1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2317
Because the king suddenly died suddenly without determining the heir to the throne, it is not uncommon for the minister to temporarily take charge of the power. It is not unheard of in the history of North Korea, and the follow-up solutions are often not ideal. After all, power is addictive. It is difficult to give up the poison once you try it. After becoming a powerful minister, you will inevitably want to try and take a step forward.

Cui Mingji wasn't sure if he could keep the bottom line after he took control of the kingship, and hand it over to his successor at the right time.He couldn't even trust himself, so he wouldn't pin his hopes on Kim Sang-heon's professional ethics in this matter.Cui Mingji did not think the plan of having them jointly govern the government after the overthrow of King Li Ji was not very feasible, and he gave negative opinions from the beginning.

From his standpoint, of course he hopes to take advantage of this opportunity to push the second prince Li Hao whom he supports to the throne, so that it is possible to keep his official position and continue to manage the country with his own ruling philosophy.

Naturally, Jin Shangxian insisted that the eldest son Li Yi return to the country to inherit the throne, the reason being that Li Yi had a good relationship with Haihan, and his succession would be able to get Haihan's approval and support relatively smoothly, avoiding unnecessary troubles.And if someone else succeeds, it is likely that they will not get such treatment at all.

Of course, if Li Yi successfully succeeds to the throne, then Kim Sang-heon, who has a good relationship with him, will probably get the merit of Conglong, and Cui Mingji, who has always supported the second prince, will probably have to give up his position as the leader of the government.So on this issue, the two formed a new point of difference, and it was difficult to persuade the other party to accept their plan.

The purpose of the two is the same, 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 their psychological barriers by sacrificing themselves to make their opponents successful and famous.

The two have been fighting in the officialdom for decades, and they know each other well, so naturally they will not compromise easily.According to the past situation, it is not uncommon for this stalemate to last for several years. Maybe after a few years, the problem will be resolved by itself, and the two sides will not have to tear their faces and hurt their peace.

But the situation this time is different from the past few years. In the past, when the two disagreed, the king could choose which side to adopt. But this time the two are fighting over how to overthrow the king and establish a new king. It is not something that can be reported to the king.

Moreover, there is not much time for them to make a decision slowly. Li Jing summoned them and informed them of the next plan, and prepared to introduce Haihan officials to assist in managing the government.

In Li Jing's view, only in this way can the full imitation of Haihan be realized in the shortest time. The introduction of Haihan officials now is just to prepare for independent operation in the future.Of course there are disadvantages in doing so, but just like sending someone to study abroad, the result of paying some price is worth it.

Li Jing may not have considered this issue thoroughly. After all, it is impossible to achieve rapid growth of strength and maintain the independence of the country at the same time. Objectively speaking, if North Korea wants to strengthen its strength, it can only be achieved by relying more on Haihan. The practice of introducing Haihan officials will strengthen this attachment effect.As senior officials who have been in power for many years, Kim Sang-heon and Cui Mingji have seen the logical loopholes in Li Zhen's plan, but they cannot persuade their stubborn superiors to give up this dangerous approach.

At this time, Li Yi was only a few months away from returning to the country. When the eldest son who had studied in Haihan for a year came back, he would definitely have a pro-Haihan attitude. Most of them would agree with the king's approach, and the situation would be hopeless.

To change North Korea's situation and future prospects, there is not much time left for Kim Sang-heon and Cui Mingji. If this opportunity is missed, there may be no chance to save it.

So even though there are still many links that have not yet been discussed to a definite solution, the two still decided to overthrow Li Xi's rule.

Of course, in their view, this is not a rebellious act purely for the purpose of seizing power, but an act of saving the country in times of crisis, which has a completely different meaning.Now that the king Li Ji has been embarrassed, the courtiers also have the responsibility to bring the country back on the right track.

Moreover, there have been too many coups in the history of Lee's North Korea for more than 200 years, so one more time like this does not seem to be a big deal.

Jin Shangxian and Cui Mingji had a high reputation in the court, and each had many fans. If the two of them wanted to do something together, it might be more effective than the king's direct decree.

But after all, this is not something that can be publicized, so in order to keep it secret, except for a very small number of relatives and confidants, the outside world does not know what the series of measures these two secretly arranged.

In terms of loyalty to the country, no one would doubt that the two big men, Kim Sang-heon and Cui Mingji, have made great contributions to the country, which has been fully reflected in their official positions and prestige.Therefore, most of the people involved believed that the two adults were under the king's instruction to use force to eliminate some dissidents inside and outside the palace, and they would not suspect that the purpose of their actions was to have any selfish motives. It would never have occurred to them that they were actually going to rebel and overthrow the current King.

For Kim Sang-heon and Choi Ming-gil, there are too many successful examples and failure lessons for reference in history, so how to control the inside and outside of Seoul in a short period of time and avoid unnecessary armed conflicts as much as possible, they all quickly worked out corresponding action plan.

For the very small number of officials who do not stand in line and only loyal to Li Zhen, they have also made corresponding arrangements, and will control the mansions of these officials after the operation begins to prevent them from causing trouble in series.

As for the reaction of the people in the city, that is the least of your worries. As long as the city gates are closed, the whole city is under martial law, and the city defense troops are on duty on the streets, few people will dare to cause trouble.

In the name of catching rebels, seal the city, control the palace, take down the king, put the royal family members under house arrest, then issue an edict to the world, explain the reasons for changing the king with well-designed reasons, and finally restore order and get everything back on track.

Although the plan is not perfect, at least it has strong feasibility. They don't have much time to slowly improve the action plan, so they can only grit their teeth and take it one step at a time.

It coincided with a certain day that Shen Jingzhen, the military judge, left the city to go to Ganghwa Island to inspect the local defense project, and took away most of the officials from the Bingcao Yamen, so that Jin and Cui could smoothly mobilize the soldiers inside and outside of Seoul.So in the early morning of the second day when Shen Jingzhen left Seoul, they ordered to start.

The city defense force and the imperial guards guarding the palace were confiscated by them before the action, and the key positions were replaced by their own people who obeyed their orders.The private armed forces loyal to them immediately controlled the inside and outside of the palace, and took down the sleeping king without any effort.

Before dawn, all parts of the city received notices from the Bing Cao Yamen that rebels invaded the palace to assassinate the king. The whole city was under martial law for three days to arrest the thieves.

Although some royal relatives smelled something bad about it and tried to force contact with the palace, they only summoned merciless suppression.The fire observed at the Haihan stronghold outside the city was the place where the conflict occurred at that time.

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 the key targets early on. The waves they can cause are limited to their own doorsteps. .To fight against important court officials like Jin Shangxian and Cui Mingji who hold real power, the difference in strength is still too great.

Compared with the incidents these people have created, Hai Han is the trouble they are really afraid of.Nowadays, there are many Haihan merchants living inside and outside of Seoul. If these people know the truth of the matter, I am afraid that something bad will happen.

And they didn't have the courage to arrest all the Haihan people in the city or simply silence them. The traces of doing so would be too obvious, so they could only expel the Haihan people out of the city at the first time, in the name of saving the lives of these people Safety.

These Haihan people were kicked out of Seoul in a daze. They only knew that there was chaos in the city, but they didn't know the reason.Therefore, the information obtained by the Haihan stronghold outside the city was extremely limited, and it was not confirmed until several days later that a palace coup should have occurred in the city.

It is reasonable to say that such a major event, the official should first ask for help from the allies of the Daedongjiang Base, but how dare Kim Sang-heon and Cui Mingji let Haihan intervene at this time, they can only keep the gates closed and block the news, and dare not Report the situation in the city to Haihan.

According to the plan of Jin and Cui, after controlling the situation in the city, they will try to get rid of the king secretly, and then inform the world of the king's assassination and inform Haihan at the same time.At that time, no matter whether Li Yan returns to the country to take over, or supports the new king, the power of the government will be in their hands temporarily, and there is still time to make more arrangements to eliminate as much as possible those that Haihan secretly cultivated in the court. official.

But the problem lies in the power that is already at your fingertips.After controlling the palace and obtaining the jade seal, whoever can control the right to speak at this time is likely to be No. 1 in the court in the next few years.Take the initiative to make concessions to the other party at this time?That is obviously impossible.

Both sides have soldiers and horses waiting to be dispatched, but if they want to let go of their hands and feet and fight in Seoul, the damage will be too great, and it will be difficult to end at that time, which is also contrary to their original intention.

These two are veterans in the officialdom, so naturally they would not make such low-level mistakes.They know that they have to try to find a way to coerce the other party into submission, which is the key to resolving the dispute.

Now that the rebellion has also started, when it is time to consider getting out, both sides want to compete for the right to speak, so they can only find ways to label the other party as a villain, or even push the series of incidents that happened in Seoul to the other party.But this kind of thing is definitely difficult to obey on their own, and there must be conclusive evidence before they can crucify the other party.

Cui Mingji, who was sitting in the dark study, was waiting for the news. He had already thought of a possibility that the other party would take a favorable position, so he sent someone to deal with it, 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 rushed to the door: "My lord, 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 appear flustered in front of his subordinates, so as to stabilize the morale of the army.

The visitor gently pushed open the door, entered the room, closed the door behind his back, then stepped forward and knelt on the ground and replied: "Just as your lord expected, Jin Shangxian did keep a hand that day, and let him go when we were not prepared. bag, and smuggled the man out of the palace in a dead man’s cart.”

Cui Mingji asked in a deep voice, "Have you found the whereabouts of that person?"

The subordinate who was kneeling on the ground replied: "The humble job has not been found yet!"

Cui Mingji's heart sank, and his tone was a little harsher: "Find out the whereabouts quickly! If necessary, you can hold my warrant and mobilize the soldiers and horses of the Imperial Guard Battalion to assist in the operation! If this matter cannot be handled, you will come to see me soon." Bar!"

The man quickly responded, kowtowed his head, got up and exited the study.

Hearing the sound of footsteps leaving in a hurry, Cui Mingji, who was still sitting in the dark, let out a long sigh, full of loneliness and helplessness.

He thought that the soldiers and horses inside and outside the palace had already been commanded by his own people, and the actions that day should be foolproof. Unexpectedly, the soldiers and horses in the inner three halls actually had Jin Shangxian's people, and they were able to smuggle large living people out of the palace. The palace, the authority is not low, and it is likely to be one of the few generals who apparently obeyed him.

But this is not a rare thing, I can only admit that I am careless.The two sides have been fighting in the officialdom for so many years, and they have placed a lot of eyeliners in each other's camp. These characters are usually invisible, and they will only play a role in this special moment.Cui Mingji was able to discover Kim Sang-heon's secret move because he received an alert from the opposing camp.

Cui Mingji could think of the purpose of Jin Shangxian's risk of quietly transporting that person out of the palace, and that would be an ironclad proof that he could put himself to death when necessary.If I can't solve this trouble in a short time, then it is estimated that Kim Sang-heon will put forward further conditions to himself soon, such as voluntarily resigning from the position of leading the political affairs and handing over the power to him.

Cui Mingji naturally couldn't tolerate this kind of thing happening, and he had to fight again no matter what.And he knew that Jin Shangxian didn't have much room to maneuver, this should be the opponent's last hole card, if he didn't show the face of the card, I'm afraid the Haihan people outside the city would not have the patience to wait for the play to continue down.

Thinking of the Haihan army arriving outside the city today, Cui Mingji felt a little short of breath.He didn't understand why he still couldn't deal with the situation in the city after winning a buffer period of one month.Now that the Haihan army finally came, everyone panicked like burning their buttocks.

The time left for them to save the situation may be only one day, maybe two or three days, in short, it is running out.

(End of this chapter)