golden scales

Just when the ruling and opposition parties of the Ming Dynasty thought that the North Korea matter had been settled, Chen De did another surprising thing.

When everyone was unprepared, he used the collected merchant ships to carry [-] Ming troops, led by Mao Shi, and landed on Jeju Island.

Jeju Island is a large rectangular island with a width of 150 miles from north to south and [-] miles from east to west. It is the largest island in North Korea.Zhu Cihong accompanied a client once in her previous life, and it was already a world-renowned tourist destination at that time.At this time, Jeju Island was still an overseas desert island, and its main purpose was to exile sinners, raise horses, and fish for pearls.

There are three administrative centers of the Lee Dynasty on Jeju Island, one is Jeju City, and the other two are Dajing County and Jingui County.In addition to these three cities, there are nine Pu as garrison points.In the standard setting of the Li Dynasty, Jeju Island, as the front line against Japanese pirates, not only has three divisions of soldiers, but also ten water warfare stations, 25 beacon towers, and 38 Yantai.

One division in North Korea also has 500 soldiers, and three divisions have 500 soldiers.However, from Bingzi's rebellion to the present, the defense of Jeju Island has been almost abandoned. It would be great if the three divisions could have two hundred soldiers capable of fighting.Even if it is calculated based on the full quota of 500 people, it is simply a dream to disperse so many defense points and want to stick to an area of ​​840 square kilometers.

If it weren't for the Tokugawa shogunate's closed-door policy, Jeju Island would have been occupied by Japanese pirates long ago.

Chen De dared to use Mao Shi to lead [-] Ming troops to land on Jeju Island, of course it was not an advantage in military strength.

It is the leading party.

The Li Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty were established almost at the same time, and they were both bitter children who were freed from the rule of the Mongol Yuan.Looking at the state of Daming 17 years ago in Chongzhen, it was already very difficult, and Li Chao was even worse than Daming.Under the ravages of natural disasters, the common people suffer unspeakably, and the businessmen are also unwilling to let their interests be embezzled by the bureaucrats.

Party struggle, government and business.The loss of domestic production and the weakening of the army... All the problems of the Li Dynasty are no different from those of the Ming Dynasty.

XJTLU Kings is one of them.

They are not considered the main force among the three major business gangs in North Korea. If they are barely counted, they still have some incense with the Beijing merchants.In the early years of Chongzhen, Jin Wanyi, the head of the Jin family, raised horses in Jeju Island and started a family business.Today his nephew still runs ten horse farms in Jeju Island.It is an important source of horses in North Korea.

The price of the same horse sold to different customers is also different. The purchase from the country that was favored by merchants in later generations is not pleasing in today's world.Knowing that Daming's horse price is almost two to three times that of Li Chao's, the Jin family is of course more willing to sell the horse to Daming.The only obstacle is Li Chao's shepherd in Jeju Island, because strictly speaking, both the horse and the racecourse should belong to the state.

In order to obtain greater benefits and more blatantly embezzle state-owned assets, the Jin family did what Shanxi merchants did back then without any entanglement.

Traitorous.

The Kim family found out the defense of Jeju Island and bought officials.As long as Chen Deken sends troops to occupy Jeju Island, the Jin family can bribe the courtiers of the Li Dynasty to turn a blind eye and promise to sell all the good horses on the island to Daming.In addition, he is willing to donate 10 taels as military expenses for the Ming army.As for the merchant ship heading to Jeju Island, it was naturally the Jin family who helped to contact them.

Chen De, Zhao Qiming and others all felt that this was a good opportunity to expand their territories, not to mention that they didn't need to use the banner of Ming Dynasty at the beginning, and they only called them pirates.If the court is furious, throw the island away.Withdrew his troops and came back, pretending nothing happened.Even if Li Chao knows the truth.Do you still dare to ask Daming for an explanation?

At best, it is to impeach Chen De.

Chen De is now a dead pig who is not afraid of boiling water, and the soldiers under his command are the same as a general, so what if he is impeached?At worst, go back to Daming to build roads.

By the time Zhu Cihong got the secret report from North Korea and notified the cabinet, Mao Shi had occupied the entire territory of Jeju Island for almost a month.

Wu Tong held a cabinet meeting, and Lu Suyao hadn't come over until 5 minutes before the meeting.Knowing that the crown prince didn't intend to listen in, I felt a lot more relaxed unconsciously.

As a traditional scholar-bureaucrat, Wu Tong knew that he was not a loyal official like Yang Shen, and he also knew that he could not be a capable official like Zhang Juzheng, let alone a powerful minister like Xia Yan.After much deliberation.I'm afraid I can only become a stable figure like Zhang Siwei and Shen Shixing, and help Daming through the transition period from the inside out.

Being able to clearly understand this, Wu Tong knew what he should do: follow the crown prince's footsteps, let Daming change from internal stability to external expansion.

Among the cabinet ministers, Sun Chuanting went further than him.After all, he was a fierce man who once supervised his teachers and went to battle, and also robbed riches to support the army. Although the relationship with the crown prince was as flat as water, secretly they fell in love with each other.

Cai Maode, who had a similar experience to Sun Chuanting, seemed to be an ascetic head teacher. As the prime minister of a country, he didn't even keep singers and maidservants in his family. He was simply a model of honest officials.Who can imagine that he is also a main combatant in the cabinet.Probably because of the shame of losing the land, Cai Maode's desire for territorial expansion is no less than that of the crown prince.

On the other hand, Jiang Dejing, Jiang Ge, and Yuan Jixian, Yuan Ge, are the banners of the internal governance faction.

Although Mr. Jiang Ge was once in favor of developing Nanyang, and Mr. Yuan Ge also supported Nanyang Company because of the profits from Jiangxi porcelain exports, but in essence, both of them were more focused on internal political management of the treasury Yinhua and improving people's livelihood.The Huanghuai project is a bottomless pit, no amount of money will be enough.

Zhou Yingqi, Mr. Zhou Ge, never stated which side he stood on, and belonged to the centrist camp.However, he is now mainly responsible for the work of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and is working hard to study a large-scale population migration plan for His Royal Highness to open up the four fields.From this point of view, Liaodong has already exhausted him, and I am afraid that he is not happy to see another North Korea.

As the chief assistant and the well-known confidant of the crown prince, Wu Tong naturally couldn't express his position easily, but could only induce him slowly.

"Jeju Island is so close to the Japanese country, so it will definitely be harassed by the Japanese pirates. Just let the Koreans defend themselves. Why bother to cause such a thing. Chen De should be punished for the crime of 'provoking border quarrels'!" Jiang Dejing dared The person who talked back to Emperor Chongzhen face to face, Mr. Zhongge, just sat down, and he loudly talked about who occupied Jeju.

As the second assistant, Sun Chuanting was inconvenient to fight shirtless with the third-ranked elder Ge, so he just let out a dry cough.The good old man Cai Maode came up at the right time and said: "Jeju Island is big enough for a government, and there are good horses, bows and arrows on the island. Now that there is a shortage of domestic animal power, it is just a supplement."

Yuan Jixian shook his head and said: "Last week Huguang came to the news that the last rebels in Chu town were completely wiped out. Now it's time to resettle the people. It's not a blessing for the community to expand the land thousands of miles away several times."

Sun Chuanting saw Wu Tong looking at him, cleared his throat, and said, "There are seven martial arts, and Fengcai is one of them. After occupying Jeju, setting up a shipping department and intercepting the maritime trade between Japan and Japan is the way to make a fortune. If you don't talk about it Anmin, no amount of money in the national treasury can withstand such expenses."

He looked at Jiang Dejing, and said: "Last year, 300 million taels of Huanghuai was spent on the treatment of Huanghuai. Let alone the effect, the budget submitted by the Ministry of Industry this year is even bigger. I'm afraid that just one Jeju is not enough."

Jiang Dejing replied: "Why don't you talk about the results? Last year, the flood in the Yellow River and Huaihe River was brought under control, and tens of millions of people along the river were saved from floods. Isn't it worth 300 million taels?"

Sun Chuanting just swayed his gun, and said immediately: "So where does this year's money come from?"

"Jeju is not enough, so do we have to fight it together with Japan?" Jiang Dejing asked.

Just as Sun Chuanting was about to say "It's not too bad", Wu Tong had already tapped on the table lightly, stopping the dispute between the cabinet ministers.

Compared with before the national change, the relationship between cabinet ministers seems to be getting worse.Back then, Wu Zhen and Zhou Yanru almost broke their faces in the cabinet, but they never confronted each other like this.The most is to say different things in front of Emperor Chongzhen, and to slander political opponents.But it is undeniable that this kind of dispute at the meeting is much stronger than the previous peaceful political dispute.At least everyone recognized each other as a gentleman, a loyal minister of Ming Dynasty, not a rebellious minister like Chen Yan and Wei Dezao.

Speaking of Chen Yan and Wei Dezao, the pair of assistant ministers, I heard that some scholars in the capital compared them to the four traitors of the Song Dynasty, and asked them to be made into iron statues to kneel in front of the Zhonglie Temple, and their infamy will last forever.

Wu Tong looked again at Zhou Yingqi who was sitting above Cai Maode, and seeing that Zhou Ge didn't intend to speak, he said, "Everyone, instead of discussing whether or not Jeju should be occupied, it's better to think about how to deal with the aftermath of what happened now."

"To punish Chen De for provoking frontier quarrels, withdraw troops and horses." Jiang Dejing repeated his opinion.

Wu Xuan shook his head slightly: "The judiciary in the military has its own structure, and this matter depends on the wishes of the Metropolitan Governor's Office."

"If the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion doesn't nod, do I have to wait to see their faces?" Jiang Dejing was a little excited: "Could it be the late Tang Dynasty now, when warriors rule the country!"

Sun Chuanting coughed dryly and said, "Speak carefully."

"Simply wait for the governors of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion to come and discuss it." Jiang Dejing was still angry, and pointed to Wu and Sun: "How can the ministers blindly care about the matter and ignore the safety of the country?"

"With the Ministry of War under control, I'm afraid there will be no calamity for the feudal towns." Sun Chuanting said: "On the contrary, the devolution of power to the Governor's Mansion is a lesson learned from the national change. I am a brilliant Ming Dynasty, do I need to be wary of generals, and even weaken the footsteps of Song Dynasty!"

The more history is accumulated, the more facts you will discover, which make sense no matter how you listen.This can be seen from the response of the weekly response period.When Jiang Dejing spoke, Zhou Yingqi looked worried, as if he was in personal pain.Instead of Sun Chuanting's rebuttal, he continued to nod his head solemnly, seeming to be very supportive.

As for the specific and feasible plan, we have to wait for the dissatisfaction of the veterans to vent their grievances, and finally reach a unified tone.This process is simple to say, but it is a difficult process to reach an agreement. Sometimes it is normal to discuss a matter for several days.

Nowadays, there are three or five major national affairs reported to the cabinet every day, and more than a dozen at most, which shows how heavy the workload of the cabinet ministers is. (To be continued..)

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