When I woke up, it was not dawn outside, and there was only a chaotic whiteness. △↗, there was no light in the room, only the floating light that penetrated from the window frame.

Li Xuan sat up, wearing only a small moon-white shirt, she held her knees with her hands and rested her head on her arms.

"Princess, it's not dawn yet, you can sleep for a while!" Seeing the princess get up, the maid quickly brought a piece of clothing to put on her.

"I can't sleep." Li Xuan leaned her head on her knee-hugging hands, looking at the bright window. After a while, she slowly chanted, "Zhuang Sheng Xiaomeng is confused by the butterfly."

The maid laughed, "Did the princess dream again? She dreamed that she had become a butterfly?"

"Are I the butterfly dreaming of becoming me?"

"The princess's speech is getting deeper and deeper."

Li Xuan smiled casually, "That's not what I said, it was what Zhuangzi, an ancient sage in the Tang Dynasty, said."

"The princess knows so much about Shangguo culture, and she will definitely be able to talk to the prince-consort in the future."

It is no secret that the king wanted to grant the princess a son of the adopted son of the emperor of the Shang Kingdom. This matter was very high-profile from the beginning. The king even asked the princess to come out to pay a visit when he was specially invited to the Duke of Chu in the palace.

When the princess came back, she told Jin'er that the Duke of Chu was very young and handsome, and spoke politely. From the princess's words and expressions that Jin'er could see that the princess was very satisfied with the angel of the country.

It is said that the Duke of Chu himself did not refuse the king's proposal to marry him on that day, but only said that he would ask the emperor of the Shang Kingdom to report to the emperor. The king sent envoys to the Shang Kingdom quickly, and now the matter has been replied to. The emperor of the Shang Kingdom finally decided to agree with the marriage between the two countries.

Princess Jingshu, the eldest son of the King of Korea, will officially marry Zhu Ciye, the adopted son of Emperor Ming Dynasty. At this time, the marriage between the two countries will also pay more attention and support.

For North Korea, after just experiencing an internal strife and returning to the Ming Dynasty, they had already deeply offended the Qing army and had no way out. They could only stand on the side of the Ming Dynasty with their own abilities. They could only rely on the Ming Dynasty to defend the north for them. A marriage could not only deepen the closeness between North Korea and the Ming Dynasty, but also truly and accurately hold heavy troops. Now they were deploying troops on the Yalu River to bring them closer to the Duke of Chu who was blocking the Qing army.

The only regret is that the Duke of Chu already has a legitimate wife, so the Emperor of Ming Dynasty specially ordered Princess Jingshu to marry as a flat wife. This identity is higher than that of an ordinary side room, which is considered a special case. This flat wife is actually a wife of the same family. Because Liu Jun was originally a son of the Liu family, he has now changed his surname to the Zhu family genealogy for the emperor's adopted son.

The emperor gave Liu Jun a special gift, allowing him to marry two righteous wives. The son born to Yuanmai Lu Xueqi was named Zhu, and he was a native of the family. He married Princess Jingshu as a righteous wife, but the princess was considered the wife of the Liu family, not the wife of the Zhu family. Princess Jingshu's children will be named Liu in the future. In a sense, Lu Xueqi and the princess are considered to be a family of two families, but in fact, Lu's status is still higher than that of the princess, but the princess is also the legitimate wife of the family.

In some families, a man in the folk wanted to inherit two families, and finally married two wives and had children and one family. The two wives were considered sisters-in-law relationships.

Chongzhen's arrangement gave North Korea great face, after all, it was unreasonable to say that a legitimate princess married a minister of the Ming Dynasty as a concubine. North Korea needs the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty also needs North Korea. This arrangement is good-looking both sides.

On the other hand, doing so is also a reward to Liu Jun, allowing Liu Jun to retain the identity of the Liu family.

Chongzhen was very satisfied with Liu Jun's actions in North Korea. North Korea changed a king and became loyal to the Ming Dynasty again, which was a very good result.

Liu Jun was also quite capable. He sent troops to build cities and forts on the Yalu River, and defeated thousands of soldiers and horses sent by the Qing emperors to Korea. It was reported that this Qing army was the elite among the Eastern Gangs, but it was still defeated in front of Liu Jun's fortress.

When Liu Jun first proposed to send troops to southern Liaoning and harass the coast, he had some concerns that this might be just a small harassment and could not cause any real harm to the Qing emperors, but now it seems completely different.

Liu Jun submitted a memorial that North Korea was completely on the side of the court, and in the future, the Chu army stationed in the Yalu River area did not need to transport food from the court, and could buy it directly in North Korea. Although it would cost money to buy it, it saved the distance and a lot of freight, which was actually quite cost-effective.

As for Liu Jun's report, he proposed that he had rented two large islands as a military port base for the navy from North Korea, Chongzhen didn't take it seriously. Since there was only 2,000 taels of silver a year and North Korea was willing to borrow it, and the money did not need to be paid by the court, he had no objection.

What's more, Liu Jun also said that he would use these two islands as trading ports and trade with North Korea, and he could pay a lot of money to the court in a year, so what else could he object?

If North Korea wants to defend together, Chongzhen also agreed to Liu Jun on behalf of the Ming Dynasty. Originally, as the suzerain state, the Ming Dynasty had the right and obligation to help the foreign countries defend against the enemy. When Japan invaded North Korea, the Ming Dynasty sent troops to help them restore the country. Similarly, as the suzerain state, he also had the right to ask his subordinates to send troops to assist in the war.

During the Battle of Sarhu that year, the Koreans sent 13,000 people to fight. Although these Korean soldiers were not as good as the Ming army when fighting, this was the right and obligation of both sides. Now that it is announced again, it will also help to consolidate and restore the relationship between the two sides.

In the memorial, Liu Jun asked for four tributes in the next year, and only a small amount of real North Korean products were given each time, without having to conduct official tribute trade and official and buy, because this official tribute trade was too troublesome, and it was the same as buying. It would be better to change to private free trade. In this way, the court needed North Korea's cattle, horses, ginseng and other items, and could be handed over to private merchants to go to North Korea to purchase trade. This kind of private transaction is more flexible and more efficient, and both sides will take the needs.

With the memorial, Liu Jun also submitted a trade contract, signed by many Ming merchants and North Korean merchants, including more than 100 kinds of commodities, including cattle and horses, grain, medicinal materials, and cloth, with a transaction volume of one million silver dollars.

There is also an important order, which is a order for the North Korean official to purchase a batch of cannons, muskets and ammunition from the Hutoubao Firearms Floor in Hubei, Daming. In addition, he also planned to purchase a batch of ships from the shipyard in Fujian. The number is not small, but after careful reading, Chongzhen also found that the models of the cannons and muskets purchased by North Korea were all equipped by the imperial border troops, and were not the latest models. After considering it over and over again, he agreed.

The sale price of this batch of weapons is really cost-effective, and Liu Jun said that this batch of firearms was to strengthen North Korea's defense in the north, increase their resistance to the Qing army, and prevent the Qing army from obtaining population and money and grain supplements from North Korea. In addition, Liu Jun also said that half of the income of this batch of firearms would be handed over to the court. These conditions made him agree readily.

Chongzhen smiled and wrote a secret decree to Liu Jun. In the letter, he praised Liu Jun well and asked him to marry the Korean princess as soon as possible. In the letter, he also asked Liu Jun to end the North Korean affairs as soon as possible and return to Liaonan to preside over military affairs.

What Chongzhen never forgets was the front battlefield with the Qing army. In Jinzhou, Hong Chengchou finally had movement and stopped stationing in Ningyuan. Instead, he began to send Wu Sangui, Qin Liangyu, Liu Zhaoji, Sun Chuanting and others to move eastward, stationing in Songshan, Xingshan, Tashan, and Bijiashan.

When Chongzhen's secret order was sent to North Korea, Liu Jun had already taken a warship south to the Korean Strait. After walking around Juji Island, Liu Jun led the fleet directly to the border between North Korea and Japan, and then without saying a word, he sent troops to seize Tsushima Island without hesitation.

There were only a small number of Japanese people on the island. Before they could react, they were directly captured by the Ming army.

Liu Jun let a few prisoners go back.

"Go back and tell Tokugawa Igami that Tsushima Island, Laoqi Island, Hirado Island, and Goshima Island were cedeed to the Ming Dynasty as compensation for invading the Ming Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty's vassal states and killing the Ming soldiers. Tell Tokugawa Igami that if he has any different opinions, he will lead his troops to fight."

Liu Jun asked the translator to tell the prisoners what he said was unchanging.

As soon as the prisoner was released, Liu Jun immediately asked the fleet to drive Hirado Island directly.

At this time, Japan was controlled by the third shogunate established by the Tokugawa family. Because it was built in Edo, the general of the Tokugawa Ieyasu, more than 30 years ago, it was called the Edo Shogunate. Although the emperor was the supreme ruler in Japan, it was actually ruled by the General of the Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Shogunate.

At this time, the Edo Shogunate had been passed down to the third-generation general Tokugawa Iemitsu. Tokugawa Iemitsu was 36 years old and the eldest son of the second-generation general Tokugawa Hidetaki. He now pursues a policy of locking the country, only opening Nagasaki and Heido as a foreign trade port, and banning traders from Catholic countries such as Portugal and Spain. Only Protestant Dutch and Chinese merchants were allowed to come to trade, in order to prevent some vassal states from taking the opportunity to strengthen their strength due to trade with foreign countries and challenging the authority of the shogunate.

Japan still had strength at this time, but after the failure of the invasion of North Korea, the Tokukan family took the opportunity to seize power to unify Japan and establish a shogunate, seeking internal control.

Liu Jun came to Japan and never thought about conquering Japan or anything. He just wanted to intimidate Tokugawa Iemitsu with force. He allowed the Japanese to continue to open trade with the Ming East India Company, and he also wanted to obtain exclusive trade rights, so that the Ming East India Company would monopolize trade with Japan.

If possible, he also wants to occupy Hirado, an important port for Japan's foreign trade at this time.

Anyway, it’s just a cheating trick. If you can, it’s just a way to cheat.

Among the islands requested by Liu Jun, they are all located near Nagasaki, and Tsushima Island is even in the Korean Strait. Liu Jun's main target is Hirado Island. Hirado Port is one of the two major ports for Japan's foreign trade at this time. It is also the base of countless Chinese merchants in Japan in the past. There were a large number of Chinese merchants and Chinese expatriates here. Zheng Zhilong also developed here, and Yan Siqi and others even planned to launch a rebellion here and occupy it to establish a Chinese regime. Later, they failed and went to Taiwan.

As for the other islands, they are all around Hirado. If Hirado can be taken down, then it will be even more stable if it has a few surrounding islands. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!