The twelfth year of Wanli was the first year that the Ming Dynasty fully intervened in the world history of this time and space. When Ling Yunyi conquered Japan in early November, the Indochina Peninsula was in the dry season. Marshal Gong Xian finally led the Ming army to cross the Changshan Mountains.
We arrived at Thang Long, now called Dongguan.
The Ming Army of Myanmar received the order on July 1, and it was already the end of October when they crossed the Changshan Mountains - the Changshan Mountains are prone to mudslides in the rainy season, the roads are slippery and there are many poisonous insects. Gong Xian spent four months to gather the army and cross the mountains and ridges.
Qianli has done its best to avoid large-scale attrition.
Even if the Mo family mobilized the strength of the Northern Dynasty, it was not enough to provide food, fodder and food for the 10,000-strong Ming army. Food and clothing for the new army were very expensive. They had no choice but to transport them through Guangxi and Myanmar, which was very expensive.
Gong Xian sent a series of reminders to the court for money and food supplies, and also applied for an extension of the half-year period specified by Zhu Yijun.
In fact, at the time of the Privy Council's reckoning, objections had already been raised to Zhu Yijun's idea of destroying the Southern Dynasty in half a year.
Different from the situation faced by Ling Yunyi when he attacked Japan, the Annan Li Dynasty had the Ruan family holding back. However, when the Ruan family faced the southward march of the Ming army, they understood the truth of the cold and the cold and firmly supported the Zheng family to resist. Therefore, the Ruan family in their area
Although it is small and its people are few, it is difficult to defeat it in a single battle.
The Privy Council also analyzed the people's hearts in Li Dynasty at this time: Confucianism was deeply rooted in Annan people's hearts, and there must be more people who were loyal to the emperor and fought hard - they were definitely more effective than those in Burma.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun received the memorial from Gong Xian and Luo Wanhua. Although he was dissatisfied, he did not dare to conduct military operations with an impatience. He had to criticize Hong and told Gong Xian that the safety of the army was the top priority and not to advance rashly.
As expected by the Privy Council, Zheng Song, the head of the Li Dynasty, had repeatedly studied the Ming army's battles to destroy Burma, and had a perceptual understanding of the Ming army's combat effectiveness. Therefore, he did a relatively thorough job - from Nanshan to Thanh Hoa Jianbi, he did a very thorough job of clearing the country.
.It was difficult for the Ming army to find food and fodder locally, so it was impossible to support the war with war.
When the Ming army first arrived at Dongguan, the morale of the officers and soldiers was significantly low due to the long journey over mountains and ridges. Although the military doctors accompanying the army tried their best to treat them, the miasma mosquito poison still caused a lot of non-combat attrition.
Gong Xian did not dare to neglect, so he could only renovate the troops in Dongguan. At the end of October of the twelfth year of Wanli, he led his troops to the south to attack. This gave the Li Dynasty a lot of preparation time, so Gong Xian's progress became increasingly unsatisfactory.
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In the northern part of Annan, there are many mountains and dense forests. Zheng Song adopted harassment tactics, taking advantage of the geographical convenience to delay the army's journey and harass the grain roads. Although the cost was huge, the Ming army's advance was extremely slow. Every city and every town needed one person.
removal.
The Mo Dynasty general Ruan Juan led the Mo army of 35,000 to pick up the pieces behind the Ming army - there was no way, the Ming army could not let the Mo army attack the city, and it could not afford to waste time.
Gong Xian was anxious about the Li Dynasty's strong defense and resolute resistance, but he had no good plan to deal with it. He had to hold on to the grain road and slowly attack southward. Although Zheng Song's strategy of raiding and harassing was successful, it failed at a huge cost due to the huge disparity in military strength.
Not much was gained, and both sides fell into a stalemate.
On the sixth day of December in the twelfth year of Wanli, Gong Xian received a military report. The warships led by the Nanyang Navy Fleet Commander Chen Rui and Admiral Huang Yingjia had set off from Guangzhou and would attack Qinghua directly in about ten days. If the plan goes according to plan, Gong Xian
By now we should have reached the vicinity of Thanh Hoa.
Commander Gong Xian was extremely anxious - how about destroying Burma to gain the Marquis, and then destroying Annan? In desperation, he urged the army to speed up their advance.
During the stalemate between the two sides, whoever loses patience first will expose his weakness. After the Ming army accelerated its advance, there was a big gap with the "Imperial Alliance Army" of the Mo Dynasty. Zheng Song was indeed keen and sent General Zheng Mo to lead his army to take a detour.
It penetrated directly behind the Ming army and made a beautiful penetration.
At that time, Gong Xian had already led troops to rush into Ningping Ruguan, while Ruan Juan was still in Hualu. The two armies were nearly sixty miles apart. Zheng Song's general Zheng Mo led 16,000 elite troops and rushed out from the mountain path.
Like a magic weapon descending from the sky, Ruan Juan's unprepared troops were defeated in one blow.
The messenger rushed to the army to report Gong Xian. Gong Xian looked up to the sky and sighed, feeling speechless to his teammates. The generals under his command and those who joined the army were all talking about it. Some suggested that Ruan Juan should not be concerned about his life and death. Anyway, the food road was still there, so it was better to continue to advance.
As long as Thanh Hoa is captured, everything will be alive.
Some people objected: "This is a rash advance. Mo Chao has lost the support of the people. If Zheng Mo is left alone, maybe he can lead troops to fight back to Thang Long - then it will be a joke."
After discussing for a long time, everyone agreed that they could only divide the troops. One group would continue to advance, and the other group would return to rescue Ruan Juan and knock out Zheng Mo.
Gong Xiandao: "If we divide our troops at this time, the attack will be slower and slower."
His son, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Gong Wei, cupped his fists and cupped his hands and said: "Father, Commander-in-Chief, I finally think that our previous strategy was wrong!"
Gong Xiansu knew that his son was brave and resourceful, so he signaled him to speak boldly.
Gong Wei said: "Because we sent troops from Shenglong and passed Nanshan, we always thought that it was the territory of the Mo Dynasty before, and we wanted to leave some people for the Mo Dynasty... My son thought that since Zheng Song had taken the territory the year before last,
Nanshan, then we are not restoring the land of the Mo Dynasty now, we have entered the territory of the Li Dynasty!"
As soon as he said these words, the temperature in the tent dropped several degrees. Gong Xian understood what his son meant, his triangular eyes shone brightly, and he looked at his generals.
General Nie Dajing held up his hands and said: "I think General Gong's words are true. Mo Chao has lost the support of the people. If our army wants to break the situation, it can only use ruthless tactics. At this time, we are attacking front and back. We cannot be soft-hearted!"
The generals had no objections.
Gong Xian pondered for a moment and then issued an order to Gong Wei: "You bring two thousand soldiers and three thousand servants back to the army to rescue Ruan Juan. It would be best if you can successfully defeat Zheng Mo. If Zheng Mo follows you in circles, you don't have to worry.
, just follow him around - just don't let him attack further north."
After hearing this, Gong Wei took the order and went out to order troops. Gong Xian patted the commander's case and gave the order:
"Ruguan - no chickens or dogs left! From now on, every city and town will be given two hours to consider. If they don't surrender, they will be killed without mercy!"
...
Beginning in December of the twelfth year of Wanli, blood gradually filled Annan. Gong Xian's army was like wings with wings. Starting from Ruguan County, it drew a rapid arrow towards Qinghua City!
On the seventh day of December, Fan Wentong, the county magistrate of Ruguancheng, not only refused to surrender under Gong Xian's threat, but also cursed the Ming captives in the city, scolding them for helping the unjust and attacking the south, which was unjust.
Gong Xian did not waste any time and directly used cannon to smash the archery tower at the top of the city. Fan Wentong was killed on the spot. Then the Ming army's artillery smashed the city gate into pieces, and the already low city wall collapsed - the whole army entered the city.
On the ninth day of December, the four gates of Ruguan County were closed, and the sky was lit with flames. The Ming army came out of the city with murderous intent and marched straight to Anmo. The magistrate of Anmo County, like Ruguan, refused to surrender...
Starting from December 11th, the cities of Honghua, Langzheng, Ngoc Loc, Nonggon, Quangchang and other cities were abandoned. The surrounding areas of Thanhhua were no longer owned by the Li Dynasty. At the same time, Gong Zhou captured Zheng Mo's main force in Ninh Binh.
Ruan Juan was able to take a breather and reorganize his troops.
On December 16, Qinghua City was bombarded from the sea. The whole city was in an uproar and the court was in disarray. On December 17, the left-behind minister Zheng Wenhai led his troops to surrender and told Commander Gong Xian: "
Duke Chang Guo has already escorted the holy chariot to Dongshan for hunting, leaving only an empty city in Thanh Hoa!"