Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1017 1012 [Find an ancestor for yourself first]

Kaesong, the capital of Goryeo, actually belonged to Gongsun Kang's territory during the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period.

Although Gongsun Kang has little presence in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and seems to be just a land-guarding dog, in fact, this guy defeated Goguryeo, captured its capital, restored the territory of Daifang County of the Han Dynasty, and almost controlled half of the Korean Peninsula.

His father Gongsun Du was equally powerful. He attacked Goguryeo in the east, Wuhuan in the west, took the Liaodong Peninsula in the south, crossed the sea to seize the Jiaodong counties, and actively restored industry, agriculture, and commerce.

The useless father and son in the novel, when placed in Liaodong and the Korean Peninsula, turned out to be two generations of real heroic rulers!
This broken place of Kaesong has been destroyed twice since Goryeo established its capital.

The first time was when the Liao Kingdom marched southward, forcing the King of Goryeo to flee southward, tearing down the walls of Kaesong, burning down houses, and abducting civilians, leaving Kaesong Prefecture almost empty.

It took Goryeo more than ten years to restore its population before it mobilized 340,000 laborers to rebuild the city.

The second time it was destroyed was the imperial city, which was when the Ming Dynasty was just founded. Powerful officials fought among themselves and burned down the palace.

The reason why Goryeo neglected its military in recent years was not just because its civil servants were idle.

They lost the territory north of the Taedong River, and their taxes and manpower were severely reduced. They also had to rebuild the Goryeo imperial city, which cost a lot of money and grain to recruit civilians. How could they have the spare money to pay the soldiers?

At this moment, the actual controller in Kaifeng City was Zheng Zhongfu's thirteen-year-old son Zheng Yun.

A thirteen-year-old kid naturally has no ability to command both civil and military affairs.

Zheng Yun stayed in Kaesong as a banner, assisted by Zheng Zhongfu's confidants, many of whom were scholars from humble backgrounds.

Among these confidants, the military official was headed by Li Shaoying.

Li Junyi's younger brother Li Yifang was responsible for gathering the troops, but all matters needed to be approved by Li Shaoying and Zheng Yun.

"How many troops have been gathered in the capital?" Li Shaoying asked.

Li Yifang said: "More than 12,000. Among them, 7,000 are from the capital, 3,000 are from Yangzhou, and more than half are farmers who were temporarily recruited because they were not paid."

Li Shaoying was extremely worried: "That is to say, except for Yangzhou, the other states and counties only sent more than 2,000 soldiers?"

"The local nobles are watching the show, how could they send their troops here obediently?" Li Yifang sneered.

Yangjumbo, Hansanseong, Hanyang County, Gwangneung, and Nanjing, these five words all referred to Seoul in the Goryeo Dynasty, but the specific scope they covered differed in size.

An elite force, the Goryeo Left Shence Army, was stationed there.

Because of the serious problem of ghost soldiers, the Zuo Shence Army is short of more than half its soldiers and now can only recruit peasants to fill the numbers.

Li Shaoying said: "The general led 6,000 elite troops to Haizhou and asked us to send 30,000 troops within half a month. Now we only have more than 12,000, not even half of them, so we must find another way."

Li Yifang said: "There is no other way but to forcibly recruit more farmers in the capital to serve as soldiers."

"Then let's forcibly conscript the peasants." Li Shaoying said helplessly.

Li Shaoying was not only worried about the military affairs, but also worried that the civil servants in the city would take the opportunity to cause chaos.

……

The current head of Goryeo's civil servants is called Han Lai.

This person was born into the Kaesong Han clan, his hometown was in the Gyeonggi area, and his ancestors were the maternal clan of the founding monarch Wang Geon.

Zheng Zhongfu appointed Han Lai as the deputy prime minister because the Han family was in the capital, which was very convenient for the military regime to control. As long as Han Lai dared to mess around, Zheng Zhongfu would send troops to kill all the Han family members!
"Prime Minister Han, Zheng Zhongfu has deposed and enthroned the emperor without authorization, which has caused the Ming Dynasty to send troops to attack him," said Song Dasheng, the Minister of Rites. "Once the troops gathered in Kaijing are sent to the front by those warriors, we can contact the righteous men and seize the opportunity to launch an attack!"

Han Lai shook his head and sighed: "I am the vice prime minister, and you are the minister. Do we have any real power?"

Song Dasheng said: "We don't have real power, but those poor scholars do."

Han Lai said: "Zheng Zhongfu has won over the scholars from poor families and let them control the real power of the six ministries. How can these people listen to us?"

"After all, scholars from poor families are still scholars. How can they tolerate military men in power? There are also righteous men among them." Song Dasheng said.

Han Laixi asked, "How many people have you contacted?"

Song Dasheng said: "Shen Hao, the doctor of the Ministry of Personnel, Cui Yan, the director of the Ministry of Revenue, and Zhou Anzhong, the deputy director of the Ministry of Justice. All three of them hold real power, especially Zhou Anzhong, who has a group of jailers at his disposal."

Han Lai thought for a while and said, "Continue to contact the poor scholars, but don't act rashly. I will send people back to the countryside to recruit volunteers to defend the city. Maybe we can lead the army into the city to rescue His Majesty! As long as His Majesty is rescued, we can control the whole city."

"Don't you want to think about how to deal with the Ming army?" Cabinet Minister Li Zheng suddenly spoke.

Li Zheng was from the Jeonju Lee clan, which rose to prominence during the Silla Dynasty. The later Joseon Dynasty was also founded by the Jeonju Lee clan.

The Li Zheng in front of him is the ancestor of Lee Seong-gye, the founding monarch of the Joseon Dynasty.

Song Dasheng said: "The Ming Dynasty sent out troops only to punish the disloyal. As long as Zheng Zhongfu and other warriors are killed, the Ming Dynasty will withdraw its troops."

Li Zheng sneered: "Do you believe it? If the Ming Dynasty had not occupied Pyongyang, Baozhou and Anzhou, they would have withdrawn this time. But the Ming Dynasty occupied half of Goryeo a few years ago. If they captured Kaesong this time, would they really withdraw obediently? The Ming Dynasty sent troops south just to help us eliminate the warriors?"

Han Lai and Song Dasheng fell silent. They were certainly not stupid, they just had a lucky mentality.

Song Dasheng asked, "What does Li Xiang think should be done?"

Li Zheng said, "If the front line is defeated, we will immediately launch an attack and take your majesty to Jeonju in the south. Jeonju is the seat of the Annan Protectorate and was not massacred by Zheng Zhongfu. Once your majesty goes there, you can use the army and the mountains to fight until the Ming army withdraws. Kaifeng was also conquered by the Liao Kingdom before, but didn't they still rebuild the country in the old capital?"

"That makes sense." Song Dasheng nodded in approval.

Han Lai kept silent. The reason why Han, the mother clan of the founding monarch, declined for a time was because the Liao Kingdom conquered Kaesongfu. The peasants they controlled were all abducted by the Liao Kingdom, and even the Han ancestral home was burned down.

If the king is taken to the south, what will happen if the Ming army occupies Kaesong Prefecture and refuses to leave?

The Li and Song families were able to return to their hometowns to recruit soldiers to serve the king, but the Han family became a stray dog, and their hometown directly became the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

Li Zheng said: "After the Liao army retreated, didn't the Han family get back their property? Even if you leave your hometown for a while, you can still come back."

Han Lai sneered: "It's easy for you to say that. When the Liao army withdrew, they took away all the people in Kaesong Prefecture. Although my Han family got back the land, we couldn't even recruit tenants. In the most difficult times, we even needed the children of the Han family to go to the fields to farm!"

Li Zheng said: "Back then, the king relocated a lot of people to Kaesong Prefecture, and one-fifth of them were given to the Han family. This time, when the Ming army withdraws, we can also follow the same story. I, the Li family of Jeonju, am willing to relocate 500 households of farmers to the Han family."

Song Dasheng said: "I promise to relocate 300 households to the Han family."

Han Lai said, "Let me think about it again."

……

The noble families have been holding secret meetings, and the humble civil servants have also been gathering every day.

The early leader of the poor was Wen Gongren, a good friend of Zheng Zhichang.

To be honest, Wen Gongren was not from a poor family at all. His ancestor was already an earl in the Silla era. The title of Nanping Earl lasted from the Silla Dynasty to the Goryeo Dynasty.

But the Nanping Wen family was indeed in decline. Although they were known as a wealthy and aristocratic family, they were not much poorer than a humble family.

Duke Wenren was instigated by Zheng Zhichang to be a spy in the Ming Dynasty, but as the Cui family of Haizhou revived due to maritime trade, he, as Cui's son-in-law, also benefited from it. As he became more and more powerful, he gradually stopped mentioning the affairs of his humble family. When he died of illness six years ago, he was already a minister of the imperial court.

His several sons were killed by Zheng Zhongfu!
The current leader of the poor is Kim Yun-kyu, who was sent on a diplomatic mission to the Ming Dynasty a few years ago and ceded the territory north of the Taedong River.

This guy became a discredited person and was demoted again and again. He was so angry that he resigned from his official position and spread the "Ming Learning".

"The Ming emperor attached great importance to Mencius," Jin Yungui said to a group of poor scholars. "Mencius said that the people are the most important, the country is second, and the king is the least important. What are the people? We poor scholars are the people. The king and the scholars are secondary. The most important thing is that the people must live well."

"The Ming Dynasty attaches great importance to the imperial examination. Anyone who dares to cheat in the imperial examination will be beheaded, even if he is the prime minister. No matter if you are the son of a rich and powerful family or a poor family, as long as you have real talent and knowledge, you can become an official through the imperial examination. Moreover, promotion is based on political achievements, not family background. A poor scholar like me can still become a prime minister..."

After talking about the imperial examinations of the Ming Dynasty, Jin Yungui went on to talk about the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty.

His eyes shone with light, and he said with a tone of infinite longing: "There are no beggars in Luoyang and Kaifeng. The widows, widowers and orphans are supported by government offices such as the orphanage and the charity house. The peddlers and hawkers there eat better than the Goryeo officials, and they have wine and meat every now and then."

A poor scholar named Zhang Mingli asked: "Can the peddlers and hawkers in the Ming Dynasty really eat meat?"

Jin Yungui laughed and said, "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you. One day you can go to Luoyang or Kaifeng and find out whether peddlers and hawkers can eat meat."

Zhang Mingli sighed: "But how can we afford to go to Ming Dynasty?"

Jin Yungui said: "When the Ming Dynasty annexes Goryeo, you can pass the examination and go to Luoyang to participate in the imperial examination!"

Many of the poor scholars present were not surprised by this. Apparently, they often said such things and had long hoped that the Ming Dynasty would swallow up Goryeo.

Only a few newly arrived scholars from poor families turned their heads in panic to look outside the house, fearing that their words would be heard by others.

Jin Yungui continued, "The Huangfu family, the largest family in Huangzhou, must have Han ancestors. According to research, they migrated here at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, even Kaifeng was Cao Wei territory, but it was divided between Goguryeo and Silla. Many of you and me are descendants of Yan and Huang, while the aristocratic families are descendants of barbarians. Especially the southern families, most of their ancestors were barbarians."

"We, the poor descendants of Yan and Huang, have been ruled by the barbaric tribes of Goryeo for too many years. Now is the time to recognize our ancestors and return to our motherland!"

When these words were spoken, everyone was shocked.

Although they used to consider themselves to be of the Chinese ethnic group, they never talked about tracing their roots or returning to their motherland.

Because it was not a sin to consider themselves descendants of the Chinese, even many of Goryeo's aristocratic families tried to establish kinship with the Chinese.

For example, Wang Jian, the founding monarch of Goryeo, said that he was a relative of the Wang family of Langya in order to gild his own reputation.

This is quite credible. Wang Jing, the governor of Lujiang in the Eastern Han Dynasty, was born in Pyongyang. His eighth-generation ancestor, Wang Zhong, moved there as early as the Western Han Dynasty, and the Wang family had long been a prominent family in Lelang County.

After Goguryeo captured Lelang County, Wang Jing's branch returned to the Wang family of Langya, and another branch of the Wang family went south to Baekje and settled in the place where Wang Jian was founded.

There was also a branch of the Wang family of Lelang County who defected to the Murong family of Liaoxi during the Western Jin Dynasty. Yuwen Tai's biological mother was from this branch of the Wang family.

Jin Yungui stood up suddenly and took down several Chinese history books from the bookshelf:

"I have read the history books of the Han and Tang dynasties in recent years and I know the origins of the surnames in Goryeo. For example, my surname is Jin, and my ancestor is actually Jin Gong Wangsun of the Han Dynasty. At that time, my ancestor Wang Sun Gong gave birth to a son, but was forced by his mother-in-law to divorce his wife."

"His wife remarried to Emperor Jing of Han and gave birth to a son, who became Emperor Wu of Han."

A group of poor scholars were shocked to find that Jin Yungui's ancestor was actually the ex-husband of Emperor Wu of Han's biological mother!

Jin Yungui took out another booklet and said, "According to the history books of the Han and Tang dynasties, I have recorded the origins of the various surnames in Goryeo. If you don't know where your ancestors came from, you can look for them in this booklet."

A group of scholars from poor families rushed over. Their status in Goryeo was very embarrassing, and they couldn't wait to recognize a powerful ancestor.

Zhang Mingli, who had spoken earlier, quickly found his ancestor and exclaimed in joy, "It turns out that my ancestors came from Wujun and moved to Silla during the Southern and Northern Dynasties!"

Everyone found their ancestor and there was great joy on the scene.

Jin Yungui said: "Goryeo is about to fall. We have been away from China for a long time. Now is the time to serve our ancestral country!"

(End of this chapter)