Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 187: Delay until Zhu Hongwu dies, please ask your majesty to find the elixir of immortality [Please subscribe]

This report was sent back by a spy from the northern army of Goryeo. It did not contain much content and was very brief. Lin Jianwei took a few glances and finished reading it.

Then he widened his eyes and remained silent for a while.

Seeing this, Li Renren came over, took the report and looked at it as well.

His Qi cultivation skills were much better than Lin Jianwei's. Although he also glared, he said afterwards: "Nahach actually led nearly 200,000 people to surrender to the Ming Kingdom at Jinshan more than half a month ago!"

At this time, important officials such as Lian Xingbang and Cui Ying also circulated the report. After all the important officials had read it, someone thought of handing the report to Wang Yu.

Wang Yu was so angry that his nose was crooked, but he dared not say anything.

After reading the report, his attention immediately shifted. A look of horror crossed his face as he said, "Nahachi had hundreds of thousands of troops, yet he didn't dare to fight the Ming army in a decisive battle, but simply surrendered. How could the Ming army be so powerful?"

Li Renren was also puzzled, but his doubts were different. "I wonder if Nahachu's defeat was so swift that the Yuan court didn't send troops to contain the Ming army. It's really strange."

Although Wang Yu was young and timid, he was not stupid. After a moment's thought, he asked, "Now that Nahachu has surrendered to the Ming, I'm afraid the Yuan court will find it difficult to help us contain the Ming army. Moreover, without Nahachu's troops, the Ming army can cross the river and attack from the north."

"Under the circumstances, should we not resort to war with the Ming Empire over the Jeju Island issue?"

Li Renren and Lin Jianwei were both thinking, and it was obvious that they couldn't make up their minds for the time being.

Cui Ying, however, was a staunch advocate of war. He loudly declared, "Your Majesty, the Mongols are already on the decline, and their fighting power is far less than it was a hundred years ago. Otherwise, the Muhu people of Jeju Island would not have been so easily annihilated by Goryeo."

"If the Ming army could defeat the Yuan army, so could Goryeo. If the Ming army attacked across the border, they might not be a match for Goryeo. If we were to abandon Jeju easily out of fear of the Ming army, how could we be worthy of the late king?"

Cui Ying's words sounded reasonable at first glance.

But you know your own business.

A hundred years ago, the Mongols were newly established and their military was powerful, so they could easily beat them into submission; now the Ming Dynasty was also newly established and its military was also powerful, so it could probably beat them into tears.

Moreover, compared with China, Goryeo was a small country with a small population. It was even directly ruled by China during the Han and Tang dynasties. How easy would it be to defeat the Ming Dynasty, which had just become the orthodox dynasty of China?
The most important thing is that it is not worth it for them to completely break off relations with the Ming Dynasty just for a Jeju Island.

Thinking of this, Li Renren exchanged glances with Lin Jianwei, then said to Wang Yu, "Your Majesty, this matter is of great importance. Please allow us to deliberate for two days before making a decision."

Lin Jianwei followed up, "Now that the situation has changed, we should really think more about how to deal with the Jeju issue."

Since the two powerful officials who truly controlled the court had said so, Wang Yu naturally did not dare to raise any objections.

Besides, he also felt that what the two said made sense.

So the meeting was adjourned.

That afternoon, Li Renren met with his relative Lin Jianwei at a villa in Kaifeng City.

After they met, Lin Jianwei spoke first: "The Ming army was able to force Nahachu to surrender, I'm afraid their fighting power is much stronger than the Red Turban Army back then."

Li Renren recalled the scene when hundreds of thousands of Red Turban Army soldiers, accompanied by hundreds of thousands of Korean peasants, broke through Kaesong. A flash of fear crossed his face, and he nodded, "Zhu Hongwu also came from the Red Turban Army, but he was able to unify China. He is definitely stronger than those who broke through Kaesong back then."

Lin Jianwei: "Then give Jeju to Ming?"

Li Renren thought for a moment and said, "We can't just give it up like that. According to what the envoy said, Zhu Hongwu simply blamed our country for occupying Jeju without his consent."

"Regardless of his original intentions, we should first send envoys to the capital of the Ming Dynasty to test the waters and negotiate, and delay the matter as much as possible."

"I heard that Zhu Hongwu is already in his fifties. Since ancient times, there have been few Chinese emperors who have lived long lives. Li Shimin only lived to be fifty years old."

"If we can hold out for a few years, Zhu Hongwu might be dead. It would be best if there were civil unrest in the Ming Dynasty by then."

"Even if Ming hadn't been in turmoil over the succession, the new emperor would have prioritized securing the throne and enhancing his prestige, and wouldn't have easily gone to war with our country. That way, there would have been more room for maneuver in the Jeju issue."

After hearing this, Lin Jianwei suddenly felt that the Jeju issue was no longer so difficult. He smiled and praised, "My father-in-law is indeed a veteran of several dynasties. He has a wide range of knowledge. What he said just now is really enlightening."

Li Renren smiled proudly and said, "If we want to send an envoy to Ming to handle this matter, Zheng Mengzhou is the best choice. Tomorrow, you and I will ask the king to pardon this man."

"This is a simple matter, just a sentence or two." Lin Jianwei said with a relaxed look.

Li Renren took a sip of tea and continued, "If Zhu Hongwu insists on taking Jeju Island, making this matter impossible to resolve, we should simply give it to the Ming Dynasty first."

"Although Jeju Island is not small, it is now mostly inhabited by herders and island barbarians. Apart from raising good horses, it has no other products. There is nothing wrong with giving it to the Ming Kingdom."

"Besides, the Yuan Dynasty directly occupied Jeju Island back then, but when China was in chaos a few decades later, didn't our country have to take Jeju Island back?"

Lin Jianwei nodded after hearing this. "Now that my in-laws have said this, I feel more at ease."

Afterwards, the two drank some wine together and talked about some more private topics before leaving the villa one after another...
On June 18th of the 16th year of Hongwu, the Kingdom of Goryeo sent an envoy led by Zheng Mengzhou, carrying a number of tributes, to the capital of the Ming Dynasty to "apologize" for the Jeju incident.

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Capital.

Liu Kuan was handling official business in the office of the Science and Technology Bureau when he was summoned to Fengxian Hall by the eunuchs.

After entering the hall, he saw that both Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao were there, and both had happy expressions on their faces.

He immediately saluted, "Your Majesty, Your Highness the Crown Prince."

"Stand up," Zhu Yuanzhang said casually, then said, "Liu Kuan, guess what good news we received?"

Liu Kuan thought, how could I have guessed this?

He said, "Your Majesty, I am a foolish minister. I beg for your guidance." Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said, "The First Expeditionary Exploration Fleet has sent back a secret report that the accompanying prospecting team has indeed found a gold mine on Sado Island. While the scale is unknown, mining it should not be difficult."

Upon hearing that a gold mine had been found on Sado Island, Liu Kuan was delighted and immediately bowed and said, "Congratulations, Your Majesty!"

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "You have contributed greatly to this—if it weren't for you, who would have known there was a mountain of gold on this island? Tell me, what reward do you want this time?"

Liu Kuan no longer cared much about rewards, so he smiled and said, "Your Majesty, just give me some gold, silver, or banknotes as you see fit."

Today, the Ming Dynasty's treasure notes not only have gold, silver and copper as collateral, but the country's national strength is booming and the court's credibility is also good. Therefore, the treasure notes are becoming increasingly strong, and Liu Kuan does not mind holding more.

Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a moment and said, "The gold mine on that island hasn't been mined yet, so I'll give you 30,000 strings of banknotes as a token of my appreciation. When the first batch of gold mined from that island is brought back to Ming, I'll reward you even more generously."

Liu Kuan bowed again, "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

He then asked curiously, "Your Majesty, what is the situation on the island? As I said, the gold mines have not yet been discovered by Japan?"

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said, "Although Sado Island appears to be quite close to Japan's Oshima on the map, it is actually separated from Oshima by nearly a hundred miles of sea. Therefore, it was previously a place where Japanese prisoners were exiled."

"To this day, there is not even a village on the island, and Japan has never established a government office there."

"However, it's okay for our navy to stay on the island for a while. If we stay for too long, I'm afraid it will still arouse Japan's suspicion."

"We want to mine the gold on the island as quickly as possible, but we don't want Japan to become suspicious. Do you have a solution?"

Liu Kuan didn't expect that Zhu Yuanzhang would ask him for advice - this difficult problem obviously has nothing to do with future generations.

But he still thought about it.

After a few breaths, Liu Kuan came up with an idea and said, "Your Majesty, the exploratory fleet heading to North America must establish supply points and transit stations along the way. Once a safe route is discovered, the fleet will inevitably travel frequently, and I'm afraid that Japan will sooner or later become suspicious."

"Since that's the case, why not first reveal to Japan the 'secret' of the exploratory fleet? In the past, Emperor Qin Shi Huang sent Xu Fu out to sea in search of the elixir of immortality. Why not say that the exploratory fleet was also ordered to secretly search for the elixir of immortality?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was amused when he heard this. "Wouldn't that make me a tyrant and a fool in the eyes of the Japanese?"

Seeing that Old Zhu was not angry, Liu Kuan felt relieved and said, "Since the Ming Dynasty is planning to plot against Japan, wouldn't it be a good idea to let them misunderstand Your Majesty and let down their guard?"

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded first, then he could not help but point at Liu Kuan and said with a smile: "I didn't expect that guy, who looks honest, could come up with such a trick."

Liu Kuan said, "It's just a normal misleading tactic, how can it be called a trick? Your Majesty, your praise is truly unbelievable."

After two or three years of contact, Zhu Yuanzhang discovered that although Liu Kuan was not a strategist, he was from the future and had a wide range of knowledge. His perspective on problems was different from that of people at that time, and he had unique insights into many things.

Having discussed this point today, he said, "It will not be difficult for the Ming Dynasty to defeat the armies of Goryeo and Japan in the future, but we are undecided about how to govern them."

"Korea was deeply influenced by Confucianism, so that's not so difficult to deal with. But Japan has its own culture and a large population. Using Confucianism to educate the ethnic minorities in the southwest, as they did, would not only take a long time, but would also likely backfire."

"Do you have any good ideas about this matter?"

When Liu Kuan heard Lao Zhu ask this question, he became inexplicably excited.

He said, "Your Majesty, I don't have any opinion on this matter, but I was deeply impressed by a related post on the Internet in later generations."

"What is a post?"

"Well, a post is an article written by ordinary people in later generations to express their views on something on the Internet." Liu Kuan explained.

Lao Zhu nodded and then asked, "What did the post say?"

Liu Kuan said: "The title of the post is: If the Ming Dynasty embarked on the great voyages and conquered Korea and Japan, how would it govern them?"

"Oh?" Old Zhu piqued his interest. "Then what did the later generations' posts say?"

Liu Kuan wanted to tell Lao Zhu the content of the post as soon as he opened his mouth, but he calmed down before speaking and prepared to give Lao Zhu a heads-up first.

"Your Majesty, the person who wrote that post was just an ordinary netizen from later generations, and his thoughts may be slightly extreme. I am only repeating his words. If there is anything inappropriate, please do not blame me."

Old Zhu was at a loss for words. "Hey kid, when have we ever blamed you for your words? Stop keeping me in suspense and tell me."

Liu Kuan said, "The post said that in order to make Korea and Japan truly part of the Ming Dynasty and eliminate the worry of rebellion, it would be best if the main ethnic groups of the two countries disappeared."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Biao, who was originally listening with great interest, suddenly changed his expression.

Although the term "ethnic group" was not commonly used at the time, Zhu Biao and Liu Kuan had discussed so many things that they already knew its meaning. For example, the Han people were later called the Han ethnic group.

The main ethnic group of Goryeo should be those who have blood ties with Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje hundreds of years ago. It can be said that they account for more than 90% of the population of Goryeo.

The main ethnic group in Japan is the Japanese, which accounts for more than 90% of the country's population.

When Liu Kuan said he wanted to make the majority ethnic groups of these two countries disappear, he certainly wasn't suggesting slaughtering over 90% of their populations, was he?!
Zhu Yuanzhang, sitting on the dragon throne, narrowed his eyes and said, "Do you want us to start a massacre in both countries?"

Liu Kuan saw that Old Zhu had misunderstood, and quickly said, "Your Majesty has misunderstood."

　Second update.

　　Good night~
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(End of this chapter)