In mid-July 25th year of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty envoy Xie Jin arrived at the capital of Goryeo Kaijing by boat. The arrival of the Ming Dynasty envoy was expected by Li Chenggui. For this reason, he had made full preparations. From Xie Jin got off the ship, Goryeo used a state gift to welcome him. Not only did Li Chenggui personally go to the dock to greet him, but at the same time, hundreds of powerful Goryeo, the Goryeo also dispatched together. From the dock to the palace, Goryeo poured water on the street and paved the ground with yellow sand. Eight thousand soldiers were arranged on both sides of the road. In addition, Goryeo also mobilized hundreds of thousands of people to welcome him. The momentum was huge and the scene was extremely lively and spectacular.

Xie Jin sat in the carriage with a calm expression, his lips tightly pursed. He didn't see the grand scene outside at all, as if Goryeo's national welcome had nothing to do with him. At this time, his concern was how to fulfill the emperor's trust and persuade Goryeo to abide by the agreement. However, from Li Chenggui's avoidance of this matter when he picked up the boat, he felt vaguely that it would be extremely difficult to complete this task. Of course, he also brought conditions. Zhu Yuanzhang promised that if Li Chenggui was willing to withdraw his troops and keep his trustworthy, the Ming Dynasty would acquiesce to him and replace him, perhaps Li Chenggui would be interested in this.

Li Chenggui's carriage followed closely behind the envoy of the Ming Dynasty. He looked at the carriage of the envoy of the Ming Dynasty with a cold look. Of course, he knew the purpose of the envoy of the Ming Dynasty. It was impossible to ask him to withdraw his troops. At worst, he would have all his troops to fight with Zhu Yuanzhang. He did not believe that Zhu Yuanzhang would lose the country's vassal state for this land and sent hundreds of thousands of people to fight in Goryeo? No, he knew that Zhu Yuanzhang would not, the real enemy of the Ming Dynasty was the Mongols, and he did not have the threat from the Mongols.

Before the lifting, the Ming Dynasty would not use hundreds of thousands of troops to fight him for a barren land. The land south of the Douman River was a barren land for the Ming Dynasty, but not for Goryeo. When Goryeo got this land, it could continue to develop northward. He sent people to explore. To the north of the Douman River was endless fertile land, equivalent to several large Goryeo. The Mongolians could no longer care about it, but the Ming Dynasty was out of reach. How could he not seize this precious blank?

Of course, Li Chenggui is not such a wise person. He only had to do it in the end. If the goal can be achieved through this negotiation, he would be happy to see it. More importantly, he would have to take advantage of the law and make both the Ming and his own people believe that the land has been Goryeo since ancient times.

His eyes turned to the cheering people on both sides of the street, and a smile appeared on the corner of Li Chenggui's mouth. It has been more than a year since he implemented the field law, and the support of the people began to show that most of these cheering people were paying respects to him, and the time to replace Goryeo was ripe.

In fact, Li Chenggui began to replace Goryeo more than a year ago. He abolished the tyrants and miscellaneous taxes, confiscated the land of the large temple, implemented the field law in accordance with the Tang Juntian Law, and granted the fields to the people, and received support from the people. At the same time, he removed a large number of ministers who opposed him and poisoned his former political enemy, Cui Ying, who had a high prestige. Now no one opposes him. According to the plan, he should have replaced Goryeo in May and established his new dynasty and named it North Korea, but it was postponed due to the northern land issue.

Now, he suddenly realized that fighting with the Ming Dynasty was indeed a good way to gather people's hearts. Why didn't he replace Goryeo before the war started?

A team of twenty carriages drove into the Goryeo Palace. Today is the first day of the Ming envoy. Goryeo was going to hold a grand welcoming ceremony for him in the palace, and also had an informal communication to understand the other party's intentions. Goryeo's etiquette was extremely complicated and it took two hours to end.

As soon as the ceremony ended, Xie Jin was anxious to meet with Li Chenggui. Li Chenggui had been waiting in the palace for a long time, and both sides could not wait. At this moment, King Goryeo was still Wang Yao, a son of the Zong family. This was the youngest son of the former king. In addition to Princess Changping's disappearance, all of the children of the former king were killed by him, and there was also the young son used to be a puppet.

The first meeting was held in the palace. The young king sat on the throne. Li Chenggui led more than 20 important officials of Goryeo to sit in a row, while Xie Jin sat opposite him. Several officials from the pedestrian department were also on duty with Xie Jin, including an official who was the translator for him.

Both sides sat down, and Li Chenggui stood up and smiled and said, "Your Majesty the Emperor of the Celestial Dynasty sent envoys to our country. Goryeo is glorious and frightened. If Your Majesty shows you a letter, a letter of edict is enough. Why don't you send thousands of miles to come?"

After hearing the translation, Xie Jin smiled coldly and said, "The envoy came to our court last year and promised to return the land of the Ming Dynasty in exchange for Danluo Island. His Majesty, my emperor, treated it with integrity. However, Goryeo went back on his word and occupied the land of the Ming Dynasty after obtaining Danluo Island. My emperor did not dare to let the envoy come to the Ming Dynasty anymore, so he ordered me to ask when Goryeo will return the land of the Ming Dynasty?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zheng Daochuan, the Minister of Revenue of Goryeo, who was proficient in Chinese, stood up and said in surprise: "Why did your country say this? Haven't we returned the land of the Ming Dynasty? We even made great concessions."

"What do you mean?" Xie Jin asked without saying a word.

"Our Goryeo Army has given up land west of the Yalu River and Douman River, that is, land north of the Tumen River in your country. Isn't this enough?"

"What!" Xie Jin stood up, and said angrily: "The Northern Yuan did not annex Goryeo, but still retained your country. With Motianling as the boundary, Goryeo to the south and Helan Prefecture of the Northern Yuan to the north, while Goryeo took advantage of the Ming Yuan to fight and invaded the north without authorization. My Ming Dynasty replaced the Northern Yuan, and Helan Prefecture was the land of my Ming Dynasty, but Goryeo refused to return it. My Ming Dynasty put the overall situation first and endured it again and again, hoping that Goryeo would consciously return the land, but Goryeo did not understand etiquette and refused to return it. Last year, the Ming Dynasty took back Danluo Island from the Japanese pirates. The two sides agreed to restore the border in the first year of Hongwu. The Ming Dynasty returned to Danluo Island. This was clearly written in black and white on both countries, and there was also the signature of Pei Kelian, the minister of the country. Could it be that Goryeo would also deny this black and white on the black and white on the black and white on the black and white on the two countries. It was also the signature of Pei Kelian of the State's servant. Could it be that Goryeo would also deny this black and white on the black and white on the black and white on the ground?"

Xie Jin took out the copy of the signed text at that time and threw it to the ground. A guard hurriedly stepped forward to pick it up. The atmosphere in the palace was serious and neither side spoke anymore. For a moment, Zhao Jun, the Minister of War of Goryeo, stood up and said, "The emperor was wrong, it was a big mistake. The south of Doumanjiang River has been the territory of our Goryeo since ancient times. Our Goryeo is the former Goguryeo. The territory occupied by Goguryeo is vast, and even the Liaodong Dusi of your country is also the territory of Goguryeo. If you want to be serious, it should be the Ming Dynasty who returned the Liaodong Dusi to us. Our Goryeo has achieved the ultimate and righteousness. We don't care about the Ming Dynasty's occupation of Goryeo territory. Instead, it was the Ming Dynasty who came to question it aggressively. Isn't that strange?"

After Zhao Jun finished speaking, the ministers of Goryeo were talking and agreed. Isn’t Goryeo and Goguryeo the same thing? This is the response plan carefully planned by Goryeo. If Goguryeo was used to deal with the Ming Dynasty, the envoys of the Ming Dynasty were difficult to prepare and would definitely return in disgrace. However, they did not expect that the Ming Dynasty would come with a talented talent full of knowledge.

Xie Jin sneered and said, "The word "Goryeo and Goguryeo are one of the differences, but they have lost a thousand miles. The king of Goguryeo was surnamed Gao, and the king of Goguryeo was surnamed Wang. What is the relationship between these two? Goguryeo was destroyed in the early Tang Dynasty, and 80,000 Goguryeo households were moved to the Central Plains and integrated with the Han people. Gao Xianzhi, a famous general of the Middle Tang Dynasty, was the descendant of the Goryeo royal family who was moved to the Central Plains. The remaining Goguryeo later established the Bohai Kingdom and was finally destroyed by the Liao Kingdom. At this point, Goguryeo was completely destroyed. But you Goryeo split from the Silla Kingdom that coexisted with Goguryeo. What does it have to do with Goguryeo? Do you deliberately confuse the two and bully me, the Ming Dynasty, and there is no one?"

The Minister of Goryeo did not expect Xie Jin to be so clear. They looked at each other and could not say a word. Finally, Zheng Daochuan, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, coughed dryly and said: "Who can know what happened hundreds of years ago? We will not pursue the ownership of the Liaodong Dusi for the time being, but the land south of the Tumen River was not included on the map of Liao and Jin, which shows that they also believe that the land south of the Tumen River belongs to Goryeo, which is a fact."

After saying that, Zheng Daochuan ordered people to bring the map drawn by the Liao and Jin dynasties, and then asked someone to pick it up with a bamboo pole. He pointed to the disputed area and said, "Did the envoy see it? This is a fact of iron."

Xie Jin went up to look and saw that the Liaodong area was sparse and basically no markings, and there was no boundary line. He snorted disdainfully and said, "The Liao people and the Jin people and the Jurchens are all nomadic peoples in the north. It is normal for their map to be sloppy. Even the Liaodong area, their birthplace, do not have any markings. Can you still expect to mark them in a more remote place? Moreover, there is no boundary marking on the map at all. He Yan Tumen River and south of the Yalu River are

The land of Goryeo? I might as well tell you another map. You can go and see the map of Bohai Kingdom. To the south of Tumenjiang River are clearly Yalu Mansion and Nanhai Mansion of Bohai Kingdom. Nanhai Mansion is also Nanjing of Bohai Kingdom. Even your current Longzhou to Datong River are also under the jurisdiction of Lulong Jiedu, and then to the south of Datong River are Silla. Finally, Bohai Kingdom was destroyed by Liao Kingdom. This is an iron historical fact. How can you say that the land of Tumenjiang River does not belong to Liao?”

Xie Jin's words made the Goryeo ministers speechless, and the palace was quiet. At this time, Li Chenggui stood up and smiled and said, "We will talk about this matter slowly. There is always a solution. We have worked hard all the way. Please go and rest first. Let's stop here today. I'll just talk about each other's ideas and do not force consensus."

Xie Jin did not say a word, bowed to the Goryeo Puppet King, turned around and went down. When the Ming envoy left, Li Chenggui ordered the Puppet King to return to the palace, and then said to the important officials: "I will officially announce two things to everyone. First, three days later, on July 16th, I will officially ascend the throne and replace the Goryeo with North Korea."

After saying that, he glanced at the ministers and saw that everyone was not surprised. He nodded and then said, "The second thing is that my land in Goryeo will not be given to the Ming Dynasty, I have decided to prepare for war."

This sentence caused a buzzing sound. His confidant Zheng Daochuan stood up and said, "Sir, how do we plan to deal with the envoys of the Ming Dynasty?"

Li Chenggui said with a gloomy face: "There is no need to talk anymore. Although the two countries are fighting and not killing the envoys, they cannot let him leave. I will immediately pass my orders and the army will dispatch to surround his residence."

At this moment, Xie Jin had arrived at the VIP hotel located in the south of the capital. He now fully understood that Goryeo had no sincerity to give up the land, and the negotiations would not have a result. They tried every means to prove that the land of the Ming Dynasty was them. Xie Jin knew very well that Li Chenggui would not let him go and would detain him in Goryeo, indicating that the negotiations were still continuing. He would use this period to actively prepare for war. He must notify the King of Liao and Li Weizheng as soon as possible.

When he walked up the steps, Xie Jin suddenly smiled at the Goryeo official who accompanied him and was also monitoring him and said, "I have some luggage on the boat, and I want to let the entourage pick it up."

The Goryeo officials were ordered to monitor Xie Jin, but they didn't care about his subordinates. He nodded in agreement. Xie Jin pulled an official from the pedestrian department aside. While the Goryeo officials were not paying attention, they stuffed a wax ball into his hand and reminded him urgently: "Goryeo may want to detain me. The wax ball is the emperor's secret order. You can take a boat to Liaodong immediately, and don't delay for a moment."

The pedestrian department official took the wax ball, and he immediately turned over and led the other two followers to gallop towards the dock. Xie Jin kept watching him go away and disappeared, and then walked into the museum. As soon as he climbed the stairs, a huge roar of horse hooves came from a distance. Everyone turned their heads and looked at them together, and they saw dust flying not far away, and countless Goryeo soldiers were rushing towards this side.

Just when the positions of Goryeo and Ming Dynasty could not be matched, outside a forest about hundreds of miles northeast of the Motianling, two black shadows were running along a small river with difficulty. They were all dressed like Goryeo, but they were ragged and dirty. It was obvious that both of them were exhausted. They finally couldn't run and sat back to back on a big rock panting.

Both of these people were Daming pharmacies who escaped from Anbiancheng. One of them was Sun Ji, the shopkeeper of Liaodong who was reported by Li Wei. After the Goryeo army occupied Anbiancheng, they confiscated all the money and goods of more than 100 Daming merchants and used them as logging coolies. Because Sun Ji had a good relationship with the locals and could speak Goryeo, he got a copy of the Meima to transport food to the army ahead. Five days ago, on the way back to Anbiancheng, he ran away at night with another medicinal merchant.

Sun Ji was arrested in mid-May. More than two months have passed. Two months of coolies and hunger have tortured them to a thin and thin place. If it were not for the support of their desire to survive, the two of them would not have escaped. It is less than fifty miles away from Tumen River and is rarely visited.

Another companion is from the Han people in Liaodong, about forty years old, named Qin Feng. He can't speak Goryeo, but he can speak Jurchens. In the past few days, he used the two gold teeth in his mouth to exchange a little food for the Goryeo Jurchens.

"Brother Sun, I really can't run anymore. Let's find a tree to spend the night!"

Sun Ji was ten years younger than him, but smart and capable, and able to make correct judgments, so he was the head of the two. Sun Ji looked up at the sky. It was already evening. He nodded and glanced around. He saw a lone tall pine tree not far away, with thick shade. He pointed and said, "Let's go to that tree."

The night in the deep mountains and old forests is very dangerous. The ferocious beasts are foraging everywhere. Only on the trees are a little safer. After eating a little dry cake, they ran towards the big tree together. The pine tree is at least a hundred years old. It is five feet tall, straight and straight. The thick trunk must be hugged by three people. The two of them have found a way to climb trees every five days. They borrowed a rope torn out of a robe and climbed up quickly.

After the big tree, they each found a safe tree and lay down. Qin Feng was so tired that he fell asleep. However, Sun Ji couldn't fall asleep. He took out a wrinkled piece of paper from his arms, and there was a scribbled map on the paper. This was their escape route. He marked it along the way. He took out a piece of graphite and drew a lonely pine tree by the river. He looked again, sighed, and carefully put the map and graphite into his arms.

He then lowered his head and recalled the details he saw in the Goryeo military camp, for fear of forgetting it. It was a large military camp hidden in the depths of the forest by a lake, surrounded by steep mountains. The barracks were stationed at 60,000 to 70,000 troops, but there were few horses, no more than 3,000 at most. The soldiers were wearing leather armor, some held spears, some held bows and arrows, some held knives and shields. They did not see muskets, nor did they hear the sound of "bang bang bang bang". However, when he was unloading grain, he saw the ordnance warehouse.

There are four cannons in the warehouse, all of which are very old, squatting alone in the corner, and there are four boxes of shells next to them. The five words "Da Ming Baoyuan Bureau" are clearly written on the wooden box. In addition, there is not much food in the military camp. He is a businessman and is very sensitive to quantity. He believes that the grain in the grain warehouse can support the army for more than ten days at most. Moreover, the training of the army seems lazy and unconscious, full of complaints, complaining about food, complaining about military pay, complaining about too little land, complaining about everything that can be complained about.

Sun Ji thought these were all important information. He wanted to send these information to Mingjun. It was already dark. The long howl of wild wolves came faintly from the deep forest. A layer of white mist gradually rose from the forest, wrapping them up like clouds and mist. The air was filled with a pungent smell. Sun Ji stared blankly at the half-black moon in the sky. A sleepy feeling came towards him. He was about to close his eyes, but suddenly there was a sound of horse hooves from the riverbed. He woke up suddenly, pinched Qin Feng, and stopped his snoring. He sat up slowly and looked at the riverside. He saw a team of cavalry drinking water by the river. There were about twenty people, dark, unable to see the armor on their bodies, nor could they hear what they were saying. It seemed to be a patrol of the Goryeo.

Soon, the cavalry packed up their horses and walked towards them. Sun Ji tightened his neck and his heart was pounding with nervousness. He clasped his hands and begged these people to leave quickly, but things often went to bad places. The sound of horse hooves became closer and closer, and finally stopped under their tree, as if they were preparing to spend the night under the tree. But at this time, Qin Feng's snoring sounded again. Sun Ji was so anxious that he was sweating profusely. He pinched Qin Feng a few times, but he couldn't stop his snoring.

At this moment, he heard the conversation under the tree, "Captain, where are the camps of the Goryeo Army? We have been searching for almost half a month, but we can't find them."

"I think we should ask the Jurchen hunter again, maybe they know."

"You can't look for it anymore. If you look for it too much, they will betray us."
Chapter completed!