The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 463: Gains and Losses of Nurgandusi
In the southeastern part of Liaodong Regional Command of the Ming Dynasty, amidst the vast mountains.

There is a special place more than ten miles north of Yizhou City in the vassal state of Korea.

This place is not the original mountain valley, but a majestic city fortress. There are many cities and fortresses, densely packed together, covering an area of ​​20 to 30 miles.

This is Zhendong Fort hidden in the mountains and forests. Four hundred thousand Sichuan Army soldiers have already gathered here.

At the end of September, when the autumn wind gradually turned cooler, the soldiers from the Beijing camp also arrived.

The city fortresses were densely packed with tents, and the food carts, chariots, and artillery carts were neatly lined up on both sides of the road, and there was no end in sight.

As the sun rose, in the Zhendong General's Mansion, which was guarded by hundreds of thousands of troops, Wanli, wearing armor and walking with the gait of a dragon and a tiger, walked through row after row of imperial guards and went straight to the lobby.

Behind him were generals in armor, standing in two neat rows, dozens of them in total.

All the generals who could come from the Beijing Army, Border Army, Navy, and Sichuan Army came.

At this time, a large table several meters in diameter had been placed in the lobby, and on the table was a huge spliced ​​map.

The two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty, the areas south and north of the desert, the vast western regions, the Tatars and the Wala, and the Nurgan Regional Administration were all included.

Wanli entered with a group of generals, standing around the large table. He then pointed at the huge Nurgan Dusi in front of him and said, "Our target this time is this vast Nurgan Dusi."

The Nurgan Regional Command was truly enormous. The Liaodong Town where they were located was just a small corner in front of the Nurgan Regional Command.

Liaodong Town is not small. Some provinces in the Ming Dynasty are not as big as Liaodong Town.

Such a large town as Liaodong is not even half the size of Nurgandusi, which shows how vast the territory of Nurgandusi is.

How to take over Nurgandusi?
None of the generals present dared to say a word about this issue.

They can be said to be famous generals who have left their names in history, but when faced with such a large territory, they still look solemn, as if they have no idea where to start.

This is not because they are incompetent. The key is that Nurgandusi is not only vast in area, but also extremely cold in winter and has a very long ice period.

With such a vast territory and such bad weather, it is not enough to just lead hundreds of thousands of troops to rush in and attack.

How to transport food and supplies, how to advance the army, what to do if the city is not conquered by the cold winter, how to garrison after the victory, etc. These are all issues that must be considered.

Emperor Hongwu felt that these problems were quite difficult, so he stopped fighting after reaching Liaodong.

Emperor Yongle seemed to be a little unsure of how to proceed, so he chose to appease the enemy instead of sending hundreds of thousands of troops to rush in and fight.

In short, both Emperor Hongwu and Emperor Yongle felt that it would not be worth the effort to send troops to capture the Nurgan Regional Command, so they finally chose to appease the enemy.

Wanli was very clear that if he did not take down the Nurgan Regional Military Commission, the northern border of the Ming Dynasty would not be at peace. If he did not get rid of the hidden danger of the Jianzhou Jurchens, the Ming Dynasty would be in danger of extinction.

This is not a joke, but a historical fact.

The Jianzhou Jurchens have been rebelling since they migrated south. There were Li Manzhu, Dong Shan, Li Gunaha in the Chenghua Dynasty, Wang Gao in the Jiajing Dynasty, Ata and Nurhaci in the Wanli Dynasty. The Jianzhou Jurchens' rebellions never stopped.

No matter how powerful the Ming Dynasty was or how many beatings they received, they just wouldn't behave.

If these guys were allowed to take over the Nurgan Regional Command and use this vast territory to develop, they would be able to envy the beautiful rivers and mountains of the Central Plains.

This is also proven by history.

Therefore, the Nurgan Regional Command must be captured and the Jianzhou Jurchens must be wiped out.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then picked up a long white wax stick and pointed at the map, saying: "The current Nurgan Dusi is mainly composed of four forces: Tatar, Haixi Jurchen, Jianzhou Jurchen, and Donghai Jurchen.

The secret guards have learned that the Tatars have begun to gather troops and are preparing to join forces with the Haixi Jurchens to attack the Jianzhou Jurchens.

I believe everyone is aware of the speed at which the Tatars can gather their troops. I believe that within a few days they will send troops to join the Haixi Jurchens and march towards the heartland of the Jianzhou Jurchens.

In this battle, Yuan Jing and I both predicted that the Tatar and Haixi Jurchen coalition would lose.

When they were defeated and fled, the Jianzhou Jurchens would definitely take advantage of the situation and invade the territory of the Haixi Jurchens.

This is our chance.

If the Jianzhou Jurchens invade the Haixi Jurchen territory, we will attack in three directions, targeting the Tatar, Haixi Jurchen, and Jianzhou Jurchen territories respectively."

The timing was perfect.

When the generals heard this, they all looked admiring and nodded frequently to show their agreement.

When it comes to catching the enemy off guard by making a feint to the east and attacking in the west, no one can compare to His Majesty.

When they attacked the Northern Tartars, they basically took them by surprise, appearing at the time and place where the Northern Tartars least expected it.

Every time, His Majesty would lead his army to attack a fake target with great fanfare to attract the Northern Tartars' attention, and then quietly mobilize his troops and suddenly appear in the most unexpected place of the Northern Tartars, defeating them and forcing them to flee with nowhere to escape.

This time, His Majesty returned from Japan quietly.

The harbor terminal south of Zhenjiang Fort had been blocked long ago.

They even opened a special road from the harbor terminal to Zhendong Fort.

At this moment, no one certainly knows that His Majesty has returned with the main force of the Beijing Camp.

The fact that the Tatars are gathering their troops is clear evidence.

These guys must have thought they were still fighting the Japanese pirates in Japan.

Who could have imagined that His Majesty would mobilize his troops and personally lead the expedition only when the situation in Japan was already decided? There was basically no need for reinforcements over there, as their target was the Northern Tartars!
Wanli then made detailed arrangements, saying, "Yuan Jing, when the time comes, you will lead over 200,000 cavalry from the Laoha River Valley, cross the Ximulun River, and attack the Tatar tribe.

I led the central route to attack from Dingliao Youwei, and through Dingliao Zhongwei, Tieling, and Kaiyuan, we entered the Haixi Jurchen tribe.

Liangyu, you will lead the Sichuan Army to attack from Zhendong Fort, cross the mountains and ridges, and attack the Jianzhou Jurchen tribe."

This seems a bit unreasonable.

The Sichuan Army has a strength of 400,000 soldiers. How could such a large number of troops cross mountains and ridges to attack?
No matter who becomes the head coach, he will not make such a ridiculous deployment.

Are you kidding? Hundreds of thousands of troops don’t take the main road but instead cross the mountains!

How could anyone fight like this?

Wanli just liked to take an unconventional approach and attack from a place that others would never expect, so that he could catch them off guard.

Of course, he didn't give orders randomly.

The jurisdiction of Zhendong Fort was actually right next to the territory of the Jianzhou Jurchens. Qin Liangyu had long known that sooner or later they would have to attack and deal with the Jianju people.

Therefore, the Sichuan Army soldiers had secretly trained countless times in the mountains leading from Zhendong Fort to the Jianzhou Jurchen tribe. They were very familiar with the mountains there. In addition, the Sichuan Army was good at crossing mountains and ridges, so for them, killing their way through there was no different from taking the main road.

The key is that if they take the main road, they have to go around from Dingliao Youwei to Shenyang Zhongwei, then go around Fushun Pass and attack the Jianzhou Jurchen tribe from Sarhu.

Not only would the advance require a detour of hundreds or even thousands of miles, but the Jiannu also built many mountain strongholds along the Sarhu line.

If they launch an attack via Sarhu, they will not know how many Jiannu troops they will encounter to block their way, and casualties are inevitable.

Moreover, it is not certain that they can penetrate into the heartland of Jianzhou Jurchens before the arrival of winter.

It would be different if they attacked from this side. They only had to cross the mountains for dozens of miles and that would be the territory of the Jianzhou Jurchens.

Moreover, the Jianzhou Jurchens here did not have any defense at all, so they could easily break into the heartland of the Jianzhou Jurchens!

This is the fastest and least damaging way, and the Jiannu could never have imagined it.

Qi Jiguang and Qin Liangyu both nodded repeatedly to show that they understood.

This is just the allocation of troops and the attack route, the next step is the key.

How to transport food and supplies? What if the battle continues into the cold winter? How to defend the conquered territory?

These are the most important.

If we only talk about combat effectiveness, let alone them now, the Ming army during the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties had no problem dealing with the Tatars and Jurchens.

Neither the Hongwu Emperor nor the Yongle Emperor dared to take action, but the current emperor has already mobilized a large army to prepare for the attack. These issues must have been considered.

All the generals were staring at the map intently, waiting for further arrangements.

Sure enough, Wanli pointed at the map with a white wax stick and made detailed arrangements, saying, "Our main goal this year is to occupy the Daliao River Basin and the territory of the Haixi Jurchens.

The navy has mobilized thousands of centipede ships and octopus ships to transport food and supplies for the army.

The winter in this area is not too cold, and the Tatars and Jurchens can withstand it. We have winter tents and winter uniforms, so there will definitely be no problem.

We must occupy this area before the arrival of winter this year, drive the Tatars and Jurchens to colder areas, and use the severe cold in Nurgandusi to cause a large number of casualties in their population and livestock.

We will continue our advance in the spring of next year. By then, we will mobilize more naval centipede ships to transport food and supplies directly from the Heilongjiang River basin."

This is a clever move.

They were still worried about the severe cold in winter, but the Emperor thought of using the severe cold to deal with the Tatars and Jurchens.

There was also the problem of transporting food and supplies, which was easily solved using the navy's fast ships.

Upon hearing this, all the generals nodded in admiration.

There is one last question, which is how to defend it after it is taken.

Wanli pointed to the map and said solemnly: "This year we must defend this area and we must not withdraw our troops.

Soldiers can use winter tents to keep warm, but war horses do not have winter tents. Moreover, the cold winter will come right after the battle in October, and we don’t have time to build so many greenhouses for the war horses to spend the winter.

Therefore, after taking over this area, we must quickly repair the original greenhouses of the Tatars and Jurchens, install coal stoves, replenish fodder, and try to keep as many war horses there to spend the winter. The rest will have to rush back to the Laoha River Valley to spend the winter.

As for next year, we will also mobilize a large number of Japanese slaves and craftsmen to build city fortresses, warm barracks and stables in the captured areas.

In short, this time we must capture the entire Nurgan Prefecture and hold it, so that the northern border of the Ming Dynasty can be completely peaceful."

It turned out that Japanese slaves and craftsmen were also needed to build city fortresses and warm barracks and stables.

It seems that the severe cold is no longer a problem.

Nurgandusi has such a large territory. If it were taken over, the territory of the Ming Dynasty would more than double.

Expanding territory is an unprecedented achievement!

When the generals heard this, their blood boiled.

(End of this chapter)