Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 736 What is the annual income of your country?

"This is the third time that I have been honored to be an envoy to the Celestial Dynasty. The last time I was sent as an envoy was the first year of Chongzhen. When my emperor ascended the throne, I came to congratulate you with You Zan. It has been 14 years in a flash. Yes, You Zancheng has also gone west, thinking about it is beyond embarrassing!"

Not long after Zhu Youjian summoned his cabinet ministers to discuss matters related to Luzon, a long line of luxuriously decorated carriages drove up from the east side gate in the north of the capital. At the front of the team were twenty generals riding Jinyiwei armed with weapons. On the spacious street, many pedestrians and merchants stopped one after another, looking at the team with curious eyes.

"Since your envoy has come to Beijing to pay homage to our emperor several times, how do you feel about the current situation of our emperor's Ming capital?"

In a carriage in the second place in the team, Cheng Fang of the Spokesman Office of Honglu Temple asked a middle-aged man who had passed his prime with a smile on the opposite side.

"Since Prime Minister Fang Shu made an inquiry, the lower officials don't need to hide it.

The officials thought that the current appearance of the imperial capital was very different from that in the first year of Chongzhen!

If it weren't for some towers and towers still remaining, the officials would have thought they had strayed into the heaven! "

The scarlet robe worn by this middle-aged man is very similar to the official robe of the Ming Dynasty at first glance, but after a closer look, there are differences in many details such as patterns and patterns.

The appearance of this middle-aged man was no different from that of a Ming Dynasty man, and his speech was also in Ming Dynasty official dialect, but from the demeanor he used for the other party, there was a trace of humility and sincerity.

After all, there was too much disparity in the official ranks between the two sides. As a North Korean second-rank judge, he was also a top figure in the country, so there was no need to be so humble to a sixth-rank Ming official.

This man's name was Jin Chengxun, and he was ordered by the king of Joseon to visit Daming in the name of congratulating Zhu Youjian on the Mid-Autumn Festival. In fact, he came to apologize to Daming.

The official system of North Korea basically imitates the lighting system, with a total of [-] levels from the first rank to the ninth rank, and the government is also made in the style of the Ming Dynasty.

Below the king, there is also an imperial court, which is called Yizheng, and the leader is called "Lingyizheng", which is equivalent to the chief assistant of the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty.

Under the leader's government, there are left and right discussions, which are the same as the leader's government.

The following are the left and right approval from the first rank, the left and right counselors from the second rank, and Zhongshu Sheren, etc.

Under the Yi government, there are six Caos of officials, rites, punishments, households, workers, and soldiers. Their responsibilities are the same as those of the six ministries of the Ming Dynasty. For the judge, and Jin Chengxun is Li Cao's left judge.

Kim Sung-hoon was ordered to come here for two purposes.

The first is to explain the reason and sincere apology for the fact that 11 North Korean gunmen participated in the [-]th year of Chongzhen when the Ming Dynasty wiped out the customs.

Second, Kim Sung-hoon also shoulders the mission of asking Daming for help.

The small glacier climate that lasted for more than ten years not only had a serious impact on Ming Dynasty, but North Korea also failed to escape the catastrophe.

North Korea, which is already barren, has been severely affected by extreme weather such as drought and floods that have lasted for several years.

Especially in the 13th year of Chongzhen and this year, several states and thousands of hectares of land near the border of Ming Dynasty have almost no harvest. Hundreds of thousands of farmers have left their homes and come to Pyongyang in droves. If this situation continues for another six months, not only will most of the hundreds of thousands of fleeing farmers starve to death, but even people in Pyongyang and the nearby state capitals will be affected on a large scale, and a massive civil unrest is brewing.

The timid and cowardly leader of North Korea, Li Zhen, suddenly panicked. After thinking about what to do, he followed the advice of his important ministers and went to Daming to ask for help. Give North Korea a helping hand.

It is for this reason that Kim Sung-hoon unconsciously lowered his figure when facing Fang Yong, whose rank was much lower than his.

Among them, there is not only a heartfelt awe of the prestigious heavenly kingdom, but also a natural psychological reaction when asking for help from others.

Before Chongzhen's 11-year war of annihilating the country, under the threat of Jiannu, North Korea had been forced to cut off normal contacts with Ming Dynasty, and the Ming court no longer regarded Daming as the suzerain state.

Although the savage and cruel Jianzhou Jurchen are generally hated in North Korea, the situation is stronger than others. All previous situations show that the Ming Dynasty, which he has respected for more than 200 years, has fallen into a precarious situation, and the strong rise of the Jurchens is unstoppable. Prosperous and wealthy, Li Jing still made the above decision amidst opposition from the ruling and opposition parties.

In fact, for more than 200 years, North Korea, from the court officials to the literati, still respects Ming Dynasty very much. Especially during the Wanli period, Emperor Shenzong sent two large troops into the DPRK to fight against the Japanese, and nearly wiped out Japan. The army was defeated and driven away, and the people were saved from the fire and water. This kind of great kindness made everyone in North Korea feel deeply.

There was still a huge wave of resistance in North Korea for Li Zhen's decision to betray his conscience and abandon his family. In the end, it was completely suppressed.

However, what the king of North Korea and some important ministers could not have dreamed of was that the declining Ming Dynasty suddenly showed an extremely powerful demeanor of a great power, and completely wiped out the powerful Manchu Qing regime in a very short period of time. It had to face the embarrassment of living next to the traditional suzerain country again.

Although His Majesty the Emperor of the Heavenly Kingdom did not issue an imperial decree to reprimand North Korea for its immorality, Li Zhen and those important ministers who knew they were wrong still had no face to face Ming Dynasty. Send a mission to visit Daming.

North Koreans who are deeply influenced by Confucian culture still have to face.

They knew what they were doing was not authentic, so they were ashamed to lick their faces and come back to the pilgrimage. The entire North Korean country turned into a huge ostrich, buried its head deeply in the sand, and pretended to be ignorant of the outside world. know the way.

While the North Koreans feel ashamed and blame themselves, they also deeply hate themselves for their lack of blood.

If they had stood up and fought under the pressure of the Manchu Qing, they would have respected Daming as the sovereign state even if countless people died in the end, they would still be able to face Daming with their heads held high in the future, but now. . . .

But the current situation is no worse than when the Japanese pirates invaded.

Seeing that the natural disasters are getting worse every year, countless people in the Li people under the rule die of freezing and starvation every day, and if they don’t ask their elder brother for help, the country is already facing the crisis of collapse. Don't be ashamed and ask for help.

"I'm afraid your envoy doesn't know the details! The situation before you and me is piled up with countless money and food. Without him, my emperor has too much money!

Let me tell you this, over the past few years, I have invested a total of more than half a million taels of silver just to clean up the capital and change many corners of the mess!
Dare I ask your envoy, how much tax does the imperial court of your country pay each year? "

(End of this chapter)