Chapter 287: The Situation in the Kingdom of Korea
The winter of this era was silent, and ordinary people did not have enough to eat or warm clothes to wear.
No one will go out unless there is something urgent, because cold means the body has to consume more energy to maintain body temperature.
In this case, if you want to continue living well, you have to eat more food to replenish your body's losses.
So in this era, ordinary people will not come out to enjoy the snow.
Adults will not take children out to have snowball fights.
Those who hang out in winter are all rich and prostitutes...
Children from ordinary farmers' families have to take turns going to the toilet when they go out, because they have to share a pair of cotton pants.
Since we can no longer do farm work, everyone's best choice is to stay inside the house. The family stays together to stay warm and sleep.
It not only cultivates the relationship between family members, but also saves food. Of course, the latter is the key point.
To see how developed a place is, you only need to go outside in the winter to see if there are people there.
According to Maslow's needs theory.
People will only pursue higher-level needs after satisfying the first-level survival needs.
In other words, people will only do things that make people feel happy, such as snow viewing and snowball fights, after they have enough food and clothing.
…
While the Huai Navy was attacking Zhejiang and Fujian, the Korean Kingdom, which was still holding on to a large area of the southern part of the country, was finally ready to wipe out the Taiping Army in the north after the autumn harvest.
After such a long time, the Taiping Army was also prepared to deal with it, and they even couldn't wait.
The money and food collected by Lin Fengxiang's North Korean thugs from all over the north were concentrated in Pyongyang.
The muskets purchased from Huai Haijun were all centralized and equipped for use together.
Lin Fengxiang formed an army alone, known as the "Sharp Gun Army". This army had about 5,000 people, half of whom were old men from the Taiping Army.
The remaining half were also people brought out from China by Lin Fengxiang.
These five thousand people are Lin Fengxiang's trump card.
After the autumn harvest, the Kingdom of Korea assembled an army of 20,000. After a long battle, these armies finally gathered from various places and arrived at the royal city of Seoul.
In this process, the authoritarian Kim family gave away countless benefits to local wealthy families.
The leader Jin Zuogen sent his adopted son Cao Shenpan Jin Bingji to lead an army of 20,000 north to put down the rebellion.
The army of the Kingdom of Korea set out from Seoul and traveled along Kaesong, Jinchuan, Pingshan, and Ruixing to Huangzhou.
Jin Bingji asked his troops to make short-term repairs in Huangzhou.
He sent elite soldiers and generals to conduct reconnaissance and found that the rebels in Pyongyang did not attack.
Lin Fengxiang is indeed preparing to launch a defensive counterattack in Pyongyang City.
There are three reasons:
First, if the Taiping Army wants to take the initiative to attack, it is best to ambush the enemy on the only way they must pass.
However, everything south of the Datong River is under the rule of the Kingdom of Korea. It is very difficult for the Taiping Army to ambush south. Many eyes are staring at the Datong River.
The Taiping Army had no chance to cross the river quietly.
Second, if the Taiping Army crosses the river to fight, if the war goes against their will, it will be difficult for Lin Fengxiang to retreat even if he wants to retreat due to the Datong River.
In addition, Pyongyang City has just been occupied by the Taiping Army, so there must be instability in the city.
At that time, if these people take advantage of the Taiping Army's attack and cause chaos in the city,
The Taiping Army may abandon the newly acquired nests.
Third, Lin Fengxiang hopes to eliminate the main force of the Korean Kingdom under the walls of Pyongyang.
Show the power of the Taiping Army to the Koreans in the city, thereby completely conquering these Koreans.
Since the Taiping Army did not come out, Jin Bingji could only lead the army to attack.
Jin Bingji came out to quell the rebellion, and there was no reason to avoid the truth.
It is only right to find the main force of the rebels and then destroy them.
After a few days of repairs, Jin Bingji led the army to break camp from Huangzhou and head north.
All the way to the banks of the Datong River, there was no resistance from the Taiping Army.
When they arrived at the riverside, Jin Bingji ordered people to build boats to cross the river and prepare to forcefully cross the Datong River.
However, it was attacked by artillery fire from the Taiping Army.
The Taiping Army's newly built fortress outside Pyongyang blocked the river.
In desperation, Jin Bingji had to take a detour upstream to cross the river.
I originally thought that the Taiping Army would attack halfway across the river, but no such thing happened.
The 20,000-strong army of the Kingdom of Korea marched towards Pyongyang City.
In fact, Jin Bingji should allocate part of his troops to attack the northern roads occupied by the Taiping Army at this time.
But Jin Bingji did not do this. He believed that the Taiping Army did not dare to attack because it must lack combat power.
So it is better to encircle and annihilate them in Pyongyang City, and then basically just spread the word to other places.
Splitting up the troops at this point is really a waste of time.
After the 20,000-strong army arrived in Pyongyang, they immediately began to attack the city.
Jin Bingji discovered that the siege army was always threatened by the forts outside the city.
So Jin Bingji divided five thousand troops to focus on the fort.
The attack went smoothly at first, and the city wall was breached several times.
However, because they had to withstand artillery attacks, the Korean army suffered huge casualties.
If Jin Bingji carefully inquired about the troops attacking the city at this time, he would have discovered that most of the defenders on the city wall were Koreans. These people were recruited by the Taiping Army in Korea.
These people were allotted land. They fought for their own land. Although their fighting power was average, their fighting will was very strong.
The Taiping troops on the city wall will only provide support when the enemy attacks the city wall.
The offensive and defensive battle lasted for three days. Every time when the Korean army was about to capture the city wall, reinforcements would appear.
The troops of the Kingdom of Korea are very anxious. In the past three days, their cumulative casualties have reached 5,000.
Kim Byung-ji believed that the capture of Pyongyang would be a matter of time, and that these rebels in the city were just fighting in a corner.
In Pyongyang City, in Lin Fengxiang's palace, all the Taiping Army's trusted generals are here.
"Old Li, when the sharpshooters leave the city and defeat the enemy, you can lead the cavalry to follow. After the enemy's troops are defeated, the follow-up pursuit will be all up to you. I hope to keep them all." Lin Fengxiang was making the final remarks.
deployment.
"Park Yizheng, please prepare a group of civil servants. If we defeat Jin Bingji, we will definitely advance southward this time. By then, the newly taken over city will have civil servants stationed in time to appease it."
According to Korean custom, Lin Fengxiang gave Pu Zhiyong an official position in charge of political affairs and made him the number one civil servant under the King of Liao.
This can be regarded as a thousand dollars to buy horse bones.
"Yes, King of Liao, I will definitely handle it well."
"Okay, the Korean army outside the city has been almost wiped out. It's time for us to fight back."
The attack of the Korean Royal Army outside the city was once again repelled.
Jin Bingji ordered the entire army to temporarily repair.
This tug-of-war made Jin Bingji lose his patience, and he prepared to readjust the attack sequence and concentrate his forces to attack the enemy.
After all, Jin Bingji was in North Korea's Pyongyang City. As long as the Wang Army could break through at one point, he believed that the Koreans in the city would definitely side with the Wang Army and eliminate these outsiders.
Just as Jin Bingji was discussing with his generals.
Suddenly some soldiers came to report.
"Reporting to your lord, the east gate of Pyongyang City suddenly opened, and the troops in the city marched out of the city."
"Oh, how many people came out of the city? Are they infantry or cavalry?" Jin Bingji asked.
"Reporting to your lord, when my subordinates came to report, not all the soldiers and horses in the city had left the city. Those who had left the city seemed to be fire soldiers."
"Okay, let's all go and have a look with my officer. I'm afraid these people are tired of living and instead of hiding behind the city wall, they dare to go out of the city to die."
Jin Bingji was high-spirited and felt that victory was just around the corner. The rebels in the city might not be able to withstand the pressure and were preparing to break out.
"Hmph, we must not let these thieves escape." Jin Bingji thought in his heart.
This kind of bandits are afraid of being escaped. They will destroy everything everywhere, and it will be difficult to catch them then.
Jin Bingji's analysis is not unreasonable. Li Fengxiang and others fled all the way from the Qing Dynasty to North Korea. Because they kept fleeing, the Qing army could not do anything to them.
Jin Bingji came to the watchtower with his scribes and generals.
As expected, the groups of infantrymen who came out of the city had not finished leaving at this time. There were still groups of infantrymen lined up neatly inside the city gate and heading outside.
"My lord, should we let the army attack before they form a formation?" a scribe who acted as a staff member suggested.
"No, let them come out. We are the imperial army and we must repel the enemy with dignity. Besides, what if we attack and scare them away?" Jin Bingji shook his head and said, not agreeing with the suggestions of the scribes and staff.
Five thousand Taiping troops came out of the city, scattered and organized, and formed a five-row horizontal formation.
They held their flintlock guns in front of them. All of these flintlock guns produced by the Huaihai Navy were brand new and smelled of gun oil.
The soldiers could feel that the flintlocks in their hands were much more sophisticated than those they had used before.
Compared with the blunderbuss used before, the flintlock guns they held in their hands were considered magical weapons.
Jin Bingji frowned, "Why do these people have so many fire guns? Did they bring them from the Qing Dynasty?"
He also had fire rifles under his command. Jin Bingji thought this not because he was afraid, but he did not expect that a group of rogue bandits would have such firearms.
If this is the case, then defeat the opponent head-on.
Jin Bingji could tell that the opponent was preparing to use five-stage shooting. This method of using muskets had long been spread.
When North Korea sent troops to help the Qing Dynasty attack the Ming Dynasty, the Han generals under the Qing Dynasty trained North Korean musketeers in this way.
This method of warfare was passed down in Korea.
In the past two years, North Korea also bought some muskets from Huai Haijun, but not many because North Korea was at peace and there was no war.
Kim doesn't want to spend money on weapons.
It was not until this time that the bandits were surrendered that I thought of buying weapons, but Huai Haijun failed to deliver the goods this time.
"Instruct the three armies to attack the enemy's formation head-on." Jin Bingji did not use any fancy formations. Since the rogue bandits were going to fight head-on, how could their royal army be timid?
The formation of the Taiping army is not as neat as that of the Huaihai navy, but these veterans have been in battle for a long time, and their psychological quality in the face of battle is very strong.
Huai Haijun's Fuifang was lethal at a distance of 150 meters, but this group of Taiping soldiers waited until 50 meters before firing.
The five rows rotated and the shooting continued.
Almost face-to-face shooting, the attacking North Korean soldiers fell in pieces.
Even if there were many of them, they couldn't withstand such strong shooting.
Only the North Korean gunmen on the left were shooting at the Taiping Army. However, these soldiers were obviously unable to match the Taiping Army's shooting speed and accuracy.
It obviously fell faster.
And most of the North Korean archers only had time to shoot one round of arrows.
Under the huge casualties and shock, the North Korean army has shown signs of collapse.
Jin Bingji ignored one point. His soldiers had already gone through three days of high-intensity siege warfare.
They are already exhausted and are not in the best condition either physically or mentally.
But the army sent by Lin Fengxiang is a vital force.
And he is the most elite soldier in the Tianping Army.
When the veterans of the Taiping Army, under the order of the general, mounted their flintlock bayonets and launched a counterattack.
The remaining Korean army finally collapsed. They turned and retreated, with the Taiping Army hot on their heels.
"Da da da..." The sound of intensive horse hooves sounded, and the cavalry led by Li Kaifang rushed out from the city gate and quickly passed through the gap left by the infantry.
In panic, Jin Bingji was carried by his men on a war horse and fled backwards.
Finally, they found the bamboo raft they used to cross the river in the upper reaches of the river. Surrounded by their own soldiers, they rowed the bamboo raft and fled to the south bank of the river.
The Taiping Army chased the Korean soldiers and used the Koreans' rafts to cross the river.
The cavalry joined in the pursuit, but only a handful of Korean soldiers escaped across the river.
Although Jin Bingji was not caught, it was still a complete victory.
With the remaining power of the great victory, Lin Fengxiang occupied North Hwanghae Province and Gangwon Province.
It was not until the Taiping Army reached Kaesong that the 20,000 reinforcements from the Kingdom of Korea blocked the Taiping Army's offensive.
This battle established the Taiping Army's solid position in northern Korea.
Lin Fengxiang took the opportunity to call himself the King of Taiping Liao and established the Taiping Liao Kingdom. He changed Pyongyang to "Pingjing" and made it the capital of the Taiping Liao Kingdom.
At the local level, Lin Fengxiang cracked down on local tyrants in North Korea and issued laws to limit the upper limit of land rent for landlords.
Re-employed children from poor families in Korea as civil servants and used the Taiping Army in their hands to control military power.
All military generals and junior officers are veterans of the Taiping Army.
Externally, he actively developed trade with Huai Haijun and leased Chongjin Port in Northeast Korea to Huai Haijun in exchange for a loan of 500,000 taels of silver.
They were all stolen places anyway, and Lin Fengxiang didn't feel any pain at all when selling them.
His footing was not yet stable and he could not exploit the North Korean people too much. It happened that the Huai Navy needed this transit port, so Lin Fengxiang simply sold it.
From then on, the stalemate between the north and the south of the Korean Kingdom began.
ps: I originally wanted to take a rest tonight, but I've been homesick these past few days and haven't had a good night's sleep. I was planning to post this chapter tomorrow morning, but after some hesitation I decided to post it, forcing myself to code another chapter at night. I didn't even have the chance to do this in my senior year of high school.
You have worked so hard. Readers, please vote for your hard work!