golden scales

"Your Highness, there is an urgent report from North Korea." Lu Suyao took a small bamboo tube and brought it to Zhu Cihong.

Zhu Cihong was playing some games with his son to promote brain development. When he saw some political affairs, he stopped and let the princess, who was watching gigglingly, continue to play with his son. He took Lu Suyao to the side hall study of Zhongcui Palace.

Because of its instability, flying pigeons are easily attacked by natural enemies on the road.It would be fine if he was caught by the eagle, but if he was shot down and accidentally obtained important secrets, it would be a bit disturbing.Therefore, Feige's transmission of letters is very limited and will not be used to deliver important messages.

However, the North Korean side likes to use flying pigeons. One is that North Korea has little to do with the Central Plains, and the other is that the distance is far away. Using flying pigeons can be faster.However, on important issues, people still give priority to delivery.

This information is obviously not very important, but the sooner you know, the better.

It is said that the king of Joseon, Li Ji, died on the eighth day of May in the 22nd year of Chongzhen.

Li Zhen was criticized very much at the beginning of his ascension to the throne, because he only obtained the position of monarch through a coup d'état.It is precisely because of this unfair method that Ming people are very unhappy about it.Yuan Keli, who was the governor of Denglai at that time to control North Korea, expressed great indignation at this. If the current situation were not tense, he would have sent troops to North Korea to trace the source!

However, from the perspective of state relations, Li Zhen's usurpation of the throne is actually beneficial to Ming Dynasty.

Li Yu's predecessor was Li Hun, the second son of the concubine of Li Yan, the emperor of the Joseon Dynasty. This person also came from a wrong way.

First of all, Li Hun still has his brother Lin Haijun above him.Secondly, Li Yan already had a legitimate son before his death, who was the maharaja Yongchang.Regardless of whether he is a concubine or an elder, it is very difficult for Mr. Guanghai to inherit the kingship of Joseon.

However, Lord Linhai's reputation was extremely bad, and he was impeached by the court officials many times for seizing official servants and private land, while Li Hun's reputation was excellent.

Later, the Imchenwa change occurred.Li Zan divided the imperial court into two, and fled to Liaodong with some officials himself.This undoubtedly made Li Hun famous among the army and the people, and laid a solid foundation for succeeding the king in the future.

On the other hand, the Ming Dynasty had the idea of ​​abolishing the elders and erecting the younger because of the temple.That is, the well-known national struggle.At that time, the civil servants were very sensitive to the elders and younger ones, so they rejected Li Hun's request to attack the prince several times, and were determined to make Lord Linhai the king of Joseon.For this reason, the North Korean envoy even lied that Lin Haijun was insane and voluntarily abdicated to Guanghai Jun.Therefore, the Ministry of Rites sent two envoys to find out the truth, which deeply insulted Li Hui.

Under this background, Guanghai Lord Li Hui naturally harbored deep resentment towards the Ming court, and secretly made friends with the newly rising Jianzhou Jurchen.However, Lingyang Lord Li Yu, who rebelled, was firmly on the side of Daming, even though Bingzi was forced to sign a contract with Huang Taiji after his rebellion.After becoming a vassal state of the Qing court, he still has his heart for Ming Dynasty.

Just looking at the succession of the Korean throne, you will find that the scholar-officials in Ming Dynasty actually cared about national interests, and ideology was the most important thing.

Zhu Cihong is a pragmatist.

He fully agrees with Li Jing's steadfastness towards the Ming Dynasty, and he is also grateful for his 17 years in Chongzhen, when the Ming Dynasty was on the verge of collapse, and he sent ginseng and mink fur worth 10 taels when the country was famined.Without Li Zhen's pro-Ming policy, it would be impossible for the mission sent by Ming Dynasty to North Korea to achieve the current speed of progress.

Especially before dying.Li Hun is already considering the addition of oral Chinese assessment when North Korea selects officials, which shows his sincerity.

"Give Li Hui a better posthumous title." Zhu Cihong said.

The king of Korea was the vassal of Ming Dynasty.It has the posthumous title of Daming.At the same time, the civil servants of North Korea will also have temple names and posthumous titles, just like an independent kingdom.This kind of political structure really has some feudal flavor.

Lu Suyao replied: "I will report to Honghe Temple to know."

Zhu Cihong nodded.

The senior officials in the court, led by Jiang Yueguang, opposed the establishment of the General Administration of Communications, and still wanted to use Honglu Temple as the office responsible for foreign exchanges.In order to relieve the ceremonial functions of Honglu Temple, they moved Taichang Temple out.

Taichang Temple is the department responsible for ceremonial music, although rites and music are not separated.But now there are basically Taoists in Taichang Temple, and there are almost no Confucian scholars.However, in the eyes of the veterans, both Taoist priests and Confucian scholars can be dispatched, and the "name" of the official office is righteousness.It must be passed on with evidence, and it cannot be wrong.

Because they followed the Chongzhen family, and Chongzhen had almost no resistance to Confucian classics, so he easily defected and sided with them.Zhu Cihong didn't want to disperse the power of the court because of these false names, and it would be bad to have a passive strike at that time, so he simply withdrew the General Administration of Communications, and Honglu Temple was in charge of foreign exchanges, and Taichang Temple was in charge of etiquette.

Jiang Yueguang worked hard for three years and finally achieved a positive result. He really aroused his high-spirited will to work. Now he is compiling "Foreign Biographies" in Honglu Temple in full swing. country, expand business routes, and protect the people of Ming Dynasty.

This also shows that Nanyang Company's silver bullet offensive has indeed worked.

Now that the death of the king happened in North Korea, it is within the purview of Honglu Temple.As long as the North Korean funeral envoy arrives in Beijing, we can discuss the posthumous title and consider the matter of registration.

After it was reported that Honglu Temple knew about it, Honglu Temple would submit the ministerial proposal to the cabinet.

As Zhu Cihong knew, Wu Tong didn't care about etiquette and diplomacy, and preferred to turn the Ministry of Rites into a purely educational department.If it was in the Zhou Dynasty, this would be extremely stupid, but since the Song Dynasty, "ritual" has been reduced to a means of governing the country, rather than a sacred and inviolable ideology, so it is not a pity to abandon it.

However, there were some overt or covert differences between Wu Xin and Jiang Yueguang, which made Wu Xin release first and then arrest, and brought Honglu Temple and Taichang Temple under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Rites again. Before submitting documents, these two temples had to go through Ministry of Rites.

Jiang Yueguang couldn't refuse this kind of rightful seizing of power, so he could only endure it, but it didn't prevent him from secretly contacting his old friends and seeking the position of Minister of Rites.

Therefore, on May 22, the [-]nd year of Chongzhen, the cabinet's vote was intended to be a reply to the Ministry of Rites, not the title book of Honglu Temple.

"I think that before the new king of Joseon is established, envoys should be sent to question the sudden death of Prince Sohyun, and to visit his three sons who were exiled." On behalf of the cabinet, Wu Sheng sat in the Wenhua Hall and made suggestions on the North Korean issue.

Zhu Cihong took a brief look at the proposal, and found that the content was consistent with what Wu Zhen said, and he basically understood the meaning of Wu Zhen and other cabinet ministers.

It is widely rumored that Prince Zhaoxian was poisoned by his father Li Zhen.

This legend is not found in the official history, and it is the secret of the Joseon royal family's inhumanity.At that time, Prince Zhaoxian was hostage in Shenyang with his younger brothers Fenglin Dajun and Linping Dajun. When the Jiashen state changed, he also entered the customs with Shunzhi and went to Beijing.Later, after being released to North Korea, the news of his sudden death came out less than two months later, so there were rumors of being poisoned.

The information collected from North Korea is also sufficient to prove that the possibility of this rumor is extremely high.Because when he was a hostage, Prince Sohyun hated Donglu on the one hand, but on the other hand felt that it was necessary to learn from Donglu and make North Korea a country independent of Ming and Qing.In the eyes of Li Zhen, who is firm and loyal, this is already treasonous, not to mention that when he was released to North Korea, the accompanying Qing envoy forced Li Zhen to go out of the city to meet his son.

Even if Zhu Cihong had the credit for recovering Shen Jingtian, he would not dare to let Chongzhen go out of the city to meet him.

This is a code of etiquette that cannot be broken.

With all these connections, it seems to be a matter of course for Li Ji to kill his son.

More importantly, the status of the son of Zhaoxian was established by the Ming Dynasty. Wouldn't assassinating the son be a slap in the face of Daming?

And Wu Tong raised the case of questioning Prince Sohyun at this time, in response to the "Please North Korea to Cut Ganghwa Island and Open the Township" sent by Chen De in April.

Since the founding of China, it has been extremely easy to occupy land, and it is almost like crushing the land around it into the territory.So I don't feel distressed when I give away land to others, but it seems a bit reserved and shy to ask others for land.Especially in the face of North Korea, asking them for Jianghua Island is like asking their entourage to borrow a few copper coins to buy sesame seed cakes.

Regardless of Zhu Cihong, none of the cabinet ministers could hold back their face anyway.

It is best to let the North Koreans themselves propose to cut Jianghua Island to the Chinese garrison.

The death of Li Ji was a good opportunity, and the case of Prince Zhao Xian was a good excuse.

If the new king wants to successfully obtain the canonization of the Ming Dynasty, it is best to be able to act according to Ming's will.

What's more, this is also for the good of North Korea.

Zhu Cihong was very happy to get Chen De's inscription before, and he almost asked for the cabinet's draft copy immediately, and asked North Korea to cede Ganghwa Island.As a result, none of the six cabinet ministers agreed, so they had to shelve it.

At that time, Zhu Cihong felt that the scholar-bureaucrats in Ming Dynasty really lacked pioneering spirit, and asked people to collect North Korea's economic intelligence, preparing to send another silver bullet and get through the cabinet.Unexpectedly, when Li Zhen died, the face of the cabinet was exposed.Where did you refuse to open up before?It's clearly a matter of saving face!

"Yes." Zhu Cihong agreed with the cabinet's opinion, and Zhu Bi gave instructions and sent them back to the cabinet for implementation.

Wu Zhen also had a good impression of Li Tong, and was not happy to hear the news of his death, but there is no personal relationship between countries, even if he and Li Tong are life-and-death friends, at the official level, he still has to grasp the truth. Opportunity, to bully the orphans and widows while Li Xi's body was still cold.

No matter how flexible you are, you must never take off the cloak of morality.

In June of the 22nd year of Chongzhen, a sealed boat with the brand name of Daming Honglu Temple set sail from Tianjin Port, carrying the ugly-looking Korean envoys to Hanyang by water.This not only means that Daming's emphasis on sea routes has gradually surpassed that of land routes, but also provides the latest hydrological and meteorological data for the Daming Navy to station in Ganghwa Island.

The captain of Fengzhou is fifteen feet long, two feet and six feet wide, and one foot and three feet deep. It is divided into 23 cabins.As long as it is loaded with artillery and equipped with enough sailors, it will be a main battleship running across the sea. (To be continued..)

ps: At the end of the month, who still has tickets?Recommended tickets, monthly tickets, none of them are missing~~~!