Chapter 35 Chapter Fourteen: The Victory of the Cavalry——The Great Victory at Jishan

After the Japanese army occupied Quanzhou on August 25, they did not change their tenacity and carried out another large-scale massacre.This time the massacre of the city was quite tragic, and the entire Jeonju city was completely empty, not inferior to the Jinzhou massacre. In fact, the performance of the Japanese army during the Dingyou Rebellion was quite different from the past.During the Renchen period, they still used the banner of Anmin to put on a show. This time, they didn't even put on a show. Whether it was the left army or the right army, they burned and killed all the way on the marching road of Jeolla Province. So much so that the coalition forces could judge the movements of the Japanese troops from the fireworks of the villages and towns being burned.In the historical materials of various parties, there are many records such as "burning the house", "plundering into the mountains", and "slaughtering the village". "Red Country".

The Japanese army cut off the noses of these massacred soldiers and civilians, soaked them in salt, and sent them back to Japan as military merit.Hideyoshi erected a nose mound next to the Daibutsuji Temple near Osaka Castle to show off to visitors. This brutal act of the Japanese army only shows one thing: no matter how Hideyoshi dreamed, the generals and lower-level soldiers of the Japanese army had already lost confidence in the future of the Korean War. They no longer considered the issue of future occupation, but simply took advantage of the opportunity Vent the animal desires, plunder the military exploits, and prepare for the return home in the future.

This is the decisive difference between the Imchen War and Dingyou Zaizan.One is deliberately occupying, and even interested in severing countries and establishing a ruling order; the other is completely insane, purely for the purpose of destruction.This feature is doomed that the Japanese offensive will not last too long. Gossip less.Let’s say that after the Japanese army occupied Jeonju, according to the pre-established strategy, Chief Konishi stopped his northward advance and turned to the coastal areas of Jeolla-do to completely wipe out the forces of the Korean navy; Chungcheongdo advances, and must take Seoul before mid-September.

The Japanese murderous offensive reminded the Korean monarchs and ministers of the tragedy in the Imjin War.They were in a panic, packing their luggage and going to Pyongyang again.Ma Gui had only 8,000 soldiers and horses in Seoul at that time, and it was too difficult to defend himself, and he also planned to abandon the defense. Yang Gao was raising food in Pyongyang at the time, and when he heard that the North Koreans were about to run away, he stepped on his horse and broke into Seoul alone on September 3rd.When Li Yan heard that Yang Gao was coming, he was surprised instead of happy, lowered his head and muttered, "It's so dangerous for you, Manager Yang, to come to Seoul, what if something happens, you might as well go back to Pyongyang and stay there."Li Yan talked about Yang Hao, but he was actually thinking about his own safety.

After Yang Hao arrived in Seoul, he first went to Ma Gui and criticized him for passively avoiding the battle. He also brought Xing Jie's order, asking the Ming army not to retreat half a step from Seoul.Ma Gui felt a little wronged, not because he did not retreat, but because the Koreans really did not cooperate.The entire Jeolla Province is supported by the Ming army, and the North Korean army can't even see the shadow. The rout in the front, the surrender to the enemy, and the back crying all day without any intention of defending. With more than 8,000 people in his hands, this battle is really useless. Law fight.

Soon Ma Gui was relieved, because he found that there was a person who was worse than him.Yang Hao brought Li Yan a message from Xing Jie, Li Yan opened it, and his expression changed immediately. In this address, Xing Jie changed his previous polite attitude and scolded the North Korean monarchs and ministers from top to bottom, especially Li Yan's cleverness: "If you kiss the country yourself, Lurking in the grass, seeking to slow down the fire, how can China be garrisoned for you?That is to say, when returning to the teacher's territory, self-fixing and sealing the border, you can be at ease from east to west, from north to south.The country has its own plans for where it belongs, and it must speak from the heart and answer in detail, and do not hold two ends and mislead our military aircraft."

We Daming fought bloody battles for you, and you cooperated like this?Let's talk about the nonsense of running away, let's go back to the country, where do you want to go and cool off! It can be seen that Yang Gao's warning of Magui is just a foreshadowing, just for Xing Jie's denunciation of Li Yan and Zhang Ben.This speech was about to be scolded, and the majestic king of North Korea was ashamed and angry. He covered his face and said: "How can I afford it? I just want to go to the ground, 55555555". It is very rare for a Ming official to scold the head of a foreign vassal in such a tone in his speech.The reason why Xing Jie dared to say this must have been inspired by Beijing.This small detail shows that the Wanli emperor in Beijing was already very impatient with North Korea's performance of incompetence.

After Li Yan figured this out, he didn't dare to mention anything about fleeing north, and obediently cooperated with the Ming army to fight a battle to defend Seoul. At this time, there were less than 20,000 Ming troops on the front line, and less than 10,000 near Seoul. Most of them were troops from Xuanda, Baoding Jizhen, and Yansui Zunhua. Li Rumei, Li Fangchun, Zu Jixun and other Liaodong troops were still rushing. on the way.Facing the tiger and wolf division of the Japanese army, the coalition forces had to defend first before they could wait for an opportunity to counterattack.

At this time, the elite of the Korean army were all left in Gyeongsang-do, and there were only a few thousand people left near Seoul. Counting the Qinwang troops in Ping'an and Huanghai provinces, there were no more than 10,000 people.Their fighting power is limited, and Magui dare not send them to the front line, so he can only divide it into two parts, one part is handed over to Li Yuanyi, who will pass through Niaoling to approach the Cheongju area to protect the flank of Seoul; the other part is handed over to Liu Chenglong, who is responsible for guarding the pass near Seoul Jinkou and the upper reaches of the Han River.

As for the main battle mission, it still depends on the Ming army itself. As a general with the same reputation as Li Rusong, Ma Gui knew that if the enemy came to the city of Seoul, everything would be over.But sticking to it is not defending to the death, it is not hiding in Seoul and waiting for the enemy to come over leisurely.The Ming army must take the initiative to attack and contain the enemy's offensive in time, so as to disrupt its deployment and buy enough time for the follow-up troops to assemble. In the 16th century, there was only one smooth road connecting Chungcheong-do and Seoul in Jeolla-do, that is, from Jeonju all the way to the north, passing through Gongju to Cheonan on Chungcheong-do, then going north to Pyeongtaek, Josan, and Suwon, and finally connecting to Seoul.Tianan is located in the middle of this hub avenue, and its geographical location is very important.If the Japanese army conquered Cheonan, the space for the Ming army's activities would be greatly reduced, and Magui had no choice but to defend against the enemy in Suwon with his back on the Han River.

After much deliberation, Magui sent Jiesheng, Niu Boying, Yang Dengshan, and Pogui to secretly go south overnight to Tian'an.He felt uneasy again, so he sent Bai Sai with 2,000 cavalry to meet him from behind, and headed to Geyuan and Jiechuan. Jiesheng, Yang Dengshan, Pogui, and Baisai, three Mongols and one Han, known as the "Four Generals of Xuanda", are Magui's direct troops, and this time Magui sent them all out in one go. After distributing the four generals of Xuanda, Ma Gui personally led the main force of the Ming army and marched into Suwon to protect Seoul.His thinking was very clear. He wanted to fight a mobile defensive battle south of Seoul, and set up multiple lines of defense between Jishan, Jiechuan, and Suwon to block the Japanese army layer by layer. As a cooperation, Yang Hao even planned to invite Li Yan to go to Suwon to boost morale, and Li Yan was so frightened by this suggestion that he would not let go of the pillar, so he had to give up in the end. Just as the Ming army was rushing southward, the Japanese army was also rushing northward. Walking in the forefront is Kuroda Nagamasa of the Third Legion.After the left army joined forces with the right army in Jeonju, Kuroda acted as the vanguard going north, chasing and beating Chen Yuzhong's ass all the way, occupying Gongju all the way, crossing the Jinjiang River, and approaching Cheonan.In the early days of the Imjin War, Kuroda did not participate in the extreme speed race of the second treasure in the army. He took the road from Cheonan to Suwon, and this time it can be regarded as a revisit of the old place. The first to arrive in the Tianan area was the Ming army.But after they arrived at Jinwuping at the foot of Jishan Mountain, they didn't leave, and they didn't rush into Tian'an City.Jie Sheng knew that his strength was not enough to resist the Japanese army's advance, so instead of staying in the city, he might as well use the dangerous terrain of Jishan to deal with the enemy.This decision is completely in line with Magui's dynamic defensive strategy. Jie Sheng surveyed the terrain, and together with several colleagues, he felt that Jishan was a suitable place for an ambush, and that the battlefield should be chosen here.So they placed their positions north of Sushaping, and divided the troops into three associations. The left and right associations ambushed in Liupu and Lingtong near Xishan, respectively, and the middle association stood as the main road.To the south of Sushaping is a small river called Gongxi. Japanese pirates can only enter Sushaping by crossing a small bridge over the river.If you can send a mobilization team to break the bridge, you will be caught in a urn.It's really a good place to lay an ambush. Although this is not in line with the principle of concentration of troops, the strength of Jie Sheng and the others is very limited, and it is useless to concentrate them. It is better to disperse them to strengthen their momentum. As soon as the Ming army finished setting up their positions, the Japanese arrived. In the early morning of the seventh day of September, Kuroda's army appeared at Quanyi Hall on the south side of Jishan Mountain. He didn't care about the small town of Tian'an, so he left it to the rear team Mo Li Xiuyuan to solve it. He led the army northward by himself, and first sent general Kuroda Shubu, Kuriyama Shiroemon, and Mao Housekeeper Shui went to Jishan, and led 2,000 people to Sushaping in advance. These thousand people were all wearing white military uniforms. The soldiers of the Ming army thought they were North Korean soldiers who had retreated from the battlefield, so they didn't care.Kuriyama Shiro reacted immediately, but he couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that there was only one army on the road. He didn't bother to report back to Kuroda Nagamasa, and ordered the soldiers to raise their guns and shoot to disperse the small group of guys blocking the way. As soon as they heard the sound of the iron cannon, the Ming army jumped up.This is not the North Korean army, but Japanese pirates! what to do? hit! The Ming army rushed out from both sides at the same time, waving flags and shouting, bows and crossbows rained down, and bombarded the Japanese army on the avenue with pre-set cannons of various calibers.The Japanese army only paid attention to the Ming army on the road, and was caught off guard by the surprise attack by the two wings, and the formation was in chaos.Under the suppression of the artillery fire that covered the sky and the sun, the Japanese soldiers could only lie on the ground and tremble, and didn't even care about fighting back. The gunpowder smoke has not yet cleared, and the sound of horseshoes is heard from far and near.The Japanese army raised its head in horror, and found that hundreds of brave cavalry rushed out from the avenue. With their powerful assault force, they broke through the Japanese army's formation at once.The left and right associations did not show any weakness, and the four generals took the lead, bravely showing their weapons, and started a hand-to-hand battle with the ferocious Japanese pirates. Faced with the sudden ambush, Kuroda's army was unprepared, and they were in a mess on the road, unable to advance or retreat.Kuroda Shusuke and Kuriyama Shiroemon were among the "Kuroda Eight Tigers", and they were also dumbfounded at this time.Thanks to Mao Housekeeper Shui's quick reaction, he grabbed a big flag and ran to the high slope, shaking it desperately, giving a clear signal to the chaotic troops.After all, the soldiers of Kuroda's army were well disciplined, although they were in disarray, they reluctantly gathered up their formation according to Mao Housemaster Shui's command, and retreated temporarily. In this contact war, the Japanese army suffered a lot of casualties.Among the four generals of the Ming army, Qu Gui himself fell to three ranks, Yang Dengshan and Jie Sheng also got two ranks each, the coaches have gained so much, this battle can be described as clean and neat. The three generals of the Japanese army retreated all the way with the remnants of the defeated generals. The other two felt that they were outnumbered, so it was better to join forces with Kuroda's team and fight again.The owner of Mao's house had a different opinion: "I have participated in many battles, and the battle with the largest number of people I have seen is the battle of Nagashino between Lord Nobunaga and Duke Katsurai. The force we encountered just now is more than the number of people in the battle of Nagashino." There are so many enemies! If we want to withdraw, we will definitely be chased and wiped out by them. I think it is better to dispatch together and fight to the death, maybe there is still a chance of victory." Kuroda and Li Shan hurriedly asked how to fight, Mao Housekeeper Shui waved his hands: "Ming army is equipped with iron shields, and iron cannons can't do much damage. We should use iron cannon salvos to attract the enemy's attention, and then send people to take advantage of the chaos. The defense range of the platoon shield, cut off the feet but not the head." Kuroda and Lishan slapped their thighs and said let's fight! They counterattacked according to Mao Housekeeper Shui's tactics, and the Ming army couldn't get used to it all at once, and retreated temporarily.However, this retreat was temporary, and soon Jiesheng realized that the Japanese army was strong outside but capable in the middle. He sent a small team to bypass the Japanese and block the Gongxi bridge in the south of Sushaping.All of a sudden, the vanguard of the Japanese army fell into a dilemma and was on the verge of collapse. At this time, Kuroda Nagamasa heard the sound of guns in the distance, and asked the left and right whether they had encountered the enemy, or were they hunting birds?The spies quickly reported that they were beating someone... Hearing this, Kuroda Nagamasa hurried over with 3,000 people from his team.General Kuroda Sanzaemon yelled that if the enemy were to annihilate the vanguard and then cross the bridge to attack us, our troops would be too small and we would be dead!He rushed to the bridge head first, dispersed the Ming army squad that was destroying the bridge, and opened the road in time. Seeing that the enemy was strong, Kuroda Nagamasa quickly ordered Goto Keiji to advance along the west side of the mountain, and he himself went up to the east mountain with great fanfare to confuse the enemy.This strategy worked, and the main force of the Ming army was attracted to the vicinity of Higashiyama. The two fierce generals Goto Kichiji and Mosato Taihei took advantage of the time to attack and repelled the siege of the Japanese vanguard.Kuroda Nagamasa observed the situation and expressed his emotion that "the enemy has ten times as many soldiers and I have five followers, so we must fight to the death". After a while, Jie Sheng made a comeback.It turned out that the Ming army came with a successor force, the commanders were Li Yiqiao and Liu Yujie.After the two joint forces recovered their combat effectiveness, they pushed back the Goto and Muli teams again. Seeing this, Kuroda Nagamasa had no choice but to invest in the main force of the headquarters.At this time, another general, Takemori Shinemon, suggested that there were too many enemies and it was difficult to fight recklessly.Why don't I lead a unit to turn from the enemy's right flank to attract their attention, and then you lead your team to attack their flank to have a chance of winning. Kuroda agreed to the proposal.Sure enough, the Ming army was successfully attracted by Takemori's decoy troops, and the entire formation rotated to the right, exposing the left side to Kurodamoto's team.After some conflicts, the Ming army had to retreat again.At this time, the sun was setting and the two sides ended the battle in Jishan. History is here, once again presenting its unique charm. The above description of this battle is all taken from "Kuroda Family Records", which is the most detailed description among many historical materials.According to the records in this book, the entire Battle of Jishan can be divided into six stages. In the first stage, Kuroda Shusuke, Kurita Shiro, Mao Yazhushui and the Ming army encountered each other, and were defeated and retreated. In the second stage, Kuroda Shusuke and Kurita Shiro followed the advice of Mao Yazhushui and used iron cannons and close combat to break the Ming army's platoon shield, and the Ming army was forced to retreat. In the third stage, 3,000 people from Kuroda Nagamasa's brigade heard the sound of gunfire and urged their horses to advance.The Ming army dispatched a ranger to cut off the small bridge south of Sushaping, and blocked the Japanese vanguard in Sushaping, preventing the follow-up troops from advancing.Kuroda Book Assistant, Kurita Shiro, and Mao Housekeeper Mizusan are about to collapse. In the fourth stage, Kuroda Sanzaemon forcibly crossed the river and reoccupied the small bridge.Goto Keiji and Kuroda Nagamasa occupied the hills on both sides. Muli and Goto's team clashed with Jiesheng, Niu Boying, and Yang Dengshan's troops and repelled them. In the fifth stage, reinforcements from the Ming army Li Yiqiao and Liu Yujie arrived, joined forces with Jiesheng, and fought back again.The Japanese army was repelled. In the sixth stage, Kuroda Nagamasa's team began to attack, using Takemori Shinemon's strategy to expose the left wing of the Ming army and deal a severe blow.At this time, Mao Lixiuyuan's troops arrived, and the Ming army had to retreat across the board. The historical records of the Ming and the Dynasties do not record the battle on September 7 in particular, but simply record it as "before the thieves are detected, they will form a column, and they will charge forward and attack them" and "the thieves will be invincible in one day, and the thieves will be invincible at sunset. Everyone breaks up and gathers." The "one-day Liuhe" here should be the six stages mentioned in "The Kuroda Family". In the description of "The Kuroda Family", the heroism of the Japanese army in the whole process is described to the utmost, but the counterattack of the Ming army is only mentioned in a few strokes, which is an understatement.This is a consistent exaggeration in Japanese historical materials, and it is nothing new.But when I was reading this historical material, I had a strange feeling that something was wrong. After thinking about it carefully, I finally found out what went wrong. This record describes the performance of Kuroda Nagamasa and his generals in Jishan as a tragic victory in which the Japanese army was outnumbered, on the verge of extinction several times, and finally relied on courage to repel the enemy. As mentioned earlier, Mao Housekeeper Shui suddenly compared the lineup of the Ming army with the scale of the Battle of Nagashino.In the Battle of Nagashino, the Oda Army had 30,000 troops, and the Takeda Army had 15,000. That is to say, Mao Ya believed that the total strength of the Ming Army on the opposite side was at least tens of thousands of people. In the following tug-of-war that was repeated six times, the Japanese generals also issued many times: "The big soldiers win over the bridge, I am afraid that I will die, and I will die", "The enemy has ten times as many troops and I have no successors, so I must fight to the death", The exclamation of "There are many soldiers but I am few".Until dark, the Kuroda army failed to achieve a decisive victory. They just beat the Ming army to "disturbance and cannot be prepared." , This is the strike. Various "family records" including "Kuroda Family Records" have a rule in describing the war: if the Japanese army won the victory, they would try their best to boast about the large number of Ming troops killed and how the Ming army was defeated; If the Japanese army was in a disadvantageous situation, they tried their best to expand the strength of the Ming army, and then boasted about the bravery of the Japanese generals.To put it bluntly, winning means "repeated battles and repeated victories", and losing means "repeated defeats and repeated battles". There used to be a joke during the War of Liberation that the underground party could still judge the situation of the civil war from the tightly sealed newspapers in the Kuomintang-controlled areas.As long as you see the national army "fighting bravely", it means that the Kuomintang has suffered here.If it is "fight bravely regardless of sacrifice", it means a big defeat; if it is "fight bravely regardless of sacrifice and the bandits dare not chase", it means there is a big defeat.The past and the present are the same, which can be confirmed by each other. After understanding this rule, and looking back at "Kuroda Family Records", you will find that the main author spared no effort to praise how courageous, how brave and skilled the Kuroda generals are, and how they can maintain their fighting spirit in adversity.This in itself hints at a key issue: the Battle of Jishan was indeed a bitter battle for Kuroda Nagamasa. On the contrary, when the main author mentioned the Ming army in the Battle of Jishan, he only described it lightly as "stunned", "defeated", "dare not to fight", etc., which just proved the loss of the Ming army Very small, so small that the "Kuroda Family", which has always been good at exaggerating, can't brag, otherwise they would have boasted that they killed the corpses of the Ming army all over the field and blood flowed into rivers. In response to that sentence, no attitude is also an attitude. The question arises here, how awesome is the Ming army, and it was able to push the famous general Kuroda Nagamasa to such a degree. Let's take a look at the number of players on both sides. Kuroda Nagamasa's Third Army had a total strength of 25,000 during the Imjin War, and experienced war losses. In addition, Yoshihiro Shimadzu, who originally belonged to the Third Army, was separated into an independent army. The total force dropped to 10,000.The 10,000 people include Kuroda Nagamasa's 5,000-member team, Mori Yoshinari's 2,000 people, and Shimadzu Tadatoyo, Takahashi Motonune, Akizuki Tanaga, Ito Yuhei's and Sagara Yoifa's 3,000 people. people. Although Ding You's chaotic Japanese army is still divided into legions, most of the time they are deployed at will.After joining forces in Jeonju, Mori Yoshinari, Shimadzu, Takahashi, and Akizuki did not follow Kuroda Naruma to the north, but dispersed to other roads in Jeolla and Chungcheong.Following Kuroda Nagamasa was only Hidemoto Mori of the Eighth Legion. In the battle of Jishan, Mori Hidemoto only caught up with one tail, and actually only Kuroda Nagamasa's team, 5,000 people, participated in the battle. The Kuroda Army is also considered an army that is good at fighting in the Japanese army.They fought so tragically, and repeatedly uttered the mournful cry of being outnumbered, so the number of the Ming army should be higher than that of the Japanese army. Even if it is not as exaggerated as the ten times that the Japanese said, it must be twice as much. So how many people did the Ming army participate in the battle of Jishan on September 7? Among the four generals who participated in the battle.Jie Sheng had two thousand Datong cavalry under his command, Niu Boying had six hundred soldiers from Jizhen, Qugui had three thousand Xuan Da cavalry, and Yang Dengshan had one thousand and one hundred Xuan Da cavalry, totaling 6,700 troops. This figure seems reasonable - but don't forget that this is the total number of soldiers they entered the court, not the number of people who went to Jishan. It is recorded in "Reconstructing the Fan Kingdom" and "Xuanmiao Zhongxing Zhi" that Magui "selected two thousand strong men from each battalion at night, and 15 brave generals, so that Jiesheng Niu Boying was quite expensive and Yang Dengshan led them, and sent them to Tian'an and the generals I don’t know.” In other words, Ma Gui’s dispatch of troops to Jishan was a secret operation, and not many people noticed it.Since it is a secret operation, it must be concealed. Two thousand people can leave the camp quietly. If six or seven thousand people move together, most of them are cavalry. It is absolutely impossible not to alarm other generals. The actual number of troops that actually arrived at Jishan was more than 2,000.Because Jiesheng, Pogui and Yang Dengshan were ordered to set off from Seoul, but Niu Boying was sent to meet Chen Yuzhong who had escaped from Jeonju at the end of August, and stayed in Gongju, Cheonan and other places without returning to Seoul.He joined the Jieshengsuo's department on the way, and then headed for Jishan. In other words, Jiesheng's total force on the sixth day of September was about 2,600. Around noon that day, Li Yiqiao and Liu Yujie came to support.This Ming army was not Ma Gui's direct line, but Yang Gao brought it over from Pyongyang, with a total strength of 1,290 soldiers.Counting them, the total number of the Ming army reached 3,890. Let's zoom in on the estimates a little more.After Namwon fell, Chen Yuzhong withdrew 2,000 people from Quanzhou to Gongzhou and joined forces with Niu Boying.After Yang Gao entered Seoul on the third day of September, Yang Yuan and Chen Yuzhong were captured and punished.At this time, the military situation was urgent, and it was impossible to call all these two thousand people back to Seoul. The correct procedure should be that Yang Gao sent someone to the army to write a document to take Chen Yuzhong back, and Chen Suo's troops were temporarily handed over to Niu Boying. In this way, when Niu Boying met Jie Sheng, he had already brought 2,600 people with him.After joining forces with Jie Sheng, he had 4,600 troops, and joined forces with Li Yiqiao to reach 5,890. This figure is more in line with common sense.In front of tens of thousands of Japanese troops, if Magui only sent 2,000 people to intercept them, it would be too childish.His real intention should be to send Jiesheng 2,000 people from Seoul to join forces with the 2,600 Niu Boying who was hanging outside. In addition, Yang Gao sent another 1,000 people, so that he would have enough troops to deal with the Japanese army.In the past, historical materials only recorded the strength of the soldiers who set out from Seoul, and often ignored the location of Niu Boying. Whether it is 2,000, 2,600, 3,890, or 5,890, the total strength of the Ming army is at least less than half that of Kuroda's army, and at most it is only as strong as Kuroda's army. The army was flat.Kuroda Nagamasa's 5,000 men faced the same number of Ming troops, but they were beaten to the ground, and they had to exaggerate the number of enemies to cover up their painful feet. This combat effectiveness is really interesting. On the night of the seventh day of September.Jiesheng was gearing up, preparing to do a big fight the next day to drive the enemy out of the Tian'an area. He encouraged his subordinates to say: "Looking at the bandit's situation now, we must die before retreating. Work hard and dare to die, and don't sit on the military law." He warned his colleagues, "but the cunning thief must go through the mountain road, ride at a different pace, and don't chase after him." It can be seen that he is full of confidence, and he has even planned the countermeasures when the Japanese are defeated and flee.Jie Sheng also asked Ma Gui in the rear for help. Ma Gui ordered Bai Saihuo, who had been ambushing in Jiechuan, to lead 2,000 cavalry forward to help defend Jishan. At the same time, Kuroda Nagamasa was not idle, he sent someone to ask for help from Mao Lixiuyuan behind.Mao Lixiuyuan's total strength was as high as 30,000. Although he didn't bring it with him at this time, there were at least 10,000 to 20,000 troops.As long as he arrives, the overall situation will be settled. In the early morning of the eighth day of September, both sides were afraid that the other side's reinforcements would arrive early, so they simply started fighting early.This time, it was no longer an encounter with arrivals in batches, but a genuine frontal battle. The war to aid North Korea has been fought for so long. The Ming army’s battles in Pyongyang, Beekjekwan, Gyeongsangdo, Namwon and other places were either urban offensive or defensive battles, or retreat battles under extreme conditions, or were dominated by southern soldiers. In this battle, there has never been a chance to display the true power of the Beibing soldiers.The Battle of Jishan was the first time that Ming cavalry, artillery and Japanese infantry fought evenly on a relatively fair battlefield. In this battle, the cavalry of the Ming army could finally fully display their power. They came from Xuanda Border Pass, and the combat effectiveness of the cavalry was not inferior to that of the Liaodong army.There is no need to say much about the process of this battle, because the description in the history books is already gorgeous enough, let me record it: "The next day at dawn, the thieves and soldiers fired their cannons, Zhang He's wings advanced, and they swung their swords. Confused. Heavenly soldiers raised their cannons, and under the iron whip, the bandits were caught off guard. After a short battle, the bandits fled. Before the battle, the bandits fled and headed towards Muchuan Qingzhou." This text comes from the records of the North Korean side, and "Kuroda Family Records" avoids mentioning this battle, but only says "Maori Xiuyuan's soldiers also arrived, the remaining enemy troops did not dare to fight and retreated, and our soldiers also retreated. "It is an indirect acknowledgment of the defeat of the Japanese army. After the battle, Pogui proudly said to the King of Korea: "The Japanese pirates are very fierce. They charge forward after they die in front. I am in my fifties, and I have fought hundreds of battles with the surrounding barbarians. I’ve seen ones that are more difficult to deal with than the Japanese pirates—but as long as our cavalry makes an assault, they will be finished.” It can be seen that the Ming cavalry caused great trouble to the Japanese.During the battle, the Ming army also shot and killed a Japanese general named Ye Yizhi, and killed more than 20 small bosses who wore gold helmets and armors, which was regarded as revenge for their colleagues who died in Nanyuan. After the battle, Kuroda Nagamasa had to retreat towards Cheongju.According to historical records of the Ming Dynasty and the Dynasty, Jiesheng was going to pursue him, but because the Ming army was too exhausted from marching and fighting for three consecutive days, the army rested, and the Japanese army retreated.We guessed that the chasing troops should be the ones in charge, because only his troops are the new force.However, Japanese historical materials say that because of the arrival of Maori Hidemoto's army, the Ming army did not dare to fight, and turned around and ran away. We believe that the actual situation of the battle on the second day was that Kuroda Nagamasa was unable to resist the defeat, and he ran into reinforcements from Mori Hidemoto on the way, and turned back to find a place.Seeing the tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers rushing towards him, Jie Sheng voluntarily withdrew from the battlefield, leaving Tian'an and Jishan to the Japanese army. The Japanese said that Jie Sheng sent a white eagle to Kuroda Nagamasa three days after the war, and begged him for peace. "The Story of the Maori Family" is even more suspenseful, showing that the army was killed by the Japanese army and fled in all directions, and had to climb up the mountain.Facing the heavy siege of the Japanese army, they sent someone to say to Mao Lixiuyuan: "We were sent to assist North Korea to act on orders, and we have no hatred with you. We will not fight again in the future. I will stamp you with the flag as a seal and let us go. Let’s make a living.” Mao Lixiuyuan then stamped the flag of the Ming army to let these people go—these stories are close to the novel, quite dramatic, in our opinion, it doesn’t really matter much whether it’s true or not. In the entire battle of Jishan, how much was the loss of each side? Based on various records, the number of casualties of the Japanese army is about 500 to 600, which is nearly one-tenth of the Kuroda team.The loss of the Ming army is unknown, but judging from the activity of Jiesheng and other troops in the subsequent battles, the casualties will not be very large, at most no more than two or three hundred people.This casualty ratio is more in line with the loss ratio of the cavalry to the infantry, and also more in line with the loss ratio of the Ming army to the Japanese army. Some people may think that it took two days of fighting to get so few casualties?In fact, most of the biggest casualties in cold wars occurred after the defeat occurred, and the actual number of casualties in the battle would not be too many.Just to give an example, the Han general Li Ling led 5,000 infantry out of the fortress, encountered 100,000 Huns, fought fiercely for eight days, and killed more than 10,000 Huns.Calculating it, more than a thousand people were killed in one day, and this was the result of the Han army's large-scale use of crossbows for position defense. So who won this battle?From the point of view of tactics and numbers, the Ming army had the advantage, but from the perspective of the strategic goals of both sides, the Japanese army finally occupied Tianan and controlled Jishan, and the Ming army was forced to retreat. It seems that the Japanese army was the final winner.Many historians in the past have held this view. This is actually a misunderstanding.You must know that occupying Tianan and Jishan is a means, not an end.What is the strategic purpose of the Japanese army?It is going north to Seoul; what is the strategic purpose of the Ming army?It is to prevent the Japanese army from going north to Seoul. After Kuroda Nagamasa and Mori Hidemoto occupied Jishan, they did not continue to march, because they were too impressed by the iron cavalry of the Ming army during the Jishan War.It was the second time that Kuroda Nagamasa faced the Ming cavalry in a field battle. The previous time was a battle with Li Rusong's Biju Pavilion.He is very familiar with the terrain in this area, and he knows that the road from Jishan to Seoul is a rare smooth one, with wide roads and open terrain.In normal times, it would naturally be a good path, but under the deterrence of the Daming iron cavalry in front, he had to reconsider. If the Japanese army went north, the Ming cavalry could gallop back and forth easily during the march, fighting when they wanted to, and walking when they wanted to, without any hindrance.They can attack anytime, anywhere.According to the Koreans, during the Battle of Jishan, the cavalry of the Ming army "flyed with spears and lightning, rushed in and out like flying", so will the 150-mile wide road from Cheonan to Seoul become What about the paradise of the Ming cavalry and the hell of the Japanese army?Thinking of this possibility, Kuroda Nagamasa shuddered, and he must not go north until this problem is resolved. The Japanese have always said that they experienced three major wars in the Korean War: the Battle of Pyongyang, the Battle of Sanseong in Hangju, and Jishan (Battle of Sushaping).It can be seen that the war had a profound impact on Japanese commanders. So the conclusion is very clear, the winner of the Battle of Jishan is Daming.Jiesheng and other generals fought hard in Sushaping, which successfully prevented the Japanese army from continuing to go north, and stabilized the morale of the Seoul army.Since then, with Jishan as the starting point, the coalition forces of the Ming and Dynasties officially entered the counter-offensive stage. The next time the Japanese crossed Jishan and entered Gyeonggi-do, it will be hundreds of years later in the Jiawu period. At the end of this chapter, a fun fact, by the way. The victory of the Battle of Jishan spread to Seoul, and the Koreans who were saved from abandoning Seoul for the second time were very happy. They did not hesitate to use extremely gorgeous words to describe the battle in their records.However, amidst all the jubilation, there was one person who remained silent. who?The mainstay of Li Dynasty - Liu Chenglong. After the war, Liu Chenglong wrote a book "Punishment Records", reviewing the entire Korean War.When this book was written about the crisis in Seoul in early September of the Dingyou year, it only wrote six words: "The thieves returned from Gyeonggi", and did not mention a word about the Battle of Jishan.Regarding his behavior, not to mention us, even the Koreans at that time could not understand it. "Qingye Manlu" commented full of sarcasm: "Yang Gao has made great contributions to our country, but there is nothing wrong with punishing him. If the Japanese slaves retreated on their own, that would be the case. Susha's victories confuse people's eyes and ears, but they are still wiped out with personal grievances. This is Jackie Chan's big flaw." When cooperating with Li Rusong, Liu Chenglong avoided talking about practical difficulties in "Punishment Records", blindly accusing Admiral Li of being cowardly and avoiding the battle, and even slandered the Ming army in the Battle of Bichiguan because no one dared to go forward because of the sharpness of the Japanese army's sword; When Yang Gao cooperated, he deliberately concealed his deeds because of his personal grievances, and ignored his achievements in going to Hancheng to suppress people's hearts, and he didn't mention a word about the victory of Jishan.Having trouble with the two chief officials before and after Daming, and deliberately smearing or ignoring it in the book he wrote, Liu Chenglong is really very dishonest in this matter.