I was a conman in the Ming Dynasty.

Chapter 487 Slapping the Face of the King of North Korea

Chapter 487 Slapping the Face of the King of North Korea

Wang Wenzhou and his babies rested in Gongju for two days before setting off for Seoul.

Park Seong-woo, the prefect of Gongju, led his officials and a group of several hundred people to see him off ten miles outside the city.

Watching the departing group, Park Seong-woo breathed a sigh of relief. His life was finally saved, and that mad dog Wang Wenzhou was finally gone.

Wang Wenzhou left, and Park Seong-woo should have been happy, but he couldn't be happy at all. His daughter, Park Ri-joo, and his concubine, Choi Jung-seol, had both been taken away by Wang Wenzhou.

Park Seong-woo consoled himself, thinking that for the sake of his family of over a hundred people, he could only make the two women suffer. In his heart, Park Seong-woo cursed Wang Wenzhou, thinking he was not only a mad dog but also a lecherous man; look at his guards—over a thousand, all of them women.

Wang Wenzhou brought over three thousand men with him to Korea this time. More than two thousand were fleet soldiers, whose fleet he dispatched to help Dorgon smuggle grain. Mu Yiyun reluctantly left Wang Wenzhou and accompanied the fleet.

Wang Wenzhou's female guards all rode on horseback. The procession moved quickly, and two men stood out, each seated on a horse with a dog perched on their shoulders.

These two are Shen He and Cui Zhe. Cui Zhe has lost not only his teeth but also all ten fingers, and he is now a eunuch. Shen He is in a slightly better position compared to him, as he still has all ten fingers.

These two unfortunate brothers are now dog slaves, and their owners are their three heroic children.

Cui Zhe was robust, with Xiao Lanlan perched on his left shoulder and Huang Taiji III on his right. To prevent accidents, the two dogs were secured to his shoulders with specially made "saddles." The two adorable puppies, full of spirit, stared intently ahead.

Over the past two days, Cui Zhe has gradually emerged from the shadow of his physical disability. During these few days as a dog slave, he has almost always burst into tears while eating. The best food he has ever eaten in his life is actually thanks to dogs.

Wang Wenzhou treated the three puppies like human beings, feeding them delicacies from land and sea. Although Cui Zhe was a government official, Korea was poor and didn't have much money, so he had never eaten so much good food before.

Although Cui Zhe had been castrated by Wang Wenzhou, aside from matters of the heart, his life now was worlds apart from what it used to be. Since becoming a dog slave, not to mention anything else, even the prefect of Gongzhou, Park Seong-woo, had to greet him with a smile and bow and scrape. Because standing on his shoulders were two "dog masters"!

Although Shen He was still somewhat heartbroken, he gradually recovered. After all, the days of relying on his dog for power were quite prestigious.

Shen He tilted his head and saw Huang Taiji III urinate on Cui Zhe. He burst into laughter: "Haha!"

Shen He smiled, revealing a mouthful of gold teeth. The two dog handlers' teeth had been knocked out. Wang Wenzhou had given each of them a set of gold teeth weighing two hundred taels each, worth two thousand taels of silver, to ensure their loyalty in caring for the dogs.

Because he was in a hurry to get on his way, Cui Zhe couldn't stop washing up, so he just wiped himself haphazardly with his sleeve.

Just then, Gouye Ruru, who was on Shen He's shoulder, also peed, and Shen He immediately stopped laughing.

"Haha!" Cui Zhe laughed loudly, "Brother Shen, serves you right for laughing at me!"

"Sigh..." Shen He sighed. We're all just dogs in the same boat, so let's not make fun of each other.

……

Three days later, Wang Wenzhou's troops arrived in Seoul.

King Injo of Joseon, accompanied by his civil and military officials, went out of the city to greet him. As the imperial envoy of the Celestial Empire, this was the proper etiquette.

King Yi Jong was 42 years old this year. In later times, this age would be considered middle-aged, but he looked like an old man in his fifties or sixties. Born into an imperial family, he was not free to choose his own path, and since his ascension to the throne, the Joseon court had been unstable. In the second year of his reign, General Yi Gak launched a rebellion, installing his uncle, Prince Heungan Yi Ti, as the new king—an event known as the Yi Gak Rebellion. Three days later, Yi Gak was defeated and killed, and Prince Heungan was also killed, allowing King Yi Jong to regain his throne.

Wang Wenzhou, with his arms around Wang Ying and Li Mei, stepped off the sedan chair.

King Yi Jong hurriedly went to greet him, cupped his hands and said, "King Yi Jong of Joseon greets the Imperial Envoy of the Supreme Kingdom, King Wenju."

"We have come to pay our respects to the Imperial Envoy of the Supreme Kingdom." The civil and military officials of Korea knelt on the ground.

"Huh?" Wang Wenzhou frowned and asked coldly, "Why aren't you kneeling?"

"Huh?" Everyone was stunned. How could Wang Wenzhou, this mad dog, not know any manners at all?

Chen Liuhe, the deputy envoy of Wang Wenzhou and a secretary in the Ministry of Rites, quickly approached Wang Wenzhou and whispered in his ear, "Lord Wang, although Korea is a vassal state of our Great Ming, the King of Korea is also a king appointed by our Great Ming."

Chen Liuhe's meaning was clear: the other party was a king, or at least a prince, and did not need to kneel before him.

Wang Wenzhou pretended not to understand. The Koreans of later generations were incredibly arrogant; in their minds, the universe belonged to them. Wang Wenzhou just wanted to slap the face of the Korean king. How could the Dragon Boat Festival be Korean? Qu Yuan died so unjustly!

"Slap!" Wang Wenzhou slapped Li Zong across the face, pointing at him and cursing, "This is outrageous! Don't you have any manners? I am the Imperial Envoy of the Ming Dynasty! You should kneel down and kowtow before me!"

"Ah!" Everyone present was stunned. Even Li Zong himself was dumbfounded by Wang Wenzhou's slap. What did this mean? I am the King of Joseon. I should kneel before the Emperor. Why should I kneel before you?

The North Korean officials who were kneeling on the ground stood up and started cursing Wang Wenzhou.

"Wang Wenzhou, what do you mean?"

"How can you attack our king so easily?"

"Wang Wenzhou, I'll fight you to the death!"

The North Korean officials were indignant, and while they cursed, none of them actually laid a hand on him. Before Wang Wenzhou arrived, the North Korean officials were already prepared, knowing what kind of mad dog he was.

Moreover, the imperial edict issued by the Ming emperor upon Wang Wenzhou's disappearance was righteous and unequivocal, demanding his return whether he was alive or dead. This demonstrates Wang Wenzhou's high standing in the eyes of the Ming emperor.

"Damn it!" Wang Wenzhou pointed at the Korean officials and cursed, "What do you mean? You don't respect me as an imperial envoy of the superior country? Have you no shame? If it weren't for my Great Ming, you would have been wiped out by Japan long ago!"

My goodness! Chen Liuhe quickly cupped his hands to the crowd and said sincerely, "Please forgive me, everyone. Lord Wang has been traveling a long way and is very tired, so he drank some wine on the way to relieve his fatigue. If he has done anything inappropriate, I apologize to you all on his behalf."

"Hey, hey, hey..." Wang Wenzhou said irritably, "Apologize for what? What did I do wrong?"

Chen Liuhe was both amused and exasperated. He couldn't blame the high-ranking officials of the court; no one wanted to be Wang Wenzhou's deputy envoy. They all understood that following Wang Wenzhou meant not only humiliatingly following him around, but also having to clean up his messes. Chen Liuhe was merely a junior official in the Ministry of Rites; the position of deputy envoy was not his in the first place, but since no one else wanted to take it, they had to ask him to fill the vacancy.

Chen Liuhe grabbed Wang Wenzhou's arm, his voice trembling with tears, and pleaded, "Lord Wang, please stop! Although Korea is a vassal state of our Great Ming, you cannot humiliate the King of Korea like this!"

Wang Ying pinched Wang Wenzhou hard and said irritably, "Husband, stop fooling around! It's an insult to the nation!"