Chapter 4 Chapter 3 Little China

The North Koreans did nothing. At this time, Li Yan, the nephew of King Mingzong Gongxian, was in power, and he had been on the throne for more than 20 years.Since Zhu Yuanzhang, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang in the early Ming Dynasty, designated North Korea as a country that would never be conquered, the Li Dynasty has enjoyed peace for more than two hundred years.For more than two hundred years of comfortable life, even the claws of a lion should have degenerated, let alone the Koreans. The Li Dynasty was a dynasty in Kazakhstan and worshiped everything in China.Regardless of political culture or customs and habits, copy them all.At that time, the upper-class scholars in North Korea were all proficient in Chinese.For example, most of the existing Korean ancient historical materials can no longer be understood by contemporary North Koreans and Koreans, but the Chinese have no trouble reading them—that’s because they are all written in Chinese.The reason for this is that the Korean language that is currently in use, in fact, in order to allow everyone to read and write Chinese, King Sejong of the Li Dynasty made a special phonetic symbol for Chinese called "Hunmin Zhengyin", but because of various For this reason, there has been no large-scale promotion.In modern times, after Korea was annexed by Japan again, Japan colonized Korea in various aspects, including the large-scale promotion of Japanese.At that time, many North Korean rebels began to use this phonetic symbol for communication. It was not officially designated as the official Hangeul until 1911 to eliminate the traces of Japanese colonization.So strictly speaking, although the current Hangeul appeared in the 15th century, it has always been the phonetic notation of Chinese from the beginning, and the history of being officially regarded as a written language is only a short one hundred years.

Li Chaojun and his ministers were very proud of the achievement of introducing Chinese civilization in an all-round way, and the whole country called themselves "Little China" complacently. This "Little China" is really well-deserved, because they have not only learned the essence of Chinese culture, but also learned the dross, and even the blue is better than the blue.North Korea's attitude towards Japan is exactly the same as China's attitude towards the barbarians of the Quartet: extremely contemptuous and indifferent. Regarding the Imjin War, the Koreans left many notes.In these notes, when they talked about Japan, it was as if they were talking about a country thousands of kilometers away from North Korea, full of weird and bizarre sayings.It's a bit speechless to be a neighbor to do this.

This is a very unreasonable thing.The Chinese state does not know about Japan's border affairs, so it can still use "going to the country too far" as an excuse.North Korea is only one strait away from Japan. It has been bullied by this island country many times in history, but it has a short memory. Not to mention regularly collecting the other party's news, it is even ignorant of some basic information.In many cases in Japan, the Koreans even have to go around in a big circle, rummaging through Chinese materials. To what extent the North Koreans lack understanding of this evil neighbor, we can look at two small cases.

In a novel called "Ren Chen Lu", the origin of Hideyoshi is introduced at the beginning, which is what it says: It is said that during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a man named Pu Shiping in Hangzhou who was killed by Japanese pirates.His wife Chen Shi and son Pu Shouji were kidnapped by Japanese pirates and sold to Tsushima Island.The owner of Tsushima Island is called Ping Xin, and he took the Chen family as his concubine, and then Park Shouji also changed his surname to Ping... In "The Records of Xuanzu", how Hideyoshi made his fortune is written even more miraculously.Said that the predecessor Kanbai was traveling, and Hideyoshi was naked in front of the car.Guan Bai saw that he was behaving strangely, so he asked him to clean the toilet.As a result, the toilet was cleaned very clean, which was greatly appreciated, and has since been cited as a confidant and so on.

If the Japanese see this kind of record, they must scold Bageyalu. Hideyoshi was preparing for the war loudly and loudly, but North Korea was still living in a daze, continuing to sing and dance in Seoul to promote peace and recite poems to fight against each other.Until the beginning of the 20th year of Wanli (1592 A.D.), a large number of Japanese troops had arrived at Tsushima Island in waves, and Busan Port was within reach. Li Chao, who was in a catastrophe, had not yet responded. On the eve of the war, the strength of the Li Dynasty was comparable to that of the Japanese army in terms of numbers alone.At the beginning of Renchen, the total number of troops in the country was about 230,000, mainly distributed in the three capitals of Pyongyang, Seoul, and Kaesong, as well as Hamgyong Road, which defended against Jurchen invasion, and Gyeongsang Road near Tsushima Island.In addition, there are several fleets stationed in Gyeongsang-do, Jeolla-do and other places, defending the Yellow Sea and the coast of North Korea.

The Great Wall defense system of the Li Dynasty from China COPY - the whole country has a complete beacon system and post delivery, forming a three-dimensional defense system with the castles along the way.Only in Gyeongsang-do, which is close to Japan, there are two direct beacons, which can be directly transmitted from Busan to the boundary of Yangju and Chungju, and connected with the post road.Once there is an emergency in Gyeongsang-do, it can arrive in Seoul within a day with an early warning. This is the security system established at the beginning of the country, a precious legacy left by Li Chenggui and other Ming emperors of the past dynasties.It's a pity that the shelf is still there, but the flesh is rotten.

The troops of the Li Dynasty, except for the army of Hamgyong Road who have been fighting against the Jurchen all the year round, are still experienced in hundreds of battles. The other troops are flamboyant. I can't even grasp it, let alone fight.Most of the Beacon Fort was abandoned and became ruins, so that after the Japanese army invaded Busan, it took three days for Seoul to know the news of the foreign invasion. What is North Korea busy with?Speaking of it, this is also a glorious tradition learned from China: party struggle. The Central Plains Dynasty has a tradition of party struggle. In Tang Dynasty, there were Niu and Li parties; in Song Dynasty, there were old and new parties;Li Chao learned this tradition as it is, and went beyond it.After Sunjo Lee Chan came to the throne, the political struggle between the two factions of Popyeong Yoon and Cheongsong Shim gradually turned into a struggle between the Dongren Party and the Western Party with Korean characteristics.

Party disputes cause trouble, and party disputes every day lead to major events, the country, and the world. Since there were two parties, the East and the West, North Korea had to fight a lot for everything.The two parties are fighting in the dark, and everything is based on the party faction, and the parties are united in fighting differences, regardless of right or wrong.For those who study the politics of this period of the Li Dynasty, party struggle is an essential filter.Check the background of the person involved, and then look at the background of the opponent, and all the weird anomalies can be easily resolved.

The Western People's Party suggested conscription of 100,000 soldiers to defend the Jurchen, but the Eastern People's Party opposed it, saying that it was a waste of money; the Eastern People's Party preached Confucianism, and the Western People's Party jumped up and said that it was Confucianism.Especially on the issue of establishing a prince, the two parties each supported a prince, which was even more bloody.The debate between the two sides has become a biological conditioned reflex.If one party says that people can't eat shit, the other party will probably jump up and say that maybe they can't.

Hideyoshi had never intended to hide the fact that he was going to invade North Korea from the North Koreans.He successively sent Yasuhiro Yutani, Soyoshi Tomo and others to threaten North Korea to surrender. He sent several waves of envoys and handed over letters of credence several times. There was only one central content: I hope that North Korea will surrender to Japan as soon as possible. Hello, my brothers, let’s fight against Ming Dynasty together. . The North Koreans call themselves a small China, with their eyes above the top, and everyone except Daming looks like a barbarian.Now seeing this Shimai coming over and talking nonsense, he rolled his eyelids: "Who are you? Don't play tricks on me." He didn't take Hideyoshi seriously at all.

This attitude made the owner of Tsushima Island so anxious.Tsushima Island is between the DPRK and Japan, and the owner of the island, the clan, is responsible for the important task of contacting and exchanging between the two sides.Zong Yizhi was afraid that the indifference of the Koreans would make Hideyoshi angry at him, so he came up with an idea that was a bit careless. He kidnapped dozens of North Korean defectors in exile in Japan, sent them back to Seoul, and promised a lot of bribes, saying that as long as you send a random mission over to say goodbye, it will be over.After lobbying for a long time, North Korea finally reluctantly agreed to send a peace mission to Japan to express its intention of harmony. This end was settled, Zong Yizhi hurriedly beat the gongs and drums to tell Hideyoshi that the Koreans agreed to surrender and would send a mission to surrender.Hideyoshi was naturally overjoyed. In this way, the two aspects have finally been explained. As for whether the secret will be revealed in the future, and what to do after the secret is revealed, Zong Yizhi has never considered it at all.The strangest thing is that his tricks of fooling children emerged endlessly in the next few years, and several similar "wizards" emerged in both China and Japan.We will specifically mention this below. In short, under Zongyi Zhizhi's tricks and tricks, in April of the eighteenth year of Wanli, North Korea finally reluctantly formed an envoy to Kyoto. What Xu Yihou mentioned in his report was "in May of that year, Gaoli paid donkeys". The mission arrived in Kyoto in May, and the host was Jingzhe Xuansu, the abbot of Tofuku Temple in Kyoto.Master Xuansu is a political activist who specializes in handling foreign affairs for the Toyotomi family.He told the mission that Hideyoshi has been busy fighting Hojo and has no time to look around, so please wait.The mission could only wait obediently, visiting the scenic spots of Kyoto every day accompanied by Xuansu, reciting poems and singing for rewards. They stayed together until the end of the year, when Hideyoshi returned to Kyoto to spare some time to meet them.When the guest of honor met, Hideyoshi didn't show any good looks at all, so he served some cooked cakes and a pot of dirty wine, and then he hugged his son Tsurumatsu to enjoy himself.He Song suddenly pissed on him all over, Hideyoshi undressed and changed his clothes openly in front of everyone.All kinds of rudeness finally made the North Korean mission unbearable and left the meeting angrily. It's not Hideyoshi's fault, nor the Koreans' fault, but Zong Yoshitomo's fault.Hideyoshi thought that the North Korean mission was here to surrender, so naturally there was no need to flatter him; the North Korean mission thought that he was here to congratulate him, so he shouldn't be so slighted.Zong Yizhi deceived both parties into misunderstanding each other's meaning, so naturally they couldn't talk together. The North Korean mission didn't want to see Hideyoshi anymore, but the mission had to be completed.The next day, Master Xuansu took over a letter of credence, saying that you take it back to the king, and this mission will be considered complete. The North Korean mission opened the credentials and was dumbfounded.Hideyoshi first boasted about his noble background and great achievements at the beginning of the national book, and then wrote a sentence that directly stimulated the nerves of Koreans: "Yichao went straight to the Ming Dynasty, and the custom of Yiwu Dynasty was in more than four hundred states...Your Excellency entered the In the dynasty, there are long-term concerns, but there are no near-term worries.” The deputy head, Jin Chengyi, turned the table and quit on the spot. When they came, Zong Yizhi clearly said that he was congratulating the mission. Why is it now that he is paying tribute and calling himself a vassal?He pointed to the six characters "Your Excellency enters the court" on the national book, and said to Jing Zhexuansu: "These six characters are not good, they have to be changed." These six words are full of mystery. This letter of credence was written by Hideyoshi to King Lee Chan of Joseon, and the "Your Excellency" in this sentence refers to Lee Chan.The ancients paid attention to the use of words, meaning every word without ambiguity. Although "Your Excellency" is a respectful title, it is for senior officials.Son of Heaven, I want to be called Your Majesty.North Korea is a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, and the king of North Korea is inferior, and is generally called His Royal Highness or His Royal Highness.In the book of credentials, the King of Korea was called Your Excellency from the very beginning, which invisibly degraded the status of the King of Korea by several layers. The problem of "Fangwu" is even bigger.It is inevitable to give gifts to each other when countries communicate with each other, and the names of the gifts are particular.Big countries donate vassals and foreign countries, which are called Li coins; vassals and small countries pay tribute to the Celestial Dynasty, which are called Fangwu, that is, local specialties.If the gift from North Korea to Japan is called Fangwu, it means that North Korea is paying tribute to Japan, and its status has been degraded. As for entering the court, it is even more outrageous.Whose dynasty will you enter?To whose tribute?Our North Korea is a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, not a vassal of your barbarians. After reading these six characters, it is like treating North Korea as a subordinate of Japan, which is tolerable and unbearable.Jin Chengyi said that although the reactionary remarks in the national book such as "a super-straight entry into the Ming Dynasty" are outrageous, after all, it is your own national affairs, and it is up to you to change it or not, but it is categorical to downgrade North Korea. no. Jin Chengyi is a great Confucianist in the world, Xuansu is a famous scholar of Sinology, the two of them wrote poems and sang for money in Beijing, and originally they cherished each other.Now as soon as the credential was handed over, the two immediately turned their faces and quarreled fiercely. The two sides quarreled for a long time and came up with a compromise plan.The Japanese side changed "Your Excellency" to the neutral word "your country" and changed "fangwu" to "pioneer".As for the word "into the dynasty", it cannot be changed. Jing Chexuansu gave an explanation, saying that the "chao" in "into the dynasty" refers to Daming. Jin Chengyi is a great Confucian in North Korea, he knows Chinese characters, and knows that this is a monk fooling people.But Xuansu refused to give in any more.In the end, the embassy envoy Huang Yunji came out to smooth things over for fear of delaying the matter, so this sentence in the official document became "Your country is the first to enter the court." The Chinese language is extensive and profound. This sentence is ambiguous and can be understood from two aspects.From Hideyoshi's point of view, this sentence means "your country is a pioneer and goes to attack Ming Dynasty." From the perspective of Koreans, this sentence can be interpreted as "your country is a pioneer and pays tribute to the court."Both parties get what they need, and everyone is happy. Before the mission left, Jing Zhexuansu did not forget to say a word of scare: "Today's discussion will not lead to two ends. If you don't want to talk about peace, you want to fight." Ming dynasty. After returning to China in the spring of the 19th year of Wanli, the mission reported Japan's bad attitude to the imperial court.In addition to being angry, Li Yan also felt a little uncertain, so he called a group of ministers to discuss to see if the Japanese would come over.As mentioned earlier, North Korea’s intelligence on Japan is extremely scarce, and everyone has no idea. Some ministers said that the Japanese were wolves, and some said that this time they really were wolves. There was no conclusion, and they kicked the ball back to the feet of the envoys and deputy envoys. Originally, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If North Korea is alert to Japan at this time, then there is at least a year to prepare. Coincidentally, Huang Yunji, the chief envoy of the envoy, is from the Western People's Party, and Jin Chengyi, the deputy envoy, is from the Eastern People's Party.Huang Yunji believes that Japan will launch a war; Jin Chengyi, who belongs to the Eastern People's Party, adheres to the principle of "I oppose whatever the enemy agrees with", and immediately said that I think the Japanese are not to be feared! Jin Chengyi was also eye-catching when he was negotiating the credentials, winning a lot of honor for the country in terms of writing.Li Yan felt that this was a good minister, more credible than Huang Yunji, how could he be wrong about what the good minister said? At this time, the Western People's Party was at a low ebb. Although the Eastern People's Party had just split into the Southern People's Party and the Northern People's Party, they were still united and opposed to the Western People's Party. Therefore, Jin Chengyi's opinion finally prevailed. got the upper hand. As a result, a strategic issue related to life and death was turned into a topic of party struggle by a group of "party members".The matter of preparing for the war is in the sound of mahjong in the southeast and northwest, and nothing is done... Since the final conclusion is that Japan will not go to war, then North Korea doesn't have to bother to prepare anything, and just issued an edict to make Busan put on guard.As for whether it was implemented or not, I don't know. North Korea fell into such a big trick, and never believed in Zong Yizhi, that big liar.In the summer of the same year, when Hideyoshi sent Soyoshitomo to North Korea again, North Korea didn't even let him go to Busan Port, and drove him back.Only Xuansu went to Seoul to lobby, but returned in vain. The matter of the Japanese pirates has been dealt with, but there is still a very serious question: Should the suzerain country, Daming, be notified?You must know that although this mission is polite and restrained, it is after all a private mission, and the reasoning is beyond the bounds. If you report it like this, you may be criticized. Li Yan was at a loss again, so he called a group of ministers to discuss.At this time, the faction started again.Da Si Kou Yin Doushou is a member of the Western Party and said that he should report it to Daming.Li Shanhai, who is in charge of political affairs, belongs to the Dongren Party, so it should not be said.The officials below hurriedly lined up on both sides, rolled up their sleeves and prepared to quarrel. There is a person in the Eastern People's Party, named Liu Chenglong, who worships Zuo Yizheng and is the leader of the Southern People's Party. He has been at odds with Li Shanhai, the leader of the Northern People's Party.Liu Chenglong is actually not very interested in party struggle, but in North Korea, if there is no party struggle, he will be eliminated, and he can only help himself.Remember this name, this is a man who will become the mainstay of Joseon in the Imjin War in the future.His greatest contribution to North Korea was the extraordinary promotion of a Zuoshui envoy of Jeolla Province, named Yi Sun-shin. In this quarrel, Liu Chenglong actually agreed with Yin Doushou's point of view, thinking that Daming must be informed.However, due to his cronies, he couldn't speak clearly, so he had to stand up and say to the king tactfully: It is normal to communicate with neighboring countries.Of course, you have to report something, but you have to be cautious. I think Li Shanhai is right. " Liu Chenglong said the truth in the first half of the sentence, and the second half of the sentence is purely to take care of Li Shanhai's face, so the point of view is a bit vague.In the end, Li Yan misunderstood what he said. He waved his hand and said, okay, I have an idea! The history books say that the king was "gifted and brave, and everyone is different." Judging from his later performance, he did not have great wisdom, at best he was a little clever.Now his little cleverness began to play. Li Yan chose an envoy named Jin Yingnan to go to Beijing to face the saint. Before he left, he gave Jin Yingnan an opportunity, saying that after you arrive in Liaodong, please keep quiet and inquire about the news.If Daming doesn't know about Japan, you can come back directly; if Daming already knows about it, you can go to Beijing under the banner of reporting Japanese affairs.They want to ask where the news came from, and remember not to say that we have communications with Japanese pirates, but just from the refugees at sea. Jin Yingnan understood the instructions of the leader, wrapped Jingjie in his arms, and headed towards Liaodong day and night. Li Yan made a good plan, but it's a pity that people's calculations are not as good as heaven's calculations.As everyone knows, Daming already knew about their sneaky quarrel...