Chapter 2306
When Shen Jingzhen heard this question, the expression on his face suddenly became a little complicated. After a moment of silence, he responded: "This matter is a long story. Please let Rong Weichen report it slowly later. General Haihan is coming soon." It’s better for the prince to concentrate on dealing with them first.”
Shen Jingzhen's answer obviously did not satisfy Li Xie. He could feel that the other party was hiding something from him intentionally or unintentionally. How could only a few of the civil and military officials of the imperial court show up, and the whereabouts of the king could not be explained, which made Li Zhu secretly have a bad feeling in his heart.
"In that case, please, gentlemen, please take a rest first. Come and give me a seat!" Li Yan saw that Shen Jingzhen was unwilling to say more, so he did not force it at the moment. He thought to himself that he would first meet the Haihan people before speaking. I am an old acquaintance with Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun. Maybe I can get some real and credible information from them after meeting.
The conditions on the ship were limited, but there were no chairs for these officials to sit on. A sailor brought two benches. After Shen Jingzhen and others thanked Li Xie, they could only squeeze in and sit down.
They did not wait long, Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom rushed to the dock under the escort of a group of cavalry. Li Zhi arranged his clothes and then led everyone to get off the boat to meet them. Although he came back in a hurry this time and was in a somewhat miserable situation, Li Zhi still had to maintain the image of the crown prince of Joseon in front of outsiders. After all, if the king was gone, he would now be the nominal ruler of Joseon.
However, after Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun greeted him, they did not immediately mention the civil strife in Korea and the whereabouts of the king. Instead, they asked him to go to the palace built by the royal family on Ganghwa Island to settle down. This made Li Xie's heart The feeling of uneasiness increased a little more. But he did not object to this arrangement and asked his civil and military officials to go to the palace together.
The palace built by the royal family on Ganghwa Island is quite old. Going back to 1232, the earliest time was when the King of Goryeo temporarily moved the capital to Ganghwa Island under the coercion of the powerful minister Choi Yu to avoid the invasion of the Mongolian army. In 1290, the Yuan Dynasty army invaded Goryeo again, and Wang Zhen, the king at the time, went to Ganghwa Island to hide for a year.
After that, Ganghwa Island not only became a safe house for kings to escape the war, but also had the function of exiling former rulers who were overthrown by coups. After Yeonsangun was deposed in 1506, he was exiled to Ganghwa Island. In 1623, Lee Joon successfully launched a coup and also exiled the former king Gwanghae Gun to Ganghwa Island. During the Ding Mao Rebellion in 1627, Li Zhu also fled to Ganghwa Island for refuge like his ancestors.
Ganghwa Island, which covers an area of 400 square kilometers, has been continuously upgrading its administrative level since the Goryeo Dynasty, from county to county, and then from county to government. In 1413, Joseon Taizong Li Bangyuan changed Ganghwafu to Ganghwa Protectorate. In 1627, Injong Li Jie changed Ganghwa again. The Duhufu was promoted to Jianghua Left-behind Mansion, directly making it the companion capital.
If the Haihan Army hadn't sent troops to aid North Korea in resisting the Qing Dynasty last year, Li Jie would have once again taken his family and ministers to take refuge on Ganghwa Island. But in the original history, Dorgon commanded the Qing army to conquer Ganghwa Island and captured everyone on the island, including members of the royal family.
Of course Li Zhi would not have known that in the original history, after he was captured on Ganghwa Island, he was taken to the Manchu Qing Dynasty and served as a hostage for eight years. He died inexplicably only two months after he was released and returned to China in 1645. He never set foot again. Opportunity to go to Ganghwa Island.
The Ganghwa Island Palace seems to be the same as when Li Zhen came here last time, but after he stayed in Haihan for a year and experienced various comfortable living environments, he couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable when he returned to this palace. There are no beds here that are so comfortable that you won’t want to get up after lying down, no convenient bathroom facilities, and no magical biogas lighting. It originally looked like a luxurious palace, but now I just feel that everything in this place is rustic. In Haihan Kingdom It was probably only equivalent to the living environment of a wealthy country man.
After all, a golden nest and a silver nest are not as good as his own doghouse. At the moment, Li Xie can only comfort himself with this proverb he learned in Haihan. At least this is North Korean territory and the area that I will rule in the future.
But when Li Zhi arrived at the palace, no civil and military officials came to greet him, nor did he see his family. Only a few servants were waiting outside the gate. The scene was deserted and it did not look like a royal palace at all.
Li Zhi was not in the mood to rest and settle down slowly. He left all his luggage and other personal belongings to his servants to take care of. He simply washed his face and hurried to meet with Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun.
Li Zhi originally brought Ahn Dao-seok and Park Hong-ye with him, but outside the reception room, Officer Haihan on duty at the door reminded Li Zhi in a "friendly" way that the content of the following talks needed to be kept confidential, so it was best to stay alone. Enter to avoid leaking the news.
Since it was the intention of the Haihan people, Li Zhi had no intention of questioning such an arrangement. He now had to understand the actual situation in the country and win the support of Haihan before he could return to power. Li Zhi asked An and Pu to stay outside, and he pushed the door open and entered.
As expected, there were only two people in the hall, Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun. When they saw Li Xie coming in, they both put down the teacups in their hands.
"The prince has arrived so quickly, has everything been settled?" Wang Tom asked.
Li Zhi responded: "The situation is urgent, how can we keep the two generals waiting for a long time! I have been rushing back from Sanya all the way, and I can't sleep almost every day. I hope the two generals can tell me what happened in Seoul." Where are my family members at this time?”
Li Zhi didn't have the mood to talk slowly with them at this time, so he directly stated his request. At this time, he believed that the Haihan people no longer needed to hide the situation in the country from him. Even if Seoul had been turned upside down, they still had to explain the situation to themselves.
Wang Tom said: "Well, I will briefly tell the prince what happened recently. It starts from more than a month ago..."
More than a month ago, King Li Zhu received news from unknown sources that someone was plotting rebellion in the country, but there was no more specific information about the participants or the time of the launch.
Li Zhu knew very well that the foundation of his rule was not stable, and there were careerists who wanted to replace him over the years. At least half of the reason why he is still sitting on the throne is because the Haihan army he invited is stationed in the country, which makes many people secretly dissatisfied but dare not publicly make trouble.
But if the intelligence said that someone was secretly plotting to overthrow him, Li Zhu believed that this was most likely true, so he ordered people to trace the clues and reported the situation he had to the Haihan garrison at the Datong River base. Although the matter seemed to be still in the stage of speculation, Li Zhu knew that if someone really planned to cause trouble, they would not be able to bypass Haihan. Say hello to the Haihan people earlier so that it would not be too abrupt if you ask for help from the Haihan people in the future.
This is not the first time that the Datongjiang base has received such a notification. In fact, in the short period of one year after the end of the anti-Qing war, Li Zhu notified them of similar situations at least three times. However, the previous few times either the intelligence was wrong, or Li Zhu found the clues and secretly nipped them in the bud, without causing any negative consequences, so naturally there was no need for the Haihan Army to intervene.
Li Zhu did not provide definite evidence, nor did he seek immediate intervention from the Haihan garrison, so the Datongjiang base naturally regarded this as a situation similar to the past, leaving it to the North Koreans to handle it themselves.
"But about half a month later, the king suddenly sent another secret letter to the Datong River base, asking us to immediately send troops to Seoul to help him 'annihilate the rebels'..."
Wang Tom paused momentarily when he said this. Qian Tiandun next to him handed an envelope to Li Yan: "This is a secret letter sent by the king at that time."
Li Yan quickly stretched out his hands to take it, pulled out the letter and looked at the contents. He has been assisting the government for several years. During this period, he would see his father reviewing memorials almost every day. The handwriting on this letter is clearly his father's handwriting, and it is definitely not a counterfeit.
But what shocked Li Xie even more was the content of the letter. In the letter, Li Yan claimed that someone in the court was trying to support Lord Fenglin and Lord Linping, and to force him to abdicate by armed means. Li Jie had lost control of the Seoul garrison, including the Guards, and was unable to capture the rebellious ministers and traitors, so he could only send people to the Datong River for help, hoping that Haihan could send troops to Seoul as soon as possible to eliminate the rebels before they took action. Remove disaster.
However, this letter for help still did not mention who the so-called rebels were. However, there were not many people who had the power to replace Li Zhi in commanding the Seoul army. The first person Li Zhi thought of was Shen Jingzhen, the military judge. But if Shen Jingzhen rebelled, he would not appear at Ganghwa Island to greet him. This is unreasonable. However, Shen Jingzhen is local, and he can be verified in person later.
At the end of this letter for help, Li Zhi expressed his attitude. If he failed to fight against the rebels in Seoul, he would ask Haihan to take Li Zhi back to North Korea from Haihan as soon as possible so that he could succeed the king.
This means that Li Xie did not consider leaving the throne to Li Xie's two brothers. Even if someone wanted to support them, Li Xie still insisted on passing the throne to Li Xie who was far away in Haihan Kingdom.
"After we received this distress letter, we realized that the situation was serious and that the king may no longer be able to control the situation in Seoul. At this time, through our own news channels, we also learned that the recent mobilization of troops and horses in the areas near Seoul has been very frequent. It just confirms some of the information mentioned in the letter by the king.”
Qian Tiandun said slowly: "From the standpoint of the allies, we should not interfere with the change of power in your country, but this letter was sent by the current king. After we confirmed the authenticity of the letter, we decided to Therefore, on the one hand, we reported to Sanya via telegram, and on the other hand, we immediately mobilized troops and horses to prepare to go south to Seoul and pick up the king from the city first!"
Li Zhi listened to Qian Tiandun's narration very carefully. There was nothing faulty about the response of the Haihan Army, and it was very measured. There was no intention to prepare for a big fight in North Korea just because of the king's letter of distress. If the king can be taken out of Seoul first, then the rebel party will not be able to force him to abdicate, and the rebellion will naturally not be able to continue.
This frees up some buffer time for Li Zhu, allowing him to take some measures to suppress the civil strife. The Haihan Army only needs to protect him and does not need to directly participate in the subsequent fighting. This can be said to be a very appropriate way of handling it.
"But we hurried and slowed down, but still couldn't catch up." Qian Tiandun continued: "Just two days after we received this secret letter, something happened in Seoul!"
After receiving the distress letter, the Datongjiang Base made an action plan, mobilized supplies, arranged for troops to participate in the war, etc., which also required a certain amount of preparation time. As soon as these things were almost prepared, before the troops set off, news came from Seoul. The local army suddenly closed the city and even the ports on the Han River. Several Haihan merchant ships that happened to be unloading goods by the river saw that the situation was not good and escaped in time. Perhaps because they were afraid of their identities, the navy did not send a ship to pursue them, so the news was sent to the Datong River.
After receiving the news, Haihan also realized that the situation was serious, so Wang Tom led several naval warships southward. However, when they arrived at the mouth of the Han River, they encountered a large number of Haihan people fleeing by boat. These people were basically merchants and servants who came to Seoul to engage in trading activities. It is said that they were able to leave Seoul safely because of their special status as Haihan citizens. The local army did not dare to embarrass them and allowed them to leave Seoul after verifying their identities one by one.
When Li Zhi heard this, he couldn't help but feel a little sad. These rebels had the courage to rebel, but they didn't have the courage to confront Haihan. They didn't even dare to detain Haihan civilians, so they had to let them go. But in this case, wouldn’t Haihan’s source of intelligence be cut off?
Sure enough, Qian Tiandun continued: "It is a good thing that the rebels in the city let our people leave, so that we no longer have to worry about the safety of our own people, but in this way, we also lose a credible source of information. So Most of the information we have about the situation in the city is as of that time.”
When Li Zhi heard this, his heart was already cold. Since Qian Tiandun said that most of the sources of information stopped here, it means that the Haihan Army did not enter Seoul at all, and naturally there was no way to interfere with the situation in the city. As for the previous plan to evacuate Li Zhu from the city, it must have failed to be implemented successfully. In this way, the possibility of Li Zhu's safe escape is extremely slim.
But Li Zhen still refused to give up and asked: "Can the response plan that was formulated before be implemented later?"
Qian Tiandun slowly shook his head and said: "According to the news we got from the people, it was already too late to take action at that time. Before we went south to the mouth of the Han River, the rebels had already breached Changdeok Palace and captured Most members of the royal family, including the king.”
(End of chapter)