If I fail to overcome the tribulation, I can only return to the Ming Dynasty and become a prince.

Chapter 156 Li Zhen’s Rebellion
Zhu Zhancheng was not surprised that the crown prince of Joseon, Li Zhen, wanted to send someone to deliver a message to him privately.

After all, this was a prince who was deposed in the 16th year of Yongle. According to historical records, he did not ascend to the throne of the king of Joseon later. Moreover, before he was deposed, Li Fan was not liked by Li Fangyuan and was reprimanded many times. .

Obviously, Li Zhen is now probably on the verge of being deposed.

Without Zhu Zhanjun's intervention, Li Zhen might have accepted his fate as in history and was deposed as the crown prince and lived out his life as an ordinary member of the royal family.

According to the historical records of the Ming Dynasty, the posthumous title given to Li Zhen after his death was Gangjing. The posthumous title given to him after his death was Gangjing. His gentle virtues calmed the public, he was respectful to himself, and he was tolerant and happy. Finally, he was called Jingjing. This is obviously not an evil posthumous title. From this point on, It can also be seen that Li Zhen died a good death in the end.

Therefore, it is also recorded in Korean history books that Li Bao saw that Li Fangyuan preferred his youngest son Li Bao, so he deliberately pretended to be dissolute and immoral, so that he could be deposed to make room for Li Bao instead of losing his life due to court struggle.

But now that the Ming army is stationed in Incheon, Li Zhen has one more choice.

If Li Zhen could get help from the Ming Dynasty, not to mention keeping his position as the crown prince, he would still be able to overthrow Li Fangyuan and sit on the throne of the North Korean king.

Therefore, even though he is currently under house arrest, this time he was forced to pay homage to the two Ming vassal kings. Li Zhuo still asked his few confidants to deliver letters to Zhu Zhanquan in order to Asking for help from the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Zhanqi was actually not interested in this matter. After all, from a historical point of view, no matter who of the Lee family of Korea sat in that position, he would not dare to offend the Ming Dynasty, even in the next few hundred years. You must be a filial son and grandson of the Ming Dynasty throughout the year.

However, considering that Li Fangyuan was very ambitious, and the Ming Dynasty was about to conquer Japan, replacing him with an "obedient" Li Bao would be a good thing for the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Zhanjuan decided to give Li Bao a chance.

"Go back and tell your eldest son that Xin Gu has received it and he likes the gift he sent. Tomorrow I will host a banquet for your eldest son and ask him to take the time to come." After saying this, Zhu Zhanqi glanced at The guard, who seemed to be a little excited, added: "Of course, the solitary banquet is just a private banquet. There is no need to make a big fanfare when your heir apparent comes over."

After saying that, without waiting for the guard to reply, he turned and left.

Behind Zhu Zhanqun, the guard's voice loudly thanked him.

Listening to this voice of gratitude, Zhu Zhanquan shook his head slightly, and then ordered someone to call Fan Zhong and told him: "Fan Zhong, I have an errand for you to do..."

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In Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul, Li Fangyuan was discussing with Li Chen about the Ming army's request for food and grass.

"Father, I have just made statistics with the ministers in the court. Currently, there are about 20 stones of grain and grass in the treasury in Seoul. If we recruit from the treasury of various provinces across the country, we can probably collect 30 stones of grain and grass. But this is already the limit." Li Chen reported to Li Fangyuan the figures he had just compiled from other ministers, and also added: "This figure has not yet taken into account consumption. If food is transported to Seoul from various places, , and [-]% will be consumed on the road, which means we may not even be able to scrape together [-] stones of food and grass."

Although they were talking about complaints and dissatisfaction, as if they wanted to compete with the Ming Dynasty, privately Li Chen and Li Fangyuan were still counting how much surplus food there was in North Korea's treasury.

When Li Fangyuan heard Li Chen say that North Korea couldn't even get 30 shi of food, the expression on his face suddenly collapsed, and he asked with an ugly face: "How can we explain this without even 30 shi? The Ming army must not It's impossible to be fooled by such a small amount of food and grass." Naturally, Li Chen also knew this, and his face was not very good-looking either.

Zhu Zhanquan and King Ning's request to North Korea was to provide at least 50 stones of food and grass. This amount may sound like a lot at first, but in fact it was enough to consume the troops of Zhu Zhanquan and Prince Ning for a year.

After all, the total number of soldiers and horses under King Ning and Zhu Zhanchuan is almost 5. Calculated based on the consumption of 1 shi of rice per year by 50 people, [-] shi is almost a year's consumption.

If the weight of other cereal crops were more, the 50 stone might not be enough.

According to the records in "Military Bei Zhi", 20.8 shi of rice are converted into 20.8 shi for millet, 24.2 shi for wheat, 27.7 shi for millet, and [-] shi for soybeans.

North Korea's national power is poor, and it is not a rice-growing area. What is naturally produced is not rice, but mostly millet, broomcorn millet, barnyard grass, etc., with only a small amount of rice grown.

Therefore, the 50 stones of grain and grass in North Korea were actually enough to meet the requirements of Zhu Zhanquan and King Ning.

"Can the big families in the DPRK and China pledge part of the donation?" Li Fangyuan thought for a while and then asked another question.

The Li family is not the only one in North Korea. There are several other powerful families in North Korea who each hold power. At this time, it is naturally impossible for Li Fangyuan to let those wealthy families enjoy the blessings from behind.

"It should be possible, but even if the big families can contribute part of it, we can only collect 40 shi at most." At this time, Li Chen deeply felt what he should have felt only after losing the battle with the Japanese country many years later. state of mind, fully realizing the nature of North Korea as just a small and weak country.

However, Li Chen still gritted his teeth and said a plan that he was unwilling to come up with: "If we can support it until the autumn harvest, when the food harvest is bumper this year, it is not impossible to get 50 dan, but now the Ming army wants to We are in such a hurry that if we want to collect this batch of food and grass, we can only collect it from the people."

The reason why he was unwilling to come up with this plan was certainly not because Li Sun loved the people. He would rather offend the wealthy family and the Ming Dynasty than exploit his own people.

This is simply because the people have no food on their hands and cannot squeeze out much oil and water at all.

You must know that this is the feudal era, and various exploitation systems and methods for thousands of years have already squeezed out the last remaining grains from the hands of the people.

In the past, ordinary people had to borrow money from landlords to survive. In years of famine, they had to sell their children and daughters. It was a fantasy to expect them to have food in their hands.

So even if Li Chen said this, Li Fangyuan had no intention of doing it and only used it as a last resort.

Just when Li Chen and Li Fangyuan were discussing how to get enough food and grass, the sound of swords and swords suddenly came from outside the palace gate, and soon a bloody guard rushed into the room. , said to the frightened father and son Li Chen and Li Fangyuan: "Your Majesty! The crown prince Li Bao has rebelled. He borrowed an army from the Ming Dynasty and has now invaded the palace!"

(End of this chapter)