The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 382: Toyotomi Hideyoshi is stuck in the mud

By the end of October, the capital was already filled with howling cold winds, and Liaodong was almost frozen for thousands of miles.

At this time every year, the military and civilians in Liaodong Town have to prepare supplies for the winter.

This year, Liaodong Town needs to prepare an alarming amount of winter supplies.

General Qin Liangyu, the general of Zhendong, had an army of 400,000 under her command, as well as 100,000 troops from Liaodong Town and naval officers and soldiers, which added up to more than 500,000.

With so many people, we need to prepare millions of stones of food alone, as well as coal, cold-proof clothing, various vegetables and meat, etc., which are all huge quantities.

Qi Jiguang, the commander-in-chief of the army, was extremely busy.

At this time, Wanli ordered the navy to send a speedboat to pick him up and bring him back to Beijing to discuss important matters.

There was no other way, he could only hand over the matters at hand to the young General Qin Liangyu, and board the navy's express ship to rush to the capital.

That night, around 12:00 p.m., when it was already completely dark, he rushed back to the capital.

Fortunately, oil lamps have become popular now. The capital city is brightly lit at this time, and there is no problem with sailing.

When he rushed to the Grand Council Hall, Wanli had been waiting there for a long time.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli asked directly, "Yuan Jing, have you ever considered the issue of the navy intercepting the fleeing Japanese pirates at sea?"

That's what it was for.

I have certainly considered this.

Qi Jiguang nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I have been thinking about this for a long time. Last time when the navy ambushed the Japanese pirate fleet, I even took a tour in the southwest of Jeolla Province.

The waters near Liaodong seem to be freezing right now, and I'm still considering whether to move all the navy ships to the waters near Jeolla Province in advance."

Well, I'm glad you thought about it.

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "The navy ships must indeed be deployed to the waters near Jeolla Province in advance. If we deploy them when the Japanese pirates are about to escape, it may be too late.

However, we cannot reveal that the navy has so many huge tower ships and centipede ships. If the Japanese pirates see them, Toyotomi Hideyoshi will probably be scared and withdraw his troops at all costs.

We must pay attention to this. If Toyotomi Hideyoshi knew that we had assembled so many naval ships near our vassal state, Korea, he would definitely react. They would definitely not be able to win this battle in our vassal state, Korea.

Because if we cut off their sea supply lines, the army they sent to Korea, their vassal state, would have trouble getting enough food. Why don't we do this? Toyotomi Hideyoshi will definitely guess this, and once he guesses it, he will definitely withdraw his troops at all costs."

Qi Jiguang nodded slowly and said, "I have also considered this. Now, within a thirty-mile radius of our navy's harbor, there are centipede boats patrolling back and forth to conduct reconnaissance. If any Japanese pirate warships approach, we will scare them away.

The Japanese pirates tried to investigate several times but didn't dare to come because our kerosene tanks burned too terribly. Once they dropped it on their warships, they would be unable to put it out.

We can fully exploit this fact and dispatch hundreds of centipede ships to spread out around the navy fleet to scare off the Japanese pirates' warships. We can then first send all the 1,000-ton and 2,000-ton ships into the islands west of Jeolla Province."

Upon hearing this, Wanli carefully examined the map and asked, "With such a large area, how many centipede ships would be patrolling back and forth? Can we scare the Japanese pirates away from passing through this archipelago?"

Qi Jiguang explained carefully: "Your Majesty, the Japanese pirates dare not pass through this archipelago.

The map you are looking at is too simple. It looks like there are only a dozen islands in this area, but in fact it is not the case at all. There are at least thousands of islands of various sizes in this area.

If you are not familiar with the waterway, you may get lost or even run aground. At that time, Yi Sun-sin had less than a hundred warships under his command, but he was able to use this island to deal with the seven or eight hundred warships of the Japanese pirates.

The Japanese pirate warships were ambushed countless times by Yi Sun-sin within this island, so they would rather detour hundreds of miles than pass through this island.

Oh, it turns out that there are thousands of islands in such a small sea area. The navy’s huge ships should not be discovered by the Japanese pirates when they enter.

Wanli nodded slightly, then pointed to the map and said, "Well, this winter we can bring our navy ships to this island to spend the winter, and build a port and dock at the same time.

However, by next year, we still have to find a harbor close to Busan Port to build a port terminal, because this island is at least five or six hundred miles away from Busan Port. If the wind direction is not right by then, it will take at least several days for the centipede ship to pull our giant ship over.

If we don't use our gunboats to snipe the Japanese pirates' defeated army, there will probably be heavy casualties, because the Japanese pirates are also working hard to build 800-ton warships, and by next year it is estimated that the number of their warships will exceed 1,000.

When they were defeated, the warships must have been full of Japanese pirates. We would be at a disadvantage if we used centipede ships to engage in close combat with their warships. Even if their ships were set on fire, they could abandon their ships and jump into the water to seize our ships. By then, we wouldn't know how many naval officers and soldiers would be killed or injured.

Therefore, when we are sniping the Japanese pirates' fleeing army, we must send our gunboats over to bombard them and not give them a chance to fight to the death."

Qi Jiguang nodded slowly upon hearing this, then pointed to the map and said, "Your Majesty, I've taken a look. This harbor south of Shuntian Prefecture is quite good. It's thirty or forty miles in radius. As long as enough docks are built, it can accommodate thousands of giant ships and several thousand centipede boats without any problem. Furthermore, the exit of this harbor is over ten miles wide, and there are several islands in the middle, so it's easy to block. The Japanese pirates' warships will definitely not be able to enter."

More importantly, there's a small island east of the harbor entrance that has a harbor with a radius of over ten miles. Furthermore, there's a gap in the north of this harbor that allows you to go all the way around to Busan Port."

Shuntian Prefecture?
This place name was taken from the vassal state of Korea!
He knew that the so-called prefectures of the vassal state of Korea were not the prefectures of the Ming Dynasty, but were equivalent to the counties of the Ming Dynasty. Their prefectures were similar to those of the Ming Dynasty, and their dao were equivalent to the prefectures of the Ming Dynasty.

The name of this place is really a coincidence. The location of this harbor is also quite good. It is only about one hundred to two hundred miles away from Busan Port. The key is that they can go around the coast to Busan Port.

By then, the Japanese pirates will not only have no way to escape back to Japan, but they will probably not even have any ships.

When they were closing in their net, they could have launched a surprise attack on Busan Port, sunk all the Japanese pirates' warships docked at the port, and then occupied the port terminal!
Wanli thought about it carefully, then nodded slightly and said, "Well, then this winter we will send centipede boats in batches to bring people over to this harbor to build a dock and block the harbor entrance.

We'll see what happens next spring. If the pirates can't hold on any longer and try to flee, we'll pull our navy ships over and get ready."

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang nodded slowly and said, "I understand."

Wanli thought for a moment and then asked, "Yuan Jing, how are Liangyu's winter supplies being prepared?"

You really care about this eldest niece. I was helping her prepare, and you called her back.

Qi Jiguang pondered, "General Qin has almost prepared winter clothing and food. The main thing he's lacking now is food. She's currently mobilizing it."

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "Well, send an urgent message to the Beijing Xingdusi and Xuanda, asking them to slaughter more cattle and sheep and send them over so that they can make more broth for the winter."

You are really good to your eldest niece.

Qi Jiguang nodded, and suddenly he said with a start: "Your Majesty, speaking of cattle and sheep, the 5,000 military candidates we are sending to our vassal state of Korea have not yet been given winter clothing. Can you please kill a few more sheep and make some sheepskin coats for them?

Also, Your Majesty, those who have passed the military examinations have asked General Li to send someone to ask me what you think about this year's military examinations and palace examinations. It's already the end of October."

Oh, there’s one more important thing I forgot to mention.

Wanli slapped his forehead and said, "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. Yuan Sheng received news from Tokugawa Ieyasu that the 100,000 reserve troops recruited by Toyotomi Hideyoshi have begun to move to Korea, a vassal state. Moreover, Toyotomi Hideyoshi has also cast a lot of iron shields this time.

There is no problem with the sheepskin coats you mentioned. Anyway, there is more sheep wool than can be used up now. Let them kill more sheep, send the meat to Liangyu, and use the fur to make sheepskin coats. It will be no problem to equip the twelve battalions of the vassal state of Korea.

There's definitely no time to hold the military and palace examinations this year, so they should find a time next year. This year, they have to deal with the wave of Japanese pirate reinforcements first."

This is a bit troublesome.

If the Japanese pirates added another 100,000 troops, the number of troops besieging Jeolla Province would reach more than 200,000.

These guys were like pushing a shield wall made of iron shields to fill the trench, and bows and kerosene cans were of little use.

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang frowned and pondered for a while, then said cautiously: "Your Majesty, how about we mobilize a batch of bombs and artillery to help Yi Sun-sin?"

We can't reveal that we have such strong strength at this time.

Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "No need. I have already ordered the casting of 100,000 iron hammers, each weighing five pounds, and all equipped with handles. You can just bring them over tomorrow.

The best the Japanese pirates could do was forge an iron shield out of wrought iron from a single fire. Such shields are very brittle and can be smashed to pieces with a single blow of a hammer."

Big hammer?
You can actually come up with such a weird trick!
If Toyotomi Hideyoshi knew this, he would probably be so angry that he would vomit blood.

If anger can really make someone vomit blood, then Toyotomi Hideyoshi would have vomited blood countless times out of anger.

Wanli just doesn't follow common sense and always comes up with weird tricks to deal with this guy.

If they had fought in the conventional way, the Shenji Camp and the Shenshu Camp would have rushed forward, using muskets, artillery, armored chariots, sky bombs, and kerosene all at once. Toyotomi Hideyoshi would have been frightened and withdrawn his troops to defend the city.

Wanli did not use conventional tactics. He used all kinds of weird moves, making it impossible for Toyotomi Hideyoshi to understand his strength at all.

At this time, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was already stuck in the mud and couldn't extricate himself.

Even if he didn't want to fight the vassal state of Korea, he had to fight, and he had to do everything he could to win.

If he loses this time, Tokugawa Ieyasu will definitely unite with other princes to take advantage of the situation and deal with him!

(End of this chapter)