In early June, the Maharaja's Mansion in Shouyang.

Shouyang Monarch Li Yao sat on the chair at the head of the living room with a serious expression, and on the chairs on both sides of the hall sat in order of rank, and some officials were talking about each other there.

Just this morning, the prince Li Jue entered Seoul under the escort of the Ming army, which means that Li Jue and Li Jue are about to start a fierce battle for the throne.

Li Jue did not come to Seoul alone, those officials who followed him all returned, ready to help Li Jue compete for the position of Li Jue, anyway, Li Yuntian was in Seoul Li Jue did not dare to attack them.

There are now 20,000 Ming troops stationed in Seoul, of which 10,000 are the Xiaowu army in Liaodong, and the other 10,000 are the Weisho army in Liaodong, and Li Yao's strength in Seoul is only 15,000 people, which is 5,000 less than the Ming army.

Therefore, Li Jue will definitely not provoke trouble at this time, otherwise he will shoot himself in the foot, and then fall behind in the competition with Li Jue.

All of the 30,000 troops transferred by Li Yuntian from Liaodong had arrived in Korea by sea, and in addition to the 20,000 troops in Seoul, the remaining 10,000 troops from Liaodong Weisho were scattered to Badao in Korea to carry out the task of distributing relief, so that those magistrates would not interfere with it.

It is worth mentioning that there are 5,000 Ming army sailors on the wharf of Incheon Port, which is responsible for protecting the ships anchored in the port, which is something that the port people cannot ask for.

It was the first time since the state of Korea that so many Ming troops had been stationed in Seoul, and compared with the strong and well-equipped Ming soldiers, the thin and outdated Korean soldiers became a ragtag army.

Although so many Ming troops were stationed in Seoul, the people in the city did not panic in the slightest, and the market was more stable than before.

Like the port of Incheon, the arrival of a large number of Ming soldiers led to the economic prosperity of Seoul, the most intuitive manifestation of which was to stimulate consumption in Seoul.

When so many people are stationed, the first thing they face is the problems of eating, drinking, Lazar, firewood, rice, oil and salt, and many of them need to be provided by the people near the station.

In addition, although the Ming army in Liaodong implemented a compulsory military system, the soldiers usually also had allowances to buy daily necessities, although those allowances were not much, but the soldiers were responsible for food, clothing, housing and transportation by the army, so many people saved up the allowances, and the amount was really considerable.

What is particularly important is that because the Ming army in Liaodong left the territory of the Ming Dynasty and went abroad to perform official duties, their allowances will be doubled, which makes ordinary soldiers have money in their hands.

Compared with the high-quality and inexpensive goods in Seoul, the consumption power of the Ming soldiers was immediately highlighted, and it was common to see the Ming soldiers who went out buying local souvenirs to send home, and the Ming soldiers could also be seen in taverns and brothels.

With the return of Li Jue, the political scene in Seoul was immediately divided into two factions, one faction supported Li Jue, and the other faction naturally used Li Jue.

Because Li Jue failed to clear the charge of killing the king of Joseon, after returning to Seoul, he did not live in his previous residence in Gyeongbokgung Palace, but lived in the home of a large family in Seoul, waiting for Li Yuntian's investigation.

Because the time was too long, the progress of Li Yuntian's investigation was very slow, but he was not in a hurry, and while asking people to investigate the rebellion in Seoul on the night the king of Joseon was killed, he supervised the distribution of disaster relief materials.

Li Jue's mood when he returned to Seoul this time was extremely complicated, since the king of Joseon was killed, this was the first time he was able to enter Seoul, if it wasn't for Li Yuntian to let him come back, he didn't know that the Year of the Monkey and Ma Yue would be able to set foot on the land of Seoul again.

"His Royal Highness!" Some officials loyal to Li Jue in Seoul went outside the city to greet Li Jue, and when they saw Li Jue, they knelt on the ground and wept bitterly, and they had to pretend to be obedient to Li Jue in order to survive these days, and they were deeply ashamed of this.

Seeing this, Li Jue's eyes couldn't help but become rosy, and he secretly sighed in his heart, and stepped forward to personally help those officials up, and it was not easy for these people to stand up and follow him now.

Moreover, now is the critical period for Li Jue to recruit troops and buy horses to confront Li Jue, and the officials in the capital are naturally the targets of his wooing.

With the arrival of Li Jue, the officials in Seoul had to choose a side, choosing to support Li Jue or Li Jue, once they chose the wrong team, the consequences would be unimaginable, and they would be demoted or lose their lives.

At the same time as Li Jue entered Seoul, he lectured on the Seoul Affairs Office of Wutang.

"Lord Wang, as you expected, Jin Zongrui and Cui Yande did not mean to come to Seoul after receiving the order."

When Li Yuntian was flipping through the official documents in his room, Yun Na walked in quickly, put the two official letters in her hand on the table in front of Li Yuntian, and said in a frosty voice, "Jin Zongrui claimed that he was ordered by the king of Joseon to guard the six towns in the northeast of Joseon, so he would only follow the order of the king of Joseon to return to Seoul, and if the prince could invite the emperor's edict, he could also come back, it was too arrogant!" ”

Li Yuntian couldn't help but smile slightly when he heard this, and reached out to pick up the two official letters on the table, he had long expected that Jin Zongrui and Cui Yande would not easily leave the four counties and six towns, and now it seems that this is indeed the case.

Compared with Jin Zongrui's official letter, Cui Yunde's words on the official letter were much more tactful, saying that he could not withstand the long journey on the grounds of physical discomfort, and hoped that Li Yuntian would understand.

"Lord Wang, it seems that Jin Zongrui and Cui Yande really have two hearts, and they want to support the army and respect themselves." After Li Yuntian finished reading the two official letters, Yun Na said in a deep voice.

"Send an order to send half a year's worth of military rations to the four counties in the northwest, and as for the six towns in the northeast, tell Kim Zongrui when to wait for the king of Joseon to determine when to let the king of Joseon order to send them grain." Li Yuntian didn't take these two official letters to heart at all, and smiled at Yun Na after putting down the official letters in his hand.

If Kim Jong-seo and Choi Yun-deok could come to Seoul honestly, then the king of Joseon would not choose two people to sit in the four counties and six towns, but since Kim Jong-seo was so ignorant of current affairs, he decided to teach him a lesson, so that Kim Jong-seo knew who was in charge of the Joseon state now.

"My subordinates understand." The corners of Yun Na's mouth showed a hint of a smile, and she bowed to Li Yuntian and walked away, the so-called snake hit seven inches, Li Yuntian choked Jin Zongrui's life, now look at how Jin Zongrui still jumps.

"Lord, the prince of the Joseon Kingdom came to pay a visit." Soon after, Yun Na re-entered the room and spoke in a coquettish voice.

"He's quite caring." Li Yuntian raised his head when he heard this, put down the official document in his hand with a smile, "Let him come in." ”

As soon as Li Jue arrived outside the gate of Seoul, Li Yuntian got the news, and in terms of time, Li Jue rushed to see him as soon as he entered the city, and his attitude was really correct.

"Your Royal Highness the Loyal King, you can be the master of His Royal Highness, His Royal Highness was killed by the rebels under the Lord Shouyang, and he has not been able to turn a blind eye so far." Soon, Li Jue, the prince of the Korean Kingdom, was led into the door by Yun Na, Li Jue took a few steps quickly and knelt on the ground, and said loudly to Li Yuntian with a sad expression.

"The prince of the country, please get up, the death of the king of Joseon will be thoroughly investigated, and he will definitely give an explanation to the prince and the people of Korea." Seeing this, Li Yuntian stretched out his hand and lifted it upward, and replied in an orderly manner, it would be strange if Li Jue didn't shout injustice to him this time.

"His Royal Highness King Zhong, the lower officials have witnesses who can testify that the rebels who stormed Gyeongbokgung Palace that night were the people of the Lord of Shouyang." Hearing this, Li Jue stood up, sat down on the chair next to him, and said indignantly, "The lower officials have already brought the witnesses, and His Royal Highness King Zhong can summon them up to confront him." ”

"Don't panic in advance, this king will conduct a strict investigation." Li Yuntian waved his hand, and after a while, Yu Feng asked, "Shizi, this king wants to know, do you have any dealings with the Japanese in the south?" ”

"Wako?" Hearing this, Li Jue was slightly stunned at first, and then his face became a little ugly, he never expected Li Yuntian to ask about this matter.

Since Li Yuntian swept away the Japanese in the coastal area of the Ming Dynasty with the autumn wind sweeping away the fallen leaves, the living space of the Japanese has been greatly suppressed, and in order to survive, they had to flee to the coast of Korea, occupied the islands between Korea and the Japanese state, and often landed in the Korean and Japanese countries to plunder.

Today, the southern coastal areas of Korea have been reduced to a paradise for the Japanese pirates, and when Chen Guangzong sent troops to attack Li Yuntian, he borrowed a number of troops from the Japanese pirates there, hoping to put Li Yuntian to death.

It is worth mentioning that the leader of the Japanese pirates entrenched in the waters between the Korean and Japanese kingdoms was Yamakai Mitsutaka, the second largest Japanese leader on the sea after Aoki Akishin.

Unlike Aoki Mingxin, Yamakai Mitsutaka did not flee to the Wa Kingdom, let alone surrender to the Ming Dynasty, but chose to go to the waters of the Korean State to continue to crisscross the sea.

After all, there was also a sphere of influence among the Japanese invaders, and Aoki Akishin's foundation was in the Japanese Kou, while the foundation of Yamakai Mitsutaka was in the Korean State, which is why he fled to the Korean State.

Like Aoki Mingxin, Yamakai Mitsutaka is also inextricably linked with the local forces of the Korean State, and the two sides use each other to rely on each other, which makes Yamakai Mitsutaka's power gradually grow.

In order to avoid being attacked by Li Ji, Li Jue chose Jeolla Province, the southernmost point of Joseon, as his foothold, so it was inevitable that he would deal with Sankai Guangxiao.

According to the information that Li Yuntian had, because Li Jue had secretly reached an agreement with Shanhai Guangxiao, Shanhai Guangxiao sent Japanese Kou to assist Li Jue's troops in the battle, and the relationship between the two sides was close.

Li Jue didn't expect that Li Yuntian would suddenly mention the matter of the Japanese invaders, after all, Li Yuntian's top priority now is to find out the cause of the death of the Joseon king, not to care about the affairs of the Japanese invaders.

Moreover, with the completion and operation of the coastal bases of the Ming Army's naval divisions, the waters of the Japanese were limited to Korea and the Japanese State, which had little impact on the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, in the face of Li Yuntian's question, Li Jue didn't know how to answer for a while, he subconsciously wanted to deny it, but he didn't dare to act rashly out of fear of Li Yuntian, after all, since Li Yuntian pointed out the matter and said that he had mastered the relevant information, this made him feel quite embarrassed and in a dilemma.