A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 542: To survive and de-feudalize, the navigation industry was feudal in Korea

The eleventh year of Beiding

Just as Daxia was recuperating and devoting himself to developing his national strength, Murong Huang of Yan State was ready to give it a try.

Since the Xia Yan War in the second year of Beiding, the Yan State was defeated. Although the Yan State relied on the severe cold climate in Liaodong to save the Yan State, from then on, the Yan State began to decline.

First, the trade with Jin and Zhao was blocked by the Xia State, the source of food that they relied on for survival was cut off, and famine began to occur in the Yan State.

In order to solve the food problem, Murong Kai had to launch military operations against Goguryeo and Yuwen.

In the fourth and fifth years of Beiding, several looting operations were launched for two consecutive years.

The direct consequence was that Goguryeo broke away from the Yan Kingdom, even abandoned Wandu, and fled into the vast mountains of Liaodong. It united with the Fuyu and Louyi people and gradually rebelled against the Yan Alliance.

Every time Yan Guo plundered, he suffered great losses.

However, during the battle against the Yuwen Department, it went very smoothly and gained something every time, thus maintaining the basic operation of the Yan Kingdom.

However, in order to reduce expenditures, Murong Huang had to reduce his troops and began to implement a military system. He delegated military power to the generals who led the troops, allowing them to handle half of the food and salary themselves, and the remaining half was handled by the court.

That is to say, private ownership of the army. The generals who lead the troops have absolute rights over the soldiers under their command, that is, "my general's general is not my general."

In order to ensure that he had an absolutely superior force, Murong Huang moved the capital to Longcheng and maintained the central standing army near Longcheng at about 30,000 people.

In order to allow the generals to have money and food to maintain the army in their hands, so that they can raise a usable army when the enemy comes.

Murong Huang also delegated the power to dispose of the spoils after the campaign to the generals, so that they did not have to turn them over to him.

They were also allowed to lead their own troops abroad to plunder without having to ask for instructions on everything.

This transformed the Yan State from a highly centralized semi-feudal country into a low-centralization, military alliance country.

Murong Huang was still the king of Yan on the surface, but in fact he was the alliance leader of Murong's tribe and the largest owner of military power.

Today's Yan State has an absolute advantage of thirty thousand people in the hands of Murong Huang, followed by ten thousand people under Murong Khan, thousands of people in the hands of the prefects such as Murong Chui, Murong Ke, Feng Yi, and scattered Murong The number in the hands of the nobles ranged from over a thousand to hundreds.

According to what Murong Huang knew, when the war came, he would have nearly 90,000 troops at his disposal, and he would not suffer much losses compared to before the Xia Yan war.

In the past few years, the Yan Kingdom has continued to expand westward and northward in search of survival resources, and has occupied a lot of the original grassland of the Yuwen Department. If it were not for the help of the Xia Army, the Yuwen Department would have been annexed by the Yan State.

It is precisely because of this that although the Yuwen Department includes many pastures of the original Tuoba Department, its strength has not increased much.

In these years, Murong Huang had never thought of invading Xia Youzhou and Pingzhou from the south.

However, Linyu Pass was guarded by Murong Xuan and was airtight. Yan State had no choice but to retreat after leaving corpses on the ground. Murong Huang wanted to persuade him to surrender, but Murong Xuan sternly refused and even looked down upon him.

They also sent troops to Pingzhou, and finally captured Anping and crossed the Mazi River. However, the Xia army quickly transported reinforcements from Youji and Hebei states through sea ships.

The Yan army had no choice but to force troops under Qingning City. Ma Xie, the governor of Pingzhou, even found an opportunity to push back and almost was pushed to Xiangping.

From then on, Murong Huang knew that he could not attack Xia Kingdom without absolute certainty.

The key point is Xia Jun's navy.

The Xia Navy completely blocked the Bohai Bay, preventing supplies from the south from entering the Yan Kingdom.

Murong Huang learned from the painful experience and built a naval port in Mashijin, Liaodong County. He relied on the tall trees all over Liaodong and the Han craftsmen who had defected to build warships.

In order to express his importance, Murong Huang sent the crown prince Murong Jun to supervise the construction of sea ships.

Finally, at the beginning of this year, good news came.

"I congratulate my father. After several years of construction day and night, we have now built more than a hundred large ships, more than 250 warships capable of combat, and more than a thousand small boats.

Although it is far inferior to the prosperity of Jin State's boats and sails, it is more than enough compared to Xia State. "

After receiving the news from Murong Jun, Murong Huang was very excited. This will be the last battle of the Yan Kingdom. If he wins, he will have a bright future, but if he loses, he will turn into ashes.

However, it was not enough for the navy to take shape. He needed more assistance, and after these years of secret diplomacy, he finally achieved something.

Although the Xia State blocked all roads from the south to the Yan State, Murong Huang still found an opportunity to secretly send envoys to contact Zhao and Jin.

It's just that compared to the convenience in the past, the risk is greater now.

Murong Huang prepared to contact the State of Zhao and promised to benefit. The two countries attacked the State of Xia. Then, as a minister of the Jin Dynasty, he rescued the State of Jin and asked the State of Jin to send reinforcements to help the battle.

March
The Yan envoy secretly arrived at Zhao State, met with Shi Hu, took advantage of the advantages and disadvantages, and invited Zhao State to attack Xia State together:
"Now the Xia Kingdom is at its peak, and its national power is growing day by day, but looking at your country, it is far inferior.

If given time, the Xia State will far surpass your country, and the Yan State will have been defeated by Zhao State's indifference.

The tribes in the north also surrendered to the power of the Xia army. The Xia king had long wanted to encompass Yunei. The cavalry from the north followed the Xia army across the Yellow River and galloped in your country.

I wonder who else can help His Majesty stop them when the time comes? "

Although Shihu is addicted to pleasure, it does not mean that he does not participate in worldly affairs.

He also sent troops to attack the Xia Kingdom from Leling County, but they were blocked by the Xia Kingdom. After many failed attempts, Shi Hu did not want to do such a meaningless thing.

On the contrary, he repeatedly performed extraordinary feats in the battle against Jin.

However, since the Jin court appointed Huan Wen as the governor of Jingzhou, it has been difficult for Zhao to find an advantage in Jin. He has recently been thinking about resuming the Northern Expedition. Now that the Yan envoy has arrived, he has made a pact with the Yan envoy, agreeing to attack Xia together early next year.

May
The envoy sent by Murong Huang to the Jin court finally passed through the heavy blockade and arrived in Jiankang, where he met with the Emperor Sima Dan and the Queen Mother Chu.

Today, the Jin court has had three emperors. Sima Yan has passed away due to illness. Since the princes were young, his nephew Sima Yue succeeded him.

Sima Yue also passed away not two years after he ascended the throne, leaving only his two-year-old son Sima Dan, who was supported by the ministers to ascend the throne.

His biological mother, the Empress Dowager Chu, came to the court to listen to the government, and the state affairs were handled by the chariot and cavalry general Yu Bing and the minister Ling He Chong.

Yu Bing and He Chong became political enemies smoothly. After Yu Bing's death, He Chong opposed his grandson Yu Yuanzhi taking over Jingzhou, and Huan Wen, the son of Huan Yi, one of the eight great leaders in Jiangzuo, took over.

In other words, today's national affairs are basically in the hands of Empress Dowager He Chong and Chu.

The Yan envoy told with great emotion how the Xia State bullied Murong Huang, who was the king of Yan conferred by the Jin State. This was not a slap in the Yan State's face, but a slap in the Jin State's ass.

Now the State of Yan intends to break through the blockade of the State of Xia and return to the embrace of the State of Jin. However, after all, the State of Yan is a small country and not as powerful as the State of Xia. Therefore, it also asked the court to send navy to assist the State of Yan to defeat the navy of the State of Xia and regain the Korean Peninsula.

At that time, with Yan State in the north and Jin State in the south, it will be just around the corner to recover the Central Plains and restore the world.

Nowadays, Jin has the best navy in the world, because it inherited all the navy from Wu at that time. Coupled with subsequent development, Jin has thousands of ships and tens of thousands of organized naval forces.

Its sea ships sailed north to Liaodong, east to Ryukyu, south to Nanyang, and west to Daqin (Rome);

The ocean-going trade composed of Jin merchants even continued to and from Persia (Iran), Tianzhu (India), Lion Kingdom (Sri Lanka), Linyi (Southern Vietnam), Funan (Cambodia) and other places.

Moreover, after hundreds of years of development, the Jin Dynasty's sea-going ships were very huge, with as many as seven sails, each of which was more than 7 meters long. They faced the same direction and could take advantage of the wind from all directions.

Another shipwright invented the "secret warehouse" and built a multi-silo bottom ship on a sea-going ship, so that even if a sea-going ship is traveling on the sea and one warehouse is damaged and water enters, it can still maintain buoyancy and avoid sinking.

Compared with the Jin Navy, the Xia Navy is like a child. After several years of development, it only has a navy of more than 10,000 people, hundreds of large transport ships, and more than 500 warships. , Japan and Jin.

After competing for interests from many parties, the Jin court finally agreed to the Yan envoy's request and decided to send an ocean-going fleet of more than 10,000 people next year to assist the Yan state, attack the Xia navy, and land in North Korea to help in the war.

The envoy of Yan was overjoyed when he received the reply. He went to the palace to thank the emperor, then took a sea ship, dressed up as a merchant, and finally returned to the country of Yan after many ups and downs.

October
Envoys from both countries brought good news, which made Murong Huang more confident about the war next year.

He believed that he would be able to lead the Yan State, defeat the Xia State, recapture Youzhou, return the Yan State to its peak, and take over the Central Plains.

Korean Peninsula, capital of North Korea, Seoul.

The reason why it was named Seoul was because the King of Joseon pursued Sinology to show his loyalty to Daxia.

Since relying on Xia Jun to become the king of Korea, Wang Jian has been very satisfied and has been thinking about how to expand his territory and develop his country all day long.

Even though North Korea is located south of the Han River, it still has a large population, with hundreds of thousands of people.

Among them, there are many who came from Liaodong and across the sea to avoid disasters during the wars between the Central Plains dynasties.

In order to better manage the country, Wang Jian followed the example of Daxia and implemented the state and county system in Korea:

The area near Seoul, the capital, is called Gyeonggi County, and several surrounding counties are called Hanzhou;

In the original Chenhan area, it was established as Chenzhou, with twelve counties under its jurisdiction;

Because the original Mahan area was too large, it was divided into Jeonju and Naju. Jeonju had 14 counties under its jurisdiction, and Naju had 13 counties under its jurisdiction;
In the original Benhan area, Gyeongju was established and governed twelve counties.

The governor of the state and the princess of the county are actually the original kings and city-states. They just changed their names and clothes, and they are not bound by law.

There are a total of more than fifty counties in five states. At first glance, they are equal to Daxia.

But in essence, the state of North Korea is like the county of Xia, and the county of North Korea is like the county of Xia.

Although Wang Jian relied on the Central Army in his hands after the last Xiayan War and the Celestial Army stationed in Lelang County, he forced the Three Han areas to accept his own division.

But except for the Hanzhou area, which was occupied by the Central Army at that time and could be controlled by oneself, the other four states were all occupied by local princes, who obeyed the instructions but not the propaganda.

In fact, it was the three heads of state who originally occupied Sanhan.

Under Bai Gu's instructions, North Korea needed to maintain superficial peace like Daxia, so Wang Jian could only hold his nose and enfeoff the princes.

Under Wang Jian's initiative, the princes adopted Han surnames for themselves.

The original owners of Malaysia and Korea took their surname Cui because they claimed that they had the blood of the Cui clan from the Central Plains who had crossed the sea before.

The owner of Chenguo took his surname Jin because there were many minerals in the country.

The Lord of Benhan took his surname Park because Busan in Benhan was the largest port in North Korea and the main part of the ship was wood, so he named it Park.

Finally, Wang Jian conferred Cui Dazhong as General Zhongguo, Duke Zhongguo, and Governor of Quan and Luo Prefectures.

Jin Kaicheng was the general and protector of the country, and the governor of Chenzhou.

Pu Wendu was the general of the auxiliary state, the Duke of the auxiliary state, and the governor of Gyeongju.

Since then, North Korea has begun to feudalize politically for the first time.

(End of this chapter)