Di Ming

Chapter 382 "Kangxi, who is listening to the zither outside the door?"

In just over half a month, the Ming army annihilated the Japanese vanguard, achieving a major victory at Yizhou, and the tide of the war had been turned. The Ming army finally shifted from passive defense to counter-offensive, and began to seize the strategic initiative.

The Ming army, the Goryeo royal court, and the people of Uiju all breathed a sigh of relief.

With the smoke of battle temporarily dissipating in the Uiju battlefield and the military pressure decreasing sharply, Zhu Yin was able to focus on the lives of the Goryeo people.

The most important thing can be summed up in four words: "By imperial decree, we provide relief!"
This was also the responsibility of the Goryeo Military Governor, who was in charge not only of Goryeo's military affairs but also of its civil administration. He was essentially the retired emperor of Goryeo.

As luck would have it, before Zhu Yin even began to handle this matter, King Goryeo (Yi Yeon) and Chief Eunuch Ryu Seong-ryong arrived, having caught wind of the situation.

The aroma of tea filled the reception room of the shogunate. Zhu Yin had long since removed his armor and changed into a Taoist robe favored by scholars of the Ming Dynasty. He wore a carefree turban and looked like a hermit, detached from worldly affairs, with all official airs gone.

Zhu Yin brewed tea, burned incense, and played the zither piece "Orchid in the Valley," enjoying a rare moment of leisure and tranquility.

The Goryeo king and his ministers were sensible enough not to immediately enter and disturb him, but instead waited patiently at the door until Zhu Yin finished playing his piece.

Originally, Emperor Yi Yeon and his ministers looked down on Zhu Yin and even harbored resentment towards the Ming court, thinking that the Ming Dynasty had actually sent a young strategist who was barely out of hair, which was a joke of military affairs.

They didn't think that achieving the highest honors in the imperial examinations or being a child prodigy was anything special. Couldn't that just be boasting by people of the Ming Dynasty? Maybe it was obtained through cheating in the examinations. As for things like being a reincarnation of a star deity or having innate intelligence, they were even more dismissive, believing it to be nothing more than mystification and hearsay.

However, this young strategist turned out to be quite capable, far more experienced and shrewd than Hao Jie and the others.

This man was good at recognizing and employing people, strategizing, and using troops like a god. He won one battle after another, turning the tide of the war in one fell swoop. In less than 20 days, he annihilated 70,000 Japanese pirates and captured the notorious Shimazu Yoshihiro, Kato Kiyomasa, and Kobayakawa Takakage, making him a force to be reckoned with in the East!
At this moment, how could Emperor Yeon and his ministers dare to show the slightest contempt for Zhu Yin? Facing the sixteen-year-old Zhu Yin, they had become trembling with fear, as if walking on thin ice. Every time they saw Zhu Yin, they felt an indescribable pressure.

At this moment, they listened to Zhu Yin's zither music, but were somewhat puzzled. This was clearly "Orchid in the Valley," a piece often used to express the melancholy of unfulfilled ambitions. Yet Zhu Yin had achieved great success at a young age, renowned throughout the land, truly a man of great ambition and meteoric rise. Why then did he still feel melancholy?

After Zhu Yin finished playing, the lingering notes echoed softly, like a room filled with fragrance or a gentle breeze. He paused, his fingers stilling, and asked in a melodious voice, "Kangxi, who is listening to the music outside?"

Kangxi reported: "Your Majesty, the people listening to the music outside the door are His Highness the King of Goryeo and Minister Yoo of Goryeo. They have something to discuss with Your Majesty."

"Oh?" Zhu Yin's expression was amused, a casual yet cold smile on his face. "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

Kangxi said respectfully, "It's nothing serious. I wouldn't dare disturb Your Majesty's playing of the zither. It's rare for Your Majesty to have a moment of peace."

Zhu Yin stood up and personally went out to greet the King and his ministers of Goryeo. As soon as he stepped out, his smile became much warmer.

"Your Highness is the ruler of Goryeo, with a rank equivalent to a prince. How can you wait here?" Zhu Yin said with a look of shame, cupping his hands in apology. "If Your Highness has business to attend to, please come inside."

Yi Yeon hurriedly bowed and said with a smile in his somewhat strangely pronounced Chinese, "Lord Zhu is playing the zither in seclusion, how could I dare to be presumptuous? I am humbled by the trouble of Lord Zhu personally welcoming me."

Liu Chenglong bowed and said, "A subject of this humble state greets Lord Zhu."

Both men were nearly fifty years old, yet they respectfully addressed the sixteen-year-old Zhu Yin as "Master Zhu," which seemed rather incongruous.

According to protocol, Zhu Yin should have shown respect to Yi Yeon, as the King of Goryeo held the rank of Prince in the Ming Dynasty, a position of great prestige. Zhu Yin, being merely a subject, should have taken the initiative to pay his respects to Yi Yeon.

However, Goryeo was a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty and a subject of the Ming. As an imperial envoy representing the Celestial Empire and the Emperor, Zhu Yin was naturally superior to the King of Goryeo.

If we consider the order of precedence, then of course the King of Goryeo should show respect to the Imperial Envoy. However, since the King of Goryeo holds a position equivalent to a prince, the Imperial Envoy should also show respect to the King of Goryeo. If we really want to be precise, they should be considered equals, with no one in a superior position.

When Hao Jie was the military commissioner, the King of Goryeo was somewhat reserved and tried hard to maintain his airs. But now that Zhu Yin has taken over as the military commissioner, he has taken the initiative to lower his posture and treat his subordinates as if they were paying homage to their superiors.

Of course, there are also expectations involved.

Now, this King of Goryeo, before the great victory at Uiju, was frowning all day long, sighing and lamenting. He drank wine and composed poems in his palace, just like Li Yu, expressing nothing but sorrow for the fallen millet and wheat seedlings, and lamenting the fall of his country. He used fine wine, beautiful women, and gambling to numb himself.

After the great victory at Yizhou, he was in high spirits, as if he had been injected with chicken blood, and regained his monarchical aura in front of his subjects. Although he still indulged in pleasure, he was different from before. Even his concubines noticed that the king had suddenly become very energetic and vigorous.

Today, when he came to see Zhu Yin, although he appeared respectful, he could not hide the radiant joy on his face. It was as if Korea had been restored to its former glory, and he had returned to the Gyeongbokgung Palace, where flowers bloomed in abundance.

Seeing this, Zhu Yin understood the situation and secretly felt contempt. He smiled and waved his hand, saying, "Your Highness, please!"

"Please, Lord Zhu!" Only then did the King of Goryeo follow him inside.

After serving tea, Li Yeon tried to ingratiate himself, saying, "Just now, I heard Master Zhu play the 'Orchid in the Valley' on the zither. I know that Master Zhu is the fragrance of a king, not one to associate with common grasses. Master Zhu's character is truly like an orchid in a secluded valley, fragrant even when no one is there to appreciate it. I was deeply moved by what I heard."

The Goryeo minister Ryu Seong-ryong echoed, saying, "This is the music of the Uncrowned King (Confucius), and also the pure heart of Zhu Gong. On the seven strings, the bright moon shines with clear sound. Although I am a vulgar and foolish person, I can hear Zhu Gong's sentiments. How lofty and noble he is!"

The emperor and his minister showered Zhu Yin with praise, then presented him with a list of gifts, using the same methods they had used against Hao Jie and Gao Huai to deal with Zhu Yin.

"Lord Zhu has devoted himself tirelessly to the cause of Goryeo, and I am deeply grateful, yet also ashamed and uneasy. This is a small token of my appreciation; please accept it, Lord Zhu..."

This gift list is truly impressive. It includes 500 taels of gold, eight pearls of nine-point quality, a three-foot-long piece of red coral... worth at least 20,000 taels of silver.

This was just a gift, and the amount spent was quite generous.

However, Zhu Yin had no intention of accepting it. This was a bribe, and as the Grand Coordinator, he bore a tremendous responsibility; how could he possibly accept a gift from the King of Goryeo?

"Your Highness is too kind," Zhu Yin politely declined. "I was ordered to come to the capital to fight against the Japanese pirates. It is my duty to serve the king diligently. How could I dare to accept Your Highness's generous gift? I appreciate it."

He gently pushed the gift list back. His tone was calm, but it carried an undeniable firmness, regardless of whether Lee Yeon was embarrassed.

They won't fall for that at all!
Zhu Yin pushed the gift list back and said bluntly, "Your Highness, you can just say what you want to say; there's no need for this."

When Yi Yeon saw that Zhu Yin refused the gifts, he couldn't help but recall the incident last year when Zhu Yin refused to have a beautiful woman serve him in bed when he passed through Korea on his way to Japan.

Only then did he realize that Zhu Yin was truly different from other Ming Dynasty officials. The King of Goryeo dared not insist and could only say directly, "I have heard that General Qi seized over ten thousand shi of military rations from the Japanese pirate camp. This is Goryeo grain looted by the pirates. The people of Goryeo are currently starving and urgently need food to relieve the refugees. I beg Lord Zhu for mercy..."

It turns out he came for food.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yin thought to himself, "Just as I thought," and his smile faded. The King of Goryeo wants grain? Dream on!

This grain was won back by the Ming soldiers through bloody battles. It's for you to use to win back the hearts of the Goryeo people.
think too much.

Although Zhu Yin did not want to provide food to Li Yeon, it did not mean that he would not provide relief.

The Ming army occupied the Japanese army camp and seized more than 100,000 shi of military rations, enough for the Japanese army in Uiju to eat for several months. This was all blood-stained grain, the hard-earned money of the Goryeo people.

The Japanese pirates' vanguard plundered the entire Pyongan Province, leaving hundreds of thousands of Koreans starving and dying everywhere. The price of a bushel of grain was now five taels of silver, fifty times higher than before the war!
Amidst widespread suffering, the people of Goryeo were considered fortunate to be able to drink a bowl of thin, watery rice porridge with some vegetable leaves.

Let alone commoners and the lowest social classes, even members of the samurai class who come from the yangban (aristocratic families) are now finding it difficult to get enough to eat.

In the Uiju region alone, hundreds of Goryeo people starved to death every day, to the point that starving people resorted to cannibalism and exchanging their own children to eat.

Because the Japanese army seized all the grain, spring planting was impossible in the entire Ping'an Road area. There were no seeds! Without spring planting, there would be no summer or autumn harvest this year. How many people would starve to death?

Zhu Yin also knew that the Imjin War in history had reduced the population of Goryeo from nearly nine million before the war to just over three million after the war, a loss of two-thirds of the population.

Of the more than five million people who disappeared, half were massacred by the Japanese army and the other half starved to death.

This shows how devastating those years must have been for Goryeo in history. The great decline of the Goryeo Kingdom also led to the rise of the Jianzhou Jurchens.

The Ming army's supply lines were open, and they were not currently short of military provisions. Therefore, many Goryeo refugees were counting on the Ming army for assistance. The Goryeo king even petitioned the emperor, requesting that the Ming army in the capital provide military provisions to the Goryeo royal court to aid the refugees.

How could the Ming emperor resist the pleas of a ruler of a small country? Of course, he issued an edict to Hao Jie and others in Goryeo, ordering them to allocate military provisions to support the Goryeo royal court and to provide relief to the refugees.

Not only that, the emperor also granted the Goryeo king's request, stating in an imperial edict to Hao Jie that if the Goryeo grain looted by the Japanese army was recovered, it would be returned to the Goryeo people.

In Zhu Yin's view, this was a very foolish imperial edict.

Should the people of Goryeo receive relief? Of course they should. The Goryeo people are also subjects of the Ming Dynasty, and they have always been respectful. The Ming Dynasty cannot allow too many people to starve to death, so it should help them if it can.

The problem is that the grain should not have been given to the Goryeo royal court, and disaster relief should not have been provided in the name of the royal court!
Because the Goryeo royal court would certainly embezzle and misappropriate funds on a large scale, less than half of the money would actually be used to provide relief to the refugees.

Historically, during the Imjin War, the Ming Dynasty provided Goryeo with a total of 700,000 shi (a unit of dry measure) of grain. Based on grain prices during the Wanli era and including transportation costs, this amounted to 1.5 million taels of silver!
The tax revenue from the Imperial Treasury of the Ministry of Revenue in the Ming Dynasty was only a little over four million taels of silver per year.

It can be said that the Ming Dynasty used the full strength of the nation to provide military and economic assistance to Goryeo, which was on the verge of collapse, and managed to save the Goryeo Kingdom.

But how did the Goryeo king and his ministers operate?
According to Huya's intelligence, from last year to the first month of this year, Hao Jie allocated a total of 180,000 shi of military rations to the Goryeo royal court. As a result, the Goryeo royal court first distributed the rations according to the rank of the officials, from the Goryeo king down to the middle and lower-ranking court officials and military officers, including royal family members, concubines, and princesses, all of whom were allocated a large amount of rations.

Then they continued their extravagant and dissolute lifestyle, even using precious grain to brew wine. They sold the surplus grain for gold and silver, or forced the starving Goryeo commoners into slavery!
This not only led to more people starving to death and the loss of popular support in Goryeo, but also caused more Goryeo people to defect to the Japanese pirates just to get a bite to eat.

In Zhu Yin's view, even if the imperial decree was to provide relief to the people of Goryeo, it should be done in the name of the Ming Dynasty, not in the name of the King of Goryeo. After all, the imperial decree did not specify that it had to be done in the name of the Goryeo royal court.

Firstly, it could prevent the Goryeo king and his officials from being corrupt, and secondly, it could win over the hearts of the Goryeo people, sow discord between the Goryeo people and the royal court, and make the Goryeo people even more disappointed with their court.

If we were to annex Goryeo, it would be much easier to win people's hearts.

Thinking this, Zhu Yin smiled slightly and said, "Your Highness, please rest assured. These tens of thousands of shi of grain are not only the hard-earned money of the Goryeo people, but even if they were grain from the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty would have no reason not to provide them. Not a single grain will be missing; all of it will be used to relieve the Goryeo people. Moreover..."

"Moreover, Your Highness need not trouble yourself. I will directly provide relief to the people, setting up soup kitchens throughout Pyongan Province. Not only will I provide relief to refugees, but I will also leave them seeds to help them seize the last opportunity for spring planting. The people of Goryeo are just like the people of Ming Dynasty; how can I neglect them..."

Li Yen's expression changed slightly. What does this mean? You're not giving me the grain, not allowing me to provide relief, but instead using your name?
I am the true ruler of Goryeo!

Yi Yeon was furious, but dared not show his reluctance. He forced a smile and said, "Lord Zhu is benevolent and loves his people like his own children. On behalf of the people of Goryeo, I thank Lord Zhu for his relief. However, Lord Zhu is busy with military affairs and works hard. How can I bear to see him troubled by relief matters again? I will certainly handle this matter seriously..."

Zhu Yin deliberately pondered for a moment, then suddenly smiled as if he had lost his composure, and said in a clear and gentle tone, "I will personally provide relief; there is no need to trouble your court with this matter."

Li Yan's face immediately burned, as if he had been slapped. This Zhu Zhihu, clearly a teenager, how could he be so troublesome? What a little fox!

He took a deep breath and continued with a forced smile, "Lord Zhu, the Holy Emperor previously granted my request and promised to help me provide relief to the people of Goryeo..."

Left with no other choice, he finally invoked the emperor's decree.

Zhu Yin's smile grew increasingly faint. He picked up his teacup, took a sip, crossed his legs, and slowly said:

“Your Highness is right, the Emperor is indeed wise. However, although the Emperor’s decree is to provide relief to the people of Goryeo, it did not explicitly state that your royal court must personally handle the matter, did it? As the Military Commissioner of Goryeo and Governor-General of Jiliao, I naturally have the responsibility to provide relief to the people of Goryeo. What does Your Highness think?”

Lee Yeon opened his mouth, but was speechless.

In fact, the imperial edict of the Ming Dynasty should have been to give grain to the royal court, and then the royal court would provide relief. However, the edict did not specify whether the relief would be provided by the King of Goryeo or by the military governor.

It seems like either is fine.

But how could Yi Yeon be willing to accept something that was clearly being deliberately made difficult for him?
Liu Chenglong smiled awkwardly and said, "Lord Zhu, you are wise. The imperial edict likely means to assist the vassal state in providing relief, since the royal court is familiar with its own people..."

“But I don’t trust your country’s officials.” Zhu Yin suddenly said coldly, “Your Highness, Mr. Liu, I once received a report that your country’s officials embezzled the Ming Dynasty’s relief grain and made a fortune from the national crisis. Is this true?”

P.S.: That's all for today. Thanks for your support. Goodnight, I have to get back to work soon.

(End of this chapter)