The enemy's firepower is fierce, and Jeju Mucheng will definitely not be recaptured.
Li Hengzhong could only order the withdrawal of troops, hoping to lure the enemy out and rely on cavalry to win in the field.
Just as the entire team was withdrawing, someone suddenly shouted: "Kill the factory supervisor!"
I saw many ragged cavalrymen (actually herdsmen), who seemed to have made a private agreement long ago to launch a surprise rebellion and attack the well-dressed cavalry generals.
The herdsmen hated the officials and were often exploited.
This is an island where criminals are exiled. How can officials be considerate of the people? They are not squeezing them to death!
More than a dozen factory supervisors from various grasslands in Jeju Island, who temporarily served as cavalry generals, were killed by the herdsmen around them inexplicably.
These guys, who usually act arrogantly, are finally getting their comeuppance.
"Don't kill me, I'm willing to surrender!"
Jingyi County Supervisor Pu Sheng shouted in a panic and tried to escape on horseback, but was chased and stabbed to death by the herdsmen around him.
Dajing County Supervisor Jin Guorui ran very fast, and had already fled to Li Hengzhong in a blink of an eye: "Master Mu Shi, Muzi on the island has rebelled, we must suppress it quickly!"
"I'm not blind, you don't need to remind me!"
Li Hengzhong was shocked and angry. He quickly summoned his own guards, a total of more than two hundred cavalry, and immediately attacked the rebels.
More than 3,200 herdsmen all chose to defect, leaving Li Hengzhong with only 200 people left.
But these two hundred cavalrymen were chasing down more than three thousand herdsmen.
The scene was extremely strange.
More than 3,000 herdsmen on horseback did not dare to fight, and were chased closer to the walled city, hoping to obtain the protection of Datong soldiers.
"Is the enemy army...internal strife?" Hu Dinggui said confusedly.
Liu Ze climbed over and pressed against the wall of the village, saying in Ming Dynasty Mandarin: "General Rong Zhen, if we cannot capture Jeju Mucheng quickly, or if we suffer a defeat, Li Hengzhong will be killed by the herdsmen and surrender."
Hu Dinggui asked with a smile: "Why is that so?"
Yanagizawa replied: "The navy of Jeju has been lost, and no one on the island can escape. Everyone can surrender, but Li Hengzhong cannot surrender. He is a member of the Joseon clan, and he has been guarding Gwanghaejun (Lee Hui) for a long time. Gwanghaejun controls
After Jeju Island, Li Hengzhong would have to die even if he surrendered. Moreover, the North Korean government exploited the herdsmen too hard, and the herdsmen had long wanted to rebel."
"No wonder you ordered the siege without risking your life," Hu Dinggui said with a smile, "Are you Han?"
Yanagisawa replied: "I come from a Confucian family in Korea, and my grandfather studied in the Ming Dynasty for several years."
Hu Dinggui said: "You are very good, please be my personal translator."
"Thank you, General!" Yanagize kowtowed quickly.
More than 3,000 defected herdsmen rushed to the vicinity of the walled city, dismounted their horses and knelt down, and sent envoys to chatter for a long time.
Yanagisawa translated: "General Rong Zhen, this person said that they are all the shepherds on the island, who were forced to work for Li Hengzhong. In the past, they were exploited by the North Korean leader, and in the future they request to surrender to the Ming Dynasty."
Hu Dinggui asked: "What is the situation on the island?"
Yanagisawa's thinking was very quick and he explained it simply and concisely: "Jeju Island was originally a horse breeding place in the Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty continuously exiled Mongolian criminals to raise horses. In the early Ming Dynasty, Emperor Hongwu also exiled the descendants of Yuan Liang Wang, Chen Youliang and Ming Yuzhen.
Come here. These people are very powerful, gradually gather their property, and gradually move away from Jeju Island. After the Imjin Japanese Rebellion, North Korea was full of unowned wasteland, and the wealthy people on the island went to North Korea to occupy land. Nowadays, most of the islands are criminals.
There are descendants of Han Chinese, Koreans, and Mongolians, and they have long been mixed and cannot distinguish their ethnic origins.”
"Whose pastures and farmlands belong to them?" Hu Dinggui asked again.
Yanagisawa replied: "It belongs to the king of Korea. The residents on the island are half-cultivating and half-grazing. They pay tribute to the king every year with cattle and horses, and pay land tax to the government on the island. There are three towns and twelve townships on the island, all of which are under the management of the government.
The government can take back pasture and farmland at will."
Hu Dinggui turned around and discussed with Wang Yaochen for a while, and then said to Liu Ze: "Tell them that as long as they are loyal, the tribute will be reduced by 10%, and they will not be held accountable for their previous crimes."
Yanagisawa immediately relayed the message, and the cavalrymen hurried back, and soon the herdsmen burst into cheers.
Surrender means surrender, but they dare not fight. More than 3,000 herdsmen huddled outside the city.
Li Hengzhong and Jin Ruorui were all equipped with armor and rode the two best horses on the island. There were more than two hundred cavalry under their command, all of them wore leather armor and each had a horse bow.
As for the more than 3,000 herdsmen who surrendered, even their clothes were in shabby condition, not to mention wearing armor.
There are not even swords, most of them are equipped with spears.
Some spears have sharpened stone tips, and even the iron tips are not available.
A group of beggars on horseback.
"Open the door and counterattack!"
Hu Dinggui left 500 soldiers behind, asked Wang Yaochen and the Zheng family sailors to defend the city, and led 500 firecrackers out of the city to fight.
The comparison of combat strength between the two sides has reversed.
On Hu Dinggui's side, there were 500 Datong soldiers, 4,000 North Korean surrendered infantry, and 3,000 North Korean surrendered cavalry. It can be said that there were 7,000 surrendered farmers and herdsmen, the youngest of whom was only 13 years old, holding a wooden stick in his hand.
There are more than 200 regular cavalry on Li Hengzhong's side.
Li Hengzhong felt desperate at this moment. If he had not been trapped on the island, he would not have chosen to fight today and would have fled thousands of miles away with his bodyguard.
Just like Yanagisawa said, everyone else can surrender, but Li Hengzhong's surrender will lead to death.
what to do?
Run!
How far can you run and how many days can you live?
More than two hundred cavalrymen fled immediately. Hu Dinggui could only watch from a distance and said to the surrendering herdsmen: "Catch up and annihilate the enemy!"
The herdsmen had a large number of people, but they lacked unified command. Familiar friends gathered together and divided into more than ten groups to fight separately. They were used to being oppressed, so they were cautious when fighting, and they did not dare to pursue them with all their strength.
"Boohoo!"
More than two hundred cavalrymen began to shoot arrows, and the shots were crooked. It seemed that the bows and arrows were lack of maintenance.
The rain of arrows only injured one herdsman, and he did not even fall from his horse.
However, the herdsmen were so frightened that they stopped their horses and watched Li Hengzhong lead his troops to retreat. They came back and reported to Hu Dinggui: "The enemy cavalry was too powerful. We were all killed and retreated, and we could not continue the pursuit."
"Do you fucking think I'm blind?"
Hu Dinggui wanted to rebuke angrily. If this were his soldiers, all of them would be dragged away to fight!
But then I thought about it, if the herdsmen were so brave, and they were the ones being attacked now, how could they choose to surrender in a daze?
Li Hengzhong led his cavalry back to Dajing County, not daring to go out to fight. He just stayed in the city and waited for the King of Korea to send troops to rescue him.
"How to fight?" Hu Dinggui asked Wang Yaochen.
Wang Yaochen said: "We won't fight for the time being. Let's train our cavalry ourselves. The more than two hundred enemy cavalry will not be able to stir up trouble."
Hu Dinggui nodded and said: "I also plan to practice cavalry myself. This is a task assigned by the main town. I will practice five hundred cavalry first. I don't expect to kill the enemy on horseback. I can chase the enemy on horseback. Mount the horse to chase the enemy, dismount and fire the gun. That's it.
Horse-riding firecrackers."
Wang Yaochen said: "It seems that these thousand Datong soldiers will stay in Jeju Island for a long time. I should write a letter back and ask the headquarters to bring the soldiers' wives and children, and redistribute the fields to the soldiers and their families in Jeju Island. This Jeju Island
It’s half-farming and half-grazing, and there’s a lot of farmland. If you bring your family over, you can also learn to raise horses.”
The two discussed it for a long time, and this is probably what they did.
Li Hui was pushed out as a puppet, and Koreans were first appointed to manage the city, and the pastures and farmland were allowed to be self-governing by farmers and herdsmen. When the families of Datong soldiers came, an area was designated as a Han settlement, and schools were also opened to allow the island's residents to live in peace.
Children of farmers and herdsmen also come to attend classes.
After the agreement, Hu Dinggui forcibly kept 500 good horses. In fact, they were all ponies with a shoulder height of 1.2 meters. The Korean war horses were severely degraded.
Hu Dinggui made an agreement with these herdsmen that in the future, there would be no need to pay tribute to horses, but only 400 tribute horses and 50 tribute cattle. Compared with North Korea's policy, this was much more preferential, with 33 less tribute horses and 10 less tribute cattle.
All very happy.
The 500 horses left behind are considered to be pre-levied in advance and can be deducted later.
After the herdsmen were dismissed, the farmers were also dismissed, and the amount of land tax was also reduced.
Yanagisawa came and knelt down: "General, I have a plan."
"Say it." Hu Dinggui smiled.
Liu Ze said: "You can send people everywhere to spread the news, saying that as long as you surrender to Lord Guanghai (Li Hui), Li Hengzhong's bodyguards will be spared death. Then you can consecrate Jin Guorui, the supervisor of Dajing County, and promise to be a high official and generous salary. In this way, Li Hengzhong will definitely
No longer trusting Jin Guorui, Li Hengzhong even suspected that his own soldiers were going to rebel. Once the counterinsurgency plot came out, and they were unable to escape from Jeju Island, the enemy forces would definitely fight among themselves."
Hu Dinggui smiled and said: "Haha, I know it's a counter-intuitive plan."
With Zhao Han's approval, Hu Dinggui has been insisting on studying. He has memorized "Datong Collection" by heart, has also read "Sun Tzu's Art of War", "Thirty-Six Strategies", and recently has been reading Qi Jiguang's "Ji Xiao New Book".
After the counter-intuitive plan was used, Hu Dinggui ignored it and started training the cavalry seriously.
His horse comes from Pu Sheng, with a shoulder height of 1.3 meters. It is a rare BMW in Jeju Island.
Hu Dinggui also spent money to hire herdsmen to teach the soldiers how to take care of the war horses. The soldiers had to eat and sleep with the horses every day. Of course, the herdsmen were responsible for feeding them at night, otherwise the soldiers would not be able to sleep well.
After training like this for half a month, the five hundred fire gun soldiers were able to ride horses and run freely.
But it is impossible to advance in formation, or the entire army changes direction in an emergency, and this kind of high-end operation is even more impossible.
Their daily training subjects were to run on horseback for a while, then quickly dismount to reload ammunition, then get back on the horse and continue running as horse musketry infantry.
As for the heavy cavalry, they would have to bring in high-quality horses, and the pony horses from Jeju Island would not be able to do that at all.
…
Dajing County.
When Jin Guorui received Li Hengzhong's banquet, he was so frightened that he immediately ran to the stables and rode out of the city.
Twenty cavalrymen quickly chased after him, running for two miles to surround Jin Guorui: "The county supervisor, please come back, the shepherd envoy will treat you to a drink."
"Wait!"
Jin Guorui's vest was sweating, and he said to the cavalry: "I have inquired clearly. This time it is not the army of the Ming Dynasty, but the army of King Zhao Tian. King Zhao occupies half of the Ming Dynasty, and the territory is as big as ten Koreas. Even if you guys
Aren't you afraid of offending King Zhao Tian when you can leave Jeju Island for the first time? What's more, the navy of Jeju Island is gone, and the tribute horse envoy sent by the North Korean leader will not arrive until around the winter solstice. By that time, we will definitely be defeated.
Got it!"
These cavalrymen did not speak, but they did not take action either.
Jin Guorui continued: "The enemy is using a stratagem to alienate the country, and it is a conspiracy. I did not betray the king, but I was suspected by the pastor, and they sent you to hunt me down. After I die, who will be next? The enemy threatened that you
You can all surrender without guilt. Will Li Hengzhong be suspicious of you? Kill the generals who command the troops like you did today?"
Seeing that the cavalry still didn't respond, Jin Guorui said again: "The enemy is training cavalry every day. There are more than two hundred cavalry behind Li Hengzhong. How can he win? Are you all going to accompany him to death? Come back with me, kill Li Hengzhong, and surrender.
Lord Gwanghae (Li Hui)!"
After saying that, Jin Guorui rode his horse towards the county seat, and the cavalrymen followed him one after another.
After entering the city, Jin Guorui shouted all the way: "The thieves are coming to kill, the thieves are coming to kill!"
Dajing County suddenly fell into chaos. Li Hengzhong put on his armor and led his troops out, asking: "The bandit army is coming?"
Jin Guorui said: "It's already several miles away."
Li Hengzhong said: "It is inconvenient for the cavalry to defend the city, so they all followed me out of the city to meet the enemy!"
Jin Guorui sat on the horse and turned around, gesturing towards the more than 20 cavalrymen.
The cavalrymen all drew their bows and set arrows, and fired at Li Hengzhong from a distance of more than ten steps.
"kill!"
Jin Guorui was afraid that he would not be killed, so he took the lead in riding his horse and rushed: "Surrender and avoid death!"
Li Hengzhong and his bodyguards were caught off guard by the rain of arrows. Many of them were hit by arrows inexplicably, and some of their horses were injured and ran away. Seeing Jin Guorui leading his troops to kill, the soldiers subconsciously avoided it, but no one stopped them.
With one slash of the knife, Li Heng fell from his horse.
Jin Guorui raised his arms and shouted: "Li Hengzhong is dead, follow me to Lord Guanghai, follow me to King Zhao Tian!"