I

  Chapter 949 945 [North Korean peasant uprising]

  On the day the Datong army occupied Hanyang, the city and the city became stable.

  Due to the severe punishment of robbers who take advantage of the chaos, the social security in Hanyang City has even improved unprecedentedly, and even petty theft has temporarily disappeared.

   "Ambassador of the Party, what should I do?" Jin Junyan asked.

  Dang Chongjun was also a little confused: "Wait for North Korea's monarchs and ministers, and send someone with weight to negotiate."

  The imperial order the two received was very simple, that is, to bite off a piece of land from North Korea, and the specific operation was up to them to decide.

  So the two made a plan to let the army bombard the city walls. Rejecting the first three rounds of negotiations from North Korea, under the continuous shelling, you can receive the fourth round of envoys, from the lion's mouth to the landing to pay back the money, and finally extort a large piece of land.

  Dang Chongjun and Jin Junyan, who are civil and military, never dreamed that the North Korean monarchs and officials would abandon the city and flee!

   "Ambassador, there are North Korean merchants asking to see you."

   "Bring him in."

  A North Korean businessman in his forties knelt down in front of Dang Chongjun: "The grassroots of the country, Hong Daoquan, kowtow to Lord Angel!"

  Dang Chongjun said: "Get up."

   "Master Xie," Hong Daoquan stood still stooping after getting up, "The king of our country is patrolling Kaesong, and sent the little people to apologize to the angel."

  Dang Chongjun became more and more speechless: "Why don't you send a minister to beg for mercy, but actually send a merchant over?"

  Hong Daoquan said: "The king sends ministers, and ministers send businessmen."

   "What does the lord of North Korea want to say?" Dang Chongjun asked.

   Hong Daoquan replied: "I don't know."

  Dang Chongjun almost spit out a mouthful of old blood. It’s such a horrible situation. The king of North Korea still doesn’t know what to say?

Hong Daoquan explained: "The king and the ministers are arguing endlessly in Kaesong, and no one can come up with a charter to serve the public. The grassroots were sent here to find out what the angels said. The angels can ask for half of the land even if they ask for a price. The grassroots will be honest. Go back and return to life."

  Dang Chongjun became more and more confused: "Which country are you a merchant, why don't you speak for North Korea?"

  Hong Daoquan replied: "Report to the angel, Caomin is Songshang."

Next to him, a spy who had been in North Korea for a long time, walked up to Dang Chongjun and muttered: "Dang Ambassador, among the merchants in North Korea, Beijing merchants, Song merchants, and Wan merchants are the most powerful. Beijing merchants monopolize Hanyang trade, and most of them are concubines separated by nobles. The family. Wanshang is Baozhou merchants, who trade on both sides of the Yalu River. Songshang is Kaesong merchants, spread all over North Korea, but suffered heavy suppression."

  Dang Chongjun understood, and asked with a smile, "Your heart is China?"

  Hong Daoquan answered unabashedly: "As long as Song Shang, he always thinks about enclosing the Celestial Dynasty!"

  Kaeseong was called Songak in ancient times, and it became the capital during the Goryeo period, so it was renamed Kaijing. The merchants in Kaesong were very prominent at that time. After the establishment of the Lee Dynasty, not only the capital was moved to Hanyang, but the imperial examinations for Kaesong scholars were banned.

  As a result, more and more people in Kaesong started business because the road to the imperial examination was cut off. The scale of Songshang continued to grow, and "Songfang" was opened across the country, forming a business network throughout North Korea.

  Datong The trade between China and North Korea has become more and more prosperous, and the North Korean monarchs and ministers once again suppressed Songshang. The port of Kaesong was directly closed, and the goods purchased by Songshang had to be sold to Jingshang in Hanyang, and Jingshang directly traded with Chinese merchants.

  This is equivalent to Song merchants all over the country. They can only be inland suppliers, and they can't make much money after working hard. Even to receive goods in the country, two groups of nobles have to issue licenses, and each business license must be exchanged for bribes.

   Very rich, little property, unable to take the imperial examination, business network spread all over the country, and suffered from imperial suppression everywhere... What do these Song merchants think?

  Of course I want to attach China, divide the land at will, kill all the monarchs and ministers of North Korea, and do business unimpeded in the future!

   Moreover, the children of Chinese merchants can also take part in the imperial examination, and maybe their descendants can also be officials.

Hong Daoquan said: "The kings and ministers of North Korea are in Kaesong at this time. There are only 1,500 firecrackers following them, and there are 500 Kaesong defenders. If the Chinese army attacks the city, the Kaesong merchants are willing to set fire to cooperate, and they will definitely be able to win in one battle!" "

   "Retire now." Dang Chongjun said.

  After the North Korean businessman left, Dang Chongjun and Jin Junyan looked at each other.

  The behavior of the North Korean monarchs and ministers was unexpected everywhere, and the merchants in Kaesong clearly wanted to lead the way, which made them completely unimaginable.

Dang Chongjun said: "General Kim, I know what you are thinking. I also want to make contributions, but the imperial court only allowed part of the territory in the north of North Korea to be cut off, and it is impossible to swallow it all after the country is destroyed. The imperial court recovered Guangnan Province and sent troops Although it went smoothly, it took a lot of effort to suppress the rebellion. North Korea is more complicated than Guangnan, and the annexation may be simple, but it will cost countless money and food every year to suppress the rebellion. Moreover, Guangnan is rich in rice, and North Korea has nothing. Complete occupation is purely A loss-making deal."

   "Then take half and keep the other half?" Jin Junyan said.

  Dang Chongjun said: "North Korea must be left with enough land, and North Korean monarchs and ministers cannot be killed. North Korean monarchs and ministers ceded the land, and all responsibilities rested with North Korean monarchs and ministers, which can greatly reduce civil resistance."

   "That's right." Jin Junyan nodded.

  Dang Chongjun said: "In addition to expanding the territory, the imperial court also wants to cancel the silver ban in North Korea, so that my Chinese silver dollars can pass through North Korea without hindrance. This matter is more important than expanding the land."

  North Korea’s currency reform has changed a bit to make people laugh and cry.

  Copper coins from China are distributed to various places through merchants, but Chinese silver dollars are resolutely not used. Even, silver trading is officially banned, and only copper coins are allowed in North Korea.

  This ban on silver has lasted for more than two hundred years.

  North Korea initially needed to pay tribute to Ming Dynasty in silver, and the amount was not much, six to seven hundred taels of silver per year. In order to pay tribute to silver, the monarchs and ministers of North Korea not only searched temples, but even mined several silver mines for hundreds of taels of silver. Those silver mines will stop working after mining enough six or seven hundred taels, and start working again before the next tribute.

   It was not until the Jiajing period that Ming Dynasty allowed North Korea to no longer pay tribute to silver.

  Banning silver in the early years made sense, because copper coins were not popularized, and bartering was popular in North Korea. However, with the development of the economy and the increasing trade volume, it is pure nonsense to continue to ban silver, and the North Korean monarchs are simply messing around.

  This kind of nonsense is to better control the place.

  First issue licenses to merchants, take out part of the tax in kind, hand it over to merchants, and then sell it to domestic officials and people. Every link is firmly controlled by the North Korean monarch and ministers, and the two classes of nobles can make a fortune in every link.

  Reforms in the past few years introduced Chinese copper coins, and the two groups of nobles controlled the distribution channels of copper coins through merchants—the nobles controlled the Beijing merchants and let the Beijing merchants issue copper coins. The Beijing merchants gave the copper coins to the Song merchants, and the Song merchants distributed the copper coins to the localities. Only the issuance of copper coins has been subcontracted layer by layer in the capital.

  North Korea's ban on silver once made both China and Japan very speechless.

  Japan originally mined the Iwami Silver Mine, and suddenly became a silver exporting country. The Japanese envoy Anxin Dongtang, with 80,000 taels of silver, ran to North Korea to make a deal. As a result, one tael of silver was useless to go out, so they had to return the same way with the silver, making it look like they came to North Korea to show off their wealth.

  When Daming assisted North Korea, due to the inconvenience of transporting grain, he brought a large amount of silver and wanted to buy grain and grass in North Korea. The money of the Ming army was also useless, which led to a serious shortage of food in the early stage of the war.

  With the smooth issuance of Chinese copper coins, businessmen all over North Korea now hope to break the silver ban, because it is too tiring to use copper coins for large transactions.

  The two discussed together and decided to continue to march.

  Thousands of Datong troops arrived near Kaesong the next day in battleships.

  Before there was time for friendly exchanges, the North Korean monarchs and ministers ran away again, fleeing all the way north to Xinxi, leaving the soldiers of the Datong Army in a mess in the wind.

  What the hell?

  The news that the North Korean monarchs and ministers kept fleeing was deliberately disseminated by Wan merchants (Baozhou merchants).

  Since Baozhou was occupied by China, many Taiwanese merchants have become Chinese citizens, monopolizing the commercial trade of the Yalu River. However, their business network covers the entire Pyongan Road, Hamgyong Road, and Hwanghae Road, and they have fierce competition with Songshang.

   Song merchants want to attach China, because they want to overthrow Beijing merchants and engage in maritime trade.

  While Taiwanese businessmen want North Korea to destroy the country, they want to extend their business tentacles to the central and southern markets of North Korea.

  At this moment, the Taiwanese merchants took the opportunity to make trouble, and used the "Wanfang" to spread the news of the North Korean king's defeat.

  North Korean farmers in Ping’an Road have known for a long time that farmers in Baozhou have a good life. Every year, farmers smuggle into Baozhou with their families. Outside Baozhou City, with a radius of tens of miles, is actually controlled by China, and the land has already been divided.

  The peasants who could not obtain land in Baozhou felt extremely resentful towards the King of Joseon. Moreover, the North Korean monarchs and ministers still stationed a large number of troops on the border, arresting and killing farmers who tried to smuggle.

  What about the land conflict in North Korea? A bit like the end of the Ming Dynasty.

  Since Mr. Yanshan, land transactions have been legal by default. The land of the two classes of nobles was initially concentrated in Gyeonggi-do, and then expanded to Gangwon-do, Chungcheong-do, Jeolla-do, and Gyeongsang-do in the south-central region.

  In the south-central part of North Korea, land annexation has become more and more serious, and a large number of hidden fields do not pay taxes.

  Thus, the tax was transferred to Pyongan-do, Hwanghae-do, and Hamgyong-do in the north. Those places are already poor, so they have to double their taxes, and military service is also the most common of these three.

  In the past few decades, the peasant uprising in Hamgyong Province first persisted for three months and was suppressed. During this period, a big landlord named Li Shi'ai joined the uprising team, claiming to be a descendant of the royal family, and wanted to change the dynasty.

   Then came the Hwanghae-do Peasant Uprising, led by Lin Juzheng. This time it was even more troublesome, defeating the imperial army many times and persisting for a full year and two months. During the period, the King of Korea was also forced to exempt Hwanghae Road and Pingan Road for one year to prevent more farmers from joining the uprising.

  But it is said that after the North Korean monarchs and ministers fled to Xinxi, the peasants of Ping'an Road started to make trouble.

  Pingan Road in North Korea can be understood as Shaanxi and Shanxi in China. Famines have continued these years, but taxes have been getting higher and higher. There is a Baozhou where the farmers live and work in peace and contentment. The farmers in Ping'an Road are envied to death. If things go on like this, can we not rebel?

  Initially only a thousand peasants revolted, but in just a few days, the uprising force grew to tens of thousands. Killing the gentry and landlords, capturing the prefectures and counties, frightened the Korean border troops, and they all ran to Baozhou to ask for the protection of the Datong Army.

   Immediately afterwards, the peasants of Hwanghae Province also rebelled, and the two peasant armies attacked from the north to the south, and even defeated the city of Pyongyang.

  Then Bingfeng headed southeast and headed towards Xinxi, where the king of Joseon was located.

  The Peasant Army has a distinctive slogan for the uprising: "Be a citizen of the heaven, cultivate the land of the sky, and live a good life in the sky!"

  The Korean monarchs and ministers were terrified. While retreating towards Jinhua, they ordered the whole country to serve the king, and at the same time sent ministers to contact the Datong army.

   (The update will resume tomorrow.)

  (end of this chapter)