Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 657 The Battle of Jianzhou

Liu Ting's tactics are very simple, the troops are divided into north and south to encircle and suppress Nurhachi.

Northland is Fushun Road, which goes eastward along Suzihe Road, and South Road is Xiujia Road, which goes northward from the Hunjiang River in Weiyuan County, North Korea, and finally returns to the city of Hetuala with the South Route Army.

But in fact, there are two problems with such a plan. The Suzi River road on the North Road is relatively wide, and it is close to the water source, which is convenient for marching.

The two sides of the Hunjiang River on the South Road are mostly steep canyons, which are not suitable for the Dagu army to march. Moreover, the Hunjiang River is not connected to Hetuala City. It needs to climb over two mountains in the middle. There is a long section of the water source that is only a stream. , and cannot provide drinking water safety for the army of more than 5 people.

If it's just these things, that's all. You must know that the road to the south is difficult, and Jurchen is good at fighting in the mountains and forests.The army on the South Road is likely to fall into an ambush by the Jurchens.

Xiujia once proposed a plan to go north from Yizhou to Liaoyang, and then go westward.Or the plan that Xiangxi Jiaqing had gone through before, Cicheng on the upper reaches of the Yalu River went north via the Yalu River Department and the Wanyan Department to attack the Jurchen for the second time.

This road only needs to climb over a high mountain near the Yalu River. The road behind is relatively flat, and there are rivers along the way to get water, so there is no need to worry too much about being ambushed by Jurchen soldiers on the way.

However, the Ming army generals and North Korean generals present seemed to treat Xiujia's words as transparent people, and they didn't even bother to respond.

In the Ming Dynasty, Ming often conscripted chieftains, vassals and other custodial forces to help him pacify hostile forces in marginal areas.

However, as the transcendent self-confidence of the kingdom of heaven, even though they only accounted for a small part of the military force, the Ming army generals dispatched by Liu Ting, such as Gao Ce and Wu Weizhong, still had the absolute command of the troops on the southern front. .

Correspondingly, the Japanese army, which is the main combat force, clearly accounts for 6% of its troops but has to obey the orders of several Ming army generals.

Moreover, the generals of the Ming army seemed to look down on the Japanese army very much. Every time the military meeting was held, Ming generals and North Korean generals stood in the tents, but only two Japanese generals were allowed to attend. The key is that you will not be given a chance to propose at all.

Even in front of them, a group of veterans from North Korea and Ming, the generals sent by the Japanese side were too young, and Motocho Yoshikawa was the oldest, but the two generals and deputy generals were both in their teens and twenties ( Xiujia, Xiuqiu), their proposal is naturally not enough to convince others.

What the three of the Xiu family heard the most in the generals' camp was the North Korean general mocking the three of them as little brats with no hair.They seem to think that by ridiculing the problems of the Japanese army, they can reflect the brilliance and prowess of the Korean army.

You must know that there are 8000 Japanese soldiers and 1.5 Korean soldiers in Hamgyong-do and Gangwon-do in the entire South Army Corps, but the 12000 Japanese troops have 4200 iron cannons, which can be said to be the only one in the current Jianzhou battlefield. One by one, an organized pure firearms unit has been formed.

Perhaps because of his distrust of the Japanese army, Gao Ce, the chief general, put Xiujia, the Japanese army with the majority of troops, at the end. His main task was to guard the mountain road behind, besides transporting food. Prevent being attacked by Jurchens.

Around March 3, the Ming Army of the South Route Army broke through Shihada City and Xiagu City (Hengren Manchu Autonomous County) in the north and south, and finally occupied a relatively favorable fulcrum in the south.

If all goes well, it will take only 2 to 3 days to continue marching northward along the valley from here to reach Hetuala City, the main city of Jianzhou Jurchen.

All the generals of the Ming army and the North Korean generals are full of confidence in the victory of this battle. This may be due to the fact that the Ming army has been so powerful recently that Jurchen has not seen effective resistance.

But the Xiu family didn't feel very happy. Taking Nanshi Hada City, Beishi Hada City, Xiagu City and other cities by the Hun River as examples, the Ming army took the city almost without encountering resistance. The arrival of the army chose the strategy of strengthening the wall and clearing the field.

After the southern army entered the city, not only did they not find many people, but they did not even find a grain of food.

Those who stayed in the city were some handicapped or old Jurchens, who had been abandoned by Nurhachi, who followed the law of the jungle in the face of the overwhelming army.

So here comes the question, all those left behind are old, weak, sick and disabled, where have all the young and strong men in Jianzhou Jurchen gone?

Sure enough, after Gao Ce led the 2 Ming Dynasty-Korean coalition forces to continue northward, Xiujia who stayed in Nanshi Hada City received news from the Japanese army behind that the grain transportation route was attacked.

Fortunately, the people who transported the food were carefully selected by the Xiu family, the flower house Zhengxing, the elite soldiers of Gangwon Province and Hamgyong Province.

It is true that some grain transport teams were defeated by the Jurchen field soldiers, and the food transported was looted, but there were also cases of counter-killing and looting Jurchen soldiers, and even captured them in turn.

Judging from the situation of being captured, the Jurchen soldiers who fought guerrillas in the back were not elite.Not to mention the armor, having a decent steel knife in his hand is worthy of him.

As for the composition of the team, it is also very strange. A few dozen or so Jurchen men led dozens of strong women down the mountain to plunder, and the only armored one among them was the commander of this temporary Niu Lu.

Facing such a mob, Xiujia would not allow them to rob his own logistics route. Xiujia took the initiative to use an opportunity to show his flaws, but before and after the spies followed the mob to the bandit cave they hid in the mountain lair.

Then Yoshikawa Yuanchang led 1000 Japanese troops and 3000 Korean soldiers to pay up, and won a small victory.

However, when Genchang Yoshikawa was transporting the seized supplies and prisoners to Hada City in Nanshi, the Xiu family heard the news from below that there were several groups of soldiers fleeing from the north.

A few North Korean soldiers were randomly arrested to inquire about the situation, but everyone couldn't explain what was going on. After all, they were ambushed by Jurchen soldiers.

Others said that the valley to the north was like a purgatory on earth, and the generals (I don’t know whether he was referring to the Ming army generals or the Korean generals) all died in the battle.

Not long after, the North Korean defense envoy Quan Yingzhu led the first North Korean soldiers with thousands of soldiers to escape, and the showmen were able to get a clearer picture of the battle on the front line.

After careful questioning, I found out that late the day before yesterday, the Southern Army led by Gao Ce who was about to arrive at Hetuala encountered an ambush 10 miles southwest of Hetuala City.

It is said that Nurhachi personally led more than 3 elite women from the town to charge against the 2-odd Ming and Korean coalition forces.

As his eldest son, Chu Ying and his younger brother Shuerhaqi, they led the Zhengbai and Zhenghong flags as vanguards and rushed down from the mountains in the east and west directions respectively, killing the North Korean soldiers in the valley with the acceleration of the height of the mountains. It's all over the place.

Asked again about the situation of the Ming army generals Gao Ce, Wu Weizhong and others, but he was also a guy who didn't know what to ask.

If there is one sentence that Quan Yingzhu said is the most meaningful, it is probably the sentence "The Southern Army's Northern Expedition is no longer possible. You are still young and you should take your younger brothers to retreat southward and return to Japan. Lives are lost here."

The Xiu family ignored Quan Yingzhu's "concern" for him. One of the issues he was most concerned about at the moment was why Nurhachi had extra troops and dared to ambush the southern army.

Obviously, the route of the northern army's advance is closer to Hetuala, and it is relatively easy to walk along the way. Logically speaking, the northern army has already surrounded Hetuala with infantry first, and waited for the southern soldiers to arrive and work together to take down Jurchen's main city.

If the threat of the northern soldiers to Nurhachi is real, why would he dare to withdraw his main force to the south?

In the eyes of many people, the Southern Army is a miscellaneous army, far less effective than the 6 elite Ming soldiers from the Northern Army.

Nurhachi calmly took away most of his troops from the northern front. Isn't he afraid that the northern army will raid his hometown?
As for the operation of Hideyoshi's big turnaround, Hideyoshi is unwilling to believe it. It takes a day to draw the troops back to the south, and after winning the south, they turn around and continue to confront the northern soldiers.

This requires extremely strong battlefield acumen, extremely fine front intelligence, and extremely precise time planning.

Once any step went wrong, even if Nurhachi defeated the main force of the Southern Army, when he returned, he would see Hetuala City surrounded by the elite Northern Army.

The Xiu family was not reconciled to withdrawing from Jianzhou like this. He brought 2 people across the ocean from Japan. Could it be that he was going back to Jianzhou for a round trip?
The Xiu family, who was thinking about it, had people summon the Jurchen soldiers under their command. Most of these people were savage Jurchen soldiers who were sold as slaves in the past. Among the 3500 soldiers formed by the Xiu family in Jianzhou this time, there were 500 were Jurchen soldiers.

The "Tiger La Sha" Xiu family summoned a Jurchen captain under his command and ordered him, "Take a few trustworthy brothers and go north along the road to see the situation. What happened to the army, why didn't they arrive in Hetuala as agreed."

In the next two days, the Xiu family moved the city from South Stone Hada City to North Stone Hada City, and continued to gather routs.

Finally, on the third day, I saw Wu Weizhong, the deputy commander who fled back in embarrassment. At this moment, he was no longer as vigorous as he had just stepped across the Yalu River.

Wu Weizhong was sent back on horseback by his own soldiers. The heaviest wound on his body was a knife cut to his waist. Although he was famous for self-defense with armor, his flesh and blood had already turned out.

Xiujia asked the military doctor to clean his wound and asked his soldiers about the real battle situation ahead.

When talking about General Gao Ce, Wu Weizhong's soldiers fell silent, and it took a long time before they said, "General Gao led the Chinese army in the rear, and in case of emergency, he abandoned me and ran away. Haven't he come back yet?" ?"

This answer can be said to be murderous. Gao Ce, who escaped first, has not yet returned, but Wu Weizhong, who was trapped in the battle as a vanguard, was transported back instead.

From this point of view, Gao Ce, the chief general, was obviously targeted by the Jurchen, and now it seems that the situation is more ominous.

Afterwards, Xiujia asked them the questions he was most concerned about, "How many Jurchen soldiers are there? What color armor and burqas do they wear? Didn't your spies find out before the ambush? Where is the Northern Army now?"

After hearing that the Jurchen soldiers were wearing red, white, and black armor and burqas, the Xiu family knew that it seemed that Nurhachi had ambushed Gao Ce with the black flags, the white flags, and the red flags.

As for why the spies didn't find out, this explanation seems even more absurd.

The duty of the pioneer troops is to explore the road. According to them, no problems were found in the road exploration ahead. If there is any doubt, the spies have never seen the flag of the Ming army under the city of Helamutu.

According to what they said, the Jurchen soldiers who met them came out from the city of Helamtu. At that time, Wu Weizhong was still ecstatic and thought that the Jurchen soldiers were planning to go out of the city to fight in the field.

Unexpectedly, suddenly, there was a loud noise from the rear, saying that there were Jurchen ambush soldiers coming out of the valley.The strange thing is that here, the Jurchen ambushed more than ten thousand people and they didn't find out.

For this explanation, Xiu Jia, who has seen the satellite maps of later generations, has his own explanation. The most indispensable thing in Changbai Mountains is the valley, which also adds a lot of material to the weird stories of tomb robbery novels in later generations.

It is impossible to hide more than ten thousand soldiers in one ditch, but if they are divided into parts, one ditch hides a little, that ditch hides a little, and it is really difficult to find the Ming army after they are discovered.

The Ming army's spies were not familiar with the terrain, so they just searched the mountains and valleys along the way. It was difficult to search the valleys farther away, which provided opportunities for Jurchen to ambush.

As for the third question [Where is the Northern Army], it is a pity that they have no answer to this question. It is certain that the flag of the Ming army was not seen under the city of Hetuala, so there are only two answers left: 1. The Northern Army encountered something, It had to be postponed, and the 2 Beibing had already been defeated first.

If it was the first answer, the Beibing must have encountered a very difficult situation right now. After Nurhachi cleared up the high strategy, he would definitely transfer the main force back to the front line confronting the Beibing, and the situation would be even more critical then.

If it is the first case, then there is no need to fight this crusade against Jianzhou, and Emperor Wanli can also wash up and sleep. This battle is even worse than the one lost by Sarhu.

But in Xiujia's view, the possibility of the second situation is very small, because if the northern soldiers are defeated by Jurchen first, then Nurhachi will definitely chase the southern soldiers all the way across the Yalu River and launch another raid on North Korea.

After all, compared to the more difficult frontier castles of Liaodong Capital, the cities and villages in North Korea are much easier to raid.

For the current Jurchen, he urgently needs a large number of people, including but not limited to agricultural physical strength or technical personnel.

If possible, Nurhachi intends to assign North Korean slaves to all the Jurchen Niulu soldiers, and let them go to the Jurchen soldiers, so that the Jurchen soldiers can become full-time professional soldiers and further improve their combat effectiveness.

What made Nurhachi give up such a choice? It is only possible that there are still situations in the north that deserve his attention. The priority of this matter is far more important than taking advantage of victory to rob North Korea.

It was hard for Xiujia to think of anyone more fearful of Nurhachi than the elite of the Northern Army.At this time, a plan began to form in Xiujia's mind.

In fact, for the Xiu family, since the Southern Army was defeated, there was no need for him to continue fighting, and it would be a great achievement to honestly bring these people back.

But the Xiu family is still the heart of a flower grower, and they don't want to see the Ming Dynasty go down the road of being enslaved and slaughtered by the Jurchen again in history.

Not to mention that the Ming Dynasty in the Wanli Dynasty is not a broken ship. The Ming Dynasty that has just experienced the Wanli Zhongxing is very strong. , Enslaved Jurchens.

In Xiujia's view, the northern army led by Liu Ting must not have been defeated, otherwise Nurhachi would have chased the defeated soldiers and came to him long ago.

Now that Nurhachi has withdrawn his troops, he must have gathered his forces to deal with the Northern Army, so he gave himself the opportunity to attack his own city again.

Right now, Nurhachi's attention is all on the north, and he would not have expected that the southern soldiers defeated by him would still have the strength to kill him with a carbine.

Even if he has information and knows that the Southern soldiers are attacking again, it will take at least 3 to 5 days from the time he gets the information to organizing troops to come again, while it only takes 2 days for the Xiu family to rush from Beishi Hada City to Hetuala City .

Hetuala City is the temporary city built by Nurhachi after the destruction of Foala City. Unlike Foala City, Hetuala City is built on the flat ground in the valley.

Later research found that Hetuala’s fortification method is somewhat similar to that of Japan’s Heijo Castle. A high platform was built with rammed earth as the city, and stones were embedded outside the city’s earth fortress as a stone wall, and important buildings were built inside the city. things.

Such a city was undoubtedly within reach for the Japanese army who had fought siege warfare all their lives.

The Xiu family needed to face off against Nurhachi's main force, and they would be satisfied just by disrupting his deployment.

Nurhachi believed that he had defeated the Southern Bing, and he would not face the opportunity of being attacked from both sides.At this time, the number of sentries staying in the south will definitely not be as dense as the previous ambush of the southern soldiers.

As long as the Xiu family advances carefully and spreads the scope of the sentry more widely, even if they encounter the Jurchen soldiers who are slow to move the Xiu family, they are basically a small group of troops, and the winning rate of this battle is extremely high.

　Next Monday (20th) and Tuesday (21st) will be closed for rest, please let us know
　　
　
(End of this chapter)