Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 637 Imchen Japanese Invasion (26) The Fall of Xiaoyao Mountain
Perhaps it was due to the topography of Paju, or Kobayakawa Hidebo and the Kobayakawa army he led did have two brushes, and the Ming army was successfully blocked by him under the city of Paju.

You must know that because of its geographical location, Paju's city defense is a little stronger than that of ordinary Korean prefectures, but it is still incomparable with the prefectures and counties of Daming.

The Ming army, which possessed artillery and superior numbers, was blocked in Paju for 5 days and there was no sign of breaking the city.

I also want to thank Kobayakawa Hidebao for fighting for these 5 days, and giving Kobayakawa Takakage the opportunity to readjust his defense.

Now Paju has encountered tens of thousands of main forces of the Ming army, and Matian has been occupied by the Ming army. Although there are still Jicheng and Yongpingcheng that can be the connection between Wangjing and Lianchuan, strategically they have been cut off by the enemy.

After careful consideration, Kobayakawa Takakage ordered Fukushima Masanori's troops stationed in Lianchuan to withdraw to Baochuan and Yangzhou to defend Wang Jing's right wing, and ordered Kuroda Nagamasa in Shuoning to withdraw to Jicheng , to replace Soshige Tachibana stationed here.

It's a pity that his order was issued too slowly. By the time the order reached Shuoning, Kuroda Nagamasa had already led people to withdraw in the direction of Gangwon-do.

Due to the delay in winning Paju City, Li Rusong changed his strategy.He ordered Zhang Shijue, the right assistant, to lead his headquarters to Jicheng and down to Yangzhou, posing a threat to Hanyang from the east road.

Perhaps because of historical revision, the Liaodong military officers Zha Dashou and Zu Chengxun in the Zuoxie were appointed vanguard officers to lead the cavalry headquarters to open the way.

Jicheng is not far from Paju, and the straight-line distance between the two sides is only 20 kilometers, which is only a ten-minute drive for later generations.

In addition, the Japanese army had iron cannons to help out, even if the front breastplate of the Ming army could not be broken, there would always be a few unlucky ones who would be hit on the head and die.

At noon, Tachibana Zongshige saw the cavalry troops of the Ming army turning from the north to the south. Seeing the army on the opposite side was in full swing and the morale was like a rainbow, he couldn't help but sucked in a breath of cold air.

In fact, after hearing the news that Pyongyang fell in one day and Kaesong in half a day, the Japanese army already had some fear of the Ming army.

The Japanese army has a total of 5400 people, but more than 2000 of them are semi-military and semi-civilian men such as pawns, box holders, iron cannon ashigaru (iron cannon loaders, reserve gunners), Temingfu (prepared ashigaru) A transformed person, the weapon in his hand is only a spear.

But how did two legs run faster than four legs? In the end, it was just a happy half-step to tell Harada Tozeng.

In fact, the beacon fire in winter is easy to spot, but Zha Dashou and Zu Chengxun, who had already been dazzled by the "two-legged military exploits", thought it was the smoke of the hunters on the mountain and didn't take it to heart.

But the 5400 Japanese soldiers, like 5400 military exploits, tempted the entire vanguard army of 3000 people.After all, after experiencing the battles of Pyongyang and Kaesong, the impression that the Japanese army is not good at fighting has long been deeply rooted in their hearts, and naturally they will not take a group of defeated Japanese troops to heart.

Immediately, the two sent people to inform Zhang Shijue, who was slowly marching behind, that after leaving 100 "unlucky guys" to garrison Jicheng, they led more than 2900 people to chase west.

This is also understandable, after all, the 3000 Ming troops are the elite of the Northern Army.

Soon the Japanese army was surprised to find that although the cotton armor worn by the Ming army could break a hole after being stabbed with a long spear, it could not hurt the back.

In other words, under the unfavorable situation of the battle in Paju, in the 21st year of Wanli, on January 1th (January 20th in the second year of Wenlu), tomorrow the generals of both sides will focus on Yangzhou in the northeast of Hanyang. The first-level encounter battle is about to start!

The news of the Ming army's attack was quickly learned by Tachibana Zongshige. At this moment, the large Japanese army had not yet arrived in the Pocheon Valley, and the situation was very critical.

Of course, the Ming army is not completely without weaknesses. Even with cotton armor on the body, the armpit and neck are the weaknesses of the Ming army. If the Japanese army cooperates with each other, they can still take the opportunity to kill a few.

Some spears even fell on the opposite body when they were pulled out, and turned into sticks.

But the range of the short bows of the cavalry is not far enough, no more than 150 meters at most. Even if the Marugi bows of the Japanese army on the opposite side can't hurt them, the range of the Kyushu Iron Cannon is quite enough.

The fighting power of the Ming army is very strong, even the samurai may not be able to get benefits from the Ming army, and it often takes several ashigaru to fight together to harvest the head of the next Ming army when they are not prepared.

The Ming army didn't investigate for a while, because they had to shoot a volley and the formation on the opposite side was relatively tight. Suddenly, the people who were shot were turned on their backs, and dozens of soldiers fell down.

At this time, no one dared to retreat.

Zha Dashou led people to stand in front of Harada Tongzeng. After observing for a while, he saw Harada Tongzeng wearing a gorgeous gust of wind in the queue, thinking that this must be a big shot in the Japanese army.

The Ming army was in some confusion at first, and a wave of heads were harvested by the Japanese army, but the Ming army that soon stabilized fought with the Japanese army.

For Tachibana Muneshige, the organization of the Japanese army was like this, and if they fought to the death with courage, if they withdrew, they would fall into an irreversible defeat, and they would be close to death.

The cavalry led by Zha Dashou is the Xuanda elite who have been fighting against Mongolia all year round. Many of them are Mongols attached to them. Naturally, they are good at archery. They usually use bows and arrows to disrupt the formation of the opposite side, and then charge in one go. Cut through the opposing formation.

In addition to being unable to penetrate the spear head, the fighting quality of the Ming army is also much higher than that of ordinary Japanese ashigaru.

After all, although this is the hinterland of North Korea, it is a corner. They never thought that the Japanese army would build a beacon tower here.

But the Ming army didn't rush forward in a swarm of fools. This kind of impossible cavalry attack only appears in film and television works and some brainless novels.

Zha Dashou agreed with his point of view and said, "The strength of the bandits and bandits is similar to mine (3000 vs. 5400), but I am an elite in all battles, and the bandits and bandits will surely be defeated in one blow."

Some people even believe that as long as they persevere, victory will surely belong to them.

Still limited by the road problems at that time, we withdrew from Jicheng to Wangjing and divided it into east and west routes.The west road goes down to Hanyang through Paju, and the east road continues up along Shuoyuan of the Linjin River, enters the Yangzhou Basin from the tributary Baochuan to the south, and then goes out from the south of the Yangzhou Basin, and after going out, it is the east of Hanyang City.

But at present, the two places are actually blocked by mountains. If you want to go to Jicheng from Paju, you need to go up the Shuoyuan of Imjin River and climb over the mountains to reach Jicheng.

Tachibana Muneshige is a famous general in the post-Warring States period. He is famous for his steady combat but often has strange moves.

There were only more than 3000 fighters who actually met Zhada and were attacked by 1100 cavalry. These 1100 fighters were placed on the 150-meter-wide valley road and Baochuan, but the depth is actually very shallow.

When Zha Dashou saw this opportunity, Zu Chengxun quickly planned to order the cavalry to charge, but just as the order was issued, he heard the sound of iron cannons from the forest on the right side of the mountain.

Tachibana Muneshige thought that Fukushima Masamune would not go to Pocheon, so naturally he would not continue to garrison Jicheng, so that he could retreat calmly.

This time he retreated from Jicheng, he indeed sent people to guard the beacon towers on the mountains on both sides early, and if he found that the Ming army was chasing him, he would light the beacon to inform himself.

But the disadvantage of black powder is that it will produce a lot of smoke. Now that it is in the valley, the smoke is even more difficult to dissipate. After several rounds of shooting, it completely obscures the sight between the two sides.

Although Zhang Shijue and Li Rusong repeatedly told them to be careful, after all, there should be at least two corps of the Japanese army on the east road with more intelligence.

If we must compare, everyone is a warrior class. Even if there is no military land, they are still a recruited ronin class. How can these temporary recruits from Kyushu be comparable?

The two sides fought for an hour at the foot of Ganyue Mountain, and both sides actually fell into a hard fight.Although the Japanese army fell into a disadvantage in close combat, after all, there were iron cannons to target and kill from a distance, and it could also suppress the Ming army.

Therefore, when they saw the elite cavalry of the Ming army attacking in front of them, all the Japanese soldiers swallowed nervously.

Therefore, during the time when the two sides were shooting at each other, not only the Japanese army suffered some injuries, but also the Ming army cavalrymen were constantly injured and fell off their horses.

In fact, when Yeoncheon withdrew to Hanyang, there was not only the smooth road of Pocheon, but Fukushima Zhengzheng’s Fifth Corps stationed in Yeoncheon, Yongping, Jinhua, and Cheorwon. Assemble, and then go west from Yongping to Yangzhou.

Let’s talk about the 20th, the Ming Army’s Right Alliance vanguard officer Zha Dashou, Zu Chengxun and others led 3000 mixed troops composed of Datong, Xuanfu, and Liaodong cavalry to attack Jicheng along the Linjin River.

"There is an ambush!" "On the mountain!"

However, it is said that Tachibana Zongshige was ordered to defend Jicheng and maintain the safety of Paju's right wing, but in fact the waterway communication between Paju and Jicheng was actually cut off by the Ming army.

After arriving at Jicheng, they found that it was already an empty city, which did not match the information they had learned before.

Then he ordered the whole army to attack the Japanese army.

Another problem here is that to withdraw from Lianchuan to defend Yangzhou, it also needs to go downstream through Lianchuan, merge into Linjin River, continue westward, and then turn to Baochuan to enter the Yangzhou Basin.

However, Baochuan is a shoal, and the stream is just below the knees. If the cavalry really intends to charge, they can go around the stream and pinch Harada Tossu's troops.

But what he doesn't know is that at this moment, Fukushima is also preparing to withdraw his troops from Pocheon, and because his troops in the city are still spreading in Yeongpyeong in the south of Yeoncheon, Jinhua and Cheorwon in the west, he has to It took 2 days to gather the scattered troops.

Zu Chengxun thought proudly: the Japanese army had only walked for half a day, and most of them were infantry, so the speed of marching must not be fast.And we are all cavalry, if we catch up and kill them with tails, we will be able to defeat the Japanese army.

However, he can do nothing at this moment, he can only send someone to approach the road down the mountain to inform his younger brother, so that his younger brother can turn around and prepare to form an array to meet the enemy.

For a while, the Ming army was attacked on both sides, and it was obvious that they were the ones pursuing it, but they were ambushed by the Japanese army and fell into a bitter fight.

This kind of fear is actually from the bottom up. After all, no matter how much the upper-level daimyo block the news, they will always receive rout soldiers from the north, and the first to communicate with them must be the lower-level soldiers.

In this dangerous valley, the road in the middle is only 100 meters wide.

Besides, not everyone in the Ming army was equipped with cotton armor. This thing was equipped the most by the Liaodong army, but not all of them were equipped.Cavalrymen like Xuanda prefer to wear leather-lined fish scale armor or zip armor, which have gaps for spears to pierce.

Jiseong was originally a small county under Paju. Although Takashi Kobayakawa asked him to defend Jakseong, Tachibana Munemo thought that Jiseong was small and his troops were too few to defend, so he led his troops to withdraw to Pocheon in advance. .

Zha Dashou, Zu Chengxun and other generals and the Ming army below reacted almost at the same time, but at this time the Japanese army on the mountain had already charged down the mountain with long spears.

But the width of the battlefield is not very wide now, and the cavalry can't use their cavalry and shooting, so they stand directly in place and shoot each other with the Japanese army on the opposite side.

Tachibana Zongmao's vassal Lianzhen took the lead at ten o'clock, and directly picked up a Ming army cavalryman with a long spear, but the cavalryman was not seriously injured after falling from his horse, and soon took up his weapon and started fighting with him on foot.

He quickly ordered his younger brother Harada Tongzeng to lead people to continue south along the valley road of Pocheon Valley, while he himself led people up the mountain, intending to lay an ambush for the Ming army on the mountain.

With the explosive sound of gunpowder being fired by the iron cannon of 【砰码砰】, lead bullets were fired from the iron cannon and shot at the Ming army in the valley.

After asking the Korean people in the city, they found out that the Japanese army had only withdrawn early this morning.

But he didn't expect that because of one of his own mistakes, a big battle broke out here.

Tachibana Muneshige was originally ordered to garrison Fukushima Masanori and withdraw from Shuoning, but after hearing that Kuroda Nagamasa had withdrawn to Gangwon Province, he thought that Jicheng had lost the meaning of defense, so he withdrew his troops first.

When Harada Tongzeng heard that the Ming cavalry was attacking, he immediately ordered the army to turn around and greet the enemy with spears and crane wings.

This is actually the problem of grabbing. Once the tip of the gun is deep, it is easy to separate the tip of the gun from the barrel. This is why the grabbing is not suitable for stabbing.

The generals of the Ming army in this era have a high degree of independent decision-making power. As the saying goes, the orders of the generals are not accepted, let alone the orders of the generals.

Their current position is in the middle of the valley, with Ganyue Mountain on the east side, Xiaoyao San on the west side, and Baochuan passes between the two mountains.

On the opposite side, Harada Tongzeng's headquarters in the smog seemed to have heard the order, and came thinking of the Ming army rushing instead.

For the generals of the Ming army, although they are now in a tough battle, they have advantages in protective equipment, and they are not particularly crushed in terms of numbers, so they are handy in fighting.

But the balance of victory is so miraculous, I don’t know who shouted, everyone looked behind through the gap between the crowd, but it was a group of Japanese soldiers rushing past the mountain road of Xiaoyao Mountain’s defense line on the other side of Baochuan.

"Reinforcements! It's reinforcements!"

"The Japanese pirate reinforcements have arrived!"

The one who came was Masanori Fukushima, who was ordered to withdraw from Lianchuan and passed through Baochuan, and the offense and defense were completely out of shape for a while!

(End of this chapter)