Chapter 281 The Return of the Japanese Fu (19) Unexpected Failure
The Ming army faced a bunch of unfavorable factors and launched another forceful attack. In fact, the Japanese army in Daoshan was also extremely difficult.
The Japanese army lost a large amount of supplies due to the loss of the Ulsan position. After holding on for a while in Dosan Castle, the remaining supplies were at risk.
The Ming army was right in judging that the Japanese army could obtain supplies from the sea, but it was not completely right - the Japanese army did obtain supplies secretly transported from the sea, but the Ming army's pacification of the Japanese fleet was only caused by bad weather.
There are loopholes in the blockade, but its overall strength is still overwhelming the Japanese naval forces, so these supplies are intermittent, sometimes more and sometimes less, and are very unstable.
Before the Ming army launched another offensive, Asano Nagamasa discussed with Kato Kiyomasa. He said with a worried look: "I have sent out a message for help again. It is getting colder now. It is difficult for the Ming navy to completely block the entire coast. Our navy
Although the soldiers are struggling, they still have the opportunity to find loopholes and sneak in. It is expected that reinforcements will arrive in a few days.
However, the war situation is critical. A few days is short in term, but it takes a long time to endure it. Now the casualties are increasing day by day, everyone is very tired, the military rations are in short supply, and drinking water is cut off. If the snow can not be melted and drank, the trouble will be really big...
…The top priority is to survive these few days.”
Kato Kiyomasa asked Nabeshima Naoshima again. Nabeshima Naoshima bluntly said that although the entire army was hungry, they would persist until the last moment. No matter how many casualties they incurred, they were willing to die in battle. But Nabeshima Naoshima didn't know.
How to try to overcome.
Asano Nagamasa said: "The Cage Castle Warfare method should only be carried out as a last resort. The first priority is to prepare enough weapons and food and boost morale. Only with the help of clever strategies can a victory be achieved. Kato Yongwu can defeat a hundred enemies with one, and once reinforcements are sent,
Once rescued, the situation of the war can be reversed... I think we can send a messenger out to sea to urge Pusan."
Kato Kiyomasa was silent and walked toward the horse, which was stunned for a long time. Suddenly he drew his sword and the horse was chopped to the ground. Kato Kiyomasa ordered the entire army to slaughter the war horses and ration the horse meat according to the amount to satisfy their hunger. Horse blood should not be wasted, as it could not only quench thirst but also satisfy hunger.
Asano was surprised how he could drink horse blood and even satisfy his hunger. Who would have thought that as soon as he said this, Kato Kiyomasa took a scoop and drank a big mouthful of horse blood himself. He looked so intoxicated, especially his bright red teeth, which was life-changing.
fear.
Naoshima Naoshima was shocked at first, then took a sip, and then shouted that he was addicted to it. Inspired by it, the Japanese army was full of energy for a while, and the killing sound was loud.
Asano Nagamasa sighed: "Kato is a real ghost. His Highness Taikaku has such a powerful general, even gods and Buddhas will be shaken."
Because of Kato Kiyomasa's personal charisma, although the Japanese army reduced their daily rations to half of the normal amount, they still managed to do so in a very orderly manner and did not let the Ming army, which faced many disadvantages, take any advantage.
On the thirteenth day of the Ming army's battle, Japanese reinforcements finally landed at Kaiyunpu, and this time they were not entirely Japanese troops from Busan, but a combination of Japanese local reinforcements and Japanese troops from Busan.
This support army was led by Hideaki Kobayakawa as the general of the reinforcements. Together with Hidemoto Mouri and Motochika Nagamune, they first led 16,000 troops to help. Later, Shimazu Yoshihiro's nephew Shimazu Toyohisa and Yoshikawa Hiroie led the troops.
Wan Yuyu is also coming to rescue.
According to the plan of the Japanese army, the reinforcements were densely covered with flags, and the fleet was filled with straw men wearing military uniforms to act as a suspicious tactics. At the same time, warning cannons were fired from time to time to facilitate the Ming army's exploration.
Kobayakawa Hideaki shouted when he landed: "The merits of the world will be on Daoshan. Defeat the Ming army and show the prestige of our army! Here is my general order: The heads of Korean soldiers will be rewarded 50 fen, and the heads of miscellaneous soldiers from the Ming Dynasty will be rewarded 200 fen.
The enemy general's head is worth fifty guan, and whoever takes the head of the enemy's general, Ma Gui, will be rewarded 5,000 guan!"
As soon as this order was issued, the morale of the Japanese army was greatly boosted and they quickly advanced towards Daoshan.
At this time, the Ming army had not captured Daoshan Castle. Ma Gui was under great pressure these days, supervising the battles and studying how to use the advantages of artillery to attack the Japanese city of Daoshan. Unexpectedly, one day he felt cold.
Generals with a physique like his rarely get sick, but the more they are like this, it will not be easy once they get sick. This mere wind and cold actually made Ma Gui weak and unbearable, so he could only go back to the camp to rest and take the opportunity to think carefully.
Think about how to defeat the enemy.
Li Shanhai came to the south hoping to gain some military exploits so that he could gain prestige in the court. Unexpectedly, after two or three months, he only won some victories at the beginning, and then he was blocked on the island mountain and couldn't move any further. It was inevitable that he had some feelings for Ma Gui in his heart.
dissatisfied.
At this moment, he saw that Ma Gui seemed to be suspending the offensive on the pretext of illness, and immediately said to Ma Gui: "Admiral Ma, now is the time to compete in strength, and we must not relax. Although the Japanese pirates are stubbornly resisting, their army's food and water supplies are insufficient.
There is not much left.
Especially since the weather has been beautiful these two days and even the snow has stopped, even if they want to melt the snow into water, they will soon be unable to do so. As long as our coalition forces continue to attack, they will definitely win a complete victory."
Ma Gui actually had a fever at this moment, had a splitting headache and was very tired, so he braced himself and said: "The Japanese pirates are already a turtle in the urn, and since the resumption of the offensive, we have been attacking for thirteen consecutive days. The generals and I have supervised the battle day and night, and the soldiers have suffered casualties.
As the day progresses, they are all exhausted.
In addition, it is the coldest when the weather clears and the snow melts, and even I can get frostbite, which shows the condition of the soldiers on the front line. I think it is best to rest for a few days before fighting again."
Li Dexin reminded from the side: "If we can't speed up the capture of the Japanese city, once enemy reinforcements arrive, I'm afraid it will be even more difficult to attack the city."
Seeing that the two of them had been urging the war since they came to his army, Ma Gui finally became impatient and said in a cold tone: "So what? If the Japanese reinforcements come, it will be exactly what I want. They can kill the Japanese
Gathering and annihilating people under this Daoshan City is the essence of encirclement and reinforcements!"
Sometimes when people are unlucky, their teeth are choked by the cold water they drink. As soon as Ma Gui said this, an urgent report came that Japanese reinforcements had landed at Kaiyunpu. The number of troops was difficult to count for a while, and a rough estimate may be more than 50,000.
Ma Gui had already expected to encircle the point and call for reinforcements, but the 50,000 that came here seriously exceeded his expectations. Even Ma Gui was shocked when he heard this. He was thinking about where the Japanese army could get so many reinforcements. Didn't Busan City plan to do so?
wanted?
At this moment, Ma Gui obviously did not expect that although there were many Japanese generals who had already been in Busan to lead the troops in this support army, most of the troops they led were newly sent from Japan. They were the last step of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's madness.
beat.
However, Li Shanhai and Li Dexin's reactions were very different from Ma Gui's. They urgently requested to launch a general offensive immediately, believing that only by capturing Daoshan could they resist the Japanese reinforcements.
Ma Gui strongly opposed this proposal: "This must not be the case. Even if we launch a general offensive, because there are very few suitable gun positions, our army's siege offensive cannot be carried out. Daoshan cannot be attacked immediately, and if we fail to reinforce the enemy,
If we capture Daoshan before we arrive, we will be attacked from both sides and surrounded by enemies. Acting so recklessly will only waste all our efforts!
Nowadays, the Japanese pirates have suffered unprecedented heavy losses, but the number of reinforcements this time is indeed larger than expected. In order to avoid being attacked by the enemy, it is still necessary to wait until they have regrouped before attacking Daoshan, and they must also be careful to observe whether the number of Japanese reinforcements is real.
true.
I think there is nothing to worry about even if we release this Japanese reinforcements to join the Japanese army on Daoshan. The island is not big, so how can the 670,000 or 70,000 Japanese troops stay huddled in the city for a long time? When their military supplies are exhausted, it will be easy for me to take Daoshan.
If the number of Japanese reinforcements is insufficient and does not number 50,000, then our army can press back after a slight retreat. Although encirclement and reinforcements cannot be realized, the worst situation of the war is not bad enough before the war begins. At least Ulsan is still in my hands.
.
In this way, our army still poses a major threat to Dosan. Tens of thousands of Japanese troops are pinned here, which can also reduce the pressure on Yangshan. The cabinet must understand the situation of our army. Immediately send an order to the entire army, asking all departments to be prepared.
As soon as the enemy's situation is discovered, retreat to Ulsan!"
Li Shanhai and Li Dexin repeatedly requested to continue the attack, but Ma Gui insisted not to allow it and strictly ordered the troops to withdraw immediately. Although one of the two was a North Korean leader and the other was a military officer (equivalent to the Minister of the Ministry of War), they were no bigger than the admiral of the country, so they had no choice but to
Follow orders.
Kato Kiyomasa and Asano Nagamasa were greatly excited when they learned that reinforcements had arrived. The morale of the Japanese army was high, and the firepower returned was more fierce than in the past.
Ma Gui had already fallen ill and returned to the front line to supervise the battle. At this time, he also noticed something unusual about the Japanese army. He knew that the Japanese army knew that reinforcements were coming, so he behaved like this.
His mind was groggy and his thinking was far less sharp than usual. Before he could figure out how to deal with it, he suddenly saw that the Ming army's rear troops were in a panic and were retreating northward. He couldn't help but frown.
At this time, Xie Sheng came to report: "It has been reported that the Japanese pirate army is coming to help. The North Korean leader and the military commander have strictly ordered the troops to withdraw. When our army saw the North Korean army withdrawing first, the morale of our army dropped sharply and the chaos was unstoppable."
At this time, Mao Guoqi also came in a hurry. Without saying a word, he asked for orders: "The army is in chaos and the admiral is ill. It is not suitable to fight for a long time. Please withdraw quickly. We will be the rear."
Ma Gui was furious when he heard this: "I gave the order to retreat, but now we haven't found out the strength of the enemy's troops, how can we retreat in a hurry? Li Shanhai and Li Dexin usually look like they understand military affairs well, how could they continue to do so?
You don’t know how the army should retreat? At the moment, the weapons and equipment are still at the front. You will send my order to the general to ask all ministries to improve military discipline and evacuate in an orderly manner. I will postpone it after I stop it!"
As we all know, it is far easier for a large army to attack than to retreat. Countless battle histories at home and abroad in ancient and modern times have shown that once the retreat is not arranged well, the probability of it turning into a rout is very high.
Ma Gui's order was originally "all ministries prepare to retreat." In addition to his instructions to ascertain the reality of the Japanese reinforcements, there is also an implicit meaning, that is, each ministry should pack the luggage, arrange the rear, and finally arrange the rear.
It's an orderly retreat.
Unexpectedly, Li Shanhai and Li Dexin didn't know whether they didn't understand or did it deliberately. They actually withdrew without saying a word and took the Korean army. Coupled with the news of the Japanese pirates' large reinforcements, it was natural that Ming Ming
The army also collapsed, and no one in the various tribes wanted to be caught and beaten by a new force of Japanese pirates, so they all wanted to take the first step.
Li Shanhai and Li Dexin may not understand that Ma Gui has been fighting for half his life but how can he not know the dangers involved? Hence the above-mentioned denunciation.
Wu Weizhong advised: "I'm afraid it's too late to say this now. The Korean army has withdrawn first, and there will be no troops to block the vacant position for a while. As the commander-in-chief, the admiral cannot stand in the midst of dangerous troops. If something goes wrong,
, I am afraid that the morale of the army will be difficult to recover, and all the troops will panic and choose their own way, be defeated, and be massacred by the Japanese pirates.
The general thought that the admiral should evacuate the army immediately. The general and Mao Canrong's troops are mainly infantry, so they can lead their troops to break up the rear and resist the Japanese invaders. As long as the army evacuates safely, the two of us will come to join them later."
Ma Gui broke out in a sweat at this time, and his mind was much clearer. He knew that although it seemed a bit tiring to follow his suggestion, it was the most correct choice at the moment. Therefore, he put aside the problem of dignity and gave two instructions again and again.
People must save their lives, and never choose to fight to the end and make meaningless sacrifices under such circumstances.
The second general saw that although Admiral Ma was sick, his thinking was still clear, and he immediately accepted the order with clasped fists. So Ma Gui ordered Wu Weizhong and Mao Guoqi to lead five thousand troops to the rear to stop the attack, and he personally supervised the evacuation of the troops and escorted the baggage at the same time.
Kobayakawa Hideaki's army quickly arrived on the battlefield and immediately charged towards the Ming army's position. Kato Kiyoshi saw clearly in the city and did not hesitate to lead the attack. Fortunately, Wu Weizhong and Mao Guoqi were both famous generals from the Qi family army, and their troops have always been good at attacking and defending.
, so they were able to retreat in an orderly manner after a hard fight, but they finally managed to break out of the encirclement.
However, after all, this battle happened in a hurry, and various departments of the Ming army inevitably scrambled to seize the road. Although the road to Ulsan was not far away, the losses still exceeded expectations.
In the end, nearly 10,000 Japanese soldiers were killed, wounded, and died of hunger and thirst; more than 1,000 Korean soldiers were killed and 3,000 wounded; the Ming army was more than 3,000 killed and about 3,000 wounded.
But what made Ma Gui most angry was that the Ming army suffered only a thousand casualties in the early stage of the offensive. The reason why more than 3,000 people died in the final battle, two thousand of which were caused by the retreat. Such heavy casualties were ultimately caused by the Korean army.
The indiscriminate retreat caused Ma Gui to be so angry that he immediately wrote a personal letter to complain to Gao Pragmatic.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Li Shanhai and Li Dexin also had something to say. They also wrote to Gao Pragmatic to complain. The main idea was that if Ma Gui had fought more resolutely earlier, he would have attacked Daoshan with some casualties.
Next, these things will never happen at all.
As for some people saying that the North Korean army will withdraw first, that is mainly due to a misunderstanding of the language between the two parties, because if the North Korean army talks about withdrawing, it will withdraw immediately without any of the various preparations Ma Gui mentioned.
and arrangements.
But I don’t know whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing. In this battle, the only person who escaped unscathed during the retreat was neither the main force of Ma Gui nor the Korean army. Of course, it was certainly not Wu Weizhong and Mao Guoqi’s troops, but Li Rumei.
.
Because Li Rumei's troops were mainly cavalry, there was not much room for siege warfare. Even the garrison was kept relatively outside.
There is even a little bit of nothing to do on weekdays.
As a result, when he heard that the Japanese reinforcements were coming that day, he thought that Ma Gui would immediately send someone to convey the order for him to dispatch - whether it was to fight the Japanese army or to investigate the Japanese army, it was logically possible. It mainly depended on how Ma Gui planned to decide.
All-military action.
However, to his surprise, the news he received was actually sent by Li Shanhai and Li Dexin, saying that Admiral Ma had ordered an immediate retreat.
Li Rumei intuitively felt that this order was not normal, and originally planned to send someone to verify it, but unexpectedly the North Korean army had already withdrawn. When Li Rumei took a look through the telescope, it turned out that the Ming army was also "retreating."
He also misunderstood this time and thought that Ma Gui had really given the order to retreat. Li Rumei knew Ma Gui's status under Gao Pingshi's command, and he was a senior general. Since he said he wanted to withdraw, there must be something he didn't know about.
An unexpected situation occurred, so we evacuated as ordered.
Who would have known that when asked later, Ma Gui didn't mean that at all, and the reason why Li Shanhai and Li Dexin "fake military orders" was to show their kindness to him, General Li.
This made Li Rumei herself not sure whether she should be angry or appreciative. After much deliberation, she had no choice but to write a letter to Gao Pragmatic, admitting her mistake first.
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ps: Like Ma Gui, I was sick and fell asleep in the first half of the night, so I posted a little late. I have some things to do during the day on Saturday, but I should... or I hope it won't affect the update.
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