Chapter 280: Sword Pointed at Japan (Thirty-nine) Everything has a reason
The explosion of the gunpowder depot in Dong Yiyuan's army seems quite strange, but in fact there are traces to follow, and to some extent it can even be said that he asked for it.
The source of the problem occurred after the Battle of Pingbo. At that time, Dong Yiyuan's troops were transferred to the north. It was originally planned to let him return to Gansu and Shaanxi. However, after he left for a while, he heard that the Marquis of Nanning intended to conquer North Korea in person, and he immediately thought that North Korea would definitely make a great contribution. place - this is not surprising, but the wars that Van Gogh personally fought pragmatically always improved the results for his generals.
The Dong family was originally an aristocratic general, and he and his brother Dong Yikui were both considered to be one of the famous generals in the world. Although compared to Qi Jiguang and the older generation like Li Chengliang, they were naturally inferior, but compared to the younger generation Ma Gui, Li Rusong was even better. He is better because he is more senior.
However, although the Dong brothers have made many military exploits over the years, they have also suffered a lot due to various reasons. As for official positions, they naturally rise and fall, let alone increasing titles. When you are lucky, add the title of Kung Pao, and when you are unlucky, stick it to the end.
All in all, after the Battle of Pingbo, he managed to get Gongbao back, but Enyin was still a little short of enough to share with his sons.
So Dong Yiyuan was moved. He thought that since Nanning was going to North Korea, the war in North Korea would definitely be stable. As long as he could find a way to join this war and gain some achievements, he could properly arrange the future of his sons. Isn’t it beautiful that life can just be spent leisurely wandering in the forest, entertaining grandchildren?
But although the idea is good, the problem also exists objectively, that is, the soldiers under his command suffered a lot in the Battle of Pingbo. Some were killed in battle, and some were disabled. These were all sudden losses. Difficult to replenish - Replenishment does not only refer to soldiers, but also refers to things like training.
The number of servants he can gather at the moment is about three thousand, which is quite a few, which is considered to be strong among the generals of Gansu and Shaanxi. With three thousand servants as the core, it is normal to lead an army of twenty to thirty thousand people on an expedition. However, there is a problem The question lies in where he will gather "twenty to thirty thousand soldiers".
Originally, the Ministry of War asked him to return to town, mainly because the pressure in the northwest increased after Tumen Khan fled to the west. Gao Pragmatic had always advocated strengthening the defense of the northwest. Therefore, as a famous northwest general, he should return to town as soon as possible after completing the Pingbo War to prevent the remnants of Mongolia from causing trouble. What's going on?
Because of this relationship, Dong Yiyuan knew that he had better not advise the court to mobilize too many troops from the northwest. In addition to his own 3,000 servants, the maximum number of northwest frontier troops mobilized should not exceed 10,000.
In this case, even if he only brings 20,000 non-domestic troops to North Korea, there will still be a gap of 10,000 people to make up. Dong Yiyuan thought about it and contacted several of his own people who had been fired from their posts in the previous few years. The old department discussed a good solution.
This method is very characteristic of the Ming Dynasty: Dong Yiyuan came forward to request the war, saying that several of his former subordinates were willing to contribute their own efforts to serve the emperor, as long as the Ministry of War was willing to "establish" it, and the generals would have to figure out the personnel problem themselves.
Generally speaking, the imperial court usually approves this kind of petition for war after receiving it. There are two reasons: first, these people take the initiative to petition for war and are worthy of praise. Many of them who were dismissed from their posts before were just a means for civilian officials to control military generals. It's just that you don't have any big faults in the first place, but I want to pick a random fault to suppress you and let you know who is the master.
Most of the military generals of the Ming Dynasty had this kind of experience, and even spent their whole lives in this cycle of "exception - being rewarded for meritorious service - making mistakes and being demoted - committing crimes and meritorious service". Of course, Dong Yiyuan's old subordinates could not escape. At the same time,
, in the opinion of the imperial court, this is the right time for them to make meritorious deeds.
The second reason is that the imperial court believes that their servants are worthy of use. The generals of aristocratic families are not only the generals where senior generals like Dongli and Xima gather together, but there are also many junior generals, and whether they are senior generals or junior generals, there are basically different numbers.
The servant team, these teams are also the source of their strength to become a general.
In this case, the imperial court certainly believed that since Dong Yiyuan dared to take the lead in requesting a fight on their behalf, these people must have many servants under their command. Maybe they have been training hard in the past few years, just waiting for a good opportunity to make meritorious deeds!
What is this called? It is better to mobilize the generals than to dispatch them. With such dedicated generals, how can they be afraid that they will not be able to fight to the death on the battlefield? Therefore, the strength of this group of people is guaranteed.
The Ministry of War calculated the strength of troops in various places and found that with the expansion of the defense zone, it was indeed becoming more and more difficult to mobilize troops. Since Dong Yiyuan and his old generals took the initiative to ask for a battle, let them go.
As a result, Dong Yiyuan successfully got the opportunity to go on an expedition, but as expected, the court only allowed him to take away 10,000 Shaanxi-Gansu border troops. In addition to his own 3,000 servants, he also had to urge his old generals to
Twelve thousand men were gathered to accompany the army, bringing the total strength to twenty-five thousand, which was in line with the strength that a general soldier should have.
It is common for old generals to be invited to join him in making meritorious deeds. After Dong Yiyuan assigned the task, he didn't pay much attention to it. Who knew that this was where the hidden danger occurred.
One of Dong Yiyuan's old generals named Peng Xingu was a guerrilla who had been demoted from his post for seven years. During these seven years, Peng Xingu was quite unlucky and everything went wrong.
Since his old leaders, the Dong brothers, were also unlucky from time to time, they couldn't help him much.
Peng Xingu then decided to go to Beijing - oh, he was not going to petition, he was going to "take care of things". Unfortunately, his family was just a local general and was not ranked high in the eyes of the big guys in the capital.
He has been busy for two or three years, but he has not seen any big shots who can speak effectively. Instead, he has ruined the family business, and even the more than a thousand servants he originally owned have been scattered. The young general of the Peng family is about to disappear.
Want yellow.
It happened that at this moment, Dong Yiyuan planned to ask for orders to march eastward and gave him a hand. It could be said that there was no way out, and there was a bright future in another village. However, the question arose: How to send troops without a servant?
Peng Xingu refused to let go of such a good opportunity, because he knew that if he missed this opportunity, the young general of the Peng family might really fall into his hands, and he would become the sinner of the Peng family.
useless.
So he changed his mind and thought of a "wonderful idea": use all his last money to "spread coins" and recruit a group of "ferocious people who dare to die" in the capital to fight in Korea!
Although the money in his hands can support these "housekeepers" for two or three months at most, Peng Xingu thinks it is not a big problem: the Marquis will never treat the soldiers badly when he goes on an expedition. As long as there are quotas and sufficient pay and equipment, there is no need to worry.
, and as long as you get military merit, the reward will never be less than a penny.
In other words, as long as you can find an opportunity to perform a meritorious service within two months of sending troops - it is not difficult to perform a meritorious service, just fight a casual battle - then the whole plan will be complete, and a comeback can be successfully completed.
Peng Xingu's plan seems to be very sophisticated and interlocking, but there is only one thing that seems to be a problem: are there really so many "ferocious people who dare to die" in the capital?
Peng Xingu thought there was, so he recruited a group of... rogues. Yes, you read that right, they were rogues.
You must know that time to recruit manpower is very tight at this time. How can ordinary people who have some ability to make a living be willing to go all the way to fight in North Korea? Only these scoundrels are easy to fool - North Korea is not our Ming Dynasty, not to mention that most of the eight roads in North Korea are occupied by Japanese invaders.
, so when you arrive in Korea, no matter which city the Japanese pirates occupy, I will allow you not to seal the sword for three days!
What does "three days without sealing the sword" mean? It doesn't give them three days to massacre the city, but gives them three days to ignore all military disciplines, rob and plunder traitors, and do whatever they want.
This kind of condition is very useful for winning over scoundrels, not to mention that Peng Xingu also quietly revealed that this battle will be under the command of the Marquis of Nanning, which is even more difficult to say - it is a must-win battle, but
Being able to "not seal the sword for three days" is not a hundred times better than blackmailing a merchant in Beijing? You must know that this merchant in Beijing is becoming more and more immobile. It would be great to go to North Korea and do something big!
In this way, Peng Xin didn't spend much ancient money, but the number of people he killed was far more than expected. When Dong Yiyuan arrived in Beijing to collect his ordnance and pay, he discovered that this guy actually pulled out a "quite strong" army with as many as 100 people.
About two thousand "housekeepers" are coming!
Although Dong Yiyuan soon discovered that Peng Xingu's "servant" seemed to have some bad military discipline, when he asked Peng Xingu for questioning, the answer he got was: "I have been living a hard life these years, and I really don't have time to control it."
, to the point of breaking military discipline... But don’t worry, Commander, in just one month, I will definitely train them to be as good as before!"
Dong Yiyuan thought it was understandable. After all, this guy had been masturbated for seven or eight years and had tried countless ways but still couldn't get the chance to make a crime. It's not surprising that the servants were used to letting him go. As for whether he could be trained in a month.
Dong Yiyuan naturally didn't believe "it's the same as before", but because he himself felt that there would be no problem in following the Marquis to fight, he pretended to believe it - in short, everything at the moment was to be able to send troops smoothly!
The army went out successfully. Dong Yiyuan divided the ordnance received from the Ministry of War. Considering that Peng Xingu had been unlucky for seven or eight years and he could not do anything to help him, he kindly gave him a lot more.
Firearms include not only Wanli Type II muskets, but also more than a dozen artillery pieces.
After arriving on the Korean battlefield, Dong Yiyuan himself was actually a little worried about the strength of his subordinates, so he did not dare to seek any opportunity to fight a tough battle.
Ma Gui also heard that he had a large number of old generals who had committed crimes and had made meritorious service. They were all the kind of people who had not fought in any war for many years. Considering that there were many marriages between generals from the Xuan Da family and the Shaanxi-Gansu family,
Both sides basically regarded each other as allies psychologically, so Ma Gui assigned them a simple but rewarding task: to cut off the connection between the northern and southern Japanese armies and open up the road between Hanyang and Wonsan.
By the way, Ma Gui explained that if he successfully captured Yuanshan and found that the remaining Japanese pirates in the north were not strong enough, he could consider joining forces with Nurhaci to encircle and annihilate them. At the same time, Ma Gui also hinted to Dong Yiyuan that the main purpose of doing so was not actually a combat mission.
Instead, guard the Jurchen coalition forces in Nurhachi's hands and prevent them from doing whatever they want.
Dong Yiyuan patted his chest and ensured that this matter would be easy to handle - of course, in theory, this matter was indeed not difficult. From Hanyang to Yuanshan, there was no main Japanese army in between, so it would be easy to take down. As for "guarding the Jurchen coalition forces", that's not it.
There is no problem, because although the Jurchen coalition seems to have 20,000 people, which is no less than Marshal Dong's strength, no matter among them Ye He, Hada or Jianzhou right guard, they can be sure to be obedient. Only
The four to five thousand people led by Nurhachi himself may not be honest.
But so what? I, Dong Yiyuan, have more than 20,000 heavenly soldiers in my hands, and with the support of the rest of the Jurchen tribes, how can you, a mere chief of Nurhachi, turn the world upside down?
Facts have proved that Dong Yiyuan's idea was basically correct. He captured the two important places of Gushan and Yuanshan all the way without encountering much resistance. Then he felt that he could carry out Ma Gui's follow-up order, so he led his army north and captured Yongxing, leaving.
Xianxing is less than a hundred miles away.
At this time, the Jurchen coalition led by Nurhaci had already captured Chongjin, the main city in the northeast of Hamjing Road, and had basically moved southwest along the coastline, seizing along the way - oh no, helping North Korea recover - Jingcheng.
, Myeongcheon, Dancheon and other places, and finally captured Xinxing, a small town about thirty or forty miles northeast of Hamhung.
In this way, Dong Yiyuan and Nurhachi were equivalent to outflanking Xianxing City from the north to the south. In their eyes, the 5,000 men from the Nabeshima Naomao Fourth Army Corps had become a turtle in the urn. Now, it is time to discuss how to capture
This turtle is gone.
Dong Yiyuan, the dignified commander-in-chief of a town in the Ming Dynasty, naturally would not condescend to pay a visit to Nurhachi, so he sent an order directly to the Jurchen coalition camp, asking Nurhaci to discuss the Yongxing army with his generals.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Unsurprisingly, Nurhaci did not dare not to come, and honestly brought most of the generals, leaving only a few people to lead the troops in Xingxing.
, to avoid sneak attacks by Japanese pirates.
Arriving at Dong Yiyuan's army, Nurhachi quickly realized that Marshal Dong wanted to show off his military power in front of him. The Ming army in Yongxing had bright helmets, a water-like Wanli II style in their hands, and a cold iron Yanfei sword hanging on their waist.
His army of more than 20,000 men actually deployed nearly a hundred cannons, like hordes of tigers squatting in the artillery camp, which was terrifying.
Not far behind the artillery, there was a newly built gunpowder depot, with three large rooms built to store the gunpowder. Nurhachi secretly calculated that there were at least tens of thousands of kilograms of gunpowder there, which made him change his mind quietly.
Dong Yiyuan saw Nurhaci's expression and couldn't help but feel very proud. He made a casual introduction and said: "Is Ailonghu looking at our army's gunpowder depot? There are 70,000 kilograms of gunpowder there, and we are moving from Bu Ying.
Peng guerrilla guards, this time I am planning to capture Hamhung with this huge force..."
"Dong Zong is so powerful. Although Xianxing is a big city, it will be instantly turned into powder in front of such powerful artillery..." Nurhachi complimented casually, and suddenly asked with some worry: "But this gunpowder depot is far away from the Chinese army." Is the camp too close?"
Dong Yiyuan said in his heart: If it weren't for the purpose of frightening you, the captive chieftain, why would I have built a new gunpowder magazine next to our Chinese army?
Just when he thought of this, before he could speak, he heard an earth-shattering loud noise - it was the explosion of the gunpowder magazine!
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PS: The whole family went to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday tonight and came back late, so the update is half an hour late, sorry.