Chapter 281 Return of the Japanese Empire (Xu San) Outside Tianjin Port, the fleet returns
The wind howls and the dark clouds cover the sun.
The weather today does not look good. If it were an ordinary time, everyone would try not to go out if they could, lest a sudden winter rain pour down on their heads and catch a cold.
However, today's Tianjin Port is still crowded with people. Especially near the main port of Jinghua in the port area, there is a dense crowd of people, and almost all the places where people can stand are filled.
Except for some people who were working at the dock, almost all of these people came to greet Gao Pragmatic and the Beiyang Sea Trade Alliance's expedition fleet.
The name of the Young Master, the Crown Prince's Grand Master, the Grand Scholar of Wenhua Palace, the Minister of Household Affairs and the Japanese Ping Jing Lue, and the Marquis of Nanning Gao Pingshi's return to the country has finally been decided. According to the imperial edict, Gao Pingshi returned to Beijing this time.
It was because the war had "temporarily come to an end" and he "returned to Beijing to report on his duties."
The position of the manager was originally non-permanent, and it was very flexible whether he needed to return to Beijing to report on his duties during the mission. Basically, if the task progressed smoothly but was not completely completed, and the manager himself could take the time to leave without affecting the progress of the mission,
In addition, the emperor believes that an interview is indeed necessary, so the general manager can return to Beijing to report on his work. This is no problem.
Of course, this is an imperial society after all. If the emperor requires you to return to Beijing to report on your duties, then the above prerequisites are not required. You have to pack your bags and return to Beijing immediately to make a face-to-face report, which is the so-called audience.
Gao Pragmatic's return to the capital this time essentially falls into this category. However, the imperial edict stated all the previous reasons to show that His Majesty the Emperor did not not trust his ministers, but that he needed ministers because he had made great achievements on the front line.
He came back and told it in person, allowing the emperor and the court to congratulate him, so it was more of a compliment.
The Sea Trade Alliance's fleet is quite large. Even though Tianjin Port is already one of the largest ports in the world, it cannot allow the entire fleet to come in at once. It can only be arranged one after another according to the waterway.
The "maritime soldiers" for this high-pragmatism expedition were largely composed of the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance, with about half from each of the Jinghua and Jingnan families.
Among them, there are one second-level battleship, three third-level battleships, four first-level cruisers, six second-level cruisers, and 46 armed transport ships, a total of 60 ships. Among them, "Jinghua certified" "professional battleships"
There are as many as fourteen ships. In terms of the number of crew members, it is about 13,000 people.
Professional warships, namely battleships and cruisers, are all provided by Beijing Beiyang Fleet, accounting for nearly 40% of the total number of professional warships in the Beiyang Fleet. Gao Pragmatic's flagship is the second-level battleship "Dongchang", whose name comes from
The opening battle of the highly pragmatic Battle of Southern Liaoning: the Battle of Dongchang Fort.
In terms of number of ships, this fleet is not as good as the "main body" of the imperial Japanese fleet, but in terms of total tonnage, it exceeds that of the Japanese fleet. Of course, as a fleet that does not regard boarding battles as the main mode of naval warfare,
As far as the artillery fleet is concerned, the Alliance fleet does not carry as many troops as the Ping-Japanese fleet.
No matter what, the scene of sixty large ships rushing towards them and filing into the harbor still made many people feel a huge pressure. And because this was our own fleet, after the moment of oppression, it brought people an immediate feeling of oppression.
It turned into excitement.
With their hearts surging, no one knew who could not help shouting "The Ming Dynasty will be victorious", which immediately caused everyone present to follow suit and shout "The Ming Dynasty will be victorious" at the top of their lungs. From the beginning, there was a chaotic atmosphere. The shouts finally converged to a beat, and the "Ming Dynasty Wansheng" not only shook the dock, but could even be heard clearly by the fleet entering the port.
Gao Pingshi stood on the starboard side of the "Dongchang", surrounded by various generals who were brought back by him because they had no defense mission for the time being, as well as some senior servants of the fleet itself.
Hearing the thunderous cheers of "The Ming Dynasty is victorious" on the dock, Dong Yiyuan couldn't help but complimented: "After this battle, the reputation of the Marquis has really resounded throughout the world, regardless of sea or land."
Gao pragmatic smiled, waved his hands slightly, but said nothing.
But he didn't say anything, but Dong Yiyuan had something to say: "Master Hou, the last general has been in the army for more than forty years since he was fourteen years old. It was possible to end the army with this battle. Although there were many regrets in the process, the result was finally good. To comfort my ancestors, I finally realized that I did not perform well in this battle and let the Marquis down..."
"The ancients said that 'wars are dangerous and wars are dangerous', because there will always be accidents of one kind or another on the battlefield. Some of them can be avoided, some of them are unavoidable, and some of them are gambling in the first place, and you can only gamble."
Gao pragmatic turned his head, waved his hand to interrupt him, and said: "Although there were man-made reasons for the explosion in the Yongxing battle camp, there was nothing wrong with your original strategic concept. It was Peng Xingu who was wrong. This time The Ministry of Cabinet brought you back to the capital specifically to explain things to you in front of the emperor, so you can rest assured about this."
"The Laoge Department is worrying about the general. The general is really ashamed and has no place." Dong Yiyuan sighed, and said a little lostly: "It's a pity that Peng Xingu... their family."
Gao pragmatic frowned slightly and glanced at Dong Yiyuan. Dong Yiyuan said helplessly and with a bit of sadness: "Peng Xingu's father died while protecting the last general. He was a guerrilla in the military car camp at that time. When he died, he was beaten by seven Thirteen Arrows with a Sword, it was the forty-third year of Jiajing...
His uncle also died in the battle with the general Mo, in the first year of Longqing. At that time, he was first shot in the left eye by an arrow, and the general Mo ordered him to retreat, but the battle situation was getting anxious, and he refused to retreat... When he died... He suffered more than twenty wounds to his body and died of excessive blood loss.
When he died, the last general was holding his hand and asked him if he had anything to say. He could no longer answer the general. He just stared hard at Peng Xingu. He had no sons, only one daughter who unfortunately died in infancy, so He always regards his brother's son as his own son..."
Gao pragmatic fell silent and couldn't help but sigh.
This is a war like a dog's day. One general's success can lead to thousands of bones being wasted. Needless to say, if you lose, there will be casualties even if you win. The casualties are just numbers in statistics, but in fact they are all living lives. Their life and death, even if it is not a human tragedy, is at least often related to the future of a family, or even the rise and fall of a family.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! It’s a pity that Peng Xingu’s problem is pragmatic but he can’t let go. This matter is not only bad in itself, but also related to the regularization of the army after the Ming Dynasty.
The explosion of the gunpowder depot in Dong Yiyuan's army in the Battle of Yongxing seems to be quite strange in terms of its occurrence, but in fact there are traces to follow. The flash point of the problem was in Peng Xingu, but the root cause occurred in the Battle of Pingbo
after.
At that time, the Battle of Pingbo was successfully concluded, and Dong Yiyuan's troops were ordered to transfer north. Originally, the imperial court planned to let him return to Gansu and Shaanxi, but after leaving for a while, he heard that the Marquis of Nanning intended to personally conquer Korea, and he immediately believed that Korea would be a place where he would make great contributions.
——After all, the wars conducted by Gao Pragmatic himself have always been a success 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.
The advantage lies in seniority.
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, not to mention 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 it, and it was not enough for his sons. So Dong Yiyuan was moved, and he wanted to follow Gao Pangshi to North Korea, and just build up some achievements.
The future of his sons is properly arranged, and he can spend his future life wandering in the woods and entertaining his grandchildren.
However, his troops suffered considerable losses in the Battle of Pingbo. Some were killed in battle, and some were disabled. These were all casual losses, and it would be difficult to make up for them in a while. The meaning of making up does not just mean
Soldiers also refer to things like training.
The number of servants he could muster at that time was about three thousand, which was quite a few, and he was quite powerful among the generals of Gansu and Shaanxi. With three thousand servants as the core, it was common for him to lead an army of twenty to thirty thousand soldiers. However, there was a problem.
The question lies in where he will gather "twenty to thirty thousand soldiers".
Since the pressure in the northwest increased after Tumen Khan fled west, 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, Dong Yiyuan should not mobilize more than 10,000 northwest frontier troops at most.
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 people who had been fired from their posts in the previous few years for some reason.
The old department discussed a good solution.
This method was 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 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 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 just 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. Regardless of the senior generals or junior generals, they basically have different numbers of servants.
Teams, these teams are also the source of their strength to become goalkeepers.
"My Iceberg Beauty Wife"
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 eager generals, they are 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 was 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.
Among Dong Yiyuan's old generals is Peng Xingu, who was originally a guerrilla. He had been demoted from his post for seven years for some reason. 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 went to Beijing to "manage things". Unfortunately, he did not have enough status. He was busy in the capital for two or three years and did not see any big shots who could speak effectively. Instead, he ruined the family business and even lost the more than 1,000 yuan he originally owned.
The servants are all scattered, and the young general of the Peng family is about to become a star.
It happened that at this moment, Dong Yiyuan planned to ask for the Eastern Expedition to give him a hand. It could be said that there was no way out, and there was a bright future in another village. However, how could we send out troops without a servant?
Peng Xingu refused to let go of such a good opportunity, so he suddenly thought of a "wonderful method": he would take all his last money and "spread coins" and recruit a group of "ferocious people" in the capital.
"Those who dare to die" are dragged 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.
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 quickly 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: "My subordinate has been living a hard life these years, and I really don't have time to control him."
, 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 about it and found it understandable. After all, this guy had been raped for seven or eight years and had tried countless ways but still couldn't get the chance to make meritorious deeds. It's not surprising that the servants were used to letting him go.
As for whether he could be trained to be "the same as before" in one month, Dong Yiyuan naturally didn't believe it, but since he himself felt that there would be no problem in fighting with the Marquis, he pretended to believe it - in short, everything ended
The most important thing is to be able to dispatch 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 fight for any opportunity to fight a tough battle.
Ma Gui also heard that he has a large number of old generals who have committed crimes and served meritoriously. They are all the kind of people who have not fought in many wars for many years. Considering that there are many marriages between generals of 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 to prevent them from doing whatever they want.
It was precisely because of Ma Gui's explanation that Dong Yiyuan deliberately set up a large tent near the armory and gunpowder depot, and asked Nurhaci and his party to come here to pay their respects.
Essentially, he wanted to use these powerful firearms to frighten Nurhaci. Who knew that the rogues under Peng Xingu did not have enough safety awareness at all, and actually caused a big explosion, which almost killed the top brass of Dong Yiyuan and the Jurchen Allied Forces.
Served directly in one pot.
How can Gao Pragmatism, which has always taken formalization as its reform orientation, tolerate this kind of casual gathering of a group of scoundrels and their being dragged out to fight without strict training? If Peng Xingu is not severely punished, when will this formalization have any effect?
Results?
At this time, the "Dongchang" was about to enter the berth. Gao Pragmatic didn't have much time to continue this topic, but he made his decision quickly.
"Later, I will contribute in my own name, and you and I will each and half build a temple... or a Taoist temple for the Peng brothers and their family members who died in the war, and personally inscribe a plaque for them." Gao Pragmatic sighed, seriously.
He said to Dong Yiyuan: "But Peng Xingu's affairs cannot be overturned. Dong Zongrong, do you understand what I mean?"
Dong Yiyuan lowered his head and said: "I will understand, but the Marquis and the Peng brothers are not related to each other. How can this matter cost the Marquis? The fact that you can inscribe a plaque is enough to make them smile..."
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PS: The system sensitive words made me depressed two days ago. Today I have regained some of my mood and made up for a thousand more words.
