Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Li Zong walked out of the palace gates with a sense of peace.

He sighed to his son, Li Wang:
"I never expected the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty to be so benevolent. I should have come sooner!"

Because of his hesitation, he delayed his audience with the emperor for several months after receiving the edict, which is why he was just reprimanded.

Moreover, compared to the robes he received, his son received a duchy, a far greater reward.

This made Li Zong regret not coming sooner—

Now that his son is favored by the Ming emperor, his position in Korea will be challenged.

His relationship with Li Wang was not only that of father and son, but also that of ruler and subject.

Now that Li Wang has a ducal territory bestowed by the Ming Dynasty, he will surely develop into an independent force.

He was so troubled by this that he couldn't eat or sleep, and said to his son:
“The territory of Prince Sunin is far away in the Americas, more than 10,000 miles from Korea.”

"I will establish a company modeled after the Ming Dynasty shipping group to help you expand there."

“That will be our Li family’s fallback plan from now on. We need to arrange for members of the imperial clan to go there.”

Li Wang was still a young man and had no idea that his father was seizing power. He excitedly said:
"Thank you, Father!"

"Your subject believes that we should send more people."

"If we can help the Ming Dynasty explore the Americas, according to the Ming Dynasty's 'Expansion Act,' we will receive at least one-tenth of the land."

“We have quite a few branches of the royal family; we can seal them all off.”

"The emperors of the Ming Dynasty all bestowed titles upon members of the imperial clan, so learning from the Ming Dynasty is definitely the right thing to do."

Li Zong's eyes widened in disbelief; he hadn't expected his son to have such ambition.

However, having seized power through a coup, he was actually quite worried about the studies of the royal family. Li Wang's suggestion struck a chord with him.

Considering the Ming Dynasty's attitude towards Korea, Yi Jong inquired:

Would the Ming Dynasty allow us to do this?

"Will they bestow titles upon members of the Korean royal family?"

Li Wang, having studied in the Ming Dynasty for several years, no longer considered himself an outsider, and said:

“All citizens of the Ming Dynasty have this right, and members of the Joseon royal family will also have this right after they acquire the status of citizens of the Ming Dynasty, or even nobles and officials.”

“Father, our Joseon is now a semi-Chinese country, and we are breaking away from the barbarians and integrating into Chinese culture. We should not regard ourselves as outsiders.”

Remind your father to change his mindset and not always be wary of the Ming Dynasty.

Li Zong's eyes widened even more; he never imagined he would be lectured by his son one day.

However, Li Wang's words were politically correct; he could not possibly consider North Korea to be barbaric.

Moreover, in front of the Daming Palace, he couldn't very well tell his son to be wary of the Ming Dynasty.

Only after getting into the carriage did he lower his voice and say to his son:

"It's not that I consider myself an outsider, but whether the Ming Dynasty treats Korea as one of its own?"

"This process of 'breaking away from the barbarians and integrating into China' won't be easy, and what if the Ming Dynasty turns Korea into a prefecture and county if it succeeds?"

This was a concern he had always had in his heart, so while he didn't oppose the Ming Dynasty officials' push to "de-barbarianize and integrate into China," he wasn't particularly supportive of it either.

What happens if they truly shed their barbarian ways and become part of China? Li Zong understood the difference between Little China and China very well.

Li Wang, however, had always supported the idea of ​​"breaking away from the barbarians and integrating into China." He said to his father:
"That is why my son has always supported surrendering the four northern territories, and even the territories of other nobles."

"With these territories surrendered, Korea gained several vassal states of the Ming Dynasty and even had a seat in the Noble Council."

“At that time, it won’t just be us opposing the prefecture-county system of Korea, but also those nobles.”

“Even the vassal states of the Andong Protectorate would feel threatened and oppose the court’s decision to change Korea into a prefecture.”

"By aligning themselves with them, the North Korean royal family will be more secure."

This surprised Li Zong, who hadn't expected his son to have this plan.

He had initially thought his son had been brainwashed by the Ming Dynasty, or that he simply wanted to expel his younger brother from the Joseon royal family. Little did he know that it was a well-thought-out plan for the long-term stability of the royal family.

This made him look directly at his son and sigh:
"My son, you've grown up!"

“Even if I go now, I don’t need to worry about North Korea.”

He believed that his son, who had this understanding and the support of the Ming Dynasty, would be able to maintain stability in Korea after his death.

He need not fear his posthumous reputation, nor worry about being usurped by other members of the royal family.

Li Wang smiled knowingly; his understanding went far beyond that.

Having studied under Liu Zongzhou, he was well-versed in the Ming Dynasty's reform of ritual and music, and he told his father:
"The Ming Dynasty is re-establishing the rites and music system, and the core of this system is the Three Great Rites. We are currently drafting a covenant on the rites and music system."

"The drafting of the laws governing enfeoffment and inheritance will involve the participation of the council of nobles."

“North Korea can participate in this, and as long as it abides by etiquette and law, it will not have to worry about danger in the future.”

“The Three Great Rites are the guarantee for the future of Joseon. Father King must take the initiative to express his commitment to abide by the Three Great Rites and revise the Rules and Regulations in accordance with the wishes of the Ming Dynasty.”

"Only in this way can North Korea continue to exist in the future!"

These words were somewhat beyond Li Zong's level.

Although he knew that the Ming emperor was re-establishing the rites and music system, he did not understand the specific implications.

Unlike Li Wang, who learned from Liu Zongzhou, who was in charge of reforming the rites and music, he now strongly agrees with the reformation of the rites and music, believing that Joseon would be more likely to survive under a clear feudal system.

Li Zong did not understand the reform of rites and music, so he could only listen to his son's explanation.

The father and son discussed the matter carefully and gradually determined their course of action in the Ming Dynasty.

Compared to the anxiety he felt when he first arrived in Beijing, he seemed quite composed.
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In fact, this was also the purpose of Zhu Youjian in bestowing fiefdoms.

Normally, he should first coerce and threaten North Korea, and only after they have yielded should he offer them rewards and appease them.

However, the King of Joseon was so frightened that Zhu Youjian worried he might do something out of fear.

Therefore, they immediately granted land as a gesture of appeasement, indicating that they had no intention of annexing Korea.

In fact, he never had this idea; he only wanted to eliminate the threat that Joseon posed to the Ming Dynasty.

The existence of Korea, a neighboring vassal state, was a good place for the Ming Dynasty to experiment and serve as a model for governing its vassal states.

With Korea as a testing ground, the Ming Dynasty could summarize the gains and losses of its various policies toward its vassal states and apply them to other vassal states.

Officials who are afraid to go to sea will have less fear after experiencing the trials of North Korea.

Zhu Youjian hoped that Korea would play this role well and attract more Ming officials to go abroad.

At the same time, there was another matter that Zhu Youjian had to pay attention to: the large number of Silla maids appearing in the Ming Dynasty meant that they had to be taken into consideration.

These women were originally chosen by Consort Zhao for him, and the rejected women were sold off.

Because the Ming Dynasty strictly prohibited human trafficking, there was a significant shortage of service workers in the red-light districts. This led to a surge in demand for Silla (Korean) maids, filling this gap. Later, Emperor Zhu Youjian further restricted slavery in the Ming Dynasty, and to reduce resistance, relaxed restrictions on slaves from other ethnic groups.

Silla maids began to move from red-light districts to the homes of commoners, becoming slaves in many families.

It was precisely the large number of these people that reduced the resistance to Zhu Youjian's policy of restricting slavery.

Otherwise, given the demand for slaves among the Ming gentry, getting them to release slaves wouldn't be so easy.

In the past two years, a new trend has emerged: single men in the Ming Dynasty who cannot find wives are buying Silla maids as concubines.

In the past, only men over forty years old without children were allowed to take concubines.

When Zhu Youjian restricted slavery, he lifted the restrictions on slaves from other ethnic groups, allowing ordinary citizens to use slaves from other ethnic groups and to take women from other ethnic groups as concubines.

Furthermore, the imperial court stipulated that when using slaves from other ethnic groups, a slave tax of one yuan per year must be paid to both the Ming Dynasty and the vassal state from which the slaves originated.

In order to evade the slave tax, some people in the common people chose to use foreign slaves under the guise of taking concubines.

The imperial court had initially intended to punish him severely, but ultimately chose to acquiesce in order to appease the people.

These practices led to the growing business of selling slaves from foreign tribes, with many vassal states making money from this trade.

Because Silla maids were among the earliest to be employed, and their culture was similar to that of the Ming Dynasty, and because they were adopted from outside the Ming Dynasty and the entire population learned Chinese, they could easily integrate into the Ming Dynasty. As a result, they were highly sought after and became the first choice for foreign slaves.

The Japanese women and Southeast Asian women who came later are now far inferior to them.

Zhu Youjian learned a great deal about these matters through Consort Zhao. He knew that Korea had effectively acted as a pressure relief valve for the Ming Dynasty's reforms, reducing resistance to the implementation of many policies. This pressure relief valve could not be removed now, lest it increase the resistance of the gentry.

While some within the Ming Dynasty wanted to normalize Joseon into a prefecture-like state, many more hoped that Joseon, the closest vassal state to the Ming Dynasty, would serve as a source of slaves.

Those officials who wanted Korea to become part of the Ming Dynasty did not actually want to turn Korea into a prefecture-level city, but rather to make Korea an inner vassal state and provide it with more official positions from the Ming Dynasty.

So after much deliberation, he chose to preserve Korea and allow it to enter the Age of Exploration, thus provoking the powerful and influential in the Ming Dynasty.

When Korean nobles could profit from overseas expansion, it was impossible for the powerful and wealthy of the Ming Dynasty not to take action.

At the same time, North Korea also depletes its male population during its expansion, sending some people out to reduce its domestic strength.

These people could also avoid the pressure on local men by marrying indigenous women overseas.

To prevent North Korean men from rebelling and turning North Korea into a source of chaos.

All these considerations led Zhu Youjian to voluntarily grant land to Li Zong during their meeting.

Anyway, these lands don't belong to him now; he just needs to draw a circle around them.

If North Korea gets into a dispute with Spain over this land, it will be a good opportunity to see Spain's strength in Mexico.
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Some officials in the Court of Colonial Affairs did not understand the emperor's ideas.

Minister of the Interior, Zhuang Tingchen, said:

"Your Majesty, simply bestowing rewards upon the King of Joseon is sufficient; why grant them additional land?"

"The fact that the Koreans went to the Americas may not have been beneficial to the Ming Dynasty."

This is the sentiment of many people who are unwilling to see North Koreans appear in the Americas.

They already consider that land to belong to the Ming Dynasty and don't want anyone else to go there.

Some also worry that if Korea were to grow strong through its lands in the Americas, it would pose a renewed threat to the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youjian laughed and said:

"It is not Koreans who have appeared in the Americas now, but I who have conferred the title of Duke of Sunin on the Crown Prince of Korea and assigned him a fiefdom in the Americas."

"The Duchy of Shunren will become one of the North American domains and will be subject to the supervision of the North American Governor's Office."

“The people within the Duchy of Shunren are no different from those within other vassal states; those with Ming citizenship are governed by Ming etiquette and laws.”

"Those without Ming citizenship shall be left to their own devices by the monarch and lords."

“You must understand that the Duchy of Sunin was not granted to Joseon, but was a private territory granted by me to the Crown Prince of Joseon.”

This made some people gradually realize that the emperor was using this method to win over the Crown Prince of Joseon and ensure that the Crown Prince of Joseon was directly governed by the Ming Dynasty.

With the title of Duke of Shunren, the Ming Dynasty could bypass the King of Joseon and reward or punish the Crown Prince of Joseon.

The future Shunren Kingdom will also be a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, not of Korea.

The difference is significant because the beneficiary of the Duchy of Sunin was the Crown Prince of Joseon, who would not sacrifice his own interests to offer it to the Joseon royal court, and Joseon would hardly gain much strength as a result.

If Joseon were to demand tribute from the Duchy of Sunin, it is estimated that the Duchy of Sunin would first request the Ming Dynasty to uphold justice. There was no vassal relationship between the Duchy of Sunin and the Kingdom of Joseon.

After Zhuang Tingchen understood the situation, he had no objection to the emperor bestowing the title of Duke of Sunin upon the Crown Prince of Joseon.

However, there are differing opinions regarding the size of the territory, stating:
"Your Majesty, the Duke's fiefdom is five hundred li, which is 250,000 square li."

"The Shunren Peninsula, which is now granted to them, covers an area of ​​500,000 square miles, twice the size of an ordinary principality."

“This is not in accordance with the enfeoffment system, and I believe it should be reduced.”

Zhu Youjian had already made the promise, so of course he wouldn't go back on his word.

Besides, the California peninsula can't support many people at all, so he doesn't care.

He said to Zhuang Tingchen and the others:

"The Americas are too far from the Ming Dynasty, basically tens of thousands of miles away."

"In order to encourage nobles to establish fiefdoms in these places, I previously promised their vassal nobles that their territories would not be counted in the area of ​​their fiefdoms."

"When formulating the laws of enfeoffment, this should be written in as a preferential treatment for vassal states thousands of miles away."

It's impossible to keep restrictions in such distant places; those vassal states need to strengthen their power to fight off enemies.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian stipulated from the beginning that these vassal states could open up larger territories, but the directly controlled territories could not exceed the limit, and any excess territories had to be enfeoffed.

This is why the Zhou king chose to go to North America to establish a vassal state; there were simply too many members of this branch of the royal family.

The same applies to the Duchy of Shunren; the direct territory of the Duke of Shunren shall not exceed 250,000 square li.

After hearing the explanation, Zhuang Tingchen understood, but he felt that it was not good to have no restrictions at all, and suggested:

"Your Majesty, if there are no restrictions, some vassal states will treat their vassal territories as counties in effect, and they may become too powerful in the future, possessing the strength to threaten the Ming Dynasty."

"I believe that the number of their vassal territories should also be limited, and should not exceed the number of their directly controlled territories."

Zhu Youjian smiled upon hearing this:

"Do you think the reason I sent the Crown Prince of Joseon to North America was to have them mix in with the enemy and prevent any vassal state from unifying North America?"

"In the future, I will also enfeoff the lords of Japanese domains to North America, to prevent them from being easily unified by a single domain."

"The limitation on the size of vassal territories that you mentioned can be raised in the noble council and discussed by the nobles themselves."

Having revealed his plans, Zhu Youjian did not intend to impose too many restrictions on the expansion, but rather planned to arrange for people from multiple ethnic groups to establish fiefdoms in North America.

However, he didn't object to Zhuang Tingchen's idea; he let the Minister of the Inner Domains push it forward himself and see if the Noble Council would agree. (End of Chapter)