prosperous age

In one day, Wang Gao learned the news about the large-scale Ming army dispatch from the spies arranged outside Xianshan Fort and Gushan Fort.

Immediately, the generals were convened to discuss the strategy against the Ming army.

"Minggou sent out troops a month earlier than predicted. It can be seen that Minggou had already stocked up on food and grass at the border fortress, otherwise it would have been impossible to prepare for sending troops so quickly."

After Wang Gao told the generals what the spies had learned, he said harshly.

"Mange, just fight as you say. We don't understand, so we just listen to you."

Hearing that the Ming army had been dispatched to attack, Wang Gao's subordinate Ta Qi immediately shouted.

As a result, under his leadership, other generals also started making noises, shouting that Wang Gao must decide how to fight the Ming army.

Among the people in the room, only Wang Gao, his two sons Atai and Ahai, and Lai Lihong remained silent.

They were not idling around, but were thinking about how to fight the Ming army.

Just now, Wang Gao had already told the spies what they had heard. The Ming army set out from the Dangerous Mountain Fort and led nearly 40,000 elite Liaodong troops, beating drums all the way. The momentum was quite impressive.

Only two days after setting off, they had already conquered two Jurchen villages along the way and killed dozens of people. When the other Jurchens saw the Ming army's formation, they hurriedly retreated to Gule City.

The Ming army that set off from Xianshan Fort was led by Li Chengliang, the Ming army's chief military officer in Liaodong.

Is Li Chengliang serious?

No one here knows that Li Chengliang is really good at fighting.

Although Li Chengliang did not fight Wang Gaobu head-on, Wang Gaobu attacked Ming army border towns several times. Just when he was about to successfully enter the town, he heard that the soldiers led by Li Chengliang had already reached dozens of miles away. , they could arrive in an instant, so they could only retreat in a hurry.

Li Chengliang's personal troops were composed of thousands of Liaodong cavalry, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that their combat power was the strongest in Liaodong in this era.

Just looking at the Mongolian barbarians who fought against him, one can imagine that every time the Mongolian army was beaten by Li Chengliang, they fled in panic.

Moreover, during the Ming army's assaults, the Mongols often lost nobles at the level of tribal leaders to Li Chengliang.

Although they have been defeated by the Ming Dynasty for more than a hundred years, because of the miracles performed by the Grand Master Ye Xian, the young prince, and Anda Khan, there are still many leaders among the Mongolian tribes who are dissatisfied with the Ming army.

In their eyes, the Ming army's combat power was just that, no better than the Mongolian athletes under their command, but it was just because of its strength in numbers.

If it were an environment like that within the pass, perhaps having more people would still be an advantage.

But on the prairie, that advantage was no longer in the hands of the Ming army.

The two emperors who founded the Ming Dynasty were so talented and strategic. They gathered tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of troops several times to march north. The Mongols were still not defeated, and they still lived on this land.

Therefore, when faced with Li Chengliang's attack, most of the Mongolian leaders were not afraid at first. Instead, they thought it was an opportunity for them to show their power, and they led their troops to intercept him.

The result is naturally predictable. Li Chengliang's personal troops not only selected the most courageous soldiers in Liaodong, but were also armed to the teeth. This shows that all the sharpest weapons in the army are given priority.

With such an armed force, the Mongols were not unjustly defeated.

This also led to the fact that for a long time afterwards, when the Mongolian people heard about Li Chengliang, they were frightened to death.

However, the proud Mongolians will naturally not say these things out loud. They will only hide them in their hearts and not let outsiders know.

Otherwise, they will be greeted with endless ridicule and contempt.

Naturally, Wang Gao and others did not know this.

As for the Ming army coming out of Gushan Fort, the number of troops was obviously much smaller, with only more than 10,000 men, and the flags were not those of the Liaodong generals that the spies were familiar with, so Wang Gao was not allowed to know the details of the coming generals.

In fact, Qi Jiguang's military flag is somewhat different from the traditional flag of the Ming army. He will adjust it according to his own military habits for the convenience of his future command.

It is normal for the Jurchen spies not to know.

"Although the Ming army marched out in two directions, looking at the direction of their advance, it was obvious that they were heading towards our Gule City."

Wang Gao glanced at the generals. Under his intense gaze, the room instantly became quiet. Everyone shut up and waited for the leader to speak.

"It is at least two hundred miles from the Ming army's border fort to our Gule city. According to the sentinels, the Ming army was extremely cautious in advancing and only marched thirty miles a day. Apparently, they were worried that our army would set up ambushes along the way.

The Ming army came too quickly, and they came first before we could attack, so..."

Having said this, Wang Gao looked at everyone in the room and then said slowly: "Atai, go to the grassland immediately, find the Tuman, and ask them to send troops in advance.

Tell them about the situation here. The Ming Dynasty's Liaodong general officer has led troops to kill me. This is their opportunity to send troops to attack Shenyang.

While Li Chengliang is not in Shenyang, if they capture Jiancheng in one fell swoop, Liaodong will be their barbarian world from now on.

Tell them that we will delay Li Chengliang as much as possible and prevent him from having the opportunity to withdraw to support Shenyang. "

After Wang Gao finished speaking, his eldest son Atai stood up and respectfully agreed.

"You set off immediately. The faster you go, the better."

Wang Gao continued.

Atai then resigned and took his people to find Mongolian allies in western Liaoning.

"Brothers Lai Lihong and Ta Qi, you take two thousand people and the young men you find along the way to Shidiankou, and try to find a way to delay the advance of Li Chengliang's army and delay it. Do you understand?"

After Wang Gao saw Atai leaving, he immediately gave the order.

"Yes."

"Yes."

Lai Lihong and Brother Taqi both agreed, but they did not leave immediately, but continued to wait for Wang Gao's subsequent orders.

"Ah Hai."

"Amma."

Wang Gao looked at his second son Ahai again, and Ahai immediately stood up and took the order.

"Immediately go to the nearby Jurchen tribe, meet with their leader, and tell them that Ming Gou came to beat me this time. If they ignore it and follow their wishes, they will also come to me after I fail. road.

Will Mingren sit back and watch the Jurchen tribe become powerful? They will try their best to eliminate the powerful tribe.

Tell them that if they send troops to help me this time, I will be very grateful after the incident is completed. "

Faced with the threat from the Ming army, Wang Gao had to send his son as a lobbyist to the surrounding Jurchen tribes to find support.

Although he knew that the result of this might not be very good, he still had to arrange it this way.

At least the two sons were sent out, so they were relatively safe.

He understood that Akito's target was him, and if his two sons stayed with him, that would be the real danger.

"Mange, do you want to lead troops to attack the Ming army in Gushan Fort?"

Lai Lihong hesitated for a moment and then asked.

"There are only about 10,000 people there. Although there are tidal flats along the river, don't forget that there is a dangerous place beyond the back three crossings."

Wang Gao pretended to be calm and said.

Lai Lihong naturally knew what Wang Gao was talking about. The last three crossings are actually a relatively narrow flat land, with the Yalu River on one side and a hill on the other.

This narrow place, about two miles long, is indeed a good place for an ambush.

As long as archers are deployed on the slopes at both ends, the Ming army at both ends of the valley can be stopped from attacking the mountains.

As for the Ming army in the river valley, there was only one way to die.

As for swimming across the river, it may be possible in other areas, but there is a bend here at Sandaokou. The river is fast and the water will be washed away.

Wang Gao also deliberately bypassed this place every time he went south to attack Ming Dynasty because this place was dangerous, and he did not want to take risks.

You must know that their enemies are not only the Ming Kingdom, but also the surrounding Jurchen tribes and the Koreans across the river.

He didn't want to go here, and he got up because he was worried that his whereabouts would be discovered by the Koreans, who would quietly cross the river to ambush him.

Although this side of the river is the Ming Dynasty, in fact, who cares about this in the border area, as long as you don't get caught doing it, just refuse to admit it.

The Ming court would not blame the vassal state for such a trivial matter, and would even be very happy if it came to pass.

"Get ready and set off as soon as possible."

After Wang Gao finished giving his instructions, he asked his men to go down and make arrangements.

At this time, news of the Ming army's attack had spread through word of mouth among the Jurchens fleeing along the way.

Along the way, the Jurchen people packed up their belongings, carried or hid good things, and started running to Gule City.

That was the strongest city owned by the Jurchens in western Liaoning, so they naturally thought they would be safe if they ran there.

At the same time, they also executed the Han slaves in their hands.

Yes, many tribesmen who followed Wang Gao south to plunder could get more or less share of the east, west and population.

Most of the Han people they captured were taken to western Liaoning as slaves, working for them and eating the worst food.

And when they were about to run for their lives, he killed them without hesitation.

However, within two days, in the three Jurchen villages that the Ming army arrived, they found a large number of Han corpses killed by Jurchens. They were abandoned directly outside the villages, hoping to intimidate the Ming army.

But what they didn't expect was that after seeing these corpses, it inspired the Ming army's fighting spirit to kill the enemy.

In fact, the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty did not want to fight, but when they saw their compatriots being slaughtered, they felt a sense of chill in their lips and teeth.

You must know that there are not many Han people in Liaodong, especially in the border areas. Most of them are military families, just like them.

Even if I see these compatriots being robbed today and being brutally killed at this time, the atmosphere in my heart is naturally difficult to calm down.

This is also the reason why the general will often indulge his soldiers once in every battle. They need to release the negative emotions accumulated in the cruel war and what they saw along the way.

If he doesn't let them vent, maybe the target will be himself.

Yes, the army is a disciplined unit, but if your soldiers are not allowed to release their negative emotions, and when it becomes difficult to suppress the outburst, no one will care who you are, even if you are your own general, you will still kill them without fail.

"Commander, another Jurchen was found on the hill outside the village."

Just when Li Chengliang led the team into a village, soldiers came to report the news.

"The old rule is to have a group of troops go around the mountain to block their retreat, and order Yu Zhiwen and Qin Deyi to lead the vanguard to attack the mountain from both sides.

This time I kept all the captured Jurchens and trapped them with thick ropes. Some of them walked in front of the trap, and the rest were dragged behind the cavalry team all the way to Gule City. "

Li Chengliang had just seen many Han corpses. He was used to seeing dead people, so he suppressed his emotions in just a short atmosphere.

However, he also saw a violent emotion in the eyes of the guards around him.

They had to let them vent properly first, otherwise Li Chengliang was worried that they would lose control because of their anger.

In the past, the captured Jurchens were all directly beheaded, but now it seems that the effect is not great.

Li Chengliang did not expect that the Jurchens would be so cruel and would choose to directly kill their slaves.

He thought they would snatch people away. After all, after the war was over, life would still have to go on.

However, they chose the most brutal method, which forced him to consider the previous orders of the court.

Fortunately, there are many Jurchen tribes. Even if all the Jurchens in Wang Gao's tribe are killed, there are still many Jurchen tribes.

In the past two days, the Ming army attacked Gule City with overwhelming force. They only encountered surprise attacks by Jurchens in dangerous places along the way.

It did cause some casualties to the Ming army at first, but after several battles, the disadvantage of the Jurchens being young became apparent. In addition to causing some trouble, they really couldn't stop the Ming army's attack.

Therefore, the Jurchens chose to dig traps of various sizes along the way.

Although traps dug on dirt roads are actually easier to see through, they actually played the trick of setting up old traps. There were new soil everywhere along the way, making it difficult for the Ming army to distinguish which ones were real traps and which ones were fake.

Fortunately, some Jurchens were caught along the way who had no time to escape, so they joined the vanguard of the Ming army and were escorted to the front.

"Commander, after taking this place, will you camp in the village?"

These days, in addition to the harassment during the march, the Jurchens' shouts of harmony can also be heard from everywhere at night.

But it was mostly a bluff. A small number of skilled Jurchens approached the Ming army camp and shot arrows inside. There was a lot of noise outside, deliberately creating chaos in the Ming army camp.

After a few times, Li Chengliang sent more troops to patrol, and the harassment gradually decreased.

The Jurchen resistance that Li Chengliang encountered along the way could be described as slight. Although it caused some trouble, the army was still approaching Gule City.

On the other side, Qi Jiguang's troops, in accordance with the Ming army's military system, camped about forty miles away and steadily advanced towards Gule City. They did not encounter any Jurchens on the way, and there were not even many Jurchen villages along the way.

However, the Jizhen Army was not familiar with the terrain in this area after all. Although there was a guide sent by Gushan Fort, Qi Jiguang's cautious temper did not choose to rush forward with light cavalry, but acted according to Zhang Xueyan's order.

In a few days, the army had marched more than a hundred miles, completely leaving the Ming Dynasty's sphere of influence and entering the Jurchens' control area.

"Shuai Qi, there is Sandaokou ahead. After passing there, we turn to the west. We will reach Gule City in a few dozen miles."

The guide was beside Qi Jiguang and quietly explained the brief details of the subsequent journey.

"Sandaokou, what do you want to say in the beginning?"

Qi Jiguang asked immediately.

Since this place is famous, there must be a reason for it.

“There is a big mountain in front and a small river at the foot of the mountain. It is formed by the convergence of many streams on the mountain and merges into the Yalu River here, hence the name Sandokou.

Although the Yalu River is straight and open, there is a small sharp bend here, so the water flows quickly.

Coupled with the high mountains next to it, a slightly narrow valley is formed, which is about two miles long."

The guide whispered the terrain ahead. (End of chapter)