Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 978 Korean Rebellion
After Hao Hao arrived in North Korea, the already difficult lives of the North Koreans became even more miserable, as if they had suddenly arrived in hell.

How could Korea, which was already having a hard time, withstand such repeated harvests? Although the Korean king and ministers tried their best to help the Qing Dynasty collect supplies in order not to anger Hauge, all the pressure was transferred to the Korean people. As a large amount of civilian supplies were collected and transported to Liaodong, the Korean people simply could not survive. Without enough food, everyone was almost unable to survive. Would they starve to death? Although the Korean people were cowardly, they would still resist when faced with a life-and-death situation.

Soon, many rebellions broke out in various parts of Korea. Although Korea sent troops to suppress the rebellion, it was completely unable to solve it. After all, the number of rebellions and the number of people involved were too many. Just as they were suppressing one rebellion here, another one broke out in other places. In addition, there were also a large number of soldiers in the Korean army who were strongly dissatisfied with the Qing Dynasty and were unwilling to turn their butcher knives against their own people. As a result, the rebellion in Korea was not only not quelled as soon as possible, but became more and more intense.

Under such circumstances, the King of Joseon, Yi Jong, had no choice but to turn to Hauge for help. When Hauge learned about it, he laughed and didn't take it seriously at all.

Hauge was a reckless man. In his eyes, a mere rebellion was nothing. Those Korean people who were holding farm tools such as hoes and dung forks and had no armor were even more of a mob. Since these Korean people dared to rebel, then they should just lead the troops to kill them. If you are not afraid of killing one or two, are you afraid of killing ten or a hundred? If you still cannot suppress them, then kill more, thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands! Anyway, these lives are all Korean lives. What does it have to do with the Qing Dynasty if more people die?
Moreover, killing all these ignorant Koreans would be a good thing for the Qing Dynasty. In this way, Korea would not need to use so much food to feed these Koreans. Wouldn't all this food belong to the Qing Dynasty? Kill, kill, kill! The more the better! The blood would flow like a river. He wanted to see if the Koreans were really not afraid of death.
In this way, Hauge ordered his subordinates to directly intervene in the military operation to quell the Korean rebellion. These Eight Banners soldiers were not Korean soldiers, and they had no mercy on the Korean people. They were vicious and cruel. Not only did they show no mercy in suppressing the rebellion and killed many people, they even took the opportunity to plunder the local area. Even those Korean local gentry and wealthy families who did not participate in the rebellion were not spared. They could just find a reason to say that they were rebels and let their soldiers burn, kill, loot and do all kinds of evil.

Due to Hauge's actions, the rebellion in Joseon was not suppressed, but became more serious. A large number of people were killed, even innocent people and gentry were not spared. As time went on, the whole of Joseon was in chaos. Six of the eight provinces of Joseon were in chaos, and there were rebellions everywhere. Only Gyeonggi Province and Jeolla Province were slightly better, but under the surface of calm, there were still undercurrents.

In addition, the nature of the Korean rebellion also changed from the spontaneous resistance of the Korean people to a resistance led by local gentry and even powerful families. Due to Hauge's indiscriminate attacks and the wanton looting of the local area by the Eight Banners Qing army, these people united to protect themselves and formed various large-scale volunteer armies.

As a result, the shock to North Korea intensified, but Hauge didn't care at all. Anyway, the troops in his hands could completely suppress North Korea. As long as he was fine and could get a lot of supplies from North Korea smoothly, what did he care about the lives of North Koreans? North Korea was in chaos, so he would leave it after completing the task. The mess would be left to the Korean monarch and ministers to deal with. Hauge didn't care what North Korea would look like in the future.

The situation in Korea soon attracted the attention of the Ming Dynasty. Pi Island, which was closest to Korea, was where the Ming Dynasty’s garrison was located. So after large-scale rebellion and turmoil broke out in Korea, the Pi Island garrison received the news and quickly reported the matter.

Zheng Hongkui went to Europe, and Li You temporarily served as the admiral of Shandong Navy. After receiving the report from Pi Dao, Li You immediately sent the situation to the capital by express horse and reported it directly to Zhu Shenzhui.

When Zhu Shenzui received the report from Li You, the report from the Jinyiwei was also delivered to him almost at the same time. After reading the two reports, Zhu Shenzui concentrated for a moment and immediately convened a cabinet meeting.

After receiving the news, Wen Tiren and others rushed to the Qianqing Palace one after another. Soon, all five cabinet elders were present. They were the Chief Minister Wen Tiren, the Second Minister Zhang Zhifa, and the cabinet elders Wang Jinwu, Fan Fucui and Kong Zhenyun.

After Wang Jinwu entered the cabinet, he replaced Liu Yuliang and is now ranked third in the cabinet. Although he is not the second assistant, Wang Jinwu's identity is different from others. He is not only a nobleman of the Ming Dynasty, but also the number one person in the military and the representative of the Ming Dynasty military in the cabinet.

With Wang Jinwu's entry into the cabinet, the previous pattern of the Ming cabinet being all civil officials was directly broken. For the first time, the military had a channel to speak out in the cabinet. Zhu Shenzhu also made new adjustments to the cabinet on this matter. From now on, there must be military representatives among the cabinet members. However, as cabinet elders, military representatives can only serve as second assistants and cabinet elders, but not as first assistants. This is considered to be a set rule.

After Wang Jinwu entered the cabinet, he did not show strong aggressiveness. He was very low-key in the cabinet according to Zhu Shenzhui's wishes, watching more, listening more and talking less. This was Zhu Shenzhui's reminder to Wang Jinwu before, and Wang Jinwu also did this. During the days when he entered the cabinet, Wang Jinwu basically did not interfere in the normal affairs of the cabinet. Although Wang Jinwu would attend discussions on most government affairs because of his status as a cabinet elder, he usually seldom expressed his opinion. Even if he did, he would usually agree with the decisions made by other cabinet elders, including the chief minister Wen Tiren.

But this does not mean that Wang Jinwu is just a decoration. He does not take the initiative to participate in civil affairs, but he is very active in military affairs. Wang Jinwu often has a lot of say in military issues, which even Wen Tiren dare not ignore. In this way, Wang Jinwu's status in the cabinet has not declined, but has been slightly improved. Now he is ranked third after Zhang Zhifa. Once Zhang Zhifa withdraws from the cabinet, Wang Jinwu can take his place and become the second assistant candidate of the cabinet. Everyone entered the side hall, and Zhu Shenzhui was waiting for them.

Prime Minister Wen Tiren led the cabinet members to pay homage to the emperor, after which the emperor offered them seats, and the cabinet elders took their seats in order according to their ranking.

"There have been changes in Korea. I have just received reports from Shandong Navy Admiral Li You and the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Gentlemen, please take a look at them first." Zhu Shenzhui said. Lu Jiude, who was serving on the side, handed the two reports to Wen Tiren first. Wen Tiren took them and opened them carefully. He read Li You's report first, raised his brows slightly, and then read the report from the Embroidered Uniform Guard. After reading both reports, he handed them to the second assistant Zhang Zhifa beside him, and then passed them down one by one.

After a while, all five ministers finished reading. After Kong Zhenyun handed the two reports back to Lu Jiude, Zhu Shenzui glanced at everyone and asked them what they thought about the matter.

"Congratulations, Your Majesty!" Prime Minister Wen Tiren spoke first. He stood up and saluted the emperor with a smile, saying, "The Jiannu have committed atrocities and provoked civil unrest in Korea. This is a blessing for our Ming Dynasty! Your Majesty's previous blockade of the Jiannu has been effective. If it weren't for the Jiannu's lack of supplies and the chaos in the country, how could the Jiannu bandit chieftain do such a thing? The chaos in Korea was caused by the Jiannu's excessive oppression. Now the civil unrest in Korea is raging, which is not a bad thing for our Ming Dynasty."

"Your Excellency the Prime Minister is right!" Zhang Zhifa was originally Wen Tiren's younger brother and had always followed Wen Tiren's lead. After hearing Wen Tiren's statement, he quickly took over the topic and said, "Korea was originally a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. During the Wanli period, Japan crossed the sea to invade Korea. In just a month, the capital of Korea fell and its ruler fled in a panic. Korea was on the verge of extinction."

"If it weren't for the Ming Dynasty's intervention and sending troops to Korea to turn the tide and eventually defeat the invading Japanese invaders, Korea would have been saved. Otherwise, Korea would have been gone long ago. For this reason alone, the Ming Dynasty has given Korea a new life. Moreover, after Korea was established, the Ming Dynasty treated Korea with many favors. Not only did it regard it as the leader of all vassal states, but Taizu also established it as a country that would not be conquered. The Ming Dynasty can be said to have done its utmost to Korea, even if it is a parent who treats his children in this way. However, Korea's wolfish ambitions did not consider the kindness of the Ming Dynasty. After that, it jumped back and forth many times and flirted with the Jiannu in private. During the Chongzhen period, when the Ming Dynasty was weak, it actually abandoned the Ming Dynasty and turned to the Jiannu to pay tribute to it. Now it has ended up like this, and it is its own fault!"

Kong Zhenyun agreed with Zhang Zhifa's words. They had a very bad impression of North Korea, especially Kong Zhenyun. As a descendant of a saint, he thought that North Korea's actions were shameless to the extreme. When the Ming Dynasty was strong, North Korea clung to the Ming Dynasty's thighs and called it daddy. From the monarch to the ministers to the common people, all of them were proud to be a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. In private, they even jokingly said that being a dog of the Ming Dynasty was the greatest honor of their lives.

When Korea encountered national disaster, if Ming Dynasty had not helped, Korea would have been annexed by Japan long ago. How could there be Korea today? In order to help Korea restore its country, Ming Dynasty paid a huge price. The battle lasted for seven years, costing Ming Dynasty tens of millions of dollars and losing tens of thousands of elite troops, but it finally won.

After the war, Korea was restored, but what benefit did the Ming Dynasty get? Apart from a few words of gratitude from the Korean king and those unworthy memorials, the Ming Dynasty suffered a great loss of national strength because of the Korean War. This is why Nurhaci later took advantage of the fact that the elite Ming troops were consumed in Korea and the Liaodong army was insufficient to rebel, which led to the defeat of the Liaodong Sarhu War and the rise of the Jiannu.

It can be said that the reason why Liaodong became what it is now is because of Korea. If there were no losses in the Korean War, the Ming Dynasty would have suppressed Nurhaci with its strength and he would not dare to rebel no matter how ambitious he was. But what about now? After the rise of Jiannu in Liaodong, Korea seemed to be in two minds. Although the Korean army cooperated with the Ming army and Jiannu in a few battles under the suppression of Mao Wenlong at the beginning, the combat effectiveness of Korea was really poor. In addition, Korea had a self-preservation mentality, and often did not work hard in the war, and its role was extremely reluctant.

Later, when Huang Taiji turned his spearhead against Korea and sent troops to conquer it, the Korean monarch and his ministers instantly panicked and were defeated miserably on the first day of the battle. Then the Korean monarch and his ministers were eager to surrender to the Jiannu, and finally they even surrendered to the Jiannu and abandoned the Ming Dynasty.

During the siege of Jinzhou, the Korean navy and army also cooperated with the Jiannu to fight against the Ming army. How could such a country, from top to bottom, have any gentlemanly virtue? It is no exaggeration to say that they are treacherous villains. Now they are in such trouble, it is all their own fault!
(End of this chapter)