Chapter 26 Chapter 5 Pursuit

After the military parade, Li Yan specially sent an envoy to ask Liu Zhen: Do you have the confidence to fight the Japanese?Liu Ting patted his chest and said proudly: "I have been fighting with my father since I was thirteen years old. I fought countless battles with barbarians and took countless foreigners as slaves. Although the people I brought here this time were only more than 5,000, But they are amphibious, and the Japanese pirates are no match at all. Besides, I have also done research on Japan. In April and May, there is a favorable wind. After these two months, even if they want to go back, they will not be able to go back. How can they listen to the Japanese pirates? What if you don't fight the fraudulent words?"

Li Yan liked to hear this, and hurriedly urged Liu Zhen to join the army.As a result, Liu Chen stretched out two fingers: "I really want to enter the army early, but there are two reasons why I can't do this." Li Yan asked which two? One is Song Yingchang and the other is Li Rusong. Liu Ting said very clearly: "Jinglue does not order you to advance. Jinglue has both the main soldier here and the admiral. Although I want to do something, I can't be free...Although I want to fight, I am not only disobeying the general's order, but I am afraid of rebelling against Li. Admiral." It's no problem to march in, but it will offend two people at once, one is the Supreme Commander of the Korean Theater and the other is the Deputy Defense Minister.No matter how belligerent Liu Ting was, he would never engage in such a loss-making business.

If you don't march, what should you do?I have to wait. So the North Korean monarchs and ministers headed by Li Yan, surrounded by Siamese soldiers, waited sadly and depressed for the news ahead. There are two flowers, one for each.At about the same time that Liu Ting led his troops into the court, the Ming delegation led by Shen Weijing arrived in Seoul. President Xiaonishi who was in charge of the reception was overjoyed when Shen Weijing really brought the two angels Xie Yongzi and Xu Yiguan, thinking that he could finally give Hideyoshi an explanation.Without delay, he immediately sent someone to escort them to Busan Port, where Xie and Xu will board the ship, change ships via Tsushima Island, and head to Nagoya.And Shen Weijing will stay in Busan, taking on the important task of intermediary liaison and hostage.

Now that Daming had sent envoys as promised, according to the agreement, it was the Japanese side's turn to withdraw from Seoul to show their sincerity. The Japanese were quick to do things, picked up their luggage and left without saying a word.On April 18, the main force of the Japanese army officially withdrew from Seoul and retreated toward the eastern coast of North Korea—not because the Japanese army was so trustworthy, but because they had had enough of the hard life in Seoul and wished they could leave one day sooner. After the Japanese army left Seoul, they first marched quickly for two days, and then traveled thirty to forty miles a day.

The Japanese and Ming armies had already developed quite intensive contact before this, and they were well aware of each other's movements.As soon as the Japanese army withdrew, the Ming army immediately noticed it.The Japanese army began to leave Seoul on the 18th, and Li Rusong also set off in Pyongyang at the same time. On the 19th, he led his troops to Dongpo Station near Kaesong. The next day, they ran non-stop all day, and entered the deserted Seoul before sunset.Yoo Sung-ryong, Kim Myung-won and the North Korean army followed closely behind. On April 20th in the 21st year of Wanli, after being occupied for nearly a year, Seoul returned to the allied forces of the Ming and Dynasties again.

Before the fall, Seoul was the largest city on the Korean peninsula, rich and prosperous. Although it was slightly inferior to China, it was better than most cities in Japan at the same time.But when the coalition forces of the Ming and Dynasties entered Seoul, what they saw was a hell on earth. At this time, there are very few remaining residents in Seoul, and the whole city is like a ghost town.Most of the buildings in the city—including the ancestral temple, the bell tower, and various departments and schools—were burned to nothing, leaving only ruins.The few survivors were all yellow and thin, wandering the streets like ghosts.The streets were littered with corpses. Under the sunshine of April, these corpses exploded and rotted in the sun, exuding the smell of corpses, permeating the entire city.The whole city of Seoul was turned into a huge mortuary, only a few Pyongan Taoist monks silently packed up the corpses and carried them to the big pit in the east of the city for burial.

I don't know how malicious the occupying army must be to ruin such a prosperous city into this look.Judging from the Japanese brutality against Seoul, they never seriously thought about how to digest an occupied area and implement effective rule, they acted entirely on the greed of beasts.Under the colonization policy of the "Eight Ways of the Nation", they burned, killed and looted like a group of nomads without any scruples. It can only be said that these people have nothing in their minds except killing. Of course, we can't criticize these beasts, after all, after hundreds of years, the descendants of these beasts still haven't learned even a little lesson from their ancestors.

After Liu Rulong, Jin Mingyuan and others entered the city, they were shocked by the tragedy in front of them.They rolled off their horses and wept bitterly in front of the ruins of the Jongmyo Temple. The shame of subjugation made these North Korean ministers heartbroken.Liu Chenglong suddenly thought that a few years ago, a person who knew Feng Shui told him that he had observed a corpse aura of Yinghuo criminals in the sky above Seoul, which was a harbinger of the chaos.Yinghuo refers to Mars, which is regarded as a sign of disasters; Corpse Qi is an open star cluster located in the constellation of Cancer. The ancients called it Corpse Qi because of its obscure shape and belonging to the ghosts in the twenty-eight constellations. .It is considered a bad omen for Yinghuo criminals to accumulate corpse energy.

After Liu Chenglong and the others finished crying, they joined hands to find Li Rusong.At this time, Li Rusong camped in a princess mansion, which is one of the few complete buildings left in Seoul.When Liu Chenglong and others saw Li Rusong, they knelt down and said to him that the Japanese had just retreated, and they should not have gone far, so they should pursue immediately, and they should chase after the poor. Li Rusong actually didn't want to pursue at all. Seoul had already been captured, and the peace envoy was on his way. If the Ming army pursued him at this time, he might be labeled as "breaking the peace" by the Japanese. Song Yingchang and Yuan Huang would surely Take the opportunity to impeach yourself.

But when he entered the city, he also saw the tragic situation in Seoul. Looking at this group of North Korean ministers whose eyes were red from crying, he didn't dare to find a reason and dismiss them as usual.Li Rusong hurriedly helped Liu Chenglong up, and said softly: "I really want to pursue, but there are no boats on the Han River right now." Liu Chenglong hurriedly said that we will handle this matter, so don't worry, Li Rusong nodded and said, "Very good, let's do it this way." Li Rusong had a plan in his mind: when the Japanese army retreated, they would take all the boats with them, and the Koreans would definitely not be able to organize a large fleet within two or three days, so the responsibility for not pursuing them would not have to fall on him.

Unexpectedly, Liu Chenglong was very lucky. He left Seoul that day and searched all the way along the Han River. He happened to meet Li Ping, the envoy of the Right Superintendent of Gyeonggi, Cheng Yongshui.Li Ping has always been active on the Han River. In the battle of Xingju last month, he still sent a large amount of supplies to Quan Li through the waterway. Liu Chenglong got more than 80 boats from Li Ping, and happily returned to Seoul to repay the credit to Li Rusong.When Li Rusong heard this, he regretted that he had talked too much before, and it was not easy to play tricks, so he sent Li Rubai and ten thousand people as the vanguard to board the boat by the Han River. Li Rubai commanded the Ming army to board the ship on the Han River, and it was already dark when they boarded halfway.Liu Chenglong was about to persuade him to continue boarding the ship, but Li Rubai suddenly lay down on the ground, complaining that his feet hurt and he had to go back to the city to see a doctor.Before Liu Chenglong could stop him, he was carried back to Seoul by several servants.As soon as the general left, the soldiers under him refused to move forward.Those Ming soldiers who had already set foot on the other side of the Han River clamored and retreated. Liu Chenglong didn't expect Li Rusong to play such a trick, he was shocked and angry, but there was nothing he could do.It just so happened that Quan Li also led the army into Seoul at this time, Liu Chenglong explained the whole story, and Quan Li explained that the army would not pursue, so let's go by ourselves. So Quan Li mobilized his army overnight, ready to go out of the city to pursue.This movement of the Korean army was sent to Li Rusong verbatim.Li Rusong had heard of Quan Li's name, and knew that if this famous general pursued him personally, it would be difficult for the Japanese to please him.In case the Japanese are defeated, it will be hard to talk about the peace talks. So he sent Qi Jin, a guerrilla general, to control the ferry boats and prevent the North Koreans from crossing the river.After Qi Jin got the order, he invited Quan Li to the camp, and asked him face to face: "Admiral Li hasn't arranged for you yet, so why did you act without authorization?" Quan Li replied that it was our duty to pursue the Japanese army. , I haven't been notified to my level yet. Qi Jin was speechless, so he had to keep his mouth shut, staring at Quan Li so hard that he couldn't move. It was Song Yingchang who finally helped them resolve this deadlock.Song Yingchang had already arrived in Pyongyang at this time, and he sent a message to the frontline in Seoul, asking the frontline soldiers to chase down the Japanese pirates, and let the North Korean army coordinate their advance.In addition to urging the pursuit on land, Song Yingchang also issued a special order on April 29, requiring the North Korean navy to attack across the board and burn all Japanese ships along the Yangsan, Dongnae, Busan, and Nakdong Rivers. Strange, didn't Song Yingchang also advocate peace talks?Why dare to openly send troops to pursue, not afraid of being accused of disrupting the peace? This is because the two people have completely different starting points for peace talks. After Li Rusong's great victory in Pyongyang, not only did he not end up with anything good, but he was watched by the North Korean monarchs and ministers in all directions, as well as by several Japanese troops and horses. Ben, the indiscriminate killing of innocents and other lawsuits have settled his head. In addition, the soldiers and horses of the Liaodong Army committed horse plague, and the people did not have enough to eat. This domestic and foreign difficulties are more tiring than fighting. He is willing to continue the fight; while Song Yingchang is using peace talks to delay time and strive for a greater initiative in the war situation.Now that the peace talks have just started, and the envoys have not yet arrived in Japan, it is not certain that the talks will be successful. If you don't take the opportunity to expand the results at this time, let alone when. More importantly, Liu Ting and Liu Dadao followed Song Yingchang to Pyongyang.This can be regarded as Song Yingchang's direct descendant. It was a pity if he finally entered the court once and did not make any achievements.When Liu Ting first entered North Korea, he had a strong desire to fight.When he heard that Li Rusong was hesitant to move forward, he gave a very disdainful pooh, saying that Li Rusong was too incompetent, if this opportunity was lost, it would be useless to send another million elite soldiers. Song Yingchang made some deployments in Pyongyang, including 3,000 Zhejiang troops under Wu Weizhong and Luo Shangzhi's troops under Liu Ting's command.In this way, from top to bottom, this army is directly descended from the Song Dynasty, and it is an out-and-out bloodline of the southern soldiers, becoming an army independent of Li Rusong's Liaodong lineage. Under Yuan Huang's plan, Liu Ting led the 7,000 men to advance eastward at a rapid pace, bypassing Seoul, chasing to the Niaoling area of ​​Zhongzhou, and finally caught up with the tail of the Japanese army. Niaoling is the dividing line between Gyeongsang-do and Gyeonggi-do. It is a very steep mountain, connected only by a narrow Caoliang road in the middle.When the Japanese army attacked last year, the North Korean army abandoned this place, so Yukyo Konishi and Kiyomasa Kato passed through and entered the Gyeonggi area.Now that the Japanese army is retreating through this place, they will naturally not make the same mistake. They have set up heavy guards here to cover the retreat of the main force. After Liu Ting arrived, he found that Caoliang Road was too narrow to deploy troops at all.Seeing that the terrain was really unfavorable to the attackers, he didn't want to attack by force, so he started a confrontation with the Japanese army. The Japanese army adopted the method of "spreading and resting" and retreating. When one legion was cut off, the other legions moved forward. After marching for a while, another legion was set up to defend.Such an alternate advance, although the speed is very slow, but the safety factor is very high, and it will not be suddenly attacked by the coalition forces of the Ming Dynasty and the North Korea. The Japanese defenders of Choliang Road guarded for a day, and they retreated slowly after the main force arrived at Shanshan.Hearing the news, Liu Ting immediately led his troops to chase after him, only to find that the Japanese army had set up a defensive position at Wenqing at the foot of Niaoling Mountain, just in time to meet the defenders of Caoliangdao, and retreated alternately from battalion to battalion.Liu Ting found that the Japanese defense had no flaws, so he had to follow from afar, all the way to Daegu, and then he fought a serious battle. Daegu was the scheduled end point of the Japanese army's retreat. They originally planned to confront the Ming army here, but soon found that this idea was too optimistic.When the Japanese defenders saw the siege team of the Ming army, their morale was immediately lost. Half of the Ming army under the city wore red uniforms, which was the symbol of the Southern soldiers.The southern soldiers in Pyongyang City were famous, and their vicious reputation had already spread throughout the Japanese army. Seeing these legendary strongmen, the Japanese army’s fighting spirit was frightened by 50% at first; A dark-skinned, weird-looking man, holding a weird weapon in his hand, frightened 50% of the morale of the Japanese army. Such a battle could not be fought, the morale of the Japanese army collapsed directly, and they withdrew from Daegu overnight, while the Ming army invaded the city without bloodshed. But when Liu Ting reached Daegu, he couldn't move anymore.After Li Rusong's army arrived, he asked him in a strange voice why he didn't continue to fight. Liu Ting pointed at the North Korean coast and said how to fight? Although Li Rusong didn't really want to continue beating, he still took a deep breath when he saw it. What they saw was a dark castle. It turns out that with Busan as the center, the Japanese built a series of castles from Ulsan, Seosangpo to Dongnae, Gimhae, Xiongchuan, and Geoje Island. These castles are connected end to end, and they are all built in dangerous places. There are six castles, numerous small fortresses, and the specifications are all built according to the standards of Japanese castles, which are very strong. The site selection of these castles is quite meaningful.From Busan to the inland of North Korea, there are only three roads in total. One goes to Ulsan, one goes to Dongnae, and the other goes to Gimhae. Together with the two coastal throats of Xiongchuan and Geoje, Busan's water and land transportation network is formed.Building castles in these hubs is equivalent to building an external three-dimensional defense line for Busan Port. If you retreat, you can stick to it and wait for reinforcements, and if you advance, you can launch a counterattack at any time. The Japanese made their attitude very clear. Daegu is the bottom line for our retreat. We can no longer retreat. We must keep the landing site of Busan no matter what.As long as the Port of Busan is still there, even if the entire army is withdrawn to Japan, there is still a chance to fight back. The decision to build Wacheng began to be implemented in July of the Renchen year.At that time, Yi sun-shin was so active that the Japanese sea route was almost cut off, and the Japanese navy was helpless. Hideyoshi deeply felt the threat of the Korean navy, so he issued a fortification order to build eleven main cities and seven castles in Pusan ​​Port and the surrounding Gadeo Island, Geoje Island, Shiki Island, onshore capes and surrounding areas. Zhicheng, trying to use this to curb Li Sunshin's harassment of the land.Later, this plan was adjusted, and the traffic arteries around Busan—such as Seosangpo, Gijang, Dongnae, and Ulsan—were also included in the plan, and finally formed the current scale. At that time, Japan had two technologies that were at the forefront of East Asia, one was the manufacture of iron cannons, and the other was fortification.The long Warring States War prompted Japan to embark on a militarized fortification route.The Japanese-style castle is composed of a series of defensive facilities such as castle towers, oars, gates, curved wheels, and earth barriers. Every detail reflects the idea of ​​maximizing defense. Take the Japanese city of Xishengpu as an example.The castle was built on the top of the mountain near Ulsan Bay, surrounded by three stone walls, the walls are six meters high, and they all slope in the opposite direction.There are also trenches around.In the Maru Castle behind each wall, there are a large number of shooting holes, which can attack the enemies of the besieged city from a condescending height.But the enemy can't directly touch the castle, and can only advance hard along the winding wall passages.Easy to defend but difficult to attack. Those responsible for the construction of these Japanese cities are all craftsmen drawn from various legions—especially the second legion.Although Kato Kiyoshi is a brave general, he is actually quite good at building castles. He once designed Kumamoto Castle, which is known as one of the three famous cities in the world.This time, Kato Kiyomasa, as the only senior engineer in the Japanese army stationed in North Korea, spent a lot of thought on the construction of Wacheng in Gyeongsang-do.These ruins of the Japanese city are still there today, and they are so strong that they are outrageous. After the Japanese army retreated to the Pusan ​​defense system, they were stationed in castles in various places.Kato Kiyomasa was stationed in Ulsan and Sesangpo on the northern line; Konishi Yukata was stationed in Kumacheon near Busan; Kobayakawa Takakage was stationed in Geoje Island; Facing the stern battle of the Japanese army, the Ming army stopped advancing.Li Rusong and Liu Ting had never seen such castles before, but they were not fools, and they could estimate at a glance how many casualties the Ming army would have to pay to conquer these castles. At this time, the front-line strength of the Ming army was only in the early 50,000s, and except for the Sichuan army, all the veterans were exhausted, especially the Liaodong army, which lost 80 to 90% of their horses, and their people were starved to death.To fight a siege battle with the Japanese army city by city in such a state and with no dominant force is tantamount to suicide. What's more troublesome is that as the Japanese army retreated in great strides and the coalition forces of the Ming and Dynasties made great strides forward, the strengths and weaknesses of the two sides' supplies also quietly changed.The supply line of the Ming army was stretched longer, and the transfer was more difficult. However, the Japanese army was backed by the sea and was very close to Tsushima Island. As long as Yi Sun-shin did not come out to make trouble, the supplies of the invading army could be continuously transported from the sea. In response to this defensive posture of the Japanese army, the Ming army decided to suspend the offensive and made a man-to-man strategic deployment: Wu Weizhong stationed troops in Shanshan Fengxi County, Luo Shangzhi, Wang Bidi, and Song Dabin stationed in Gyeongju and Namwon to monitor Kato in Ulsan Qingzheng; Li Ning, Zu Chengxun, and Ge Fengxia of the Liaodong Army stationed in Juchang, Qingshangnan Road, guarding the upper reaches of the Dongjiang River;This troop deployment happened to be located on the route of the Japanese army's three-pronged advance, which sent a clear message to the Japanese: "I can't get in, and you don't want to get out." The Koreans did a good job this time, and they stopped clamoring for the Ming army to continue to attack—they were busy recovering the land in the southern four provinces.These four lands have been ravaged by the Japanese for more than a year, and they are already miserable. There is a lot of work to be done whether it is to gather refugees or restart farming.At the order of King Li Zan of Joseon, the officials of the entire small court were dispatched to various places to appease the hearts of the people, and many people were so tired that they vomited blood. The Koreans did a good job this time, and they stopped clamoring for the Ming army to continue to attack—they were busy recovering the land in the southern four provinces.These four lands have been ravaged by the Japanese for more than a year, and they are already miserable. There is a lot of work to be done whether it is to gather refugees or restart farming.At the order of King Li Zan of Joseon, the officials of the entire small court were dispatched to various places to appease the hearts of the people, and many people were so tired that they vomited blood. The main force of the Korean army led by Kim Ming-won and Kwon Yul was stationed in Yining.Yining is located at the front of the right wing of the Ming army's defense network, close to the south side of the Japanese defense line, and can threaten Masan, Changwon, Geoje, and Gadeok Island, and play a supporting role against Yi sun-shin's navy from land .At the beginning, Guo Zaiyou, the general in red, once defeated the Japanese army here, almost causing the Japanese army to collapse on the right. Liu Chenglong placed the army here because he was lucky.In case Song Yingchang ordered to continue the attack, they could support the Ming army from Yining and drive the Japanese into the sea. But Song Yingchang made up his mind after receiving the report of the Japanese army's construction of Wacheng, and would never let the Ming army serve as cannon fodder for the Koreans.He sent several speeches in a row, strictly ordering the coalition forces of Ming and North Korea to go to war with the Japanese army, so as not to disrupt the ongoing peace negotiations. So on the first anniversary of the outbreak of the Imjin War, nearly 200,000 people from three countries suddenly poured into this small area around Busan, and the military strength was unprecedentedly dense.They looked at each other with hatred, and although the flag had died down, the weapons in their hands never let go. Next, it depends on how Shen Weijing talks with the Japanese.