Chapter 33 Chapter Thirty-Three: Battle of Ulsan

The fierce war was once again unfolding on the territory of North Korea, and the men and horses of the three countries fought so hard that the colors of the mountains and rivers changed—— However, Yang Gao aroused public outrage long before he arrived in North Korea—he asked for ten important things in the memorial, not only asking North Korean officials and people to pay more and donate grain and chestnuts, but also blatantly pointing out that the kings and ministers of North Korea were hoarding their own money. If private savings are not used as military pay, the "Great Son of Heaven" should issue an order to punish him; the North Koreans hated him to the bone before they received aid.

And the political struggle in North Korea itself has not stopped because of the strong invasion of external forces. The political groups confronting each other will wipe out the spirit of "being brave to win Japan" and attack each other with all their strength whenever they have the opportunity. Almost lost his life. That is because Yi sun-shin led the navy to fight against Japan, and his contribution and reputation in defending the country were too great, which aroused the envy and hatred of political enemies. However, the command of the naval forces of the three provinces of Gyeongsang and Gyeongsang came from the recommendation of the "Southern people". Therefore, Quan Li, the Duyuan teacher who belonged to the "Westerners", and Yuan Jun, the governor of the Gyeongsang Youdo Navy, regarded him as a thorn in his side. , and tried their best to put him to death; the opportunity finally came, this time when the Japanese army launched an offensive again, several people joined forces to slander the king of Joseon, saying that Yi sun-shin failed to lead the navy to control the death of the Japanese army, The military plane was delayed, and he was suspected of collaborating with the enemy and traitorous country; the confused king of North Korea actually believed this, dismissed Li Sun-shin from his post and sent him to prison, and even put him to death; However, the sequelae caused by this incident are irreparable - not only the morale of the North Korean Navy was greatly affected, but Kwon Yul, Won Kyun and others were even more incompetent. However, as soon as they met the invading Japanese army, they suffered a big defeat. Yuan Jun was defeated in the battle, and Quan Li fled back to Wangjing after being defeated in the land battle——

Only then did the King of Joseon reappoint Yi Sun-shin as if he had just awakened from a dream, and ordered him to reorganize the remnants of the navy to fight against the invading Japanese army. Although the Japanese army once again launched a fierce offensive at the beginning of the war, it also did not forget the private struggle. When a battle is fought, the strength will of course be dispersed. On the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, Kato Kiyomasa set off from Japan and captured the North Korean city of Xisheng Pucheng in one fell swoop; then, the governor Konishi took Busan not to be outdone—a total of more than 140,000 troops were dispatched in large numbers. In August, the three parties joined forces and launched a large-scale war.

Xing Jiegu, the supreme commander sent by the Ming court to aid North Korea, was unusually mediocre. Although he had never been directly in charge of North Korea's war affairs in the past, since he was appointed, he tried his best to understand North Korea's problems from various sources. Starting from Beijing, he went all the way east On the way, he has roughly familiarized himself with the current situation in North Korea, and has a plan for how to deal with it. He will take specific actions as soon as he arrives in North Korea. First of all, he arrested Shen Weijing, who was bluffing and defrauding, and delayed major events, and sent him to Beijing to discuss the charges together with the charges he had collected. After satisfying everyone, he then called the main generals to hold a military meeting.

He is a man of his own opinion, and he has made careful preparations beforehand. The meeting went very smoothly, and the combat strategy was quickly drawn up—he made a very clear conclusion and instructed his subordinates to say : "Our army focuses on 'attacking fortifications', choose the strongest Japanese to defeat them, and the other Japanese armies will naturally collapse upon hearing the news!" He took out a document, which listed in detail the main generals of each "Japanese army", the total number of people and the current location, and then he carefully analyzed: "At present, the Japanese army led by Kato Kiyomasa is the most powerful. Strong, now occupying the land of Ulsan—”

Ulsan Coast, about 100 miles away from Busan, is located in the east of Busan, and forms the two guard ports of Busan with Suncheon in the west. . Xing Jie made a comprehensive strategy: "Send an army to attack Suncheon in advance, so that the Japanese army in Suncheon can't take care of them, and then attack Ulsan with all their strength!" Then, he assigned tasks—the whole army was divided into three, Li Rumei led the left army, Li Fangchun led the right army, Gao Ce led the middle army, and Yang Hao and Ma Gui were the commanders, and then launched an offensive. Because of the advantage, the Ming army used light cavalry to lure the enemy into ambush at the beginning of the battle, and immediately gained a lot, winning more than 400 first rounds; however, the next battle did not go so smoothly——Kato Kiyomasa Be good, immediately gathered the troops, and built three wooden fences overnight as a barrier, and changed to a strategy that could not be defended.

The next day, the Ming army launched an attack again. The guerrilla Mao Guoqi led the army to attack Kato Kiyomasa's gate camp with all his strength; The bullets were fired, covering the sky of Ulsan into darkness. After nearly two hours of offensive and defensive battles, the Ming army won again by galloping ahead and captured more than 600 heads. The Japanese army had to retreat to the fence and hold on with all their strength; Reorganizing the team and preparing for the second wave of attack, he even went to personally report to the general Yang Gao: "The Japanese army is at a disadvantage, and our army can take Ulsan with a single effort!"

Yang Gao also smiled and encouraged him a few words, put on his armor and mounted his horse, ready to personally supervise the battle. An hour later, the Ming army launched a fierce offensive again; one of the lieutenant generals, Chen Zong, was an extremely brave pioneer, bravely marching forward bravely; He rushed forward and rushed to the fence to chop the fence with a knife. When he felled the first fence, many soldiers in the Ming army camp followed him and followed him to cut down the fence regardless of life and death. After a long time, the first fence was completely cut down, and the Ming army cheered together, so more people joined the ranks of cutting the fence bravely.

Of course, the whole situation is that the Japanese side is at a disadvantage. Seeing Kato Kiyomasa's anxiety, he was so anxious that he put on a white shirt and jumped on his horse to supervise him, shouting loudly from time to time, commanding and ordering from time to time, and even Yelling and cursing—however, everything was useless, and the second fence was also cut down one by one. Ming Fang's Yang Gao was also watching the battle from a distance on a tall horse. Seeing that the winning ticket was in his hands, he couldn't help showing a smile from the corner of his lips, nodding his head again and again, and said triumphantly to his left and right : "After pulling up Ulsan, and returning to Beijing with a court report, the holy emperor Long Yan will definitely be delighted!"

They made fun of each other, and immediately complimented him: "Your Excellency has made such brilliant military exploits. After returning to Beijing, he will definitely be promoted to three ranks in a row, and he will be a first-rank official!" The flattery made Yang Gao more and more complacent; but unexpectedly, at this moment, his eyes looked at the battlefield in front of him, and he asked, "Huh? Why didn't you see General Li Rumei?" What about people?" Left and right answered him: "General Li's army hasn't arrived yet—maybe it will arrive tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow? Wait until tomorrow, will there still be wars?" Ulsan is already at your fingertips, but Li Rumei can’t remember the achievements of this battle—he and Li Rumei have a very close personal relationship, and even formed a life-and-death friendship during the raid on the Mongolian fried flower camp. Thinking about it, I can’t help but It's a pity; however, another thought came up: "Forget it, these Japanese troops are no longer a thing, and it won't be too late to clean up when Rumei arrives tomorrow. In this way, Rumei also remembers to go Military achievement!" So, after making up his mind, he took two steps. First, he ordered Mao Guoqi to command the soldiers to kill the dead and injured heads of the Japanese army. In this way, the troops were distracted, and the offensive slowed down a little. Ming Jin was ordered to withdraw his troops; the reason was: "I can't attack for a long time, the men and horses are exhausted, and the sky is going to be dark. It is better to wait until tomorrow to attack!" He did not expect that the situation would change again in just one night—Kato Kiyomasa took advantage of this "breathing" opportunity to order the soldiers to repair the fence overnight and strengthen the defense; Weakened by this vent, unable to revive. The next day, when Li Rumei led the army to the battlefield, after several rounds of sprinting, they were unable to cut down the fence set up by Kato Kiyomasa. Yang Gao had to change his strategy: "The Japanese army is far away from the sea, and the food and supplies will inevitably run out. Our army adopts the strategy of encircling and cutting off their food aid, and the Japanese army will be defeated without fighting!" So the attack was changed to a siege, and troops were assigned to make the siege impenetrable. For ten days in a row, the siege of Kato Kiyomasa was extremely embarrassing. However, after ten days passed, the situation changed again—the Japanese army not only used Kato Kiyomasa all the way, but also Yang Gao used the main force to surround Ulsan, and stayed there for ten days without moving. —— The Japanese army stationed around Busan first seized this golden opportunity, and killed them quietly. Together with the navy, they formed a three-sided anti-encirclement, encircling the Ming army. The situation changed drastically overnight, and the Japanese flags were everywhere—— Yang Gao himself had no real talent or ability, let alone experienced any major events. After receiving the report from the left and right, he was taken aback immediately, his mind was in turmoil, and he lost all ideas. Before he could give the order, the left and right guards escorted him and ran away. As a result, the Ming army suddenly lost its commander, and under the attack of the enemy, it was of course in chaos. The whole army broke up and fled in all directions. A few days later, the remnants of the defeated generals reluctantly regrouped. When counting the number of people, the number of lost troops was as high as 20,000. Of course Yang Gao was ashamed, but he had no choice but to bite the bullet and go to see Xing Jie; but when he returned to Wang Jing, he had another idea in his mind: "There are so many dead and wounded, and the Holy Son of Heaven knows that Long Yan is a big man." Anger—forget it, it's 'the sky is high and the emperor is far' anyway, the emperor's holy eyes, and I have never seen this real battlefield—” He wanted to cover up defeat and win, so he even lied to Xing Jie, and even said that the number of casualties was "more than a hundred"; ——The Japanese army has been severely injured this time, our army only needs to rest for a few days before launching another attack, and we will be able to wipe out all the Japanese army with one blow!" At the same time, he reported to Xing Jie a series of battle situations and figures that had been tampered with by him. First of all, he honestly recorded the "Ulsan Great Victory" in his mouth as "more than 20,000 soldiers died in battle". Of course, the truth of the "big defeat" cannot be concealed, but Yang Hao refused to "admit his guilt and surrender", and he still struggled a lot. Wei Wei and Shen Yiguan wrote him a handwritten letter, and said without shame: "This department is the old guard of Zhang Ge, and even the face saint of the Golden Palace, so I have to bear some of it!" When this word reached Xing Jie's ears, he was so angry that he trembled all over: "If you don't justify the crime, you can rule the army? How can you convince the people?" He simply listed all of Yang Gao's evil and evil appearances in the memorial, and even wrote clearly about Yang Gao's recommendation of relying on his position, and his arrogance and madness in handwriting, together with "Ulsan's Great Defeat" Together with the battle reports, they flew back to Beijing with a fast transmission of 800 miles.