"This is all fed by money."
Li Chengliang replied with an indifferent expression.
Then, Li Chengliang looked meaningfully at Nan Bing who was rushing towards Fengyue Tower and said:
"So, we northerners don't have to worry about this matter. The southerners themselves will not allow southern soldiers to exist forever, and I'm afraid the court will not either!"
"After all, the imperial court will not always be as rich in national funds as it is now!"
"Report the victory to the imperial court. Pyongyang has descended, and the army is about to attack Seoul to show the power of the emperor!"
Then, Li Chengliang said something again, and then, with the knife in hand, he climbed down the city wall and walked towards Fengyue Tower.
At this time, Nanbing had captured Fengyue Tower.
Ping'an Road Observer Zheng Che and all North Korean officers and generals in Pyongyang, except those who committed suicide in advance, were all captured by the Ming army at this time.
When Li Chengliang arrived, Wu Weizhong came over with Zheng Che and other North Korean officials who were being escorted. He pointed at Zheng Che and said to Li Chengliang: "Uncle Ning Yuan, this person is Zheng Kuan."
Li Chengliang nodded, looked at Zheng Che, and asked: "Zheng Zhengwen, is it your instruction to prevent the Japanese army from entering Pyongyang City, or is it the king's order that you follow?"
Zheng Che did not answer in a hurry. After thinking for a while, he said solemnly: "It is my personal instruction. It has nothing to do with the king's order, nor the soldiers and people in the city. The king's order originally wanted me to welcome the heavenly army, and the soldiers and people in the city also In order to welcome the heavenly army, I disobeyed the king's order and intentionally obstructed the heavenly army. I also falsely conveyed the king's order and forced the soldiers and civilians in the city to defend the city. The crime of violating the heavenly dynasty is all my fault! Please don't vent your anger on the king, heavenly army. Do not vent your anger on the soldiers and civilians in the city."
"He is a loyal and kind man!"
Li Chengliang smiled and said, "In that case, you are the only one to blame!"
With that said, Li Chengliang ordered his servants to detain Zheng Che.
After giving the order, Li Chengliang and the criminal army rested in Pyongyang City for five days, and then headed towards Huangzhou.
When Huangzhou's pastoral envoy Yin Yuancheng learned that Pyongyang had been lost, he knew that the heavenly army would be difficult to stop, so he simply knelt down ten miles outside the city to greet him and organized the soldiers and people to eat pots of pulp.
Therefore, the Ming army went down to Huangzhou without fighting and came to the suburbs of Hancheng.
The reason why the North Korean monarch Li Hui refused Ming's request to station troops was because he knew that once the Ming Dynasty stationed troops in North Korea, it would mean that he would no longer be the supreme ruler of this land, and the Ming court officials stationed here would He is the true supreme ruler, but his royal power will undoubtedly be greatly limited.
No one would willingly want to have another master over their head.
The same goes for Li Hui.
In addition, the Ming Dynasty has always been more kind than threatening to foreign vassals in the past. For example, North Korea repeatedly encroached on the Ming Dynasty's territory in the Northeast, and the Ming Dynasty basically did not blame it.
Therefore, Li Hui never thought about the consequences of rejecting the sovereign Ming Dynasty.
As it happens, several generations of monarchs in North Korea now intend to support Shilin to replace the power in the court of nobles and achieve their own greater royal power. Therefore, most of the people in power in the court are currently dominated by Shilin, and Shilin is the most powerful. They were also fond of partisanship. For the benefit of their own parties, they all curried favor with the King of Korea. This meant that they all catered to Li Hui's original intention and advocated rejecting the Ming Dynasty's request to garrison troops.
Of course, the fundamental reason is that the North Korean monarchs and ministers did not feel that the Ming Dynasty, which had always been more kind than powerful, and even took the territory of the Chinese Dynasty as its own, was not settled, what would happen to North Korea because of its refusal to station troops.
But what the North Korean monarchs and ministers did not expect was that the Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun they met was not only a man who only knew how to exploit the common people of his country, but also was lenient to foreign vassals for the sake of the glory of all nations coming to Korea, and even used his own people's wealth to act generously. The traditional emperor of things.
Moreover, after rejecting Ming Dynasty, Li Hui was not even worried that Ming Dynasty would blame him.
Because the suzerain state of the Ming Dynasty gave the impression to Li Hui and other Korean monarchs and ministers that it was not very aggressive, but was sensitive to the bottom line of whether the succession of royal power was legal or not, such as regicide and usurpation, and would not care about others.
Therefore, before Li Hui learned that the Ming army entered the DPRK, he only paid attention to the disaster in Anzhou, and specifically asked Shen Douhe, the envoy of the Anzhou Protectorate who was recalled from Anzhou: "Is the drought in Anzhou serious?"
Shen Douhe did not dare to tell Li Hui the truth because he knew that Li Hui was just asking and would not really care about the situation in Anzhou. He was just acting like a benevolent gentleman. Once he told the truth, he would take the blame. , was said to be poor in governance, so he smiled and replied: "Anzhou can still support it!"
After hearing this, Li Hui nodded and laughed: "That's very good. It seems that God has not blamed the lonely and unvirtuous."
"Report! Li Chengliang, Ningyuan Bo of the Celestial Dynasty, was ordered to lead a large army to investigate the crime. Now he has captured Yizhou and Anzhou!"
At this moment, an urgent message came from Bingcao.
After hearing this, Li Hui, Jun and his ministers froze on the spot.
After a long time, Li Hui came to his senses and hurriedly asked the ministers to discuss how to solve the matter.
Today's North Korea is in a period of intense party strife, so the ministers' opinions are very inconsistent, and they start to quarrel and quarrel, becoming a mess.
Someone said that soldiers and horses from all over the country should be summoned immediately.
Some also said that they would immediately contact the Heavenly Army to negotiate peace.
There is even more hope that the king will move to Ganghwa Island immediately.
Therefore, until the news came that the Ming army had captured Pyongyang, the imperial court had not yet reached a consensus, and only issued a Jun order to Zheng Che who was guarding Pyongyang to defend it.
Because the Ming army had not received any signal of surrender from North Korea, it had been marching towards Seoul.
The twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month in the seventh year of Wanli.
The New Year is approaching, and there are wintersweets in the wild.
On this day, the Ming army officially arrived at the outer city of Seoul, smelling the faint fragrance of flowers and in the mood to rest during the New Year.
And on the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, the Liaodong Navy also repelled the North Korean navy and transported the heavy artillery by sea to the outside of Seoul. With the assistance of the Ming army on land, it organized North Korean civilians to transport it outside Seoul.
"General Wu, try the bronze heavy cannon that Mr. You ordered to cast. By the way, you will also break the courage of the Korean monarchs and ministers in Seoul! This will prevent them from being unable to make up their mind and unwilling to confess to our court!"
Li Chengliang ordered Wu Weizhong at this time.
Wu Weizhong said yes, and on the morning of the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, he organized gunners to control the bronze heavy cannons cast by Zhu Yijun and asked Qi Changguo to bombard Seoul.
They had ten twelve-pound cannons with double ears and thin mouths and thick tails, so it didn't take long before they began to bombard Seoul.
boom!
When the first bombardment started, the ground trembled violently, and the whole city of Seoul shivered with fear, causing the snow on the city to fall one after another, like a curtain of snow falling.
boom!
With another bombardment, the walls of Seoul not only stopped falling like snow, but also began to fall like hail. The dignitaries and ordinary people in the city were so frightened that they hid in their houses and did not dare to come out.
And not long after, a big hole appeared in the city wall.
However, the Ming army only lined up outside and did not rush in.
The defenders in Seoul, North Korea were naturally frightened and rushed to inform Li Hui.
boom!
King Li Hui, who was in the main hall, also had to make up his mind after hearing the bombardment. He said to the leader Lu Shoushen: "I didn't expect that the Celestial Empire would be so strong one day and not as merciful as before, so I borrowed your head to use it." Bar."
Lu Shoushen knelt down with tears in his eyes, prostrate in the tunnel and said, "Yes!"
So, on the afternoon of the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, Li Er, the Dati scholar, as the North Korean ambassador, walked out with Lu Shoushen's head, knelt on the snow, and raised Lu's head high shouted:
"The treacherous minister Lu Shoushen deceived the public, alienated His Majesty and His Majesty's father and son, deliberately plotted chaos, and then corrected his orders to refuse the order of the Celestial Empire to garrison troops. Now, it has become known to my Highness, and he was executed and his head was dedicated to the Celestial Army. I hope that Heaven will show mercy and forgive Your Highness for failing to obey the decree!"
After Li Chengliang learned about it, he specially asked someone to tell the news to Yu Youding, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, an official sent by the Ministry of Rites.
Yu Youding came directly by the Liaodong Navy's big boat, so he met Li Chengliang and others only when he arrived in Seoul, and also met Zheng Che who was escorted here.
After Yu Youding heard that Zheng Che admitted that he had violated the king's order and refused to allow the heavenly army to enter the city, he did not have any doubts. He only scolded Zheng Che for his disobedience from the perspective of Neo-Confucianism, and then met Li Er at this time. Later, he also asked directly:
"I am the minister appointed by His Majesty to inquire about your Highness's crimes. Where is your Highness?"
"Back to Angel, His Highness is kneeling at the palace gate to greet you."
Li Er replied.
"Get up and take us to see him."
(End of chapter)
