Prime Minister Bizen

Kobayakawa Takakage never expected that the Toyotomi vassal who he once thought was coming to North Korea to be gilded, would have the idea of ​​fighting back when faced with the current crisis.

At first, he thought that his description of the current situation was not very clear, and then he recounted to Toyotomi Hideji the scene of the Ming army's naval ships crossing the river and attacking the city of Changtan with a salvo of guns that he saw in Paju. .

Toyotomi Hideji nodded after listening to his retelling, and asked him the question again, "What is the plan to defeat the enemy."

Toyotomi Hideji's answer this time finally made Takakage Kobayakawa look squarely at the young man in front of him. Could it be that the second generation of Toyotomi's family are really the generation of dragons and tigers?
After a moment of silence, Takakage Kobayakawa offered his own strategy, "I heard that during the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Wei occupied Jingzhou and suppressed Dongwu, and Shu and Wu conspired to burn Chibi, so we retreated from Wei's offensive.

The navy of the Ming Dynasty was tall, and its movements were bound to be slow, and it was necessary to anchor to stabilize the hull when firing the guns.Perhaps it is possible to let the fire boat go down the river while it is bombarding, and set fire to the Ming warship. "

【Fire attacking the open ship】

This is the only way Kobayakawa Takakage can think of at the moment.

Not to mention that most of the Japanese navy is stationed in Gyeongsang-do, even if they come, they cannot be the opponents of the Ming Dynasty navy.

When looking at the opposite bank from Paju, Takakage Kobayakawa could see clearly that the warships of the Ming Dynasty navy were stronger than the Japanese ships in terms of quantity and quality.

Takakage Kobayakawa used to be the governor of the Murakami navy that was a vassal of the Mori family. He still has some experience in Japanese water warfare. He crossed the sea and landed in Harima, and he participated in the subsequent naval battle of Kizugawa.

Toyotomi Hideji asked, "Where are you going?"

When he was nervous, he actually asked the warrior directly, "Tell me, how did Kaesong fall, and what happened to my brother?"

Kobayakawa Longjing saw the Ming Dynasty navy bombarding Changtun in the morning, and immediately rushed to Wang Jing to report the news, only 3~4 hours have passed now.

Seeing his lord getting angry, the samurai shrank back and said, "I don't know. I just informed you. Did the Kobayakawa family's envoy pass the news?"

After crossing the river from Padang, since there is a valley on the opposite side, if you want to continue going south, you still need to go east through the valleys of Gwacheon and Yongin.

Moreover, many big names here have escaped from Kaesong, and they don't know how much fighting spirit they have now. Whether they can stop the invading Ming army is a question mark.

But before his order was issued, he heard the panicked report from the warriors outside, "My lord, there is a report from Paju that Kaesong has fallen, and Toyotomi's servants do not know whether they are alive or dead."

In order to make up for his lack of troops and his lack of familiarity with the terrain, Li Rusong specially asked Li Yi to lead 2 North Korean troops to accompany him.

But at least compared to the predicament in history, the current situation of the Japanese army is still good, the strongest does not reach 10 soldiers and civilians, and there is only 1.4 shi of food left in the city.

Who would have thought that Kaesong would have fallen before the order from his side was issued.

Under the suppression of the artillery of the Ming army, there was no place to stand in the southern city of Kaesong, and the Ming army took advantage of the situation to seize the city and invade the city.

Li Rusong was not in a hurry to attack the city. He ordered people to build camps and build pontoon bridges after crossing the river. He wanted to wait until the artillery was transported to Paju before launching an attack, just like Pyongyang and Kaesong before.

Many people don't understand why ancient emperors and generals like to give court ladies and widows to meritorious soldiers so much.

But when he saw the Ming army navy on the Linjin River, Takakage Kobayakawa had only one thought, and that was to escape back to Japan as soon as possible.

Yongin is located south of the Han River and east of Suwon.Later generations rarely heard this place name, but in ancient times it was the only way to enter Beijing from the south of Korea.

He is here for no other reason, because most of the soldiers of the Ming army did not have a family, and now it is one thing to fight in North Korea with their heads up to earn military pay, but it is another thing to make the soldiers of the Ming army die hard.

The fall of Kaesong and Jangtan was not good news for the Japanese army. Originally, according to Takakage Kobayakawa's plan, the Kaesong defense line should be stationed for one month, and Paju should be stationed for another month, waiting for the follow-up reinforcements to arrive before counterattacking.

The most speechless was Kobayakawa Takakage, he still wanted to let Toyotomi Hidekatsu stick to it for another two days, and give himself the time he had set, and then give up Kaesong at night.

In addition to attacking the navy of the Ming Dynasty, Takakage Kobayakawa suggested to Hideji, "Nowadays, there are navy divisions in the Ming Dynasty that isolate the north and south of the Linjin River, and there is no need to defend the city. We should send an order to open the city as soon as possible, so that Toyotomi's servants can withdraw as soon as possible. .”

But right now Toyotomi Hideji is unwilling to withdraw his troops, so he can only give it a go and destroy the opposite sea ship. At least he can guarantee the dirt road behind, so that the [-] troops will not be blocked by the Han River.

Counting the time when the deserters ran from Kaesong to Paju, and the messengers came to Wangjing from Paju, wouldn't it be that Toyotomi only defended himself for 2 to 3 hours before announcing the fall of Kaesong?
No matter how incompetent his younger brother Toyotomi Hidekatsu is, the 1.5 Japanese elites under his command are always true, right?Why can't you hold on for even one day!

For Toyotomi Hideji, the three of them supported each other, even if they looked down on him, he was his own brother.

The reason is very simple. Being a soldier is a matter of pinning your head to your trouser belt, and you can't guarantee when you will die.

After all, it would take at least 7 days to go back and forth from Kaesong to Daouizhou. Li Rusong couldn't wait that long, or he didn't take Li Yan seriously at all.

After a period of time, another envoy brought more detailed battle reports. In addition to the Ming army's artillery shelling on Centipede Mountain in front of Kaesong, it is said that the Ming army took a small path to browse through Songyue Mountain to surprise Manyuetai.

Even if there is rebellion in the northern part of Gyeongsang-do, it can still ensure that the food can be transported from Busan to Wangjing.In other words, the Japanese army at this moment is not facing the inevitable defeat situation of having no reinforcements and no food as it did in history.

To put it simply, the ships of the Japanese navy are small sampan anti-building buildings. Even if the base of the Anzhai ship is much larger than that of the bow, the bottom of the ship and the upper tower structure are separated.

Among other things, it is not uncommon for the upper deck of the Anzhai ship and the Guan ship to be blown away during a storm.

The reason why Suwon was so important during the Korean War in the later generations was because the Japanese had already built stone bridges on the Han River at that time. Even if there were no stone bridges, it would not be a problem for troops to ferry boats. The terrain is flatter and suitable for mechanized troops to operate.

In Kobayakawa Takakage's view, even if the Japanese navy came, even if they were fighting in a big river like Hanyang, they would not be able to fight against the Ming army who loaded the big tubes on board.

In addition, the big names such as Gong Changfang, Nanjo Motoki, Shimadzu Toyohisa, Asano Yukunaga were all safe and sound, and most of them fled to Shuoning, which strengthened Shuoning's defense force.

Since you can’t cross it, you have to look for a bridge upstream. There is a wooden bridge at the Batang, a later generation in the upstream. It was built by Emperor Chengzong Li for the poor people to cross the river.

Therefore, from the moment he saw the warships of the Ming Dynasty, he clearly understood that there was an essential gap in the structure of the ships of the two countries.

If things were going well here, it would have been smooth, but later on, the military officer blatantly accepted the Korean aristocratic woman who had not left the cabinet as a concubine, but Li Rusong responded with nothing.

After two days, Shuoning and Paju successively recruited the rout soldiers and samurai of various daimyo under the command of the Tenth Army, but there was still no news of Toyotomi Hidekatsu.

The scene of the Ming army's navy bombarding Changtuan City was deeply rooted in the hearts of Kobayakawa's army, so Kobayakawa Longjing didn't dare to entrust Dalinhe to deploy it.He even destroyed all the Linhe camps that had been built before, so as not to give the Ming army a chance to use them.

Kobayakawa Takakage did not return to Paju after discussing with Toyotomi Hideji that day. In Hideji’s words, he needed someone to serve as a military adviser, and at the same time he was afraid that Kobayakawa Takakage would be trapped in Paju, so the commander of Paju was actually his adopted son (brother ) Kobayakawa Hide package.

The artillery can even knock down the city wall of Changtun, let alone the wooden structure of the ship.

Now that he heard that Toyotomi Hidekatsu slaughtered all the men in the city who were taller than horseback, and left behind many widows, Li Rusong discussed with the North Korean officials and assigned them to the meritorious soldiers of the Ming army.

As soon as people crossed the river, the Ming army had already sent small boats to carry soldiers to land, and some of them stopped them on the south bank of the Han River.

In addition to the main force continuing to approach Hanyang, he also sent Li Rubai, the commander of the Left Association, to lead his troops along the Linjin River to launch an offensive against Shuoning and Lianchuan upstream.

If it is said that when he was in the quagmire of Jeolla Daoyi soldiers, Kobayakawa Takakage just felt powerless in the conquest of the court, then after hearing that the Ming army broke Pyongyang on the 1st, he had already given up hope for the future of this battle.

Although Toyotomi Hideji was a bit upright, but he was not a clay pot, so he naturally understood the meaning of Kobayakawa Takakage's words.

"At the very least, retreat to Longren to keep me safe."

There is no other reason, all because the Han River is too wide!The main means of crossing the river here in Wangjing is by boat, but when the waters were blocked by the Ming army, it was impossible to cross the river.

In fact, it was Lai who formulated the [Eight-Dog Kingdom Cut] plan in advance. Although the rule of the five countries in the west of North Korea has not been good, the three countries in the east have not caused any major disturbances.

Toyotomi Hideji couldn't believe it when he heard the news, "Nonsense, he has 1 elites in his hands, and 5 servants to join the battle. Why can't he hold on for even one day?"

His retreat directly stunned Kuroda Nagamasa of Shuoning. Although he had recruited some of Hidekatsu Toyoda's troops, he had only 1.1 original troops under his command, and part of them was consumed in Huangkaido. Today, there are only more than 9000 Japanese soldiers.

After the Ming army conquered Kaesong, and heard about Toyotomi Hidekatsu's atrocities here, Li Rusong specially allocated 100 taels of silver and 100 shimi to appease the people in the city, and then he repaired in Kaesong for 3 days.

Soldiers are also afraid of their own future.But with their conditions, it is difficult to go through the process of marrying a wife beforehand. Even if they have one, they have to spend all their wealth to marry a daughter-in-law. Some soldiers even pay for their younger brothers and sons to marry their daughter-in-law. .

As the vanguard, Li Ning led 3000 Liaodong cavalry in the lead, with Sun Shoulian, Gao Sheng and others under his command, and the whole army went straight to Matian one step ahead.

Of course, he didn't know that this was improved by absorbing the characteristics of Arabian sea ships after the Ming Dynasty sea ships went to the Western Seas.

This is the seat of the old Koryo king's palace, and also the seat of Toyotomi Hidekatsu's main camp. The defenders were beaten by the Ming army who had invaded the city, and they lost their fighting spirit when they saw the Manyuetai on fire. They fled in defeat. .

However, although the Kaesong defense line with high hopes resisted the vanguard of the Ming army for more than 3 days, it was defeated half a day after the main force of the Ming army arrived, which still greatly exceeded everyone's original plan.

Some people say that he died in the battle, some say that he ran up the mountain, anyway, there are different opinions.

But not everything is all right. In the entire Kaesong-Kinchuan battle, the daimyo Ito Yubing and Araki Shigeken were still killed in battle, and countless other samurai and ashigaru died in battle, were captured, and disappeared.

What Kobayakawa Takakage meant was to let Toyotomi Hidekatsu defend Ryin, so that if Wang Jing was defeated and the troops detoured to Patang to cross the bridge, there would be someone on the opposite side to respond.

All I know is that Kaizi City was burned down by the Ming army. The Ming army waited for the fire to slow down and set up artillery on Centipede Mountain to bombard the South City. Due to the interception of the height of the mountain, the Ming army's artillery had a good range of fire.

However, looking at the building ships, boats, and blessing ships of the Ming Dynasty from a distance, their ship structure is more like one. It is also for this reason that Ming army ships have installed artillery on the upper plywood, otherwise the recoil of the artillery shooting can directly destroy the ship building. .

After marrying a daughter-in-law and doing what they loved, the morale of the Ming army was like a rainbow, and they crossed the Linjin River and disembarked from the shallows on January 1.

Park Hao, the envoy of the Kaijing government who came to take over the affairs of Kaesong, dared not refuse this request. After the performance of the Joseon King Li Zan, Li Zan even allocated 1000 taels of gift money to deal with the matter.

The news of Toyotomi Hidekatsu did not come from Gangwon Province until 5 days later. It turned out that he fled westward to Cheorwon with more than a hundred people browsing Songak Mountain.

At this time, Tachibana Soshige was stationed in Matian. Facing the tens of thousands of Ming Dynasty and Korean coalition forces to the west, he knew that Matian Castle was not small enough to defend. A total of 5400 people.

Even if the daimyos such as Miyabe, Asano, and Toyotomi and their followers are recruited, the total force cannot exceed 1.6.

Later, even some Korean women who had not yet left the cabinet but had been defiled by the Japanese army were also included in the designated marriages, and Kaesong was full of joy for a while.

But this time is wartime, and everything in the ceremony is kept simple.Li Rusong did not wait for Li Yan's order to be issued, but he had already forcibly married the widows in Kaesong to the meritorious Ming army soldiers.

But it's useless to ask the envoy of the Kobayakawa family, because he also heard the news from the Kaesong rout.

Although these people have long put life and death aside, but as the saying goes, there are three types of unfilial piety, and having no descendants is the greatest.If you give them a chance to find a wife for free, they will naturally be grateful to you. This is also one of the best ways to appease the sergeant.

The most important thing is that Toyotomi Hidekatsu fled to Shuoning. Now there are two legion commanders here, but in fact the total strength is not as many as other legions.

Moreover, as the commander of the army, he is a head lower than Toyotomi Hidekatsu in terms of status. Even if he hangs the sign of defending Shuoning with full authority, you can see that Toyotomi Hidekatsu is not a bird.

In fact, Toyotomi Hidekatsu is nothing compared to him. Toyotomi Hidekatsu, who heard that the Ming army was marching eastward, took his headquarters directly across the river to Lianchuan to flee for his life under the pretext of returning to Wangjing to help the garrison. His 9000 men and horses dealt with the 3 troops of the Ming and Dynasties.

Kuroda Nagamasa thought he could not win this battle.

Kuroda Nagamasa thought about it, you all ran away, what's the matter with keeping me here, so he fled to Gangwon Province through Anxia and Yichuan without fighting, and went to meet with Toyotomi Xiuzhen.