Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 501: Three-Way Advance
Upon hearing this, Li Rubai's eyes lit up, and he bowed to the north. "Your Majesty is wise!" He immediately wanted to act out the story of Mao Sui and Lian Po. But at the moment, Li Rubai couldn't find a bushel of rice or ten pounds of meat, and he couldn't eat it in front of these people. So he said directly, "I am willing to serve Your Majesty, lead the army to Korea, and capture the King of Xian alive! I ask Fang Shoufu, Xu Dazongbo, Cui Dasima, and Yuan Shaoyintai to speak to Your Majesty on my behalf." Li Rubai's eyes swept over Shen Yourong, and a subtle feeling rose in his heart. But at this moment, Li Rubai was too excited to think too deeply.

"Uh..." Yuan Keli was stunned, not knowing how to respond to Li Rubai's words. He really didn't want to pour cold water on Li Rubai, so he stuffed the basin of cold water into Shen Yourong's hands. "Deputy General Shen, please tell General Li about the marching strategy you and Grand Marshal Cui have agreed on."

"Yes." Shen Yourong was quite calm. After answering, he picked up the "cold water basin" and walked towards Li Rubai. With every step Shen Yourong took, the smile on Li Rubai's face faded a little. "General Li. The emperor has appointed me as the commander-in-chief of the Korean army."

The breath that Li Rubai had just breathed out was released. He leaned back in his chair, and the light in his eyes faded away.

No wonder these civil officials had to bring a third-rank military general with them when they came.

"So there's already an imperial decree." Li Rubai felt a pang of pain in his heart, and he wanted to sigh deeply to relieve himself. However, with so many people present, he had to maintain some dignity.

Li Rubai forced an ugly smile, stood up, and bowed to Shen Yourong, saying, "Deputy General Shen is a pillar of the country, loyal and brave. Congratulations, congratulations."

"This afternoon, I discussed with Grand Marshal Cui that we would emulate the Tang Dynasty's campaign to conquer Goguryeo. We would dispatch two fleets from Shandong, contact Liaozhen, and advance on three fronts to quickly seize key locations and defeat the Korean Empire in one fell swoop." Shen Yourong could of course see the anger and frustration written on Li Rubai's face, but at this moment, Shen Yourong would not comfort Li Rubai, let alone give away such a task that would leave a name in history to anyone else. As he spoke, he opened the scroll he had brought out from the Ministry of War, took out the map inside, and showed it to Li Rubai. "General Li, you've been to Korea before and are quite familiar with it. We'd like to hear your opinion."

Upon hearing this, Li Rubai perked up. He gazed intently at the map and changed his tone, asking, "Which three routes does Marshal Shen plan to advance from?" Li Rubai was still astute. Korea was too vast to be controlled by a single commander-in-chief. He would definitely need subordinate generals to control the various factions. Even if the emperor didn't appoint him as commander-in-chief, he would probably have given him a deputy general or a lieutenant general. Otherwise, these people wouldn't have come to listen to his advice.

Well, it’s a good thing to be able to come back!
"The Emperor demands that we capture King Hun of Xian immediately upon commencement of the operation to mitigate the political instability caused by the king's dethronement. To achieve this goal, we must send a navy across the sea and directly attack the royal capital, Seoul." Shen Yourong held the map in both hands, unable to use her fingers, so she adjusted her position and showed it to Li Rubai. "And to use the navy to attack the Three Kingdoms of Han, the nearest seaport is Wendeng, Shandong. During the Tang Dynasty, Su Dingfang attacked Baekje."

"Ahem," Shen Yourong was saying when Fang Congzhe coughed softly. "Can you two let us take a look too?"

"Go, go!" Li Rubai immediately turned to look at Li Xiaozhong. "Go to the study and bring a shelf over and hang the map on it!" Li Rubai hadn't been this excited in a long time.

"Yes!" Li Xiaozhong responded and hurried off to run errands.

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Not long after, Li Xiaozhong returned to the teahouse carrying a small map stand. Under his arm was a roll of the Liaozhen situation map that had been hanging on it.

"You're just standing there watching with your hands behind your back?" Li Rubai looked at his eldest son in dissatisfaction. "Go up and help."

"Oh." Li Huaizhong then realized that there were no servants or page boys.

"Everyone, please look here first," after Huaizhong and Xiaozhong hung up the Shandong-Korea map kept by the Ministry of War, Shen Yourong pointed to the Korean towns along the Yalu River and said:

"If we want to repel the enemy troops in the north and monitor Joseon in the south, we must attack Uiju and also secure Changcheng." He then moved his finger further south to Pyongyang. "Pyongyang, with its flat terrain and surrounded by rivers, is a vital city in Joseon and the gateway to the royal capital. If we want to secure Joseon and monitor the royal capital, we must attack Pyongyang and govern it. Uiju, Pyongyang, and the royal capital," Shen Yourong's finger continued to slide down to the royal capital, Hancheng. "If the heavenly army attacks these three cities, we can monitor the entire Joseon state and protect it. Therefore, this afternoon, Grand Marshal Cui and I discussed the plan to simultaneously capture the royal capital and send out two more troops to take Uiju and Pyongyang."

Although Shen Yourong was very careful with his choice of words, he subconsciously treated North Korea as an imaginary enemy. So, he used words like "grab" and "take" while speaking. However, no one else present thought there was anything wrong with this.

After explaining the overall arrangement, Shen Yourong waited for a moment. Seeing no one answered, he pointed to Shandong across the sea, more precisely, Dengzhou Penglai.

"During the Zhenguan period, when the Tang army attacked Goguryeo, they sent a naval force from Dengzhou and Penglai, crossing the sea to capture the area around present-day Uiju. The Tang army sent the Shandong navy to attack Uiju because, at the time, Liaozhen was not yet under Tang control. Today, the area north of Uiju in Korea is Zhenjiang. Therefore, we only need to send a land force from Liaozhen across the Yalu River to capture Uiju directly and then advance north to control all the castles along the line from Uiju to Changseong."

"However, the Dengzhou navy doesn't need to be abandoned. Before the Liao army arrives, we should, as we did in the Tang Dynasty, select a brave general to lead a naval force from Penglai and march directly to Pyongyang." Shen Yourong quickly drew a line on the map from Penglai to Pyongyang. Then, he withdrew his finger and pointed to Chengshanwei in Wendeng County, Dengzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province. "At the same time, I will personally lead the fleet from Chengshan, cross the sea and march directly to the capital."

Wendeng Chengshan, located at the easternmost tip of Shandong, was the closest seaport for sending troops from the Central Plains across the sea to attack Hanyang. During the Tang Dynasty, Su Dingfang crossed the sea from Chengshan to attack Baekje. Shen Yourong, a well-read military and historical scholar, immediately thought of Chengshan when he heard about the need to cross the sea to monitor Korea and capture the royal capital of Hanyang.

But in reality, Su Dingfang attacked Baekje at Ungjin, located in the area between Cheongju and Jiksan in present-day North Korea, both south of Seoul. This is because Hanyang, the present-day capital of North Korea, belonged to Silla during the Tang Dynasty, and Silla was considered a ally of the Tang when Su Dingfang attacked Baekje. Shen Yourong's choice of the Tang conquest of Goguryeo as a reference was a necessary evil. Throughout history, this single great battle offers a valuable lesson. The previous Sui Dynasty fought poorly, and in subsequent times, no powerful regime emerged across the vast expanse of the vast river. The recent anti-Japanese aid campaign also took place by land, crossing the Yalu River and heading south. Now, the emperor's demand for the swift capture of Seoul and the arrest of the king meant that a land route was impossible, and a naval force was the only option.

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"Send troops from Zhenjiang to take Yizhou, from Penglai to take Pyongyang, and from Chengshan to take Seoul. Prime Minister Fang, Grand Minister Xu, Shaoyintai Yuan, General Li," Shen Yourong straightened up and saluted each one. "This is the entirety of what Grand Marshal Cui and I have discussed. I ask all the advisors to review and see if there are any areas that require correction or adjustment."

Everyone first glanced at each other, and finally looked at Li Rubai.

"Why are you all looking at me?" Li Rubai blinked.

"I've been an official for nearly forty years, traveling extensively throughout Shanxi, Henan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu. The only places I haven't been to are Liaodong, let alone Korea. Lieutenant General Shen also has extensive experience in Southeast Asia. To put it bluntly, Lieutenant General Shen and I are just discussing military strategy based on maps," Cui Jingrong continued. "But General Li, you once led your troops to capture Kaesong, the former capital of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, and even marched all the way to Hanyang when your brother, Ningyuan Bo Rusong, was leading the expedition against the Japanese. So, we'd like to hear your opinion."

"Grand Marshal Cui is so kind to me. I'm truly ashamed." Li Rubai was silent for a long moment before reluctantly saying, with a look of embarrassment on his face, "In theory, tactical planning requires exploring the terrain and considering the strengths and weaknesses of both sides. But it's really difficult for me to attack." Li Rubai paused anxiously, "It's difficult to say anything specific about supervising North Korea."

"Why do you say that?" Choi Gyeong-young pointed at Kaesong and asked, "Even if Seoul fell without a fight, General Lee fought his way all the way from Uiju to Kaesong. He should have some understanding of the surrounding terrain."

This afternoon, Choi Kyung-young tried to find records about Seoul during the Korean War. He discovered, however, that Seoul had been surrendered almost without a fight, voluntarily abandoned by the Japanese pirates. Consequently, there were very few relevant records. Only some basic and simplistic information about the garrison was available. It was of little use.

"Master Cui is right. Thirty years ago, we did fight our way from Zhenjiang to Kaesong. But the only real siege we could call it was the conquest of Pyongyang," Li Rubai said, pointing to Pyongyang. "And that battle in Pyongyang only lasted one day. Later, the most intense battle took place at Pyeongtekwan." Li Rubai followed the explanation and pointed, only to find that the place name "Pyeongtekwan" didn't exist on the map. So, relying on his memory, he poked at the blank space between Kaesong and Seoul. "It should be here."

"After the Battle of Pyongyang, we recaptured 500 li of lost territory almost without a fight. Upon reaching Kaesong, scouts reported that the Japanese pirates had fled, leaving the capital empty. The Koreans begged us to recapture the lost territory as quickly as possible. So, we dispatched more scouts to survey the surrounding area and monitor the Japanese army's movements while moving toward the capital. However, we were ambushed by tens of thousands of Japanese pirates. My late brother, I, and other generals led 5,000 elite soldiers, fighting and retreating from the afternoon until dusk, until our allies arrived to support us."

"After the Battle of Pyeongyang, there haven't been any serious major battles. They've mostly been haphazard battles that burned warehouses and cut off food supplies. The Japanese pirates also voluntarily retreated from the capital. From Uiju to Pyongyang and then to Seoul, it was all land battles against the Japanese pirates. The plan of Choi Da Sima and Shen Zongzhen was mainly to land from the sea and launch surprise attacks on Pyongyang and Seoul, with the imaginary enemy being the Koreans. I have no relevant experience, so it's hard for me to comment."

"What strength has the North Korean army demonstrated in various battles?" Cui Jingrong asked the question proactively.

"There's no such thing as the North Korean army," Li Rubai said, smiling and shaking his head. "They're just a bunch of weaklings. We never considered relying on them. At least in my memory, the North Korean army is like a cheap porcelain vase, shattering at the first drop. Often, five hundred men would go to the battlefield, and four hundred would flee before they could even deploy. We were lucky if they could help transport food and supplies."

"That's not the case," Shen Yourong felt that Li Rubai was a bit too "underestimating the enemy", "Is there not even one person who can fight?"

"No. There truly isn't one." Li Rubai paused, then thought carefully. "If I have to single out someone who's a better person than the others, there was a man named Yi Sun-sin who could be considered a talent. He was a naval officer. He won several battles in Honam, or Jeolla Province, in other words." Li Rubai pointed to an archipelago in southern Korea near Tsushima and Jeju. "These are among the few victories won by the Koreans themselves. But generally speaking, Yi Sun-sin's victories didn't have much impact on the overall war situation at the time. He was later captured by the former King Sun. If it weren't for the second invasion of Korea by Japanese pirates, he might have died in prison."

When Li Rubai mentioned the second invasion of Korea by Japanese pirates, both Prime Minister Fang Congzhe and our soldier Cui Jingrong's expressions shifted. They certainly had nothing to do with the incident itself. But the second invasion of Korea marked the complete failure of the peace and tribute campaigns advocated by then-Prime Minister Zhao Zhigao and our soldier Shi Xing. Both men faced varying degrees of criticism from both the government and the public, with our soldier Shi Xing even imprisoned and dying in prison, a stigma that still lingers. The two were so focused on today's matter, learning from past mistakes and ensuring a thorough handling of the matter. They didn't want to follow in Shi Xing's footsteps.

"Is his navy very good at fighting?" Shen Yourong asked.

"It depends on who you're competing against," Li Rubai shrugged. "Besides, being able to fight is useless."

"What do you mean?" Shen Yourong asked.

"He is dead." Li Rubai sighed and said with regret: "In the 25th year of Wanli, King Hideyoshi of Japan broke his promise and plundered Korea twice. This war lasted until the 27th year of Wanli. At that time, the late emperor had already decided to use my late brother as the commander-in-chief of Korean military affairs for the second time. Who knew that my late brother was so happy to hear that the late emperor had already issued an order. He wanted to show his ability first, so when the barbarian bandits invaded Liaodong, he led light cavalry to pursue them, trying to destroy their nest in one fell swoop and get a beautiful victory. Humph, who knew that he was ambushed again, and I heard that it was similar to the one at Pyeongyang. But the Tatar cavalry is not comparable to the Japanese riding donkeys." Li Rubai shook his head.
"This Yi Sun-sin also died that year. Back then, Yi Sun-sin worked under Chen Chaojue. I heard that Chen Chaojue liked him very much and said that he had driven away the Japanese pirates. So he petitioned the court to ask the late emperor to give him a proper official position so that he would no longer have to endure the humiliation in Joseon. My late brother was not able to serve as the governor of Joseon for the second time, and Yi Sun-sin was not able to serve as an official in Ming. If he could live to this day, perhaps you could ask him to serve as your advisor."

　I haven't found any definitive written records of Chen Lin seeking an official position for Yi Sun-sin, but it's widely circulated and has a certain degree of credibility, so I'll accept it for now.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)