Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 244 At this moment, both sides were terrified!
"We've ended up in North Korea?!" The fleet commanders looked at each other in bewilderment. "We didn't bring any North Korean nautical charts. What do we do next?!"

"Korea is to the east of our Great Ming. If we go west, we can return to the Great Ming!" General Huang said, his strength gradually returning.

The group stared at him silently. If they remembered correctly, it was he who had suggested they head northwest, and then they had mysteriously ended up in Korea! But it wasn't too far off; at least they hadn't ended up in Japan.

The fleet lowered its sails and slowly advanced along the coastline, searching for a suitable anchorage. Upon reconnaissance, the soldiers discovered that there were only a few small fishing harbors in the vicinity.

Located at the mouth of a river, the area experiences heavy siltation and shallow waters along the coast, making it impossible for the pointed-bottom ships of this ocean-going fleet to dock.

Moreover, based on experience, such sea areas are usually full of reefs, and rashly passing through them could easily lead to a grounding accident.

The best course of action now would be to find some local Koreans familiar with the seas to guide us, but Korea has now been annexed by the Jurchens. Would these people still be willing to help us?

"Pah! These Korean women are shameless!" exclaimed a ship captain from the Dongfan Navy, but he watched with great interest through his binoculars.

The first mate, knowing his captain's temperament, shamelessly approached and snatched the captain's binoculars, determined to feast his eyes as well. He barely glanced at it before his nostrils flared with rage. They had sailed all the way from Southeast Asia to Korea, not having disembarked for months.

When he was a pirate, he would secretly slip a woman or two onto his ship. Now that he has been granted amnesty, he has some self-respect and it's no longer convenient for him to do that.

They were observing a group of North Korean fishermen. The men were nowhere to be found, leaving only a group of women fishing in the sea. These female fisherwomen wore only a loincloth around their waists, tied to a small fishing boat with a rope around their waists. They would take a wooden bucket or fish basket and go into the sea, but they didn't catch anything large, just some seashells and the like.

The weather was very cold, and the seawater wasn't much warmer either. I really don't know how they survived in such weather.

The first mate lowered his binoculars, his eyes practically glowing with excitement, and exclaimed, "Boss, let me lead the team ashore and explore!"

"What do you want? Do you want to die? You know Zheng Cai's temper. He won't care if you spend money, but if you try to rob him, he might just shoot you!"

"That's true!" The first mate, sweating slightly, muttered with some resentment, "We used to be so carefree, robbing whomever we wanted. Why did we have to accept the imperial amnesty? The court doesn't pay us, and we're just transporting grain and timber every day. Our martial arts skills have gotten rusty!"

"If you're so capable, then learn from Liu Xiang and start your own business! If you can't, then shut up. This is a decision made by the higher-ups; it's not your place to criticize!" the boat owner said with a hint of self-deprecation.

The first mate, upon hearing this, felt embarrassed. Don't be fooled by the vastness of the sea; every part of it is owned. None of the maritime bosses are easy to mess with. You can't win in a fight, and hiding isn't easy either. The shipping lanes are mostly shared, and you're bound to bump into each other eventually. And once a traitor is caught, their fate is extremely tragic—the examples of Yang Liu and Yang Qi serve as stark warnings.

Their discontent stemmed more from a sense of injustice. Previously, their monthly pay was far greater than that of the government troops. When they first received the imperial pardon, they encountered the government navy and saw that some of them were even starving. At that time, they felt incredibly superior!
But gradually, the treatment of the government troops and the navy improved, and their pay and rations were rarely withheld or delayed, while they themselves encountered problems.

After laundering his money and going ashore, Zheng Zhilong no longer needed to directly confront the imperial court. He could still maintain normal supplies for his core combat troops, but he was less concerned about those who specialized in trading and transporting goods.

Of course, this may not necessarily be Zheng Zhilong's own intention, but rather a result of internal corruption and factional infighting.

Although Zheng Cai shares the surname Zheng, he is not a blood relative of Zheng Zhilong, which makes him somewhat out of place within the Zheng Group.

It's unreasonable to expect people to make money while being unwilling to share any of it. Everyone would have complaints. To resist the boss's exploitation and retaliate against Zheng Zhilong for withholding military pay, smuggling began to become popular in the fleet.

Zheng Cai was fully aware of this, but as long as it wasn't done too excessively, he let it go.

In fact, the size of Zheng Cai's grain transport team had been expanded several times, but its transport capacity had not increased significantly.

Zheng Cai stood on the flagship's deck, also observing the situation along the coast.

The fleet of seven hundred ships from four provinces consisted of medium to large-sized ocean-going vessels, stretching across a sea area of ​​less than ten miles, with no end in sight.

The arrival of such a large fleet was naturally not ignored by the Korean people along the coast.

Jiang Zhunu emerged from the sea, trying to dry herself off, shivering uncontrollably.

Her ears, hands, and feet had long been frostbitten and cracked; many of her companions had frozen to death that winter.

Before the Jurchens came, they needed to go to sea to shuck clams and harvest sea cucumbers; after the Jurchens came, they still needed to pay tribute to the local nobles with sufficient seafood. The difference was that the men in their family were captured by the Jurchens, and her sister was also captured and never returned; only she hid under the stove and was not captured.

He escaped the Jurchens, but not the local corvée labor. He still had to pay taxes as usual, and even more than in previous years, because in addition to the expenses of the local officials, he also had to pay tribute to the Eight Banners officials.

Jiang Zhunu finally recovered. She huddled at the stern of the dilapidated fishing boat, staring blankly at the giant sea monsters that were slowly passing by. She felt a little scared, but also a little expectant.

Amin was not bad at fighting, but his ability to govern was extremely poor. He governed Korea very haphazardly. In order to save trouble, he continued to use the local Korean nobles, which seemed to suit the wishes of these Korean aristocratic families.

However, when Amin used the Yangban nobles, he did not guarantee their personal safety. He allowed his men to plunder indiscriminately, including nobles, commoners, slaves, and the lowest classes of Korea.

He also needs to pay taxes to the Jin Dynasty and recruit 100,000 able-bodied men. Without bondservants, there will be no one to cultivate the land in Liaodong, and without food, good warhorses cannot be raised.

The men were captured and enslaved, while the women were naturally distributed among the soldiers for their own enjoyment. Isn't that what war is all about?

They were soundly defeated inside the Great Wall, losing most of their loot, and were far from satisfied. It was much better in Korea; the North Korean army crumbled at the first sign of trouble, and taking Korea was a piece of cake.

If the King of Joseon had remained steadfast in the capital like the young emperor of the Ming Dynasty, it might have been quite difficult for them to capture Seoul. But King Injo ran away, abandoning the people of the capital.

The monarch is like this, and the soldiers under his command are much the same. They all run away before the main army even arrives, and then rely on these temporarily conscripted civilians to fight the enemy.

But these ordinary people were just not well-educated, not stupid. Most of the land in Korea had been distributed by the king to the Yangban nobles. How could there be serfs who would fight to the death to protect their masters?
Therefore, as the Jurchens advanced, the Korean defenders either surrendered or fled. Even if there was sporadic resistance, they barely had time to react when the army swept through.

In fact, the Yangban nobles did not want to surrender. Culturally, they identified more with the Ming Dynasty and considered the Jurchens to be barbarians. From the perspective of interests, they shared the rule of the country with the royal family, and could even depose the king and install a new one when they were unhappy. The power and wealth of the entire country were in their hands.

The Ming Dynasty doesn't interfere in their internal affairs; as long as they maintain a nominal allegiance, that's enough. The Jurchens simply don't have any leverage to win them over.

However, the Jurchens had no intention of winning them over. They had tried before, but that was when the Dongjiang Town still held power. Now, the Jurchens were simply conquerors, oppressing all Koreans equally.

At first, Korea surrendered without resistance and its main defense against the Jurchens was set up in Uiju and Sokju in the north.

The Jurchens massacred several cities in the north. When the news reached the south, the Koreans were terrified of the Jurchens. They feared that their resistance would invite a massacre by the Jurchens, even though the Jurchens would indeed do so.

North Korea did try; they built the Great Wall and fortresses in the north, constructing a thousand-mile-long defense line, but they couldn't hold out for even a month.

If they couldn't win, they would submit. First, they would establish a brotherly relationship, and then completely acknowledge the ruler. They would bribe the Jurchen chieftain and give the Jurchen whatever they wanted, using the resources of their country to please the Jurchens.

They were even willing to let their own people freeze and starve to death, but what did it matter? The enemy's stomachs could never be filled.

They repeatedly pleaded for support from their suzerain state, just as they had during the Wanli era, hoping it would become their savior. But this time, they did not receive timely support from the Ming Dynasty, and Korea was annexed.

Efforts are futile; no glimmer of hope can be found. This is the tragedy of small countries, a bloody reality under the law of the jungle in chaotic times.

Jiang Zhunu was young, and her understanding of the Ming Dynasty soldiers only existed in the vague narrations of her elders. However, that war was not that long ago, and the older generation recognized the character "Ming" on the naval flag.

After the initial bewilderment, suppressed gasps of surprise began to escape people's throats. They ran back to their villages to spread the news, and small boats on the sea began to cautiously approach the massive fleet.

Zheng Cai ordered them to be accepted and had a rope ladder lowered, but embarrassingly, the two sides could not understand each other's languages!
They only had translators for Japanese, Western countries, and Southeast Asian countries. Zheng Zhilong did not operate the Korean route, and the Fujian, Zhejiang, and Guangdong navies had even less of this capability.

Their primary mission was coastal defense, not trade, and they didn't undertake any expeditions, so there were no interpreters in their ranks. The Dengzhou-Laizhou navy, on the other hand, did have interpreters who understood Korean, but unfortunately, they weren't there.

Just as the group was having a headache, they discovered that Jurchen cavalry had appeared on the shore.

The slave cavalry charged in with a roar, and the Korean people scattered in panic, resulting in many falling into the sea.

Zheng Cai didn't have time to ask questions. He was nervously watching the movements of the Jurchens on the shore and ordered the gunners to take their positions and prepare for battle. At this moment, both sides were terrified!
(End of this chapter)