Chapter 174: Liaodong Incident

In the Liaodong Dusi in the early Ming Dynasty, there was a minority migrated from Tungus in the north. They claimed to be descendants of the Jurchens, but what was confusing was that the Jurchens had entered the Yellow River Basin for a hundred years, and had merged with the Han people and had long entered feudal society. However, this ethnic group that claimed to be descendants of the Jurchens still stayed at the end of the primitive society where blood and meat were eaten. Apart from occupying the ancestral homes of the Jurchens, it was impossible to see any similarities between them and the Jurchens.

However, the Wanyan family had nothing to praise the morals. Let's call them the Jurchens. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, fierce battles in the Central Plains were in full swing. The Goryeo took advantage of the Ming Dynasty's time to look east and marched northward to erode the land that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty. Many Jurchen tribes living in the Helan Prefecture of the Tumen River Basin were recruited by Goryeo and became Goryeo people, while another Jurchens were still independent or surrendered to the Ming Dynasty.

One night in May 25th year of Hongwu, the wind was blowing and the moon was dark, and the dark forest was silent. A clear light that was shot from the cracks of the clouds penetrated the top of the tree and shone down along the tree body. Suddenly, a clear land in the forest was shining, and suddenly a rippling water surface was shining. But in an instant, everything fell into a quiet and mysterious darkness. Outside a forest on the south bank of the lower reaches of the Tumen River, a low hill about dozens of feet high stretched out. The endless black pine forest stopped on the hills. To the south was a grassland that stretched for twenty or thirty miles. There was a primitive village under the hills, with dense tents as many as thousands of roofs.

This is one of the tribes of the Yun Gangkuo tribe of the Mount Jiashan Jurchens. They live by hunting and nomadic life. The Yun Gangkuo tribe defected to the Goryeo five years ago and also handed over the Jiashan area to Goryeo. Goryeo changed Jiashan to Jiazhou and appointed officials to formally include the land that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty in the Goryeo territory. However, after the Danluo Island incident last year, in order to exchange for Danluo Island, Goryeo withdrew its troops south of the Motianling Mountains in October last year. Soon winter came, and the road was blocked by ice and snow. This land temporarily became a land of nonchalantness. The Jurchens living here began to become active.

As the night became deeper and deeper, the last ray of moonlight was swallowed up by thick dark clouds. At this moment, a large group of black shadows appeared beside the forest on the hills. There were more and more black shadows, with thousands of people, some riding horses and some walking. They all held primitive bows and arrows in their hands, covered in animal skins, their foreheads were shaved, and a long braid was dragged behind them. They were fierce and a fierce cold light flashed in their eyes. This was a kind of coldness that could only be seen in the eyes of wild beasts. Thousands of tough people stared at the village a mile away with hatred.

These thousands of people are also Jurchens. They belong to the Uryanha tribe who lives north of the Tumen River. They took advantage of the night to cross the Tumen River by raft ten miles away to find the tribe in front of them for revenge. Just half a month ago, the Yungangkuo tribe attacked a village of the Uryanha tribe, killed all the men in the village, stole women, children and property. The Uryanha tribe, known for its ferocity, could not tolerate such bloody provocation. The leader of the Uryanha tribe, Aha, gathered thousands of people to take revenge.

Aha is not tall, but he has muscles like a leopard. He is naked, with an animal skin around his waist, and a spear in his hand. He is coldly staring at the village sleeping soundly under the hills. He has quickly counted it. This should be one of the three largest tribes of the Yungangkuo tribe, with more than 900 tents. According to one tent, five people should have more than 4,000 people.

"It's time for us to take revenge!" Aha whispered: "Kill all the men, steal the women and property, and set off!"

Nearly a thousand horses jumped out, and a sharp shout sounded from the hills, and murderous aura burst out like a flood that broke through the dam, rolling towards the village at the foot of the mountain...

In May of the 25th year of Hongwu, two Jurchen tribes living in the lower reaches of the Tumen River experienced bloody fires. They retaliated against each other and killed each other. The corpses were everywhere, and blood stained the Tumen River red. The news of the Jurchens fighting flew to the capital of Goryeo and opened Beijing as if they had grown wings.

Kaijing, the Goryeo Palace, Li Chenggui, the supreme ruler of the Goryeo Kingdom, was quietly listening to news from the north. Li Chenggui was about sixty years old this year. His long military career turned his skin into bronze. He had a pair of slender eyes on his flat, wide face, and his eyes always flashed with a cunning look like a businessman. He was indeed good at speculation. Just last year, he seized the opportunity of the empty troops in the capital of the Goryeo Zhao Dynasty, led his army back to the capital, and seized the Goryeo regime.

According to convention, he could not ascend the throne in one step, so he first established a young puppet. When he was full of confidence and prepared to establish a new dynasty and take Goryeo and replace it, an accident occurred in Danluo Island. He was occupied by a local navy from the Ming Dynasty, giving Li Chenggui a blow. He initially thought it was the Ming Dynasty's warning to him to launch a coup, and his heart was full of fear, but soon he realized that this was just the unauthorized act of the commander of Weihai Guard. Li Chenggui quickly evaluated the situation. Based on his understanding of the Ming Dynasty, he knew that Zhu Yuanzhang would not care about overseas territory, but the northern land was concerned. In order to quickly take back Danluo Island, he decided to temporarily withdraw to the south of the Motianling Mountains and "mainly sincerity" for the Ming Dynasty. Sure enough, the Ming Dynasty kept its promise in October last year, withdrew the garrison on Danluo Island, and brought Goryeo back to Danluo Island.

However, the Goryeo people used a trick on the northern land. They used the excuse that it would take time to compile the Goryeo Jurchen roster and asked the Ming officials to delay receiving the northern land by half a year. Since winter was approaching, the Ming Dynasty agreed to their request. In this way, the Goryeo people were given half a year. On the one hand, they mobilized supplies from the north, and on the other hand, they waited for it, creating opportunities to fight back to the Tumen River.

In Li Chenggui's view, withdrawing troops to the south of Motianling is just a tactical retreat. As long as the opportunity comes, they can cross Motianling again. Now that the opportunity has come, the excitement on Li Chenggui's face is no longer suppressed. This is an opportunity he has been waiting for for a long time. Whether this opportunity happened by chance or he deliberately created it, it is what he has longed for for half a year. He has sufficient reason. The Yun Gangkuo tribe is a local subject of the Goryeo people, while the Urya tribe is not a citizen of the Ming Dynasty. The Goryeo subjects were killed. They must protect their subjects. At most, the Ming Dynasty will apologize at the future and guarantee that they will not expand northward. As long as the Goryeo people bow down and give enough face to the Ming Dynasty, as long as the Mongols are still strong enemies of the Ming Dynasty, Li Chenggui believes that this matter will be left unresolved.

"Responsible for the King, this matter must be carefully considered, be careful to anger the Emperor of Ming Dynasty!" Pei Kelian, who was standing beside him, saw that the Regent had the intention of breaking the contract, so he was shocked and hurried forward to persuade Li Chenggui.

Li Chenggui smiled gloomyly and said, "Of course I know that it will anger the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, but compared to the land of thousands of miles of fertile land, offending the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is nothing. I know that the Ming Dynasty is actually unable to recover the land on both sides of the Douman River. Otherwise, the Jurchens have been independent for so many years, why didn't they take them as subjects of the Ming Dynasty? They just want face. When I restore the land in the north, I will apologize for guilt, pay tribute, and slowly repair the relationship. Over time, they will forget about this matter. For this fertile land of thousands of miles of fertile land, I will spend ten years to pretend to be my grandson. It is related to the interests of the country, so you don't have to persuade me anymore."

Pei Kelian still said worriedly: "But the credit of the king will never be gone."

"Bad credit!" Seeing that he was pedantic and difficult to persuade him, Li Chenggui shook his sleeves hard and ignored Pei Kelian. He quickly walked to the palace gate and ordered loudly: "Transfer my order, the northern army crossed Yibanling (i.e. Motianling) again and headed north to rescue our Jurchen people."

In mid-May of the 25th year of Hongwu, Li Chenggui took advantage of the opportunity of vendetta among the Jurchen tribes to protect the Goryeo Jurchens and ordered the army that had just retreated south for only half a year to go north again, causing the situation north of the Motianling, which had just calmed down, to fall into chaos again.

After the Goryeo army retreated south last year, many Han merchants who were foresighted came flocked to the villages. They opened markets next to the villages, using salt, sugar, tea and other daily necessities from the Ming Dynasty, or exchanged them for extremely cheap prices to local indigenous residents to purchase precious medicinal materials such as ginseng, tiger bones, deer antlers, as well as high-quality fur such as minks and tiger skins. From October last year to the present, there have been as many as a thousand Han merchants who have poured into this land, and their footprints are spread throughout every village in the deep mountains and old forests.

To the north of Motianling was originally the Shuangcheng General Administration of the Yuan Dynasty. Later, the Ming Dynasty planned to establish Tielingwei here, but due to insufficient preparation and obstruction of Goryeo, it was impossible to establish Tielingwei. Not far north of it, there is a small town called Anbiancheng. This is a relatively developed city. Materials from south to north gather here, inns, hotels, brothels, and gambling halls are all available here. Nearly 200 Han merchants gathered here, most of whom are medicinal materials merchants. Since the arrival in October last year, they have been preparing to purchase ginseng, bear gall and other medicinal materials here for a long time.

Not far from the south gate, there is an inn called Haiji Inn. It is opened by a Korean and is the largest and best-in-class in Anbian Town. There are nearly 100 Han merchants living in it. Not far from the inn is a free market. The Goryeo people, Jurchens and other indigenous peoples around will bring various medicinal materials here to sell. It is early summer, and there are many varieties of medicinal materials and good quality. The merchants are very busy every day and have a lot of harvest.

On the evening of that day, a medicinal material merchant in his thirties finished his business for a day. He came out of the inn and walked leisurely to the tavern across the street, preparing to have a few drinks. The businessman's surname is Sun. Perhaps everyone still remembers that at the beginning of last year, Li Wei asked his old housekeeper Li Fu to open a medicine shop called "Zhengrentang". At that time, there were six people. In addition to Li Fu and another old family member, there were two famous doctors rescued by Li Wei from the imperial prison, and Li Fu's

His daughter and son-in-law, his son-in-law, was the one who was preparing to go to drink. His full name was Sun Ji, who had a special liking for ginseng. He had always purchased ginseng in Liaodong and brought it to the capital to sell it. He made a lot of profits. The career of "Zhengrentang" developed very quickly. According to the plan, he opened a branch in Liaodong in September last year. Li Weizheng also admired Sun Ji's shrewdness and ability, so he made him the shopkeeper of the Liaodong store and gave him 30% of the part.

Sun Ji worked harder and became the shopkeeper. He usually sent his buddies to purchase medicinal materials. However, this time Sun Ji came to Goryeo in person and received Li Weizheng's secret order. The purchase of medicinal materials was a cover. His real task was to investigate the reality of the Goryeo army. He arrived in Anbian City in October last year and has only returned to Liaodong once during this period.

Sun Ji entered the tavern and saw a few businessmen from Liaodong at a glance. Several people were gathering together to drink. He walked up to him and bowed and smiled, "Everyone, let me squeeze a seat!"

Although everyone is usually a business rival, it is very risky to do business in Anbian after all. No matter whether it is delivered or delivered, you have to travel with each other. Therefore, everyone is very united. Everyone takes care of everyone who has difficulties. Sun Ji is righteous and smart and capable, and has a very popular relationship among businessmen. When several people saw him coming, they quickly gave him a seat, took out bowls, chopsticks, and filled him with a glass of wine.

Sun Ji thanked him. He picked up the wine glass and was about to drink it, but he found that everyone seemed to be worried. He asked with a smile: "What's wrong here? Why aren't you very happy?"

Several people sighed at the same time, and an elderly man said, "Brother Sun may not know yet. We just heard a news that the Goryeo is making a comeback again."

"When is this news, is it accurate?" Sun Ji asked hurriedly. This was his purpose in Goryeo, so how could he not care about it.

"We heard from the shopkeeper, alas! If the Goryeo army really comes, will we still allow business?"

Sun Ji drank all the wine, walked quickly to the counter, took out a ingot of five taels of silver and patted it in front of the shopkeeper, and asked in Gaoli's words: "Shopkeeper, is your news accurate? Tell me the source of the news, this ingot of silver is yours."

The shopkeeper glanced at the white silver and couldn't help but smile. He looked left and right, and then whispered to Sun Ji: "My relative is an official in the army. He sent someone to deliver a letter two days ago and said that the army is about to drive back. It is said that it is to quell the Jurchens' revenge. He asked me to quickly accumulate food and make a lot of money. We usually have a good relationship, so I will tell you the truth. I advise you to pack up your things and run away quickly! Otherwise, when the army comes, your business for half a year will be in vain."

"So that's how it is!" Sun Ji was still a little skeptical and did not see it with his own eyes. He didn't dare to pass the hearsay news to Li Weizheng. He bowed and smiled: "I just went back a month ago. Most of the goods were sent away, and I didn't have much money on him. Even if the army came, it would not suffer much loss. But I still have to thank you."

As soon as he finished speaking, a shout suddenly came from the street: "The army is here! The army is entering the city!"

There was a sudden chaos in the tavern, saying that Cao Cao was here, and everyone was not willing to pay the bill and rushed out. Now it was important to protect their lives and wealth. Sun Ji also threw the money to the shopkeeper and ran outward. The street was already in chaos and chaos, and everyone ran to their homes in panic. As soon as Sun Ji ran to the street, he was stunned. The position he was standing was only more than thirty steps away from the city gate. From the open city gate, he saw a cavalry rushing towards this side. The first cavalry had entered the city gate. The dust was flying behind him and the flags were waving, but he didn't know how many troops were coming.

Sun Ji slapped his forehead and rushed into the inn across the road like a flying one after another. The inn was even more chaotic. The medicinal merchants cleaned up the fine and fled. The sudden arrival of the Goryeo army caused all the merchants to panic. Even if the Goryeo people did not kill them, their property would definitely not be able to be saved. This was their efforts for several months!

"Brother Sun, run away quickly! Don't worry about your little things." A fellow Fengyang villager ran down the stairs in a panic and shouted to him.

"Brother Qiu, you go first! See you in Liaodong."

Sun Ji ran upstairs in three steps. He lived alone in a room on the third floor. He pushed open the door and then turned around and locked the door. He tried to calm himself down. He ran to the window and looked at it. He could see more clearly from the third floor. It was indeed the Goryeo army, with tens of thousands of infantrymen in the distance. The vanguard cavalry team had entered the city and controlled the two gates of the north and south. No one was allowed to leave the city. Many merchants who ran to the street with their bags could not leave the city, so they turned around and ran back to the inn.

Seeing that the situation was urgent, Sun Ji immediately unfolded a thin veil on the table and wrote a sentence with a thin pen: "The Goryeo army crossed the Motianling Mountains, and used the excuse to calm the Jurchen civil strife and then drove back again. On May 20,000 people drove back to Anbian City."

He wrote twice in one breath, and when the ink was dry, he picked up scissors, trembled his hands, cut the veil into two thin pieces, and quickly rolled them into small strips and stuffed them into two pigeon tubes. At this time, the army had already entered the inn, and they could be heard shouting loudly on the first floor, ordering all merchants to concentrate outside, and there were boots going upstairs and kicking the door.

Sun Ji took a deep breath and carried a cage from the terrace outside the side window. Inside the cage were two carrier pigeons. These two carrier pigeons were excellent varieties he carefully selected and could fly thousands of miles. He had conducted two experiments and could accurately return to the pharmacy shop in Liaodong. His wife would pass his letter to the Peking store again, and then the Beiping store sent the letter back to his hometown in Linhuai County. They had conducted several experiments over the past few months, and all of them were successful.

At this time, the sound of the soldiers kicking the door had reached the second floor, and roars and beatings came from time to time. Sun Ji was so nervous that he was so angry that he was so angry that he tied the tube to the pigeon's legs. He tied one of the tubes several times but it was not tied up. The pigeon was still pecking his hand. At this time, the footsteps had already reached the third floor, and someone outside was shouting fiercely: "Everyone is concentrated on the street, and those who violate the order will be killed without mercy!"

With a loud bang, the door next door had been kicked open. At this moment, Sun Ji tied up the letter tube. He rushed to the side window and opened the cover. The two pigeons hesitated for a moment, but did not fly out.

The door slammed and shook violently, but it was not kicked open. At this critical moment, Sun Ji was anxious and threw the pigeon cage out with a swing. The door was kicked open, and five or six soldiers rushed in. Sun Ji turned around and raised his hands. Several soldiers quickly searched the room and pulled out his box from under the bed. They opened it and looked at him. Seeing that the money was there, one of them pointed at him with a knife and shouted fiercely: "Go out and concentrate immediately! I'll kill you one step later."
Chapter completed!