Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty, Beijing.

After Zhu Youjian received the war report from Korea, he felt very emotional.

Although he knew that Korea could not defeat the Jianlu, he did not expect Korea to be defeated so badly.

Especially the battle that took place outside Seoul made him realize that an army equipped solely with firearms could not defeat the Jianlu in a field battle.

If close combat cannot be avoided, the Ming army may be defeated in hand-to-hand combat.

When Zhu Youjian summoned the Privy Council officials and the officers and soldiers of the Imperial Camp and the Patrol Camp to discuss this battle, he said to them:

"'Bows and arrows are heroes, muskets are fools' is not true, but the latest 'swords are heroes' is not without reason."

"If we don't dare to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Jianlu soldiers, it will be difficult for the Ming Dynasty to win in a field battle."

"We must train soldiers who dare to fight hand-to-hand, so that we won't be defeated when facing the Jianlu."

The army that dares to fight with bayonets is the elite, this is a common saying in later generations with highly developed firearms.

Hand-to-hand combat becomes even more important at this time, and the Ming Dynasty's firearms army must strengthen training in this area in the future.

He decided to imitate Suvorov's famous saying "The bayonet is a hero, the bullet is a fool" and spread the message in the Ming army that "those who can use the bayonet are heroes, those who only use bullets are fools." While conducting shooting competitions in the army, he also held a bayonet competition.

This was agreed by the ministers and generals, who also believed that hand-to-hand combat was important. Since the fire guns were slow to reload, hand-to-hand combat was the only option once the enemy got close.

However, some people think that hand cannons should be developed. Equipment Minister Bi Maokang said:

"Your Majesty has allowed the purchase of handguns and short guns a few days ago. I think soldiers should be allowed to purchase weapons."

"General Cao defeated the Jianlu with his pistol when he was fighting them."

"The flintlock pistol developed by the Equipment Institute is affordable for many people."

The cost of a flintlock pistol is not high, and is much lower than that of a spring-loaded pistol.

The cost of a spring-loaded pistol was more than two taels of silver, while the cost of a flintlock pistol was only a little more than one tael.

In the past, it cost four or five taels to equip each cavalryman with a pair of muskets, but now it only costs two or three taels.

Bi Maokang thought that he could give soldiers preferential prices so that they could buy hand cannons.

Zhu Youjian approved this proposal and suggested that hand cannons be directly issued to elite troops such as cavalry.

Compared to horses, hand guns were too cheap. It was a great deal to kill an enemy horse on the battlefield.

As for other soldiers, if they wanted to be equipped with hand cannons, they had to buy them themselves. Zhu Youjian relaxed the right to bear arms for active soldiers and reserve soldiers, and also allowed them to buy hand cannons and short guns.

However, soldiers in the army will have some restrictions and can only buy weapons that use standard ammunition. This will facilitate the unification of military logistics and make it easier to prepare ammunition. The army will not provide them with special ammunition for other miscellaneous firearms.

At the same time, Zhu Youjian also expected that after the revolver musket was put on the market, it would mature faster with the joint efforts of all parties.

This kind of close-range weapon that can fire continuously is the weapon that can change the situation in close combat.

Another lesson from the battle outside Seoul was the need to let soldiers carry more ammunition. Zhu Youjian ordered the logistics department and the new army generals:

"You need to collect the number of ammunition required for various firearms in combat and determine the base number of ammunition."

"Stock up on ammunition according to different combat situations and optimize logistics."

"At the same time, soldiers with spare capacity should be allowed to carry more ammunition, and ordnance officers should be given additional ammunition supply responsibilities."

This was a concept he remembered and thought he could explore.

We cannot be like North Korea, which only issues small amounts of ammunition to soldiers, resulting in situations where ammunition is distributed on the spot on the battlefield, leading to defeat.

At the same time, because of the accident in this battle, the matchlock gun was completely abandoned in the Ming Dynasty and no one supported it anymore.

Some officers and soldiers of the New Army had some complaints about replacing the matchlock musket with a flintlock musket.

Because for soldiers who are skilled in using matchlocks, the ignition success rate of a matchlock gun is higher than that of a flintlock gun.

However, the Korean War showed that matchlock guns were inconvenient to use in ambushes. Not only did you need to keep the matchlock lit at all times during combat, you also had to be careful not to ignite the surrounding grass and leaves during ambushes.

What's more troublesome is that if you don't fire immediately after clipping the fuse, the fuse will burn short. If you don't adjust the fuse when pulling the trigger, the ignition will fail. Many North Korean recruits have made this mistake, and even caused the ambush to fail.

After the flintlock muskets were shipped to Korea for testing, Korean soldiers generally preferred the new muskets. They abandoned the matchlock muskets without hesitation.

However, the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty rarely made such low-level mistakes because they had received long training periods.

Moreover, they were training on the shooting range, so they didn't need to think about crossing the river with a matchlock or lying on the ground to ambush...

(A soldier holding a matchlock high, with the matchlock wrapped around his hand to keep it lit)

This makes some people prefer matchlock muskets and dislike flintlock muskets.

They simply liked the ammunition used in the flintlock, and the self-priming system. Some even called for these improvements to be made to the matchlock, without the need for a flintlock action.

However, this situation changed drastically after North Korean soldiers accidentally used a matchlock to ignite gunpowder, burning the officers who were distributing ammunition to death.

The generals of the Ming army unanimously agreed to promote the use of flintlock muskets.

Because they didn't know whether similar accidents would happen in the Ming army.

It would be a disaster if the battle was lost due to accidental ignition of gunpowder.

The promotion of flintlock muskets therefore went smoothly.

Even if some soldiers were dissatisfied with the flintlock's ignition success rate, they had no choice but to adapt to this new equipment.

Of course, if you are really dissatisfied with the flintlock, there are other options. That is to buy a spring-wheel musket yourself, or join an elite unit such as a sniper team and switch to spring-wheel equipment.
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These are the impacts of the Korean War on the Privy Council. The defeat of the Korean War had a greater impact on the Lifanyuan.

Under Zhu Youjian's orders, the Lifanyuan had been pushing for Korea's annexation. Now that Korea had been defeated, the opportunity for this had finally come.

The current King of Korea has already granted full power to Hong Chengchou, the minister stationed in Korea, according to the requirements of the Ming Dynasty. This shows that he has lost the ability to resist and has completely accepted the requirements of the Ming Dynasty.

Even if there are still people who oppose it, Hong Chengchou can actually implement the feudal system in Korea in the name of resisting the invaders. This will create an established fact and make these powerful people take the initiative to offer Korea to the emperor.

The Ming Dynasty's aristocratic parliament can guarantee their power and inheritance. If the King of Korea disagrees, then throw him out and replace him with someone else.

However, Zhu Youjian was still quite particular about his table manners, and he did not want to make the issue of North Korea's submission so ugly.

After the defeat of the Korean army, he asked the Lifanyuan to discuss the conditions with the Korean crown prince. The conditions were basically the same as before, with the addition of sending a minister to Korea as prime minister, paying one-tenth of the tax revenue as tribute, and bearing the expenses of the garrison.

The Joseon Crown Prince, Li Wang, almost completely accepted this, because he knew that Joseon was in danger and the ancestral temple might be destroyed by the Jianlu.

Compared with this, giving up a little power and paying tribute to the Ming Dynasty is nothing, and the Ming Dynasty will also guarantee the status of the Korean royal family.

The only suggestion he made was that he hoped the Ming Dynasty would recognize the temple names of the previous kings of Korea and not remove the temple names just because of their submission.

This is one of the most heatedly debated issues within Joseon, with some pro-independence factions accusing Crown Prince Lee Wang, who wanted to submit to the Joseon throne, of abandoning the Joseon ancestral temple.

Under this pressure, Li and Wang proposed to the Ming Dynasty to retain the temple name of Korea.

Zhu Youjian had heard about this matter and after thinking about it, he decided to agree.

Joseon was allowed to keep temple names such as Taizu and Taizong, but they had to be used together with posthumous names, and the word "king" had to be added. And future temple names had to be granted by the Ming court, just like posthumous names.

Li Wang was so happy that he cried, feeling that he had made a great contribution to preserving the Joseon ancestral temple.

He did not dare to take the title of king bestowed by the Ming court on his own initiative, and asked the Ming court to send someone to discuss the matter with his father.

His father, King Yi Jong, was completely disheartened on Yeongjong Island.

Although he was protected by the Ming army, he didn't have to worry about his own safety.

But the current situation also means that he has completely lost the strength to resist internal submission.

Faced with various demands from the Ming Dynasty, he agreed, like Crown Prince Li Wang, to choose his favorite character "Ren" among the several titles of king that the Ming Dynasty planned to bestow.

From then on, the King of Korea became Prince Suncheon-fu-yun-tui-sung-in, one of the inner princes of the Ming Dynasty.

It is only because some of the characteristics of the outer vassal states are still retained that they are subdivided into inner and outer vassal states. (End of this chapter)