Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1040 Scholar Officials and Official Slaves

An archery competition is in progress at the archery field in Jeju Gaunying.Master Mu of Jeju was very interested in the competition, and he personally summoned the main officials on the island to participate in the competition.

The ruling class of the Li Dynasty had a strong interest in archery, and everyone from the king to the two classes of nobles used it as a pastime.There are often archery competitions in the palace and government offices, and rewards are given to the winners.Under such an atmosphere, even civil servants' archery skills are quite impressive.

The off-string arrow flew against the wind, making a swishing sound through the air.The sharp arrow pierced into the position one point away from the bull's-eye, and after a tremor, it froze.

The man who shoots the arrow is Li Zhenqing, the herdsman of Jeju.Seeing this scene, his face immediately sank.Before he could put away his disappointed expression, he hurriedly looked at the soldiers lined up beside the school yard and his subordinates.They all put on respectful expressions, but they still couldn't hide the surprised expressions on their faces.

Although Li Zhenqing is a civil servant, his bow skills are not inferior to the judge Li Da Da, and the two are evenly matched in terms of bow skills.

Today is a sunny and sunny day, and the wind is much less windy, which is where the archers are at their best.Unexpectedly, Master Li's first arrow missed the target.

The surrounding atmosphere was a little stagnant, and everyone's faces were a little ugly.After all, this Observation Master has always prided himself on his archery skills, so such a scene will undoubtedly put him in a bad mood.

If the Shangguan is in a bad mood, the life of his subordinates will naturally be difficult.Everyone's eyes fell on Li Building who was about to shoot later.

If Judge Li could also miss a little bit—whether it was true or intentional, it would at least make the atmosphere more relaxed.But it's hard to say.

Li Building is the judge of Jeju, the highest military attache on the island, and the de facto second in command of Jeju.In many cases, the specific affairs are handled by the judge—therefore, the relationship between the judge and the pastor is quite delicate.Because of the relationship between the two classes of nobles in Li Chao, the atmosphere of noble literature and low military is not strong.What's more, the judge's immediate superior, Jeolla Dobingshi Shin Kyung-yu, was the main supporter who supported the king to overthrow the former Gwanghae-kun eight years ago.With the support of such an upstart in the dynasty, Judge Li might not be willing to join in the fun.

Li Building was dressed in a military uniform, with a calfskin bow bag on his waist, thirteen eagle-feathered arrows stuck in it, and a red-painted and vine-wrapped bow in his hand.As soon as he appeared on the stage, he attracted everyone's attention.

He took a deep breath and drew his bow calmly.When the bowstring is fully drawn, it remains motionless, as immovable as a mountain.Everyone stared at him intently.

However, his arrow also missed.Li Building shook his head slightly.A wave of uneasiness swept over everyone's hearts.Suddenly, a soldier hurriedly came to report: the beacon fire of the beacon tower was lit—the Japanese pirates invaded on a large scale!

Everyone was taken aback.After Tokugawa locked the country, Japanese pirates' harassment of Jeju has dropped significantly. In 1605, after North Korea and the Tokugawa shogunate reestablished diplomatic relations, the Jeju area has remained peaceful for almost 30 years. Although there are small groups of Japanese pirates landing and harassing every year, there has never been a large-scale invasion.

The news from the beacon tower is very simple, it can only be seen that a large group of Japanese pirates invaded the island from the direction of Chengshan.The specific situation will have to wait for the local soldiers and officials to report.

"The pirates broke in?"

The judge was taken aback. Although he was caught off guard, he had a good solution: Li Building immediately ordered the beacon fire to be lit, the horn to be blown, and the garrison troops from all towns to be summoned.

The Jeju Island area has been continuously invaded by Japanese pirates since the Goryeo Dynasty.Murder, arson, and robbery are commonplace. In order to resist the invasion of Japanese pirates, Sejong set up defense facilities such as Sancheng, Nine Towns, Shishui Battlefield, 19 Beacon Towers, and 25 Yantai in 38 years.Han Chengshun, who was the pacifier at the time, established the beacon system and formed a complete security and protection system.Beacon fires are built along the coastline, and beacon fires are also set up on the mountain peaks. In case of emergency, Jeju City, other towns and defense posts can be notified in time.

According to the combat plan, once the Japanese pirates landed, beacon fires would be lit everywhere, and each station and city post would blow horns and light beacon fires to convey information to each other.The defense troops in the station guarded the walled city and controlled the port.To prevent Japanese pirates from using the island's port for reinforcements, the garrisons in each city dispatched their main forces according to the areas where Japanese pirates landed, and the warships in the water battle station coordinated with the warships to attack Japanese pirates by land and water, and wiped them out.

The problem is that this seemingly good plan relies on an army that basically maintains combat effectiveness.The number of Japanese pirates landing at the same time cannot be too many.Because there are only 500 people in charge on the island, deducting the necessary defensive troops everywhere, three or 400 people can be dispatched from Jeju Island at a time, which is okay to deal with dozens of hundreds of Japanese pirates, but if there are too many, it will be powerless.

Of course, they can also rely on the "righteous soldiers" formed by the villagers on the island - the brave man who met Daming.Compared with the regular army, the volunteer soldiers protect the country and protect the family, and their combat effectiveness is quite good.During the Japanese Invasion in Miura, the "rescue soldiers" on Jeju Island played a great role and fiercely resisted Japanese pirates. However, in recent decades, Jeju Island has suffered from frequent disasters. The island has insufficient food, and a large number of people have flowed out to on the peninsula.The population of Jeju Island has been in a state of continuous decline.There are naturally fewer "righteous soldiers" available.

Hearing that the Japanese pirates landed near Chengshan, Cui Renjian, the governor of Jingyi County, turned pale—this place is under his jurisdiction, and as an official guarding the land, he is responsible for resisting the Japanese pirates.

"Please order Master Supervisor to send hundreds of elite soldiers, and I will go back to the county to resist the Japanese pirates!"

Although I am afraid, the responsibility of guarding the soil cannot be escaped.Cui Renjian said boldly.

Rather than being forced to go back to the county, it is better to take the initiative and bring more troops back for reinforcements. The victory is still uncertain, at least you can keep yourself safe.This kind of Japanese pirates is nothing more than plundering, and they will naturally retreat after they are full of plundering.

"The situation of the Japanese pirates is unknown, so if you rush to send troops, it may be difficult to win. The army on this island is the army of Jeju, which is more useful. If something goes wrong, the soldiers and civilians on the island will be doomed." Li Building said.

Although these words are grand, the inner meaning is that they do not plan to send troops for reinforcements.Mr. Li himself has his own little things: the Japanese pirates will always retreat. Even if the county falls for a while, it is inevitable that the Japanese pirates will recover the county after they retreat, but it is the judge's responsibility to lose troops.

As a judge, he has no idea what the status of the soldiers and horses of the three divisions on the island is. There are only a very small number of outposts and teeth soldiers available, at most no more than one or two hundred soldiers.It is not necessarily the opponent of the Japanese pirates.

Cui Renjian was thinking of some reason to refute Li Dazhu's words when Li Zhenqing spoke. As a third-rank civil servant, he had the ability to "not be surprised by changes", and his expression was quite calm.After coughing, he slowly raised his beard and said:

"Even though the Japanese pirates are powerful, we need to be calm, calm."

He said "calm down" twice, and the officials stopped whispering and turned their eyes to him.Let's see if Master Mushi has any good strategies to defeat the enemy.

However, Li Zhenqing didn't have any "tricks and tricks in his bag". He didn't have anything new except for ordering Li Building to "immediately formulate a strategy to retreat from the enemy" and ordering Cui Renjian to "quickly return to the county and sit in defense".Everyone had no choice but to say hello.

In a tense atmosphere, the two county supervisors Cui Renjian and Li Qiu returned to the county seat on fast horses under the protection of their servants and guards.Immediately, the city of Jeju blew the horn, summoned the garrison outside the city, closed the city gate, and entered the state of battle.

When Li Dadong returned to his government office, he immediately sent another post to scout out the enemy's situation.Then he wrote a handwritten letter to his immediate superior: Shen Jingyu, envoy of the Jeolla Province, informed that a large group of Japanese pirates had landed, and he was preparing to retreat from the enemy Yunyun.

This letter is not a formal distress document, but a private letter.Whether to urgently request reinforcements depends on the report after the outpost reconnaissance returns

He called the servants, and the notice immediately selected a capable servant to deliver the letter.Then he ordered:
"Please come, Park Zhongjun."

The bow shot hurriedly left, and the entourage around the officials also dispersed.Only a few small officials from the Jeju prison camp were left to direct dozens of officials and servants to clean up the mess.

There is an awning beside the bow field, which was originally prepared for the banquet after the bow shooting. The table has been set up early, and there are cups, plates, chopsticks, four kinds of fruits and four kinds of dried fruits for drinking.The official prostitutes prepared for the banquet and fun were all heavily made up and gorgeously dressed. They looked at the empty field suddenly in a daze, wondering whether they should leave immediately or wait for their next order.

Pu Dehuan, a 17-year-old official servant, glanced at the official prostitute in the awning, and swallowed.He started to pack up the scattered objects on the bow range, when suddenly he was punched hard on the back.Looking back, it was his brother Pu Demeng.

"Brother, what are you still doing here, go and get something delicious!" Pu Demeng still had traces of miso on the corner of his mouth, "If you go late, you won't get anything!"

As soon as he heard what his brother said, Pu Dehuan immediately dropped the things in his hands.Followed my brother to the temporary kitchen.Officials and servants eat barley and buckwheat all year round, and only poor-quality miso and seaweed are served.I can't even eat the slightly higher-end radish kimchi.

In the makeshift kitchen, servants and servants are pushing each other for food.Naturally, no one enjoyed the food carefully prepared by the officials and servants in the prison camp—it was cheaper for the petty officials and officials and servants who usually only had pickles and sauce to feed their stomachs.Their loyalty to the emperor and patriotism are not as strong as those of the scholar-bureaucrats, as long as they are not cut on the head with a knife, they still have a full appetite.

Officials and servants could not get the best grilled meat and fish soup, but ordinary food such as fish sauce, fish porridge, and kimchi were quite sufficient.The Pu family brothers quickly got two big bowls of fish porridge, poured a lot of miso, crab sauce and other things on top of it, and hid aside to eat it.

(End of this chapter)