While the Ming Dynasty was rejoicing over the recovery of Yunnan, North Korea also ushered in a happy moment.
King Yi Ho of Joseon, who had been living in Pyongyang for more than a year, officially returned his capital to Seoul.
Along the way, thousands of Ming troops escorted them, and more than 10,000 Korean troops accompanied them, marching southward toward Seoul in a mighty manner.
Along with them, there were hundreds of civil and military personnel and thousands of family members, stretching for dozens of miles, which was extremely exaggerated.
For the Joseon court, which was financially weak, such a large-scale return to the capital would impose a heavy financial and food burden.
Wu Sangui suggested that it would be better to use a boat to pack everyone up, land at Inchon and return to Seoul, and pay homage to his great achievements.
In this regard, Li Hao refused without hesitation: "The North Korean people have been bullied, and the reason for returning to the old capital in the south is to show the king's power."
In fact, it is a distrust of the sea.
Seemingly aware of North Korea's predicament, the Ming court sent 20,000 silver coins as tribute in advance, and the 100,000 stone grains could be deferred before payment.
This is an unexpected surprise for North Korea.
You must know that silver and copper are scarce in North Korea, and the people have always accepted bartering for cloth and grain.
After the Imjin Japanese Rebellion, because the Ming army entered North Korea to fight and brought a large amount of silver, North Korea began to circulate silver and recognized the currency function of silver.
But it is precisely because of this that too many Ming Dynasty goods were imported, which led to the outflow of silver, making North Korea's silver and grain more expensive.
Moreover, food is expensive only in the parasitic city of Seoul.
It's cheap in comparison, but it's like gold.
Because the Korean Peninsula has a lot of gold mines.
Is North Korea short of food? In fact, there is no shortage.
The homes of those two classes of nobles have stockpiled an unknown amount of food, but due to inconvenient transportation, they cannot transport it out, which has pushed up the price of food.
Twenty thousand silver coins, compared to one hundred thousand stone grains, is actually not a loss. If the Ming Dynasty was responsible for ship transportation, it would be a profit if it was transported directly from the Badao coast.
In fact, the royal court of Joseon thought that it would be better to transfer taxes and grains from distant areas, such as Ping'an Road and Jeolla Road, to the Ming Dynasty.
Then go directly to Seoul and collect 20,000 silver.
Not only did you save on shipping fees, you also got silver, killing two birds with one stone.
Song merchants and Gulf merchants also generously donated one hundred thousand taels of silver as the cost of returning the capital.
Under such circumstances, Li Hao naturally waved his hand and marched south to Seoul.
On the eighth day of June, the King of Korea returned to his capital.
However, this time compared with the last Imjin Japanese Rebellion, the King of Joseon was not in too much of a panic. Gyeongbokgung Palace was relatively complete, with all the palace maids and eunuchs available.
After moving into Gyeongbokgung Palace, Li Hao faced a political problem - how to face the Supreme King Li Jian.
and his eleven-year-old brother Li Cheng, who was elected to the throne by the Manchus.
In this regard, the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty reached a consensus on the opinion of the Supreme King Li Zhu, and continued to respect him as the Supreme King and receive preferential treatment.
Even in order to show his filial piety, His Highness had to give up the main room of Changdeokgung Palace.
Li Hao agreed.
And in dealing with Li Cheng who was forced to ascend the throne.
Some ministers felt that he should be exiled to Ganghwa Island, while others felt that in order to appease people's hearts, he should be granted the title of Lord of the Academy to show his benevolence.
After struggling for a long time, Li Hao decided to be more prudent with benevolence and filial piety. After all, his father Li Zhu was not dead yet!
Li Chang also had to be granted the title of Prince of Peace.
This great turmoil directly prompted the king to change hands, causing chaos in the north and south. The entire Korean court learned from the pain and decided to follow the example of the Ming Dynasty and carry out reforms.
For example, the Datong Law (that is, harvesting grain according to acres of land), which was implemented intermittently before, will be thoroughly implemented and the tribute law will be abolished.
In addition, war horses and firearms were introduced from the Ming Dynasty, and the Forbidden Army was rebuilt; merchants from the Gulf were authorized to trade with Ming merchants who came to the DPRK; in terms of calendar, the "Chongzhen Almanac" was learned from the Ming Dynasty to standardize the calendar; economically, the Ming Dynasty was allowed to make copper circles
, the circulation of silver coins promotes commercial development.
Politically, because of its trade with the Ming Dynasty, it followed the Ming Dynasty and established Shang Cao to collect business taxes; it also established vassal Cao to deal with Jurchen, Sauron and other tribes in Xianjing Road and Ping'an Road.
In addition, the Central Army's Inner Guards, serving as servants, the Habayashi Guards, and the Pyongyang Rebels were merged into the "Inner Three Halls", which became the Forbidden Army, totaling 20,000 people.
Thanks to these measures, North Korea actually showed many signs of revival, which was a rare phenomenon since the Imjin Japanese Rebellion.
In terms of trade, in order to monopolize trade, North Korea's Wan merchants and Song merchants placed the location of trade on Yeongjong Island as a reward for the King of Korea.
That is to say, Ming merchants who came and went were not allowed to enter the country without authorization, and could only trade with Wan merchants and Song merchants on Yeongjong Island.
Just like the Thirteenth Line of Guangzhou in the Manchu Qing Dynasty and Nagasaki in Japan, trade and founding of the country are two different things.
Yeongjongdo Island is located outside Incheon, very close to Seoul, convenient for collecting taxes, and the location is also excellent, close to the Han River.
When the first wave of Ming merchants arrived at Yeongjong Island, the entire North Korea was caught in a surprise.
With the prosperity of business and trade in the Ming and Dynasties, this made Tsushima Daimyo Yoshinari very keen on him.
Tsushima Island is located in the Japan-Korea Strait, only a hundred miles away from North Korea. It has always been responsible for trade with North Korea. It even has one servant and two masters, a daimyo in Japan and a general in North Korea.
Nowadays, the great Mingzong Yichen of Tsushima has seen clearly that trade with North Korea is so booming, and he also wants to get a piece of the pie.
Importing Tang items from North Korea (Japan has always referred to China as the Tang Dynasty) and then reselling them domestically, isn't this considered a transgression?
He could only write to Edo, reporting the situation in Korea and the war in Tang Dynasty.
Since North Korea and Japan are separated by a narrow strip of water, and the Korean Strait is too shallow, Japan has always regarded North Korea as its doorstep and is extremely concerned about it.
Therefore, this memorial came quickly to Edo Nakaou, the important ministers of the shogunate Yasuko Masayuki, the elder Sakai Tadakatsu, the elders Matsudaira Nobutsuna, and Abe Tadaki.
The third generation shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, was lying in bed at this time. He was only forty-seven years old, with sunken eye sockets, a pale face, and was riddled with diseases.
Obviously, this Japanese ruler who perfected the shogunate system, closed the country in seclusion, revised the "Samurai Laws", and suppressed Catholicism has reached the end of his life.
"Look!" Although his body was weak, Tokugawa Iemitsu's words weighed a thousand pounds.
"Yes!" Several people did not dare to delay and took turns reading.
As an important minister of the shogunate, it goes without saying that Tang Xue rested.
"What do you think?" Tokugawa Iemitsu asked softly while lying on the bed.
"This Jurchen rebellion will soon be over."
Baoke Zhengzhi was overjoyed and hurriedly held up his hands and said: "This is great news. Although the Jurchens swept the Tang Dynasty with their brute strength, they are still barbarians and cannot last long."
"Now it has retreated to Liaodong, but it can only survive and will not live for a few years. Once the time is right, the Tang State will definitely attack it."
"The Tang Dynasty deserves to be a celestial dynasty, and it will once again support the Li Dynasty."
Sakai Tadakatsu also agreed with this statement and said: "North Korea imitated the Tang Dynasty, and the results after some changes were unpredictable."
"Recently, Nagasaki has been talking too much, and there have been a lot more Tang merchants recently..."