My life skills in Daming Liver

Annam, Thang Long Province, Zhongjun City (now Hanoi).

Shen Guanyi looked at the city wall with the style of the Tang Dynasty and said to Chi Hongmo:

"The city wall in Zhongjun should have been built in the Tang Dynasty. It was built by Gao Pian, the governor of Annan, Jinghaijun Jiedu."

Chi Hongmo is also a Jinshi, and he has recently made up the history of Annan, so he naturally knows the changes in this city.

"Later, the Annan Puppet Li Dynasty established its capital in Zhongjun, and all subsequent Annan lords regarded this place as their heartland."

Naturally, the two people were not discussing history, but they were talking to Ruan Huang, the Annan envoy next to them.

Ruan Huang felt a little bitter in his heart. The most prosperous city in Annan in front of him was captured by his father.

However, after his father's violent death, his brother-in-law Zheng Jian usurped the Ruan family's position and became a powerful minister of Hou Li.

He also had to serve as his deputy to his reckless and violent nephew, coaxing him to go on a mission to the southeast.

Shen Yiguan and Chi Hongmo spoke in Chinese. Ruan Huang followed the two of them along the way and understood the meaning behind their words.

In fact, Zhongjuncheng is the name of the Ming Dynasty, and the Annan people call this city "Zhongdu".

The Ming Dynasty did not allow Annan to call Zhongjun Zhongdu, and today's southeastern regime is even tougher than the Ming court. The two envoys came up and said that the city was built in the Tang Dynasty, citing the historical origin of Annan's Protectorate.

But Ruan Huang has nothing to say, so just say it, right? The city walls and buildings of Zhongjun City are all in the Tang style, and there are inscriptions written by Gao Pian on the turrets of the city walls.

Gao Pian also left behind some poems and essays. What could a nobleman like Ruan Huang, who had received a complete Chinese education, use to refute these two honorable envoys?

Annan's happiness lies in being too close to the Central Plains.

Annan's pain also lies in being too close to the Central Plains.

Although it had lost control of Annan since the Song Dynasty in the Central Plains.

However, Annan still cannot get rid of the influence of the Central Plains.

Moreover, the newly emerging Southeast has an even stronger influence on Annan.

Since the opening of the sea in the southeast, a large number of merchants have begun to look for overseas markets, and Annan has also become the target of trade.

Before Fujian opened its sea, Cochin sugar was an important smuggled commodity.

Merchants in the southeast soon discovered that the route to Annan was a lucrative business.

As the citizen class expanded, sugar became more and more popular.

In the era of small-scale peasant economy, sugar was not a necessity, and ordinary people would only buy some sugar for their children during the Chinese New Year when the year was good.

Even if you are a landlord, you cannot eat sweets often.

It can even be said that sugar is a luxury product.

But Su Ze improved the sugar making process and reduced the cost of manufacturing pure sugar.

The rapid expansion of the southeastern citizen class and the rising income of ordinary citizens have created a new class of citizens with strong needs.

These new citizens could not afford silk or fur jewelry, but sugar became the hottest commodity.

The reason is also very simple. Silk cannot be cut and sold, but sugar can be broken into small packages and sold.

Not only ordinary brown sugar and brown sugar, but also in places like Suzhou, Songjiang, and Hangzhou where the civil economy was originally very developed, candies and various sugar-added pastries are also very popular products.

What could be more comforting to a weaver after a day's work in a textile workshop than a piece of sweet pastry?

Some areas in Fujian and Guangzhou have begun to plant sugar cane, but they are still unable to fill the greater demand for sugar from the increasingly large new class in the southeast.

Nowadays, many Fujian people choose to go to Taiyu Island and establish plantations on Taiyu Island to grow sugar cane.

Even Qiongzhou Island, which was once regarded as a place of exile, also gathered some adventurers and pioneers to find more land suitable for growing sugar cane.

In the southeastern newspapers, this pioneering movement organized because of the pursuit of sugar was called the "Sugar Cane Frontier".

However, the newly developed land needs to be cultivated, sugar cane needs to be planted and grown, ports need to be built, and manpower needs to be recruited.

Businessmen from the southeast took a fancy to Annan, the origin of Cochin sugar.

And Annan itself is also a pretty good market.

Annan is a country with a population of nearly five million. Although this country is the same as the Ming Dynasty before civilization, wealth is only concentrated in the hands of a few gentry classes, and the entire country is divided between the north and the south, it is still a huge market.

Cotton, silk, steel, glass, matches, tea, soap, and various industrial products from the southeast began to flow into Annan, quickly destroying Annan's own handicraft economy.

In today's Annan, all small-scale farmers' handicrafts, including handmade textiles, have been destroyed by commodities from the southeast.

The only thing that is booming is the sugar industry, which is already booming.

Just like the people in the southeast needed more sugar, after using more comfortable cotton, more gorgeous silk, more convenient matches, and more comfortable soap, the gentry in Annan could no longer live without the commodities from the southeast.

The sugar industry is not a complex industry, and the entire industry chain is also very short.

All it takes is land and people to grow sugar cane, plus simple machines to squeeze sugar cane juice and workshops to make syrup.

Southeastern merchants also brought the technology of refining sugar. From growing sugar cane to producing white sugar, the entire industry remained in Annan.

There was no need for anyone to promote or lead the sugarcane plantations, large and small, quickly established in Annan.

Ruan Huang's family also opened several sugar cane plantations and several refined sugar workshops.

Through trade and commodities, the Central Plains once again penetrated its influence into Annan.

But this time, the influence of the Southeast is completely different from before. These commodities have almost firmly controlled the entire Annan.

In addition to commodities, the Central Plains culture, which has a strong centripetal force, has also deeply influenced Annan.

As southeastern merchants spread to Annan, apart from commodities, the rest was culture.

Since Su Ze began to write "Three Dreams", citizen culture based on legendary dramas has emerged in the southeast.

The Jialong period was originally a period when citizen culture was on the rise in the Ming Dynasty. Under Su Ze's promotion, popular culture spread more widely.

Wang Daokun's "Jin Ping Mei" is the best-selling book in the Ming Dynasty in the north and the southeast, with a dazzling number of versions.

Newer printing technology and lower-cost papermaking technology have made publishing books an easy task, and literary creation, which was originally just a hobby for literati, has become a matter of fame and fortune.

At the door of Gui Youguang's mansion, the former editor-in-chief of "Jingshi Bao", there were many booksellers squatting at the door waiting for him, asking him for large sums of money just for one article.

If Su Ze hadn't been the Governor of the Southeast and Xu Wei the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, these booksellers would have even squatted at their door to ask for articles.

As the literate population increased, literature gradually changed.

The "lower Riba" vernacular creative style advocated by Su Ze has quickly become popular in the Southeast.

For the more literate population, what they read is not classics such as the Four Books and Five Classics. They were trained by Su Ze through serial literature in newspapers. What they need is popular literature, stories written in vernacular that they can understand.

Popular works can be printed more, sell more books, and naturally receive more royalties.

A large number of popular works were created, and these works were brought to Annan by merchants from the southeast.

The scholars in Annan were not as culturally inferior as those in the Ming Dynasty, but there was no obstacle to reading these popular works.

Various popular novels and dramas emerged with the development of citizen literature, depicting a fascinating Central Plains country.

Whether it was a love story that took place in the south of the Yangtze River, a fairy tale written by scholars from the southeast, or a spicy and satirical farce, Annan, who was originally deeply involved in the Central Plains culturally, could not resist it at all.

The strong cultural influence almost made the entire literate class in Annan yearn for the Central Plains.

The elite began to pursue the clothing of the Central Plains, began to learn Chinese characters, began to use the daily necessities mentioned in the novel, and began to pursue the southeastern lifestyle.

This trend, like the dumping of Southeast commodities, complements each other, forming a double dumping of economy and culture.

Ruan Huang is not a fool. Along the way, Shen Yiguan and Chi Hongmo did not look like envoys visiting foreign countries at all, but rather like scholars traveling in their own country.

They paid tribute to the places of interest and historic sites related to the Central Plains and explored the origins of each city in Annan and the Han family.

Ruan Huang already understood the thoughts of the southeast governor, and he was afraid that another Annan conquest was coming.

The two envoys from the Great Kingdom expressed this idea unscrupulously in front of themselves, a minister of Annan who knew Chinese.

Ruan Huang naturally understood what they meant, that is, he wanted to be the person who betrayed the Li Dynasty, a leader and a traitor to Annan.

Ruan Huang thought about it again and again, and finally asked to see Shen Yiguan at night before the mission entered Zhongjun City and offered his promise and allegiance.

in the north.

Goods and culture from the southeast not only poured into Annan, but Korea was also greatly affected.

Compared with Annan, whose cultural level is still insufficient, North Korea has more scholars and a higher level of Chinese culture.

All meetings in the imperial court use Chinese characters, and their ministers are all good calligraphers. Their memorials and verbal battles all quote classics from the Central Plains.

The cultural shock suffered by North Korea was even greater than that of Annan.

Newly learned books were also introduced to North Korea along with southeastern merchants.

Yi Sun-shin, disguised as a fisherman, got off the boat.

After landing on Jeju Island, Yi Sun-shin quickly began to resettle the refugees, prepare for spring plowing, and established contact with the Southeast through the Southeast's caravan.

After learning about Yi Sun-shin's bizarre experience, even Su Ze felt the huge joke of fate.

Yi Sun-shin and Kinoshita Tokichiro joined the army together?

The two of them ended up in Liangshan together?

Then he was driven eastward to North Korea by Li Chengliang and landed on Jeju Island?

Now Yi Sun-shin took more than a thousand Liangshan heroes and some indigenous people on Jeju Island to create another base area.

After Su Ze received the report from the Military Intelligence Agency, it was even more bizarre than the contents of the novel he wrote!

However, after learning that Yi Sun-shin had landed on Jeju Island, Su Ze immediately ordered the Navy to immediately organize merchant ships and transport a large amount of weapons and food to support Yi Sun-Shin.

This is not Su Ze’s preference for historical figures, but the location of Jeju Island is too important!

In the era of land power, North Korea implemented a closed-door policy. Jeju Island, a small island isolated from the mainland, naturally had little strategic value.

This is also the reason why the small court of North Korea can abolish the government of Jeju Island, prohibit people from landing on the island, and abandon the island.

For a land-based country like North Korea, Jeju Island has no value, and managing the island requires additional costs and may even become a hotbed of rebellion.

It's better to just give up and get over it.

This is the same as the Ming court's attitude towards Dajuan Island and Qiongzhou Island.

But times have changed.

Jeju Island is located at a key location on the northern route and a key channel for the Japanese trade between China and North Korea.

Not far from Jeju Island is Tsushima Island, a key link between Japan and North Korea.

Historically, whether it was the Yuan Dynasty's attack on Japan, or later Japan's attack on Korea, the most important stepping stone was Tsushima.

Opposite Tsushima Island is Busan, an important city for North Korea's trade with Japan.

Yi Sun-shin's control of Jeju Island was equivalent to control of the northern maritime transportation routes.

Of course, Yi Sun-shin does not have this strength now, and the people he brought have not yet been able to go to sea.

But as long as there is support from the Southeast, Jeju Island will soon become a shadow that affects Northeast Asia and play a huge role.

Yi Sun-shin left Jeju Island a year ago and traveled incognito in North Korea. He returned to Jeju Island disguised as a fisherman the following year.

Kinoshita Tokichiro immediately said: "Master, how is the situation in your hometown?"

Yi Sun-shin was silent for a moment, took off his fisherman's hat and said:

"North Korea has reached its peak. I want to write a letter to the Southeast!"