Chapter 280 The sword points at Japan () and begs for surrender
The main force of the Japanese army evacuated to the northeast, while the Kuroda army prepared to go southwest after disposing of the wounded and supplies.
Where is the southwest? Okpo is where Yi Sun-shin fought the Okpo naval battle.
Why not go directly to Sichuan? Of course, you are worried that there will be a "misunderstanding" with the Ming army, which is directly under Gao Pragmatic, and that you will be preemptively attacked by the Ming army.
But theoretically speaking, going to Yupu will still attract the attention of the Ming army. After all, Yupu is now the Ming army that helped North Korea "recover". Therefore, Kuroda Rushui sent a messenger and sent a letter of surrender to Sichuan, claiming that
Due to a quarrel with the two generals on the left and right of the Japanese army, the Kuroda Army was unwilling to continue fighting and hoped to withdraw to the Japanese mainland in accordance with the original request of the Ming Dynasty court and "not look westward."
Although the Japanese army had almost no precedent of begging for surrender before, the only army that surrendered to North Korea was because of its anti-war mentality, which made the North Korean side look around and test it for a while before accepting it. However, the Ming army was no better than
North Korea has a strong sense of being a great power, so even though it was the first time for Japanese troops to beg for surrender, the generals at all levels did not have much doubt and quickly brought the messenger to Sichuan City.
When Gao Pragmatic heard that it was Kuroda's army begging for surrender, his first reaction was that Kuroda was pretending to surrender, and most of it was a scam. But after thinking about it again, especially considering the behavior of the Japanese army, he felt that it shouldn't be a scam, and it might be a scam.
real.
Just think about the current situation, if the Japanese army is cheating, what is the purpose of this deception? Most of the Japanese troops are already on the way to evacuate. This has been determined by the sentries. The direction and method of their withdrawal have even been predicted by Gao Pangshi - of course he can.
, because the previously captured chieftain messenger was originally arranged pragmatically, with the purpose of letting the Japanese army "understand the movements of the Ming army."
Now that the Japanese troops have indeed withdrawn, they are being led by Gao Jingshi. As the leader, how difficult is it for Gao Jingshi to guess their target route? Taking the northeast direction instead of due east is nothing more than avoiding being with Liu Wei's troops in Mashan
The stalemate delayed their early return to Busan.
However, under this situation, the Kuroda Army did not follow, but went to Okpo. What's the use of thousands of people going to Okpo? Now even Busan is about to become an isolated city, let alone Okpo
, so lonely that I can no longer be alone.
Moreover, this small town is not a place that can be defended. In terms of scale, unless the Japanese army massacres the city first, it will be difficult for this small town to even station the Kuroda Army with less than 10,000 people - when the Japanese army landed from Okpo earlier, the city
There was no room for them inside, so many soldiers were stationed outside the city.
[Note: However, the Japanese army is very accustomed to this kind of garrison, because the construction and layout of Japanese cities are different from those in China and North Korea. What they popular is the castle town model. Towns can be understood as business districts, which are often not within the "city", but
It is formed according to the city. The role of the "city" itself lies more in military and political affairs.]
The Kuroda Army is alone, with less than 10,000 people. What can they do in Okpo? Is it possible that they are waiting for the Japanese army to attack, Gao pragmatically evacuated the defenders in Sichuan City, and then the Kuroda Army comes to pick up the peaches? This is pure
Belongs to dreaming.
Since the Japanese army's sneak attack plan failed and they have already withdrawn, there will no longer be any large army that can threaten Sichuan. It is impossible for Gao Pragmatic to evacuate the Sichuan defenders when there is a Japanese army in Yupu.
As for now, let alone the fact that the Ming army in Lianhua Mountain has retreated and merged with the Ming army in the city, it is completely beyond the control of the Kuroda army.
Gao pragmatically called several brothers and nephews to discuss the matter with them. After discussing for a while, everyone basically believed that the Japanese army had indeed given up fighting. The only problem now was whether to agree to their withdrawal to the mainland.
Gao Wuzheng was opposed to this. He believed that the Kuroda Army should be eliminated for two reasons. First, Kuroda Rushui was the initiator of the sneak attack on Sichuan. This kind of behavior that wants to disturb Tai Sui must be severely punished.
Secondly, the Kuroda Army currently has less than 10,000 soldiers. Although the Sichuan Ming Army is mainly composed of chieftain soldiers, it is fully capable of destroying the Kuroda Army after being strengthened by 3,000 elite cavalry.
Simply put, Gao Wuzheng's attitude is that you deserve to die, and if I can kill you, then you should die.
Gao Qi objected to this. He believed that the Kuroda Army's request to surrender would have three major benefits for the Ming Army:
First, the Kuroda Army will become the first organized Japanese army to beg for surrender to the Ming Dynasty (Kuroda Nagamasa’s Third Army), and its surrender will greatly shake the determination of other Japanese armies to fight to the death.
Secondly, as a very influential figure in the Japanese military and an important assistant to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Kuroda Yoshizu Kuroda gave up fighting and led the Kuroda army back to Japan, which is also of great significance and has far-reaching influence.
Thirdly, if the Kuroda Army successfully withdraws to Japan, it will also dilute the strength of the Japanese Army in Busan, which will also help to completely eliminate the Japanese Army in Busan.
Gao Wuruo did not express his position at first, but after listening to Gao Qi's analysis, he said: "The first two are reasonable, but I think the last one does not need to be calculated like this. If the Kuroda Army returns to Busan, it will indeed not dilute Busan.
The Japanese army is strong, but the Japanese army in Busan is now nothing more than a trapped beast.
Since they are trapped animals, then our heavenly soldiers only need to surround them without attacking them. If they run out of food and grass, sooner or later they will have no choice but to fail. In other words, having more Kuroda troops in Busan will make them eat up their food faster and speed up their surrender.
.”
Gao Qi thought for a while and said: "But if our army cannot attack for a long time, even if the court doesn't say anything, we still have to eat. How to calculate the cost? And if we attack, the cost of firearms will also be staggering. Just in case.
If we cannot rely solely on artillery bombardment, then post-war rewards, pensions, etc. will have to be added, and the cost will be even greater."
Gao Wuruo shook his head and said: "Leave aside firearms for the moment, how can we only rely on food from the South? North Korea is the landlord, and I am a guest army. How can we understand that the guest army brings its own dry food thousands of miles to help the army?"
In my opinion, now that both Jeolla and Chungcheong provinces have been restored, they should supply our army first, rather than entering the North Korean treasury first. If the food is sufficient, it will be provided, and if it is insufficient, it will be recorded in the accounts. The food from the South will be used first, while North Korea will
Make up for it later.”
The "southern grain" Gao Wuruo mentioned here refers to the grain sent from southern Xinjiang. During this personal expedition, Gao Wuruo was inevitably troubled by the food problem just like in the Renchen year, so he specially developed a new transportation method.
This method is not complicated at all. Basically, the imperial court funds the purchase of rice from southern Xinjiang, but does not send it to the capital or other places in the Ming Dynasty. Instead, it is transported directly to the Korean battlefield. The specific method of transportation is decided by the Jinglue Yamen. In addition, there are
One point is that the imperial court does not care about transportation issues, and Nanjiang is responsible for "door-to-door delivery".
Of course, in order to avoid impeachment, Gao Jingshi directly disclosed the purchase price in his essay, which not only detailed the price of rice, but also calculated the transportation costs. The price was extremely shocking: it was actually a little cheaper than buying rice from Huguang.
.
But this is not the key point. The key point is that Gao Pragmatic also played the most amazing trick: "The imperial court does not care about whether it is floating or not, so Southern Xinjiang is responsible for it."
This move was considered king in the Ming Dynasty, and those who were originally dissatisfied had nothing to say - What, it can't be wiped out? Then isn't this transaction a bargain? Come on, you are so powerful in Nanning, with a family fortune of hundreds of millions, you are not afraid of losing money, this job
You can do whatever you want, and we won't join in the fun.
In fact, the so-called drifting is the loss during shipping. This thing is sometimes uncontrollable in this era. But in fact, as long as the navigation technology is better and the ship's performance is better, this loss can be reduced, at least in
Within the Beijing-China two-ocean system, the so-called "drifting" is completely within the acceptable range.
With the transportation capabilities of the Beijing-China Ocean Fleet and his understanding of the sea conditions around Daming, even if he unfortunately encounters a hurricane, the direct losses are usually controllable. In fact, bad luck will only cause a delay in time, so Gao Pragmatic not only dares to
Do this without losing money.
You must know that under the influence of the Little Ice Age, the price of grain in the Ming Dynasty has been slowly rising, and because much of the domestic transportation in the Ming Dynasty has to take overland routes, this has directly raised the cost, resulting in a large gap in grain prices across regions.
For example, food in Huguang is relatively cheap, but when it is delivered to Suzhou and Hangzhou, the price will nearly double, and then it will almost double again when sent to the capital. This results in the price of food in the capital being almost 2.5 times that of Huguang.
——Of course, this is not all due to the impact of transportation fees, but also includes the profits of resale traders.
However, the situation is different when grain is purchased from southern Xinjiang and delivered directly to North Korea. Although the countries in southern Xinjiang have their own rulers in name, the actual power is completely in the hands of Jinghua, causing Jinghua to become a "monopoly transnational
trading group".
This means that it does not need to worry about multiple resale transactions to raise prices, and it directly collects and supplies the goods. Apart from itself, there is no other middleman to make the difference.
In this way, coupled with the minimal impact of the Little Ice Age in southern Xinjiang, the increase in cultivated land area and productivity brought about by the naturalized household registration system, etc., southern Xinjiang now has very sufficient food production capacity. Not only does it not have internal famine problems, it is also fully capable
For external transportation, the price is naturally much lower than within the Ming Dynasty.
However, Gao Wuruo's proposal was a bit cruel. He first said that with the Cholla and Chungcheong provinces, the Ming army should obtain grain supplies directly from these two Korean granaries, and also said that if there was any shortage, it would be made up after accounting -
It is true that these two roads are North Korea's granaries, but they were severely damaged during the war and the output dropped a lot compared to normal times.
To put it simply, if it were all used for the Ming army, then the local Koreans would starve to death. Gao Wuruo actually knew this situation, so he actually wanted the Korean court to owe Jinghua
money.
Wait a minute, even if North Korea cannot provide so much food, shouldn't this be money owed to Ming Dynasty? How did it become money owed to Jinghua?
There is of course a reason: Ming's current transshipment model is similar to service outsourcing, and if Ming is no longer responsible for food supply in the future, then the party A that issues outsourcing tasks will naturally become North Korea. Therefore, once North Korea cannot supply, South Korea will still be needed.
If Xinjiang imports goods, it will naturally become North Korea's credit payment to Beijing.
But it is a pity that Gao Pragmatic dismissed this idea. This is not that Gao Pragmatic's consciousness is much higher than that of Gao Pragmatic, but in Gao Pragmatic's eyes, how long the North Korean court can last is itself a question. If North Korea successfully
, then will this account continue to be recorded on Li Huo's head, or will it be transferred to Daming's head?
If it were recorded on Li He's head, even if the Joseon royal family had a lot of savings after so many years of turmoil, it might not be able to repay such a huge debt at the level of military pay.
And if it is the fault of the Ming Dynasty, since this matter was obviously promoted by his high pragmatism, will anyone impeach him in the future and say that he deliberately set up a debt trap for the Ming Dynasty?
Since the Ming Dynasty still paid for all the trouble in the end, then obviously it's good as it is now. Why would he, who is pragmatic and pragmatic, put his own reputation into it?
Of course, Gao Wuruo is right about one thing. The Jeolla and Chungcheong provinces can provide the Ming army with military rations in addition to the minimum guarantee of North Korea's own food. Instead of these grains being swallowed up by North Korea's two squads,
It is better to reduce the financial pressure on the Ming Dynasty - after all, he is the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.
As for whether southern Xinjiang's grain exports will lose a market as a result...there is no need to worry about this, because the Ming Dynasty can completely absorb it.
The Ming Dynasty is now characterized by its handicraft industry. Industrial development is changing with each passing day, various production capacities are increasing day by day, and various materials are relatively abundant. However, the food problem is becoming increasingly serious due to climate reasons.
Under this situation, although the food output in Southern Xinjiang is also steadily increasing, the Ming Dynasty around him is like a huge sponge. No matter how much water is put into the small faucet in Southern Xinjiang, the Ming Dynasty will take it all and absorb it.
It has to be clean and tidy, and there is no problem of market scarcity or scarcity at all.
The current situation is this: there are many good fields in southern Xinjiang that can be further developed, but the population is insufficient (especially the highly productive Han people). The good fields in the Ming Dynasty have long been divided up, but the population is still relatively stable due to the relative stability in the country.
It is rising. Especially the land in the north is now completely unable to support the population in the north, so the two sides are actually very complementary.
Therefore, Jinghua now has an ongoing business, which is to sell grain from southern Xinjiang to the north of the Ming Dynasty, and at the same time receive refugees in the north due to disasters - of course, there are also refugees in the south, but there are relatively fewer.
Now Gao Wuzheng and Gao Qi have different views. Gao Wuruo has made some suggestions but has not completely taken sides. The matter has reached the stage where Gao Pragmatic makes a decision.
However, Gao Pragmatic did not make a "decision" immediately. Instead, he said: "Did you forget something?"
The three of them were startled and looked at each other, but they couldn't remember what they had forgotten.
Gao pragmatic pointed at Yupu and Sichuan and said: "The Kuroda Army wants to return to Japan, but they didn't say how they will go back. Are you tacitly assuming that they can swim back?"
The three of them were startled again, and their expressions were a little horrified, but Gao Qi quickly asked: "Maybe Kuroda Rushui means to ask us to help send them back?"
"If you really want to help, you should say it clearly at this time. If he didn't say this, it means..." Gao pragmatic narrowed his eyes slightly and said calmly: "I'm afraid the Japanese navy has quietly left Busan Port and headed for Sichuan
Or Okpo is coming."
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