After talking about these things, the topic turned back to North Korea. Gao pragmatic suddenly asked Zhang Zuozhi: "Zhang Kuan, what do you know about North Korea?"
Zhang Zuozhi didn't know the meaning of Gao Pingshi's question at first, but Ye Xianggao, who was beside him, suddenly looked at him with encouraging eyes, which made him sensitive and realized that there might be an opportunity in front of him. .
North Korea is about to annex, and North Korea's annexation is facilitated by senior officials. So according to the usual practice, the emperor will most likely seek the opinion of Mr. Gao Ge on the appointment of local officials in North Korea after the attachment.
Of course it is impossible for Mr. Gao Ge to be unaware of this practice, so now he suddenly asked himself what use his understanding of North Korea could be? Of course, Mr. Gao Ge is examining whether he has the ability to be one of the first batch of officials to serve in North Korea!
For the civil servants and officials of the Ming Dynasty, no matter what the current development level of North Korea was, if they went to serve in North Korea, they would be regarded as going to the frontier wilderness. Therefore, such appointments will often not be flat, and most of them will be promoted, which can be regarded as compensation to some extent.
Zhang Zuozhi is the deputy envoy for rectifying Tianjin's coastal defense military preparedness, which is also commonly known as the Military Preparation Road, and is also known as "Observation" and "Observation Envoy". Like the governor and governor, this position is not an official official, but a service position, commonly known as a dispatching officer.
Nominally speaking, the dispatch officer itself is not considered an official, or does not count as a formal position. He is only temporarily appointed by the emperor to supervise a certain or several specific affairs. His authority comes from the emperor's own imperial edict rather than from the system.
However, after all, it is impossible to randomly assign a plain-headed civilian to a military position. Therefore, like the governor and governor, military personnel also need to have their "own duties" before they can "concurrently" serve as military personnel.
For example, when appointing a governor, one usually first gives him the title of Minister of War or Minister of War; when appointing a governor, one usually first gives him the title of Right Vice Imperial Envoy of the Metropolitan Procuratorate or Chief Censor of the Imperial Procuratorate. .
When appointing a Deputy Military Envoy or Military Bei Dao, it is often necessary to first add the title of Inspector General of a certain province, and the Imperial Military Commission itself is also the origin of the euphemistic name "Observation" of the Military Bei Dao. Specifically, Zhang Zuozhi, the commander of Tianjin's military equipment, was given the additional title of Inspector General of Shandong.
[Note: I haven’t found out the reason for this. Logically speaking, shouldn’t Tianjin Bingbei Dao be added to the Northern Zhili Inspectorate Envoy to match the region? Why should we also seize the title of Shandong Inspectorate Envoy?
Moreover, you must know that several military preparations in Liaodong were generally assigned to Shandong as inspectors. The institutional relationship between Shandong and Liaodong in the Ming Dynasty was explained earlier in this book. So in this case, the title of Shandong Inspector is really a wholesale product, and it is almost used as a snake oil around the Bohai Bay. ]
The Ming Dynasty implemented the "three independent departments" at the provincial level, that is, the three departments, namely, the proclaiming envoys, the punishing envoys and the inspection envoys, and the general commanders and envoys were on the same level and were not subordinate to each other. However, these three divisions were replaced by governors who were originally temporarily set up but have now become normalized because of too much friction due to their lack of control over each other.
Therefore, if Gao Pragmatic wanted to send Zhang Zuozhi to North Korea, he could not be promoted from the perspective of being an inspector, but could only be promoted from the perspective of the military preparation road itself, and the higher up the military preparation road, he would undoubtedly be the governor [Note: Of course There are some exceptions to this. For example, there is no governor in Guangdong, and the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi actually also serves as the governor of Guangdong].
When he was admitted to the imperial examination in the second year of Wanli, Zhang Zuozhi was about thirty years old. But this year, he is already fifty-six years old. The Bingbei Dao is no different from the ministers of the cabinet, the officials of the six departments, or the feudal officials in some important areas. The Bingbei Dao usually works until the age of sixty, and then it is time to beg for a corpse. And if there are no special circumstances, the emperor will usually approve it as usual, and at most he will be given the treatment of being sent back to his hometown at a bus stop.
Therefore, based on his status as a marginalized member of the Xin School, Zhang Zuozhi had actually long been mentally prepared to complete his official career in Tianjin. Now he suddenly discovered that he might still be able to use his remaining energy. As an official with strong subjective initiative and eager to do something, he naturally couldn't help but strive for it.
Having said that, Zhang Zuozhi had not really paid attention to the North Korean issue before, or it can be said that: except for Gao Pragmatic, other Ming officials almost did not care about North Korea before.
Don't look at the fact that there was a time when North Korea and Annan had to compete every year for a seat at the New Year's Eve to determine who was the authentic Little China. But for the Ming Dynasty, what good was this thing? Fight? You are still a son anyway, do you still expect to get the right to inherit as the eldest son after a fight?
Therefore, in the eyes of Ming officials, the general understanding is this: North Korea and Annan (generally referred to as Mo Dynasty after Jiajing) are both countries with deep Chineseization, and both are barriers to the Ming Dynasty, but North Korea is relatively honest, and Annan was Then there was an act of disobedience to the emperor and his father, so Korea was docile and Annan escaped.
It is precisely for this reason that North Korea has been able to rank first in the ceremony held by the Ministry of Rites for many years, presenting tributes, presentations, etc. on behalf of various border countries.
But of course, the Ming Dynasty never completely believed in any of the vassal states - nonsense, the Ming Dynasty didn't even believe in the vassal kings, and they all had to be locked up and raised like pigs. How could we expect the Ming Dynasty to believe in the vassal states?
But with only this little thing, Zhang Zuozhi also knew that it would be difficult to satisfy Gao Pragmatic, so he changed his mind and asked cautiously: "I wonder if the cabinet department wants to ask about the past, present or future?"
Gao pragmatic laughed, knowing that Zhang Zuozhi had guessed his intention, so he said: "Then let's talk about the future."
Sure enough! Zhang Zuozhi now felt a little more confident.
Originally, Gao pragmatic thought that Zhang Zuozhi should first talk about political and military arrangements such as how to set up the third division and how to garrison troops after North Korea was annexed. Who knew that he was wrong.
Zhang Zuozhi said thoughtfully: "I believe that after North Korea is annexed, the first thing our court must do is to restore - or establish mutual trust."
This sentence is indeed beyond Gao Pragmatic's expectation, and he asked: "Observe what is the meaning of this statement?"
"I sent troops to the North this time to save North Korea, but looking at the beginning of North Korea's request for help, to the court sending troops to the domain, and to the previous Kwon Ryul mutiny, many things happened in the middle. This is enough to see that both sides There is little trust in each other internally. Given the high degree of Chineseization of North Korean officials, such a mutiny would also occur, let alone the North Korean people.
If North Korea, from officials to civilians, cannot be made to realize the benefits of internal annexation, and realize that the Ming Dynasty accepted North Korea's internal annexation not to bully them, but to protect them from being threatened by bandits and bandits such as Japanese pirates, then the Ming Dynasty The rule in North Korea will probably be like that of Cheng and Xuan Annan, achieving twice the result with half the effort and wasting national power. "
Insightful! Gao Pragmatic suddenly felt that he might have underestimated Zhang Zuozhi before. In the past, he only thought that this person was highly motivated to work, and his understanding of his work ability was relatively shallow. Now it seems that this person has his own problems, and he really has something. of.
Gao Pragmatic's eyes lit up and he nodded and said: "What Zhang Kuan said is reasonable. If you have any other thoughts on this, please tell me in detail."
Zhang Zuozhi then began to enumerate the various manifestations of distrust on both sides. Of course, since he did not know much about the internal situation in North Korea, he mainly talked about the various manifestations of Ming's distrust of North Korea.
This book has previously mentioned Xu Da's conquest of Dadu in the Yuan Dynasty and Zhu Yuanzhang's use of both soft and hard tactics to win over the Goryeo Dynasty. Zhang Zuozhi mentioned it again here, but then he mentioned more details.
For example, he said that according to historical records, after the Yuan Dynasty retreated to Mobei, its strength was still strong, reaching a state where "the number of people who led the bows was no less than a million, and the tribes that submitted them were no less than thousands of miles away." This made it very important to the Yuan Dynasty. The surrounding regimes still have relatively strong deterrence, and even have certain confrontation capabilities against the Ming Dynasty.
This led to the fact that Goryeo at that time did not dare to completely fall to the Ming Dynasty easily. Otherwise, if the Ming Dynasty suffered a defeat in the struggle with the Yuan Dynasty and even perished, then Goryeo would also be greeted by a devastating blow.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty lost to Timur and Naha Chu in the struggle with the Northern Yuan Dynasty. This gave the Northern Yuan court great confidence, and it also spared no effort to win over Goryeo. , "It is appropriate to help and restore the world." It is difficult not to make the rulers of Goryeo fall into huge entanglements.
In addition, as early as the previous surrender, Goryeo had already formed a very deep chain of interests with the Yuan Dynasty, and the Yuan Dynasty also had many representatives within Goryeo. If Goryeo completely abandoned the Yuan Dynasty and fell to the Ming Dynasty, then the political groups leaning towards the Yuan Dynasty would inevitably lose their status, which they obviously did not want to see.
Under such circumstances, when Goryeo had generally accepted the goodwill of the Ming Dynasty, it also engaged in many behaviors that were similar to provoking the Ming Dynasty, such as brutally killing envoys coming from the Ming Dynasty, and for example, sending tribute to the Ming Dynasty. All the horses were replaced with defective horses, etc., which greatly strengthened the Ming Dynasty's distrust of Goryeo.
Coupled with North Korea's frequent tributes and requests for rewards, Zhu Yuanzhang's dissatisfaction with North Korea became deeper and deeper. The relationship between the two became tense, and the Ming Dynasty turned from its previous positivity to reservation.
At this tense moment, an extremely huge coup occurred within North Korea. King Gongmin, the former ruler of Goryeo, was killed, and King Xinyu successfully replaced him. For this incident, the Northern Yuan court not only did not punish him, but instead recognized his status.
On the one hand, this was due to the disloyalty of the previous King Gongmin to Buk Yuan, but on the other hand, it was also because Buk Yuan's strength had been greatly damaged at this time and he could no longer personally intervene in the internal politics of Goryeo.
Therefore, although King Xinyou still ostensibly surrendered to the Northern Yuan Dynasty, he not only failed to provide them with actual military help, but instead asked the Ming Dynasty to canonize himself and recognize his dominance. It was not until the death of Zhaozong of the Northern Yuan Dynasty that Goryeo completely turned to the Ming Dynasty, began to use the Ming Dynasty's "Hongwu" reign name, and requested to resume tribute to the Ming Dynasty.
In order to make up for the previous mistakes, Gao Li was very sincere this time. Faced with the distrust and precautions from Zhu Yuanzhang, the Goryeo regime replaced all the horses, gold and silver treasures, cloth, etc. that had been lost in the previous five years in one go. It was a big hemorrhage. It was not until this time that the relationship between Goryeo and the Ming Dynasty returned to normal again.
However, due to the huge contradiction between North Korea and the Ming Dynasty regarding the ownership of the area north of Tieling, the two countries almost met each other at war, and all the previous efforts to establish good relations were naturally in vain.
It was at this tense moment that another coup occurred within North Korea. Li Chenggui successfully took over the political power of North Korea and established the subsequent Lee Dynasty North Korea. The Ming Dynasty also changed its previous tough attitude and acquiesced to North Korea's control of North Korea north of Tieling. ownership of the region.
However, after Li Chenggui usurped power, the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and North Korea became tense again. On the one hand, in order to maintain his own status, Li Chenggui deposed the monarch of North Korea many times. This made the Ming Dynasty very unhappy and even unwilling to confer a title.
On the other hand, North Korea at that time recruited a large number of Jurchens into its own ranks, which in the eyes of the Ming Dynasty was inevitably suspected of overstepping and enhancing its own strength. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang threatened North Korea with war to give up the implementation of this policy.
It was not until later that Zhu Yuanzhang personally issued an edict declaring fifteen countries not to be conquered, and North Korea was among them. This laid a solid foundation for the relaxation of relations and good exchanges between the two latter countries, and also provided prerequisites.
But as mentioned in the previous chapter, the Ming Dynasty's defense against North Korea remained the same, such as restricting the export of gunpowder, vigorously purchasing North Korean horses, which led to the gradual degradation of North Korean horses, etc. It can be said that except for war, other methods were used.
The above, Zhang Zuozhi said, Gao Jingshi listened to, is not very special. After all, Gao Jingshi, as one of the actual chief writers who originally compiled the "Da Ming Huidian", still knows these things very well.
Zhang Zuozhi's description focuses more on this war. Before the Imjin War, Korea had been at peace for two hundred years. The people did not know the war and were retreating steadily. After the war broke out, North Korea faced the fall of Badu and the three capitals fell into the hands of Japanese pirates.
Zhang Zuozhi said: "Xiaguan had previously received a thank-you envoy from North Korea in Tianjin. He once told Xiaguan about the situation in North Korea: On April 13th, Renchen drove west to hunt. On May 3rd, thieves entered the capital. The carriage was second to Pyongyang. In June, the bandit troops arrived at the Datong River. The carriage was lucky to be in Yongbyon and entered Cibochuan. Then Pyongyang was captured and reported. The carriage was second to Uiju. An envoy was sent to invite troops to the Central Plains, and the envoy was also requested.
At that time, according to the imperial newspaper (from the Ming Dynasty), North Korea's "Eight Paths were almost gone, and they crossed the Yalu River at dusk and asked for help to send people to the Dao." These are facts that can be verified. As for the inside story, , the cabinet department naturally knows better than the lower officials. "
Gao Pragmatic nodded, indicating his acquiescence.
So Zhang Zuozhi continued, saying that when the North Korean envoy Li Dexin entered Liaodong and confessed his feelings to the governor of Liaodong, the governor of Liaodong's first reaction was to be confused, and even said: "The kings and ministers of North Korea immediately fled when the Japanese arrived, and they refused to communicate with each other once they were lost. This is unfathomable.”
When Liao Fu reported the first request of the King of Korea to "annex" to the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty, the Ministry of War also raised questions: "North Korea was in the east and was known as a great country. How could it run away when a Japanese invader came?" Horrible."
When Li Dexin was about to return to North Korea, Zu Chengxun, who had been ordered to lead a small number of elite soldiers to North Korea - nominally for assistance, but actually very promising to see whether what North Korea said was true or not, once expressed his views on this matter: "The king stays in Yiju with peace of mind."
All in all, the Ming Dynasty, whether it was the Jinyi Guards directly under the emperor, or the Ministry of War and other ministries, constantly sent people to North Korea to detect the Japanese situation and verify the situation in North Korea, hoping not to be deceived by North Korea or the Japanese country, or the two colluded. The continuous dispatch of envoys also showed from the side that Ming Dynasty had always distrusted North Korea, and Ming Dynasty's absolute "supporting the vassal with a small character" policy toward North Korea was in crisis.
In addition, rumors were also widespread in Liaozuo at that time: "North Korea and Japan were connected, and they were attacked by false rumors. The king and his country's warriors took refuge in the North Road, pretending to be false kings, and pretended to be attacked by soldiers, but they were actually Japanese guides." Another saying "North Korea is actually rebelling with the Japanese slaves, and the sheep is a false king, coming as a guide."
At that time, there were also discerning people in North Korea. Liu Chenglong bluntly stated the Ming Dynasty’s seven major doubts about North Korea:
The first reason is to slow down the rebellion; the second reason is not to call for troops early; the third reason is not to pick up the sentinels of the Tang people, so that they will be hungry and trapped on the road; the fourth reason is to invite soldiers but also say that food and grass are expensive; the Tang people ask our country to guide them People, there is no general or soldier standing in front of them, five. Although the danger has been extreme since ancient times, there must be guards wherever the carriage is, but now there is no one left. From the perspective of others, Yan Ran is as normal as usual, six Also; when a country is in danger, there will be ministers who will weep blood and forget themselves to go to the emergency. However, for a while, the weather will be slow and lenient, and they will be lenient in dealing with the entertainment, and the lead will be much later. This is seven.
Liu Chenglong said this publicly, so Zhang Zuozhi later heard it. He believed that the above also indirectly showed that the Korean court officials believed that the Ming Dynasty's trust in North Korea was no longer as good as before. Ming Dynasty's continuous dispatch of envoys made North Korea worried, and North Korea increasingly believed that the Ming Dynasty did not trust itself.
Furthermore, the over-cautiousness of the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty also exacerbated this distrust. Under the circumstances at that time, the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty quickly dispatched Cui Shichen and Lin Shilu to North Korea. The two men's trip was "in the name of gathering information about traitors, but they actually wanted to go to Pyongyang to meet the king and verify their authenticity."
As a result, the court officials in Korea were busy arguing at this time. Most of the court officials in Korea believed that even if the Ming Dynasty sent troops to rescue, they would definitely send Liaodong soldiers with bad temper. They were afraid that once the Liaodong soldiers entered North Korea and would not leave, they would poison the Korean people.
Therefore, Liu Gen, the consolation envoy sent by North Korea, tried his best to report the tragic face of North Korea's territorial loss in order to prevent the Liaodong soldiers from staying in North Korea for a long time. Moreover, King Li Wan of Joseon did not meet with the envoy this time, so the envoy returned to Yiju.
This incident made the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty also full of doubts, and they couldn't help but connect the rumors of "the fake king leading the Japanese invaders" with the request of the Korean King Li Wan to "annex", which ultimately made the relationship between the two countries even more unclear.
Then, the Ministry of War sent envoys again, and the commander Huang Yingyang was ordered to go to North Korea. Li Hao met Huang Yingyang at Longwan Pavilion. It happened that North Korean Minister Li Hengfu had already presented the Japanese books brought back by the Xinmao envoy to Huang Yingyang, "Yingyang asked for the Japanese books to verify them."
After the inspection, Huang Yingyang sighed: "North Korea has withdrawn its troops on behalf of the superior country, but it has not shown its righteousness and has been given a bad reputation. Wouldn't it be better for the world to do this?" After returning to China, Huang Yingyang immediately reported the situation to the Ministry of War.
Regarding North Korea, Yin Dooshou said: "Gai Zhiqi suspected that our country was a Japanese guide and came to find out its authenticity." This directly showed the Ming Dynasty's suspicion of North Korea.
In fact, as the guardian of the interests of the Ministry of War, the then Minister of War Zhou Yong continued to send envoys to the DPRK, which actually provided the basis for the Ministry of War's decision-making and also allowed the highly pragmatic plan to be implemented, which ultimately enabled the Ministry of War to assist the DPRK and "internally" take the initiative.
At this time, Gao Pragmatic and the Ministry of War had reached a consensus, but in any case, the continuous dispatch of envoys would definitely make North Korea think that the Ming Dynasty Central Committee was extremely distrustful of North Korea.
However, it is not just the central court that distrusts North Korea. As officials in the Liaodong region, North Korea's "internal attachment" incident at this time is directly related to the interests of the region. Because there was public opinion that North Korea's "fake king led the Japanese invaders", Liaodong Inspector Li Shinei sent Song Guochen to North Korea specifically to identify the true and false king.
Coincidentally, in the tenth year of Wanli, Song Guochen went to Korea once with Wang Jingmin, the envoy of Ming Dynasty at that time, and also met the king of Korea Li Huo, so he was sent to distinguish the authenticity of the king of Korea.
As a result, the message carried by the ministers of the Song Dynasty said: "Your country's plans are evil. Why didn't the eight observers say anything about it? Why didn't anyone in the eight counties advocate righteousness? When did a certain town and a certain state fall? Someone died. On a festival day, someone is attached to a thief? How many thief generals and tens of thousands of troops? As for establishing a direct descendant, there is no meaning in China, barbarians and Di. Where will the eldest son of your country go, and the second son will be the heir apparent?..."
The content of the Liaodong Address is full of accusations against North Korea: Why is North Korea's army so vulnerable and the country will perish before North Korea's report on the situation?
The purpose of Song Guochen's mission to North Korea was to convey the Liaodong message and to identify the authenticity of the king. But like the previous envoys from the Ministry of War, the purpose of Song Guochen's mission has already been revealed. Due to rampant rumors, local officials in Liaodong, Ming Dynasty, have also become extremely suspicious of North Korea.
Therefore, after the North Korean envoy Li Dexin returned from Liaodong, he had no choice but to report to Li He: "The Eight Route Army of North Korea has been strong for only a few decades. Even now, it is suspected that it is a fake Japanese."
Li He immediately expressed his doubts: "If you pretend to be a Japanese, and people pretend to be called a Japanese, do you think they are of the same mind as the Japanese? The speech of Zu Chengxun, deputy commander-in-chief, is also inappropriate." If you see the words in your heart, you will know the doubts."
It can be seen that Li Huo also knew that North Korea was defeated so quickly that it seemed outrageous to normal people, but there was nothing he could do about it - the fact was so outrageous. We, North Korea's army of more than 200,000, had only a few soldiers left after a few battles. Okay, this is not what I want to see, so where can I go to reason with you?
It was not too late. After the Ministry of War and the governor of Liaodong both sent envoys to North Korea for reconnaissance, the cabinet, the Ministry of War, and the Liaodong side all reached an agreement on North Korea's announcement of "annexation" and finally issued a message to North Korea: "The king has come to throw himself into the river. Choosing to live in Wangu Castle, the Taoist priest bowed to express his condolences, and provided him with generous meals. The accompanying soldiers and horses were given rations of grain as a sign of compensation, and there was no room for cunning Japanese to sneak in and spy. The troops sent in front were insufficient, and one more branch was added to act as a horn. , yes. According to the decree: North Korea's request for reinforcements must be confirmed and documented, and the king will choose a good place to live there."
At this time, on the surface, although the Ming court agreed to the "internal attachment" of the King of Korea, in fact, there were many conditions for "internal attachment". Among them, the most fiercely debated issue in North Korea is the choice of "internal" location.
The Ming Dynasty chose Kuandian Fort in the Liaodong region as the location for the "internal attachment". Kuandian Fort was actually built to defend the Jurchens, and the conditions were relatively poor. Korean court officials continued to instill information about the dangers of people in the Liaodong region to Li He, in order to Threaten Li Huo. Therefore, as the Ming Dynasty's army marched to the Korean battlefield on a large scale, North Korea no longer insisted on annexation to the Ming Dynasty, and the matter ended without any problems.
As for the subsequent internal disputes over this matter in North Korea, Zhang Zuozhi didn't know much about it. It was not as detailed as the previous article in this book, so Gao Pragmatic could only listen to it.
After talking about these situations, Zhang Zuozhi finally concluded: "It can be seen that most of the people in our court have a distrustful attitude towards North Korea, which will inevitably lead to a high probability of implementing some... discriminatory strategies when governing North Korea in the future.
Within North Korea, only the Northern Party advocates incorporation. Compared with the Southern Party and the Western Party, the Northern Party is not strong in strength. Even if it has the support of the cabinet, it may not have the upper hand in North Korea. It can gain power, but I'm afraid there is no obvious advantage among the people.
In this way, if our DPRK accepts annexation and direct administration of North Korea, not only will local North Korean officials be able to provide limited help, but we may also face opposition from the people and even instigation from former North Korean officials, which shows how difficult it is to govern.
Therefore, Xiaguan believes that in order to govern North Korea, the mutual distrust between the two countries must first be resolved. Only by establishing trust first, and then implementing reasonable governance strategies, and maybe even allowing the North Koreans to benefit from it for a period of time, can they be used to benefit the people... Only in this way can North Korea be truly accepted by our country in one or two generations. Like two capitals and thirteen provinces. "
At this time, Gao pragmatic basically understood what Zhang Zuozhi meant. Overall, he held a "tolerant" stance and believed that North Korea should be brought under the rule based on the people's sentiments and hearts.
This point is actually completely opposite to Gao Pinggong's listening to the discussions among his generals when he was in North Korea. The generals of the Ming Army in the DPRK also discussed how to deal with North Korea in the future, but they obviously did not have the patience of Zhang Zuozhi.
Almost all the generals of the Ming army, including Ma Gui, the admiral of Pingwa, and the generals of various armies, believed that ruling Korea was easy. In their view, the reason is very simple: Koreans don't know how to fight at all. Even if some people really want to jump out to die, the Ming Dynasty soldiers can easily crush their resistance.
It has to be said that the perspective of military generals and civilian officials is really very different from that of civilian officials - of course, there may also be differences in the interests of both parties.
For military generals, chaos in North Korea is not terrible, in fact, it is a good thing. After all, if they are in rebellion, we can send troops to quell the rebellion, and we can gain military merit by sending troops to quell the rebellion.
Anyway, the Koreans don't know how to fight. If they really have the ability to start a major rebellion of hundreds of thousands of people, that would be a great joy. What a great military achievement, and it is free of charge. Isn't it a great joy?
The situation is different for civil servants. Although civil servants can also obtain military exploits by suppressing rebellions, even those who want to be knighted are afraid that they will not find the opportunity to perform military exploits. But there are also some tricks here: quelling the rebellion is certainly a credit, but the civil servants who caused the trouble may not have the opportunity to take the credit!
Historically, the plot generally goes like this: civil servant A fails to govern well, the local government is dissatisfied, and people with ulterior motives coerce the people into rebellion. When the imperial court heard the news, it ordered civil servant A to be put into prison and executed soon. At the same time, it sent another civil servant B to replace his predecessor and be responsible for countering the rebellion.
Do you see, no matter how great your credit for countering the rebellion is, you, as the original local ruler, Civil Minister A, have committed a serious crime in the first place. No matter how great your subsequent credit for countering the rebellion is, it has nothing to do with you - you are just the one who was The unlucky guy used to sacrifice the flag, or the "culprit".
The above is not only true for the governance issues after the current annexation of North Korea. Most of the time in history, when faced with similar problems, most civil servants advocated mercy, while most military generals advocated coercion. This is probably the reason.
You may think that this difference is just a matter of the personalities and nature of work of both parties. In fact, in the final analysis, it is still a matter of the proportion of benefits and risks.
Gao Wuchen is now both a civilian official and the most undisputed military commander of the imperial court. He can consider issues beyond civil and military interests. Regarding this matter, he obviously sided with Zhang Zuozhi.
The words of the generals may not be unreasonable. Force coercion itself is also a means of governance. After all, extremely powerful force can also make the ruled have a strong mentality. This can be seen by referring to the attitude of later generations of Japanese towards the Emperor of Japan. Even over time, some habits of the strong will be regarded as virtues by the weak, even if they are not virtues in themselves.
For example, the arrogance shown by Americans will be interpreted as self-confidence; the non-compliance of rules and regulations by Americans will also be interpreted as practicing the spirit of freedom.
Outrageous? Outrageous. But that is exactly the reality.
However, Gao Pragmatic believes that this kind of rule will not last long. Although Libi Huashan sounds very exciting, one bad move may cause you to slip up to your waist. However, Water Drop Stone Penetration does not have such hidden dangers. It is nothing more than slow, but it is better than being stable enough.
In Gao Pragmatic's previous life, when he was a child, his father once made an analogy when talking about the differences between China and the United States in handling various major events, saying that it was like facing a treasure in a piece of solid ice. The American style was to find a big hammer. Smash it open, and the Chinese style is to find a small stove and bake it slowly next to it.
The American method can quickly take out the treasure, but the treasure may be damaged in the process of breaking it open; the Chinese method may be slower to get the treasure, but the treasure in hand can remain intact.
This analogy had a profound impact on Gao Pragmatism and is still in effect today. The North Korea he wanted was not a ruin that was plowed over again and again by the army, nor was it a "loss-making business" like Annan during the Chengzu and Xuanzong periods, where plowing it N times ended up being bad due to poor governance and was eventually abandoned by the court.
In Gao Pangshi's eyes, North Korea is the wall of the East China Sea and the screen of Gyeonggi. If it wants to win, it must be governed as if it were a native land. How could it be possible to ignore the internal dangers it may cause, even knowing that counterinsurgency can be a credit to deliberately coercing it? ?
Coercion is indeed a prerequisite, but it is only to deter ambitious people with evil intentions. Huairou is the long-term governance method and is the national policy of the peninsula that must always be implemented.
"It has been observed that there is a great talent, and it is true that he is a talent in a mere place like Tianjin." Gao Pingshi smiled and said with expectation: "Please observe and learn more about the situation in North Korea in the near future, in case the court needs it."
----------
Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "2736", "Cao Mianzi", "First Login", and "shaoyeu" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: I was so busy yesterday that I didn’t have time to code, so I will make up for yesterday’s work today. The next half month may be busy, and updates may be delayed, but again, whatever is owed will definitely be made up.
In addition, the chapter "Xu Wu, Tianjin's Four Elders" has been blocked again. The reason is unknown, and I am too lazy to change it. Readers who want to look back or don't have time to read it, please look elsewhere.
Bookmark
