The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 369 Wanli's plan to destroy the Japanese pirates
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was furious after being humiliated repeatedly.

He immediately mobilized a large army to wipe out the remnants of the troops and rebel forces in his vassal state, Korea.

In fact, he also knew that this was most likely a trick.

However, he had no choice but to fall into this trap.

He has no reason to withdraw his troops now.

Are you kidding? The vassal state of Korea was about to be taken over, and the Ming Dynasty had no troops to reinforce it. Why would he withdraw his troops?

If Japan still doesn't know the situation in its vassal state, Korea, it wouldn't be a big deal if he withdrew his troops under the pretext of peace talks.

Now that Japanese tabloids are out, everyone knows what's going on in the vassal state of North Korea.

Why did he withdraw his troops?
Is it just because of the remnants and rebel forces of our vassal state, Korea?
This reason doesn't make sense at all!
If he really cannot wipe out the remnants of the army and the rebel army in his vassal state of Korea, then he will lose all his authority.

The daimyo and even the soldiers under his command would doubt whether he was really capable.

More importantly, he had betrayed too many people in his attempt to unify Japan, and many people hated him to the core.

Now even if he revealed his conspiracy and said that the withdrawal was to allow the traitors in the vassal state of Korea to deal with the remnants of the army and the rebel army, it would be useless.

Those who hate him will surely stir up trouble in secret, saying that he is making excuses for his incompetence, and then take the opportunity to drive him out of office.

If he did not step down, daimyo such as Tokugawa Ieyasu would certainly take the opportunity to unite and attack him.

At that time, his end will definitely be very miserable. He will definitely die, and the entire Toyotomi clan will even be destroyed.

I have to say, he guessed right.

At this time, there were too many people in Japan who hated him, and he could not make any mistakes. If he made a mistake, his entire clan would be exterminated.

Historically, that was not considered a mistake. He just died accidentally, and Tokugawa Ieyasu joined forces with the daimyo who secretly hated him to destroy the Toyotomi clan.

This involves the life and death of him and even his family, so he naturally won't worry about losing troops.

People are like this. When their personal interests are not involved, they can still consider the overall situation. Once their personal interests are involved, screw the overall situation!

One word, do it!

This battle must be fought and won at all costs.

Anyway, the lost troops are not his, so why bother considering the overall situation?

Soon, the First, Second, Third and Fourth Corps of Japan received orders to withdraw from Yizhou and quickly go south to encircle and suppress the remnants of the troops and rebel forces in Jeolla Province.

Early in the morning at about 1 a.m., the Japanese pirates on the east, west and south sides of Yizhou began to pack up their tents. When the morning sun rose at noon, these guys turned around and ran away to the south!

Do the Japanese pirates want to escape?

When Luo Shangzhi received the report from the scout, he quickly wrote an urgent letter and ordered it to be delivered to Zhendong Fort by a speedboat.

Unexpectedly, not long after his urgent report was sent across the river, someone arrived on a navy speedboat.

He was standing on the south gate tower, carefully scanning the mountains to the south with a telescope, when he suddenly heard a familiar voice from behind: "Shangzhi, don't look anymore, the Japanese pirates are really gone."

This is?

He turned around and took a look, then quickly bowed and said, "This humble general greets General Qi."

Qi Jiguang had been appointed as the Grand Marshal of the Army, specifically responsible for commanding the wars between the vassal states of Korea and Japan.

This was not a random appointment by Wanli, as the position of marshal already existed in the Ming Dynasty.

Xu Da, King of Zhongshan, was once the Grand Marshal of the Army.

Emperor Hongwu also appointed many marshals, but later he was worried that the dukes and nobles would have too much military power, so he changed these marshals to other positions.

After the Yongle Dynasty, civil officials took advantage of the emperor's concerns and gradually replaced the functions of marshals with governors and even provincial governors, turning it into civil officials commanding troops in battles.

Wanli now clearly valued military power over civil officials, so he naturally would no longer use civil officials to lead troops in battle. From now on, he would appoint marshals to lead troops in battle.

Qi Jiguang was the first marshal he appointed, and he was also the Grand Marshal of the Army. He held a high position and had great power, and he could mobilize millions of troops!

At this moment, the civil servants in the court had no idea what to do. No one dared to say a word when he conferred titles indiscriminately.

Qi Jiguang did not become arrogant because of his favor. He was quite kind to his generals.

He nodded slightly in approval and said, "Shangzhi, this battle was well fought. The Japanese pirates didn't figure out our strengths and weaknesses, and your soldiers didn't suffer any losses."

Is this what you call a good fight?

If you let me really fight, I would have wiped out Konishi Yukinaga and the First Legion of Japanese Pirates long ago.

Luo Shangzhi touched the back of his head and then asked carefully, "Qi Shuai, how should we fight next?"

Qi Jiguang shook his head slightly and said, "We will not fight next. Let's see how Yi Sun-sin, the general of our vassal state, fights."

what?
Can the few remaining soldiers of Korea, a vassal state, defeat the Japanese pirates?
They almost lost their country in less than two months.

Luo Shangzhi was quite puzzled and said, "General Qi, it seems that Yi Sun-sin only has about 20,000 remnants of his army. How can he fight against the Japanese pirates?"

When did you receive this news? Qi Jiguang explained carefully, "Li Sun-sin is a formidable figure now. He has nearly 200,000 men under his command. Although most of them are young and strong men who have never fought in a war, they are not afraid of death. They all want to kill the Japanese pirates and avenge their actions. If these fearless young men are well-managed, they can also unleash astonishing combat power."

Luo Shangzhi was shocked when he heard this: "Oh my God, this guy actually has nearly 200,000 troops under his command!"

Actually, this is nothing.

If we follow the organization of the vassal state of Korea, there should have been an army of 240,000.

It was just that those pro-Japanese officials deliberately did not gather troops for training, did not provide food and wages, and even secretly ordered not to resist, so the vassal state of Korea appeared vulnerable.

At this moment, Li Shunchen's men and those pro-Japanese officials could no longer be controlled, and it was hard to say how this battle would turn out.

Qi Jiguang thought about it carefully, then said, "I will order the construction of a pontoon bridge north of Yizhou City, and then send a large number of secret guards to conduct reconnaissance deep into the territory of Korea, the vassal state. You just need to hold this place well and take care of the logistics of those scouts."

In fact, at this time Lee Sun-sin also sent many scouts to spy everywhere, but most of Lee Sun-sin's scouts were in Jeolla Province, Gyeongsang Province, Chungcheong Province and Gyeonggi Province.

There are no volunteer armies in the four northern regions, so Lee Sun-sin cannot send scouts here.

The purpose of Qi Jiguang sending a large number of scouts was to fill in this gap and find out the situation of the vassal state of Korea.

With the cooperation of the scouts from both sides, the movements of the Japanese pirates were clearly detected.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was indeed enraged. He mobilized nine legions totaling 150,000 to 160,000 troops and headed straight for Jeolla Province.

At this time, Wanli was also closely monitoring the movements of the Japanese pirates in the capital.

Every day at around noon, after processing the memorials, he would go to the Grand Council Hall, read the urgent reports from his vassal state, Korea, and mark the latest positions of the twelve Japanese pirate legions on the map.

This time Toyotomi Hideyoshi is really ruthless. Can Yi Sun-sin withstand it?
If there were nearly 200,000 soldiers from the Beijing camp, he naturally wouldn't have to consider this issue.

The problem is that most of Lee Sun-sin's men are young and strong men who have never been on the battlefield, and not many of them can use bows and arrows.

It's hard to say who will win if this newcomer fights against the battle-hardened Japanese pirates.

How to quickly improve the combat effectiveness of these newcomers?

It seems that just giving them weapons and equipment is not enough, as people don't know how to use them.

Without training for a few months, new recruits would not even be able to use swords or guns properly, let alone bows and arrows.

In this situation, how to fight the Japanese pirates?
He was just pondering this when Li Xuancheng suddenly poked his head in and said, "Your Majesty, the Minister of War, Lord Liang, wishes to see you."

This guy seems to be crazy busy, how come he is free today?
Wanli said loudly: "Announce."

Soon, Liang Menglong walked in quickly.

After the emperor and his subjects exchanged greetings, he cautiously asked, "Your Majesty, the military examination is about to begin. I'm so proud to ask who you plan to preside over it."

Has it already been September?

Who will preside over the military examination?

Qi Jiguang is not here, so should the Ministry of War take charge?

This is a bit unreliable.

He didn't think Liang Menglong was unreliable, but the main reason was that the previous method of the military examination was unreliable. The previous method of the military examination did not seem to be selecting generals to lead troops in battle, but rather like selecting civil servants.

It is best for the military candidates to test their abilities on the battlefield, so as to determine which ones are suitable for leading troops in battle.

By the way, the truth will be revealed on the battlefield.

Isn't there a war about to break out now?
Li Shunchen just happened to be in need of someone who was proficient in all kinds of weapons and understood military tactics.

The problem is that except for the educated people in the vassal state of Korea, no one else can speak the official language of the Ming Dynasty.

However, there seems to be no need for too much nonsense on the battlefield, as long as you can understand or even read simple commands.

This is actually worth a try. After all, the Ming Dynasty will dominate the sea in the future, and there will be many things to deal with people who cannot speak Ming official language.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then decisively said: "Equip them with weapons and equipment, give each of them a war horse, and then send them to Korea, a vassal state, to participate in the war."

what?
Liang Menglong was stunned for a moment after hearing this, but he still bowed and said, "I understand."

Wanli also wrote a letter to Li Shunchen in person, asking Li Shunchen to provide personnel for the military candidates, arrange people to serve as translators for the military candidates, and help count the military achievements of the military candidates.

In addition, he also asked Yi Sun-sin to organize twelve camps corresponding to the twelve legions of the Japanese pirates in Japan to facilitate the command of operations.

Now, the combat effectiveness of the vassal state of Korea should be able to increase rapidly.

Not to mention anything else, just these martial arts candidates are extraordinary.

Today's martial arts candidates all have real skills, and their horse riding and archery skills are particularly terrifying. Not everyone can shoot an arrow through the target from a hundred paces away, but it is no problem for them to hit a living person within a hundred paces. The only difference is that some people can hit the head and neck, while others may only be able to hit other parts of the body.

There are five thousand martial arts candidates. If they shoot a few arrows at the Japanese pirates in every battle, there will be tens of thousands of casualties. This group of more than one hundred thousand Japanese pirates will probably suffer heavy casualties from their shooting!

What will Toyotomi Hideyoshi do then?

(End of this chapter)