Although there were some fuss about Hong Jinglai's founding of the Beixue School, after all, it was knowledge that had been spread in North Korea for decades. It had a group of supporters and ordinary Confucian students were not surprised, so in the end it was No one really did anything to stop it.

This makes Hong Jinglai a little surprised that there is so little resistance to modernization in North Korea?

Until the letter written by Li Xi arrived in Hanyang!

Regarding the construction of a canal or a railway in Incheon, it does not touch the fundamental interests of the Beijing gentry for the time being, nor does it affect the lives of most Hanyang people. Therefore, in addition to the opposition from the Beijing businessmen, even Li Shujiu, the apparent opponent, did not say a word .

After all, the attack on the Beijing merchants would allow the imperial court to control more finance and taxation, and no longer be hijacked by a moth like the Beijing merchant group in water transportation. Besides, the Song merchants, the Wan merchants, and the Lai merchants who took over would not continue to provide benefits to the Beijing nobles. There's no difference, at most it's just a change of white gloves.

Most of the time, feudal royal power and financial power are complementary to each other. The feudal royal power can get more money, and its big central trunk can stay strong and even grow more and more. No matter how good and lush the other branches are, they can't. Challenge the backbone. The Hanyang court can get more money and the court's authority can be extended.

Although a large part of this authority may be attached to Hong Jinglai, but now that Hong Jinglai is in power, Hong Jinglai is a representative of the Hanyang court to a certain extent. The difference is not too big, and the world still belongs to the Li family.

But opening the port is absolutely not possible!

At the beginning, after receiving Li Xi's letter, Hong Jinglai was a little hesitant. After all, this matter was a big deal, and if it was brought up suddenly, it would definitely cause huge waves. As a member of the East Asian tribute system, it was a typical feudal In Confucian society, the concept of "no diplomacy among vassals" has always been North Korea's national policy.

You only need to be respectful to the central power, and get to know other countries, and there is no need to make any contacts. Who calls us "Little China"? The clothes and clothes of the motherland are in our country, the etiquette system is in our country, and the laws and regulations are in our country. The successor of the Ming Dynasty is our country, and we disdain to associate with barbarians.

Therefore, Hong Jinglai could approve of Lai merchants conducting smuggling trade with the Dutch, and even opening a trading port on a small overseas island, but opening the port for trade openly was inconsistent with the consensus of the entire society.

However, it was difficult for Hong Jinglai to let go of directly trading with European countries and accepting new technologies and new knowledge from the European continent, so Hong Jinglai suppressed the petition for the time being and only discussed it within the Hong Clan in Fengshan.

Hong Jinglai was summoned, and all the big guys in Hanyang agreed, so they naturally came to join him. His father-in-law, Min Jingxue, was the fastest. After all, he was free and nearby, and his son-in-law sent someone to invite him, so he couldn't have come sooner.

Then Zhao Wanyong, Hong Shourong, Han Que, Cui Zhengji and other civil servants, as well as military attachés such as Li Zaichao, Hong Congjue, Li Jichu, the Han brothers, Jin Pingchun and others rushed to the Hong family one after another.

"Everyone is invited here today because of Xi's petition. Let's take a look at it." Hong Jinglai showed the petition to everyone for circulation.

He whispered to Min Jinghye that his father-in-law must be treated differently. Hong Jinglai also needed his father-in-law, as the head of the civil service, to show his non-objection to this matter.

But Min Jingyou shook his head after hearing this, saying that this was not possible. He didn't even care about the people below who were still circulating the petition, and directly spoke to Hong Jinglai.

"This matter should not go to the Uijeongbu government and be discussed by the world!"

"What do you mean, sir?" Hong Jinglai didn't expect that Min Jingxu, who had always been a peace officer, would have such a big reaction.

"If Lai merchants want to trade with the Dutch barbarians, they can do it in the open sea. You can also help them cover it up in the court. But opening a port in Incheon is risking the disapproval of the world. Where will the etiquette and law be unified!" Min Jing said.

Saying such harsh words, especially to Hong Jing.

"That's right! Our country is a country of etiquette in the world. How can we have private diplomacy with barbarians when we serve our parents?" Jin Pingchun, who had been following Hong Jinglai, immediately expressed his opposition.

The discussion has not yet begun, but two generals within the Hong clan's political circles in Pengsan have already clearly expressed their opposition. Min Kyung-hyeok can still accept smuggling, but seeing that Kim Pyong-soon is more feudal at a young age, he bluntly stated that all diplomacy is inappropriate.

"I also know that this matter is difficult, so I will suppress it for the time being and discuss other matters later." Of course, Hong Jinglai would not bang the table and start a quarrel with them, but would just calm them down first.

"Every item of Peking University was collected from Yanjing. If we say that we need to open Hong Kong for diplomacy just for some technology, it is really unnecessary. We only need to order the envoys of the Qing Dynasty to be collected and they will be collected." Hong Shourong did not immediately do so.

expressed objection.

But how did he know that during the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong dynasties, the Manchus allowed Western missionaries to come with a large number of Western scientific and cultural books because of the emperor's personal preferences. Although preaching was also prohibited, there was no such thing.

Such strict isolation between China and foreign countries.

But after Jiaqing, the entire country became increasingly closed, and scientific and cultural exchanges with the West were increasingly reduced. It was almost impossible to obtain first-hand Western scientific and cultural knowledge from Yanjing.

Although Hong Jinglai still had Shekov's line with Tsarist Russia, Tsarist Russia itself was also a feudal serfdom country, and its technical level may not be much higher than those of scholars from the Northern School.

If you want to continue to receive all kinds of new technologies and new knowledge from the West, you must have large-scale contacts with European forces to ensure normal and smooth exchanges.

"That Shekov's cavalry army is very well trained. If you want to train troops, you can just hire a few of them like this. Why do you need to open Hong Kong with great fanfare for diplomacy?" Han Sanshi took care of the training troops and was considered an experienced man.

Koreans in modern military training.

Therefore, his attitude was relatively relaxed. He believed that foreigners could be hired and the exchanges should be limited to a few people. They would teach Hong Jinglai the skills he needed. This would have little impact and would not arouse opposition and hostility from the Eight Taoists.

.

"That's right, then Shekov is very capable. Let's lure him with some inducement and give him tens of thousands of taels. Why won't he work for us wholeheartedly? Then we will find a family for him and have two children." Li Zaichao has also seen it.

Shekov knew that this man liked money very much, so he directly suggested taking the right medicine.

"Where's Brother Zhao? What do you think?" Almost everyone present disagreed with the large-scale diplomacy of opening Hong Kong. Only Zhao Wanyong was bowing his head in thought, and Hong Jinglai wanted to hear his opinion.
Chapter completed!