Zhu Yijun's final decision was to let Li Rusong return to Liaodong. This was not too unexpected by Gao Pragmatic, but it was indeed not the most ideal result in his mind.
Generally speaking, Gao Pragmatic has a positive attitude towards Li Rusong. However, this positive attitude is mainly due to the fact that he is simpler than Naifu.
Li Rusong is a typical traditional military commander, and he is the kind of military commander who attacks wherever the emperor directs him. His ability in commanding troops is enough to make him the choice of a famous general. As a sword, Li Rusong is definitely qualified, and can even be called a precious sword.
However, this does not mean that Gao Pragmatic believes that Li Rusong is the best candidate to be the Liao coach at this time. Li Rusong's identity has both bonus points and deducted points for him to be the Liao coach.
The bonus points are obvious. He grew up in Liaodong since he was a child. He followed Li Chengliang to fight in Liaodong when he was young. He is completely familiar with all aspects of Liaodong. As the eldest son of Li Chengliang, he has always been regarded as a young commander by the Li family army. Li Chengliang's subordinates
All the generals were convinced by him, and none of his younger brothers dared to be dishonest in front of his elder brother.
From these perspectives, letting Li Rusong replace Li Chengliang can almost make Liaodong's coaching change as smooth as the drizzle in early spring replacing the winter snow.
In addition, as Zhu Yijun mentioned just now, if Li Rusong replaces Li Chengliang, it is impossible for others to say that he is a mean and ungrateful emperor - even if you, Li Chengliang, were defeated in such a big way, I will still let you return to Jing'an as Ning Yuanbo.
I have handed over the post of Commander-in-Chief of Liaodong that you resigned from, to your legal heir. I wonder if my favor and trust in your Li family cannot be increased?
But these are only from the good side. In fact, Li Rusong's replacement as Li Chengliang's commander-in-chief also has a bad side.
First of all, Li Rusong is Li Chengliang's eldest son after all. Even though he himself dares to fight to the death and is not greedy for money, the people under him are still the people brought out by Li Chengliang. Although these people admire him, Li Rusong, but equally,
It was impossible for Li Rusong not to save any face for them.
When it's time to make them rich, Li Rusong will definitely not be able to make them feel free; when something goes wrong with them, when it's time to protect them, Li Rusong won't be able to lower his face and say that I don't have subordinates like you.
The butt will always determine the head. Li Rusong will probably be more reliable as Liao commander than the current Li Chengliang, but it would be too embarrassing to expect Li Rusong to get rid of the old shortcomings and completely clean up the Liaodong Army. Who else will face his subordinates?
There are a bunch of uncles and uncles who can't bear to shame and shout to be beaten and killed.
Secondly, Li Rusong's personality was too strong. In the evaluation of later generations, Li Chengliang was said to be "brave and cowardly". Among them, the Battle of Zuosuo, the Battle of Panshanyi, the Battle of Zhuoshan, and the Battle of Pinglubao
Battle, Battle of Red Earth City, Battle of Yangshanmu, Battle of Ya'ergui, Battle of Diaobei Mountain, Battle of Liaohe River, Battle of Azhou, Battle of Fushun, Battle of Shenyang, Battle of Kaiyuan, Battle of Coat Lang Tu
The battle of Caozi Valley, the battle of Gule Village... There is no doubt that he was brave every time.
This has also become the tradition of the Li Jiajun. A few years ago, including Li Chengliang himself (he was over sixty at the time), he took the lead in the charge during the battle.
Needless to say, Li Rusong, this brother is even more ruthless than his father and always kills himself. Historically, in the battle of Byokjeokwan in Korea, three of the horses he was riding on were killed on the spot. It was so ferocious.
The extent is evident.
But Li Rusong did not learn Li Chengliang's "ability to fear".
What is "able to be fearful"? For example, when Zhu Yijun named Li Chengliang the title of Ning Yuanbo, Li Chengliang even asked for his resignation; this time when Li Chengliang was defeated, he also immediately went to his ministers to ask for punishment. For example, when Gao pragmatic went to Liaodong, Li Chengliang
Even though he is so angry that he is suppressed, he still chooses to knock out his teeth and swallow his blood, and never confront Gao Pragmatism head-on. This is "being able to be fearful".
The "ability to be fearful" here does not mean being timid and afraid of getting into trouble, but being able to be a good person and an official.
The emperor conferred Li Chengliang the title of Uncle Ning Yuan, which was because his merits were enough, but he repeatedly resigned, which was "taking credit but not conceited"; after this defeat, he was the first to go to court to ask for punishment, which was "dare to take responsibility"
"Don't shy away from defeat." In the past, if you didn't compete head-on with Gao Pragmatism, you were judging the situation and being patient and perseverant.
Regardless of Li Chengliang's starting point for doing these things, judging from his actions, at least no one can say that he wanted to die.
However, Li Rusong did not learn this. He was too upright. Uprightness was originally a good word for a military commander, but as the saying goes, if you are too strong, you will be broken. If you are too wise, you will be hurt. If you are too strong, you will be humiliated. If you are too strong, you will not live long.
It is easy to get into trouble and suffer setbacks.
In the original history, Li Rusong suffered a heavy setback when he was ambushed and killed in a "nest-busting" operation against the Mongols after his brilliant victory in the Korean War. Historical records: "(Li) Rusong led
The Qingqi went far away to attack the nest, but they were caught in ambush and died fighting."
Judging from this brief record in "History of the Ming Dynasty", Li Rusong died unexpectedly: he led a small number of elite cavalry deep into the captive territory, but died in an ambush.
Gao Pragmatic originally thought that Li Rusong's death was mainly due to his own underestimation of the enemy. Although it was a pity, there was nothing he could do about it.
However, after Gao Pangshi came to Ming Dynasty for so many years, became deeply involved in politics, and played countless conspiracies, he realized that Li Rusong's death was not that simple in the original history.
Li Rusong's performance in the first stage of the Korean War was dazzling. He entered North Korea with only 40,000 troops and won consecutive battles. He successively captured Pyongyang, recaptured Kaesong, and forced the troubled Japanese army to withdraw from Seoul. In just a short period of time,
Within more than a hundred days, the three capitals of Korea were recovered. It also completely allowed Japan at that time to understand the true strength of the Ming Dynasty, and shattered Toyotomi Hideyoshi's illusion of conquering the Ming Dynasty in one fell swoop.
Later, because the Chinese and Japanese armies tended to end the war through peace talks, Li Rusong returned to the army in triumph and was named the Crown Prince Taibao and the Left Governor of the Chinese Army Commandery. At this point, the war came to an end.
But the matter was not over yet. A few years later, the peace talks broke down. In the 25th year of Wanli, the Japanese army came back again and invaded across the sea. Just like a replica of the last time, the Japanese army once again pointed directly at the capital of Seoul, and North Korea was once again in danger.
This time, the Ming Dynasty responded quickly and was once again invited to send troops to support, and appointed Ma Gui as the general to take charge of Seoul. In Nanyuan, the whole state fell one after another, and the Japanese army pressed on the outskirts of Seoul. Under the unfavorable situation, the Battle of Jishan was launched to stabilize the situation.
situation.
Then, more and more Ming army reinforcements were sent to Korea, and the Japanese army switched from strategic offensive to strategic defense, returning to defend the solid Japanese castles built along the coast until Toyotomi Hideyoshi died of illness in 1598. The Japanese army gradually crossed the sea and withdrew back to the country in November. The war
Completely declared over.
But here comes the question: In the second phase of the war to aid Korea, that is, this time Ma Gui is in command. Since Li Rusong performed well last time, why not let Li Rusong take command again this time and go all the way to transfer Ma Gui?
?
Of course Ma Gui is also a famous general in the world, but what is Li Rusong doing at this moment? Why didn't he go?
The fact is that Li Rusong filled the vacancy of Liaodong General Soldier in the winter of the 25th year of Wanli and returned to Liaodong where his father Li Chengliang had been in charge for many years and had deep roots.
Gao Pragmatic had to carefully examine this point in time. It happened to be some time after the second phase of the war to aid Korea broke out. Specifically, it was after the Battle of Jishan, when the Ming army had basically stabilized the front line.
This forced the Japanese army to shrink its defense line and switch to strategic defense. The Ming army, on the other hand, began to switch to strategic offensive after reinforcements arrived one after another.
Now that the front line has been stabilized, there is no need to send Li Rusong to rescue the enemy. However, not long after in April of the following year, according to Ming history records, when facing the Mongolian invaders invading Liaodong, Li Rusong led his light cavalry to attack the nest and was killed in ambush.
die.
Damn it! Such a famous general in the world died in such a small battle inexplicably? And he died because of such a low-level command error?
Are you kidding me? Is this the level of Li Rusong?
It would be difficult for normal people to believe it, because just a few years ago in North Korea, Li Rusong fought a battle very similar to this battle, the famous Battle of Byokjeon.
In the Battle of Bitiguan, Li Rusong had considerable experience and divided his cavalry into three groups. The vanguard group, his own group, and a group behind him led by his direct general Yang Yuan as a support, the three groups advanced one after another.
In this battle, the vanguard was first besieged by heavy Japanese troops. Li Rusong immediately led his own team to respond. After entering the siege, they fought hard for a long time. Li Rusong was almost in danger, but he still did not retreat and kept fighting.
When both sides were a little tired, Yang Yuan's rear team arrived in time, and Li Rusong was able to take the opportunity to break out and counterattack, finally repelling the Japanese army.
It is not difficult to see from the Battle of Biti Pavilion that Li Rusong was actually very good at commanding operations. He attacked boldly, but he also had some backup plans. Not to mention those who were in danger and were surrounded during the Battle of Biti Pavilion.
Li Rusong, how could he not be more cautious after the incident and instead easily take risks again? This is really weird.
In the "Heritage of Artifacts" written by Zhao Shizhen, Li Rusong's contemporary, there is such a record: "When I saw that Li Ping and Hu were captured by Liao Zuo, I used the generous salary of the high-ranking officials in the court and the kindness of Ning Yuan to bring him up. After all, the commander of Yin leaked and left the fortress.
During this period, Li Rusong was made to paste his body in the grass field, and his bones were exposed outside the barrier."
According to Zhao Shizhen's records, the root cause of Li Rusong's death was that Li Pinghu leaked the date of Li Rusong's departure from the fortress!
Is this an isolated proof? No, the chief minister of the imperial cabinet at that time was Zhao Zhigao, and there are more detailed records in the epitaph written by him for Li Rusong. [Wufeng's Note: Due to the ambiguity of the inscription, it cannot be read in detail.
Replace the identified part with “□”.]
"The Duke (referring to Li Rusong) likes to overwhelm the masses with a small number. My best skill lies in cultivating good deeds. I already know that there are dangers. I have carried five thousand people to fight for hundreds of miles. I vow not to retreat even one step and kill countless people."
Hundreds of people came and went, attacking as if there was no one among them. Li Ping, Hu, and Zhang Yu had an army to support them, but the captives didn't know how many they had. If they attacked from the front and back, wouldn't it be an even greater victory? No lives needed.
, appointing commanders to fight against the enemy, using all the arrows and arrows, mercilessly killing the horses on them, gaining fame for thousands of miles, leaving the body damaged in hundreds of battles, sitting in a mess. It’s so sad, how sad it is!”
At this point, the direct cause of Li Rusong's death has been revealed! It seems that Li Rusong in this battle was the same as in the previous battle of Biti Pavilion, and he also arranged for Li Pinghu and Zhang Yu to serve as backup.
If these two people come to assist according to the plan, there is a high probability that they can turn defeat into victory. At worst, they can rescue Li Rusong from the siege like the battle of Biti Pavilion.
However, for some unknown reason, Li Ping and Hu did not arrive in time to respond like Yang Yuan did during the Battle of Biti Pavilion!
It stands to reason that the matter should be almost clear at this point. However, a very strange thing happened, which made the whole incident even more confusing.
That is, what happened to Li Pinghu?
It stands to reason that the chief minister of the imperial court has spoken out. It was you, Li Pinghu, who killed the Liaodong general of the imperial court, and Li Rusong himself was the captain of Zhu Yijun's fire-fighting brigade. How could it be possible not to behead the traitor in public? At the very least, it should be
Dismissal and investigation, right?
With so many old generals of the Li family in Liaodong, how could they easily let go of the guy who killed Li Rusong? Especially, Li Pinghu was also a servant of the Li family army, and now he killed the young marshal. Isn't this punishment?
However, the fact is that in the sixty-eighth volume of Mingxi Zong's Records, Li Pinghu's name appears again many times. At this time, almost twenty years have passed, and the grass on Li Rusong's grave is probably already grown, but
Li Pinghu still appears in historical records, and even leads troops to fight.
In other words, after Li Rusong's death, Li Pinghu was not severely punished, and he still holds actual military power more than 20 years later.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! This is strange. It stands to reason that Li Pinghu has been favored by two generations of the Li family, and the Li family is really not unkind to him. What's more, after betraying Li Rusong, Li Pinghu
Hu himself did not defect to Mongolia or other forces, but continued to stay in the Ming Dynasty and served as a general until twenty years later.
In this case, why did he betray Li Rusong? What benefit would betraying his young commander do to him? Selling out Li Rusong was such a big responsibility, so why didn't he do nothing?
Gao Qingshi felt that there must be a problem here. But at the moment, it seemed to be a dead end, so he had to jump to a higher perspective to examine. What to examine? Examine what happened to the people around Li Rusong.
The first is his second brother Li Rubai. Although Li Rubai's ability is only average among the Li family members, because he is the second oldest brother, he served as Li Rusong's deputy in the first stage of the war to aid Korea.
Zhong also made a great contribution.
After becoming the commander of the army, he successively served as the Commander-in-Chief of Guizhou and the Commander-in-Chief of Ningxia. The year before Li Rusong died in battle, Li Rubai resigned due to illness. This term was no joke. He stayed at home for more than 20 years until
It was almost seventy years old before it was used again during the Battle of Saarhu. This is a story for another day.
One year before Li Rusong died, Li Rubai, who was in his prime, "resigned due to illness" and stayed at home for more than 20 years. Isn't this just a coincidence?
Okay, let’s treat this matter as an unrelated accidental coincidence. Gao Pragmatic took another look at one person, that is, Yang Yuan, a direct member of the Li family army who had previously served as a backup in the Battle of Bitiguan and rescued Li Rusong from the Japanese encirclement.
In the second phase of the war to aid Korea, Yang Yuan led his 3,000 Liaodong cavalry and was sent to Nanyuan City on the front line by his new boss Ma Gui. Then he encountered a siege of more than ten times the Japanese army. After holding on for a period of time, due to being outnumbered, the reinforcements
It was too late to arrive. After holding on for several days, the lone army was forced to break out and withdraw. Most of the soldiers who defended the city were killed.
During this stage, compared to Chen Yuzhong, another general who not only held back his troops in Quanzhou but also abandoned the city without fighting afterwards, Yang Yuan's performance could be described as conscientious. He even returned to Seoul.
Later, Ma Guidu said to him, "The defeat of Nanyuan was not a crime of war."
But please note that Ma Gui later ordered Yang Yuan to be beheaded in public.
According to "Those Things in the Ming Dynasty", the reason why Ma Gui killed him was to kill Yang Yuan to warn the others: If you don't win this battle, you will die!
Okay, it makes sense to kill the chicken and show it to the monkey. But Gao Pragmatic still has questions: Why can't he find any record of dealing with Chen Yuzhong who fled without a fight?
Okay, okay, just treat Chen Yuzhong as someone in the court, but there is a bigger problem: since Yang Yuan was killed to warn the entire army on the front line, naturally killing him at the front line in Seoul would be most effective. But according to records,
Yang Yuan happened to be taken back to the Ming Dynasty and executed in Liaoyang, which was within eight poles of the front line of Seoul.
This is very amazing. Now that the chicken is killed, which monkey is it for?
If we really want to inspire all the soldiers on the Korean front line, why bother to drag them hundreds of miles away to the country to behead them? Wouldn't it be better to kill them on the spot? And from the time point of view, Yang Yuan should have died in the 26th year of Wanli.
Around the beginning of the year, Li Rusong's death was not far away.
Well, Li Rubai's resignation is a coincidence, Yang Yuan's death is a solitary proof, so Gao Pragmatic will continue to examine and see if the fate of Li Rusong's general Li Ning is better.
In September of the 26th year of Wanli, that is, within half a year of Li Rusong's death, during the Battle of Sichuan on the Korean battlefield, Li Ning entered the enemy's formation alone and defeated the Japanese army. However, he was outnumbered and died in the battle.
What's going on? Why are you so outnumbered after entering alone? Why is this so similar to Li Rusong's death method?
In the Battle of Sichuan, the Ming army had an absolute superiority in strength, and it actually happened that an important general was outnumbered and died fighting after defeating the enemy. Gao Pragmatic didn't need to recall carefully this time to guess that it was Li Ning who was the first to break through in all likelihood.
After that, the follow-up troops that were supposed to respond failed to arrive, and they watched helplessly as Li Rusong's former general died on the battlefield.
Why didn't the follow-up troops come? Another accident happened? There were quite a lot of accidents in the Ming Dynasty!
Gao pragmatic felt that he should look at the last one again: Li Rusong's younger brother Li Rumei.
As Li Rusong's fifth brother, during the first phase of the war to aid Korea, Li Rumei's role was not as important as that of his second brother Li Rubai, but he still made a strong presence on the battlefield.
Historical records: "Thirty miles away from Wangjing, we suddenly encountered Japanese invaders and were heavily surrounded. For example, Song Du's subordinates fought fiercely. A golden-armored Japanese pirate fought like Song Ji, and commanded Li Yousheng to save him desperately, but was killed. For example, Bai, Ning and others rushed forward to attack, such as
The Japanese Japanese in Mei She's Golden Armor fell off their horses, and Yang Yuan's soldiers also arrived and surrounded them, but the Japanese retreated."
This record says that the situation in the rebel army was critical at that time. Seeing that Li Rusong was almost killed at the hands of a golden-armored Japanese general of the Japanese army, Li Rumei opened his bow and fired an arrow, shot him off his horse, and saved Li Rusong.
Among the five sons in the family, he is known as Xiao Li Guang. It is natural that this arrow came from his hand, and he is handsome enough.
In the second stage of the war to aid Korea, although Li Rusong and Li Rubai did not come to participate, Li Rumei still came. Ming history also recorded that in the first battle of Ulsan: "Rumei and General Yang Shanshan's cavalry advanced and set up an ambush on the seaside.
, and ordered the guerrillas to stage a competition with light cavalry to lure the thieves, beheading four hundred of them, and the remaining thieves escaped back to the island." It can be seen that at this time, Li Rumei was already brave and resourceful, and had made military exploits.
After Li Rusong's death, in order to express his condolences, the emperor immediately asked his younger brother Li Rumei to take over the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Liaodong Army. From this point of view, Li Rumei seemed to be a lucky counterexample among the veteran generals who were Li Rusong's brothers.
Is this really the case? Otherwise, Li Rumei, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, only served for less than a year, and was dismissed at the beginning of the second year. The reason for his dismissal was also shocking: a minister in the DPRK accused him of not being afraid of the enemy.
Before, he was impeached and dismissed from office.
Afraid of the enemy and unable to move forward? After reading the above combat records of Li Rumei, when the two time points are so close to each other, is this person who is afraid of the enemy... really Li Rumei?
It is definitely true, but why did Li Rumei, who was still fighting tooth and nail, make a 180-degree turn in a short period of time and become a person who is afraid of the enemy?
For a long time, Gao Pragmatic originally thought that it might be because the direct lineage of the Li family had suffered too much and Li Rumei no longer dared to fight. However, when he examined the people and events in front of him, he realized that the reason must not be that simple.
Li Rumei was indeed afraid of the enemy, but what he feared was not the enemy in front, but the enemy in the rear.
However, his high pragmatism appeared in this life, so there was the opposition to the Heart School, the Real School, and Li Chengliang defected to the Heart School, so the Li Jiajun had enemies in the court. The original Real School in history
But it has long since dispersed. Why are there still people in the court targeting the Li family army?
What's even more strange is that before Li Chengliang left power, the Li family's reputation in the court was not bad. The positions of the successive chief ministers were surprisingly consistent, and almost all of them tried to protect Li Chengliang.
Why?
----------
Thanks to book friend "Lu Senah" for your monthly ticket support, thank you!