Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

After the cards were distributed to the army, they were very popular.

After the emperor strictly prohibited gambling among the army, they became very fond of this permitted game.

In particular, there are many ways to play card games. In addition to the original Mahjong game, there are also new ways to play such as chain, upgrade, and fight the dealer.

Many soldiers with excess energy like to play cards in their spare time.

The high-level images of Jianlu above were naturally also remembered by them, and because of these images, the playing cards were called Jianlu cards.

Because it was designed to pacify the Jianlu, it is also called the Pinglu Brand.

Bullets are also commonly used gaming chips, replacing the banned coins.

Cui Nanyi also liked the cards he was dealt, and often stared at Haoge on the Thousand Word Card.

This is the person with the highest reward among the Jianlu who invaded Korea.

If he could kill this man, he could obtain a fiefdom as large as Dongjiang Territory.

For him, this is a legacy that can be passed down from generation to generation.

There were many soldiers who had this idea, but Choi Nam-yi was the most serious one.

As a former member of the Yangban nobility, he was definitely not willing to remain a commoner.

Especially after he crossed the Cheongcheon River and encountered a small group of Jianlu cavalry, and easily destroyed the enemy with muskets and arrow-shaped bullets, his confidence became even greater.

Many snipers in the sniper team enjoyed the pleasure of unilateral killing. Their fear of the Jianlu was also swept away, and they saw them as mobile merits.

The Jianlu soldiers staying in Dongjiang Territory were also in a panic, because most of the time they didn't even see who the enemy was.

Hauge was particularly annoyed by this because his Bordered Yellow Banner suffered greater losses than that of the Bordered Blue Banner.

This is because the Ming Dynasty attached the most importance to the two yellow flags, and their merits were 1.5 times that of ordinary Jianlu.

Snipers naturally prefer to target soldiers with the Bordered Yellow Banner, and observers are also more willing to look for them.

This made Hauge very angry, and he felt that this military expedition was going against everything.

At this time of harvest in autumn, the Jianlu and Ming-Korea coalition forces launched a brutal massacre.

The Ming army and Korean soldiers gradually turned the situation around from their initial disadvantage.

Relying on better weapons, they were no weaker than the Jianlu in small-scale battles.

The main army continued to defend the city and did not engage in direct combat with the Jianlu.

Hong Chengchou was in the rear and kept receiving requests that the front-line musketeers needed more arrow-shaped bullets.

This kind of ammunition that can kill enemies at a distance of two hundred steps is extremely advantageous when facing the Jianlu.

The Jianlu who used bows and arrows could basically only take beatings and were unable to fight back.

Even if their cavalry discovered them and rushed over, the musketeers had plenty of time to hide, or reload and shoot arrows at the horses to stop them.

Many soldiers who went to the battlefield for the first time built up their confidence in this way. They now had great trust in the weapons in their hands.

Chen Zizhuang, the chief officer of Dongjiang, suggested that it would be best to equip each soldier with a few arrow-shaped bullets so that they could kill the enemy from a long distance and eliminate their fear of the Jianlu.

Hong Chengchou also agreed with this very much, because he also found that what the soldiers of Ming Dynasty and Korea needed most was to eliminate their fear of Jianlu.

As long as they could kill one Jianlu, they would be more confident in fighting afterwards.

The arrow-shaped bullet is just such a sharp weapon, which can make the Jianlu just take the hit and it is difficult for them to fight back.

The Jianlu people were still rarely equipped with artillery that could kill the enemy at a long distance. Moreover, artillery was difficult to move and it was difficult to fire at firearms.

So he also requested the court to allocate more arrow-shaped bullets.

This type of ammunition may very well be a weapon that turns the tide of the battle.
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Zhu Youjian, who was far away in the capital, had already anticipated the power of arrow-shaped bullets on the battlefield after reading these memorials.

But what he didn't expect was that the North Korean soldiers would be the first to exert its power.

He could only sigh that North Korea’s archery tradition was so strong that it was naturally suited to using arrow-shaped bullets.

This gave him more confidence in using Korea as a battlefield, as he believed that the Koreans, with the help of Ming weapons, could contain more Jianlu.

Taking into account that the new generation of flintlock muskets were already under trial production, Zhu Youjian ordered both flintlock muskets and breech-loading muskets to be sent to Korea for testing.

He also transferred 10,000 matchlock guns used by the new troops of the Imperial Camp and the Patrol Camp from the inventory, intending to replenish the stockpile after the new type of gun was finalized.

As arrow-shaped bullets were difficult to manufacture, he only allocated 50,000 rounds.

But he also transported Lv Xiang's newly designed paper-wrapped cone bullets and one large and three small spherical bullets.

The ammunition prepared for the flintlock musket was also suitable for the matchlock musket. The range of the conical bullet could also exceed that of the bow and arrow.

It’s just that the new army has switched to paper-wrapped bullets and needs to change the drill manual, so it has not been changed for the time being.

However, there is no such concern when using North Korean soldiers, because the North Korean soldiers have only been trained for more than a month and are simply unable to fight according to the manual.

Therefore, when dealing with Korean soldiers, the Ming Dynasty adopted the method of quick-training soldiers. As long as they could fire muskets, they were considered qualified soldiers.

This kind of soldier was unimaginable in the era of cold weapons.

Because it usually takes several years to train an archer.

Even the spearmen with low requirements need to practice the formation well. Otherwise, they will be scattered in a single charge when facing the cavalry.

But in the age of firearms, the situation changed. As long as a healthy person could hold a musket and fire it.

If formation training is a little difficult, then simply don't practice it. Let the soldiers learn how to shoot and then fight as skirmishers.

The mountainous terrain in northern Korea is also very suitable for skirmish ambush operations.

Hong Chengchou, Cao Bianjiao and others used this method to train Korean soldiers. They spent half a month teaching the soldiers how to load their muskets, and another half a month firing live ammunition to teach them the basic skirmishing commands.

Then these soldiers who were trained in one month would be sent to the battlefield to fight against the Jianlu.

Anyone who can survive several battles can be called a veteran.

The Ming Dynasty then selected veterans with fighting spirit and trained them into elite troops.

It is precisely because of this that they can continuously train soldiers and then deploy them to the front line of Dongjiang County.

The advantage of this training method is that it is very fast and can quickly expand a large number of troops.

The disadvantage is that it is more time-consuming and costly, with heavy casualties among soldiers and many firearms being destroyed.

But Ming officials did not care about this, because as long as the lost Korean soldiers did not have Ming citizenship, they would not be counted as Ming army casualties.

No matter how many casualties the North Korean soldiers suffered, the court would not blame them.

As for the price of fire guns, they are not expensive compared to spears and bows. Especially when using lead bullets, the cost is even lower than that of arrows.

Even the fire guns carefully made by the Daming Equipment Institute cost only a little over four taels, which was much lower than the bounty for the Jianlu's head.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian decided to provide more firearms to Korean soldiers to help them contain the Jianlu.

At the same time, in order to prevent Korean soldiers from taking firearms and escaping on the battlefield, he decided to grant the new troops sent to Korea the power of the gendarmerie.

Military law can be directly enforced on the battlefield with harsh punishments to reduce the probability of desertion.

He even increased the number of flintlock muskets that needed to be produced from 200,000 to 500,000.

The flintlock musket was transformed from a weapon originally intended for elite soldiers to a cannon fodder weapon:

"Five hundred thousand may not be enough. We need one million or two million."

"According to the estimate of five taels of silver for a flintlock musket, one million muskets would be five million taels of silver—"

"It's equivalent to Liaodong's annual military expenditure. The Liaodong defense line built by Sun Chengzong is really too expensive!"

The more he calculated, the more he felt that it was not cost-effective to maintain the Guanning Army. Zhu Youjian had already planned to cut military spending in Liaodong after the Dalingh River defense line was stabilized.

Move the Guanning Army to other places and distribute land to reduce Liao military expenditures.

If he could save one million taels, he could build 200,000 muskets.

The quick-trained soldiers sent to North Korea would be more effective.
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Sun Chengzong, the governor of Liaodong, was also under a lot of pressure at this time.

Because after more than a year, he found that the Guanning Army, which was once the protagonist in Liaodong, has now become a spectator.

The emperor ordered Dongjiang Town to attack, ordered Man Gui and others to attack, and even transferred Dongning soldiers from Dongning Island to attack... just to prevent the Guanning Army from moving.

The only two times they took action were when He Kegang selected soldiers to help the Dongning soldiers build the Dalinghhe Fort, and some time ago when Huang Long and Zhou Wenyu each led a battalion to support Lushun.

This made everyone in the Guanning Army feel lost, and they felt that the imperial court did not value the Guanning Army.

As the commander-in-chief, Sun Chengzong felt this even more deeply. He felt that although the emperor spoke very nicely and gave him great power, he actually did not take it seriously.

Especially after the establishment of the Privy Council, it often used methods such as carrier pigeons and arm boards to directly command the army.

The Liaodong troops other than the Guanning Army, such as the Dongjiang Town, were also more willing to obey the Privy Council and paid little attention to him as the commander-in-chief.

This made Sun Chengzong feel more and more that he, the Liaodong commander-in-chief, and the Guanning Army were being marginalized. If he did not make new contributions, the next step would be to be dismissed.

Worried about this, he went to the front-line city of Jinzhou and discussed with the senior generals of the Guanning Army what to do.

Mao Yuanyi served as the commander of the imperial guard in Jinzhou, and he was very grateful to the current emperor.

Because the emperor not only valued him, but also granted him the status of Yuanshi, so that he no longer had to be humble when facing Jinshi.

He claimed to be a great man, so he had to repay the emperor with a great man. He resolutely carried out the imperial order and said without hesitation:
"The court ordered the Guanning Army to guard the Shanhaiguan and Ningjin defense lines, so we just need to do it."

"Otherwise, if something goes wrong, who can take responsibility?"

Liaodong Admiral You Shilu said with some worry:

"Shanhai Pass must be guarded at all times."

“But once the Dalinghe defense line is built, the Ningjin defense line may be withdrawn.”

“We should have pushed hard last year.”

Last year, the imperial court asked them to come up with ways to prevent the Jianlu from bypassing the grassland, and the Guanning Army proposed building the Dalinghhe City.

As a result, the imperial court considered the risk too great and instead ordered the Dongning soldiers to build Dalinghhe Fort.

They felt both disappointed and relieved about the result.

Because the Dongning soldiers pushed forward, they would be safer in the back.

However, after the construction of Dalinghe Fort went smoothly this year, and even Fort No. 2 was about to be completed, their original sense of relief was completely replaced by loss.

Because as long as the Dalingh River defense line is built, the status of the Ningjin defense line in the rear will inevitably decline.

This is a major issue concerning the status of the Guanning Army and military expenditures.

The reason why the Guanning Army’s salary was so high was that it was in an isolated and dangerous situation and had to take the lead in defending against the enemy.

After the Dalingh River defense line was built, they moved to the rear. Why do they still need so much salary?

After understanding all this, the officers and soldiers of the Guanning Army criticized You Shilu a lot, believing that he, who had no outstanding military achievements, was not worthy of being the governor of Liaodong.

This put You Shilu under great pressure, and he proposed to Sun Chengzong:

"The Guanning Army must send its elite troops north to support the Daling River defense line."

"Otherwise, when more Qin soldiers come from Dongning, Dalinghe will no longer be under the control of Liaodong."

Jin Guofeng, deputy commander of the vanguard, even requested to move to Fort No. 2 in Dalingh River.

As a military general transferred from Xuan Da, he came to Liaodong to replace Zhu Mei.

It's just that Zhu Mei was a general, and after being transferred to the interior, he was promoted to admiral. After Jin Guofeng was transferred here, he was only a deputy general.

This made him eager to make a contribution and go to the front line.

Seeing that the Dalinghhe No. 2 Fort was about to be completed, he wanted to lead his soldiers to garrison there.

Sun Chengzong felt a little embarrassed and didn't know how to talk to Huo Weihua, who was in charge of the construction of Dalingh Fort.

As a member of the Donglin Party, he did not think highly of Huo Weihua, a member of the eunuch party, and the help he provided to him was just routine.

Now he is asked to go and ask Huo Weihua for Fort No. 2. How can he bring himself to do that?
But if he didn't go, the Guanning Army would be in the rear after the Daling River defense line was built. What reason did he have to ask the court for so much military funds?

After the emperor transferred the Dongning soldiers here, the Guanning Army now has a competitor!

They could no longer rely on their important status to ask the court for generous salaries, as they would mutiny if the money was not paid.

Sun Chengzong thought about the Guanning Army, which had become unruly, and then about the immigrants that Dongning had received this year, as well as the troops that were being trained by Xu Dahao, Tian Ergeng and others.

He felt even more troubled and thought that the Dongning soldiers should not be allowed to come to Liaodong:
"These remnants of the eunuch party are really haunting us!"

"If the Guanning Army causes trouble, who can solve it?"

Sun Chengzong was thinking about how to solve this crisis when a soldier came to report:
"Urgent report from Dalinghe Fort, the Jianlu army is heading south, please be careful and alert in Jinzhou."

Presenting a message, which contained the message that Dalinghebao sent to Jinzhou via armboard communication——

The distance between the two places is only forty miles. After building a communication station in the middle, arm board communication can be used.

Nowadays, communications are sent between Dalingh Fort and Jinzhou every day to ensure each other's safety.

This time the agreed time had not yet arrived, and the news was urgently delivered from Dalingh Fort.

Sun Chengzong and others looked carefully and saw that the intelligence said Huang Taiji was leading an army of 50,000 southward towards Dalingh River.

This shocked them greatly, and they quickly ordered people to investigate again and spread the news to Shanhaiguan.

They wanted to send this news to the capital and let the Privy Council know as soon as possible.

Because of the Privy Council's strategy of setting up a network in all directions, the task assigned to Liaodong was to prevent the Jianlu from detouring through the grassland.

It was obvious that the Jianlu had this intention when they came to Dalingh River, so of course they had to pass it on as soon as possible.

Sun Chengzong also issued orders to carefully defend Jinzhou, Ningyuan, Tashan, Shanhaiguan and other places to avoid sudden attacks by the Jianlu and to seize the city and break through the pass.
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Thanks to the armboard communication system that had been built and the intelligence personnel developed within Jianlu, the capital received the news quickly and also understood the reason why Jianlu went south.

This is because at the same time, news of Lindan Khan's defeat came from the grassland.

In April of this year, with the support of the imperial court, Man Gui held a meeting outside Zhangjiakou, using iron armor and higher trade quotas as inducements to persuade the King of Shunyi and other troops to send out troops, thus forming a coalition force of more than 10,000 people.

In addition, there were 3,000 men in his standard camp and 3,000 men recruited by Meng Ru Hu from small tribes on the grassland.

Nearly 20,000 troops participated in Ligdan Khan's war against the Khorchin tribe, which surprised Ligdan Khan because his Chahan tribe had only gathered 20,000 troops.

This made him feel a little insecure when facing Man Gui, and they had to discuss the battle with him. The people led by Man Gui were still commanded independently by Man Gui.

But he was more confident in conquering the Khorchin tribe, because the entire Khorchin tribe had no more than 20,000 soldiers.

Even if all the soldiers were enlisted and expanded to 40,000 or 50,000, Lindan Khan believed that he could defeat the enemy.

Not to mention that he and the dignitaries of the Chahan tribe gradually obtained 5,000 sets of iron armor from the Ming Dynasty, which made their strength unprecedentedly strong.

With this army, Lin Danhan said confidently:

"March!"

"We must fight back to Baicheng and even to Nenjiang."

"Let the Khorchin people who betrayed us know what the majesty of the Khan is!"

He vowed to teach the Khorchin tribe a lesson and conquer them to serve as his guards.

Man Gui sneered at this, thinking that Lin Danhan was a man with great ambitions but little talent.

This man retreated from the Greater Khingan Range all the way to Kaesong, without making any progress at all.

He is still dreaming of conquering Khorchin, but he doesn't know that his biggest enemy is Jianlu.

How could Lin Dan Khan, who did not dare to face the Jianlu, convince the tribes on the grassland?

Even if he defeated Khorchin, the Khorchin people would not surrender to him but would ask Jianlu for help.

He needed to be prepared to face the attack of the Jianlu as the court reminded him.

As Man Gui expected, the Khorchin tribe quickly asked the Jianlu for help after learning that Ligdan Khan was coming.

Of course, the Jianlu could not sit idly by and watch their relative being defeated by Ligdan Khan. After the smallpox epidemic was over, they recruited four of the Eight Banners to support the Khorchin tribe.

The Khorchin cavalry, who had been circling around Ligdan Khan, set a trap and invited Ligdan Khan to fight after receiving the news of support from the Jianlu.

The arrogant Lin Dan Khan, ignoring the dissuasion of Man Gui and others, wanted to defeat Khorchin with an upright army and subdue the tribe as his guard.

As a result, the Khorchin tribe was indeed defeated by him, but the sudden appearance of the Jianlu cavalry made him win first and then lose the war.

If Man Gui had not come to rescue him, he himself might have been trapped in the battle.

Even so, he lost his brother-in-law Gui Yingqia and half of his 2,000 armored cavalry.

This greatly reduced the power of Lin Danhan, and even the nobles of the Chahan tribe who were granted titles of baron no longer respected him.

They had 3,000 armored cavalry, of which nearly 1,000 were lost this time.

They really couldn't respect a Khan like Lindan Khan who was defeated in every battle.

In addition, the Ming Dynasty has promised to replenish their armored losses, so they think that they will have the final say over the Chahan tribe in the future.

It can be said that Lin Danhan gained nothing from this battle. Instead, his strength was greatly damaged and his prestige in the tribe was completely lost.

But the Khorchin tribe did not get away with it, because they suffered heavy losses under the attack of the 5,000 armored cavalry of the Chahan tribe.

What made them even more sad was that the old and weak who remained in the tribe were attacked by the Black Dragon Camp and the Principality of Jiangling, and many people and livestock were robbed.

The Khorchin tribe must have had a hard time this winter, and may even need food relief from the Jianlu.

But the Jianlu now has no food and is still in crisis. The Little Ice Age affected not only the Ming Dynasty, but also Liaodong. During the difficult two years, the Jianlu even wanted to kill those who had no food.

In the past two years, some Jurchens also fled and begged for food from the Ming army. Liu Xingzuo also recruited a Jurchen Niulu for this reason.

The Jianlu leaders who supported the Khorchin tribe thought they would receive money and goods as a thank you. But they did not expect that not only could they not receive money and goods, but the Khorchin tribe also needed their help.

This made many Jianlu high-ranking officials dissatisfied, and it was only under Huang Taiji's strong pressure that they returned empty-handed.

Huang Taiji returned to Shenyang City. Faced with the plight of the Jianlu, he was unable to produce food. Naturally, the only solution he could think of was looting.

There were two directions of looting: one was to go to Korea, and the other was to go around the grassland to Ming Dynasty.

Huang Taiji chose the second one and led a large army out in an attempt to find a way to plunder the Ming Dynasty and resolve his own crisis.

The newly built Dalinghe Fort thus faced a challenge. (End of this chapter)