A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television.

Chapter 167: Peninsula Storm

5

In the autumn of the fourth year of the Tianqi reign, Lu Cheng asked the Intelligence Department to send a group of the most elite personnel, and also sent some members of the special forces, to the capital to carry out a special mission to collect all the shipbuilding information of the Ming Dynasty.

In this era, the Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding technology was definitely the best in the world.

As early as 200 years ago, when Zheng He sailed to the West, the Ming Dynasty built a treasure ship that was 151 meters long and 60 meters wide, with a draft of 800 tons and capable of carrying thousands of people at the same time.

You should know that the ocean-going ship that Columbus, the adventurer who opened the Age of Discovery, took was only 35 meters long. Compared with the Ming Dynasty's Fu ship, it was completely a little brother.

Unfortunately, after the Ming Dynasty lifted the maritime ban, a lot of shipbuilding information was sealed up, and some was even destroyed.

Some time ago, Lu Cheng wrote a letter to Lu Wenzhao, asking about some information about shipbuilding. He learned that the warehouse of the Ministry of Works and the document library of the Embroidered Uniform Guard still stored some shipbuilding information.

Therefore, Lu Cheng sent a group of the most elite personnel, with sufficient property, into the capital, and asked them to get the shipbuilding materials by any means.

Before this, Lu Cheng did not dare to act too recklessly for fear of attracting the attention of the court.

As for today, the steam engine has been developed, the process of industrialization and mechanization has begun, and the first batch of metal bullets have also been produced, but the production volume has not yet been increased.

If another year or two passes, Lu Cheng might be able to directly develop a hand-cranked Gatling gun. By then, it will be a nightmare for the cavalry, and the era of cold weapons in which cavalry was king will be completely ended.

With absolute equipment superiority and logistical supplies from Southeast Asia, although Lu Cheng still has the same few tens of thousands of soldiers, his combat effectiveness is no longer the same.

Even if he fell out with the imperial court, Lu Cheng was not afraid.

To put it bluntly, even if the Ming Dynasty and the Later Jin Dynasty joined forces, Lu Cheng could just overturn the table and let them know that times have changed.

Of course, it is better not to fall out if possible. The longer time passes, the more beneficial it will be to the party that develops the fastest.

There is no doubt that Lu Cheng is the fastest developing place in this era.

Just when the entire Liaodong was actively preparing for a new war, the Later Jin did begin to mobilize troops on a large scale, but this time it was not against Liaodong or the Mongolian tribes, but it targeted the Lee Dynasty of Korea again.

As early as a few years ago, after Nurhaci's army was defeated in Jinzhou Wei, it went to conquer the Lee Dynasty of Korea, completely subdued it and made it his younger brother, providing a large amount of food supplies to the Later Jin every year.

However, the Korean Peninsula, where the Joseon Dynasty was located, was not very large, with relatively little arable land, and the Joseon Dynasty itself was very poor, and it had to squeeze out a large amount of food and materials to supply the Later Jin Dynasty every year. In the long run, ordinary people naturally lived in dire straits for a long time.

Since Lu Cheng occupied the Zhenjiangbao area, he took advantage of the opportunity of trade with the Joseon Dynasty to arrange for some people to infiltrate the Joseon Dynasty and go deep into the people, spreading the news that the Later Jin Dynasty oppressed them all, and that those in power were cowardly and incompetent, inciting the people to resist and not pay food to those who oppressed them.

At the beginning, this kind of propaganda and incitement did not have much effect. After all, the people had been numbed by the oppression of the rulers and had long lost the will to resist.

However, as the Later Jin suffered repeated defeats in Liaodong and made little progress in Mongolia, it intensified its oppression of Korea.

When things reach a limit, there will always be a backlash. Even some noble generals of the Joseon Dynasty began to be unable to tolerate it and took the initiative to contact Liaodong, wanting to ask Liaodong's troops to assist them in resisting the Later Jin.

Liaodong naturally also actively cooperated and was ready to help the Joseon Dynasty fight against the Later Jin.

Since last year, the Joseon Dynasty has found various excuses to reduce the amount of food and supplies paid as tribute to the Later Jin.

The Later Jin was naturally very dissatisfied and directly executed the envoys and ministers of the Lee Dynasty of Korea. Even a beile of the Later Jin led his troops into the Lee Dynasty palace and threatened the Lee royal family.

By this year, the conflict between the two sides had completely intensified. After the Joseon Dynasty negotiated terms with Liaodong, Lu Cheng directly recruited 5,000 soldiers and stationed them in the Zhenjiang Fort area. He also moved the cavalry team to the Zhenjiang Fort area and claimed that he would represent the Ming Dynasty and support the Joseon Dynasty.

The Later Jin Dynasty naturally could not tolerate the various actions of the Lee Dynasty of Korea. If it could not completely defeat this little brother and resolve its worries, how could the Later Jin Dynasty continue to expand westwards in the future?

Therefore, after some consideration, Nurhaci decided to completely wipe out the Korean Peninsula, destroy the Joseon Dynasty, let the troops of the Later Jin rule this land, and turn all the people of the Korean Peninsula into slaves of the Later Jin.

Naturally, the beile and flag owners of the Later Jin Dynasty actively supported this.

Therefore, before the winter of the fourth year of Tianqi, the Later Jin Dynasty brazenly sent troops to attack the Lee Dynasty of Korea.

The Later Jin and the Joseon Dynasty were originally bordering each other, and this time the troops were launched in a surprise attack. The Later Jin even arranged spies in advance to provide support. Before the Joseon Dynasty could react, the Later Jin army had already been unstoppable, successively capturing Yizhou, Dingzhou, Guoshan, Anzhou and other places, and approaching the Joseon capital of Hanyang.

King Yi Jong of Joseon fled all the way without caring about his civil and military ministers and the people.

This time, the Later Jin Dynasty was determined to completely destroy the Joseon Dynasty, so it naturally sent out cavalry to pursue the Korean king relentlessly.

On the contrary, the Korean people, under the organization of some generals, began to resist the Later Jin cavalry, but this was tantamount to hitting a rock with an egg and had no effect.

When Sun Chengzong learned the news, it was already too late, and he hurriedly asked Lu Cheng to send troops to aid the Joseon Dynasty.

But at this time, Lu Cheng only sent 5,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, a total of 6,000 troops, into Korea, and began to receive the Korean people and send them to Liaodong for refuge.

Looking at the villages and towns along the way that were looted by the Later Jin soldiers and the scenes of corpses everywhere, Lu Cheng felt very calm.

In fact, Lu Cheng had already grasped the movements of the Later Jin army and knew that they would attack Korea. If Lu Cheng had sent troops in advance, he would have been fully capable of blocking the Later Jin cavalry for the Joseon Dynasty and preventing the Joseon Dynasty from being invaded and massacred by the Later Jin.

But then again, why did Lu Cheng do this?

For Lu Cheng, a Joseon Dynasty that was crippled by the Later Jin would be easier to take over and control.

As for whether this might be a bit cruel, Lu Cheng didn't care at all.

Lu Cheng has always liked what Ai Gong said: I would rather bear the infamy of this life than let my descendants enjoy happiness for thousands of years. This is called "the sin is in this life, and the merit is in the future generations."

Weren’t the Western Age of Exploration, the Industrial Revolution, and technological development all made possible by the wealth accumulated through invasion and colonization?

Since you have embarked on the path of rebellion, it is impossible to be a moral gentleman.

The means are not important, the process is not important, the result is the most important.

Even when the King of Korea fled all the way to the mountains in the south, the spies arranged by Lu Cheng pretended to be Korean people, led the way for the Later Jin Dynasty, and helped them find the Korean royal family.

The result of this battle was that the Later Jin Dynasty only sent out more than 30,000 troops and fought all the way from north to south, almost slaughtering all the royal family of Korea, and even the king was not spared.

Just as the flag owners and beile of the Later Jin were discussing how to divide up the land, a war report came from the rear that the Liaodong army of the Ming Dynasty had crossed the Yalu River and began to help the Korean people recover their lost land...