Chapter 277: Aiding Korea and Fighting the Japanese (6) Discussion on Entering Korea
Zhu Yijun noticed that when Gao pragmatically mentioned the use of troops, he did not mean Song Liangzuo's use of troops, but Liu Wei's use of troops. He couldn't help but feel a move in his heart and asked tentatively: "Liu Wei is responsible for quelling the chaos in Bozhou?"
This sentence may seem straightforward, but it actually has a little ambiguity. That is, according to tradition, Song Liangzuo, as "the governor of Sichuan and other places and the admiral of military affairs", is a veritable "fujun" who sent troops to pacify Bozhou.
Sichuan is the leader among the provinces, so Song Liangzuo should be a veritable commander-in-chief. Why, in a more pragmatic way, is he not the leader, but Liu Wei?
Zhu Yijun is well aware of the relationship between Liu Xing and Gao Pragmatic. This includes the fact that Liu Xin, as the Secretary-General of the Beijing Secretariat, has lived in Shangshu Gao's Mansion for a long time - oh, it should be called Nanning Houfu after today.
Zhu Yijun is not very concerned about whether there is a male-female relationship between Gao Jingshi and Liu Xin. Even if his sister Princess Yongning is related to Gao Jingshi, as an emperor, he will not care about such things. As an emperor, he cares about it.
In fact, it is the inherent interest relationship between the "leader of the Real School Party" and the "important general of the Southern Army".
Liu Wei and even his father Liu Xian have been among the disciples of the Practical School for many years, or more accurately, "the disciples of the Gao family". They can be regarded as Gao Jingshi's number one general in the Southern Army, so Gao Jingshi is willing to reuse him.
Liu Wei's incident itself is not surprising. What the emperor was puzzled about was whether Liu Wei's status in Gao Pingshi's mind was even higher than that of Song Liangzuo, who was also an important member of the Shi School.
Of course Gao Pragmatic could hear the emperor's question, but his answer came very quickly: "Liu Wei is responsible for the military strategy, and Song Shouzhong (Song Liangzuo, also known as Shouzhong) is responsible for the political and economic strategy, which is what Cai Chen and the emperor discussed, including
Propaganda infiltration, economic blockade, etc. - Your Majesty, these matters are extremely important and can only be handled by Song Shouzhong. Liu Wei only knows how to fight, but he can't do these things."
"That guy" is usually a very polite way of saying it, but in the emperor's dialogue, it has another meaning. It is intended not to deny his close relationship with Liu Wei, whether he is pretending to be magnanimous or sincere.
It depends on how the emperor understands it.
Zhu Yijun's reaction was indeed as expected by Gao Pragmatic. He immediately expressed his understanding and said: "I see. You are right. Liu Wei has never been involved in these political and strategic matters, and it is not within his authority. Naturally, it is
The governor has to do it himself."
After the emperor finished speaking, he pondered for a moment, and then added: "Do they have enough strength now? To be honest, the failure of the two previous campaigns made me a little doubtful of the capabilities of the Southern Army."
Well, the overall strength of the Southern Army is definitely not as good as that of the Northern Army. After all, most of the Northern Army is a frontier army. In the past two hundred years, it has been at war or on the verge of war for almost a long time, and it has been trained far better than the Southern Army.
The last highlight moment of the Southern Army, or in other words, the relatively sufficient moment, was probably the period when the Japanese pirates invaded the most seriously. Yu Dayou, Qi Jiguang, Liu Xian and other famous generals all achieved fame during this period.
At the same time, several elite soldiers were also trained.
However, although these elite soldiers of the Southern Army were capable of fighting, they were not large in scale due to their characteristics as a Jia Ding Army. For example, Qi Jiguang's Qi Jiajun maintained at around three thousand to four thousand for a long time, and did not grow slightly until the northern transfer to Ji Town;
The Yu Jiajun's military strength fluctuates slightly, mainly because its composition is not as clear as the Qi Jiajun's. It is not specialized in land warfare, but a force capable of both water and land. However, it is generally believed that it is no more than a few thousand at most;
The Liu Jiajun actually had the largest number of troops. Only the famous surrendered to the Japanese army numbered more than 3,000 in the last period before Liu Xian resigned, and the total army numbered about 7,000 to 8,000.
However, it is precisely because the total strength of the Liu Jiajun is large, and Liu Xian is a general who made his fortune purely by fighting, and does not get the support of senior officials and nobles in Nanjing, so for a long time the Liu Jiajun was accused of poor military discipline. At that time, the Liu Jiajun
He robbed almost every battle and often concealed his seizures. It was not until he joined Gao Gong and Gao Pragmatic that he gradually improved.
In addition to these three elite troops, it does not mean that there are no more troops that can fight. It is just that generally speaking, the remaining troops that can fight either have fewer troops, mostly only "more than a thousand" or even "hundreds", or
They are simply not Han soldiers - such as Guangxi Wolf soldiers, Guizhou, Xiangxi Miao soldiers, etc.
In addition, Yunnan chieftains also have elite soldiers, but because the internal and external situation in Yunnan is more complex, relatively few of the chieftains' troops are deployed from outside.
Calculated in this way, excluding the chieftains, the number of elite soldiers in the Southern Army who were truly capable of fighting and had no more than 30,000 to 40,000 names was too bad. You must know that the Northern Army at the same time had only direct descendants of the Li Family Army.
There are 40,000 elites, and the number of generals far exceeds that of the Southern Army. If all the towns on the nine sides are added together, and all the generals, large and small, are counted, then the Northern Army may have around 200,000 elite servants.
Under such circumstances, and the fact that the Confederate Army's first two campaigns had failed miserably, it is not surprising that the Emperor suspected that the Confederate Army was too weak.
Gao Pragmatic thought for a moment and said: "It stands to reason that the strength of the several armies should be sufficient now, not to mention that the strategy this time is different from the previous two, and we do not plan to advance together.
In this encirclement and suppression, the mission of the other groups is to stick to the main road and advance slowly, with stability first and control first. The main force is only Liu Wei's own group. Although the strength of this group is only about the same as that of Yang Yinglong's Bozhou Army, even in Bozhou
After the army expands, it may still be at a disadvantage.
However, most of Liu Wei's troops are elite soldiers who have experienced many battles, and Han soldiers account for about half of them. The other half comes from two sources, one part is the famous Yiding who surrendered to Japan, and the other part is the Yiding from southern Xinjiang. Generally speaking, they are relatively tough.
Not afraid of death..."
"Wait a minute." Zhu Yijun stretched out his hand to stop him, and interrupted: "I know that the Yidins who surrendered to the Japanese are not afraid of death, but the Yidins of southern Xinjiang are not the same, right? I think you attacked Annan back then, and later Yunnan
During the Burmese War, when Liu Wei, Deng Zilong and your wife attacked Burma, Siam and other countries, they were almost unstoppable, which shows that the soldiers in southern Xinjiang were not very capable of fighting."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Whether soldiers can fight sometimes depends on who leads them and how they lead them." Gao Pragmatic smiled and said: "Take Myanmar as an example.
, during the Mang Yinglong period, the Jinlou White Elephant King not only swept across southern Xinjiang, but our Yunnan frontier army and chieftain soldiers were almost suppressed and beaten by him.
However, during the Mang Yingli period, the combat effectiveness of the Burmese army declined significantly. Not only were they severely defeated by the elite counterattacks of our heavenly soldiers, but they were also unable to defeat even the Yunnan border troops and chieftain soldiers."
"You mean, the combat effectiveness of these surrendered troops from southern Xinjiang has been greatly improved when they are in the hands of Liu Wei?" Zhu Yijun was a little curious and asked: "I know that Qi Jiguang is good at training troops, but I have never heard that Liu Wei is also good at training troops.
, hasn’t he always been known as a tough guy?”
Gao Pragmatic laughed dumbly and said: "Your Majesty, the bravery of a warrior is only a personal character, not a limitation of ability. Whether Liu Wei or his father Liu Xian, if they were only brave, their troops would not be as prosperous as they are today.
But having said that, there is still a lot of gap between Liu Wei and Qi Shuai in his ability to manage the army. What he gained from his troops was courage, but what he lost was generosity. If we want to compare them, they are probably similar to the Li family's army."
Zhu Yijun was stunned when he heard this, thought for a while, nodded and said: "After you compare it like this, I understand. I think Liu Wei and Li Rusong should be very similar in temperament. They are both the kind of guys who only want to win on the battlefield, right?
?”
Gao Pingshi laughed and said: "I think the emperor's guess is quite accurate."
"No wonder you like to use him. This kind of general is really easy to use." Zhu Yijun was very satisfied and made up his mind, saying: "Then this matter has been decided. You can go back and explain it to Da Sima."
Pragmatically agreed.
Zhu Yijun took the initiative to clink glasses with Gao Pragmatic again, each took a sip, and then talked about the North Korea issue again: "The third question, North Korea. You seem to mean... don't worry yet?"
Gao pragmatically said: "It's not that we are not in a hurry, but we have just finished fighting Mongolia, and now the troops of various departments have not yet completed the callback, and the next deployment has not been put in place. There is no rush, and it will only cause trouble or hidden dangers. Therefore, I think we can only do this for the time being.
You can first stabilize your position, wait until the deployment is in place, and then make a decision before taking action."
"But before you return to Beijing, the imperial court has ordered Liaodong to select two elite troops to aid North Korea!" Zhu Yijun opened his eyes wide and said: "According to what you said, isn't that going to cause a problem?"
"Two elite soldiers?" Gao Pingshi frowned and asked: "When I received the imperial edict, Liaodong seemed to be very empty. Calculating the time, Xiao Ruxun's troops may have just returned to the town, or they may not even have fully returned.
Town, where can we find two elite troops to help North Korea? Also, how many people are the two elite troops that the emperor mentioned?"
"Well, well... the imperial court also knew the situation at that time, so it didn't say how many troops it would send. In fact, it was left to Jian Da and Gu Yangqian to take charge."
One of Jian Da and Gu Yangqian was the governor of Ji Liao, and the other was the governor of Liaodong. The governor of Fengjiang could "manage the border affairs by himself", which was very common in the Ming Dynasty. Not to mention the governor, Gao pragmatic was the patrol censor back then.
They dare to "take matters into their own hands".
However, at this moment, Gao Pragmatic knew something was wrong when he heard it. It seems that history may have some inertia. This wave of aid to North Korea might be like the original history, which was to send a wave of heads to the other side as soon as the war started.
The Japanese army sent 300,000 troops, and more than 200,000 have already entered the dynasty. However, the Ming army only entered the dynasty for the first time with 5,000 troops, and Zu Chengxun, who led the army, believed that he had always fought against the Mongols and Jurchens, and the combat effectiveness of his soldiers was
Far surpassing the Japanese army, it was just like playing to deal with the Japanese pirates.
In addition, North Korean officials, in order to get the Japanese soldiers into the battle as soon as possible, lied to him that the Japanese army in Pyongyang was very small. Therefore, he was deceived and underestimated the enemy. He attacked Pyongyang with 5,000 troops, and as expected he returned with a huge defeat.
Gao pragmatic pondered for a moment and said: "Xiao Ruxun is known for his good defense. I think it is unlikely that Gu Ergong will order him to enter the court. Instead, he will be used to guard the border between us and North Korea and to intimidate the Jurchen tribes. In this way, the soldiers entering the court will
I'm afraid most of them will still use troops from Liaoxi.
However, Li Rusong's troops in western Liaoning returned to town after thousands of miles and had to take a rest before fighting again. Therefore, there would not be many troops and horses that could be sent to help, and the number of ministers would probably be only a few thousand.
The Japanese soldiers entered the DPRK in large numbers. The previous news was that Seoul had been lost, and I was afraid that between the news and the letter, Pyongyang might have been lost as well. So, after the Liaodong Army entered the DPRK, what North Korea most urgently needed their help was probably to recover
Pyongyang.
Pyongyang is an important town in northern Korea, and its status is similar to that of Nanjing. No matter who our reinforcements are, they will definitely compete for such great achievements. However, precisely because of Pyongyang's important status, the Japanese soldiers will definitely garrison them with heavy troops. In this way,
There will be a big war in Pyongyang."
The deep frown on Gao Pingshi's brow made Zhu Yijun a little nervous. He felt a little nervous and asked unconfidently: "Are you saying that our army... might be disadvantaged in this battle?"
Gao pragmatic did not answer this sentence immediately, but asked: "By the way, Your Majesty, now is around the autumn harvest, and the local people in Liaodong must be busy collecting grain to supplement the consumption of the previous war against Yuan Dynasty. It must be difficult to transport enough food immediately."
If necessary to aid North Korea, how are the supplies of these 'two elites' arranged in North Korea?"
Zhu Yijun was aware of this matter and said with a smile: "Our army has entered North Korea to help them fight against the Japanese pirates. Of course, we have prepared our own troops, but North Korea will naturally bear the responsibility for food and salary issues. Li Hao also understood the truth and took the initiative to say that the issue of food and salary should be borne by North Korea.
The court will resolve the matter pragmatically and there is no need to worry too much."
Don’t worry about it! What I’m worried about is that “the issue of food and salary will be solved by the North Korean court”!
The Korean court, do you dare to trust this court? There is no lower limit to the degree of corruption and incompetence of this court, okay! The result of their solution must be that the Ming army entered the court carelessly, was dumbfounded when they saw the supplies, and then went hungry.
War, do you believe it?
After hearing Gao Pragmatic's complaints and warnings, Zhu Yijun couldn't help but panic, and said at a loss: "It can't be so bad, right? Korea has been at peace for a hundred years, so we should have some savings. And if it is as you said, our army will enter this time.
The reinforcements are only a few thousand troops at most, so they can’t even provide food and wages for these troops?”
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Gao Pingshi sighed: "It seems like this, but if the Joseon court was really capable, why would they be as powerful as the Japanese attacking Japanese army, but they were easily defeated and fell thousands of miles away?
?
Your Majesty, this is by no means just a matter of military incompetence. In fact, it must be caused by internal chaos. Because of this, when our army sends troops to aid North Korea, we must not expect the North Koreans to be of any help. We can only rely on them for everything.
We ourselves, including all kinds of Japanese military intelligence, cannot be too credulous in the North Koreans' rhetoric.
I thought about it for a while, and the only way the North Koreans can possibly help is to provide information on the terrain of mountains and rivers."
Zhu Yijun was stunned and speechless. After a while, he weakly added: "Well, although North Korea is incompetent, I remember that they have a navy general named Li Hechen who performed well and has defeated the Japanese navy several times in a row."
"I have heard about these news, but... haha." Gao pragmatic curled his lips and said: "The Japanese pirate navy currently fighting against him is not the main force of the Japanese army. Their main force is still in Japan and has not been dispatched."
Zhu Yijun said in surprise: "No way. Since the Japanese pirates have entered Korea in large numbers, what are the main forces of the navy doing in Japan if they don't defeat the Korean navy?"
Gao Pangshi's face darkened slightly and he said slowly: "Because... a squadron from the Sea Trade Alliance is still stationed in Japan."
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PS: The lack of central heating in the south is really fatal. When a cold snap comes, my paws are frozen even as I type.