Chapter 40 Chapter 19 Great Increase in Troops

This war has lasted for more than six years since President Xiaoxi attacked Busan in the 20th year of Wanli. Not to mention that Japan and North Korea were dragged down and the livelihood of the people was dying, even Daming felt a little tired and impatient.Many people in the court have already discussed that the court should complete all its efforts and drive the Japanese devils back to their hometown at once, and there should be no further delay.Emperor Wanli himself also hoped to end the Korean War as soon as possible, so that the country's finances could take a breather. Based on this appeal, the Ming court established a clear principle as soon as the Dingyou Rebellion started: increase troops, increase troops, and increase troops again.

Li Rusong and Yang Gao sent troops twice, with a total strength of only about 40,000 troops, and the composition of the troops was mainly composed of Liaodong, Nanbing and Xuanda, which were relatively simple.However, if we want to increase the scale of troop increase, we must not continue to draw troops from Liaodong and Xuanda—these two places shoulder the heavy responsibility of guarding the north of Ming Dynasty, and it is impossible to weaken the defense of the capital for the sake of North Korea—the only way is to recruit troops from all over the country. Selecting the right troops and commanders to participate in the war, and designing a larger and more complex logistics supply plan, these tasks cannot be done overnight.

Therefore, at the beginning of the war, the Ming army has been in a dilemma of insufficient troops.This dilemma was not alleviated until the end of the Battle of Ulsan in the 26th year of Wanli. Beginning in February of the twenty-sixth year of Wanli, starting with the guerrilla general Lan Fangwei's 4,000 Zhejiang soldiers and the former battalion general Wang Guodong's 3,000 cavalry Yansui, the Ming army began a large wave of troop increase.Soldiers from Liaodong, Xuanda, Baoding, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Guangdong and even Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou gathered in North Korea one after another, and there was an endless stream of vehicles and horses on the road.

Among these reinforcements, three individuals deserve special mention. One is Liu Ting.Liu Ting can also be regarded as an old face in the War to Resist Japan and Aid Korea. He caught up with the tail in the first war to aid Korea. He didn't fight any big battles. He returned to China after two years of soy sauce. Liu Ting has a very strange problem, being greedy for money—in fact, being greedy for money is not a strange thing, the strange thing is that Liu Ting always thinks that other people are as greedy for money as he is.Originally, when he returned from North Korea, he had achieved a solid achievement. Liu Ting wanted to make more money, so he went to bribe the censor Song Xingzu, but he was sued by the Ministry, and the court read that he stayed in North Korea for two years. , There is hard work without credit, and there is no deep research.Later, after the Korean War, he was sent to quell the Yang Yinglong rebellion in Bozhou. With the strong support of Governor Li Hualong, Liu Ting won a big victory.At this time, he committed his old habit again, and tried to bribe Li Hualong's father, but he was stabbed to the court again.

These are things for later.Let’s talk about the large increase in troops to aid the DPRK this time. The court thought of Liu Ting’s qualifications and thought he was a good candidate, so he ordered him to lead the "multinational force" under his command to go out again.Liu Ting set off very early and arrived at the front line in February, stationed in Quanzhou to be responsible for the defense of the western front. The second person is Dong Yiyuan. Dong Yiyuan and Ma Gui both belonged to the Xuanda family and were also born as generals. Their distant ancestor was Dong Zhongshu, a great Confucian in the Han Dynasty. His father Dong Yang and his elder brother Dong Yikui were both famous generals of the generation.Dong Yiyuan himself has been stationed in Jizhou, Xuanfu, Ningxia, Yansui and other places for a long time. He has made a lot of military exploits and is a veteran who is proficient in border affairs.

In the 22nd year of Wanli, when the negotiations on the Korean battlefield were in full swing, Dong Yiyuan was transferred to Liaodong as the commander-in-chief, succeeding Li Chengliang.He cooperated with Yang Hao, Li Rumei and others to cleanly kill the rabbits of the Mongolian Ministry, eliminated a major threat, and was greatly praised by Emperor Wanli.He was impeached and resigned in twenty-five years, and his replacement happened to be Li Rusong, Li Chengliang's son. Now Yang Gao was impeached and dismissed from office, and Li Rumei stayed in Liaodong because of Li Rusong's death.Dong Yiyuan, a general with outstanding military exploits, senior qualifications, and backgrounds in Xuanda and Liaodong, was able to hold the field, so he was selected as the general officer of the Imperial Japanese Army. He arrived in North Korea in March and led the way alone.

The third person is Chen Lin What is so special about this person, you only need to look at his title to know: the imperial envoy commanding the sailors and the general officer of the Imperial Army. His arrival only means one thing: the Daming navy is dispatched. During the long war against Japan, the Daming Navy remained silent for two reasons: First: In the early days of the war, the imperial court was unable to determine the main attack direction of the Japanese army, for fear that they would pretend to attack North Korea and actually attack the coast. Therefore, naval forces from all over the country took the defense of the local area as their top priority and did not dare to easily go north to assemble.Second: After the Japanese army's strategic intentions became clear, Yi sun-shin was born, and the Japanese navy was beaten to the brim.

Therefore, during the years of war and confrontation, the presence of the Daming Navy has been missing, not unexpectedly, but unnecessary. During this period, the Daming Navy had only two chances to appear.Once, after Li Rusong conquered Pyongyang, he provided escort for a convoy delivering supplies from Shandong, Tianjin and other places to North Korea; once, after the Japanese army retreated from Seoul, a fleet went south to Jeolla Province at the request of Song Yingchang, trying to cooperate with him. The plan to attack Busan.Later, the peace talks broke out, and the plan ended without a problem, so the fleet withdrew.

It wasn't until Dingyou's chaotic Qichuanliang naval battle broke out, and the entire Korean navy was wiped out, that Jinglue Xing Jie realized the importance of the navy to the battle situation.Especially after the Battle of Ulsan, the Japanese army came and went freely on the water, which made Xing Jie feel even more painful that a powerful navy was needed to cooperate with the land offensive.Li Sunchen was indeed very capable, but it was difficult for a clever woman to survive without rice. He only had a few boats in his hand, and he could harass him, but he was not strong enough for a serious battle.

The imperial court responded very quickly to Xing Jie's request, and soon dispatched the Guangdong navy headed by Chen Lin to assist in the battle. Chen Lin is a Cantonese. He is good at fighting, especially in water warfare. He has a great reputation in Guangdong, even the Emperor Wanli in Beijing has heard of his reputation.It's a pity that his character is not particularly good, he is corrupt, he has caused a mutiny for mistreating soldiers, has been impeached repeatedly, has been up and down in the officialdom, and has had a rough experience. Chen Lin's affiliation with the Anti Japanese Aid Korea was earlier than any general.As early as the 20th year of Wanli, before the imperial court decided to send troops, Wanli had already begun to select generals in advance across the country.Xiao Yan, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, strongly recommended Chen Lin and praised him for his bravery.So in August of that year, Beijing Wenxia called Chen Lin from the south to the capital to serve as a general of the Seventh Battalion of Shenji for consultation.

When Chen Lin saw such a good opportunity, he was ecstatic. He recruited more than 500 soldiers from his hometown, equipped with excellent firearms, and rushed to the capital.After the start of the war, Chen Lin was quickly appointed as the deputy commander in chief of sea defense and Japanese defense in Jiliao, Baoding, Shandong and other places to prevent the Japanese army from landing. Just when everything seemed to be going well, Chen Lin was unlucky... Chen Lin is a thorough fighter, he has always strongly demanded to bring the navy to the battlefield, and kept writing letters to Shangfeng.You can say that he really wants to serve the country, or that he is deliberately showing his courage. In short, the whole army knows the trouble. Everyone knows that there is a general surnamed Chen who is eager to try and asks to bring a navy into the court. join the war. This request has been ignored in the early days of the war, because Li Rusong has been fighting smoothly and does not need a navy.After arriving at the Battle of Bichi Pavilion, Song Yingchang deeply felt that without a navy, nothing could be done. He suddenly remembered Chen Lin, who had been ordered to come to help in the battle-but this move annoyed Shi Xing, Minister of the Ministry of War. Everyone knows that after the 21st year of Wanli, Shi Xing gradually became a peacemaker, and had frequent quarrels with Song Yingchang.Now that Song Yingchang wants to transfer Chen Lin to the court, it is clear that he wants to expand the scale of the war. This is completely contrary to Shi Xing's policy and must be stopped! At that time, the discussion of paying tribute had just started, and the imperial court had not yet reached a consensus on Japan's strategy, and the atmosphere of peace talks was not yet strong.Shi Xing didn't dare to blatantly obstruct him, so he played a dirty trick: reporting Chen Lin for bribing himself. In fact, it has become an unspoken rule in the Ming Dynasty that military generals stationed in Beijing present gifts to civil officials, and everyone does so.After Chen Lin arrived in Beijing, he was not immune to the custom, and gave Shi Xing a few blankets and a few glass cups.He never expected that Shi Xing would use this matter to attack Song Yingchang. The evidence of bribery is conclusive, and Chen Lin has nothing to justify.He was dismissed in such a muddle-headed manner, and was transferred back to the front lines of Guangdong and Fujian with Chen Jiajun in despair.He was shot while lying down. Now that Xing Jie asked the navy to help in the battle, Emperor Wanli immediately thought of Chen Lin, discussed with the cabinet, and ordered the Ministry of War to issue a transfer order, asking him to take the Guangdong water battalion north to fight against Japan. Chen Lin took several of his confidants and his son Chen Jiujing to North Korea with 8,600 people.Among the more than 8,000 people, 2,000 people led by Chen Jiujing were sailors from Guangdong and Guangxi, 2,000 Guangdong infantry soldiers, and 4,600 wolf soldiers. The wolf soldier is a legend of the Ming Dynasty's anti-Japanese war.As early as the Jiajing period, under the suggestion of Yu Dayou, Zhang Jing, a famous anti-Japanese minister, dispatched local soldiers of the Zhuang nationality from Tianzhou, Guangxi and other places.Together with the Tujia soldiers in Xiangxi, they are called "wolf soldiers". The wolf soldiers fought extremely bravely. They once wiped out nearly 2,000 Japanese pirates in the first battle of Wangjiangjing. They were the main force of the Ming army against Japanese pirates before the Qi family army.The composition of the wolf soldiers led by Chen Lin is different from that of the Jiajing period. It is a mixture of Zhuang, Tujia, Miao, Yao and other southwestern minorities, but its combat effectiveness has not diminished at all. Xing Jie probably felt that only 2,000 sailors were too thin, so he asked the court again, and transferred Deng Zilong's 3,000 sailors to Chen Lin's unified management.Deng Zilong is a veteran. He turned 70 this year. He fought against the Japanese in Fujian, quelled the chaos in Jiangxi, and confronted Burma on the border for twelve years. The Burmese dared not look north.His presence made Chen Lin's navy even more powerful. At the same time, there was also a 1,600-strong Guangdong Army Corps headed to North Korea, led by Chen Lin's old comrade-in-arms deputy commander Wu Guang. After Chen Lin entered North Korea, another navy from Southern Zhili joined forces with him.This navy is led by guerrilla general Liang Tianyin and commander-in-chief Li Tianchang, with thousands of troops. Just Chen Lin's troops surpassed the combined naval forces of the Korean and Japanese armies. Chen Lin's vanguard arrived in North Korea as early as the end of February and was stationed at the mouth of the Yalu River. He himself entered North Korea in April, and the main force of the Guangdong Navy arrived on May 16.Chen Lin was not in a hurry to attack, but was familiar with the hydrological conditions near North Korea on the spot.Just at this time, the case of Ding Yingtai’s impeachment of Yang Hao broke out, and the Ming army came to a standstill. It was delayed until Wan Shide took over as the manager, and Chen Lin’s navy marched into Jeolla-do on July 26, with a total of more than 500 soldiers. A boat—note that Ming's "ships" are completely different from Japanese "ships" in terms of tonnage and power. After Chen Lin arrived in North Korea, he was very popular with the kings and ministers of North Korea.When the king of North Korea, Li Yan, met him, Chen Lin didn't want any gifts, but only asked for combat supplies such as denitrification, earthen pots, and lime. He generously expressed that he would not go back until he killed the Japanese.This attitude made Li Yan very pleased. Before their joy was over, problems arose. Li Yan hosted a banquet in Seoul to entertain Chen Lin. After eating and drinking enough, a group of people left to digest their food and walked to a place called Qingpoye, when they suddenly heard screams from a distance.The North Korean monarchs and Chen Lin leaned over to take a look, and were dumbfounded. A North Korean official named Li Shanggui was tied around his neck by a rope and dragged around on the ground like a dog. At the other end of the rope was a subordinate of Chen Lin who was cursing while dragging. Although it was not the first time that a Ming general abused a North Korean official, doing so in front of the king was really a slap in the face.Chen Lin also felt that it was not appropriate, so he shouted at his subordinates to stop quickly, confessed to Li Yan, and left in a hurry. After Chen Lin left, Li Yan and several ministers looked at each other, not knowing what to say.They sent people to inquire again, only to find out that this General Chen is known for his violent temper, he dares to do anything when he gets angry, and he has raised all arrogant soldiers under his hands.When he led his troops northward and passed through Shanhaiguan, because the distribution of grain was a little slow, the Chen family's army clamored together and beat up the local flag and drum officer.This matter went all the way to the imperial court, but the navy was about to gather, and the imperial court could not punish him deeply, so he had to give a verbal warning. Chen Jiajun is merciless when dealing with his own people, let alone North Koreans. When Liu Chenglong heard these deeds, his face was ashen, and he said repeatedly: "This time, we are in serious trouble. If this kind of person goes to Li Shunchen's camp, he will definitely ride on his head and shit. If Li Shunchen resists, the water will be destroyed." If there is internal strife in the army, if you don't fight, you will lose; if you don't resist, it will breed Chen's arrogance, and you will lose sooner or later." Chen Lin didn't care about the little things the North Koreans muttered.After he left Seoul, he led the navy to Gujin Island.As soon as he entered the water camp, he saw Yi Sun-shin leading the entire Korean navy lined up to greet him, laying out a lot of wild game and wine, waiting for the arrival of the Ming army. Reaching out his hand and not slapping the smiling face, Li Sunshin is so humble, it's hard for Chen Lin to make a good show.The guest of honor met, greeted each other, and talked happily.Seeing that there was wine to drink, Chen Lin's subordinates poured their own drinks without persuading them, and the atmosphere on the scene was quite lively. After drinking, something happened. After the Battle of Myeongryang, Yi Sun-shin recruited a large number of strong men, and their families were stationed with the army on the land near Gujin Island, gradually forming several small villages.Those Ming army soldiers who got drunk wandered around on the shore, rushed in when they saw a village, harassed the people, and even looted dozens of times. Li Shunchen looked very cold when he saw it, and immediately ordered his subordinates to dismantle the tent and prepare to board the ship.Chen Lin didn't drink much. Seeing that Li Sunchen was about to leave, he hurried over to ask what was going on.Li Sunchen said: "We were looking forward to the future to help the war, but your subordinates looted everywhere, scaring away the people who had finally gathered together. As a general, I have no face to stay here." What he said made Chen Lin feel ashamed.Fortunately, Chen Lin is a well-known general of the generation, and he can distinguish the priorities. Instead of kicking Li Sun-shin away, he apologized to him.Li Shunchen strikes while the iron is hot, saying that now that the two armies are united, it is best to manage them together. My lord, you are the supreme commander. For matters such as military discipline, let me do it for you. Chen Lin thought about it and agreed. There is nothing to say about Li Sun-shin's methods of managing the army.After he got the guarantee from Chen Lin, he severely dealt with several incidents of nuisance to the people in a row, so the Ming army knew that the North Korean general was powerful, and his military discipline was much stronger than when he entered the dynasty. After the coalition forces of the Ming and Dynasties joined forces, they soon ushered in the first joint battle.On August 13, the coalition forces set off to Zheer Island and defeated a small Japanese fleet.This was a small-scale encounter, and the North Korean navy had cut more than a hundred ranks. Because the Daming Navy hadn't gotten used to the Korean sea and the Japanese military tactics, it basically didn't have much confrontation with the enemy. After a battle, they gained nothing. Chen Lin couldn't hold back his face, so he called his subordinates over and scolded him severely.When he was cursing and spitting, suddenly more than 20 North Korean envoys came, carrying more than forty Japanese pirate heads in their hands.The leader said to Chen Lin: "My admiral said that the victory of the Korean Navy is the victory of Ming Dynasty, so this military medal is half of mine and half of yours. I offer forty heads, please accept it." It seems that after so many years of tempering, Li Sunshin is no longer that embarrassing young man in the officialdom, but also understands the way of understanding human relationships. Li Sunchen's friendly attitude moved Chen Lin very much. Generally, people with a violent temper have a characteristic that they tend to go to extremes. When they treat you badly, they wish to eat you; when they treat you well, they wish to confess you.Li Sunchen's humble attitude made Chen Lin feel that he had to vote for Li Baotao.He first persuaded Li Sunchen to immigrate to Daming and serve as a high-ranking official. After being rejected politely, he still did not give up. He specially wrote a letter to Wanli, praising Li Sunchen's various brilliant achievements, and finally got a bronze cast of nine folds of seal characters for Li Sunchen. Seal, the specifications are astonishingly high, and it also comes with tiger head tokens, ghost swords, chopping knives, supervisory flags, red small order flags, blue small order flags, song trumpets, known as "eight gifts".In addition to the eight blessings, a long-handled sickle and a turtle boat were also presented as gifts. Everything else is easy to understand, but this Turtle Ship has always had different opinions.Isn't the turtle ship a unique weapon of North Korea?Why do you still need the gift from Wanli?I speculate that the reason for this is probably because North Korea lacked materials and it was difficult to build large-scale turtle ships, because Wanli specially built several ships in Daming territory—or prepared materials—and donated them to Yi Sunshin. After Li Sunchen received these rewards, his face glowed, and he hung them high in the barracks, and anyone who came would take them to show off. With this friendship, the relationship between Chen Lin and Li Sunchen has changed from mutual tolerance at the beginning to appreciation of each other. Both are sweet. This unexpected development has cracked the glasses of the pessimists in Seoul, led by Ryu Sung-ryong - if they have glasses. Liu Ting, Dong Yiyuan, and Chen Lin were from the southwest, northeast, and southeast of Daming respectively, and they represented the three main sources of troops to aid Korea.Their entry into the court showed that the Ming court finally became cruel and decided to mobilize the power of the whole country to directly crush the lingering Japanese. Liu Ting, Dong Yiyuan, and Chen Lin were from the southwest, northeast, and southeast of Daming respectively, and they represented the three main sources of troops to aid Korea.Their entry into the court showed that the Ming court finally became cruel and decided to mobilize the power of the whole country to directly crush the lingering Japanese. In this way, in just a few months, the total strength of the Ming army in North Korea surged to 142,700!The front-line troops have reached more than 90,000, and the military capacity has never been greater!It can be said that there are many soldiers and generals. There are many soldiers, which is easy to handle; generals are broad, but there are troubles.In such a narrow place as North Korea, there are so many chief soldiers and deputy chief soldiers from different places, and it is troublesome to manage. Dong Yiyuan is a veteran, needless to say, his status must not be lower than that of Magui.Liu Ting and Chen Lin are now also the leading figures in the main army, and both have an admiral in their titles.When these people get together, if they can't figure out their superiority and inferiority, trouble will happen sooner or later. Therefore, the command system of the Ming army made some minor adjustments, still using Xing Jie as the strategy to coordinate the overall situation, and the manager Yang Hao (later replaced by Wan Shide) deployed the strategy.The lower part is divided into three theaters: Ma Gui, Dong Yiyuan, and Liu Ting. In addition to these three supreme commanders, each theater also has a supervising army.Wang Shiqi, who was in charge of the West Route Army, was in charge of the Central Route Army, Liang Zuling, the Deputy Envoy of the Examination, and Xu Zhongsu, who was in charge of the East Route Army. Unfortunately, he came to North Korea in May and went back to his father's funeral in June.No one came to replace him, and the seat was hanging there all the time - not to mention the three war zones, even Xing Jie had a censor Chen Xiao staring at him.Chen Xiao does not directly supervise the three-way supervisory army, but he has two gold-medal paparazzi under his command, one is Ding Yingtai and the other is Xu Guanlan, who are dedicated to watching the behavior of the generals. The reason why the imperial court sent so many supervising troops was because Yang Gao’s defeat in Daoshan was too bizarre, which made Wanli suspicious of the actions of the aid troops and felt that these guys might lie about the military situation, so all the supervising troops had Carrying a task of "investigating crimes".The authority of these supervising troops is quite high. In terms of grand strategy, all the generals of the three routes obey the orders of the manager, but when it comes to specific small strategies and tactics, they have to discuss with the supervising troops. Afterwards, it proved that the performance of these supervising troops was very good, which not only ensured that the North Korean aid troops could get a relatively objective evaluation, but also played a positive role in war decision-making. On April 29th in the twenty-sixth year of Wanli, Xing Jie and Yang Hao saw the reinforcements of the Ming army arriving one after another, and they were courageous enough to formulate a very grand plan in Seoul. In this plan, the Ming army will be divided into four groups, the three army groups will attack Suncheon, Sacheon, and Ulsan respectively, and the navy army will sweep the sea along the way, destroying the entire Japanese defense line at once with thunderous means, making it impossible to see each other from head to tail.The Ming army has always been outnumbered and outnumbered in the Korean battlefield. This is the first time that the outnumbered outnumbered the outnumbered. It's a pity that Yang Hao resigned because of Ding Yingtai's involvement before he put it into practice.Before the arrival of the new manager appointed by the imperial court, the Ming army could not act rashly, so they had to slowly accumulate supplies, adjust their deployment, and wait for the order from the superior. Unexpectedly, before Wan Shide came, Ding Yingtai came again. After the Yang Gao incident, Emperor Wanli asked Ding Yingtai and Xu Guanlan to go to North Korea again to investigate crimes.Ding Yingtai looked around and said that you have so many people piled up on the front line, but you refuse to attack, and you just consume food there, don't you want to mess around? All the generals on the front line knew that this eldest brother had a notoriously stinky mouth, and whoever was sprayed by him would be unlucky for three or four years, so they sent him to Xing Jie.Ding Yingtai was also polite, and went to Xing Jie and said that you should start fighting quickly, otherwise Yang Hao would be your role model. Xing Jie was afraid that he would cause trouble again when he went back, so he thought to himself, don't wait for Wan Shide to come, just start the fight. So in mid-September of the twenty-sixth year of Wanli, tens of thousands of Ming troops were divided into four groups under the prying of a small Ding Yingtai, and the last and largest battle of resisting Japan and aiding Japan officially started. battle. Regarding the military configuration of the three Ming armies, the most detailed list is "Reconstructing Fan Guo Zhi".Many articles and related research books are based on the figures provided by this book.That is: Magui led the East Route Army with 24,000 people to attack Kato Kiyomasa's troops in Ulsan again; the middle line was led by Dong Yiyuan, the former Liaodong General Soldier, with a total force of 14,000 people, and mainly attacked Shimadzu Yoshihiro in Sacheon; The West Route Army was led by Liu Ting, with a total strength of 13,600; it attacked Shuntian's Xingchang Xiaoxi.The Korean troops from all over the country also followed the main force of the Ming army and went south together. At the same time, Chen Lin led a navy of 13,200 people, plus Yi Sun-shin's Korean navy, starting from Gujin Island, and swept across the entire Jeolla and Gyeongsang sea areas. This number is actually very problematic. Excluding the naval army, the total strength of the Ming army was only 51,600, which was smaller than the total strength of the Japanese army.As far as the branch road is concerned, except for the Eastern Route Army's superiority in strength, the other two routes are inferior to the Japanese Army.For example, Shimadzu Yoshihiro in the middle road has 10,000 troops, including the 7,000 troops of Gucheng Tachibana Zongshige, the actual strength is still higher than Dong Yiyuan. This is very strange. The core idea of ​​Xing Jie's decision to attack by split is to defeat the enemy in the shortest possible time.In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to surpass the Japanese army in terms of military strength.There are hundreds of thousands of Ming troops at his disposal, so why send only 50,000 people? The strength of the Three-Route Ming Army is based on the list of generals provided in "Reconstructing the Fan Kingdom" to check the number of troops each general brought into the court, and then add them up.The problem lies precisely here. The list of generals in "Reconstructing Fan Guo Zhi" is actually inaccurate, and there are many mistakes and omissions. Especially the situation of the Central Route Army is the most serious. Only six famous generals who participated in the battle were recorded in "Reconstructing the Fan Kingdom", but Peng Xingu (3000), the key figure in the Battle of Sacheon, was included in the list of the Eastern Route Army; another important general, Lan Fang Wei, but was written into the West Route Army.These two mistakes alone caused the Central Route Army to undercount 4,000 people. There are more omissions.There are at least Zu Chengxun (7000), Yang Shaozu (1780), Yuan Jinzhong (500), Shi Daoli (2480), Chai Dengke (3400), Ma Wencheng (2000), Qin Degui (660), no record on record.Naturally, the soldiers and horses under their command were not counted, resulting in a huge deviation in the strength of the troops. After including these generals in the Central Route Army, the strength of the Central Route Army reached 37,820, almost equal to the total strength of the first aid to Korea. This number is not necessarily accurate. After all, the actual number of Ming troops dispatched is not exactly the same as the number of Ming troops entering the dynasty. However, it is a guess that is relatively close to the truth, and the error will not exceed 3,000. After the Battle of Sacheon, "Shimadzu's Family Records", "Mori Hidemoto's Family Records" and Shimadzu Yoshihiro's letters of merit written to several elders all proudly declared that they had killed the Ming army altogether. A total of 38,700 people.This number is surprisingly similar to the total number of the Central Army.Japanese historical data are used to exaggeration. They often use the total strength of the enemy instead of their own number of annihilated enemies. This habit, on the contrary, proves the truth that the Ming army dispatched troops in the middle. The West Route Army also had a similar situation, at least the three generals Wang Zhihan, Si Maoguan, and Cao Xibin were undercounted. Leaving aside the cumbersome calculations, the final result is: Magui's East Route Army has 23,000 troops; Liu Ting's West Route Army has 15,000 troops; and Dong Yiyuan's Central Route Army has a total strength of 23,000 Thirty-nine thousand people.Counting Chen Lin's more than 10,000 water troops, the Ming army dispatched nearly 90,000 land and water troops for this attack. This number of mobilization is more worthy of Xing Jie's grand concept of "advancing in four directions". Using this result to examine the configuration of the three forces, you will find that this is more in line with the psychological expectations of the Ming army. Sacheon was the center of the Japanese army's defense line. The Japanese army spread a large number of camps here and the defense was tight.Shimadzu Yoshihiro and Tachibana Soshige are both figures that caused headaches for the Ming army, so the Ming army must pay special attention to this road.The Ming army's middle road is placed here, not only to defeat Shimadzu, but also to support the east and west roads at any time, so the most troops are needed. Kato Kiyomasa of Ulsan is already a sick cat, but he is still the number one general in the invasion of Korea after all.The battle of Daoshan at the beginning of the year left a deep impression on the Ming army. Everyone believed that it would take a lot of troops and time to break through Daoshan, so Donglu should not take it lightly. As for West Road, Shuntian's guard is Chief Xiaoxi.In the eyes of the Ming army, this person has high political value but low military evaluation.Ming Jiang only remembers two things about him, one is being beaten out of Pyongyang by Li Rusong; the other is colluding with Shen Weijing to deceive Emperor Wanli.Such a clown is far less threatening than Shimadzu Yoshihiro and Kato Kiyomasa.Besides, Chen Lin's navy swept from west to east, and the first combat zone that could be supported was the West Route Army, so this route did not need to be the focus. Therefore, in terms of troop deployment, it was an inevitable choice for the high-level Ming army to have more troops in the middle than in the east than in the west. An unprecedented gorgeous offensive is about to begin. Let's take it slowly all the way. Let me talk about the Eastern Route Army first. Magui's East Route Army attacked Ulsan, which was regarded as a battle of revenge.The last time they smashed their halberds into the sand at the foot of Daoshan City, and returned with hatred, they also indirectly contributed to the death of General Bai Sai.Magui is determined to make Kadeto Kiyomasa repay this humiliation. The last attack was a single-line attack, and finally failed due to the assistance of the Japanese navy and other legions.But this time it was different. The other two Ming armies and the naval forces of Chen Lin and Yi Sun-shin would firmly pin the Japanese army in their respective defense zones, and no one would come to rescue them.If Kato Kiyomasa attacks, it will hit Magui's arms; if Kato Kiyomasa sticks to it, he will be completely surrounded to death in the isolated city. Ma Guirang, Jiesheng, Yang Dengshan, and Pogui, as the vanguard, led Wang Guodong to Ulsan to attack first, and then deployed their troops in Xinning, Uiheung, Zuosuying, and Gyeongju to guard against Japanese sneak attacks. The second is to appease North Korean refugees. At midnight on September 11th, Jie Sheng and others arrived in Ulsan.They repeated their old tricks, letting Wang Guodong and Pogui lie in ambush on both sides, Yang Tengshan and Jiesheng lured the enemy, fought a small counterattack, killed seventeen Japanese pirates, and the whole army marched into the mountains near Daoshan City.When Kato Kiyomasa heard that the Ming army was coming, his eyes were wide open, he was full of anger, and screamed in anger. He immediately put on his armor, picked up his weapon, and shouted: "Come on, shut the door tightly, no one will allow it!" go out……" Jiesheng brought cavalry, no siege equipment.They saw that Kato didn't dare to go out of the city, and hid in Daoshan City, and they didn't know what to do for a while.The island mountain was rebuilt by Kato Kiyomasa, making it more difficult to attack than before.After discussing with several Ming generals, they decided to wait for Ma Zongbing to arrive. Jiesheng's troops were not enough to encircle Daoshan City, and Kato Kiyomasa did not dare to face the Ming army head-on.This stare took ten days of effort. What has Ma Gui been doing these past ten days? It turned out that Ma Gui planned to make a quick attack, and first took Wenjing to ensure the safety of the flanks.But he soon discovered that the Japanese in this area showed signs of retreating, and the Koreans in the occupied area ran out one after another.If an attack is launched at this time, these people will inevitably be affected by the war.Although Ma Gui is a military officer, he is not addicted to killing indiscriminately. He found a Korean translator and said that you should quickly get the death-free post and discuss it with the two generals Wu Weizhong and Wang Guodong. . As the saying goes, soldiers are expensive and fast, but Magui is not in a hurry.Kato Kiyomasa was in Shimayama Castle, and he arrived one day earlier and one day later, so there was not much difference.Besides, the battle situation of the other routes has not been reported yet, and it will not be too late to start fighting after confirming that the Japanese troops in other areas are completely entangled by friendly forces. In this way, Magui caressed slowly on the road leisurely, and did not arrive in Ulsan until September 21st. When Magui revisited the old place, he couldn't help sighing.He set up the main camp at the former site of Fuping Station, the infantry camped in the camp, and all the cavalry were dispatched to show off their might in front of Daoshan City. Kato Kiyomasa probably also felt that it was too aggrieved to stay in the city all the time, so he sent several troops in and out to confuse the Ming army.When the Ming army was a little accustomed to the movement pattern of the Japanese army and was unprepared, Kato Kiyomasa led the team himself, and the large army suddenly rushed out, fighting with the Ming army cavalry to one place. Unexpectedly, Ma Gui had already arranged the rear move. He asked a member of Qian Zong, Ma Yun, to lead two hundred troops, sneaked from the Jiantan where Wu Weizhong had guarded at the beginning to Daoshan City, and rushed out from the back of the Japanese army.Unprepared, the Japanese army ran into the city, slammed the door, and never came out again. Facing the tortoise Qingzheng, Ma Gui is also a little helpless.Just at this time, news came from Kim Ying-sui of the North Korean Army that Dongnae and Onjeong had good news, and the flanks were safe.Ma Gui sent an order: "Build a thatched house on the spot, let's spend it with him, and see who can spend it better!" Over the next few days, the fight turned into routine radio gymnastics.Early every morning, the cavalry of the Ming army lined up and went out to circle around Daoshan City.The Japanese soldiers squatted at the top of the city to watch the excitement. When the Ming army approached, they ran around with a crackling sound, and after they left, they continued to squat and watch in circles.When the sun went down, both sides yawned and went back to the camp to rest. It's September 26th.Seeing that it was meaningless to be so stalemate, Ma Gui changed the formation of the Ming army and sold a big loophole to Kiyomasa Kato.Who knew that it was the tortoise that ate the weights, and he was so determined that he would not come out even if he was killed. On September 29, Magui received a message that the Japanese reinforcements in Busan had left the city and would arrive in a few days.The number of this batch of reinforcements is not large, only a few thousand people, so it can't be of much use. Ma Gui is not Yang Hao, when he heard that the reinforcements were coming, he took it to heart instead.He transported cannons and a large amount of food and grass thirty miles away overnight, and sent cavalry to hide on the west side of the barracks, creating the illusion that the army was retreating. Once the enemy sent troops, he could immediately bite them. But Kato Kiyomasa's gate was tightly closed, so he was still not fooled. Ma Gui had no choice but to continue surrounding.The Busan reinforcements saw that neither side was moving like a mountain, and retreated obediently. It's not that Magui didn't plan to attack by force, but the tragedy of the last Ulsan battle left a deep impression on Magui. A city that Kato Kiyomasa was not in and hadn't been completed yet caused heavy casualties to the Ming army.This time the enemy is fully prepared, and the difficulty will increase exponentially.Ma Gui is not in a hurry, it is better for the Ming army to shed less blood. In this way, by the end of September, the East Army of the Ming Army had reached a stalemate in Ulsan. Let's take a look at the situation of the Central Army again. Dong Yiyuan, the commander-in-chief of the Central Route Army, entered Sanjia on September 18, without stopping, ran 110 miles overnight, and arrived at Nanjiang early the next morning, approaching Jinzhou. Yoshihiro Shimadzu's headquarters is located in the city of Sacheon near the sea, with Jinzhou as its north gate, Kunyang on the left and Yongchun on the right, forming the horns of each other.These three camps formed the outer defense line of Sacheon, and they were regarded as guards.Sacheon City itself also has two satellite cities, Gimhae and Gucheng, where 7,000 troops including Tachibana Soshige and Takahashi Tongzeng are stationed.In addition, there is a Dongyang warehouse next to the old city of Sacheon, which stores a large amount of grain and grass. To put it simply, the space of more than forty miles from Jinju to Sacheon was filled with camps built by Shimadzu, and there were eight camps in the big camp alone, which were connected with each other and worked step by step. Kato Kiyoshi won by quality and built Daoshan Castle as solid as gold.Yoshihiro Shimadzu wins by quantity, and builds a small area densely, so that if you can't prevent you, you will be exhausted. Jinzhou is next to the Nanjiang River, and to defend the city must guard the river.Following the trend of the river, the Japanese army built a long line of camps between Jinzhou City and Nanjiang. The central camp is backed by Wangjin Peak, and the situation is very dangerous.If the Ming army wanted to threaten Jinzhou, it would have to remove the camp along the river first. This is the first battle of the Central Route Army. If they cannot win or delay for too long, it will lead to bad results.浙军将领茅国器此时恰好被分配到中路军，他对董一元说：“欲要攻破泗川、必先取晋州；欲取晋州，必先破南江营寨；欲破南江营寨，必先破望津峰营。这是岛津防御体系的关键一处，它一破，其他皆可以连环破之。” 董一元问他该怎么打破望津峰营盘。茅国器微微一笑：“山人，自有妙计。” 他这一笑，笑出了整个抗日援朝中最富传奇色彩的一个间谍故事——的下集。