There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 405 Taking Jeju Island

Jeju Island.

Jeju Island was not originally called Jeju Island, but Tamna Island. Tamna means "island country" in the local language of the Korean Peninsula.

Around the fourth century of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Tamna became a vassal state of Baekje on the Korean Peninsula, but did not pay tribute, and the two sides almost went to war.

Afterwards, Baekje was destroyed, and Tamna simultaneously submitted to both Silla and Tang Dynasty. Silla conferred the title of Star Lord upon the King of Tamna, while Tang Dynasty conferred the title of Deputy Commander of the Imperial Guard upon the King of Tamna.

This Tamna Kingdom is extremely shameless; they even tried to hitch a ride on the ship of the Japanese envoy to Tang China to become a vassal state of Japan and demand benefits.

However, Japan may have known something about the situation, which is why it ultimately expelled the tribute mission led by Prince Tamna.

More than three hundred years later, the Goryeo Dynasty unified the Korean Peninsula, and the Kingdom of Tamna once again changed its allegiance to the Goryeo Dynasty. The Goryeo Dynasty continued the Silla system of bestowing the title of Star Lord and continued to bestow the title of Star Lord upon the King of Tamna.

More than two hundred years later, the Mongols swept across East Asia and formally incorporated Tamna into the Chinese territory, unlike Korea, which was a nominal province established for wartime purposes.

The Mongols established the Tamna Military and Civilian Prefecture, which was a genuine relocation of Mongols to the island. They were responsible for raising horses and herding livestock, building an elite cavalry force to stabilize Liaoyang Province, and preparing for an expedition to Japan.

Until the end of the Goryeo Dynasty, the Goryeo king took advantage of the chaos at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and tricked Tamna Island into giving him tribute of horses.

After the fall of the Goryeo Dynasty, in the fourth year of the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty, Joseon abolished the Star Lord system on Tamna Island and established the Jeju Mushi (Governor of Jeju Island) on the island, who held power over military and political affairs, civil affairs, horse breeding, and coastal defense.

Those who have served as governors of Jeju Island are almost certainly surnamed Lee and are members of the Joseon royal family.

Only a few people who did not have the surname Lee were all important officials related to the Joseon royal family by marriage, the kind who were very close to the royal family.

Jeju Island was indeed very important to Joseon. It was not only an important grazing ground for tribute horses (horses given to the Joseon king), but also a place where nobles and ministers were exiled during the political struggles and factional conflicts of past dynasties. Even a Joseon king was exiled there.

The current governor of Jeju, Lee Eun-hoo, only took office last year. Although he is surnamed Lee and belongs to the royal family, he is a person of Queen Dowager Kim.

"Keep playing music, keep dancing!"

During the daytime, Li Yinhou was drinking, watching dances, and having fun in the Guande Pavilion.

There was no way around it; Jeju Island was important, but it was also incredibly poor. There was practically nothing on the island; it was full of exiled political prisoners who had nothing to do except drink and have fun every day.

"Report!"

"It's terrible, Your Excellency! There are so many ships coming from outside the island... so many big ships!"

A soldier rushed in to report, and in his haste, he even lost a shoe.

Lee Eun-hoo was clearly drunk. When he heard the soldier's urgent report, he didn't understand what was going on at all. He just mumbled incoherently, "If a ship comes, send it to Ganghwa Island and Tsushima Island. Jeju Island doesn't accept merchant ships from outside."

The soldiers were dumbfounded. He hadn't even mentioned it was a merchant ship. If a merchant ship had arrived, what was the point of him reporting it?

The soldier wanted to say more: "Your Excellency, Governor..."

"You understand? Then get lost!"

Li Yinhou shouted angrily, but his view of the pregnant woman was blocked by his soldiers.

The history of Korea is quite counterintuitive. I had the impression that ancient Korea was a very conservative country that imitated China in everything. But in fact, before the modernization, Korean women often exposed their pregnancies (from the late Qing Dynasty book "Travels to the East").

There is a traditional Korean women's garment called "Chokgori". During the mid-Ming Dynasty, the top of this garment was 65 centimeters long and could cover the waist.

However, every hundred years thereafter, this type of women's clothing would shorten by 10 centimeters, until during the First Sino-Japanese War, the Korean cheongsam was only 8 centimeters long, which was basically equivalent to completely revealing maternity clothing.

This situation is speculated to be due to the rampant prostitution industry in North Korea, and the fact that North Korean nobles generally enjoyed visiting prostitutes.

Since that's the case, and North Korean men like it, then North Korean women, whose status is practically nonexistent, naturally have no choice but to follow suit.

What Li Yinhou was enjoying in broad daylight at Guande Pavilion was this pregnant woman dance. The swaying of the pregnant woman made him dizzy, and it was more than just a case of being drunk and not thinking clearly.

The governor of Jeju Island indulged in pleasure on the island, while the few North Korean warships outside, or more accurately, coastal gunboats, remained holed up in the harbor, too afraid to venture out.

Bullying the weak and fearing the strong is a skill passed down through generations of North Koreans.

In the 40th year of the Wanli Emperor's reign in the Ming Dynasty, a trading fleet composed of merchants from both the Ming and Annam (Vietnam) was preparing to return to Japan with a Ryukyu prince as a tribute mission, while also seeking aid from the Ming Dynasty (as the Satsuma Domain had captured Ryukyu in the 37th year of the Wanli Emperor's reign). However, the fleet encountered a storm and was stranded on Jeju Island. The fleet suffered heavy losses, but carried a large amount of gold and silver. The Jeju governor, Yi Ki-bin, harbored malicious intentions and massacred the Ming and Annam merchants and the Ryukyu prince, falsely claiming that he had wiped out a group of Japanese pirates.

After King Injong of Joseon returned to power and exiled Prince Gwanghae to Jeju Island, this matter was almost reported to the Ming Emperor as an international issue, but was dissuaded by the Chief State Councillor, Yi Won-ik.

We have to try to dissuade them!

If the Ming emperor were to find out about this, it's unlikely he would send troops to punish Korea, but it's certain he wouldn't grant Emperor Renzong a title.

"Boom boom boom!"

Since the North Korean gunboats were hiding in the harbor and dared not come out, then the Han warships were sent to escort them.

All ten Han warships launched their cannons and bombarded the Korean gunboats on Jeju Island.

These North Korean gunboats were all fragile wooden plank boats; cannonballs from the Han army would leave a dent when they hit them.

After two rounds of shelling, the North Korean sailors abandoned their ships and fled.

Several North Korean gunboats were simply moored in the harbor, but the Han fleet didn't even glance at them before heading straight to the nearby dock to dock and disembark.

North Korean ships are terrible; they're all coastal vessels. Forget about sailing back to Jiangsu, they risk sinking halfway even if they reach nearby Shandong. They're not even worth considering by the merchants who own armed merchant ships.

Wu Liehu directed his soldiers to land in sequence. The first to land were the vanguard battalion of the Han army, followed by the "Manchu Nu'er Army" led by Fu Zhina. Their forces were relatively small, numbering only about five hundred.

Wu Liehu was the last to land. As soon as he stepped onto the port's soil, Fu Zhina greeted him like a lackey: "General, we have now landed on Jeju Island. Should this servant immediately lead the Nur army to capture the Koreans on this island?"

Snapped!
A slap landed.

Fu Zhi didn't even dare to talk back, and immediately knelt down on the ground, only to be kicked over by Wu Liehu.

Wu Liehu angrily rebuked, "You are the Slave Army, not the Slave Army. Who gave you permission to call yourselves slaves? Furthermore, I am the commander of the First Cavalry Army of Tamna appointed by His Majesty, not your dog Tartar's master. Who gave you permission to kneel down at will?"

Snapped!Snapped!Snapped!
Fu Zhina immediately stood up, bent over, and began slapping his own face repeatedly, saying with great effort, "This servant... no, this subordinate deserves to die, this subordinate deserves to die! This subordinate was mistaken, please forgive me, General Wu!"

Wu Liehu waved his hand to stop, his face swollen like a pig's head from being slapped.

If it were someone else, it might not have been as threatening to Fu Zhi Na, but Wu Liehu captured Fu Zhi Na alive.

In modern terms, this is a case of losing on the battlefield and being captured, resulting in PTSD and an overwhelming psychological fear of Wu Liehu.

Wu Liehu's troops landed on Jeju Island and fired two rounds of artillery fire at the port, finally alerting the already dazed Li Yinhou.

With his sleepy eyes wide open, he grabbed a man at random and asked, "Where did that cannon fire come from? Are the port soldiers firing randomly again? These cannonballs cost money. Tell their commander to come see me immediately."

However, the woman captured by Li Yinhou was a dancer who knew nothing but how to expose her pregnancy.

Fortunately, soldiers soon ran in and shouted to Lee Eun-hoo, "Your Excellency, those fleets did not listen to us and left Jeju Island. They opened fire on our navy and have now landed on the island."

Good heavens, the soldier's clear and concise urgent report instantly sobered Li Yinhou up.

"What? Could it be that Queen Dowager Kim has lost power?"

Li Yinhou was initially shocked, then he flung aside the dancer beside him and ran away as fast as he could.

Jeju Island's only coastal defense force consisted of a few coastal gunboats that could barely be considered a navy. If those were destroyed, what else could they do but run away?

Seeing that the shepherd had run away, the dancers, soldiers, and officials below were all dumbfounded, and then they all fled desperately.

In an instant, the banquet at Guande Pavilion organized by Li Yinhou turned into a race among the officials, soldiers, and dancers of Jeju.

Everyone was running away, and while they were running away, they were also looting valuables everywhere. To this day, no one knows where the army that landed at the port came from or what their origins are.
Even the soldiers who sent the two reports were unaware of the situation; all they knew was that Jeju Island's only port for foreign trade had fallen and the ships had been destroyed.

Jeju Port is connected to Jeju Mokseong, so all the officials and soldiers who fled, including Lee Eun-hoo, the governor of Jeju, dared not stay in Mokseong and fled to Daejeong and Jeongui counties further south.

While the Han army was still reorganizing its troops at the port, the resistance forces in Museong, Jeju, had basically all fled.

(End of this chapter)