Cutting 1719

Chapter 506 The System of Common Monarchs
Just when the situation in North Korea was gradually changing, Li Yun, the king of North Korea who was on Jeju Island, finally couldn't hold on, and died in the palace on Jeju Island.You must know that his body was not good in the first place, and he had been bedridden for a long time. Now that he has gone through such a long period of tossing, he is naturally dead.

After Li Yun died, the other ministers of Jeju Island were dumbfounded, because in their view, as long as Li Yun is still alive, there is still hope for the situation in North Korea, but when Li Yun dies, doesn't that mean the situation in Seoul? Li Chang became a veritable King of Joseon?

But for this point, no matter it is Cui Kuirui, the Minister of Political Affairs, or Jin Yijing, the minister of the Shaolun faction, they are somewhat unacceptable. The former pays attention to the righteousness of the monarch and his ministers, and knows that Li Chang is just a puppet of the Qing court, but this is okay to say , but the latter is really a life-and-death situation, because right now Li Tong's subordinates are all ministers of the Laolun faction, and even if they want to surrender, they have no choice.

In desperation, Cui Kuirui had no choice but to send someone to find Zhao Xiantai, the envoy of Ning Chu, to discuss this matter together.

When Zhao Xiantai walked into the palace on Jeju Island, he saw Cui Kuirui and the others' sad and sad faces, and he suddenly realized that the king of Joseon had turned his back on him, so he could only bow his head silently and did not speak.

When Cui Kuirui saw Zhao Xiantai coming, he hurriedly said: "Lord Zhao, the army of the Celestial Dynasty has already conquered Shengjing. .”

Hearing this, Zhao Xiantai quickly stood up and said with regret: "It's a pity that the king passed away on the occasion of joy, and this envoy is also a little moved, but it's a pity that the king can't see North Korea recover one day."

However, Cui Kuirui continued: "Your Majesty has now sent envoys to Jeju Island, and I believe he also knows about Li Chang's change in Seoul, but it's a pity that North Korea's tens of thousands of people have now been completely reduced to slaves. If Your Majesty can send troops to North Korea as soon as possible To drive out the Tartars, North Korea is willing to attach Great Chu."

Zhao Xiantai chuckled inwardly, he naturally knew the plan of the North Koreans, the so-called enclosing statement was just to test Ning Chu's thoughts, and he definitely didn't want to enclose it in his heart.

The reason is very simple, no matter what, these ministers are in charge of a country, but once they are attached, at most they will be divided into several provinces, and there are several positions in the third department. How can they compare with today's leading ministers What about the Minister of State?
Of course, the situation of Cui Kuirui and the ministers of the Shaolun faction is indeed very embarrassing at this time. After all, for various reasons, they have no way to recognize Li Zhang's orthodox position, but Li Yun has no heirs. What year and month can it be eradicated, so this kind of statement is used to test the thoughts of Ning Chu and his ministers.

Once Zhao Xiantai agrees, they will definitely use the excuse of saving the people from the fire and water to urge Ning Chu to send troops quickly. When the Tartars are really expelled, Cui Kuirui and the ministers of the Shaolun faction will naturally have a hundred excuses to deny it. The attached discussion is basically a trick to deceive people.

Therefore, Zhao Xiantai didn't pay any attention to this at all, and said with a smile: "It's not necessary to be attached, after all, I have entrusted my envoy to His Majesty to do my best to preserve North Korea. Da Chu had such thoughts in mind from the very beginning. This envoy understands what Cui Lingxiang means, but there is a better solution to this matter."

"Oh? Dare to ask the messenger, what is the solution?"

Cui Kuirui, Jin Yijing and the others looked at each other, and felt a little relieved, as long as they didn't really annex North Korea, as for other conditions, anyone who can agree can agree to it. Give more benefits.

Zhao Xiantai chuckled, and said softly: "Although enclosing is not feasible, I spent a lot of money to send troops to the court, and naturally I need some compensation. Of course, ordinary treasures of gold and jade are not available. This made me think about it. Now that North Korea can't find a suitable one. If someone from your family is the king, how about letting me be the king of Joseon, Your Majesty?"

"Is this appropriate?"

Not only Cui Kuirui was dumbfounded, but other ministers were also dumbfounded. They looked at the serious Zhao Xiantai, but they didn't know what words to use to describe him.

Zhao Xiantai chuckled, this was actually ordered by the emperor, and said: "Now the situation in North Korea is rotten, the Qing court is behind Li Wei, if you don't want to surrender to the Qing court, then you can only establish another king, but now Li Yun is dead , but have no heirs to inherit, it is better to implement the system of common monarchy with my great Chu."

Cui Kuirui still knows a little about the system of co-kings, mainly in Western countries, where two or more countries choose one person to be the emperor or king.

However, Cui Kuirui resisted this suggestion from the bottom of his heart. He racked his brains to retort: ​​"North Korea has its own national conditions. Your Majesty is the emperor of the Celestial Dynasty. How can you condescend to be the king of the country? There are also some common people, but it is not impossible to elect a king with high moral character."

Zhao Xiantai sneered coldly, "A king with high moral character? In my opinion, he is rather a puppet. If you have this idea, it is not impossible, but there is a saying before, if you really establish a king, then whether it is you It’s still two classes, and they both want to return the government to the king, have you ever been willing?"

"Return to the king? Of course it should." Cui Kuirui didn't quite understand Zhao Xiantai's meaning, but Jin Yijing's eyes flashed with surprise.

Zhao Xiantai said: "Since we are returning to power, we must naturally ensure the dignity of the king, and the traditional privileges of the second-class households must be abolished. Otherwise, how can we have surplus money to support the king?"

As soon as this remark came out, it made Cui Kuirui, Jin Yijing and others flustered. For them, the privileges of the second-class households are not ordinary things. It's coming.

The so-called two classes mean that during the Shang Dynasty, the king sat north to south, with the king as the center, the civil officials were arranged on the east side, and the military officials were arranged on the west side, so it was called "civil and military two classes".

In North Korea, the Yangban system started from the Goryeo era. Since then, there have been the names of Yangban. Later, after the founding of North Korea, the Yangban system also inherited the old system of the Goryeo era and formed a new Wenban. Compared with Wuban, more importantly, the Liangban system at this time began to implement a hereditary system, so it became the real ruling class of North Korea.

It can be said that after the establishment of the Liangban system, the flow of classes in North Korea stopped. All officials and nobles came from the Liangban, and ordinary people had no chance to get ahead at all. Even the Ketian system reform carried out during the Li Chenggui period In the middle of the novel, the two classes began to enclose and merge the people's land of the common people through various names, such as Ketian, hero fields, etc., which made the wealth of the two classes grow larger and larger.

It has to be said that North Korea and Ming Dynasty are basically the same in terms of dealing with gentry, that is, gentry hardly pay taxes, so when the Liangban robbed the land of the people, it also turned a large number of farmers into tenant farmers, resulting in North Korea's tax sources are increasingly stretched, discipline is disordered, and social order is out of balance.

Due to hereditary yangban status, the population of yangban households has also increased over time. Therefore, in order to control the excessive growth of the population of yangban, the later King of Joseon introduced the "Law of Imprisonment of Misdeeds", which will soon The concubine in the household was relegated to the middle class, and from then on he could no longer enjoy the treatment of the second class, and could only be a low-level grassroots official such as a medical officer and a prisoner.

But even so, when the problem of the two classes reaches its peak, it will still bring about many problems. Therefore, the two classes began to fight each other, and then rose to clan and party struggles. This is also the root cause of the repeated political disputes in North Korea. , it developed the Confucianism's "inner cruelty and outer tolerance" to its peak.

Because of this, at the time of the Imjin Japanese Invasion and the Battle of Bingzi, the Korean court could recruit very few good people, and the army's combat power was rapidly deteriorating, and it was completely unable to carry out effective resistance. two.

It has to be said that all East Asian countries that adopt Confucianism to govern the country will eventually embark on this path. This is true for Ming Dynasty and North Korea.

Now Zhao Xiantai's words are very clear, if you want to find the concubine of Li Dynasty to be the king, then first cancel all the privileges of your two classes of households, and everyone will have to pay taxes in the future.

How dare Cui Kuirui agree to this condition?He quickly shook his head and said: "Lord Zhao, you misunderstood, what Cui meant was definitely not the system of common monarchy, Cui was just worried that there would be too much opposition in the court, but at that time, it would be an opportunity for Seoul to take advantage of. "

Zhao Xiantai chuckled, "This envoy came here under the imperial edict, so I naturally have comprehensive preparations. If you can enshrine Your Majesty as the Great King of Joseon, and His Majesty lives in the two capitals, you will be responsible for many of the affairs of Joseon. You, Cui Kuirui, will continue to be the Minister of State Affairs." , Jin Yijing is the Minister of Left Discussion, Zhao Xian is appointed as the Minister of Right Discussion, as for the Judgment of the Six Caos and the two divisions, they can all be in charge of the Shaolun faction."

The North Korean ministers present were shocked, knowing that it was Ning Chu who made the conditions. Everyone looked at each other, and they could almost see the fire in each other's eyes. It was obvious that everyone wanted to agree.

You know, a king like this who doesn't live in Seoul at all is the real good king!

Because this represents one thing. In the future, North Korea will no longer have the shackles of the royal family, and the big guys can happily be high-ranking officials, and just think about how to exploit the people every day!More importantly, with the protection of the Ningchu court, it means that even if there is a rebellion, the father of the Celestial Dynasty will send troops to suppress the rebellion. There is nothing better than this in the world!
At this point, the big guys seem to have forgotten the so-called Li family. Besides, Li Chenggui was not a so-called "knowledge of the state affairs of Korea" back then. Who would have thought that this guy would become the king of North Korea with power!
Since Li Chenggui can be a great king, let alone Emperor Ningchu, who was originally the emperor?

If a so-called concubine of the Li family is chosen to become the king, everyone will have to be on guard against this kid when he grows up and seizes power. After all, such things have really happened.

It's like when Lord Yanshan was so angry and resentful that he forced the big guys to launch a coup, deposed Lord Yanshan, and welcomed Li Yi, the Lord of Jincheng, as the king. He wantonly expanded his power in the ruling and opposition parties, and even forced Zhongzong to abolish Queen Duanjing Shen's family within eight days after he succeeded to the throne because the father of Queen Duanjing Shen was killed by the heroes.

For these situations, Zhongzong was definitely not happy, so in the later period, Zhongzong finally eliminated the power of the heroes through various means.

The current situation of the big guy is similar to this. If the bastard is really welcome to succeed, I am afraid that the big guy will have such a day in the future. Thinking of this, everyone has no resistance.

As far as Jin Yijing is concerned, he is extremely happy in his heart. The Shaolun faction is already in a precarious situation. If other people are really in charge in the future, who knows what will happen?Those predecessors who failed in the political war wrote this tragic situation with their lives and blood.

Therefore, Jin Yijing is more willing to let an outsider come in to be the king, like Emperor Ningchu who is not in Seoul at all, that is the best choice. When the old man Cui Kuirui retires, North Korea will be Jin Yijing's The world is over.

Others had similar ideas to Jin Yijing, except Cui Kuirui's expression was a little hesitant. He always kept Li Yun's support and support in mind, so when Li Yun's bones were still cold, he began to discuss cutting off Li's successor , I was naturally hesitant.

"Then how will Mrs. Li arrange it?" Cui Kuirui asked the last question.

Zhao Xiantai said: "The Li family is also the royal family of Joseon. One of the heirs was selected by the concubine, who was named the county king by our great Chu emperor and moved to Nanjing."

Cui Kuirui nodded and opened his mouth: "That's fine, that's fine."

After the discussion was over, Cui Kuirui and other ministers wrote down two notes. One was the imperial edict of King Li Yun of Joseon, asking His Majesty Ning Chu to be the king of North Korea. North Korea and Ning Chu would become brothers. Another example is that Cui Kuirui, in the name of himself and the ministers of the Shaolun Faction, begged the emperor to be the king of Korea, and begged Ning Chu to send troops to Korea to expel the Tartars.

After using the great seal, Zhao Xiantai felt at ease. He knew that as long as he had these two documents, the matter would basically be settled. Now he compiled these two documents, together with the memorial he sent to the emperor, After sealing it with wax, a messenger was sent to Tianjin by sea boat.

(End of this chapter)