Not long after Zhou Chong received the news about the chaos in North Korea, he received a personal letter from Zhengde, asking him whether the Ming Dynasty should assist North Korea. After all, North Korea is not only in domestic chaos, but also encountering attacks from the north and the south. Both the Japanese and the Jurchens have discovered

Because of the weakness of the Korean people, they are now desperately trying to eat more, and there is even a tendency to carve up North Korea. Now North Korea can no longer drive away the Jurchens and Japanese with its own strength.

After receiving Zhengde's letter, Zhou Chong was also very embarrassed. He had never thought about such a national event, but now with the change of status, he was not only the youngest governor of the Ming Dynasty, but also Zhengde's only younger brother.

To put it bluntly, if Zhengde dies suddenly, then he can only inherit the throne, so there are some things he must consider.

Regarding the current crisis in North Korea, Zhou Zhong was actually not surprised. He even created this situation with his own hands. However, the attacks by the Jurchens and the Japanese were somewhat unexpected, because in his plan, he just wanted to

North Korea has been in chaos for a longer period of time. By the way, he has used the Chamber of Commerce to support his own power in North Korea, which will make it easier for the Chamber of Commerce to trade with North Korea. If possible, he can even sit behind the scenes and control the political situation in North Korea.

It's just that Zhou Zhong's original plan was disrupted by the Jurchens and Japanese. He didn't expect that the Jurchens and Japanese would be so fierce, or that the Koreans would be so useless. They clearly had the upper hand in terms of military strength, and they were in their own country.

During the battle, they had a favorable geographical advantage, but in the end they were killed in a complete defeat, and even lost a vast territory. If Korea was really destroyed by the Jurchens and Japanese, then Zhou Zhong's original plan would have come to nothing.

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In addition, from the perspective of the Ming Dynasty, Korea is its own vassal country after all. Although the Koreans are a little greedy and shameless, they are very respectful to the Ming Dynasty. If Korea is destroyed by the Jurchens or Japanese, no matter who occupies the land of Korea in the future, then

It will definitely increase in strength, which is definitely a big threat to Liaodong and other places in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, instead of watching North Korea's demise, it is better to send troops to help them in the name of the suzerain country.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zhong, who was sitting in the study, lowered his head and looked at the map of North Korea in front of him again. This map was bought by Liu Tao from Jin Wenxian. The entire territory of North Korea was marked on it, with the mountains, rivers, and cities clearly marked.

Although this kind of map is a military secret of the Kingdom of Korea, as long as a sufficient price is given, Jin Wenxian can even help Zhou Zhong mark the distribution of North Korea's military strength on the map.

Based on the Korean occupation sent with Zhengde, Zhou Zhong carefully marked the areas occupied by the Japanese and Jurchens on the map. Then he looked at the map and thought hard. Now the Japanese and the Jurchens almost occupy one road in Korea each. It is a pity that this

Both groups are idiots and don't know how to run a good business. Instead, they burn, kill and loot in the occupied area, causing the local people to flee to death. There are not many people at all. I am afraid they have no intention of occupying there for a long time.

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"The Japanese are not something to be afraid of. The Zong family is just a small tycoon on Tsushima Island. They are not ranked at all in the Japanese country. Moreover, the reason for attacking North Korea this time is also very simple. North Korea's crackdown on smuggling has touched their interests, so

This time the Japanese attacked North Korea, in addition to venting their hatred, they also wanted to force North Korea to give up its crackdown on smuggling. However, the weakness of the North Koreans allowed the Japanese to see an opportunity, so they kept rushing forward, hoping to gain more benefits.

.”

Zhou Chong looked at the Japanese attack route in southern Korea, and then murmured to himself: "Although the Japanese attacked very fiercely, their strength is limited after all. It is estimated that occupying a single area is their limit. Now as long as there is an army that can

If they block their attack momentum, or if something happens within the Japanese, the Japanese will not only stop attacking, but they will probably retreat to Tsushima Island immediately. After all, North Korea is not the place they should stay."

After watching North Korea, Zhou Zhong's eyes turned to the Jurchens in the north. Now they have occupied most of the Ping'an East Road, and a small part of Xianjing Road. These savages not only kill people, but also show themselves when they see them.

They snatched back everything, including food, iron tools, etc., and even the clothes of the dead were stripped off and taken away. It is said that most of the Ping'an East Road has turned into white ground.

Zhou Zhong was actually very wary of these Jurchens. After all, he knew that the Ming Dynasty fell at the hands of the Jianzhou Jurchens. Although it was the savage Jurchens who invaded North Korea this time, in Zhou Zhong's view, they all

They are Jurchens, and with Zhou Zhong's character, he will never let any Jurchens have the possibility to increase their strength.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zhong used a pen to draw a circle around the area occupied by the Jurchens, and then began to write a reply to Zhengde. Korea must be assisted, just like the Wanli period decades later, when Korea was unified by the Japanese during the Warring States Period.

Invasion, although the Ming Dynasty was experiencing constant natural disasters in the country, it still sent troops to repel the Japanese invasion in order to prevent Korea from falling into the hands of others and lest a big enemy appear in the northeast, so now the Ming Dynasty cannot attack

Stand by and watch what happens in North Korea.

However, aid is aid. Zhou Chong didn't want the Ming Dynasty to be like Wanli or the later Celestial Dynasty, which spent a lot of effort to aid North Korea to defeat its powerful enemy, but then he retreated without asking for anything. This was really a loss.

So he wrote a few immature ideas in his reply to Zhengde, mainly how to spend the minimum amount of energy to achieve the purpose of aiding North Korea, and at the same time allow the power of the Ming Dynasty to enter North Korea in order to better control this small country.

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After Zhou Chong's letter was written, it was immediately handed over to Wu Shan, and then quickly sent to Beijing through the secret passage of Jinyiwei. When Zhengde received Zhou Chong's reply half a month later, there was still no quarrel in the court about whether to aid North Korea.

, for this reason, the North Korean ambassador has cried and begged in the court several times, only begging the Ming Dynasty to send troops quickly. If the quarrel continues like this, North Korea may be destroyed.

Zhengde originally had a good impression of North Korea. After all, North Korea was a very submissive younger brother in all aspects. However, the last time he saw Zhou Zhong, he learned from Zhou Chong that the North Koreans actually dared to traffic in people from the Ming Dynasty.

, and the current king of North Korea was not very friendly to the Ming Dynasty, which made Zhengde have a bad impression of North Korea, so he was not very concerned about aiding North Korea.

In the Leopard Room of the Forbidden City, Zhengde was lying on the bed crookedly. Two beautiful palace maids were kneeling below and were beating his legs. Now he was holding Zhou Chong's reply letter in his hand and looking at it with a smile on his face.

, when I saw something I was satisfied with, I couldn’t help but laugh twice.

Zhou Zhong provided Zhengde with several suggestions for aiding the Koreans. Among them, Zhou Zhong gave very simple suggestions to the Jurchen savages who only knew how to rob and kill, that is, do not send troops to fight them head-on. After all, Korea is not the Ming Dynasty, so there is no need.

Use the lives of Ming soldiers to help them, but Zhengde can order the Jianzhou Jurchens who are attached to the Ming Dynasty to attack the barbarian Jurchens. Of course, the Jianzhou Jurchens may not be able to do anything. After all, although these Jurchens appear to be attached to the Ming Dynasty, they are actually independent.

In the country, Ming's decrees did not have much effect on them, but it didn't matter, as long as Zhengde issued this order, it was just to perfunctory North Korea.

As long as the Jianzhou Jurchens make a gesture of attacking the wild Jurchens, then the Ming Dynasty will use the frontier troops from Jianzhou Guard and other places to make them also make a gesture of attacking the wild Jurchens. With the simple minds of the wild Jurchens, they will definitely be scared all night long.

Withdrawal, even if it is not a complete withdrawal, will definitely withdraw a considerable part of the military strength, and the remaining Jurchens can be resisted by North Korea.

As for the Japanese rebellion in the south, this was the focus of Zhou Chongxin's letter. He suggested that Zhengde send troops to the east of Korea because it faced the Japanese country across the sea and its geographical location was very important. If Ming merchants wanted to reach the Japanese country, there was one route.

You have to go there regularly, and the Iwami silver mine of Japan is not far from eastern Korea. After occupying it, you might be able to get access to the silver mines of Japan, and it will also be more convenient for Shuzhong to assist the Ashikaga clan.

After Zhou Zhongxin listed the reasons for occupying eastern Korea in the letter, he explained the method of assistance. This time he still suggested that Zhengde send the Sihai Navy to go. As long as the naval force occupied Tsushima Island,

By then, the Japanese who invaded North Korea would be like water without roots and would never be able to cause too much trouble. All that was left was for the North Koreans to send their own troops to exterminate them.

"Hahahaha~, what a plan to draw out the firepower!" Zhengde said with a smile after reading Zhou Zhong's reply, especially the method of dealing with the Japanese, which he admired very much, but he soon frowned and said to himself

Said, "It's just that if our Ming Dynasty occupied Tsushima Island, then the Japanese who invaded North Korea would have no way out. With the cruel character of the Japanese, I am afraid they would go crazy regardless of everything. There are nearly 50,000 Japanese. If they go crazy,

, I’m afraid North Korea will pay a huge price for this.”

At the end of the sentence, Zhengde closed his mouth and thought silently. He didn't know why his second brother was so hostile to the Koreans. He even tried to scheme against the Koreans when assisting the Koreans. According to Zhou Chongxin's previous article,

In the end, the Ming Dynasty did not have to pay any price at all for the aid plan. The main reason was North Korea's resistance to the Jurchens and the Japanese, and it might even pay a higher price. Is all this because of the Koreans' abduction and trafficking of people from the Ming Dynasty?

Zhengde couldn't understand why Zhou Zhong hated the Koreans so much, but this did not prevent Zhengde from adopting Zhou Zhong's suggestions. After all, it was very difficult for the Ming Dynasty to send troops, but Zhou Zhong's men
Chapter completed!