Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 635 The sky is falling and the earth is collapsing; an emergency is imminent.

"Thanks to His Majesty's divine might, everything went smoothly." Li Huaizhong cupped his hands in a timely gesture towards the southwest. "To be honest, we were originally prepared for a strong attack, but Pyongyang was completely undefended, and the city gates were not even closed, so we went straight into the city."

"No defenses?" Yuan Keli was quite surprised and subconsciously glanced at Liu Yingyuan. "We've been stationed in Anzhou for quite some time now; the Pyongyang side should have heard about it by now."

Before heading south to Korea, Yuan Keli had learned through various channels that Park Yeop, the governor of Pyongan Province, was a close relative of Park Seung-jong, the chief councilor. He believed that Park Yeop's sudden rise to the high position of governor was solely due to this nepotistic connection, which led to his being promoted by the king. Therefore, after entering Anju, Yuan Keli was constantly worried that Park Yeop would put up a fierce resistance, forcing Li Rubai's forces to launch a direct attack on Pyongyang.

Yuan Keli wasn't worried that Li Rubai's troops wouldn't be able to take Pyongyang. As far as he knew, Pyongyang and its surrounding areas had at most a little over ten thousand garrison troops. If they were concentrated in Pyongyang alone, they probably wouldn't even have five thousand, and even that number would mostly consist of the old and weak. Less than one in ten soldiers would be fit for battle.

Even though Li Rubai's troops were mostly inexperienced Beijing garrison soldiers, their superior firepower was more than enough to deal with them. As the saying goes, if they couldn't defeat the slaves, they could certainly defeat the Koreans.

Yuan Keli's concern stemmed from the sheer ugliness of a father and son turning against each other and resorting to violence. In his view, it was like a father chasing his rebellious son around in broad daylight with a thorny branch, whipping him until he ran wildly through the streets. Even if the whipping eventually caused the son to obey, it would still be an international laughingstock.

Hearing Li Huaizhong say that Pyongyang had opened its gates without bloodshed, Yuan Keli was overjoyed, but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel uneasy.

“Hmm,” Li Huaizhong thought for a moment. “According to them, the Supervisory Office has indeed received a note from Suchuan County, knowing about your trip to Anzhou, and has even begun preparations to welcome you. However, fearing that the slaves might be deceitful, they are still verifying the information.”

The Pyongan Provincial Supervisory Office, led by Park Yeop, was not unprepared, nor was it prepared to welcome Yuan Keli. They simply did not expect that Li Rubai would lead the Ming army from the south to provoke Pyongyang.

Two days after Li Rubai's and Yang Yingchun's forces separated at Wengjin, the fleet from Penglai, Shandong, finally arrived at its designated landing site—a place called Nanpu.

"Pu" means estuary. Therefore, the so-called Nampo is the estuary of the Taedong River, located south of Pyongyang. From here, one only needs to travel east along the river and then turn north to reach the south of Pyongyang. However, Li Rubai did not allow the army to cross the river because he did not have enough boatmen to provide the power for the fleet to sail upstream, and the Taedong River is extremely winding, making the journey almost twice as long as by land.

Upon arriving at Nampo, Li Rubai ordered his troops to land on the spot and rest for the night. The next day, he left behind some soldiers who were too seasick to continue and led more than 7,000 men on a rapid advance, reaching the south of Pyongyang in just one and a half days.

When Li Rubai led his troops to Pyongyang, the Pyongan Province Supervisory Office had already received an urgent report from Sukcheon County and had also seen the proclamation intended to depose the king.

In response, Park Yeop ordered the city's defense forces to blockade the Chilseong Gate, Putong Gate, and Janggyeong Gate in northern Pyongyang. At the same time, he also dispatched a force of one thousand men to garrison Moranbong, the nearest high point north of Pyongyang. The fortress on Moranbong was built twenty-eight years earlier when the Ming army recaptured Pyongyang, commissioned by Deputy Commander Cha Dasou and Guerrilla General Wu Weizhong.

After doing all this and sending an urgent report to Wang Jing, the civil and military officials in Pyongyang were caught up in endless arguments.

Before the proclamation deposing the king arrived, Park Yeop, as a close relative of Park Seung-jong and a confidant of the king, still wielded considerable influence. However, after the officials saw the proclamation, Park Yeop's authority plummeted. Many officials who had been ousted from the capital during the power struggle, as well as local gentry who harbored resentment towards the king, even openly called on everyone to go to Anju to welcome the king's guardian into the city.

At this point, fearing to escalate the conflict and even more so to be labeled as "stubborn and incorrigible" afterward, Park Yeop didn't even dare to order his last remaining confidants to suppress these clamoring voices.

Just as Park Yeop was beginning to succumb to the pressure and was preparing to send someone to Anju to contact Yuan Keli, Li Rubai's vanguard cavalry swept into the city through the Hanqiu Gate in the south.

Upon learning that the Ming army had entered the city, the civil and military officials in Pyongyang quickly reached a consensus. On the one hand, the officials sent people to lift the pointless guards at the three northern gates and Moranbong, and on the other hand, they "invited" Park Yeop to come forward and lead everyone to "welcome the royal army".

After the formal contact between the tributary states, the Korean officials naturally adopted a subservient and obsequious attitude. The previous deployment of defenses at the three northern gates was collectively "forgotten" by the officials. Instead, they adopted a polite way of saying they harbored doubts but were always ready to welcome the imperial envoy.

"Hehe." Yuan Keli chuckled lightly, then turned to Liu Yingyuan and said, "Liu Zuolang, it seems that Park Ye is not as stubborn as you thought."

"The Emperor's grace is boundless, and the Heavenly Army is mighty," Liu Yingyuan continued, offering a flattering remark. "Park Yeop is merely a lackey of the Prime Minister; it is only natural that he dares not confront the Heavenly Army."

Yuan Keli nodded with a pleased expression. Then he said to Li Huaizhong, "In that case, let's continue south tomorrow."

"Are we setting off south tomorrow?" Li Huaizhong asked.

"Is there a problem?" Yuan Keli asked with a smile.

"Is Yuan no longer handling cases?" Li Huaizhong asked with a smile.

"Judging cases," Yuan Keli said with a wry smile. "The Emperor sent me to Korea not to be a judge. I just didn't want to sit around and wait."

Li Huaizhong immediately clasped his hands in apology: "This humble general is late in welcoming Your Majesty, please forgive me, Supervisor Yuan!"

"Oh dear! That's not what I meant. You've arrived very quickly." Yuan Keli waved his hand and said casually, "Besides, is there any case in the world bigger than a king's treason?"

--------

dong dong dong!dong dong dong!
As dusk approached, Li Gui's door was suddenly struck by a rapid and frantic knocking.

"Who is it? Stop knocking! I heard you!" The doorman answered the door, his tone already somewhat angry.

"Oh! Eighth Master?" Upon opening the door and seeing that the visitor was Li Shu's cousin, Li Wu, the gatekeeper's anger immediately subsided by seventy percent. "Didn't you go to Changtuan with Second Master? Why did you suddenly return?"

"Lord Mozhai, is Lord Mozhai in?" Li Wu asked breathlessly. "It's urgent, take me to see Lord Mozhai immediately!"

"Oh dear," the doorman said with a troubled expression, "It's really unfortunate, the master has taken the eldest son to pay a visit to Prime Minister Park. Why don't you come in and rest for a while?"

"Minister Park?" Lee Oh turned to leave, but froze as soon as he touched the reins. Although his second brother, Lee Seo, had secured his position as the magistrate of Changtan Prefecture through connections with Park Seung-jong, Lee Oh hadn't forgotten how Lee Seo had roared at him, specifically demanding that he deliver the goods to Lee Gui. Hesitating, Lee Oh suddenly remembered something very unusual—a few days ago, when he left the capital, Prince Lingyang had personally come to see him off. That was someone who should never have appeared in such a setting!
Connecting the dots, a terrifying thought suddenly flashed through Li Wu's mind.

Cold sweat broke out and quickly soaked his undershirt.

"I see!" Li Wu suddenly turned around and grabbed the gatekeeper's hand. "Go to the Park residence right now and bring Lord Mozhai back!"

"How can this be!" The doorman shook his head repeatedly, trying to pull his hand back but unable to. "Master is going to pay his respects to Prime Minister Park, naturally he has important matters to discuss, how dare I, a lowly servant, disturb him!"

"Nothing is more important than what's in my arms!" Li Wu almost roared.

"What exactly happened?" The gatekeeper was startled by the anxious look on Li Wu's face.

"It's a cataclysmic event!" Li Wu had roughly confirmed this on his way back to the capital. Currently, he was probably the only person in the entire capital who had seen the guardianship manifesto. And this lowly gatekeeper in front of him was naturally not qualified to be the second.

"Eighth Master, you should go yourself." The gatekeeper seemed about to cry. "I am of lowly rank and have little influence. I might not be able to persuade the master to come back, and I might even get a beating. If that happens, it will interfere with your plans for that day when the earth collapses!"

"I can't go! I have to tell Lord Mok-jae what I'm about to tell even Prime Minister Park!" Lee Oh took the money pouch from his waist, didn't even open it, and stuffed it directly into the gatekeeper's hand. "Here, there's at least two taels of silver in there! It's a reward for you, hurry up and go!"

"Two, two taels!" As the saying goes, a generous reward will surely bring forth brave men. The moment the money bag was in his hands, the gatekeeper's eyes lit up.

"Stop standing there, hurry up and go!" Li Wu simply dragged the gatekeeper out the gate. "If you mess things up, a beating will be the least of your worries, you'll lose your head!"

"Alright, alright! I'll go right away!" The gatekeeper deftly stuffed the money bag into his pocket and started running.

"Wait!" Li Wu shouted.

"Is there anything else you need, Eighth Master?" the gatekeeper asked, turning his head.

"It's extremely urgent! Take my horse," Li Wu said, handing over the reins. "No matter the reason, you must bring Lord Mozhai back! And, under no circumstances can the Pu family know that I'm here to see Lord Mozhai!"

"Yes," the gatekeeper replied first, then chuckled awkwardly, "but I can't ride a horse either."

"Oh dear!" Li Wu exclaimed in surprise. "Then you'd better run faster!"

"Order!"

--------

Whether it was a genuine sense of urgency or the two taels of silver that gave him the motivation, the Li family gatekeeper arrived at Park Seung-jong's doorstep in less than a quarter of an hour.

The gatekeeper of the Li family didn't dare to knock on the door as fiercely as Li Wu; he simply grasped the doorknob and knocked lightly.

It's said that even a prime minister's servant is a seventh-rank official, and sure enough, the gatekeeper of the Park family came out with an arrogant and haughty demeanor. "Which family are you from?"

"I am a gatekeeper for the Li family. My lord, you have a taboo against using the word 'noble'." The Li family gatekeeper bowed respectfully to the Pu family gatekeeper, who was also a servant. "May I ask, sir, is my master currently at your residence?"

The gatekeeper from the Park family felt completely at ease being addressed as "Master" by the gatekeeper from the Li family. "He's always here. What can I do for you?"

"My young master has suddenly fallen ill and is vomiting incessantly." The Li family gatekeeper lied while also putting on an anxious and impatient demeanor. "I beg this gentleman to convey this to my master."

"Then you can wait here." The gatekeeper of the Park family, without suspecting anything, turned around and went back.

In the reception room of the three halls, Chief State Councilor Park Seung-jong was drinking and watching a dance with a group of supporters.

Logically, Li Gui, a recent recruit without an official position, should have been relegated to the back row. However, due to his recent merit in informing on others and the considerable sums of money he had secretly and openly given to Park Seung-jong, Li Gui was fortunate enough to be seated in the front row below Park Seung-jong. As for the seat next to Park Seung-jong, that was the reserved seat for the Imperial Brother-in-law, Yoo Hee-bum, who was not present today, so it remained empty.

Recently, Li Gui has been visiting the Park family whenever they have a banquet, but until today, he hasn't revealed his intention to remain as the garrison commander of Kaesong. At each Park residence, Li Gui drinks, flatters, and presents gifts. He also casually offers his opinions and inquires about various matters.

Yesterday, he heard that Park Seung-jong intended to have Lee Heung-rip fill the vacancy for Training General. This was a very subtle intention, as Lee Heung-rip and Lee Er-chan were both fifth-generation descendants of Prince Gwangwon, Lee Geuk-don, and his wife, Lady Park, was a close relative of Park Seung-jong. Lee Gwi couldn't help but admire the shrewdness of this move; promoting such a person was tantamount to extending goodwill to Lee Er-chan. Even if Lee Er-chan realized that Park Seung-jong wanted to remove him from the position of Training General, he probably wouldn't put up a fierce resistance.

Li Gui wasn't very familiar with Li Xingli. However, Li Gui felt that Li Xingli was someone worth trying to win over, although the connection was rather distant. Li Xingli had a son-in-law named Zhang Shen, and Zhang Shen had an older brother named Zhang Wei, who was a close friend of Li Shibai. These two, along with Cui Mingji and Zhao Yi, were the once-famous "Four Friends."

Li Gui has decided to send Li Shibai to cultivate a relationship with Zhang Wei. However, the biggest problem is that since Zhang Wei was dismissed from office in the 40th year of the Wanli Emperor's reign due to his involvement in the Jinling Jun case, he has been living in seclusion in Anshan under the pretext of caring for his mother. To secure the position of the Training Supervisor through this connection, they must first bring Zhang Wei back.

They planned to install Li Xingli on the throne, remove Li Erzhan, and then use Zhang Wei to cultivate a relationship with Li Xingli and persuade him to join the coup. Even if everything went smoothly, would they have enough time to accomplish all this before the king made up his mind to execute Generals Jiang and Jin? Li Tinggui's mission to defend himself against the accusations was already a done deal!
Just as Li Gui was raising his glass to drink and deep in thought, the gatekeeper of the Park family walked through the back door of the reception room to Park Seung-jong's side.

(End of this chapter)