Chapter 279 Ping Japanese (7) One step back and one step forward
Shen Weijing, who had reached a two-month truce agreement on his previous mission, had returned to North Korea at this time. Originally, his mission would have ended after that armistice. However, Shen Weijing had a strong ambition for fame and realized that since the war was still going on, Most likely there will be an armistice agreement in the end, so there is still room for my own sharp tongue to be used.
So he chased after Zhou Yong to talk good and bad, and got another job to continue his mission to North Korea and negotiate with the Japanese army depending on the situation. And this time was different from before, because he was credited with successfully negotiating a two-month truce last time, and he also got a job this time. After receiving the emperor's order, I took the king's order flag with me when traveling, and my whole body started to tremble.
As soon as Li Rusong withdrew his troops back to Pyongyang, without knowing the specific situation of the Japanese army, it became very dangerous for Song Yingchang to stay in Kaicheng. Therefore, Shen Weijing immediately felt that he was alive again and was ready to make a great contribution again.
So Shen Weijing proposed to the North Korean King Li He that when the time is right, he can negotiate peace with the Japanese army again. But as soon as he made this proposal, Yi Dooshou said angrily: "General Shen, what are your intentions? Do you want to have a truce like last time?" ?We in North Korea will never agree!"
Shen Weijing looked surprised and asked: "What was wrong with the last truce? In the end, it bought time for the arrival of the Ming army, so they were able to recover Pyongyang and march into Kaesong."
Zheng Che stopped Yi Dooshou and asked Shen Weijing what his plan was this time. Shen Weijing replied: "I will order the Japanese pirates to withdraw from Wangjing to their own country. If they agree, they can be given a way to survive - but this is natural This is a lie to deceive the Japanese pirates. As soon as the Japanese pirates leave Hanyang, the coalition forces will immediately annihilate them and recover the entire territory of Korea."
Li He liked this prospect, but Yi Dooshou raised a question, saying: "The Japanese pirates were deceived not long ago, do they still believe what you say now? I think it is better to give up the power of words and attack directly."
However, Shen Weijing insisted that even if he wanted to attack, there must be talks before the attack. What if the talks were successful? So Zheng Che asked to allow North Korean ministers to participate together, otherwise it would be regarded as betraying North Korea.
Shen Weijing said angrily: "North Korean ministers always doubt me and our army. If this is the case, why do we ask the Ming Dynasty for rescue? Since the Ming Dynasty intervenes, then this war is not just a Korean war! As for the negotiations, the envoys of the superior country will be present. Of course, why do vassal countries always intervene?"
Ido Shouya said angrily: "The subject of the war is North Korea! Intervention is what Ming Dynasty did!"
This was a bit politically incorrect, or he was not clear-headed. Li Huo quickly stopped the quarrel and interrupted: "Last time, General Shen broke into the enemy camp alone to make his plan successful and was rescued by the Ming army, so I am willing to believe that Shen General.
However, I would like to ask General Shen to keep one thing in mind: the Japanese pirates destroyed the tombs of our late kings and massacred mountains and rivers. Korea will never negotiate peace with the Japanese pirates. We can only agree to the Japanese surrender - at least to the Ming Dynasty. In addition, General Shen also asks Confirm the safety of the captured prince Linhaijun and Shunhejun, and bring him back."
Shen Weijing first thanked Li Hao for his trust, and then said that he had remembered all the above. Soon, Shen Weijing left and made preparations for the mission, while thinking about when he could go to negotiate.
At this time, Liu Chenglong suddenly came to see him and asked him: "General Shen, I heard that you are planning to choose an opportunity to order the Japanese pirates to withdraw their troops and bring back the prince, but I don't know when the general will leave?"
Shen Weijing replied: "The date is still difficult to determine. We need to consult with Song Jinglue and judge when the time will be based on the situation of all parties."
This was quite reliable, and Liu Chenglong couldn't fault it, so he had to warn: "The general will still go to negotiate peace, right? I hope the general can keep his promise and only talk about ordering him to withdraw from the army or ask for surrender, and to bring back the prince. , if it is a peace negotiation, I will definitely pursue it to the end."
Shen Weijing smiled and said: "I understand, but why did you not kowtow and salute when you saw the king's flag?"
However, Liu Chenglong refused. Instead, he said: "If it is used to kill enemy invaders, I must salute you. Please forgive me for not agreeing at this time."
Shen Weijing suddenly darkened his face and snorted softly: "Liu Chenglong, are you eager to die? Refusing to salute when you see the king's order flag is a grave sin, and you will never be redeemed by death." However, Liu Chenglong persisted and refused. Turn around and leave.
As a result, Wu Weizhong arrested Liu Chenglong on the order of Song Yingchang early the next morning and questioned him about the crime of disrespecting the king's flag. Liu Chenglong was arrested and brought in front of Song Yingchang. Song Yingchang said coldly: "The king's flag is like the emperor personally giving orders, even if the Yi Di I will kneel down and salute when I see you, but you resist and don’t obey. What is your intention? Is it to commit rebellion?”
Liu Chenglong replied: "Jingtai Rongzhen, I..."
"In front of the king's flag, you should call yourself a minister or a foreign minister." Song Yingchang interrupted coldly.
Liu Chenglong was silent for a moment and said: "Yes, how can a foreign minister not know the sign of respect, but how can a foreign minister kneel down to the king's order that contains the prohibition of fighting the enemy?"
Song Yingchang narrowed his eyes slightly and said: "It is indeed extraordinary, but etiquette is more important than human kindness... We will give you another chance. Please kneel down and bow down. We will be more lenient this time."
However, Liu Chenglong remained silent, and Song Yingchang didn't say anything more, so he ordered Wu Weizhong to engage Liu Chenglong in military affairs and give him a hundred punishments.
Wu Weizhong was stunned, thinking that Song Yingchang did not understand the difference between the imperial staff and the military staff, and quickly persuaded him that there was no way to survive if he was punished with a hundred staff in the army. Unexpectedly, Song Yingchang did not reply, but glared at him fiercely, and Wu Weizhong had to give the order. Execution.
Just when he was about to execute the execution, Lord Guanghai led Zheng Zhuo, Li Dexin, Li Hengfu and others to stop him. Song Yingchang bowed his hands slightly and said in greeting: "I wonder what your purpose is for Lord Guanghai to come to the army?" Not only did he not call him " Prince", and he emphasized the word "in the army" very seriously.
Surprisingly, Lord Gwanghae and the others were very smart. They did not reply at first, but let him take the lead, leading the ministers of the Joseon Dynasty to immediately kneel three times and kowtow nine times to the king's flag, and then asked Song Yingchang to forgive Liu Chenglong.
Guanghai Jun said: "The fault does not lie with Liu Chenglong. It was the foreign minister who ordered Liu Chenglong not to have anything to do with the enemy and the enemy. Please forgive me."
Song Yingchang glanced at Liu Chenglong and said calmly: "In this case, please ask Lord Guanghai to give the capital inspection envoy a new order and order him to kneel down and worship."
Lord Gwanghae twitched his lips, but he still had to ask Liu Chenglong to observe etiquette, and his colleagues also gave advice. Liu Chenglong had no choice but to feel the hard advice from the crown prince and his colleagues, so he knelt three times and kowtowed nine times to the king's flag, with tears streaming down his face. Calling: "Long live my emperor, long live, long live!"
Seeing this, Song Yingchang fell silent for a moment, waved his hand and said: "Now that the matter is over, let's leave it at that this time. There are still important matters in the headquarters. Lord Guanghai, please come back." He simply dismissed the Korean ministers.
Afterwards, Li Huo asked Mr. Guanghai why he did this. Guanghai replied that it was to save Liu Chenglong. Li Huo patted the table and said, "I'm asking you about kneeling in front of the king's flag. I think I
Don't you just turn a blind eye because you don't know this method? In the end, they are all despised. It is understandable that a minister should be wronged on behalf of a widower. What is the difference between a prince stepping forward and a widower being despised?
I said, you just need to live, you don't need to come forward to do anything, let alone embarrass North Korea! I will avenge the blood feud of the people!" After saying that, he walked away.
After this incident, the relationship between the Ming Dynasty's reinforcements and North Korea became obviously tense. However, Song Yingchang found this opportunity and simply withdrew to Pyongyang and gave up Kaesong. This was good news. North Korea suddenly felt as if someone had taken off their pants.
Feeling unsafe in the cold weather, Li Huo ignored the dissuasion and quickly moved the imperial court back to Pyongyang, causing all the Korean officials to complain and sigh.
As a result, the Ming army's defense line completely shrunk to the north of the Imjin River, but although the Joseon Dynasty also withdrew northward, there were still various Korean armed forces around Hanyang. For example, Li Ke led three thousand troops to station in Paju, and Quan Li led
Three thousand troops were stationed in Xingzhou. Gao Yanbo and Li Shiyan led a thousand troops to station in the mountains of Yangzhou. There were also many monks and volunteers wandering around Gyeonggi Province as guerrillas.
Ukita Hideie was overjoyed when he learned that the Ming army had completely withdrawn. He immediately ordered Kato Kiyomasa to lead three thousand troops to wipe out all the monk soldiers and rebels. After hearing the news, all the North Koreans sent troops to rescue one after another. The Fukushima Masanori Division of the Japanese Fifth Army Corps
Then he also led his troops out into battle to assist Kato Kiyomasa.
In early February, Kato Kiyomasa's troops searched for monk soldiers and nearly 2,000 rebel coalition forces west of Hanyang. He immediately launched an attack. The Japanese iron artillery team formed a formation and fired continuously, but the coalition forces were defeated. The Japanese Nabeshima Naoshige led a thousand soldiers.
Later, they outflanked and cut off the return of the coalition forces. They pressed forward step by step. The coalition forces counterattacked the Japanese army without hesitation and decided to fight to the death. However, Kato Kiyomasa did not want what he wanted and ordered the entire army to attack.
In this battle, Kato Kiyomasa personally beheaded dozens of people. The Japanese army slaughtered wildly, and all the coalition forces were wiped out. No one survived. The remaining Korean reinforcements were swept by Fukushima Masanori's 5,000 troops. The Japanese army relied on their superior numbers and combat power to defeat them.
All the Korean troops were defeated and retreated to the city. Fukushima Masanori, as the leader of Jian Yue's seven spears, was more powerful than Kato Kiyomasa, Quan Li, Li Xie and others, who were completely invincible.
Kato's army and Fukushima's army patrolled Gyeonggi and joined forces to sweep all roads. The area around Hanyang became slightly clearer. However, Wei Zheng, a disciple of Master Xiujing, led two thousand monk soldiers to capture Shuiluoshan, ten miles northeast of Hanyang. At the same time, another group of 600 monk soldiers captured it.
Ercunyi was occasionally attacked by rebels in various places.
Although Kato Kiyomasa and Fukushima Masanori were victorious in consecutive battles, they were exhausted. In order to continue to consolidate Gyeonggi, Ukita Hideie prepared to capture Koshu.
In Hanyang City, Ukita Hideie convened Kuroda Kanbei, Ishida Mitsunari, Otani Yoshitsugi, Masuda Nagamori, Kato Mitsutai, Maeno Nagayasu, Konishi Yukinaga, Kato Kiyomasa, Kuroda Nagamasa, Fukushima Masanori, Kobayakawa Takakage and others to discuss the matter.
Ukita Hideie asked Kuroda Kanbei for his opinion on the capture of Koshu.
Military adviser Kuroda defended: "The mountain city of Xingzhou was built on Deyang Mountain, adjacent to the Han River, surrounded by water on three sides and leaning on a slope on one side. It is an easy-to-defend but difficult-to-attack place. Xingzhou has a panoramic view of the dangerous passes north of Hanyang, and
It can deter Hanyang to the south, guard the throat of the north and south, and is connected to the Imjin River.
If the Ming army advances southward again, Xingzhou will be an important stronghold and will be used for the accumulation of grain and grass supplies. However, if our army captures Xingzhou, it can consolidate the capital and build defense lines, which will help monitor the movements of the Ming army and wait for opportunities to advance northward.
Counterattack. In view of the above circumstances, I support the general’s decision.”
His son Kuroda Nagamasa immediately echoed: "That's right. Although our army's losses in the Battle of Byokjeokwan were not small, the Ming army's front seemed to have been frustrated and they did not dare to advance lightly at the moment. The monk soldiers and rebels in Gyeonggi Province were also defeated by Kato.
The two princes of Fukushima were wiped out. Therefore, our army should take this opportunity to gradually launch a counterattack, first capture the key areas of Xingzhou and advance northward, and then wait for an opportunity to annihilate the Ming army and capture the Joseon royal family alive!"
Kobayakawa Takakage also added: "In the battle of Toishihyeon Byokudokwan, both our army and the Ming army suffered losses, but the Ming army's thousands of troops were able to compete with several times our army under extreme circumstances.
It's so powerful that I've never seen it before.
Therefore, in the future, our army cannot easily start a war with the Ming army, especially a decisive battle. However, now that Xingzhou is not in the hands of the Ming army, I also support the capture of Xingzhou."
Ishida Mitsunari then added: "The entire Ming army is now north of the Imjin River, and there are only a few thousand Korean troops stationed in Xingzhou City, so it is not difficult to capture Xingzhou. In addition, I heard that Xingzhou's garrison, Quan Li, had a distinguished family background.
He came from a famous family, had many military exploits, and was well supported by North Korean officers and soldiers. If our army can kill this man in this battle, it will also deter North Korea.
However, as His Highness Kanbei said, Xingzhou is easy to defend but difficult to attack, so we need to mobilize superior forces to capture it in one fell swoop. In addition, we also need to deploy some elite troops to key roads to prepare for the Ming army's rescue."
Perhaps because this battle was not against the Ming army, Governor Konishi also wanted to avenge his past humiliation, and took the initiative to ask for orders from Ukita Hideya: "I am deeply ashamed of the First Division's defeat in Pyongyang. For this reason, the First Division
We are always preparing for war and training our troops, waiting to revive our martial name. Please be sure to allow the first division to be the vanguard in the battle to capture Xingzhou, please!"
Hideie asked if the First Army had been rested, and Governor Konishi replied that the morale of the First Army had been restored, and he was asked to serve as the vanguard again - in fact, the implication was that the morale had been restored, but the strength... still needed to be supplemented, General-in-Chief
Should I mention it to His Highness Taige?
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Kato Kiyomasa laughed when he heard this and said: "Hey, Xiaoxi, why did you and Ishida suddenly become more confident when you told Ishida that only North Korean troops were stationed? Sure enough, you can only bully the weak.
, if you really want to avenge your shame, you should ask to be the vanguard of the attack on Pyongyang.
In addition, I see that you are quite skinny, which is really ugly. Ah, it’s no wonder that you almost lost your life in Pyongyang... However, if you can’t even defeat the North Korean army in Xingzhou this time, then you will be shameless.
You are still alive, so I advise you to rest for a while."
Konishi Yukinaga was angry and immediately retorted: "Oh, it seems that Kato-kun has something you haven't told everyone. Well, if you don't tell me, I'll tell you.
I failed to defeat the Ming army, but you were defeated by a mere Ming Dynasty servant army and Korean rebel army in Hamgyong Province. I heard that in order to survive, you only wore civilian clothes and fled. I didn’t know that the biting cold wind in Hamgyong Province was
Didn't the freeze kill your lifeblood?
Oh, and also, you deliberately failed to attend the Hanyang military meeting, and you turned a deaf ear to the withdrawal order. I think you are completely contemptuous of the general, but you don't know that contempt of the general is contempt for His Highness Taige..."
It's okay to despise Ukita Hideie. When he heard "Contempt His Highness Taikaku", Kato Kiyomasa immediately said angrily: "Nonsense! Don't think I don't know. It was you and Ishida Mitsunari who seized the messenger who notified me before the military meeting was held.
, General, will you blame me for this? I will also report to His Highness Taige and behead you and Ishida Mitsunari! You should seize the time to pray for blessings."
This was good. Ishida Mitsunari, who was affected, stood up angrily and cursed: "Kato! During the military meeting, you were so impudent and slandered your comrades without any evidence! During the war, you actually wanted to provoke civil strife.
Don’t think that His Highness Tai Ge will protect you regardless of the overall situation!”
Ukita Hideie saw that the three of them were at war with each other. He didn't know what kind of trouble would be caused if the quarrel continued, so he had to shout loudly: "Everyone sit down! Whoever provokes internal fighting again will be punished by military law!"
I have made a decision about the battle of Koshu. Konishi will lead the first formation, Ishida will lead the second formation, Kuroda will lead the third formation, I will personally lead the fourth formation, Yoshikawa Hiroyuki will lead the fifth formation, and Kobayakawa Takakage will lead the sixth formation.
The entire army will be sent out with 30,000 troops, and we must conquer Xingzhou in one fell swoop!"
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