Chapter 10 Chapter 10 War

The Ming Dynasty was arguing over the issue of Emperor Wanli's "uneven distribution of father's love". As soon as the decree of "Three Kings Confederation" was announced, the voices of opposition immediately poured in like mountains and seas; the ministers saw through that Emperor Wanli did not intend to appoint Chang Luo as the crown prince. It is determined that the establishment of a reserve is the foundation of the country, so he strives even harder. Every day, countless memorials are sent to the palace. It is impossible to make Chang Luo the crown prince...

Moreover, Chang Luo was already twelve years old after the Chinese New Year. Since his identity was not determined, he had not started to study and receive education, which violated the good system specially set up for the prince's education in this dynasty - he did not start school at the age of twelve. , this is already considered a "delay" among the people, let alone Chang Luo, who is the "eldest son of the emperor"?As a result, memorials on this aspect followed one after another. As a result, Emperor Wanli's mood was of course provoked to be very irritable again, with a bad mood and a deeper disgust; he hated this matter and wanted to escape, and the psychological rebound was even greater, so he asked several people around him more than once A eunuch muttered: "One hand is stretched out, and the five fingers are not the same length. My heart is more biased towards Chang Xun. How could it be such a big deal—"

He gritted his teeth as if angry: "The more you clamor and say that you want to stand up for Chang Luo——I will not stand up, not stand up, not stand up—" Therefore, he became more and more determined and adopted a "passive resistance" approach to deal with this matter by meeting the ministers as little as possible.However, after all, public opinion is an invisible and huge force, which brings him great pressure. No matter how he avoids it, he will inevitably be affected. The plan to "combine kings" has cooled down the boiling struggle a little in order to maintain the political atmosphere in the court.

However, as soon as this matter was settled, new things lay in front of our eyes; Wang Xifeng, who had returned to the province as his mother, was recalled to Beijing, and he was supposed to be the chief assistant in the case of aid, and the term of acting Zhao Zhigao was over; The "Jingcha" has arrived again, and it is bound to cause some troubles... When he thinks about these things, his first reaction is to be irritable, wishing he could put all these annoying things behind him; and there is only one thing that can make him excited when he thinks about it. : "Just wait for Li Rusong to come back from a big victory for me, and wipe him out of all this stupidity—"

He has a strange and eager interest in "war", but unfortunately, as an emperor, the possibility of being able to command the battle in person is very small; When he was in the same situation, he had already automatically given up the idea of ​​"the imperial conquest", and only existed in fantasy, living a dry addiction for a while. Therefore, he reserved a corner in his heart and mind for him to put on a picture of war, imagining the charge and fight between the two armies; Became the incarnation of himself in his mind... Li Rusong went to aid North Korea, in his hallucination that he had personally conquered, thinking about it made him happy and enjoyable.

And Li Rusong's first battle against the Japanese did not disappoint his fantasy. On the sixth day of the first lunar month, Li Rusong arrived in Pyongyang. On the surface, he rode lightly and simply, pretending that he was just here to preside over the tribute ceremony, and swaggered into Pyongyang; in fact, he ordered the army to calm down, and followed his guard of honor to Pyongyang to wait for orders. On the surface, President Xiaoxi also made an appearance of "accepting the driver". He led several major generals to prepare a welcome ceremony for Li Rusong in Fengyue Tower, and at the same time sent additional people to inquire about Li Rusong's reality.

But this "fight of wits" before the start of the war was Li Rusong's master move—his army advanced quietly, and it was too late when the Japanese spies who were still waiting to see what happened—Li Rusong's army had already suppressed the situation. Fang hastily climbed up and defended, but had already lost the opportunity. A fierce battle is about to start... In order to reverse the situation, President Xiaoxi rushed to attack Li Rubai's camp that night. This battle was his first defeat since he landed in North Korea. The next day, Li Rusong completed the deployment of the entire army. He personally led the army to attack from the southeast, and guerrilla Wu Weizhong went to Mudanfeng to the north; North Korean military uniforms, lurking in the west after camouflage, formed a momentum of encirclement.

In this battle, both sides used firearms; when the battle started, the artillery arrows rained and the fireworks skyrocketed; the defenders of Chief Xiaonishi thought they could use new guns to defend the city, but unexpectedly, this time, the "Li Jiajun" played superhumanly. Under Li Rusong's order, he broke through the blockade of Pao Shi with flesh and blood, and entered the city. When the two sides were fighting fiercely, Li Rusong personally went into the battle to kill the enemy, and his mount was hit by Pao Shi and died. He changed his horse to fight again; Li Rubai took the lead and did not flinch after being shot in his helmet; It aroused the morale of the whole army to fight, so everyone used one as a hundred, risked their lives to charge into the battle, and had already defeated the enemy in terms of momentum.

Then, the artillery of the Ming Dynasty was also launched; several "boat squatting cannons" and "captive extermination cannons" made by Frangji were released together, and the ground shook and the mountains shook in an instant. The killing sound of the sky... The total number of Japanese troops stationed in Pyongyang was about 15,000. Seeing that the situation was over, they had to retreat to Fengyuelou. In the middle of the night, Chief Konishi ordered to abandon the city and retreat, and took the remaining soldiers and horses across the frozen Taedong River to return to Longshan.

Li Rusong was victorious in the first battle and beat the Japanese army to flee. Of course he was overjoyed, so he took advantage of the victory to pursue it; The four provinces of Ping'an, Gyeonggi, and Jiangyuan were restored. As soon as the good news spread, not only the king from the top to the common people all over the country cheered with excitement and joy; The air of the original "main combat faction" immediately increased by three points, while the "main peace faction" headed by Shi Xing could only walk with their heads down. Emperor Wanli was so happy that he repeatedly said to the people around him: "I have a lot of generals in my court, and I will show my power to foreign lands for me!"

When the words reached Concubine Zheng's ears, she immediately catered to his wishes: "This is the sage of the Long Live Lord, with great blessings, and the power of heaven in my dynasty can be compared to foreign countries!" As a result, Emperor Wanli was even more elated, smiling so hard that he couldn't close his mouth——. Who knew, on the twenty-seventh day of the first lunar month, the situation suddenly reversed... Li Rusong's army won several battles in a row, arrogance welled up, and they began to look down on the enemy. From the commander to the sergeant, everyone suffered from a mental illness of "unable to win". On this day, they received a piece of information: "Kato Kiyomasa, who was guarding Hamgyong Road, has returned to Wangjing, and after joining up with the defeated generals of Konishi, he decided to abandon Wangjing, retreat to Nanche, and join up with the Japanese troops from other routes." , reorganize, and then fight for the backwater!" When Li Rusong heard the news, he was overjoyed immediately: "Pursuing after victory is the general principle of using troops; what's more, the Japanese army was retreating all the way, and the remaining soldiers and horses had little strength left. Just before their entire divisions rendezvous, come to him one by one." Break '!" Therefore, he made the decision to "pursue"—the army stayed in place, and the cannons and other firearms were not carried with the army because they were too bulky, and only attacked with fast-moving cavalry. Then he assigned tasks, and Song Yingxing led the remaining army; Zha Dashou led hundreds of people to scout the vanguard, and he personally led the Rubai, Rumei brothers and their in-laws to lead more than a thousand riders. Chasing the enemy on horseback, the second route was supported by Yang Yuan, the deputy commander-in-chief, led by 3,000 cavalry. In order to "soldiers are expensive and fast" and to gain opportunities, he only made simple preparations and then set off. When Zha Dashou's vanguard troops arrived at Lishiling, about 30 miles away from Wangjing, they encountered the Japanese army. There were only a few hundred people, and their combat effectiveness was very poor. More than a hundred heads, and the rest fled without a trace. As soon as the good news was passed on quickly, Li Rusong was of course even more happy, and rushed to the Bishou Hall with more than a thousand horses. When he arrived at Bishou Pavilion, when he was about to cross a big stone bridge, his horse suddenly became angry and refused to cross the bridge no matter what he said. Hissing and standing, he knocked Li Rusong off his horse as soon as he fell, and when Li Rusong was hurriedly helped up, his forehead was already injured. Li Rusong, who has always had a bad temper, was of course furious and yelled: "Save animals! You're impatient to live—" If it wasn't for the left and right servants who were treating the wound on his forehead, he would have cut the horse in half with his sword. However, the whole situation changed suddenly at such a moment, and he no longer cared about being angry with a horse—the situation was exactly "it's too late to say, then soon" at the moment of his anger, he ambush The Japanese army on Lishiling appeared. Changing his elbows and armpits, he seemed caught off guard immediately; however, Li Rusong is a veteran general after all, he raised his eyes and saw that there were about five or six hundred people on the mountain, he immediately calmed down and shouted One voice said: "Split into two wings to outflank—" The more than a thousand generals he led were all trusted servants trained by Li Chengliang. They have been together for many years and have been recruited. Everyone has cultivated a high degree of loyalty, tacit understanding and affection. Moreover, after rigorous training, the efficiency and combat capability of this team are top-notch; therefore, the lingering sound of Li Rusong's order is still echoing, and the whole team is already very agile. Divided into two, surrounded by the enemy. Unexpectedly, these hundreds of people are just a trick of President Xiaoxi to lure the enemy... Li Rusong's team had just rushed to the front of the mountain, and before they had time to fight with these hundreds of people, all the Japanese soldiers who were ambushing behind the mountain showed up together, and there were astonishingly 20,000 people. The Sixth Army led by Kobayakawa Takakage has been contacted, so that the Sixth Army will retreat from Kaesong and come to Wangjing for support. Once the two armies join forces, there will be more than 20,000 troops. come after... In this battle, Li Rusong suffered a disastrous defeat. Although the thousands of cavalry under him are all elites with extraordinary bravery, the ratio of more than a thousand to twenty thousand is really too disparate. Although the soldiers are desperately fighting to the death, they are at a disadvantage; At noon, all the feathered arrows and arrows were used up, and the firearms were not brought out. In the end, they could only use the short swords they carried with them to fight the enemy. However, the Japanese swords used by the Japanese army were three or four feet long and very sharp, and they had the upper hand. As a result, Li Rusong's troops became fewer and fewer as the battle progressed, and the casualties were very heavy. The three brothers Li Rusong, Li Rubai, and Li Rumei also had extraordinary martial arts themselves, and they also fought against the enemy in person; Li Rubai and Rumei could barely handle it, but Li Rusong was a little bit powerless in the fight because Fang injured his forehead. However, he, the "chief general", had a big goal. A Japanese general led many people to fight him alone, and he was in danger; when he was in danger, Pi general Li Yousheng tried his best to save him, using his body to block him Li Rusong was in danger again, but fortunately Li Rubai and his lieutenant Li Ning had already escaped from the siege and rushed to rescue him, Li Rumei also came from behind It took a few arrows to save him from death, but there were only a dozen people around him. A dozen or so people were surrounded by tens of thousands of people, and it was difficult to fly even with wings; at this moment, a thunderous cheer erupted from the Japanese camp: "Capture Li Rusong alive—" Layer after layer of sound waves rushed like mountains and seas. Although Li Rusong couldn't understand Japanese, but his own name was in it, he could guess what the enemy was shouting; Gritting his teeth, he said, "I didn't expect that the three of us brothers would be buried here—this is the country of our ancestors, is it God's will?" As he spoke, he raised his head and said to the ten or so people beside him: "Since ancient times, there have only been generals who beheaded, and no generals who surrendered. You are all trusted generals of my Li family, and you will die together with my brother today." Do you have any regrets in your heart?" Everyone was overwhelmed by his solemnity, and they shouted in unison: "I have no regrets waiting, and only hope to follow the general again in the next life!" Li Rusong said: "Okay! We will be brothers in the next life!" So, he drew out his saber and prepared to bleed himself. Li Rubai and Li Rumei also drew out their sabers without saying a word, and everyone's eyes were shining with water. However, at this critical moment, the situation has changed again... The second cavalry of 3,000 cavalry led by Yang Yuan arrived. Originally, when he saw the corpses strewn all over the field, he knew something was wrong and became timid, and planned to retreat; but because of the shouts of the Japanese army, he judged the commander He was still under siege, so he mustered up his courage and led these three thousand men into the siege. Although the three thousand riders were still in a situation of "outnumbered enemies", they broke through a barrier; and when Li Rusong heard the sound of killing and saw the Ming army coming to help, of course he immediately gave up the idea of ​​committing suicide, and took the remaining dozen or so soldiers with him. Qi, desperately rushed out of the siege, joined Yang Yuan, and retreated under the protection of the three thousand troops. The killing of Yang Yuan's men and horses was beyond the expectation of President Xiaoxi, and he didn't know how many Yang Yuan's men and horses were, and how many reinforcements were behind him, so he didn't dare to chase easily, and ordered the troops to withdraw and return to the king. It's Beijing. However, Yang Yuan's men and horses failed to retreat smoothly. Along the way, they encountered many ambushes left by Chief Konishi. Casualties; Yang Yuan was even more unwilling to fight, so he could only retreat quickly to the army's garrison - after the retreat, counting the number of people, there were less than one thousand of the three thousand horsemen left. With such a result, there is no other words to say except "big defeat". Moreover, for Li Rusong, the blow and pain in his heart were not limited to such a record of failure-he cried bitterly and blamed himself all night long. , Mourning those generals who died on the battlefield who had a family-like friendship with him; even when he closed his eyes, he dreamed of Li Yousheng who was chopped into pieces by the enemy to save him... However, precisely because he had received such a painful lesson, his original habits of arrogance, arrogance and recklessness were restrained a lot, and he did not dare to be greedy for meritorious deeds any more. Therefore, while flying to the court, he sent the army Withdrew to Kaesong, and carefully formulated a new strategy. However, the chaos and quarrel in the court did not improve because of his change - once the news of the defeat reached the court, it caused another kind of dispute and the ebb and flow of political struggle forces; Emperor Wanli certainly felt frustrated , the original high level of excitement disappeared immediately, replaced by dejection, and did not utter the word "war" for several days; The peace faction headed by Shi Xing raised its head again. The main peace faction "resurrection", of course, will not forget the uselessness suffered by Yao Yixue during this dormant period, so he used the words of "defeat" and "toil the army to waste money" to vigorously suppress the main war faction. It was the two parties who held different views and opinions on the North Korean issue, which suddenly turned into another form of war; in addition to the "Jingcha" year, the factional strife immediately combined with the Jingcha, and the entire court The chaotic situation and fighting atmosphere were countless times more serious than the actual battlefield.