Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 530 Fujian and Guangdong

After the small-scale secret negotiations with Goryeo envoy Lian Tichen concluded, the Ming Dynasty began preparing an envoy to formally confer the title of King of Goryeo.

After much deliberation, Lu Jin directly named Luo Ben from the Hanlin Academy as the chief envoy of the mission. Luo Guanzhong had previous experience in pacifying Xu Shouhui, and he was not too busy. The others either had important work to do and could not get away, or they did not have any experience in missions.

So Lu Jin immediately had someone summon Luo Ben and personally instructed him, recounting everything from the situation in Dadu to the present in Goryeo, as well as his negotiations with Lian Tichen, so that Luo Ben would be well-informed and not be deceived by the Koreans when he arrived in Goryeo.

Robben was secretly amazed after hearing this, thinking to himself that His Majesty was truly ruthless and cruel, managing to extort so much from Goryeo.

Lu Jin continued to instruct, "You will be going by boat this time, but you must go and come back quickly. Once you've finished your business, return as soon as possible and don't linger in Goryeo for too long."

"It's already early March. Starting in June, the western Pacific will officially enter typhoon season. At that time, there may be hurricanes at sea at any time, and ships may capsize. It will no longer be safe to travel by sea."

"Therefore, if there is really no time for the journey, when the delegation returns home, you can take a boat back to Liaodong first, enter the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and then return by land. Do you understand?"

"Understood, thank you for the reminder, Your Majesty. Now there are only two months left until June. When shall I depart?" Luo Guanzhong replied and then hurriedly asked.

“There’s no rush to go. The delegation isn’t just you. I need to select some more people to go with the delegation so that we can receive the horses and women that Goryeo is offering as tribute. You just wait here for the next few days. I’ll have someone notify you when you’re ready,” Lu Jin immediately instructed.

"Yes, then I shall take my leave."

"Well, let's go."

After Luo Guanzhong left, Lu Jin began to ponder the reception and use of the 20,000 warhorses.

The candidate for the position is readily available. Before the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Lu Jin's Marshal's Office had a horse stable under its jurisdiction. The head of the horse stable was Li Cunyi, the brother of Li Shanchang, who is still in charge of the Maotan Horse Farm near Shucheng. It is currently the only official horse farm in the Ming Dynasty. If not him, who else can be used for this task?

Lu Jin immediately sent someone to Li Cunyi to order him to select half of the technical backbone of the horse farm to go with the delegation this time. However, they did not need to go to Goryeo. They could just take the delegation's ship to Liaodong and wait there. They would first select a suitable location on the Liaodong Peninsula to build a second military horse farm, and then wait in Liaodong to receive the tribute horses from Goryeo.

After these 20,000 warhorses entered the country, a selection process was first conducted. Several thousand young, eligible mares were chosen and transported to the new horse farm in Liaodong as the foundation for breeding. Then, several hundred high-quality stallions were selected for breeding, bringing the total to about 6,000.

The remaining 13,000 horses were used to form a new cavalry division, which was first placed in Liaodong for training and placed under the command of Yang Jing's Third Army. After that, they were to be deployed to other locations, awaiting Lu Jin's orders.

After issuing the order, Li Cunyi arrived in Jiankang and raised the issue of insufficient manpower with Lu Jin. Lu Jin then instructed him to recruit grooms, veterinarians, blacksmiths, and other civilians on his own, and to report the personnel list later. He urged Lu Jin to prepare the team as soon as possible and not to delay it for too long.

After arranging the receipt of the warhorses, all that remained were the 100,000 catties of lead and the 20,000 Goryeo tribute women. It would certainly take some time to gather all 100,000 catties of lead, but the 20,000 Goryeo tribute women were more urgent.

Li Shanchang also offered his suggestions on how to accommodate the 20,000 Goryeo women.

"Your Majesty, I believe that these 20,000 Goryeo tribute women should not all be given to the officers and soldiers stationed in the north. Such a large concentration of Goryeo people in one place will affect the population structure of the north. Moreover, the children born to these Goryeo women will be influenced by their mothers and will certainly speak some Goryeo language, which will definitely be detrimental to the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, it is best not to put these women together."

Lu Jin nodded upon hearing this, "What you say makes sense, sir. But if we marry these women off to the mainland, wouldn't that go against my original intention? I asked Goryeo for these women precisely to solve the livelihood problem of the soldiers guarding the northern border."

Upon hearing this, Li Shanchang hesitated for a moment before saying, "I do have an idea, although it may be somewhat inhumane, it is still a solution."

Lu Jin looked at him with surprise and immediately asked, "What method is inhumane? Sir, you may tell me first."

"The imperial court can use these Goryeo tribute women to exchange for marriages with the people of the south."

"A marriage exchange? What does that mean?" Lu Jin asked, frowning immediately.

Li Shanchang then explained, “Your Majesty may not know this, but poor people in the countryside have always practiced marriage exchange. Although this practice is not advocated by Confucianism, it is all due to the pressure of making a living, and sometimes they can’t care about anything else.”

"The so-called exchange marriage is when a poor family with both sons and daughters has no money to marry their sons, so they find another family with the same daughters and exchange daughters for their sons. In this way, neither family has to spend money, and the sons still get married. This is what exchange marriage is."

Lu Jin was taken aback upon hearing this, not because he was particularly surprised, but because he had heard of this kind of 'marriage exchange' before in his later years. It seems that this kind of thing has been around in China for a long time.

In fact, that's not all. The Qing Dynasty in the original history was even more outrageous. The poverty and weakness of the Qing Dynasty reached an unimaginable level. Many poor people who could not afford to marry even rented wives. They would pay money to rent a wife for a few years, have a child, and then return her, just to continue their family line.

Seeing that Lu Jin did not immediately object, Li Shanchang added.

“The population of Jiangnan, Jiangxi, and the two lakes regions is dense and they are all Han Chinese. If these 20,000 Korean tribute women are sent out, they won’t even make a ripple. They will be assimilated by the Han Chinese in the south very quickly.”

"Moreover, as long as these women are not allowed to gather in one place, even if they speak Goryeo, no one will understand them. Over time, surrounded by Han people, they will naturally learn to speak Han. In addition, with the schools run by the court, the children born to these women will naturally speak Han and be Han people. "The court can use these 20,000 Goryeo tribute women to exchange for marriages with poor families in the south who cannot afford to marry. This way, the court can settle these 20,000 Goryeo women, and the court can also exchange them for 20,000 Han women from the south. Then, these 20,000 Han women can be married off to the officials and soldiers in the north. There will be no danger of population structure changes, and Goryeo will not be able to infiltrate the Han officials and soldiers in the north. It is truly a win-win situation."

"The only drawback is that the imperial court is in charge of this matter, which has a bad influence, since Confucianism does not encourage this kind of marriage exchange."

After listening to this, Lu Jin pondered for a moment and concluded that it was much better and could indeed be done.

As for the influence of Confucianism, haha, did Lu Jin ever care about that stuff? He even wiped out the Northern Confucianists, so why would he be afraid of this?
Then Lu Jin said, "Who cares about the impact? Any method that can solve the problem is a good method. As for what the Confucianists think, what does it have to do with me? Just do it this way."

Li Shanchang nodded immediately, then asked, "How should these be distributed?"

Lu Jin thought for a moment before saying, “First, we will exchange 10,000 Han women from Zhejiang and Anhui provinces, then another 10,000 Han women from Hubei and Hunan provinces and Jiangxi province. Then we will send them to the north for distribution. We will first distribute 5,000 to the Hetao region, 5,000 to the Xinghe (Zhangjiakou) to Yingchang area, 5,000 to the Songjin, Daning, and Quanning areas, and 5,000 to the Shenyang, Liaoyang, Lushun, and Jinfugai prefectures.”

"Furthermore, regarding the matter of exchanging brides, local officials are not allowed to impose quotas, let alone forcibly seize women. Everything must be based on voluntariness. The government can send people to persuade them, but they are not allowed to use force. If I hear that any place has caused trouble because of this matter, then they can expect their families to be raided and their heads to be slapped."

"Yes, Your Majesty, I will certainly explain this matter clearly," Li Shanchang replied solemnly.

"Well, let's leave it at that. We'll try different ones first. If we can't finish, we can try Shandong or Shanxi. There are quite a few Han Chinese there. Although we've been separated by north and south for a long time, they are still Han Chinese after all," Lu Jin instructed again.

"Yes, Your Majesty understands."

Once the destination of the 20,000 Goryeo tribute women was finalized, the arrangements for the mission to Goryeo and the subsequent receipt of tribute were almost complete. Lu Jin immediately instructed them to prepare to depart before the end of March and complete the investiture ceremony and return before May.

As for receiving tribute, it certainly won't be that quick. Goryeo needs time to gather so many people. As long as it's completed within this year, it will be fine.

After explaining this matter, Lu Jin immediately summoned several people from the Privy Council, as well as generals such as Zhu Liangzu, Liao Yongzhong, and Chang Yuchun, and began to arrange the campaign deployment for them to attack Fujian and Guangdong.

In addition to the original generals of the Holy Martial Army, those who came to the meeting this time included Fang Guozhen, who had just arrived from Zhoushan as the naval representative for this battle, and Yu Yunzhou, the former prefect of Suzhou.

Yu Yunzhou came from the intelligence bureau. Before Lu Jin crossed the Yangtze River to recover Jiangsu and Zhejiang, he was the chief intelligence officer in eastern Zhejiang. He then served as the prefect of Suzhou for nearly three years, where he performed well in implementing the tiered tax system without causing any trouble. Now that they were going to attack Fujian, they needed a capable and shrewd provincial governor, so Lu Jin promoted him and prepared to appoint Yu Yunzhou as the right provincial governor of Fujian.

The meeting was chaired by Feng Guoyong. Bao Yu, Minister of the General Staff, was responsible for introducing intelligence from Fujian and Guangdong. Xia Yu, Vice Director of the Privy Council, was responsible for the deployment of the campaign plan. Lu Jin sat on the side listening.

The battle plan devised by Feng Guoyong, Xia Yu, and others was to form the Fujian Campaign Group, consisting of Zhu Liangzu's Second Army, two Imperial Guard Divisions, and Fang Guozhen's naval division, with a total strength of about 140,000 men.

Zhu Liangzu and Feng Sheng, the general of the Fifth Army Group, led the entire Fifth Army Group, along with a guard division and a corps from the Sixth Army Group, to form the main force and launch an attack on Fujian from southeastern Zhejiang by land.

General Liao Yongzhong of the Sixth Army Group led another army of the Sixth Army Group and an Imperial Guard Division, a total of three divisions and nearly 40,000 troops, as a detachment for this battle. They first moved to Hangzhou to assemble, and then boarded Fang Guozhen's navy. After the battle started, once Zhu Liangzu had attracted the attention of the Yuan army in Fujian by land, Liao Yongzhong's detachment would act as a surprise force, taking the sea route to strike Quanzhou from the rear and destroy the core of Fujian.

Fujian has always been a "land of no concern to military strategists". This desolate place is all mountains. People inside cannot get out, and although it is difficult for people outside to get in, it is by no means impossible. In terms of overall strength, Fujian is definitely not able to withstand a full-scale attack from a main force of the Shengwu Army.

Furthermore, the plan devised by Feng Guoyong, Xia Yu, and others—combining orthodox tactics with unorthodox ones, feinting to the east while attacking the west, and launching a pincer attack—was so flawless that Lu Jin decided not to change the plan.

As for the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, it's even simpler. The biggest power in Guangdong and Guangxi right now is the warlord He Zhen in Guangdong. Although he has not taken the initiative to submit to the Ming Dynasty, his will to resist is not very firm.

Therefore, Feng Guoyong devised a plan to promote peace through war, ordering Chang Yuchun to lead the Ninth Army Group to Chenzhou, Hunan, to join forces with Liao Yongjian's Tenth Army Group. Once the Fifth Army Group was fully assembled, they would advance directly from Chenzhou towards Guangzhou.

If He Zhen leads troops to resist, then fight a battle first, subdue him, and then send someone to persuade him to surrender. Use war to promote peace. Once Guangzhou, the core of Guangdong and Guangxi, is captured, other places will basically be settled by issuing a proclamation. As for Qiongzhou Prefecture (Hainan Island), there is no need to fight there. A proclamation can be issued to persuade him to surrender directly.

After Feng Guoyong finished outlining the battle plan, Lu Jin came out and gave a brief summary.

"You are all veterans who have fought in several major battles. I don't need to say much about the campaign itself. I will only talk about the strategic purpose of this invasion of Fujian, which is to eliminate the chaotic religious forces in Fujian and other places."

"Especially the Semu people who occupied the Quanzhou area, they also formed a local militia called the Yisibaxi Army."

"My demand this time is that you kill all these Semu people for me, leave no one alive!"
"There is also a cleanup of religious sites. Apart from the Taoist temples, Buddhist temples, and Mazu temples in China, all other temples, whether they are Islamic, Blue, Nestorian, Zoroastrian, Christian, or Shaivian, are all destroyed without exception!"
"The core followers of the aforementioned licentious cults will all be executed. The others will be captured and taken to Jiankang first, and then distributed to various places as slaves, to mine and build cities."

"All citizens of Fujian Province are required to surrender any cult scriptures they possess within a specified period. If the government discovers such possession or if someone reports that a family is hiding cult texts, all of them will be exiled overseas, stripped of their academic titles, and their entire family will be implicated. Their families will be barred from taking the imperial examinations, serving as officials, or engaging in the education industry for five generations. Do you all understand?"

"understand!"

(End of this chapter)