In another time and space, Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched the war of aggression against Korea in April of the 20th year of Wanli, which was eleven months later.

But now that the Ming Dynasty is caught in a civil war, the opportunistic Japanese will of course seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and go all in early.

In March, after confirming that the Ming Dynasty was not acting, Toyotomi Hideyoshi gave the position of regent to his adopted son Hidetsugu and moved to Hiradoya Castle, Hizen Province in northern Kyushu, across the sea from Korea, as "Grand Duke".

In this base camp that he built specifically for the invasion of North Korea, a full 300,000 troops have gathered!

At the same time, after a frantic construction effort with the whole country's strength and the mobilization of the nation's navy, Hideyoshi had a huge fleet consisting of more than 700 warships and more than 2,000 auxiliary ships.

This "world's best" navy will be responsible for transporting the army and logistical supplies to Korea. It will also shoulder the heavy task of destroying the Korean navy and blocking the Ming Dynasty navy's reinforcements... Although the Ming people are busy with their own affairs, it is unlikely that they will care about this matter.

It is no wonder that Toyotomi Hideyoshi was so arrogant, thinking that "with the combat power of our army, it will be like a flood or a sword breaking bamboo to deal with the Ming army."

Someone suggested that he should bring more interpreters who understand Chinese and Korean in the army, and let the samurai and foot soldiers learn these two languages ​​seriously.

But the Lord Tai said contemptuously: "There is no need for that. After the three kingdoms are unified, everyone will speak Japanese."

Not only the monkeys, but the entire Japanese army in Nagoya was filled with extreme optimism, believing that Korea would be within their grasp and that this trip was just to gain merit!

Therefore, the legion commanders vied with each other to fight in front of the monkey all day long, hoping to be designated as the vanguard.

At the end of April, His Majesty announced the final military plan, with Ukita Hideie as the commander-in-chief, leading the nine most elite legions, a total of 150,000 troops as advance troops, and entering North Korea in three routes!

The First Army consisted of 18,000 men, led by Konishi Yukinaga;

The Second Army has 22,000 men, led by Masaaki Kato;

The Third Army has 12,000 men, led by Kuroda Nagamasa;

The Fourth Army had 14,500 men, led by Shimazu Yoshihiro;

The Fifth Army has 25,000 men, led by Fukushima Masanori;

The Sixth Army has 15,000 men, led by Kobayakawa Takakage;

The Seventh Army has 30,000 men, led by Mori Terumoto;

The Eighth Army had 11,000 men, led by Ukita Hideie;

The Ninth Army had 11,000 men, led by Hashiba Hidekatsu.

The nine army commanders were all direct descendants of Hideyoshi or famous generals of the Warring States Period. The 150,000-man army was made up of professional soldiers who had experienced hundreds of battles and were extremely powerful!

The remaining troops will serve as reserve forces, and the time of entering North Korea will be decided depending on the war situation.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi put all his resources on the line this time, sending almost all of his elite troops to Korea. He did not allow daimyo who harbored ulterior motives, such as Tokugawa Ieyasu, to get involved, which shows how confident he was in winning this battle!

On the second day of May, Konishi Yukinaga, who served as the vanguard, led the First Army across the sea to Tsushima Island to wait for orders.

On the second day, the order for the Ninth Army to set off was issued!

On the third day, the First Army landed in Busan first!

In fact, there were various signs that Japan was going to attack Korea. Even a year ago, Hao Jie, the governor of Liaodong in the Ming Dynasty, sent a special note to remind the King of Korea to prepare for war.

However, the Joseon king and his ministers were so indolent and frivolous that it was outrageous that they only forwarded the message to Jeolla Province and Gyeongsang Province, asking them to pay attention to patrols, and then continued to play music and dance, and continued to be busy with party struggles and palace fighting.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Konishi Yukinaga took only one hour to capture Busan Castle, an important coastal defense town of Korea.

It was not until the tragic news of the fall of Busan reached Seoul that the rulers and ministers of the Joseon Dynasty woke up from their dreams and realized that something serious was going to happen and that their house was about to collapse.

King Yi Sun quickly deployed his troops and organized defense. However, the Japanese army was unstoppable and easily defeated the Korean troops. Wherever they went, they burned and looted. In Jinzhou alone, 60,000 soldiers and civilians were massacred!

When the Japanese army, which was advancing rapidly, wiped out the elite troops of the Joseon Dynasty at Tangeumdae in Chungju, there was nothing that could stop them from capturing Seoul.

At this time, it had only been fourteen days since they landed in Busan, less than half a month...

Upon learning that his trump card had been destroyed and the capital was in danger, Yi Sun quickly appointed Gwanghaegun Yi Hun as the crown prince. Then, on the morning of May 19, Yi Sun and more than 100 of his followers fled Seoul in the heavy rain and went to Pyongyang in the northwest to seek refuge. Of course, the official statement was "Hunting to the West".

Faced with a powerful enemy, the king ran away first. How could the defenders have any morale?

Two days later, the Japanese army successfully broke through the Han River defense line and occupied Seoul without bloodshed.

The Joseon Dynasty then organized a counterattack, but was ambushed by the Japanese army and suffered a crushing defeat, resulting in the fall of Kaesong and the loss of Pyongyang.

At this time, the Korean army had almost lost its combat effectiveness except for the Jeolla Navy led by Jeolla Right Water Commander Park Sung-in and Jeolla Left Water Commander Yi Sun-sin, as well as some volunteer troops.

Lee Sun had no choice but to leave Pyongyang and flee north again. Soon, Pyongyang also fell.

Just one month after the war began, Korea lost three capitals and eight provinces. The Japanese army burned and looted wherever they went, committing all kinds of atrocities. In Jinzhou alone, 60,000 soldiers and civilians were massacred!

The Korean military and civilians hated the atrocities of the Japanese invaders and also hated the corruption and incompetence of King Yi Sun and his ministers.

As soon as Lee Sun fled Seoul, some people set fire to his Gyeongbokgung Palace.

When they arrived at Kaesong, the people threw stones at the imperial carriage.

When fleeing from Pyongyang this time, King Yi Sun and his ministers were besieged by the military and civilians. The queen's attendants and palace maids were knocked off their horses, and the Minister of Revenue Hong Ruzhun was also beaten and injured. The scene was very embarrassing.

At this time, all eight provinces of Korea were lost, leaving only the area of ​​Yizhou bordering the Ming Dynasty that had not yet fallen.

Lee Sun and his ministers, who had fled to the Sino-Korean border, had reached a consensus that they could not resist the invaders on their own. Now there was only one way, which was to find ways to ask their father for help.

In fact, after the fall of Busan, Yi Sun immediately sent an envoy to report to the Celestial Empire for help, but was rejected by Liaodong Governor Hao Jie on the grounds that the civil war was going on.

King Lee Sun and his ministers knew that their father was now unable to take care of himself, but they had no other options. At least they asked their father to allow them to cross the Yalu River and go into exile in the Celestial Empire.

In order to persuade the Celestial Empire to send troops, Lee Sun expressed his willingness to submit to the Ming Dynasty and become a province of the Celestial Empire.

Some ministers were against surrendering to the emperor, but Yi Sun was determined and said, "I can die in the emperor's country, but I cannot die at the hands of the enemy. I would rather die in my parents' country than at the hands of the enemy." He insisted on surrendering to the emperor.

So Li Cheng sent the Grand Censor Li Dexin as an envoy to request troops and formally asked the Celestial Empire for help and submission.

Fortunately, the civil war in the Celestial Empire came to a temporary end at this time, and the two sides entered a state of peace talks. The envoys of the Li Dynasty were able to enter the pass smoothly and come to the capital to submit a letter.

When Emperor Wanli saw the letter from Korea asking for help, he could not help but laugh and cry, and said to Zhang Hong: "Li Sun asked me for help, and I also want to ask him for help."

Zhang Hong laughed dryly, and as they laughed, the master and servant hugged each other and burst into tears.

"I want a father too!" Wanli cried, "We are both heartbroken people in this world, and I don't even have anyone to rely on..."

He was so scared because his fate was no longer in his own hands.

I thought that if I followed what Shen Shixing said, issued an edict, wrote a letter, and released the people... and showed my sincerity, the other party would let me go. At most, they would just argue about how much power the emperor would retain and the treatment of the royal family.

But the other party wanted to start the conversation again.

Just talk, why don’t you send someone serious?

They actually sent Royal Shipping... oh, now China Shipping's vice chairman Ma Bei as the chief negotiator.

There was also a naval major general named Cai Yilin serving as deputy envoy for negotiations.

Although he was not very clear about how the Jiangnan Group's official positions were calculated, Zhang Jing told him that they were not important figures. The chief envoy was at most equivalent to the Censor among the civil officials, and the deputy envoy was almost equivalent to a lieutenant general.

Zhao Hao's family had been officials for three generations, how could they not understand that the court was all about equality? They actually sent two of these guys to negotiate with the Grand Secretary, which was absolutely a naked provocation - it was clearly telling Wanli that from the perspective of strength and status, you are now just a mayor of a municipality directly under the Central Government. If you are not happy, let's not talk.

But Shen Shixing was flexible and insisted on sitting down and talking with his nose held.

However, the other party started to act up again - they demanded that Wanli abdicate first and accept the people's trial, and only then could they start formal negotiations.

This is the decision of the group meeting and no one can change it.

Because the exact reason why Hai Rui died cannot be determined solely based on Wanli's words, a public trial must be held and the truth must be made public to reassure the people!

Moreover, Wanli ordered the East Factory to kill more than one hundred cadres and employees of the group. This blood debt must not be allowed to become a mess and must be settled!

So the group has nothing to discuss with him.

Of course Wanli would never agree...

But the problem is that the royalists want to protect the continuation of the throne, but they don't necessarily support a specific emperor. And everyone is extremely disappointed with Wanli. The unprecedentedly powerful country left by Zhang Juzheng was ruined to this extent in just three years. It is really unreasonable not to take the blame and abdicate.

Besides, the royalists also recognized Zhao Hao as their leader. How could they completely offend the boss in order to protect Wanli?

Therefore, their attitude was very ambiguous, and they seemed ready to betray Wanli at any time.

This made Wanli extremely anxious, and he felt that he had been betrayed by the royalists led by Shen Shixing.

How could he care about the life or death of the Li Dynasty?

~~

Fortunately, the Li Dynasty paid tribute three times a year without interruption, and its network of relationships in the capital was extraordinary.

After Li Dexin, the envoy who requested troops, visited the docks, he soon realized that the emperor of the Celestial Empire no longer had the final say.

The one who has the final say is in Jiangnan...

It would definitely be too late to rush to Jiangnan now. Fortunately, he found out that the Jiangnan Group had a peace envoy in the capital.

They will definitely be able to contact the unspeakable devil as quickly as possible...

With the mentality of trying everything possible, Li Dexin prepared generous gifts and went to the China Shipping Beijing Branch in Dazhalan to ask for a meeting.

Unexpectedly, the two envoys received him very warmly and immediately agreed to ask for instructions on his behalf.

And he doesn't accept gifts.

Li Dexin was so frightened that he thought that his gift was not enough, so he quickly said that he would reward him generously after the matter was accomplished.

Ma Bei and Cai Yilin felt fed up after hearing this. Just forget about it if the relationship fails?

There's nothing you can do about it; the rulers and ministers of small countries are just so cunning.