I want to be emperor

Chapter 561
In the last few days of December in the seventh year of Chengshun, the Great Chu Empire held a pre-imperial meeting, and all nine ministers from the imperial study room attended.

The theme of the meeting is very simple, that is to discuss the disposal of the Koryo Peninsula, and by the way, the disposal of the Li family's monarchs and ministers will also be discussed.

Like the usual imperial meeting, Luo Zhixue sat high on the dragon chair, except that after saying a few words at the beginning of the meeting, he closed his eyes and meditated...let the courtiers discuss on their own.

At the very beginning of the meeting, it was to discuss whether to directly bring the Koryo Peninsula into the scope of imperial rule, or not to directly rule, and still treat the Koryo Peninsula as a vassal state just like in the past.

Regarding this point, everyone still has some concerns, mainly because the area of ​​the Koryo Peninsula is not small, and there are millions of people in the peninsula, and the language and customs of these people are very different from the Han people in the Central Plains, so they ruled directly. kind of hard.

Although the Koryo Peninsula has been radiated by Confucian culture for a long time, the upper-class people generally learn Chinese characters. Basically, a Korean scholar can write and read Chinese characters, but basically they can’t speak Chinese...or, in fact, they can speak it, just pronounce it It's not the same... The pronunciation of Korean characters when reading Chinese characters is very different from that of Chinese.

Not to mention the Koreans, even the Chinese spoken in different regions in the Central Plains is very different, otherwise there would be no special official language.

The official language of the past dynasties is very important. With a unified language and characters, the Chinese civilization has continued for thousands of years. Although this official language has been changing throughout the dynasties, it still has a very clear context.

This kind of change is not that the old language is directly abolished and the new language is directly quoted, but that it is constantly evolving on the basis of the old language... How should I put it, today's Mandarin evolved from the language in the Luoyang area of ​​the Central Plains three to four thousand years ago. .

In the early thousands of years of China, the political and cultural center of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties has always been in the Central Plains, to be precise in the Luoyang area. During this period, a common elegant sound was formed.

The official dialects of subsequent dynasties generally evolved from the Central Plains Luoyang dialect, or the Luoyang dialect was fused with other dialects.

During the Tang Dynasty, Luoyang dialect was used as the official dialect. During the Jin Dynasty, when it moved to the south, Luoyang dialect merged with Jinling dialect to form a new Jinling dialect.

In the Song Dynasty, the Luoyang dialect was used in the Northern Song Dynasty like the Tang Dynasty. Although the Southern Song Dynasty moved southward, the Luoyang dialect was generally used.

In addition to the Mongolian language in the Yuan Dynasty, the common language was based on the Luoyang pronunciation, which was fused with a part of the dialect of the Youzhou area to form the so-called Beiping pronunciation.

The official dialect of the Ming Dynasty was the so-called Nanjing official dialect. This Nanjing official dialect was actually a new official dialect based on the Luoyang dialect of the Central Plains, which incorporated part of the Jinling dialect.

After Zhu Di moved to the north, Nanjing Mandarin entered Beiping, and incorporated part of the common language of the Yuan Dynasty, that is, the tones of Beiping, and then formed Nanjing Mandarin with changed tones in the Ming Dynasty.

Although they are all called Nanjing Mandarin, there are actually subtle differences between Nanjing Mandarin in the early Ming Dynasty and the middle and late Ming Dynasty. This difference is not man-made, but a long-term language fusion and evolution.

After the Great Chu Empire, the Ministry of Ethics and Education carefully studied many ancient books based on the official dialect of the Ming Dynasty, and formulated a new official dialect of Great Chu, calling it Jinling official dialect... It’s just that, although the Ministry of Ethics and Education boasted that it had created Jinling official dialect It is a continuation of the elegant tone of ancient times, but in fact it is Nanjing Mandarin in the middle and late Ming Dynasty...

After all, for things like official Chinese, what is important is not whether it is strictly prohibited or not, nor whether it is the same as the elegant tone in ancient times, but to be popularized... What you say can be understood by others, this is official Chinese...

Therefore, the Jinling official dialect of the Great Chu Empire is actually the official dialect of the Ming Dynasty... There is no change between the two.

But in the vast Huaxia region, there are actually not many people who use Mandarin. Generally speaking, only scholars and businessmen who travel north and south can speak Mandarin, and the vast majority of ordinary people still speak the local dialect.

Not to mention the ancient times when communication was blocked, even in the 21st century, there are still tens of millions of people who cannot speak Mandarin, especially middle-aged and elderly people.

Can speak Mandarin, but there are hundreds of millions of people who still communicate in the local dialect on a daily basis.

In the Great Chu Empire, the vast majority of people speak the local dialect in their daily life, and only scholars can learn Mandarin from an early age... After all, if you don't know Mandarin, you can't be an official.

When you face the saint, you croaked a lot of birdsong, the emperor might have to give you a translator!

In the Koryo Peninsula area, local scholars can read and write Chinese characters, and even their official language is Chinese characters, but... the pronunciation is different.

To some extent, the Chinese pronunciation of these Korean scholars is also the local Chinese dialect.

The language barrier will be a relatively big trouble. If the rule is established directly, the officials sent by the Central Plains in the past can only speak the official language, but they can't speak the local Chinese dialect... and the local people can read and write, but they can't. Can speak Jinling official dialect.

The communication between the two may only be through text.

Well, in the past, the communication between the Ming Dynasty and even the Dongcap people and the Li Dynasty was like this, either through translation or direct written conversation...

Most of the time, in order to save trouble, they talk directly in writing!
But it is clear that a peninsula cannot be ruled by written words alone.

In response to this problem, Song Zhang, Minister of the Ministry of Etiquette and Minister of Counseling, said: "The problem of language barriers is not a big problem. No matter in the Central Plains or on the Peninsula, there are many interpreters. Find these people and award them to them. Middle and low-level official positions, as a bridge between the past and the future, can solve the initial troubles. In addition, we will conduct screening for the middle and high-level officials of the original Li family, and appropriately recruit those who understand Mandarin as middle-level officials."

"Relying on these people, the communication problem in the early stage will not be a big problem!"

"As for the middle and later stages, everyone should believe in the combat effectiveness of our Ministry of Ethics and Education. We are professional in the work of enlightenment!"

"Our Ministry of Rites and Education will send a working group to the peninsula to urge the local people to carry out education work!"

"Relying on education, imperial examinations, trade, work and other aspects to comprehensively promote Mandarin education!"

"By the way, I heard that they had some script before, and this native script must be banned in all directions immediately!"

"As long as the military, patrol police, and tax police cooperate, Chinese characters will become the only language on the peninsula within a year at most. After 15 years, Jinling Mandarin will become the only local language!"

Song Zhang is obviously ready, and he also strongly supports direct rule on the Koryo Peninsula.

How should I put it, the fight has been defeated, and people have completely surrendered, and the direct rule is over, and there is no need to do too many messy things.

Song Zhang supported it, and most of the other ministers also agreed with it. Although some people had concerns, they were quickly dispelled.

Soon, the ministers got a unified opinion and directly annexed the Koryo Peninsula.

The next step is to discuss the establishment of administrative institutions on the Koryo Peninsula.

In this regard, the military has given some opinions. From the perspective of security, the military believes that the entire Koryo Peninsula cannot be directly established as a province. It is best to split it up and mix it with the Liaodong area to dilute the Koryo Peninsula as much as possible. independent color.

Therefore, the Koryo Peninsula will be divided into three parts, and its northwest region will be under the jurisdiction of Liaodong Province, with three prefectures including Dongjiang Prefecture.

The northeastern region of the peninsula is expected to have three prefectures, which will be merged with the large area north of Liaodong (probably the Jilin area) that has not yet been captured to form Northern Liaoning Province.

For the remaining central and southern regions of the peninsula, Donghai Province is established, with seven prefectures under it.

It is worth noting that the above-mentioned division of administrative regions not only divides the peninsula into three, but also forcibly connects it with the rest of Liaodong and Liaobei. At the same time, the regional settings of the subordinate prefectures also directly disrupt the original Korean Eight Ways. administrative division.

These are all to dilute the color of the previous peninsula independent regime directly from the administrative division.

In the future, the Koryo Peninsula will not be a single administrative region, but will be divided into three, and in the process, it will continue to integrate with the Liaodong and Liaobei regions.

Perhaps in a few decades, the people along the Qingchuan River will consciously regard themselves as Liaodong people, not Korean people...

The administrative division of the peninsula has been settled, and there is another special one that is Jeju Island.

This time the army remembered to go to Jeju Island to raise horses...

It is said that Jeju Island is isolated overseas, and if horses are bred on the island, it can effectively prevent the bloodline of the horses from being polluted.

The army wants to use this Jeju Island as a huge experimental base for hybrid breeding of war horses.

It's nothing more than a small broken island. These bigwigs didn't mean to embarrass the army, and directly agreed to list Jeju Island as a military-controlled area.

After the division of the administrative regions of the Koryo Peninsula, the handling of the Li family is also simple. In view of the fact that they surrendered unconditionally, and they also actively cooperated with the Chu army to persuade the officials and troops of the Li dynasty to surrender, reducing the cost of conquest. Great Chu Naturally, the empire would not cross the river and tear down the bridge, and cut down the opponent directly.

Immediately, it was decided to bring the Li family, including the abdicated king and all direct bloodlines, to Jinling City for centralized management and residence, and grant the abdicated king the title of 'Uncle Guishun'.

Well, it's just an ordinary earl title, the one that cannot be inherited!

In other words, after the death of the deposed king of the Li family, the title will be removed directly, and the Li family will be a commoner.

However, many of the original officials in the Li Dynasty were selectively retained. For those who voluntarily surrendered, those who were willing to serve the empire, and who knew the official language were given priority, and the rest were appointed according to the situation.

For the diehards who refuse to surrender, the most severe blows must be carried out.

And this is just the first step...

In the following time, various enlightenment policies were enforced on the peninsula, including strict regulations on clothing, hair, etiquette, etc., and all kinds of books in foreign languages ​​were destroyed, foreign private schools were closed, and replaced with official private schools according to the standards of the Great Chu Empire or according to the standards of the Great Chu Empire. The Ministry of Etiquette and Education of the Great Chu Empire stipulated that private schools that run schools are prohibited from teaching native languages, and must use Chinese characters and Mandarin for education.

Regarding these matters, the Ministry of Ethics and Education has a very strong attitude, requiring immediate implementation and full cooperation from the military in the early stage, and the full cooperation of the patrol department and the tax police department in the middle and later stages.

The pre-education work is the top priority. In addition, various new policies are being implemented at the same time as the education work, especially the land policy.

The Great Chu Empire will implement its own land policy in every newly occupied area, and the peninsula area will be no exception.

In addition, the implementation of the new land policy in the peninsula region will have an additional benefit, that is, it can greatly eliminate the original upper-middle-class forces in the peninsula region, and by the way, eliminate the local resistance forces and complete the work of enlightenment...

Because the people who control the land and the right to speak are the same group of people!

And this kind of people will be wiped out in large numbers in the land reform wave of the Great Chu Empire.

Now in the Central Plains, why are there few people who oppose the Great Chu Empire, and there is no such unstable situation in the early stage as it was during the many regime changes... Because, those who opposed and took related actions are all dead!

The rest are gentry who do not object, or are full of gentlemen who dare not object.

This is the case in the Central Plains, and it is no exception on the Peninsula. The situation is even more serious. The Great Chu Empire still has some scruples in the Central Plains, but in the Koryo Peninsula... what scruples can there be, the waves are over.

Implementing land policies locally can bring many side benefits!

After all, the annexation of land on the Koryo Peninsula is not much worse than that in the Central Plains, and the situation is even worse. The Central Plains, especially the northern provinces, have caused a large number of abnormal deaths due to frequent natural and man-made disasters. When the Great Chu Empire unifies the above-mentioned In the provinces, these places are actually in a situation where there are fewer people and more land.

Ten rooms and nine empties, this is not a verbal exaggeration, but a real situation.

Relatively speaking, the southern provinces that have not suffered any natural and man-made disasters have more serious land conflicts, and these areas are also areas where the Great Chu Empire focused on implementing land policies in the early years. Clearing up the remnants of the former Ming Dynasty, suppressing armed anti-taxation, and rectifying local security and other messy actions come and go every three days. The scythe of the Great Chu Empire pulled the southern provinces aside like a net, and cut off the lives of countless gentry. head!

As for the Koryo Peninsula, although its own situation is not very good, strictly speaking, the internal rule of the Lee Dynasty is relatively stable, which means that the internal interest groups have not been damaged.

And the so-called interest groups in the agricultural era have no one except landlords!
In this way, the Great Chu Empire needs to vigorously clean up all kinds of things. After killing a group of landlords and gentry on the peninsula, the land conflicts will naturally be alleviated, and the Great Chu Empire will naturally be able to gain more support from the middle and lower classes.

Over time, the people on the Koryo Peninsula will forever forget the Li Dynasty, and begin to support and be proud of being a citizen of the Great Chu Empire.

Of course, it takes time!
According to estimates, it is estimated that the initial results should be achieved within five years. Ten years or even 15 years later, the Koryo Peninsula will become an inseparable part of the empire from the inside to the outside.

When the time comes to let them leave the big family of the empire independently, there is a high probability that they will not be happy!
When you are not a citizen of the great powers, you will scold the great powers in all kinds of ways, but if one day you become a citizen of the great powers, then you will be a staunch supporter of the great powers!
It is always the butt that decides the head!

----

After Jinling finalized a series of follow-up plans for the Koryo Peninsula, various departments quickly found out that the Ministry of Civil Affairs began to select officials who understood the local dialect of the Koryo Peninsula from across the country, and at the same time, many demoted officials and scholars from the Koryo Peninsula Local officials who understand Mandarin were selected from the group, and hundreds of middle and senior officials were initially selected for use on the Koryo Peninsula.

In the future, the scope of selection will be further expanded, and a large number of low-level officials will be selected and appointed.

In the end, these personnel will be enriched into the administrative agencies at all levels in the three regions of the peninsula.

The Ministry of Rites and Education dispatched a working group into the peninsula, preparing to carry out education work with the cooperation of the military.

The tax department has begun to recruit elite soldiers from other provinces to live in the three peninsulas. It is estimated that 5000 armed tax police officers, more than [-] ordinary tax police officers, and more than [-] tax officers at all levels will be deployed from various places.

After these tax officers enter the three places on the peninsula, they will become the backbone of the various tax agencies on the peninsula, and then recruit a large number of ordinary tax officers and non-staff personnel in the local area according to tradition.

It is estimated that within a year, the number of tax-related staff on the peninsula will reach more than 1. Of course, it is impossible to maintain so many people for a long time. After more than a year of high-pressure taxation work, especially when various armed resistance to taxation has been continuously suppressed When there is no large-scale armed tax resistance, the tax agency will mobilize and downsize.

Some of the elite armed tax police will be transferred to other places to continue to carry out the task of suppressing armed tax resistance. Ordinary tax police and tax officials will also be mobilized and internally cleared. Eventually, the total number of tax staff in the three places on the peninsula will be reduced. down to a reasonable level.

This involves a problem of taxation costs. These taxation staff also need to be paid... Maintaining a large number of taxation staff in one place for a long time, the taxation cost will become extremely high, and the tax collected may not be enough. These tax collectors are paid.

Therefore, after the initial stabilization of the situation, a large number of tax officers will be transferred away.

Similar routines have been performed over and over again in the other provinces of the Great Chu Empire, and the effect is remarkable!

Other departments also carried out various actions in accordance with the resolutions of the Imperial Counselor's Council to cope with the handling of the Koryo Peninsula.

Against this festive background, Jinling City ushered in a new year: the eighth year of Chengshun!

During the Spring Festival of the eighth year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue and a group of important ministers held a series of activities that were more symbolic than actual.

For example, Luo Zhixue held a state banquet for important ministers and some middle-level officials with outstanding achievements. At the same time, the queens and queens in the harem would also invite the female relatives of powerful families into the palace to watch a play and have a feast.

Then the royal family will also give blessings to some of the courtiers, with some small gifts, including the word "blessing" written by Luo Zhixue himself.

Then there are all kinds of messy ritual activities such as worshiping heaven and ancestors.

However, Luo Zhixue was always lazy about these etiquette activities, and often simplified the steps as much as possible, just put on a show and it was over.

When these things are almost busy, this year will pass.

On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, Chengshun's first imperial counselor meeting in eight years was successfully held, but no important military affairs were discussed at the meeting.

Basically, the important affairs were finalized at the end of last year, and they were not delayed until this year to deal with, and nothing important happened during the short half month of Chinese New Year.

Therefore, this year's first executive meeting seemed calm after all.

Among the many matters discussed, the only one that can be called a major event is the renovation plan of the imperial palace. In this imperial council meeting, the courtiers proposed and reached a consensus, requesting the allocation of 50 taels to speed up the renovation of the imperial palace. The first phase of the project will be completed and settled in this autumn.

It is worth mentioning that although the Great Chu Empire has been established for some years, and its capital has been moved to Jinling City for four years, Luo Zhixue has always been in the Royal Courtyard, that is, the Wei Guogong Mansion in the pre-Ming Dynasty, and it is the only one in Jinling City after the war. Living and working in the large hinterland.

The imperial palace was repaired on the basis of the ruins of the Nanjing imperial palace in the previous Ming Dynasty!
It is said to be repaired, but in fact it is no different from pushing it back to the beginning, because the Nanjing Imperial Palace in the Ming Dynasty has been abandoned for 200 years, and has experienced many natural disasters in the middle. All were burned down, and other houses were already decayed under the invasion of the years.

Although the Ming Dynasty occasionally allocated funds to repair the Nanjing Imperial Palace, it was basically useless.

After the Great Chu Empire captured Jinling City, the so-called Nanjing Imperial Palace was already in ruins and weeds.

The only thing worth mentioning is that there are still a lot of stones in the ruins, and the thick wood can still be used.

To put it bluntly, the only remaining role of this ruined palace is to provide a few building materials...

The Great Chu Empire decided to rebuild the palace here, mainly because the place here is large enough, and the surrounding areas are also convenient for expropriation and flattening.

Because of the new palace plan of the Great Chu Empire, let’s not talk about whether it is grand or not, but it occupies an extremely large area, far exceeding the Nanjing Palace of the previous Ming Dynasty.

According to Luo Zhixue's requirements, the original Nanjing Imperial Palace was used as the inner palace, and an area of ​​several hundred meters in the surrounding area was required to be used as the royal outer garden!

On the one hand, Luo Zhixue doesn't want his palace to be surrounded by countless buildings... Because the interior of the palace is built according to the traditional architectural style, the buildings are relatively dense and depressing. Luo Zhixue would not live in a palace like a garden or something.

On the other hand, the outer gardens are actually outer defensive facilities. Those drainage ditches are actually trenches, and the small mounds are fortresses... This area is actually a huge permanent fortification surrounding the palace.

And this kind of semi-underground fortification is much more reliable than the outermost and thinner outer wall of the palace.

(End of this chapter)