general Zheng Zhongfu launched a coup, and since then Goryeo has entered the era of military officer dictatorship.

Military men can fight wars, but they are relatively inexperienced in governing the country, but those literati have become enemies and can no longer be used. What should we do?Therefore, during the military dictatorship period, a large number of local township officials were promoted, and miscellaneous servants took up important positions, and the threshold of the "two classes" of nobles began to be broken.

Later, Goryeo was defeated by the Yuan Dynasty and became a subsidiary state of the Yuan Dynasty, at the mercy of the Yuan Dynasty.At this time, some translators and medical officers who were originally low-ranking and not well-known were also promoted to high positions because of their close contacts with the Mongolians.

In this way, in fact, the scope of the "two classes" has been greatly expanded. It used to be that only some nobles could become members of the two classes. It has become a mixed bag.

If nobles want to maintain the respect of nobles, what they want is a superior status. This status is best determined by blood, it is bestowed by God, and cannot be touched by others. "Princes, princes and generals have kindness" is the banner of "anti-thieves" like Chen Sheng and Wu Guang. The rulers obviously cannot allow this situation that shakes the foundation of the ruling class's identity to continue.

Therefore, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, when Li Chenggui overthrew Goryeo and established the Lee Dynasty, he brought a major reform to the Yangban system.How to do it?

First of all, people with identities such as township officials and subordinate officials should be removed from the two classes.In the eyes of the nobles, there is no way for these technocrats to be compared with them, the emperor's nobles.

The aristocrats of the literary class read the books of the sages of Confucius and Mencius, and they talked about the principles of governing the country and the world.People with specific technical jobs such as witch doctor and musician Bai Gong are no longer treated as two classes of nobles.It is also necessary to abolish the land outside the township officials, formulate the punishment law for the township officials, set up a residence office to supervise the township officials, and carry out strict supervision on them...etc.

Secondly, it is to fully implement the imperial examination system that is beneficial to the two classes.For a class to have vitality, it must first have a sense of crisis.Later generations of management talk about the catfish effect. It is said that fishermen are afraid that the fish they catch will die, so they throw a few catfish in there to make the fish move and exercise, so that they will not die easily.

Therefore, Li Chao also made a catfish to strengthen the imperial examination, to give you dudes a little sense of crisis.The Li Dynasty stipulated that only the children of officials of the third rank and above can be under the influence of the family, and the rest of the officials have to take the test, so you should study hard.

But will the imperial examinations of the Li Dynasty cause social mobility like the Chinese imperial examinations, disintegrate aristocratic politics, and enter civilian politics?Of course not.

The imperial examinations of Lee's North Korea are mainly divided into liberal arts, martial arts, and miscellaneous subjects.Among them, those who can become high-ranking officials and be promoted to the second class are mainly liberal arts.However, in the liberal arts examination, the imperial court first set up a card in the identity verification. The children of rural officials must be "examined by the four ancestors" and "recommended by the two classes" to participate in the imperial examination. Approved by the county government.

Moreover, in the imperial examinations of the Li Dynasty, the so-called "bad evils" - that is, sons born to concubines, sons born in second marriages, and illegitimate children - were not allowed to take the liberal arts examinations, which greatly limited the expansion of the scale of the two classes of nobles.The so-called rarity is the most precious thing, nobles and nobles, and few people, can be expensive.

The imperial examinations in North Korea seem to have no registration restrictions for ordinary people, but it is much more difficult for poor students to pass the imperial examination than it was in the Ming Dynasty at the same time.Because the government schools in North Korea are basically noble schools.The children of the two classes enter the school at the age of seven or eight, and then enter the four schools in Seoul. After completing the entrance examination, they enter Sungkyunkwan. .How can ordinary people have the conditions to compete with these second-generation officials who grew up in elementary school?
This is not enough. In order to ensure the continuation of the status of the two classes of nobles, North Korea also implemented "don't try".The regular imperial examinations are held every three years, but the time for "don't try" is indeterminate, and there are often sudden notifications a few days before the exam.

This is very funny, because ordinary scholars can't even get to the examination room in time, and those who pass the examination are basically the two classes of students who have news.So as time goes by, there are more and more don't try. In the original history, the Li Dynasty enjoyed the country for nearly 600 years (until it was annexed by Japan in the late Qing Dynasty). It can be seen.

In this way, the imperial examination path in North Korea was basically monopolized by the two classes of nobles.The situation in China that "becomes a farmer in the morning and visit the Tianzitang in the evening" basically does not exist in North Korea.

Lee's North Korea used such means to delineate a relatively stable upper-level ruling group, that is, the two classes.In fact, the Li Dynasty divided people into four classes: the first class is the two classes, the second class is the so-called middle man (i.e. town officials and other miscellaneous jobs), the third class is good man (ordinary common people), and the fourth class is untouchable ( slaves, whores, etc.).It is very difficult for the second and third class to rise to the first class, while the fourth class has no hope at all.

Needless to say, the dangers of class solidification, to put it lightly, it is lifeless, and to put it more emphatically, it is a pool of stagnant water.And Li Yan was "protected" by Ma Gui in the palace, so he could only rely on this pool of stagnant water to survive.

But the biggest problem is not whether stagnant water can save people, but that "dead water" will find that the situation is not right at this time, and start to think for themselves.

Therefore, when Magui led the troops to go south, but left [-] to [-] troops to "protect" the Joseon king and the Joseon court who remained in Pyongyang, some "backwaters" suggested: "Your Majesty is right. Ming dynasty."
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(End of this chapter)