I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 580: The enemy is at hand and the party is fighting endlessly

The Ming army in Pyongyang moved south.

Wang Zongtan personally led 10,000 land troops, 5,000 cavalry, and 20,000 grain transporters, for a total of 35,000 troops.

These food transporters are all North Korean disaster victims whom Pyongyang gathered at the beginning.

Nowadays, these former Korean people, in order to send troops to Korea for the Ming Dynasty, have to occupy three lands in Korea and are actively transporting military supplies and equipment, and they are all willing to do so.

Because the Ming Dynasty allowed them to farm for food, registered them as residents, and rewarded them with land. Even the people who are now recruited as grain transporters are responsible for food and wages.

The Ming army crossed the Datong River and quickly arrived at Zhonghe Prefecture (actually a county). Although this place has not yet been annexed by Pyongyang, there have been Korean people who cannot survive, and even Korean gentry and landlords, who have been raising their families since a long time ago. Escape to Pyongyang.

The North Korean officials in Zhonghe City tried to stop it at first, but later found that it was too offending and easily hated by the people, so they gradually ignored it.

When the Ming army came to the city, the North Korean officials in Zhonghe City did not hesitate at all and surrendered directly to the city. They also donated a lot of food, wine and meat for the labor force.

The generals in the army led by Wang Zongtan also received the treatment of gentry women serving as servants, which can be said to have brought their subjective initiative to the extreme.

Zhonghe Mansion was just the beginning. The Ming army moved south from Zhonghe and soon saw the vulnerability of North Korea.

It cannot be said that they are vulnerable, because they all took the initiative to open the city gate and welcome the Ming Dynasty King.

No North Korean officials really dared to resist, not only because they couldn't defeat them, but also because no one thought that Ming Dynasty's father really wanted to invade the Yellow Sea Road, or even go south to attack Seoul.

The excuse used by the Ming Dynasty army to send troops was to help the North Korean vassal state suppress the rebellion. Park Jung, the son of North Korean Prime Minister Park Moon-soo, even endorsed it on the spot, which naturally made this statement more credible.

Even if they occasionally sensed something was wrong and the Ming army came to help North Korea suppress the rebellion, why did they mobilize so many troops? There are even so many cavalry, and the rebellion is suppressed, why are the Korean troops demobilized?

However, these issues are not important. Even if they realize something is wrong, they will just go with the flow when they see the situation.

Wang Zongtan led the army and did not fight a single battle. He did not even see the peasant army in North Korea. Instead, he first occupied more than half of the Yellow Sea Road.

After he defeated Yan'an and planned to march into the city, he finally ran into the North Korean peasant army he wanted to "pacify" and learned a piece of news.

Kim Hwan, who led the hungry people of Hwanghae Province to take the lead in the uprising a few months ago and threatened to kill Seoul, is dead!

He was not defeated by North Korean officers and soldiers, but assassinated by his own generals.

Because the North Korean officers and soldiers found that these peasant armies were difficult to deal with, and their own officers and soldiers were so bad that they were able to fight a stalemate with the peasant armies.

Since they can't be wiped out, they can simply use their traditional skills to directly recruit the rebels.

It did have some effects. Many rebel leaders received promises of generous salaries from high-ranking officials and promotion to the nobility, and they were willing to accept recruitment.

Jin Huan was unwilling to accept recruitment, so he was brutally killed by his subordinates.

Then, something terrible came, and the North Korean monarchs and ministers turned their backs and refused to admit their fault.

It cannot be said that they turned against each other, but that the southerners and northerners who were responsible for recruiting the rebels were criticized first. The pacification faction formed by the old and young critics did not want these southerners and northerners, who had long been in decline, to return to power. Get a voice.

As a result, a new round of party strife quickly broke out.

On the grounds that the state treasury was short of money and food and could not provide enough food to recruit the rebels, the Taiping faction accused the southerners and northerners of being overjoyed in their achievements.

For these rebels who dared to rebel, the government did not hold them accountable for the crime of rebellion, so they had done their best to be kind and righteous, and they dared to ask for so many benefits.

The southerners and northerners were also unwilling to be outdone. They refuted the peace faction, ignored the interests of North Korea, and allowed the rebels to run their own course. Sooner or later, North Korea would be harmed.

The two factions engaged in a fierce war of words in Seoul, and even had to fight directly in the court. The party struggle in North Korea is indeed a major historical and cultural heritage of the country. It highlights one mitosis, defeats the enemy factions, and then fights among itself. When all the fighting is over, mitosis follows.

If there are no political enemies, we must create them.

Even if Li Bang's policy of pacification was intended to completely eliminate party strife and integrate into the royal pacification faction, four different pacification factions could then be differentiated.

There are those who support taking things slow and slow down, and there are those who support pushing the mountain to the top and making rapid reforms, and those who support slowing down and speeding up reform are divided into old and young.

Later, they even split into the South, North, and East parties. In short, the struggle is endless and will never be completed.

When Wang Zongtan received the news from Seoul from the North Korean peasant army, he was quite speechless: "Are all the minds of these North Korean monarchs and ministers broken?"

Pu Zheng shook his head: "It's not that his brain is broken, but it's the foundation of the country. Those two groups of noble ministers will definitely fight for their own interests and right to speak. Even if they don't fight, the king of North Korea will in order to consolidate power. It prompts them to continue fighting between parties. Whoever wins will continue to support the next one, and they will continue to fight against the winner. There will never be a winner."

Wang Zongtan said: "When the snipe and the clam quarrel, the fisherman will benefit. But if the parties in the court continue to fight, the country will only weaken day by day. The kings and ministers of North Korea do not even understand this truth. Moreover, they actually ignore the safety of the country and do not hesitate to recruit rebels." The army once again forced the rebellion..."

Pu Zheng said: "North Korea has always been like this, but this is my opportunity for the Ming Dynasty. The Marquis of Liaoyang can take advantage of the opportunity to recruit these rebels and use this to force the monarchs and ministers of North Korea."

Wang Zongtan grinned: "That's exactly what I meant."

……

Seoul.

The party factions (the old and the young) and the appeasement (southern and northern) factions are still fighting fiercely, without any results.

The leaders of the peasant army who had been laboriously recruited by the recruiting officials have all surrendered and rebelled again, because the North Korean government did not give them any of the benefits promised in advance, but instead intended to take advantage of the situation and recruit their troops.

In Huanghae Province in northern Korea, the only two northern generals left (actually there were three, now in Lelang Province of the Ming Dynasty), Huangzhou Duhu and Haizhou Duhu heard that the peasant army was marching south to force Seoul, and they all responded to Seoul King Qin's order to lead their troops southward. .

This is why the Ming army can move so unimpeded in the northern part of Huanghaidao, because there are no Korean officers and soldiers in the entire Huanghaidao.

The Seoul Party was fiercely fighting, and King Qin's army, which was moving from the north to the south, was forced to stay in Seoul without any orders, unable to advance or retreat.

"What? You said His Majesty the Emperor of Ming Dynasty sent troops to help us suppress the rebel peasant army in North Korea?" Li Yan looked confused.

The messenger sent urgently by Kaicheng Prefecture said: "It is absolutely true that tens of thousands of Ming troops have arrived. It is said that they have eliminated the rebels in Huanghaidao and also recruited the rebels who went north to rebel. Now the Ming Dynasty King's Division The heavenly soldiers have surrounded Kaicheng Mansion and asked Kaicheng Mansion to open the city gate immediately and provide military food supplies."

Li Bin was a little at a loss, but Pu Wenxiu reacted the fastest: "The Huanghaidao rebels were purged and appeased by Master Wang, and returned to surround the city. Could it be that... Master Wang is plotting against me, Korea's Huanghaidao?"

As soon as these words came out, the two groups of noble ministers in the court suddenly looked at each other.

None of you here are fools. The Ming army’s excuses are enough to deceive the lower-class nobles of North Korea.

The troops came to the city and besieged Kaicheng Mansion. Could they be here to help fight the rebellion? What a liar!

Moreover, the current Ming Dynasty has a criminal record in the eyes of North Korea.

They protected the capital from Pyongyang to Xianjing, but even though they were forcibly taken away by the Ming Emperor, Li Bin didn't even dare to let go.

It is precisely because of the loss of Pyongyang that North Korea lost an important grain-producing area in the north, and food has always been in serious shortage.

(End of this chapter)