Still have to deal with the Ming army in Dengzhou?
Zhou Peigong, who was kneeling on the ground, was shocked when he heard this.
He has now been squeezed out of Kangxi's inner circle and was not even allowed to stay in the Qing Dynasty. Instead, he was sent to the Qing Dynasty to serve in Haizhou, the "concession" in North Korea. As the head of the Confucian Joseon Hall, he is responsible for developing the power of Confucianism in Korea. He also serves as the supervisor of Haeju Customs under the Ministry of Internal Affairs - this supervisor is not only in charge of customs collection, but also an intelligence agency.
Because North Korea's Haeju is now a "free port" like Deungju, anyone can come as long as they pay taxes.
Moreover, ginseng, fur, sea cucumber, Dongzhu and other rare things produced in Northeast China and North Korea are now exported through Haeju Port. Therefore, Haizhou has developed into a link in the "Shanghai-Haizhou-Dengzhou" triangular trade in Northeast Asia.
Therefore, Zhou Peigong in Haizhou would soon know what happened in Shanghai and Dengzhou... The Confucian bigwigs who were already familiar with "Anti-Confucianism" certainly knew about the "Three Caves of Confucianism". Therefore, they also set up secret strongholds in Dengzhou and Shanghai. They also established contact with Wu Zhou through the Shanghai stronghold, and then opened a semicolon on Wu Zhou's territory.
The stronghold in Shanghai was an important window for Confucianism to collect domestic intelligence of the Ming Dynasty. When Li Guangdi discovered that Zhu Heji personally conquered Korea, he immediately sent a messenger to take the Western merchant ship from Shanghai to Haizhou to deliver the news to Zhou Peigong.
In addition, in Daqing Haizhou next to Huai'an Prefecture, there are also merchant ships that go directly to North Korea Haizhou. . Therefore, Zhou Peigong could quickly know what happened in Huai'an - if there was a westerly wind on the sea, it would only be a day or two's voyage between the two Haizhous.
That's why Zhou Peigong was able to bring these two important pieces of information to Kangxi before Kangxi crossed the Yalu River south.
But now he doesn't know Kangxi's arrangements... He originally estimated that Emperor Kangxi's goal was only to invade North Korea and the Ming army that might invade Liaodong from the sea, but he didn't expect that he would also focus on Dengzhou, a "freedom" city"!
When Kangxi saw the fleeting look of surprise on Zhou Peigong's face, he knew that his trick of concealing the truth was half done.
If even Zhou Peigong, the "Qing Dynasty Zhou Gongjin", doesn't know, then the fake Zhuge Liang of the Ming Dynasty will definitely not know either...unless he can really figure it out!
In order to capture the dangerous location of Dengzhou, Kangxi had taken the risk to drain the defense forces in Jinjing and Kouwai. When the Qing troops deployed by Kangxi in these two areas were full, the total strength could reach as many as 120,000, accounting for to half of the total strength of the Qing army's field troops.
Now, except for 20,000 of the 120,000 troops who followed Kangxi to the Northeast, most of the rest secretly followed Chang Ning and Yue Le to Shandong after completing their mobilization.
The main force of the Qing Army's Xu Su Corps also secretly moved northward under the leadership of Fei Yanggu. After Cheng Changning, Yue Le and Fei Yanggu joined forces, they formed a main force with a strength of 150,000!
Their goal is the extremely wealthy Dengzhou Free City!
Don't look at the fact that Kangxi has ignored the existence of Dengzhou in the past two or three years, and even tacitly allowed his "Confucian sticks" and rural sages to deposit money in the bank account in Dengzhou... But he In my heart, I have long regarded Dengzhou as a thorn in my side and a piece of meat in my bowl!
The nails must be pulled out quickly, and the fat must be swallowed up quickly!
If he could eat Dengzhou's fat meat this time, possess the beauty of North Korea, and watch a fight between the two Wu brothers from a distance, then Kang Mazi would really win!
But if he wanted to win hemp, Kangxi had to keep it secret and never leak the information.
Thinking of this, Kangxi said to Zhou Peigong with a smile on his face: "Pei Gong, I still lack someone to make suggestions... Why don't you go back to Nan Study for a walk! There is no need to go back to Haizhou. , I will send it to Shi Lang and send it to the imperial court, and let him take over your errands."
After hearing this, Zhou Peigong trembled in his heart.
This Kang Mazi has no good intentions!
Did he notice something?
Could it be that after conquering Dengzhou and swallowing up North Korea, he wanted to attack Confucianism, which was becoming increasingly powerful?
His concerns are certainly justified. Emperor Kangxi's purpose of supporting Confucianism was obvious. One was to fight against Confucianism, and the other was to control the local sages.
But the leader of the Confucian sect was Zhu Heji himself, and the Confucian sage was Kong Yuqi, the former Duke Yan.
As Kong Yuqi grew older, Confucianism became more powerful, and Confucianism became a bit difficult to control...
So the time to harvest Confucianism has almost arrived.
Although he understood Kangxi's thoughts, Zhou Peigong could only thank his master for his kindness now... Even if he had thoroughly understood the "anti-tradition", he did not dare to oppose a master like Kangxi face to face.
.......
October 20th, Asan City.
Located at the foot of Asan on the southern shore of Asan Bay in the Korean Peninsula, in a valley surrounded by mountains, there used to be a small, low and narrow city, which was Asan Fortress.
However, since the Changdeokgung Palace Incident two months ago, this small Asan Fortress has turned into a large military camp and a large construction site.
After Ri Wenji, the Ming'an princess of North Korea's Li Dynasty, took over the power to know the state affairs of North Korea, the two groups of North Korean dignitaries who had always been keen on party disputes suddenly became more united.
The leader of the Western People's Party, Song Shilie, served as the prime minister, and the leader of the Southern People's Party, Yin Jin, served as the left councilor, second only to the leader, while the right councilor was appointed by Hu De according to the decree issued by Zhu Heji. The emperor takes office.
Faced with Emperor Kangxi's heavy troops pressing down on the country, the Korean government quickly began to operate under the leadership of these three political leaders.
Of course, the first priority after the three major political parties came to power was to spend money to prepare for war!
The survival of North Korea depends on this battle, so of course we can no longer be so picky and reluctant to spend money.
But North Korea is really poor. After all, it is a "big country" with a population of less than 10 million... England only has more than 5 million people these days, Spain has about the same number, and France is considered the leader in Europe. A first-class power only has 20 million people, and the population of the new Ming Dynasty is less than 30 million. Therefore, North Korea, with a population of nearly 10 million, can really be regarded as a big country.
But the finances of this big country are really even worse than the Chongzhen Dynasty at the end of the Ming Dynasty. The country's annual revenue is only around 100,000 silver dollars. And the income of one hundred thousand silver yuan does not exist in the form of silver or silver yuan, but in the form of copper coins and physical objects.
In fact, most people in North Korea have never seen silver!
In history, during the Imjin Japanese Rebellion, the Ming Dynasty soldiers brought silver to Korea and wanted to purchase it locally in North Korea. However, the Koreans did not know silver at all.
This is not the most devastating thing. The most devastating thing is that the North Koreans at that time did not even know much about copper coins... This country was governed by a group of yangban wastes who were familiar with Confucian classics and had a commodity economy. Extremely underdeveloped, bartering was still practiced before the Imjin Japanese Rebellion. Copper coins are not very popular!
However, this situation has improved in recent decades. Through the efforts of the four dynasties of Ren, Xiao, Xian, and Su, people in the wealthy areas on the west coast of the Korean Peninsula have finally become accustomed to using copper coins.
But there was not much copper in North Korea (North Korea had copper, but it was not developed), so the copper coins they used at this time were not in units of "guans", but in units of "pieces". Moreover, the North Korean court also particularly likes to issue "big money", which can be discounted by two, three, ten or even one hundred.
However, this situation of underdeveloped commodity economy also has a good side, that is, labor is extremely cheap, agricultural products are very cheap, and currency and handicrafts become very valuable when exchanging people and agricultural products.
So when Lee On-hee, a little girl who had no idea about money, opened North Korea's national treasury and the inner treasury of the Lee Dynasty, and opened up the "lost family and ruined country", the manpower and material resources obtained in exchange were still amazing.
In less than two months, more than 100,000 strong men from Gyeonggi Province, Chungcheong Province, Jeolla Province, Gyeongsang Province, Gangwon Province and other places gathered in Asan Fortress, which was built as the anti-Qing base camp. This small town was The small city and its surroundings turned into a huge construction site and barracks.
