At the end of December, there was continuous heavy snowfall in the north, and there was ice and snow everywhere. Outside Dengzhou City, Dengzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province, hundreds of thousands of people were besieging the city. However, there was no celebration that should be expected during the New Year in the city, only the whistling north wind blowing. The dilapidated city head and the dried blood stains on the city head tell the cruelty of war.
The city of Dengzhou was still in a mess, with broken houses and ruins everywhere. Li Fangyuan, who looked haggard, walked on the street full of wounded soldiers, his eyes full of sorrow. Because the Ming Dynasty not only mobilized heavy troops to come, In the encirclement and suppression campaign, dozens of artillery pieces were brought in two days ago and they kept bombarding the city. Sooner or later, Dengzhou City would be broken.
Although there are hundreds of thousands of people in Dengzhou City, most of them are old, weak, women and children. Among the more than 60,000 strong men, more than half are injured to varying degrees. In this case, they do not even have the ability to break out. This is a complete desperate situation. Li Fangyuan regretted a little, why he was so impulsive in the first place, and after hearing a few words of encouragement, he sent troops to Shandong to challenge the Ming Dynasty.
However, Li Fangyuan also knew that it was too late to regret at this time. He had sent people to ask the Ming army general to surrender, but the Ming army wanted Li Fangyuan to surrender. Li Fangyuan was afraid that the Ming Dynasty would not keep his promise, so he did not dare to leave the city. At that time, the Ming army launched artillery bombardments on Dengzhou City every day. Li Fangyuan tried to ask for surrender again, but the Ming army refused. It seemed that they wanted to kill them all.
"Your Highness, Liu Tingxian, the governor of Shuicheng Town, is here to see you."
"Quickly pass." Li Fangyuan said hurriedly.
Shuicheng is only a few dozen meters away from Dengzhou City. It is called Shuicheng. It is actually a seaport. It was an important shipping port in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, so it was built with stones. Li Fangyuan sent his close ministers and 30,000 troops to guard Shuicheng. While guarding his retreat, although the North Korean army did not have any warships, he still imagined in his heart that the Peiping army and navy could come to rescue him.
Soon, Liu Tingxian came to Li Fangyuan, knelt down and saluted, and then said: "The commander of the Peiping Army Navy has said that the Bohai Bay is frozen and frozen, and warships and merchant ships are unable to sail, making it difficult to rescue them. We have urgently mobilized the troops outside the sea. The fleet is just going against the wind and current, so it may take more than ten days to arrive."
"It will take more than ten days to arrive?" Li Fangyuan was even more panicked. If Dengzhou City was bombarded by the Ming army for more than ten days, there would probably not even be any residue left.
"Your Highness, Dengzhou City is difficult to defend. Why don't we fight desperately to break through. The Yellow River has frozen at this time. As long as we cross Laizhou, we can cross the Yellow River and go north into Beipingxing Province." Liu Tingxian suggested.
"Breakout?!" Li Fangyuan glanced at the women and children around him, shook his head and said with a bitter smile: "There are hundreds of thousands of Ming troops outside the city, but we have so many old and weak people on our side. How can we break out of the encirclement? Why do we have to travel a long distance through Laizhou Prefecture?"
"Your Highness, instead of holding each other to death, it is better to fight for a chance of survival. Your Highness leads the elite troops to break out, and there is no need to worry about anything else." Liu Tingxian said in a low voice. His meaning was very obvious, that is, to throw away the burden and kill these old, weak, sick and disabled people. Leave it alone.
Li Fangyuan looked at the wounded and disabled generals around him. He really couldn't make up his mind for a while. He just walked up to the tower and looked at the endless sea in the north of the city. He also glanced at the Ming army camp that stretched for several miles in the southeast of the city. Desperation suddenly arises.
"Your Highness, if you continue to fight, you will suffer the chaos. As long as your Highness escapes and ascends to heaven, you will be able to restore and rejuvenate the country one day." Liu Tingxian also advised.
"Okay, you go down and deliver the order, gather the elite troops, and break out at midnight tonight." Li Fangyuan gritted his teeth, his eyes full of determination, and said: "The troops are divided into two groups, heading southeast, thinking that they are suspicious of soldiers and attracting the Ming army. The main force, the main force will take the opportunity to break out to the west."
"I accept your orders." Liu Tingxian said goodbye and left.
In the twelfth lunar month of winter, the days were short and the nights were long. Night fell after sunset. The North Korean army was actively preparing to break out, but they did not notice that dozens of large ships were parked on the sea about twenty miles offshore, like dormant beasts. And this sea is absolutely controlled by the Peking Army and Navy. The one who can appear here must be the Peking Army.
In fact, Liu Wenxiu sent military commander Li Chengqian early in the morning to watch along the coast of Shandong with a fleet of ships and cameras. The Korean army asked the navy for help many times, but Li Chengqian gave various reasons to shirk the situation and refused to save him because he had already Received instructions from Liu Wenxiu: Only rescue refugees, not Korean troops.
Of course, the refugees also include North Korean women and children, but they do not include the strong civilians of the North Korean army. As the saying goes, people who are not from our race must have different hearts. Wan Lei instructed Liu Wenxiu: Try to save as many North Korean women and children as possible, but not North Korean soldiers. Because for the Peking Army, , Korean soldiers are always a threat, but women and children are not. As long as these women and children are scattered and placed in various places, in a few years, they will be assimilated into "Han people".
In addition, although the male-female ratio in Pak Parallel Province is harmonious, there are so many people who marry multiple wives that some lower-class people are still naked. Bringing back some Korean women can be regarded as a benefit to the old bachelors.
Li Fangyuan didn't know that the Peiping Army was interested in Korean women and was still busy throwing away the burden and breaking out of the encirclement. In order to escape for his own life, he even ignored his own concubines and only took his legitimate wife and sons with him. As for the sons who were born as concubines Daughters, all abandoned.
As soon as midnight arrived, the originally closed city gate opened, and a team of suspected soldiers consisting of thousands of wounded soldiers rushed out of the city and rushed southeast. When the Ming army outside the city saw it, they immediately joined forces to encircle and suppress them, and they rushed and killed After that, the suspected army was completely wiped out, and just as the Ming army was snatching heads to mark their merits, another North Korean army rushed out of the city and rushed westward.
When the Ming army general supervising the battle saw this, he shouted that he had been fooled and immediately dispatched troops to intercept. However, the soldiers over there were having fun snatching heads, and few people were willing to chase them. However, the North Korean army was like a bull, fighting for its life. But he rushed forward, and several lines of defense were quickly torn apart. Then he dropped the wounded soldiers and just ran away in all directions.
Seeing this thousands-strong Korean army fleeing, the Ming army general was extremely angry and immediately sent elite cavalry to pursue them. At the same time, he also ordered the artillery to continue bombarding Dengzhou City in an effort to smash the city before dawn. city.
The sound of artillery roared, and dozens of artillery fired at the city. No matter how strong the city wall was, it collapsed in pieces. There was no elite protection in Dengzhou City, and even the leaders ran away, without even a command. Naturally, the city was in chaos, and many people squeezed desperately toward Shuicheng, because Shuicheng faced the sea on three sides and could hold on for a while longer.
Many Koreans crowded into the water city, and Dengzhou City soon became an empty city. When the sky turned white, the Ming army's shelling finally stopped. However, the Koreans had no time to rejoice, because the Ming Dynasty was flooded with water. The army has already rushed towards Dengzhou City, and although there are still some defenders in Shuicheng, they may not be able to defend it for long under this kind of offensive.
The Ming army was pressing down on the city, and the Koreans were already in despair. They knew that what they were about to face was a brutal massacre and rape, and no one could save them. And some who were unwilling to be humiliated had already begun to jump into the sea. .
At this moment, an exclamation rang out in the water city: "Ship, big ship, there is a big ship on the sea!" Hearing this exclamation, the Koreans all looked towards the sea in unison, and sure enough they saw dozens of big ships gliding slowly. They were coming slowly, and there were hundreds of small boats.
"Rescue troops are coming, we are saved." There was a cheer in Shuicheng. However, these North Korean refugees who were overjoyed soon found that they were happy too early, because these large ships stopped one mile away from Shuicheng. , looking at how full they are, they are not here to fight at all.
Just when the hope of the North Korean refugees turned into despair, a small boat approached Shuicheng, and the people on the boat shouted: "Everyone, we are here to rescue people, but the Ming army arrived in a blink of an eye, and we can't dock. What do you think?" The solution is to swim over by yourself."
As soon as they heard that these warships were here to rescue people, the North Korean refugees cheered and jumped into the sea one after another, regardless of the cold water. Some of them, who were not good at water, even found wooden boards and swam in the direction of the ships while lying on their stomachs. Go, and for a while, the sea was full of people scrambling for their lives.
Most of these refugees were women and children. Some of the injured and strong men who were left behind also wanted to escape. However, as soon as they jumped into the sea, their wounds were soaked in salt water and they gritted their teeth in pain. In addition, they had already Losing too much blood, most of the wounded soldiers only swam a few dozen meters before fainting and falling into the sea. And when they were overwhelmed, no one would save others.
The distance of one mile is five hundred meters. This distance between life and death is neither close nor far. If you are in good health, you can barely swim through the cold sea water. If you are in poor health, you can swim across it. Halfway through, his hands and feet froze, and he sank into the sea and died.
In this life-and-death test moment, women's ultimate endurance is indeed stronger than that of men. Most of the women who can swim to the boat alive are women. Moreover, many women are dragging their children with them. Most of them gritted their teeth and swam over. On the contrary, Most of those burly men who looked tall and stout sank into the sea because of injuries on their bodies and reduced physical fitness.
The Koreans were running into the sea to escape, but the Ming army had already invaded Shuicheng. They saw that their "heads" were all running into the sea to escape. Although they were very reluctant, they did not go to the sea to chase after them. After all, it was the twelfth lunar month of winter, and it was very difficult to go down there. You won't be able to freeze to death.
The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty looked at the ocean and sighed, but the Ming general who was supervising the battle was furious when he saw this, because the incoming ship was the Peiping Army. This was not the first time that the Peking Army had helped the Koreans, nor was it the first time that it had attacked the Ming Army. Made it worse.
"General Shi, we can't let these thieves go. Once they escape on the ship, they might land somewhere and cause chaos again." An aide next to the Ming army general gritted his teeth, but his worries were not unfounded. The truth is, after all, the North Korean thieves were brought here by the Peking Army, and the Peking Army may have helped them relocate this time.
"Pull up the artillery and give it to the general to blast hard." The Ming army general ordered through gritted teeth. What he never expected was that since the Peiping army had done this, they just wanted the Ming army to fire. Because those big ships It was not a warship at all, but a cargo ship. The sailors had left, and there were only those refugees on board.