Chapter 6 Chapter Five

At nine o'clock in the morning on April 13th, the 20th year of Wanli. Zheng Bo, the envoy of Busan in North Korea's Lee Dynasty, just woke up from a hangover. He took three warships under his command to go hunting on Jueyeong Island near Busan Port yesterday. He had a good harvest, so he drank a little too much at night.At this time, some subordinates reported to him that a strange ship appeared in the distant sea area, but now the sea fog is very thick, and only a black shadow can be seen clearly, and the identity cannot be identified. Zheng Po counted the days, thinking that the Japanese New Year's dispatch ship was late, so he didn't care, and still washed and had breakfast in a leisurely manner.Suddenly, there was a roar from the opposite ship.Zheng shook his head, and immediately sobered up most of the wine.

He was also considered a veteran, and immediately recognized the sound of firecrackers firing.Although from such a distance, the firecracker has no effect on his own ship, but the meaning it represents is very terrifying-it is obviously impossible for ordinary people to have firepower of this scale.The inexplicably terrified Zheng Bo ignored the danger and boarded the ship to look from a distance, and then he froze. What gradually came out of the sea mist was not one ship, nor two ships, but countless warships.When all the history books talked about this period, they all used the same sentence: "Come from the sea."

Soon, the Eagle Peak Beacon Tower on Gade Island near Busan was burning with smoke, indicating that the watchtower had also observed the enemy's situation.In an instant, the entire vicinity of Busan was full of smoke, and the news of the Japanese pirates' attack was transmitted in panic. The exact number of the Japanese fleet that Zheng Po witnessed was 400 ships, almost half of the Japanese navy's combat power.These ships carried the First Army of Invasion of the North, a total of 18,000 people. When I wrote the words "coming from the sea", "seven hundred ships", and "eighteen thousand people", for some reason, it suddenly reminded me of a Korean movie "Huangshan Expedition" I watched before.There is a plot in it. Two North Korean soldiers report to the king that the Tang army is coming. The two first say how many ships the Tang army has, and how many soldiers are in each ship, and then say: The total is... yes... Next The two of them stretched out their four hands, counted N times with twenty fingers, looked at each other and counted eyes after counting, and finally shouted at the same time: "That's countless!"

At that time, I was very surprised by the design of this plot, and there were many nonsensical jokes similar to Zhou Xingchi style.Because, this is a very serious patriotic movie with the main theme. In a movie of this theme and style, there are so many nonsensical and funny plots mixed in, which makes me feel extremely weird.It's just that when I found out that there were countless incidents that gave me this feeling in the process of what North Korea called the War to Protect the Country, I speculated that this might be some kind of their tradition. Commander-in-Chief of the First Army of the Japanese Invading Army, Konishi Yukio, is now standing on the bow of the ship with "countless" elite soldiers.Looking at Zheng Bo's ship in the distance and Busan Port in the distance, he was full of excitement.After Xiao Nishi was a businessman in Sakai Port, it is said that he would have no chance of getting ahead in his life.Fortunately, he met Hideyoshi and was appreciated by him. With his diplomatic skills, he made his way to the top and became the lord of the land of 240,000 koku in the Higo Kingdom before he set off.

For the son of a medicine merchant, 240,000 shi of land is already a remarkable achievement, but for the confidant of the great Taige, it is too narrow.President Konishi believes that with his merits and talents, he should have more land.Now this plump continent is slowly opening up to him, and he can hold it in his hands with a single step, President Xiaonishi can't wait any longer. Standing beside Chief Konishi is his son-in-law, Yoshitomo Mune, the owner of Tsushima Island.Under Hideyoshi's command, this pair of Weng sons-in-law are in charge of foreign trade negotiations all the year round, and they are very familiar with the situation in North Korea.So Hideyoshi sent them as a vanguard army to undertake the most difficult landing mission and to test the reality of the Korean army.

President Konishi didn't care about the difficulties Pioneer was about to face.As a businessman, he understands that high risk brings high reward.If he successfully opens the door of North Korea as a pioneer this time, he will get extremely rich benefits.The little Busan in front of him is just the first stepping stone for his success. Thinking of this, President Xiaoxi waved his military fan and gave the order to advance. Seeing the overwhelming number of Japanese warships coming from all over the world, Zheng Bo already understood what was going on: it turned out that the Japanese invasion that the imperial court had been discussing was true.He didn't care about complaining about those ministers in the court, and immediately ordered to turn the rudder back to the city.He knew that the Japanese had been planning for a long time, and they had no chance of winning by relying on their own three ships. Returning to Busan City and defending it was the only choice.

In fact, there were already signs of war in the city of Busan the day before.Usually there are many Japanese businessmen in the Wakan in Busan, but they all disappeared strangely yesterday, leaving only four people staying behind.Now that Zheng Po thinks back, it should be a sign of the army's attack.Unfortunately, it is too late to regret now. Seeing that the North Koreans had been completely intimidated, Governor Konishi ordered the whole team to turn around and start looking for a suitable landing site.The terrain of Busan is surrounded by mountains on three sides, facing the sea on one side, and the coast is mostly sandy beaches. The average tidal range does not exceed 1.3 meters, and there are many places suitable for landing.The Konishi Fleet finally found a suitable landing site at around 5:00 p.m., less than four kilometers away from Busan City.

A large number of soldiers climbed off the Guan boat and the Anzhai boat, transferred to the small morning boat, and rushed to the coastline like locusts.When the first soldier was approaching the beach, he couldn't wait to jump off the boat, wading through the water, and yelling, he landed on North Korean land. In this way, the Japanese army finally took the first step to set foot on North Korea.It will be seven years before the last of their warriors leaves the land. Seeing such a huge lineup of Japanese troops, Zheng Po was terrified.Facing the landing of the Japanese army under his nose, he did not make any harassment, but closed the city gate tightly and prepared the defense equipment.After landing, President Xiaoxi was not in a hurry to launch an attack. Instead, he built a camp and was busy unloading all the supplies on the big ship.During the busy break, Zong Yizhi, an old acquaintance of the Korean people, and Monk Xuansu jointly sent a letter to Zheng Po.This time, the two of them no longer accompanied the smiling faces as before, but demanded him to open the city and surrender immediately.

Zheng Po refused.Although he is a man of integrity, he would never be able to do such a thing as surrendering to the Japanese pirates. After the request was rejected, the Japanese did not continue to force Zheng to dial, and began to concentrate on unloading near the landing site all night.In order to prevent the residents of the city from rioting, Zheng Bo blocked the news of the Japanese pirates' attack, and ordered the band to play and sing to calm the morale of the army. So after both sides spent a sleepless night, in the early morning of the next day, large groups of Japanese troops began to attack Busan Pucheng.The main attacking general is Zong Yizhi. He has been working for the Japan-North Korea alliance for the past few years, and has been repeatedly looked down upon by the North Koreans. Now he can finally vent his anger.

Zheng Bo is a respectable general.He personally took Shishi, wore black armor, and commanded the defense of the city on the front line.His actions inspired all the soldiers defending the city.In the initial siege battle, the Japanese army made no progress and suffered heavy casualties under the sharp bows and arrows of the Koreans. But the advantage quickly switched. An army must never be without morale, but sometimes morale is not everything.What determines the situation of the battle is also experience and technical equipment. Japan has just gone through the Warring States Period, and has accumulated a lot of combat experience in how to cage the city, which is not comparable to the long-awaited Korean army.

From the perspective of equipment, the North Korean army guarding the city was covered with leather armor and iron helmets on their heads. Apart from traditional cold weapons, the main weapons were only more than 1,000 home-made Shengzi copper fire blunderbusses.This kind of old firecracker is very inconvenient to operate, has a slow rate of fire, and is easy to explode, so it can only be used as an auxiliary for infantry. In the battle sequence of the Japanese army, the core force is the Iron Cannon Squad.The new-style matchlock guns in their hands came from the Portuguese. After years of unremitting improvement, they have surpassed their teachers. They are easy to operate, have a long range, and have great lethality.During this expedition to North Korea, Hideyoshi almost ransacked all the iron cannons in Japan.As the vanguard of the first army, President Konishi received the highest priority. He equipped the army with a large number of experienced iron artillery units, which became an extremely sharp samurai sword in his hands. Japanese castles are still unable to resist this powerful weapon, let alone a small Pusan ​​Pucheng? In addition to these things, Chief Xiaonishi also brought a batch of large cylinders and stone fire arrows.From the beginning of the siege, these hot weapons were set up on the highlands on the west side of Pusan ​​Pucheng, condescending and bombarding and roaring continuously.For this reason, Zheng Po had to go to guard Ximen himself. The only advantage the Koreans have is their bows and arrows.Although the power of bows and arrows is limited, Busanpo's city walls and good marksmanship make up for this deficiency.In order to attack the city, the Japanese army had to get close to attack, and as soon as they approached the city, they would be repelled by the dense rain of arrows. It's a pity that this advantage soon disappeared, because the arrows were shot out. The Japanese army realized the plight of the North Korean defenders and attacked more violently.Especially the artillery positions on the west side of Busan caused great damage to the city.The North Korean defenders were already few soldiers, but at this time they were out of bows and arrows, which made things worse.The siege continued until noon, and several city gates were already in jeopardy. In desperation, Zheng Bo climbed to the top of the city, trying to boost morale again.His black armor caught the attention of the Japanese shooters, and soon dozens of iron cannons opened fire in this direction.Zheng Bo died of several bullets and became the first senior general of North Korea to be killed in the Imjin War. With the death of the commander in chief, the defenders had no leader, and their morale immediately collapsed.After Busan Cheng persisted for half a day, he was finally knocked on the door. Busan is the gateway to North Korea. After taking it, it is tantamount to gaining a firm foothold in North Korea.Zongyi attacked Pusan ​​intelligently and made the first contribution to the invasion of the dynasty. With a victor's mentality, he praised Zheng Bo's bravery in dying in the city, but he connived at the soldiers under his command to massacre the city.For a time, blood flowed into rivers in the city of Busan, women and children died, nearly 30,000 people died, and the city was almost empty.Those who were lucky enough to survive were all taken captive by the Japanese onto the ship. Almost at the same time when Busan fell, the towns of Seopyong and Daepo near Busan were also attacked by Japanese troops.After a fierce battle, Yin Xingxin, the guard of the University of Technology, died in battle, and both sides fell into the enemy's hands.Among the senior generals in the entire Pusan ​​defense line, only Zuo Li made Li Jue see the opportunity early and ran all the way into Donglai City. The fall of the two towns of Xiping and Dadu will protect the wings of Busan.President Xiaoxi was relieved when he suddenly thought of one thing.At that time, North Korea stationed a naval force and several naval camps on Geoje Island near Busan, with more than 100 warships.It has become a corner with Busan.There was such a big commotion in Busan, where did the sailors go? If these future troubles are not eliminated, the army must not advance lightly.President Xiaoxi was a little worried and sent someone to inquire.This inquiry revealed the second biggest joke in the entire history of the Renchen War. It turned out that as early as when the Japanese army crossed the sea, Yuan Jun, the envoy of Gyeongsangdo Zuoshui in Geoje Island, had already noticed it.But when he poked his head a little, he was frightened back by the Japanese warships covering the sky and the sun.Yuan Jun knew that the Japanese army would definitely attack Busan first.Once Busan is broken, the Japanese army will inevitably sweep the nearby water army camps, paving the way for the follow-up troops. Thinking of this, Yuan Jun was covered in cold sweat.He didn't notify Busan, and he didn't notify his fleet to prepare for war. He only let his subordinate Yuhou guard the camp on Geoje Island, and went to Baichuan Temple near the sea side of Busan to investigate the enemy's situation. Ordinarily, there was nothing wrong with his move.But at this time, Yuan Jun, before meeting the enemy, was like a frightened bird, terrified all day long.When he arrived at Baichuan Temple, he saw several sails passing by in the sea, which seemed to be slowly approaching Juji, and he was immediately dumbfounded. The lineup of the Japanese army crossing the sea the day before had irritated Yuan Jun too much. He couldn't imagine what he would do if such a large army surrounded Geoje. Faced with this situation, if Yuan Jun is a loyal general, he will probably choose to die for his country like Zheng Bo; if he is a wise general or a brave general, he will actively think about strategies to reverse the disadvantages; if he is a mediocre general , at least know how to pull the anchor and retreat.As long as the green hills remain, we are not afraid of running out of firewood. As long as the main force of the fleet is still there, there will always be a day of revenge. It was true that Yuan Jun planned to run away, but before he did, he made an incredible decision. He ordered to scuttle more than a hundred warships under his command, and sink them into the sea together with the firearms on board. This is a decision that confuses Chinese, Korean, and Japanese historians. Although in a crisis situation, the commander can destroy strategic materials on the spot to prevent the enemy from obtaining them.But this is not food, not luggage, but a boat, a boat that can go by itself.If you can't beat it, you can escape by boat, right? But Yuan Jun chose the stupidest self-destruction.With the enemy in front of him and no battle yet, he hastily abolished his martial arts. I really don't know what motive came from it.Yuan Jun was not a traitor, but he personally destroyed nearly one-third of the North Korean fleet, and contributed more to the Japanese army than a hundred traitors. After Yuan Jun scuttled all the ships, only four ships and two lieutenants remained.These two lieutenants have good names: one is Li Yingnan, a female swordsman from Shushan; The three of them fled overnight to Lulianghai. Yuan Jun was afraid that the Japanese would catch up and block him at sea, so he decided to land at Kunyang Haikou.This decision was opposed by Li Yunlong.Li Yunlong believes that the situation on land is unclear and more dangerous than at sea.He volunteered, took a small boat to Yeosu Port in Jeolla Province, went to join Yi Sunshin, the left water envoy of Jeolla Province, and asked him to come to meet him. At about the same time, Park Hong, the left envoy of Gyeongsangdo in Busan City, also left the city.The two water envoys on the left and one on the right can really be called "Two Walls of Escape". After Yuan Jun sank and abandoned the island, panic spread throughout Geoje Island like a plague, and rumors of Japanese troops landing in Geoje were flying everywhere.Marquis Yu, who was staying in the camp, couldn't keep safe, so he drove all the young, old and young on the island out of the town and fled towards the mainland.In order to seize the road, Marquis Yu even shot arrows indiscriminately, killing two pregnant women on the spot. There is no need to mention the misery along the way.The common people cried for their fathers and mothers for a while, and it was extremely chaotic.The chaos even spread to Nanhae Island west of Geoje Island. When the county magistrate Ki Xiaojin heard that the Japanese army was attacking, he hurriedly set the warehouse on fire, turned around and ran away. Not only the Koreans were in chaos, but even the Japanese were puzzled.At that time, the Japanese naval forces went all out to transport troops and supplies across the sea to the vicinity of Busan, and there was no spare power to deal with Geoje Island.Why did they run away without firing a single shot? It was later learned that the culprit who led to the self-sinking and sinking of the entire Juji Navy and the escape of the commander was not the Japanese, but the nearby North Korean fishing boats.These fishing boats are still fishing in the waters between Geoje and Busan without knowing that the fighting has started.Poor Yuan Jun was like a frightened bird at the time, and because of his poor eyesight, he mistook Feng Jing for Ma Liang, which caused the second biggest joke of the Imchen War. The level of absurdity is astonishing. When we analyzed Hideyoshi, we once said that a historical figure often makes some unreasonable and absurd actions. Sometimes these absurdities cannot be explained from objective factors, but can only be analyzed psychologically. Yuan Jun actually has his own logic.This person is cowardly, timid, and extremely afraid of death, but he is also well versed in officialdom and how to protect himself. He knew that if he just took a fleet and retreated to Yeosu to join forces with Yi Sun-shin, it would undoubtedly be the best choice militarily, but it would be the worst outcome politically.Especially when Zheng Ba died in battle, people will naturally compare him with Zheng Ba, and those boring officials will keep impeaching themselves, and regard themselves as the fertilizer for their official reputation. It doesn't work to fight hard and then run.The scale of the Japanese navy is too large, and Yuan Jun not only has no confidence in victory, but even has no confidence in his ability to escape smoothly.In case the two fleets are strangled in one place, the chances of being captured and killed are too high. For Yuan Jun, the highest goal is not to defend his family and country, but to survive, so he chose the seemingly stupid path that is actually the safest. After the fleet sank, Yuan Jun no longer threatened the Japanese army, and the Japanese army lost interest in him; as for the court's questioning, he could justifiably justify it, saying that I was doing this to prevent the Japanese army from capturing our ships. It was a wonderful move for him to throw himself at Li Sunchen.If he landed in panic and returned to the capital, he would definitely be taken as a scapegoat for Busan's defeat, but if he went to defect to Yi Sun-shin, the impression given to the court was that this man had been defeated and fought repeatedly, and was unyielding. From Yuan Jun's later career, it can be seen that this move is wise for him personally.After he sank, he justifiably led the "remnant army" and "joined forces" with Yi Sun-shin to continue the "war of resistance", and the court did not punish him in any way. In contrast, another Zuoshui envoy, Pu Hong, landed in a hurry and fled all the way. When he reached the Linjin River, he was beheaded by Marshal Jin Mingyuan, who was supervising the battle.Comparing the two, you will know how wise and powerful Yuan Jun is. Since then, relying on his own cunning, he has been safely hiding behind Yi Sun-shin, constantly using the latter's meritorious service to decorate himself, and his official position has risen all the way, even overshadowing Yi Sun-shin, and once replaced him in the North Korean navy. Status——Yes, this is the biggest joke in the entire Imchen War, surpassing the joke of Yuan Jun's self-sinking ship.This is a later story, so I won't show it for the time being. Besides, the victory in the first battle made Konishi very excited. On the second day after he broke through Pusan, Seopyeong, and Daepo, that is, on April 15th, he directed his troops to Dongnae, not far northeast of Busan. Taking advantage of the prestige of victory, the Japanese army rushed to Donglai City. Zong Yizhi wrote a wooden sign and sent it into the city, with nine words written boldly on it: "If you fight, you will fight; if you don't fight, you will lie. "The arrogance is arrogant, probably because he wants to learn from Genghis Khan's demeanor of "If you want to fight, you will fight." At that time, in Donglai City, in addition to Song Xiangxian, the envoy of the government, there were also Pu Hong, the envoy of Zuoshui, and Li Jue, the envoy of Zuobing, two senior officials who fled into the city.But these two people were in constant fear and didn't dare to make decisions at all.The government envoy Song Xiangxian was a stubborn man, so he took a pen and wrote a wooden sign and sent it back, which said: "It is easy to die in battle, but difficult to lie." The momentum is even more powerful. Pu Hong and Li Jue knew that he was planning to defend to the death, and they thought that I had finally escaped from Busan, so I couldn't die here in vain.The two of them told Song Xiangxian that guarding the city cannot be done alone, and they are willing to lead the army and be each other's horns outside.Song Xiangxian wanted to persuade them to stay, but unfortunately these two had made up their minds and led the people away from the city without looking back. After the two left the city, they didn't even bother to put on a horned posture, and fled westward without saying a word.Li Jue was still a little ashamed, and hid in the nearby Su Mountain, while Park Hong simply ran to Gyeongju in the rear. At 7 a.m. on April 15, the main force of the Japanese army officially set off from Busan, arrived in Dongnae after 9 a.m., and began to attack the city from the mountain behind the city.Before the siege, I don't know who came up with the idea, but also made a puppet, wearing a red dress, a blue scarf on the head, a red flag behind the back, and a sword tied around the waist.The Japanese carried the dolls on bamboo poles and circled around the city, scaring the people in the city so much that they cried loudly. It was a brutal and swift siege.Dongnae is too small, not as tall and thick as Busan City, and it is crowded with fleeing civilians; Song Xiangxian is full of enthusiasm, but lacks military talent; in addition, Park Hong and Li Jue have taken away a large number of soldiers, and the troops left behind are distracted.The combination of these reasons made Donglai City's ending without any suspense, and it was quickly captured.The time to persist before and after is less than an hour... When the Japanese army entered the city, they found Song Xiangxian in court uniform, neatly dressed, sitting on a bed, calmly dying.Before he died, he left a sixteen-character last words: "The lonely city is haloed by the moon, the counties are disintegrated, the righteousness of the monarch and his ministers is heavy, and the kindness of father and son is light." His calmness moved Zong Yizhi, and he personally found out the Japanese army who killed Song Xiangxian. Soldiers, kill and sacrifice—the historical authenticity of this is doubtful, because the Japanese army is used to hypocrisy, and the Koreans like to beautify officials who died in the city infinitely. There will be many such legends in the future. Zheng Ba and Song Xiangxian, Yuan Jun, Park Hong, and Li Jue, these two groups of officials happened to represent the two typical endings of Korean military and political officials in the early days of the Imjin War: they either died in a heroic battle, or they were defeated thousands of miles away. But no matter whether these officials' personal character is loyalty, bravery or cowardice, it has been unable to change North Korea's tragic fate during this period.The bloody victory of the Battle of Busan aroused the ferocious beastliness of the Japanese war dog, and soon lightning and thunderbolts would fall three thousand miles away.