Chapter 2317
Because the king suddenly died suddenly before the heir to the throne was determined, the minister had to temporarily take charge of the power. This kind of thing has happened in the history of North Korea, and the follow-up solution is often not ideal. After all, power is addictive. It is a poison that is difficult to give up once you try it. Once you become a powerful official, you will inevitably want to try and take another step forward.
Cui Mingji was not sure whether he could hold on to the bottom line and hand it over to his successor when the time came after he took control of the throne. He can't even trust himself, so he won't place his hopes on Kim Sang-hyun's professional ethics in this matter. Cui Mingji believed that the plan of having them jointly take charge of the government after overthrowing King Li Zhu was not very feasible, and he gave negative opinions from the beginning.
From his standpoint, of course he hopes to take this opportunity to push the second prince Li Hao he supports to the throne. Only in this way can he keep his official position and continue to manage the country with his own governing philosophy.
Naturally, Kim Sang-hyun insisted on letting the crown prince Li Zhi return to the country to inherit the throne. The reason was that Li Zhi had a good relationship with Haihan, and his succession could more smoothly gain Haihan's recognition and support and avoid unnecessary troubles. And if someone else succeeds, it is very likely that he will not receive such treatment at all.
Of course, if Li Zhi successfully succeeds to the throne, Kim Sang-heon, who has a good relationship with him, is likely to get the merit of Conglong, and Cui Mingji, who has always supported the second prince, will probably have to give up his position as leader. So on this issue, the two formed a new point of disagreement, and it was difficult to convince the other party to accept their plan.
The two have the same purpose, but their interests are different. It is okay for them to sacrifice their personal interests for the country, but it is not so easy to overcome the psychological barrier if they sacrifice themselves to achieve success for their opponents.
The two have been fighting in official circles for decades. They know each other well and will not compromise easily. If past conditions were followed, it would be common for this stalemate to last for several years. Maybe if it drags on for a few years, the problem will be resolved on its own, and the two sides won't have to break up and harm the harmony.
But the situation this time is different from the past few years. When the two had different opinions in the past, King Li Zhu could choose which plan to adopt. But this time the two were fighting over how to overthrow the king and establish a new king. This can be It is not something that can be reported to the king.
And there was not much time for them to make a decision slowly. Li Zhu summoned them and informed them of their next plans, and prepared to introduce Haihan officials to help manage the government.
In Li Zhu's view, only in this way can we fully imitate Haihan in the shortest possible time. The introduction of Haihan officials now is precisely to prepare for independent operations in the future. Of course there are drawbacks to this, but just like sending someone to study abroad, the results are worth paying for.
Li Zhu may not have considered this issue thoroughly. After all, it is impossible to achieve rapid growth in strength and maintain the country's independence at the same time. Objectively speaking, if North Korea wants to grow in strength, it can only achieve it by relying more on Haihan. The introduction of Haihan officials will further strengthen this dependence effect. As senior officials who have been in power for many years, Kim Sang-hyun and Cui Ming-gil have both seen the logical loopholes in Li Zhu's plan, but they cannot persuade their stubborn bosses to give up this dangerous approach.
At this time, there were only a few months before Li Xie returned to the country. When the prince, who had studied abroad for a year in Haihan, came back, he would definitely have a pro-Haihan attitude and would probably agree with the king's approach. By then, the situation would be hopeless.
There is not much time left for Kim Sang-hyun and Choi Ming-gil to change North Korea's situation and future prospects. If this opportunity is missed, there may be no chance of salvation.
So even though there were still many links where a definite solution had not been negotiated, the two still decided to overthrow Li Zhu's rule.
Of course, in their view, this was not an act of rebellion simply to seize power, but an act of saving the country in times of crisis, which had a completely different meaning. Now that the king Li Zhu has been embarrassed by his great responsibility, ministers also have the responsibility to get the country back on the right track.
Moreover, there have been countless coups in the history of Lee's Korea for more than two hundred years. One more coup does not seem to be a big deal.
Kim Sang-hyun and Cui Ming-gil have high reputations in the court, and each has many fans. The two of them want to work together to do something, which may be more effective than the king's direct decree.
But this is not something that can be publicly announced, so in order to keep it secret, except for a very few close confidants, the outside world does not know the purpose of the series of measures these two secretly arranged.
When it comes to loyalty to the country, no one would doubt the two big figures, Kim Sang-heon and Choi Ming-gil. Their huge contributions to this country have been fully reflected in their official positions and prestige. Therefore, most of the people involved believed that these two adults, under the instruction of the king, were going to use force to eliminate certain dissidents inside and outside the palace, and would not doubt that they had any selfish motives for launching the action. They would never have thought that they were actually going to rebel and overthrow His Majesty the current King.
For Kim Sang-hyun and Cui Ming-gil, there are too many successful examples and failed lessons in history for reference, so they quickly worked out how to control Seoul and outside in a short period of time and avoid unnecessary armed conflicts as much as possible. corresponding action plan.
For the very few officials who did not take sides and were only loyal to Li Zhu, they also made corresponding arrangements. After the operation started, they would control the residences of these officials to prevent them from collaborating to cause trouble.
As for the reaction of the people in the city, that is the least of their worries. As long as the city gates are closed, the entire city is under martial law, and the city defense troops are on duty in the streets, few people will dare to cause trouble.
In the name of catching rebels, they sealed off the city, took control of the palace, captured the king, put the royal family members under house arrest, and then issued an edict to inform the world, explaining the reasons for replacing the king with well-designed reasons, and finally restored order and got everything back on track.
Although the plan is not perfect, it is at least very feasible. They don't have much time to slowly improve this action plan, so they can only bite the bullet and take it one step at a time.
It happened that one day, Bingcao Judge Shen Jingzhen left the city and went to Ganghwa Island to inspect the local defense projects. He took away most of the Bingcao Yamen officials, allowing Jin and Cui to smoothly mobilize troops inside and outside Seoul. So in the early morning of the next day after Shen Jingzhen left Seoul, they ordered to start taking action.
The city defense troops and the imperial guards guarding the palace were all taken away from their command before the operation, and their own people who obeyed their orders were replaced in key positions. The private armed forces loyal to them immediately controlled both inside and outside the palace, and easily captured the sleeping king.
Before dawn, all parts of the city received notices from the Bingcao Yamen that rebels had invaded the palace to assassinate the king. The entire city was under martial law for three days to capture the thieves. During this period, anyone who disobeyed the administrators would be punished as an associate of the rebels.
Although some royal relatives smelled something bad and tried to forcefully contact the palace, they only summoned ruthless suppression. The fire observed at the Haihan stronghold outside the city was where the conflict occurred. Of course, these small fights will not affect the development of the situation. After all, the royal relatives living in the city do not have military power, and they have been listed as key targets early on. The waves they can create are limited to their own doorsteps. . If you want to go against important court ministers like Kim Sang-hun and Choi Ming-gil who hold real power, the difference in strength is still too great.
Compared with the troubles caused by these people, Haihan was the trouble they were really afraid of. Nowadays, there are many Haihan merchants settling in both inside and outside Seoul. If these people know the truth of the matter, I am afraid that something serious will happen.
And they didn't have the guts to arrest or silence all the Haihan people in the city. The traces of doing so would be too obvious, so they could only expel the Haihan people from the city as soon as possible, euphemistically speaking, for the sake of these people's lives. Safety.
These Haihan people were driven out of Seoul in a daze. They only knew that there was chaos in the city, but they didn't know the cause. Therefore, the information obtained by the Haihan stronghold outside the city was extremely limited. It was not until several days later that it was confirmed that a palace coup had occurred in the city.
It stands to reason that after such a major incident was revealed, the official should first ask for help from the allies at the Taedong River base. However, Kim Sang-hun and Cui Ming-gil did not dare to let Hae-han intervene at this time. They could only keep the city gates closed to block the news, and they did not dare. Report the situation in the city to Haihan.
According to Jin and Cui's plan, after controlling the situation in the city, they would try to secretly get rid of the king, and then tell the world about the king's assassination, and also report it to Haihan. At that time, whether Li Xie returns to the country to take over or supports the new king, the power of the government will be temporarily in their hands. There will still be time to make more arrangements and eliminate as much as possible those who secretly cultivated by Haihan in the court. officials.
But the problem lies in the power that is already at your fingertips. After taking control of the palace and obtaining the jade seal, whoever has the right to speak at this time is likely to be the first person in the court in the next few years. Take the initiative to give in to the other party at this time? That's obviously impossible.
Both sides have soldiers and horses at their disposal, but if they want to let go and fight in Seoul, the damage will be too great, and it will be difficult to end by then, which is also contrary to their original intentions.
Both of them are veterans in officialdom, so naturally they will not make such low-level mistakes. They know that they have to find a way to coerce the other party into submission, which is the key to resolving the dispute.
Now that the rebellion has begun, and it's time to consider escaping, both sides want to compete for the right to speak, so they can only find ways to turn the other party into a villain, or even blame the other party for the series of events that occurred in Seoul. But it would be difficult for them to obey just by themselves. They must have conclusive evidence before they can crucify the other party.
Cui Mingji, who was sitting in the dark study, was waiting for news. He had already thought of some possibility that would allow the other party to gain a favorable position, so he sent someone to deal with the matter, but it obviously took much longer than he expected. . He has been sitting in the study for about two hours, but has not yet received a reward.
Just when he was about to lose his patience, someone finally came hurriedly outside the door: "Sir, there is news!"
"Come in and answer." Cui Mingji tried to keep his tone calm. No matter how urgent the situation was, he could not show panic in front of his subordinates, so as to stabilize the morale of the army.
The visitor gently opened the door, entered the room, closed the door behind his back, then took a few steps forward and knelt on the ground and replied: "As your Excellency expected, Kim Sang-hyun did have a plan that day to kill the person when we were not prepared." He took the bag and smuggled the man out of the palace in a dead car."
Cui Mingji asked in a deep voice: "Have you found the whereabouts of that man?"
The subordinate kneeling on the ground responded: "The humble position has not been found yet!"
Cui Mingji's heart sank, and his tone became slightly stern: "Find out the whereabouts quickly! If necessary, you can use my warrant to mobilize soldiers and horses from the Imperial Guard Battalion to assist in the operation! If this cannot be done, you can come and see me Go! ”
The man quickly agreed, kowtowed, stood up and exited the study.
Listening to the footsteps leaving in a hurry, Cui Mingji, who was still sitting in the darkness, let out a long sigh, full of loneliness and helplessness.
He originally thought that the troops and horses inside and outside the palace had been replaced by his own people, and the actions that day should be foolproof. Unexpectedly, the troops and horses in the inner and third halls actually included people from Jin Sangxian, and they could smuggle out large numbers of living people. Palace, I think the authority is not low, he is probably one of the few generals who expressly obey his orders.
But this is nothing unusual, I can only admit that I was careless. The two sides have been fighting in the officialdom for so many years, and each has many informants in the other side's camp. These figures are usually invisible and secretive, and they will only play a role in special moments like this. Cui Mingji was able to discover Kim Sang-heon's secret move because he received an alert from the opponent's camp.
Cui Mingji could think of Jin Sangxian's purpose in taking the risk of quietly transporting that person out of the palace. If necessary, that would be an ironclad piece of evidence that could kill him. If he is unable to deal with this trouble in a short period of time, it is estimated that Jin Sangxian will soon put forward further conditions to himself, such as voluntarily resigning from the post of leader and hand over the power to him.
Cui Mingji naturally couldn't tolerate this kind of thing happening, and he would try again no matter what. And he knew that Kim Sang-hyun didn't have much room to move. This should be the opponent's last trump card. If he didn't reveal his card, I'm afraid the Haihan people outside the city wouldn't have the patience to wait for this drama to continue. Went down.
Cui Mingji felt a little breathless when he thought of the Haihan Army arriving outside the city today. He didn't understand why he still couldn't handle the situation in the city even though he had obtained a one-month buffer period. Now that the Haihan Army finally arrived, everyone was as panicked as if their buttocks were on fire.
The time left for them to save the situation may only be one day, maybe two or three days, but there is not much time left.
(End of chapter)