As the carriage drove across the Yalu River, it entered the territory of the Han Dynasty.

There was still ice and snow outside the car, and the snow was very thick. The peaks outside the window were covered with snow, and the mountains stood up, showing a beautiful majesty.

In fact, when the carriages passed the Cheongcheon River, they had already entered the actual control area of ​​the Han Dynasty. This northwestern river, which is more than 400 miles long, flows from the northeast to the southwest and flows into the West Korea Bay. Simi Island and Pidao along the northern coast of the bay are all Han military bases.

Li Yongqing wiped the window glass that was blurred by the steam, and put his head close to the window, watching the scene of the mountains and earth in winter.

The winter day in the north is very short, and the gold pocket watch shows that it has just passed four o'clock in the afternoon, but the sky has become dark.

"In the winter of the Han Dynasty and Liaodong, the snow was heavier than in North Korea."

Li Yongqing sighed and Cui Chengcan continued, "I have been to China several times before, but it is mostly in summer and autumn. The most convenient way is to take a boat, take a boat to Lushun and then travel to Shandong, or take a boat to Shandong directly. When taking a land route, it is much easier than now."

"This is the first time I have been to China in such a cold winter season. The snow is so beautiful."

After they passed the Qingchuan River, they transferred to the carriage provided by the man. This was actually not a carriage, but a carriage with sleds. Such a carriage was actually more stable and comfortable when driving on the thick snow on the winter road. The carriage was very spacious, with blankets, curtains, charcoal stoves, coffee tables, and soft pads. In addition, the carriage could accommodate two maids from now on, and it was not crowded at all.

Especially the glass windows allow them to sit in the carriage and watch the scenery of the northern country outside.

Lee Yongqing and Choi Seung-chan raised their glasses to each other and drank tea.

The Kingdom of Korea had already sent a delegation to the Han Dynasty to attend the New Year's Day celebration this year. Soon the delegation sent it back to report that the Han Dynasty would conquer Japan next year, and the Han Emperor asked Korea to go on the expedition with him. This was a major event. The Japanese riots in the Ionchen invasion in their early years almost destroyed the country. It was the Ming Dynasty that sent troops to rescue them and helped them restore the country.

After that, North Korea experienced two Jurchen invasions. Hundreds of thousands of people were captured, and eventually the Han emperor stationed troops on the Yalu River, saving them from the threat of Jurchen abducting.

Today, the King of Korea was also established with the help of the Han emperor. The king's legitimate daughter also married the Emperor of Han. As a noble concubine.

The Han emperor issued an edict, but North Korea dared not refuse to obey.

Upon receiving the news of his expedition, the king immediately sent Li Yongqing and Choi Chengcan to travel westward and represent the king to listen to the Hadith.

At this time, when they traveled from North Korea to China, the northern seas were no longer open. They could only go to southeast China by boat, so they finally chose to take a bus to Beijing by land.

In recent years, the Han Dynasty operated the pass and entered Beijing by land from North Korea. The first is to cross the Yalu River and then go to Lushun, then to Liaoyang, then cross the Liaohe River and enter Beijing through the Liaoxi Corridor. The other is to cross the Yalu River and go north, pass Fenghuangcheng and all the way to Shenyang, then turn west across the Liaohe River to Kaicheng, and then go southwest through Liaoxi to Beijing.

Because Lushun cannot be navigated, they took the road from north to Shenyang.

Li Yongqing had never walked this road before. He was amazed at the width of this road, even in the cold winter and heavy snow, the carriage still walked like flying.

Especially on the wide roadside, there is always a small station ten miles away, a small fort twenty miles away, and a large fort every forty miles. There are troops stationed in the fort city and grain. They spend the night all the way, and they will choose time to stay and rest in the castle and replenish supplies.

Those forts are both military stations and post stations, and more like Cangcheng.

Even in the snowy season, all kinds of materials are abundant, and the soldiers stationed are even more energetic. They wear neat and warm leather robes, and their outfits make the North Korean guards envious. They also amazed Li Yongqing and others. When they were traveling to the Ming Dynasty, they were on the southern line. The impression they met was the same as refugees and beggars.

Liaodong has truly owned it for the Han Dynasty again.

Along the way, on this land that was once the heart of the Qing Dynasty. Li Yongqing and the others could not even see a Jurchen village or a Jurchen who was dragging the rat tail of money. It is said that many of the Jurchens in Liaodong moved to the colder north, while the rest were captured and taken away by all the Mongols.

Nowadays, the cities, villages, and the trests here are all Han people.

The Mongols fought here, but in the end the land and cities were all returned to the Han.

The Jurchens, who once faced North Korea twice and forced the king to surrender, were extremely powerful in the eyes of Li Yongqing and others. However, in just a few years, the Jurchens had fallen apart. There was no even a Jurchen in the land of Liaodong.

Now, the Han Dynasty will conquer Japan again.

Both the Qing Dynasty and Japan invaded Korea. When Japan invaded, North Korea vowed to resist to the death. Fortunately, China rescued it and restored the country. Later, the Jurchens invaded twice, and the Ming Dynasty was too busy to take care of themselves, and North Korea finally surrendered.

In comparison, the Jurchens are more barbaric and powerful in the eyes of Koreans.

The Han Dynasty wanted to conquer Japan, and the Korean court unanimously agreed that it would win.

Since it is bound to win, North Korea will certainly follow the Han Dynasty and send troops to Japan to relieve the shame of that year.

No one of the two groups of ministers thought that the Han Dynasty would lose. Today's Han Dynasty is the real country. They stood on behalf of the Ming Dynasty, fought south and north, and conquered the world.

The sky became darker and the coachman finally arrived at Caohe Fort in front before it was completely dark.

The convoy stopped in front of the fort, and a team of Han soldiers came to check with guns. Behind were the black hole artillery on the fortress turret.

Li Yongqing and the others immediately got out of the car with the mission and stood beside the car for inspection. After the Han army checked the documents and documents, they handed over all their weapons and were taken into the fort.

The cold wind blows on my face, like a knife, instantly taking away the warmth that is stored in the warm car.

They couldn't help but chill and followed the Han army into the fort.

"Welcome to Caohe Castle!"

A Han army officer smiled and came forward to greet him. He was a very young officer who seemed to be only twenty-four or twenty-five years old. Li Yongqing looked at the officer's shoulders. He had learned to identify the epaulettes of the Han army officers and saw their rank from above.

A silver leopard.

Right Military Academy, from the sixth rank.

This is already a considerable military rank. Li Yongqing has almost figured out the system of the Han army and knew that soldiers and officers in the Han army have military ranks, and officers have a total of four levels and eighteen levels, corresponding to the eighteenth rank of officials.

The ranks of the Han army were very different from those in the Ming Dynasty. Most of the military officers in the Ming Dynasty were of high rank. However, in fact, the treatment and power were very low. Especially when they met civil officials, they were not equal. A military officer of the sixth rank, even a civil servant of the seventh rank could be called back and forth.

But the military officers of the Han Dynasty are different. Not to mention whether they can truly be on par with the sixth-rank civil servants, at least the seventh-rank civil servants cannot command the sixth-rank military officers.

A sixth-rank military officer would at least lead a battalion of soldiers to command six or seven hundred elite Han troops.

The two of them dared not be negligent. They went forward to return the gift and then entered the warm room together.

Li Yongqing took the opportunity to take out a few local products from North Korea, which were not precious, but quite novel. Along the way, they gave gold and silver directly at the beginning, but no Han officials were willing to accept them. There were several times when they had a very unpleasant situation. After that, the two began to give some local products to others, which was neither expensive nor friendly. Some of the Han officials were willing to accept them.

After seeing that it was just an ordinary native property, the young Han military officer refused and accepted it after a few refusals.

After a simple chirping, the Right Military Academy stood up and said goodbye.

"I never thought that China today is so powerful." Li Yongqing sighed.

"The Han Dynasty is the sect leader of our North Korea. The strong Han Dynasty is a good thing for us."

Li Yongqing did not agree with this idea very much. In fact, Cui Yongcan's idea is the mainstream concept of the monarchs and ministers of North Korea today. They all believe that the strong Han Dynasty is a blessing for North Korea. With a strong sect leader country, North Korea will naturally be better.

Especially since the founding of the Han Dynasty, North Korea has indeed gained a lot of benefits.

The Han rented islands such as Danluo and Juji. Although they were not small, the population was not large in the past and the tax revenue was even less. But now the Han pays them a lot of rent every year, and even sets up merchant stations and ports on it. The Han Dynasty's merchant ships are endless, and the economy of the southern part of North Korea is also prosperous.

Many North Korean products were sold, and the prosperity of the market also increased North Korea's tax revenue. Moreover, a large number of high-quality and low-cost Chinese freights also greatly facilitated North Korea.

The bird guns, artillery, even merchant ships, warships, swords, etc. made by the Han Dynasty are all extremely sophisticated and inexpensive, and are much stronger than those made by North Korea. Now all of the North Korean armaments have been imported from the Han Dynasty.

The Han even opened banks in North Korea to provide loans to the monarchs, ministers, merchants and people. They could even borrow money by purchasing arms.

Now, in North Korea, the Han Dynasty's silver dollar coupons, silver dollar copper coins and other big Han currencies have even been circulated. Compared with North Korea's silver and copper coins, the Han Dynasty's currency is more refined and more convenient to use.

From arms to currency, from food and clothing to housing and transportation, from kings to people, the entire North Korea is like a small China.

The Korean monarchs and ministers also liked this scene. They were willing to regard themselves as small China, and were proud of it. From kings to ministers to scholars to merchants, they were proud of speaking Chinese language and writing Chinese characters.

They wore various exquisite and cheap ready-to-wear clothes shipped from China, sat in Chinese-made carriages, ships, and even houses they lived in, all of which were Han-style houses built by Han craftsmen.

In a short period of time, many schools donated by Han merchants in North Korea were taught Chinese and Chinese characters, and even the history of the Han people.

Li Yongqing was always a little worried.

Today, North Korea does look very prosperous on the surface. The tax revenue of the court has increased, and the lives of the people seem to be more stable. In the south of North Korea, the official troops of the Han Dynasty were stationed in Juji, Danluo and other islands, building ports and commercial stations for the Han Dynasty. In the north, from the Qingchuan River to the Yalu River, Han troops were stationed in these hundreds of miles, and the Han army was built in fortresses.

The North Korean country no longer has to worry about the barbaric Jurchens in the north and the Japanese pirates in the south.

But Li Yongqing always felt something was wrong.

If this continues, wouldn’t North Korea become a part of China? North Korea is only a vassal state of the Han Dynasty, not a part of the Han Dynasty.

But now there are officials in the court who are shouting to cut down the number of troops, the reason is that North Korea has the protection of the Han Dynasty, so there is no need to spend a lot of money to maintain so many troops. Some people suggested that it would be possible to simply station a 10,000-man imperial guard in the royal capital and build another fleet.

Invite Han instructors and purchase Han-style arms, then it will be enough.

Many officials are now busy working together with the Han people in business all day long, or sending their daughters to Han people as wives and concubines. Some guys even disregard their identities and give their daughters to Han people as concubines, or even to Han merchants as concubines.

Not only do they not be ashamed of this, but they are proud.

"If this continues, the country will not be a country."

Choi Seung-chan smiled, "Mr. Li is too worried. The Han Dynasty and our North Korea have a vassal relationship, and it has been a vassal for thousands of years."

Li Yongqing has heard too many arguments like Choi Seung-chan. They don’t believe that the Han Dynasty will have any intentions towards North Korea. He doesn’t want to argue anymore, he just sighs.

In fact, he himself did not have much confidence that the Han Dynasty would definitely be unfavorable to North Korea, which was just a worry. After all, the current situation in North Korea is actually equivalent to giving himself completely to the Han Dynasty. If one day, one day, as a Han Dynasty, he could seize the rich fruit of North Korea with just a slight stretch of his hand, would the Han Dynasty really not do this?

Li Yongqing felt that the great man today would show his sharpness and was full of vigorous ambitions.

The Han Dynasty was not the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty once listed North Korea as a country that was not expropriated, and it did always maintain their vassal relationship. When the Japanese invaded North Korea, the Ming Dynasty immediately sent troops to rescue them, mobilizing countless troops and horses for this, and consuming countless money and food, just for the obligations of a sect leader to the vassal state.

But the Han Dynasty was not the Ming Dynasty.

The Han Dynasty had only been established for a short time, but it was constantly using troops. Not to mention using troops to the Jurchens and Mongolia, but now it is trying to fight against Japan, but it is still using troops in the southwest.

Not to mention that they have converted local chieftains that the central court has recognized for hundreds of years, they have even turned to Dongshuo further south.

The Han Dynasty was not satisfied with the inherent territory, they were full of the spirit of expanding territory.

After conquering Jurchens, Mongolia, Japan, and Tohoku, will the next one be North Korea?

"Actually, if one day, I think North Korea may be the next Mongolia, not the next Japan, Touo." Choi Seung-chan said suddenly.

Li Yongqing was stunned for a moment.

"Next Mongolia?"

Cui Chengcan smiled, "The Mongolian tribes in the eastern part are now surrendered to the Han Dynasty, and the Mongolian grasslands are all included in the territory of the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty set up provinces and prefectures and counties in the Mongolian grasslands, and at the same time set up prefectures and counties. The Han court and the Mongolian tribes were divided into the grasslands, and from then on all tribes all entered China, without any disputes. Wouldn't it be better? Look at Mongolia now, they are all the princes of the Han Dynasty, and they no longer have mutual wars or constant conflicts between tribes. However, they can not only enjoy peace, but also obtain comprehensive trade with the Central Plains. I heard that the Mongolian herders' lives are more than ten times more than before."

Li Yongqing stared at Choi Seung-chan in a daze, and never expected that he would say such a thing. Could it be that he also hoped that one day North Korea would be incorporated into the Han Dynasty, and then the Korean monarch and ministers would become princes of the Han Dynasty?

Choi Seung-chan just wants to be a citizen of the Han Dynasty, but he doesn’t want to be a citizen of the Korean country again?
Chapter completed!