Chapter 34 Chapter Thirteen

After the Qichuanliang naval battle ended, the Japanese army had no worries at all, and began to officially launch a large-scale attack on North Korea. In the early days of the Imjin War, the Japanese army adopted a blitzkrieg strategy. The troops were divided into three groups to attack Seoul from Gyeongsang-do, and then advanced along the lines of Kaesong and Pyongyang.This strategy is based on the lack of vigilance of Wen Tianwu Xi of Korea and the indifference of the suzerain Da Ming. When Ding You was in chaos again, North Korea had already completed the wartime mobilization system. No matter how dire the domestic situation was, at least it was ready strategically. At this time, Ming also fully estimated the seriousness of the war on the Korean Peninsula. The strategy of aiding North Korea was clarified.It is impossible for the Japanese army to adopt the blitzkrieg strategy of making great strides forward, and they must change.

The organization of the Japanese offensive this time is still eight legions, divided into six main forces: Kato (1), Konishi (2), Kuroda (3), Nabeshima (4), Shimadzu (5), and Hachisuka (7) Legion, a reserve legion of Ukita Hideka and Mori Hidemoto (8)—but this legion has the largest number of troops, as high as 40,000—plus a navy legion of Changsoga’s department (6). On top of these two legions, there are seven imperial inspectors, namely Kazukichi Ota, Naotaka Fukuhara, Shigetoshi Takenaka, Nagano Kakimi, Takamasa Mori, and Zao.Chuan Nagamasa and Kumagai Naomori.Hideyoshi changed the entire Overseer Corps with the Sanbong as the core during the Imjin War. On the one hand, Ishida and others were implicated by Konishi and Shen Weijing, and Hideyoshi was unwilling to let them continue to stay in North Korea; Hideyoshi thought that setting up a group of elders was of little significance and would only be a disservice, so this time only seven people with weak qualifications and influence were selected to assist in name, and the decision-making power was delegated to the legion.

It has to be said that even though Hideyoshi is crazy and rebellious, he still has the means to rule people.This change in the organizational structure had a considerable impact on the subsequent war. In terms of strategy, the Japanese army is no longer advancing in three ways, but in two ways concurrently—which two ways? One left and one right. The commander-in-chief of the Right Route Army is Hideyoshi’s nephew Hideaki Kobayakawa. His subordinates have deployed half of the first, third (only Kuroda’s team), fourth, sixth, and eighth armies, with a total strength of six. Fifty thousand people.

The commander-in-chief of the Left Army is still Ukita Hideke, and the second and third divisions (including Mori Yoshinari and Takahashi Yuanzhong), half of the fifth, seventh and eighth armies are deployed under his command, with a total strength of 50,000 people. According to the strategy of the Japanese army, in the first stage, the right army will launch a feint attack from the right, forcing the Ming and North Korean coalition forces to focus on the direction of Gyeongsang-do, and then attack quickly from the left to conquer Namwon with all their strength and divide Jeolla-do. For two, then the left and right armies joined forces in Jeonju to completely control Jeolla-do.

If the entire Jeolla Province can be occupied, not only can the threat of the North Korean navy be completely eliminated, but also the Japanese navy can enter the Yellow Sea to provide supply operations, greatly increasing efficiency.In this way, the Japanese army could use Jeonju as a base to attack Chungcheongdo and Seoul without any worries. It has to be said that Yi sun-shin casts too much shadow on the Japanese.One of the reasons for the defeat in the Imjin War was precisely because the Japanese did not occupy Jeolla-do, which caused Yi sun-shin's naval forces to threaten the supply and thus lost the strategic initiative.So, this time, they couldn't help but not pay attention to it.

And what is the situation of the Ming and North Korean coalition forces at this time? During the peace talks, most of the Ming troops withdrew back home one after another.Before Ding You started the war, there were no more than 10,000 Ming troops left in North Korea. The main force of the Ming army far away in the country is still slowly gathering.This is not to blame Xing Jie, but to blame his predecessor Sun Kuang.Sun Kuang's job as a manager was originally a temporary appointment, and his own ability was not very good. Before he left the post in April, he had only mobilized 19,000 Ming troops, which was not as good as Song Yingchang's 30,000 troops in the same period of time. one-third.

After Xing Jie took over the mess, he worked hard, and by the end of June, the total number of mobilized Ming troops reached 38,000.In the same period, Song Yingchang reached 70,000.Comparing the two, you can know how much effort Song Yingchang has spent.Moreover, more than 30,000 people from the Ming army arrived in North Korea one after another. For example, the Jieshengsuo troops had followed Magui to Kaesong, and Li Rumei's cavalry had just moved to Liaodong. Of course, Xing Jie did not do nothing.In addition to dispatching the army, he also made a very critical decision: the navy entered the DPRK.At that time, the Ming army had only 3,000 people in the Zhejiang Navy in North Korea, and it was responsible for transporting grain and grass from Shandong to North Korea.Xing Jie mobilized more than 2,000 sailors from Fujian, Nanzhili, Wusong and other places, and drove the warship north to help.This shows that Xing Jie has realized the importance of sea control and laid a material foundation for the later naval battles.

The reason why Xing Jie is so enthusiastic about mobilizing the navy is inseparable from his counterattack plan. For the upcoming war, the Ming army also formulated a tit-for-tat plan.The commander-in-chief, Magui, suggested preemptively attacking Busan to capture Konishi Yukio and force Kato Kiyomasa away.But soon they discovered that this plan would not work. Whether it was fighting Busan or Ulsan, they had to mobilize the Japanese navy before they could let go.Therefore, Xing Jie suggested that Yang Yuan and Wu Weizhong should be stationed in Namwon and Chungju respectively, guard Jeolla and Gyeongsang Erdo, Magui should stay in Seoul for dispatch, and the Korean army should station in Yining in the middle of the Erdo.As soon as the navy of the Ming army was in place, they harassed the Japanese navy from east to west with the North Korean navy, and the army marched towards Pusan ​​and Jizhang to drive Japan into the sea.

According to this idea, Yang Yuan's 3,000 Liaodong Army stationed in Namwon, guerrilla Chen Yuzhong's 2,000 troops stationed in Quanzhou, and part of Wu Weizhong's Southern Army stationed in Zhongzhou.In addition, the main forces of the Korean army, Quan Li, Guo Zaiyou, Jin Yingrui, and Li Yuanyi, were stationed in Yunfeng, Huangshi, Changning, and Xingzhou.It shows the situation of Eastern Ming and Western Dynasties.The main force of the Ming army led by Magui will move south along the west of Korea, and the soldiers will point directly at Gyeongsangbuk-do. As a result, Xing Jie had calculated thousands of times, but he didn't count Yuan Jun as a waste.In the Qichuanliang sea battle overnight, the entire Korean navy was wiped out, and Xing Jie's plan to advance the waterways came to an end without a problem.

Yuan Jun's incompetence not only dragged himself down, but also dragged down the Ming army.Because the main attack direction of the Ming army's plan is Gyeongsang-do, but the main attack of the Japanese army is in Jeolla-do, which is relatively empty.The collapse of the North Korean navy put the coalition forces in an isolated predicament in Jeolla Dodeng. Before the coalition forces could adjust their defense strategy, a large-scale battle broke out. The Right Route Army's initial posture was to focus on Miryang and Daegu.They took the lead and split into two groups.All the way, the false soldiers attacked Yining and Sanjia, went up the Nakdong River, put on a posture of pointing their swords at Xingzhou, and tentatively attacked the nearby important town of Gaoling.Here the Japanese army encountered desperate resistance from the defenders.The guard Zheng Qilong asked the whole army to wear red clothes, pretending to be the Ming army's southern troops, and set up an ambush in the mountains near Gaoling. When the Japanese army approached, they immediately rushed to kill.The Japanese army had psychological barriers to the southern soldiers. When they saw that the ambush soldiers around them were all in red clothes, they turned around and ran away in fright.However, this route was originally a feint attack, since Gao Ling couldn't be defeated, he didn't continue to entangle, turned his head and ran from Shanchuan to Anyi.

On the other hand, Kato Kiyomasa, the pioneer, pushed to Changning first.Guo Zaiyou knew that he was outnumbered, so he locked himself behind closed doors.Guo Zaiyou also encouraged his subordinates, saying that the situation here is dangerous, and the Japanese also know the art of war, so they will not attack easily.After a night without incident, Guo Zaiyou sent people to investigate the next day and found that the Japanese had all withdrawn; when they continued to inquire, they found that instead of withdrawing, the Japanese army turned around and headed towards Xianyang and Changshui, and quickly conquered the Huangshi City, the hub and main road on the north side of Xianyang. Whether it is from Shanchuan to Anyi, Juchang, or from Jinzhou to Xianyang, it must pass through Huangshi City in the end before embarking on the road to Jeonju, the capital of Jeolla.So from the very beginning, the right army's goal was only Huangshi City.They first feigned two shots, causing the Korean army to misjudge the Japanese army's strategic intentions, retreating to Xingzhou and Changning, and then the two main forces rushed to Huangshi City to join forces, and ran murderously from the front line of Tianchuan and Zhen'an All over the state. The capture of Huangshi City also has another important meaning, that is, to threaten Quanzhou from the flanks, so that the Ming army under Chen Yuzhong in Quanzhou dare not go to aid Nanyuan.This was also a plan formulated by the Japanese army based on the information disclosed by Shen Weijing - it can be seen how passive Shen Weijing's desperate fight before his arrest caused the Ming army. At the same time that the right army successfully threw off the main force of North Korea, a fierce battle broke out between the left Japanese army and the coalition forces in Namwon. Namwon is located in the middle of Jeollanam-do, and its geographical location is extremely important.As long as Namwon is controlled, the north can go to Jeonju, the south can take up Shuntian, and the west can occupy Gwangju, and it can advance and retreat freely, which is equivalent to the crossroads of Jeolla Province.If the Japanese army wants to occupy the entire Jeolla-do, Namwon must be in their hands. As early as May, Yang Yuan sent his subordinate Li Xinfang to lead two thousand Liaodong troops to Nanyuan.After Xing Jie's strategic layout matured on June 13, Yang Yuan personally led a thousand people there, bringing the total force to three thousand. On the seventh day of August, Yoshihiro Shimadzu, the vanguard of the Left Army, arrived at Gurye and entered the territory of Namwon.On the one hand, Yang Yuan ordered the North Korean envoy Li Funan, the defense general Jin Jinglao and others to gather the North Korean troops stationed nearby, and on the other hand sent scouts to spy on the enemy near Yuanchuan. The next day, the scouts reported back that the enemy was extremely powerful. What's worse, there were reports of a large-scale attack by the right army near Juchang and Sanjia, which made Yang Yuan extremely nervous.He only has 3,000 Liaodong army horses and more than 100 households, including the Korean army, it is only about 6,000, and the whole prefecture's 2,000 Ming army is only 8,000.And the Japanese army who attacked this time had at least 50,000 people. Faced with this pressure, Yang Yuan had no choice but to stick to it.With the Liaodong Army as the main force, he deployed 800 people around the head of the city, 1,200 people under the wall, and a reserve team of 1,000 people.The North Korean army is also distributed according to this ratio. Yang Yuan also asked his trusted servants to mix into the North Korean army, hoping to improve their combat effectiveness. As early as June when he was stationed in Nanyuan, he sent people to build the city wall, and added a lot of shooting holes in the sheep and horse wall.The Ming army had garrisoned here before and repaired it. Although it has been abandoned for a long time, it is better than nothing. But Yang Yuan knew that these could only delay the fall and could not retreat the enemy.The only hope is that General Magui can see through the main attack direction of the Japanese army in time and come to help as soon as possible.When Ma Gui was planning the strategy, he had clear instructions: "There is a priority to get out. The South plaintiff sued Quanzhou, Quanzhou sued Gongzhou, Gongzhou sued Beijing, and rushed to help." According to this regulation, Yang Yuan has dispatched urgent envoys Go to Quanzhou to inform Chen Yuzhong. He never expected that Chen Yuzhong didn't know which string was wrong, so he didn't continue to report it. From August 9th to August 13th, these were probably the five most difficult days for Yang Yuan.During these five days, the scouts sent bad news non-stop every day: "The enemy has reached Tunshanling!" (9th), "The enemy has passed Suxingling!" (11th) "The enemy's forward has reached the edge of Liaochuan !” (Twelve days). Liaochuan was just forty miles southeast of Nanyuan City. The appearance of the Japanese army here indicated that the battle was imminent.From the city of Nanyuan, Yang Yuan could see the black smoke billowing from the villages in the distance, which was the mark of the Japanese army burning, killing and looting all the way.The city of Nanyuan was already crowded with soldiers and civilians, all of whom had fled from nearby areas in the past few days.At this moment, Yang Yuan should have thought in his mind: "Let's just retreat." The proportion of 6,000 people to 50,000 people is completely out of proportion, and it is difficult to hold on.But Namwon is different from Jinju. Whether Jinju is lost or not is irrelevant to the overall situation. Once Namwon is lost, the entire Jeolla Province will be gone.This responsibility is too great, Yang Yuan dare not take it. The only thing that can make him feel a little relieved is the arrival of Li Funan, the Korean envoy. Li Funan retreated all the way from Qiuli, and when he arrived in Nanyuan, there were only fifty people around him.At that time, there were already many small Japanese troops gathered near Nanyuan. Li Funan walked through the enemy without fear.The Japanese were stunned by this bold move, and they didn't go to stop him, but just let him enter Nanyuan City. Yang Yuan admired this very much. He patted Li Funan on the shoulder and said, "Those who support themselves and defend themselves are full of eloquence. But Gongdu went to him with a single army, and he was a Li Shilang in the Southern Dynasty." On August 13, the main force of the Japanese army arrived at Liaochuan.As if to show off their military power, they formed an extremely impressive formation and opened up two fronts.The first front line is composed of the second army of Konishi Yukata, from Fangchuan Yuchanyuan to the Great Wall Bridge, and surrounds the west gate of Nanyuan; It is composed of cutting off the river from Qichang, along Yuechuan, Lichang to Dawuquan, and connecting with Ximen Front.The Japanese army set up their main camps on Xiangxue Mountain and Qilin Mountain, built camps around the city, raised banners and battalions with horns, and the formations were continuous and layer upon layer.People at that time described it as "continuous formation, continuous extension and mutual return, full moon halo" and the momentum was extremely huge. This is a deliberate show of force, so that the defenders dare not leave the city. Yang Yuan really didn't dare to go out of the city, he was busy assigning the task of defending the city.He himself and Li Xinfang guarded the east gate, General Qian Jiang Biao guarded the south gate, Mao Chengxian guarded the west gate, and the Korean army's combat effectiveness was weak, so they were asked to guard the north gate.Yang Yuan also issued several orders one after another to clean up military discipline, clarify orders, and never let the troops go into chaos before fighting. At noon on the 13th, five Japanese swaggered to the east gate, stood on the stone bridge of the east gate and raised their necks, intending to call Yang Yuan to talk.These people are here to persuade them to surrender. They think that the two countries will fight each other, so they will not kill them, right?But they never expected that Yang Yuan had saved the news of taking their sacrificial flags. While these people were shouting, Yang Yuan sneaked out of the city with a few North Korean archers, and shot at the stone bridge, killing three people immediately, while the other two fled back rolling and crawling. This suddenly angered the Japanese army.Soon, a large number of Japanese soldiers came shouting, and when they reached a place a hundred steps away from the city wall, they fired guns and cursed.Suddenly dozens of chubby black shadows flew over the city, and they were still hissing when they landed on the ground. "It's Thunderclap!" A Japanese veteran screamed, and then the iron bumps exploded, causing the Japanese to die terribly. It turns out that this is a new type of firearm independently developed by North Korea. It is similar to the Ming Dynasty's Thunderbolt. It uses an iron container to carry gunpowder and sharp hard pieces, and is connected to an external lead wire. It is fired through a large bowl and muzzle. It is very powerful.As early as the Battle of Imjin, the Korean rebels used this thing to frighten the Japanese.During the peace talks, this kind of firearm has been vigorously developed, and thousands of them have been produced, and many of them have been distributed to Nanyuan.Not at this time, when will it be. The Japanese retreated hastily, and the defenders breathed a sigh of relief.But Yang Yuan couldn't relax, he had battled for a long time, and knew that the Japanese would never let it go, and they might attack at night.He ordered to bury more water chestnuts outside Haogou, and secretly installed nail boards at the bridgehead, and personally kept watch for the night. Sure enough, as he expected, on the second watch, three Japanese soldiers sneaked over from the stone bridge, stepped on a nail board, and were immediately hacked to death by the Ming army who was in ambush.Knowing that the army must be hiding behind, Yang Yuan ordered the suspension bridges on all sides to be pulled up.As soon as the bridge was pulled up, the Japanese soldiers rushed over with torches on all sides. Seeing that the bridge was broken, they had to make noise all night and set fires everywhere near Nanyuan, so that the fireworks could be seen within a hundred miles. On August 14th, after a day of probing, the Japanese army began to take real action.They bullied the coalition forces and built siege equipment ostentatiously outside the city. They also transported a large number of grass, grain, wood and rocks and piled them up near Dawu Spring. They filled up the trenches and blocked the sides with wood to form a blockade.The Japanese army also collected a large number of door panels and bed panels, dug shooting holes on them, and installed brackets below them to form an individual shooting bunker. Nancheng was the first to be attacked.Residential households outside Nancheng are very dense.Before the war started, Yang Yuan had already sent people to burn all these, leaving only ruins.However, the Japanese army used these stone walls as shelters to shoot continuously, causing great damage to the coalition forces. Soon the focus turned to Dongcheng again.The high sheds built by the Japanese army outside the Dongmen City were all higher than the city head. Japanese shooters stood on the high sheds and shot into the city in an orderly manner.The coalition forces tried to use firecrackers to bombard them, but unfortunately they couldn't reach the range, and the number of Zhentianlei was limited, so they had to withdraw from the city.The artillery erected by Daming at the top of the city made a limited counterattack, but the Japanese army was too scattered and the effect was not obvious. After noon, another accident happened in Xicheng.Two miles away from the west gate of Nanyuan, there is a Wanfu Temple with four statues of heavenly kings in the temple.After the Japanese occupied the monastery, they dragged the four statues out, put them on a car, and drove them around outside the west city, which horrified the coalition soldiers. Yang Yuan felt that the morale had already dropped a lot in the morning, and if he sat back and watched the enemy's provocation without doing anything in the afternoon, it would be a great blow to the spirit of the soldiers.He rejected the persuasion of his subordinates, and led a thousand people to fight out of the west gate to snatch the statue back. This was of course a tactic of the Japanese to lure the enemy. As soon as Yang Yuan's troops crossed the stone bridge, they were surrounded by Japanese ambushes.As far as the Liaodong soldiers are concerned, they can fight.Facing heavy siege, they showed no fear, just like they did in the Biju Hall, they formed a solid formation back to back and launched a confrontation with the Japanese army.This battle was fought until the sun went down, and no one took advantage of it. August fifteenth.President Konishi sent an official envoy.Yang Yuan didn't want to play the trick of killing envoys anymore, so he met him in the Dragon City Pavilion.The envoy conveyed the greetings from President Xiaoxi, hoping that Yang Yuan would withdraw from the city as soon as possible, so that everyone would not suffer too many casualties.Yang Yuan replied: "I joined the army and fought at the age of fifteen, and I have never been defeated. Now there are 100,000 elite soldiers in this city, enough to defend the city. Without orders from above, I will definitely not abandon the city." Angrily tore it to pieces documents from the Japanese army. It's a pity that these words are of no use to the Japanese at all. Governor Xiaonishi has already learned about the reality of Nanyuan from Shen Weijing.Since Yang Yuan refuses to surrender or retreat, let's fight.At this time, most people in Nanyuan City have realized that they are in a desperate situation, their morale is low, and crying can be heard everywhere. On the night of the 15th, the sky was very clear and the moon was as bright as day.Todo Takatora, located in the south of the city, found Yasuji Wakisaka and said that the weather is fine tonight, so let's take advantage of the night to make a surprise attack. Yasuji Wakisaka repeatedly said yes. At that time, the siege situation of the Japanese army was as follows: Ukita Hideka personally led the attack on the south gate; Chief Konishi focused on the west gate; Mori Yoshinari focused on the east gate, only the north gate did not deploy siege troops, but a part of the Sixth Army's navy was in ambush in the north , ready to intercept deserters.Fujido and Wakisaka reported the matter to coach Hideka, who received enthusiastic support from Hideka.Kazukichi Ota, the supervising army, took the initiative to invite Ying, and also led the soldiers and horses of the headquarters to cooperate. I am ashamed to say that Ukita Hideka has not achieved any decent results since he led the invasion. Nanyuan is a good opportunity to rectify his name. So after a brief adjustment, the Japanese army launched a final raid on Nanyuan from three sides. The Fujido army had already collected countless weeds and rice and made countless large bunches. At this time, each of them picked up a few bunches and began to pile them up layer by layer towards the city.These large bunches quickly piled up a hill, first filled the trenches, and then piled up to the same height as the sheep and horse city, so that it was very convenient to climb up the tower. As the saying goes, summer rain is impermanent.Just at the critical moment of the siege, the originally clear sky suddenly began to rain.The sudden heavy rain put the coalition forces in a dilemma. They could neither use firearms nor rockets to ignite the haystacks, and could only use trebuchets to fight back.The Japanese army took the opportunity to intensify their raids, and arranged for many rain-proof musketeers to shoot at the city to cover the raiding troops. The investment, regardless of capital, quickly produced returns.Fujido Gaohu took the lead, stepped on the ladder to the top of Nanyuan City, and won the honor of "Ichiban Ride".Immediately afterwards, Ota Kazukichi's troops smashed open the south gate, and a large Japanese army rushed in, shouting and killing everywhere. The defenses on the other two sides had already fallen into a bitter battle. As soon as they heard that Nancheng had fallen, their morale immediately collapsed, and the Japanese army broke through one after another. Yang Yuan was resting in the city at that time, when he heard that Nancheng had been breached, he was horrified, knowing that it was no longer possible to defend, he hurriedly changed into the clothes of a herald, and hurriedly left the government office with eighteen people barefoot.Before leaving, Yang Yuan sent someone to ask Li Funan to flee with him, but Li Funan refused, saying that he vowed to live and die with this city, so he piled up a lot of firewood in the government house and set fire to himself. Yang Yuan sighed, and then went to find Zheng Qiyuan, who was appointed by the imperial court and could not be discarded.But Zheng Qiyuan was so frightened that he fell off his horse several times and couldn't get on the saddle at all.Yang Yuan saw it, it's over, I won't play with you anymore, turned around and ran away by himself. The last street fighting in the city was very tragic, and the Japanese troops surrounded on three sides slaughtered wantonly.The soldiers and civilians in the whole city panicked and gathered in Beicheng, where there was no enemy for the time being.The Ming soldiers stepped on their mounts one after another, trying to break through the north gate, but the north gate was closed too tightly, and it was difficult to open it for a while, and the people behind had already squeezed in, and many people died on the spot on the horseshoes. Finally, the north gate was opened, and these rout soldiers rushed out, hoping to escape with their lives.At this time, the heavy rain stopped and the moon reappeared from the clouds.This is definitely not good news for deserters.The Japanese army who had been ambushing for a long time took advantage of the moonlight to slash and kill, and blood flew everywhere for a while, screaming everywhere.Ming army generals Li Xinfang, Jiang Biao, Mao Chengxian and North Korean generals Jin Jinglao and Wu Yingjing all died in the chaos.Military and civilian casualties are countless.The blood exposed the animal nature of the Japanese extremely clearly. They had no intention of taking prisoners of war at all, and basically caught and killed one by one. In the chaos, a coalition of five or six hundred people broke through the blockade of the north gate and tried to escape into the mountains.Unexpectedly, Shimadzu Yoshihiro had already calculated correctly, and led the main force to intercept and kill more than 400 people. At that time, there was a North Korean soldier named Jin Xiaoyi, who was in charge of guarding the southern city. After the southern city was breached, he fled to the north gate, where he was ambushed.He was quick-witted and hid in the paddy field, so he was spared.His confession became the first-hand details of the offensive and defensive battle of Nanyuan City. It mentioned a large number of methods used by the Japanese army to attack the city, which is very precious to the coalition forces. At this time, the commander-in-chief, Yang Yuan, was fighting at Ximen. Yang Yuan already had a premonition about this ending.Relying on his rich experience, he knew that the enemy must have ambushed heavy troops at the north gate, so he prepared to go to the west gate from the beginning.At this time, the Japanese army's attention was all on the north gate, but the west gate was weakly defended, and he and his soldiers rushed out of the city at once. Outside the city, the Japanese army had already dug several trenches. They did not have professional equipment such as water chestnuts and antlers to prevent cavalry, so they found many wooden stakes and discarded swords and buried them in the trenches to intercept the fleeing cavalry. But this did not trouble Yang Yuan.He is a general in Liaodong, and he is very good at riding. He leads four or five well-trained war horses with him and changes them at any time.These horses spread out as soon as they heard the whistle, so as to avoid bows and arrows, and gathered together after another whistle, very flexible.Before reaching the ditch, Yang Yuan let a horse run over, stepped on a sharp knife and fell to the ground, and then whipped the next horse to step on the former's corpse and continue to move forward. As for the Japanese army sniping with iron cannons in the distance, this will not trouble Yang Yuan.It is said in the history books that he was "replaced by a Jia, just like a Yixie, a thief will never be able to harm him." It is impossible not to admire how much fighting power a person burst out when escaping. Relying on this bloody circus style, Yang Yuan quickly broke through the blockade and escaped.He first fled to Fengshan along the mainland, and then went around to Ensi Pavilion.After counting the number of people, there were only one hundred and seventeen people following him.According to the statistics of Ming Dynasty afterwards, the exact number of casualties of the Ming army was 2,700, and the loss of horses was 3,400-this time, it was really "only saved". And what exactly is Chen Yuzhi doing at this time? Nanyuan sent distress messengers to Quanzhou twice, the first time Chen Yuzhong replied: "The enemy's situation is unpredictable, I am afraid that one will lose the other", and the second time he replied: "It is hard to leave the land."By the time he heard the news for the third time, the Japanese army had captured Nanyuan. Chen Yuzhong panicked at this moment, and when he asked again, he was even more horrified. It turned out that after the left army of the Japanese army conquered Nanyuan, part of it was left to sweep south, and the rest of the main force headed north, forming a pincer offensive with the right army in Huangshi City, pushing into Quanzhou.In other words, there are about one hundred thousand enemies that Chen Yuzhong is about to face.The news made the residents of the whole state panic and fled one after another.The defenders wanted to stop them, but they were scattered by these mobs who were eager to survive, demolished the city gate, and dispersed in a hurry. On August 17th, the left army forward Konishi Xingchang's army arrived at Renshi, and the right army forward Kato Kiyomasa entered Yunfeng.The two bands of Japanese pirates joined forces and arrived at the city of Quanzhou on August 19th. Chen Yuzhong didn't say a word, and the soldiers and horses were ready to retreat.The local North Korean official pulled his reins and shouted angrily: "If I knew today, why bother?" It turned out that after the general arrived in Quanzhou, he found that there was no food in the city, and the food was hidden in a cottage ten miles outside the city of Quanzhou.At that time, the combat effectiveness of the Korean army was too poor, and it would collapse if it encountered the Japanese army, so the defenders simply did not store supplies in the city, saving the Japanese at a disadvantage.After Chen Yuzhong arrived, he forcibly ordered these things to be moved back to the city, but no one would listen to them.Well now, it's all cheaper for the Japanese. Chen Yuzhong fled all the way north and fled to Gongzhou, only to meet Niu Boying, a guerrilla from the Ming army who came to meet him. The two stayed in Gongzhou, not daring to move, waiting for reinforcements. Finally, let’s talk about the ending of Yang Yuan and Chen Yuzhong. When Yang Yuan escaped from Namwon Tucheng, he was shot twice and suffered several stab wounds, and was carried back to Seoul directly.In Seoul, the king of North Korea, Li Yan, held his arm and wept, saying, General, you have worked hard for North Korea.The king of Joseon, Li Yan, had always had a good impression of Yang Yuan. He still remembered that during the Imjin War, the generals of the Liaodong Army were not friendly to the Koreans. Only Yang Yuan was kind and often mediated. It's a pity that Yang Yuan was seriously injured and was unable to lead the army, so he was sent back to the country soon amid the farewell voices of the North Korean monarchs and ministers.He never expected that what awaited him was a catastrophe.The imperial court announced that he would be jailed for "abandoning the city and fleeing". To be honest, Yang Yuan was really wronged. Nanyuan was a disastrous defeat, but the root cause of this disastrous defeat was a mistake in strategic deployment. The main responsibility should be attributed to the failure of the high-level Ming army to determine the movement of the Japanese army in time, which caused Yang Yuan's 3,000 people to face the 50,000 Japanese army— —Whoever fights this battle will have the same ending.What's more, Yang Yuan didn't abandon the city at the beginning, but fought hard for three days, buying precious time for the follow-up Ming army.Although he finally abandoned the city and left, it was also a failure after the bloody battle. The one who really deserves to be damned is Chen Yuzhong.His first crime was that he ignored the battle situation in Nanyuan and failed to report it in time, which caused the Ming army to respond slowly; the second crime was that he hesitated and did not take the initiative to support Yang Yuan.Although his strength is only 2,000, as long as there is a little activity in the periphery, the Japanese army will not put all the pressure on Nanyuan; A large amount of supplies were left to the enemy. One is the loser and the other is the fugitive.One is a problem of ability, the other is a problem of attitude, it is clear at a glance who is more damned. But how did the Ming army deal with these two men? The punishment for Chen Yuzhong was to beat him with a hundred army sticks, so that he would not die as a soldier. For Yang Yuan, he was captured first, imprisoned for more than a year, and then executed together with Shen Weijing. This kind of favoritism is very strange.Not to mention that Yang and Chen's merits and demerits are clear, there is no doubt that even if Yang Yuan took full responsibility for Nanyuan's tragedy, he would not be sentenced to abandon the market so severely.You know, Zu Chengxun, who is also from the background of the Liaodong Army, fought so badly in Pyongyang at the beginning, and he was not punished much.Yang Yuan's status in the Liaodong Army is much higher than that of Zu Chengxun, so why is the sentence so severe? The North Koreans are also baffled by this unequal treatment.They believed that "Mr. Yang's army fought bloody battles against the isolated city, and if the troops were single-handedly rescued, the defeat of Nanyuan was inevitable. Chen Guerrilla was foolish enough to support the whole city and sit idly by. His crime was serious. If he is foolish, he still protects the leader." , then the commander-in-chief will be punished first, and no one will hesitate." Yang Yuan's death, I guess there may be three reasons: The first point is the scourge of partisanship.After the Battle of Ulsan, Ding Yingtai, the former Zanhua of the army, impeached Yang Gao who was the first to escape for "deceived by the party and deceived the party", and linked him with Ma Gui, Xing Jie and even the great scholars Zhang Wei and Shen Yiguan behind him to be held accountable.Under such circumstances, Yang Hao, Ma, Xing, and others must divide the responsibilities outside, and take out a little bit.Therefore, when we look up historical materials, we can see that the Battle of Nanyuan was completed in August of the 25th month of Wanli, and it was not until May of the 26th of Wanli that the Ministry of War officially proposed to deal with Yang Yuan.The investigation of Yang Yuan's responsibility only came up after Yang Gao was impeached. This movement of cutting responsibility is very effective.We have seen that when discussing meritorious deeds after the war, Ma Gui was "exempted from discussion" because of the achievements of Jishan, Qingshan, and Daoshan. , didn't suffer much, and no one held them accountable for Nanyuan's fiasco, so this hat had to be pinned on Yang Yuan's head naturally. The second point is political influence.For Daming, the loss of Nanyuan is more embarrassing than the loss of Quanzhou.Quanzhou only affected the war situation in the three regions of Korea, but Nanyuan affected the defense of the entire coastal area of ​​Daming.Once Nanyuan is lost, the southern coast of Jeolla will be lost.At this point, the Japanese army could enter the Yellow Sea directly from Jeolla Province, and harass Tianjin, Shandong, Zhejiang, etc., and the voyage was greatly shortened. Therefore, after receiving the news of the fall of Nanyuan, Beijing was shocked, and immediately ordered all coastal areas to repair military affairs, mobilize naval forces and land battalions to strengthen patrols, and prevent the enemy from crossing the Yellow Sea. Almost half of East Asia is due to the small city of Nanyuan. Fallen and turbulent.It can be seen that the political impact of Nanyuan's fall is very bad, and someone must come out to take this responsibility. Yang Yuan, who abandoned the city and fled, is undoubtedly the best candidate, and he is the person directly responsible.Besides, the Namwon Ming army actually lost 3,000 people, and it was the first time in the Korean battlefield that the casualties were so heavy.No matter how many difficulties Yang Yuan has, it is reasonable to kill him according to the law. The third reason is the strange silence of the Liaodong Army. People can't help but think that after Zu Chengxun's defeat, Li Rusong came forward to defend him, but in the end the court only slapped the board lightly.Yang Yuan has a very high status in the Liaodong Army. Why didn't the Liaodong Army stop talking this time? Li Rusong had been away from North Korea for a long time, the court did not have to worry about his face, but could take the opportunity to reduce the power of the Liaodong Army.Ma Gui is from the Xuanda system, so he will not speak out; although Xing Jie, Yang Hao and others have a good relationship with the Liaodong Army, they can be favored by others, but it is difficult for them to work hard to find them—not to mention that they have to count on Yang Yuan to help them Take responsibility. As a result, under the interaction of these three reasons, Yang Yuan was imprisoned and abandoned the market in a daze, and was executed at the same time as Shen Weijing who was captured by him.Shen Weijing's revenge finally paid off. Time goes back to the 21st year of Wanli, and it is recorded in "Pyongyang Continued Chronicles": After the end of the Pyongyang War.In order to thank Li Rusong and his generals for their contribution to the restoration, North Korea sent a painter named Li Chenqin to make portraits of Shi Xing, Li Rusong, Yang Yuan, Li Rubai, and Zhang Shijue, and place them in the Wu Liesheng Temple for worship at four o'clock. Li Chenqin went to the barracks of the Ming army and explained his purpose.The generals of the Ming army were very happy. Li Rusong made the first painting. He posed in a mighty posture, stroked his beard with his hands, and reminded Li Chenqin, "I have a short beard and my face is too kind. Remember to add more beards to me." Li Chenqin nodded in agreement. When it was Yang Yuan's turn to sit over, Li Chenqin looked up and couldn't help but praise him.Yang Yuan was born with a full beard. The beard started from under the nose, slanted all the way up the side of the face, and then folded down after the ear, wrapping around to the chin. Both sides are like this, it is really beautiful.Yang Yuan's son happened to be by his side, and secretly said to Li Chenqin: "My father's face, some people say it is unspeakably precious, others say it is unpredictable, I don't know who to listen to." After the Battle of Namwon, Koreans recalled this story, and all lamented that it was unexpected that this sign of a good beard should be in Namwon.The king of North Korea specially decreed to set up a memorial tablet for Yang Yuan in Pyongyang, which finally made the Liaodong general not feel lost.