The Plan to Conquer Yanbian and Hunchun (7)

Ming acted exactly as Hwangbo In had predicted.

Those bastards could not hide their delight: without anyone prompting them, Joseon had volunteered to spend the national strength it had painstakingly accumulated on developing Manchuria.

It was simply laughable to see such people swaggering about, calling themselves the greatest power under Heaven.

"Grand State Councilor, were the people of Ming always this petty?"

Upon hearing me, Hwang Hui gave a short, derisive laugh and said.

"Good heavens, it was much worse in my day—so bad that words can hardly describe it. Even though they knew Joseon had no silver, they would raise hell demanding that we hand over silver. And if Joseon did even a little soldier training to prepare for the Jurchen barbarians, they would make an uproar, asking whether we intended to invade Ming. We really had to scrape together what little we had just to explain ourselves."

"I hear the Hongwu Emperor was a rather suspicious man."

At the mention of the Hongwu Emperor, Hwang Hui's face suddenly flushed bright red with anger.

Then he leaned in and whispered in my ear in a very low voice.

"That bastard became emperor through luck. In reality, he was no different from Zhang Liang, the leader of the Yellow Turbans. The only difference is that Zhang Liang was suppressed and killed, while that fellow, the Hongwu Emperor, was lucky enough to receive the Mandate of Heaven and become emperor."...