Chapter 43 Chapter 22

Liu Ting's West Route Army was actually the first to dispatch among the Three Route Army. They gathered at Gongju, and then they swore to march south on September 11th.There were 20,000 Ming troops accompanying him, and the most capable army general in North Korea—Marshal Du Quanli was also assigned. When the North Korean army was allocated, the three coaches of the Ming army all hoped to have the right to help out, and there was a lot of quarrel.In the end, it was the king of North Korea who stood up to speak and assigned the power to Liu Ting. Among the three coaches, the king of North Korea, Li Yan, has an average relationship with Ma Gui. He doesn't know who Dong Yiyuan is at all, but he has the best impression of Liu Zhen.It was Liu Ting's first visit to North Korea. Although he didn't fight any big battles, he always acted positively. He mocked Li Rusong's timidity overtly and secretly, making the North Koreans very happy.So when there was a dispute this time, the king of Xian, Li Yan, took sides and favored Liu Chen.

After the army pledged to go out, Liu Ting divided the troops into three groups: the West Route Army asked Wu Guang to take 5,600 people, and Quan Li went south from Le'an; Guangyang; Liu Ting personally took Li Fangchun and other nearly ten thousand people, and went straight to Shuntian. This posture is very bold and aggressive, and wants to swallow the Suncheon Japanese army from three directions. However, the marching speed of the Ming army did not match this marching situation at all.Liu Ting stopped and stopped along the way, walking slower than a snail, looking completely unhurried.

It's not that Liu Ting is not in a hurry, he is just waiting. Like Kiyomasa Kato and Yoshihiro Shimadzu, Governor Konishi also abandoned the old Joseon city and took up residence in the newly built Wajo city.This Japanese city was built in a precipitous place near the sea near Suncheon, and the terrain is more dangerous than Fachi Island.The stone-made Wocheng built by Konishi Xingchang has a narrow foundation, but it is so tall that it is called Wotai by Koreans from far and near.However, the pronunciation of "bridge" and "tai" in the ancient Korean language is similar, and it turned out to be Waqiaocheng.

Hearing the news of the Ming army's attack, Chief Xiaonishi immediately retracted his line of defense and withdrew the main force of the 13,000-member Second Army to Wacheng.At the same time, he also sent someone to secretly ask Yoshihiro Shimadzu for help, so that the Japanese army in Sacheon could dispatch a reinforcement as soon as possible. This information was detected by Liu Ting, and he felt very uneasy. The West Route Army is the weakest link in the Third Route Army. If it has to face the two Japanese armies, it will definitely suffer.Besides, the main force of the West Route Army is the Sichuan Army, which is the property saved by Liu Ting himself, which is different from the mixed troops of the Central Route Army Dong Yiyuan who don't feel sorry for tens of thousands of dead.Out of this kind of mentality, Liu Ting felt that he was too disadvantaged, so he wrote to Dong Yiyuan, asking him to quickly put pressure on the middle road, and after the Japanese army in Sacheon retreated, he would not be late to fight Shuntian.

That is to say, Ma Gui is on the East Road watching the progress of the Middle Road; Dong Yiyuan is on the Middle Road watching the progress of the West Road; Liu Ting is on the West Road, still waiting for a breakthrough in the Middle Road, and the Ming Army of the Three Routes has fallen into an endless loop... Just at this time, President Xiaoxi took the initiative to write a letter to Liu Ting, expressing his desire to negotiate a peace. When Liu Ting heard this, he was overjoyed.In the impression of the generals of the Ming army, Konishi is a mediocre general who always wants to negotiate peace with others, and lacks the same courage as Kato Kiyomasa.What Liu Ting was thinking was, if he could take advantage of the peace talks to lure him out and capture him in a battle, wouldn't it save a lot of trouble?

The two envoys went to Wacheng and brought back an extremely important piece of information to Liu Ting: "Xiuji is dead, and the generals want to return." When Liu Ting heard this, he was overjoyed.This timing is really perfect, since the enemy is about to retreat, there is no need to go all out!He struck while the iron was hot, and sent a person named Wu Zongdao to continue to contact President Xiaoxi to discuss the details of the peace talks. Wu Zongdao said to President Xiaonishi: "You were almost appointed as an official of Ming Dynasty. We know that you are honest, and the one who is bad is Kato Kiyomasa. You can't get along now, so hurry up and negotiate peace with us."

Xiaoxi is dubious about Wu Zongdao's statement.It's not that he hasn't talked face-to-face with the Ming army, but those encounters are really not good memories.Liu Ting saw that Xiaoxi's attitude was not very positive, and he was a little anxious. In order to show his sincerity, he came to Wacheng alone. Every time he watched Wu Zongdao enter the city, he just left. male college students. Seeing Liu Ting being so romantic, Xiaoxi finally dispelled her suspicions and decided to try to talk to him. On September 20, the Ming army arrived at Suncheon Old City.Liu Ting happily sent a text message to Xiaoxi, saying that I have arrived, you can come out.

Xiaoxi dressed up meticulously, and left Suncheon City with fifty people, heading for the old city.Xiaoxi, who was thinking about the peace talks, never expected that Liu Ting had already arranged an army to wait for him. This also blames the Japanese for their lack of memory.The peace talks of the generals of the Ming army will never be believed.The political ecology of the Ming Dynasty doomed all the generals of the Ming army who really wanted to have peace talks to end badly—so Li Rusong, who was far away, and Yang Gao, who was near, had only one purpose in calling for peace talks, which was to toss cups as a sign, and to swing swords and axes hands out.

In order to welcome President Xiaonishi, Liu Ting tried his best. He found Wang Wenxian, a banner official, to pretend to be himself, while he himself pretended to be Mr. Qian; he also found Marquis Yu to pretend to be Li Dexin, the accompanying envoy, and Bian Hongda, a North Korean military officer, to pretend to be Marshal Du. .Liu Ting himself put on Mr. Qian's attire, and the fake Liu Ting was holding a quiver beside him. Around the big tent, Liu Ting ambushed heavy weapons and firearms, and also arranged twenty carrier pigeons.Liu Ting made an agreement with the generals that as soon as he left the big tent, he would immediately fire a cannon and fight out in all directions.At the same time, the flying pigeons were released to inform Wang Zhihan and Si Maoguan that as soon as they saw the white pigeons flying, they would kill them from Guangyang to Wocheng and block the retreat.

Chief Xiaoxi led 50 people to leave Wacheng, and after passing through Hainongcang, he suddenly found that there were many Ming troops nearby, he was a little suspicious, and told the left and right to be more careful. After the Japanese party arrived at the Ming army's big tent, a group of fake Liu Ting came out to greet them.The two sides exchanged pleasantries for a while, when Xiaoxi saw the real Liu Ting standing beside him, holding a quiver in his hand.He walked over to have a look, and said that this man had a good face, a blessed face.Liu Ting was shocked, thinking that he had been seen through, and hurriedly left the tent with an excuse.

As soon as he went out, he immediately ordered to fire cannons, pigeons and dogs, ready to do it.Xiaoxi was already full of suspicions, but when he heard the cannon fire outside, he immediately came to his senses, led the fifty followers to fight out of the tent, snatched the horses and left. When this passage was written in "The Chronicles of the Late Ming Dynasty", it described Xiaoxi's escape from the road very handsomely, saying, "The president jumped on the horse, from riding a row of geese, to the wind, to the lightning, and to the kill." But Xiaoxi broke through the siege and ran to Wacheng without looking back.Wang Zhihan led the Miao soldiers to intercept him, but there were not enough horses to escape Xiaoxi. He watched helplessly as he ran into the city, closed the door, and never came back. There are several theories about how Xiaoxi became aware of Liu Ting's plan.Some said that in the middle of Xiaoxi's journey, the Ming army's pigeons were released early by accident, which alarmed Xiaoxi, and immediately drove back to the city, but he didn't see Liu Ting at all; Stopping Xiaoxi from divulging the secret caused him to run back halfway. No matter what it is, anyway, Xiaoxi escaped back to Wacheng smoothly, and Liu Ting's "peace talks" plan failed. Liu Ting was still not reconciled, so he sent someone to explain, saying that we fired cannons yesterday as a courtesy, and there was no other meaning.President Xiaoxi thought you were an idiot in his heart, so he said a few perfunctory words, but he couldn't come out after being beaten to death. Since you can't come out, there's nothing you can do, just call directly. It just so happened that the naval forces of Chen Lin and Li Sunchen were already approaching Suncheon, forming a pincer attack on the Japanese army.So Liu Ting ordered to attack the city together by land and water. Since you can't come out, there's nothing you can do, just call directly. It just so happened that the naval forces of Chen Lin and Li Sunchen were already approaching Suncheon, forming a pincer attack on the Japanese army.So Liu Ting ordered to attack the city together by land and water. The naval forces of Chen Lin and Li Sun-shin left the naval base on September 15th. After staying in Naro Island for two days, they set off on the 18th and arrived at Zuoshuiying via Fangta. At 8 o'clock in the morning, I came to Yudo Island on the southwest side of Suncheon Wa Fortress. The reason for walking so slowly is because the two coaches had a conflict. The strategic task of the naval forces along this route is to sweep across the Jeolla and Gyeongsang waters.Due to the particularity of water warfare, Xing Jie did not stipulate the specific combat route of the coalition forces, and it was up to the commander to decide for himself. Chen Lin thought that it should be easy and then difficult, first to attack the Korean puppet army operating in the South China Sea Island; Yi Sun-sin thought that the puppet army was not a concern at all, as long as the main force of the Japanese army was killed, they would definitely collapse without fighting.The two had a big quarrel in Zuoshuiying over this disagreement. Chen Lin was in a hurry, and said that he would ask for the emperor's Shangfang sword, and whoever did not obey the order would be beheaded; You can kill me, anyway, I only fight the Japanese, and the Koreans don't fight the Koreans. At this time, the news of Liu Ting's march into Shuntian came, and the cooperation of the navy was urgently needed.This was considered to be a relief for the two of them. Chen Lin accepted Li Sunchen's opinion, first drove to Suncheon to fight against Chief Xiaoxi, and then went back to deal with the puppet army on Nanhai Island. On the night of September 20, Chen and Li sailors arrived at Qianyang, Suncheon.In the early morning of the next day, because the tide was too shallow to carry out melee combat, the fleet circled the coast near Suncheon Waseong and fired naval guns into the city.President Xiaoxi saw the fluttering foreign flags, flying dazzlingly, and the layers were full of Ming and Dynasty black-sailed large ships. He was too frightened to go out of the city.This team was defeated by Chen Lin's Marine Corps - Coyote soldiers, and retreated into the city in panic.That night, Li Sun-shin personally led troops to patrol the battalions all night, fearing that the Japanese would attack at night. On this day, the North Korean puppet army in the South China Sea wanted to take advantage of it, but was discovered early by the coalition forces. They attacked head-on, seized the ship and robbed the puppet army, and the puppet army was forced to land and flee. Early in the morning on September 22, taking advantage of the high tide, the coalition navy launched a massive attack.President Xiaoxi felt that he was always huddled in the city and would die sooner or later, so he sent troops out to fight back.Ji Jin, the guerrilla general of the Ming army, accidentally ran aground on the beach, and was surrounded by Japanese troops and beat him hard.Fortunately, Daming's boat was high, so even if it ran aground, the Japanese's short legs would not be able to get up for a while.Standing on the side of the ship, Ji Jin resisted the cannons and sent the Japanese away.Other reinforcements came and took the opportunity to rescue them back.In this battle, the Ming army killed eleven people, and Ji Jin was shot in the left arm. Fighting and fighting, both Chen Lin and Li Sunchen discovered one thing, where did Liu Jing's army go? It is agreed that land and water will advance side by side. Now that the navy has mobilized the enemy, the army in the north should take the opportunity to attack the city, right?Why is there no movement at all? After all, the main force of the navy is sailors, and the number of marines is not very large.After a stalemate with President Xiaonishi for a while, Chen and Li withdrew the fleet overseas before the tide ebbed.Chen Lin felt a little unhappy, so he sent someone to ask Liu Zhen what was going on. It's okay not to ask, but Chen Lin's nose almost crooked when he asked. Liu Ting didn't do anything else, he urged the West Road Army to build all kinds of siege equipment leisurely. Judging from this posture, it can't be finished in four or five days... Looking at it positively, he also wanted to fight a prepared siege.Thinking from the negative side, Liu Ting is really a bit passive and sabotage; At present, the coalition navy blocked the enemy's retreat, and the army surrounded the Japanese city again, building a large number of siege equipment.Everyone felt that although Liu Ting moved a little slower, he was stronger than others. It seemed that Governor Xiaoxi was doomed this time—but Lin Quan, a North Korean rebel general, met Liu Ting , Tell the truth: "Liu Gong has no heart to fight, so he must retreat with peace." Since the army is not moving, the navy cannot be easily dispatched.So Cong Chen Lin and Li Sunchen stationed their fleet overseas, and temporarily stopped their flags and drums. Therefore, from the 22nd to the 28th, the battlefield entered a rare quiet period. The Ming army was immersed in carpentry work, and Chief Xiaoxi worriedly calculated the storage of food in the city. It was not until the 29th that the siege equipment was finally finished.Liu Tingyao transported these things to the city in a majestic manner, and continued to adjust them; the navy also cooperated with the drill near Suncheon.The Japanese pirates in the entire Suncheon Japanese city were terrified. This ordeal lasted for several days, and it was not until October 2 that Liu Ting ordered the official start of the siege. In the early morning of October 2, Liu Ting gathered all the troops, raised his general flag high, and ordered the forward Wu Guang of the Ming army to bring siege equipment such as wheeled carts, high ladders, flying towers, artillery carts, etc., to the dark ground. Shuntian Wacheng is pressed.Quan Li led the North Korean army and dispatched across the board to cooperate with the Ming army. The first striker of the Ming army was the Miao soldiers of Wang Zhihan and Si Maoguan.The Miao soldiers could be regarded as one of the most powerful troops in the Ming army. Under the leadership of the two, they braved the rain of Japanese gunshots and rushed to the outside of the wooden fence under the city of Wacheng.Here they encountered strong resistance from the Japanese army, killed more than forty people, and had to retreat.Not reconciled, Wang Zhihan led his men to charge again, killed more than a dozen devils, and temporarily took the initiative. At this time, what is needed is for the successor troops of the Ming army to expand their advantages.But Wang Zhihan looked back and was dumbfounded. He found that the Ming army in the rear was crawling like snails, hundreds of steps away from the city. It turns out that those flying buildings are very heavy things, and they are pushed very slowly.The Ming army's offensive will was not firm, and they were slow-moving. As a result, the forward and the main attacking troops were out of touch.Wu Guang himself was very anxious about this, but there was nothing he could do about it. After all, gravity is uncontrollable. Captain Xiaoxi saw this scene from the top of the city tower, and lost no time in ordering all the iron artillery troops to aim at these siege teams and bombard them fiercely. As I said before, the area of ​​Suncheon Fortress is not as large as that of Sacheon and Ulsan, but it has one characteristic: it is tall.Therefore, the Japanese shooters can shoot condescendingly, with a long range and a tricky angle, which poses a great threat to the Ming army. Under the intensive attack of the Japanese army, those Ming soldiers pushing the carts were hit one after another, and the others were frightened out of their wits, shrinking behind the tall flying buildings and artillery carts to avoid bullets.Using flying towers and cannon carts as cover is a good way to defend against shooting, but don't expect these clumsy things to move a little more—as long as the Ming army pushes the cart, it will be shot back by the Japanese iron cannons. The big one can't move, but the small one can always move.The Ming troops responsible for transporting wheeled carts and high ladders had no shelter to cover them, so they had no choice but to bite the bullet and rush forward. As a result, the siege troops were further out of touch. When these things worked hard to reach the bottom of the city and join Wang Zhihan's troops, countless torches were suddenly thrown down from the top of the city.These torches were all dipped in oil, and as soon as they touched the wooden and bamboo siege equipment, they all started to burn.Immediately afterwards, the traditional project of defending the city was rolling wood and boulders, which caused the death and injury of the Ming army under the city. At this time, the Ming army behind those flying towers and gun carts was still suppressed to the point where they couldn't lift their heads up, they couldn't advance, they couldn't retreat, let alone rescue friendly troops. Wang Zhihan and Si Maoguan looked at it, and if this continues, all these Miao soldiers will die in vain in the city. With a flick of their hats, I will stop fighting and withdraw! Liu Ting saw it from a distance, and hastily waved the command flag, ordering them not to retreat.But the second general Wang and Si didn't care about this, and led them back.When Chief Xiaoxi saw that the Ming army had retreated, he ordered Kaesong to pursue them.Thousands of Japanese pirates came out aggressively. When Wang and Si were retreating, they found that the Japanese army had strewed water chestnuts outside the city, and they had to spread out to avoid it.This dispersal caused a lot of trouble - not only did his own troops run in a mess, but they also made way for the Japanese pursuers, allowing them to rush straight into Wu Guang's siege troops. Wu Guang's troops had been hiding behind buildings and cars for more than half a day, and they were all exhausted, and some simply fell asleep leaning on the wooden boards.The sound of iron cannons outside suddenly stopped, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but just halfway through the relief, they tightened up again, and the Japanese samurai from the brigade suddenly rushed in front of them. The unprepared Ming army immediately went into chaos. Seeing that the situation was not good, Wu Guang took the lead in fleeing.The Japanese army took advantage of the chaos to pursue and killed the Ming army in disarray.The two cavalry units Li Fangchun and Niu Boying, who were in charge of the rear, saw this change and rushed forward to cover the defeated friendly forces and interrupt the Japanese pursuit.There was also a battalion of the North Korean army that shot arrows at the Japanese from a distance, and only retreated when they ran out of arrows. When the Japanese army saw that the main force of the Ming cavalry had arrived, they didn't dare to fight, so they set fire to the siege equipment on the spot, and then retreated into the city. The naval forces of Chen Lin and Yi Sun-shin launched a massive attack in Qianyang to cooperate with the army's attack on the city. Several generals of the Korean army were killed or injured, which shows the fierceness of the battle.But they didn't expect the army's attack to fail so quickly, so they had to retreat to the open sea while the tide was low. The first siege was unfavorable, and all the generals looked bad.Only Liu Ting looked calm, and comforted the generals, saying that our military strength is so strong, it is not difficult at all to kill the clown Chief Xiaoxi, today is just a test, to see their reality. He worked so hard to build so many siege equipment, but was burned by the Japanese, he didn't feel bad at all.Even Wu Guang, who escaped temporarily, Liu Ting only sent someone to warn him, but did not go into details. After comforting these generals, Liu Ting sent someone to send a letter to Chen Lin. The letter said that the Japanese won today, and the defense must be lax. You attack at the second watch, and we will also launch a night attack. Captain Xiaonishi will die. up. After comforting these generals, Liu Ting sent someone to send a letter to Chen Lin. The letter said that the Japanese won today, and the defense must be lax. You attack at the second watch, and we will also launch a night attack. Captain Xiaonishi will die. up. Chen Lin felt that this proposal was very reliable, so he readily agreed, and together with Li Sunshin and others rectified the fleet, they quietly approached Wacheng at the second watch on the third day of October.Chen Lin was not in a hurry to attack, but listened first.He heard a faint cry of geese in the distance, and said happily: "This is the signal for General Liu's army to start attacking, and we can start to attack." Night battles at sea can only be signaled by lights.Chen Lin ordered the flagship to raise the lights of the attack, and all the ships responded with their lights, and the entire Shuntian ocean was dotted with stars, like the Milky Way. Seeing this grand occasion, the night watch soldiers in Wacheng were so frightened that their livers and gallbladders were torn apart, and hurriedly notified Chief Xiaoxi.Xiao Xixing didn't even have time to put on his clothes, so he hurriedly got out of bed and went out.As soon as he went out, he heard three loud noises behind him, and when he looked back, the whole house was reduced to dust... It turned out that Chen Lin ordered the allied naval forces to line up, and first greeted the Japanese with naval guns.The tonnage of the warships of the Ming army was large, and the range and power of the artillery carried by them were beyond the reach of the Japanese and North Korean naval forces. These cannons were shot directly into the city, almost causing a "beheading operation" for Chief Xiaonishi. Chief Xiaoxi was sweating all over his body, he ran to the city facing the sea, and saw countless warships gathering on the sea, and from time to time, a flash of fire streaked across the darkness, blasting to the walls and the city of Wacheng, and there were many exclamations.In the records of the Koreans, this is called "Thousands of Cannons Boil the Sea." It seemed that Governor Xiaonishi had returned to the city of Pyongyang. He suppressed his panic and ordered the guards to prepare, because the Ming army quickly The landing battle will begin. Xiaoxi's prediction was good. Seeing that the shelling was successful, Chen Lin immediately ordered the Ming army to take dozens of relatively smaller ships to attack Wacheng, taking advantage of the chaos. Li Shunchen reminded Chen Lin that it would be difficult for the fleet to catch up with the ebb tide because the fleet was so far ahead.Chen Lin said that it doesn't matter if he can't retreat, as long as he can knock down the city.So the coalition forces of the Ming and Dynasties launched an extremely sharp attack under the cover of naval guns. Countless small boats flew down the city like arrows leaving the string, shouting and killing everywhere. The Japanese army was terrified in the dark, and almost all the soldiers who could be mobilized were transferred here.The seaside is heavily defended, and the land side is naturally empty.Some captured Koreans secretly broke free from their ropes, fled out of the city, joined the Korean army, and reported the situation in the city to Quan Li.When Quan Li heard this, he called Li Dexin to find Liu Ting all night. This opportunity is too good to give up. Unexpectedly, after listening to the two people's request, Liu Ting lazily said that the enemy's situation was unknown in the middle of the night, and we will talk about the siege tomorrow. Li Dexin and Quan Li were both stunned. Didn't you make an appointment with Chen Lin to advance by land and water?Now that the navy is fighting, why are you silent? Liu Ting said that I have sent someone to send the secret signal to the navy, so don't be impatient.Anyway, the Japanese had no boats, and General Chen and Admiral Li were safe.It turned out that when Chen Lin heard the cries of geese, it was not an agreement to enter the army, but an agreement to withdraw the army.But no one knows what kind of heart Liu Ting has in mind. No matter what Li Dexin and Quan Li said, Liu Ting would not send troops.Tired of talking, he pushed the table and said that I went to bed, and the two of you left without seeing them off, and directly issued an order to evict the guests. Quan Li went out of the account angrily, secretly found a subordinate Li Shiyan, and asked him to take the elite archers of the Korean army to the beach. The result really made Quan Li guess.After the initial chaos, the Japanese army gradually stabilized their position and launched a counterattack.Under the stalemate between the two armies, the precious time gradually passed, and the sea began to ebb.Seeing that the situation was not good, Chen Lin hurriedly withdrew the fleet from the shallow sea, but the twenty or so boats rushing to the front all ran aground on the beach. Governor Xiaoxi opened the city gate, and a large number of Japanese pirates came out.Siege these stranded ships. The large ships of Chen Lin and Yi Sun-shin could not approach, and could only watch helplessly as the vanguard became a lone army.Chen Lin saw that these loyal and brave soldiers stood desperately at the bow of the ship, desperately resisting the Japanese soldiers gathered around them with knives, spears, arms and teeth.They were killed one by one on the bow of the ship, their blood was sprinkled on the beach, their eyes were wide open before they died, and they didn't understand why the situation was reversed in an instant. These sailors are all Chen Lin's brothers and Chen Lin's robes.Seeing such a tragedy, he was helpless, his eyes were bloodshot, and he was about to burst into tears. If they died on the battlefield openly, they would be considered as loyal to the country; but these soldiers obviously didn't need to sacrifice like this, they actually died at the hands of those allies who broke their promises. Liu Ting, you bastard!Chen Lin must be shouting so angrily in his heart. Part of the Ming army saw that the trapped ship would be a dead end sooner or later, so they jumped off the ship and retreated inland.The Japanese army would not let it go, and opened a big net to surround them. At this time, the sound of bowstrings vibrated from the inland direction, and a dense rain of arrows fell on the heads of the Japanese army, shooting down dozens of them at once, and forcibly knocked a gap.It turned out that Li Shiyan's North Korean archers arrived in time, saw the Ming army besieged, and immediately offered a helping hand. Seeing the opportunity, the besieged Ming army rushed out from the gap and joined forces with the North Korean archers, only to escape.After the war, Li Shiyan counted them. There were more than 140 Ming soldiers who escaped. All of them were killed with sharp weapons and covered in blood, which shows the fierceness of the battle. This batch of Ming troops was considered lucky. The other Ming troops were not so lucky. They either died on board or were captured by the Japanese army. A total of 23 sandboats and number ships were lost.Among the stranded ships, only three warships of the North Korean army relied on the sharp bows and arrows of the sailors, and persisted until the tide rose again and retreated overseas. After Chen Lin withdrew, the more he thought about it, the more angry he became.His temper was originally fiery, and when encountering such a thing, he was even more furious.He went ashore by boat, and personally came to Liu Tingying's Zhongxing division to interrogate him.When Liu Ting saw Chen Lin, before he had time to exchange greetings, Chen Lin grabbed the handsome flag and tore it into two halves.All the generals in the camp were stunned. They all knew that Chen Lin had been wronged, but they didn't expect him to react so violently. Chen Lin didn't think it was enough to tear Shuai Qi into pieces, so he pointed at Liu Qin's nose and cursed, saying that he has a very bad heart.Liu Ting knew he was wrong, so he could only slap his chest with his hands, and argued aggrievedly: "There are no generals, so I am alone." Chen Lin didn't listen at all, saying that I am not interested in your explanation, so I went directly to Xing Jun If we have the ability, let's argue in front of the military gate. After finishing speaking, Chen Lin swaggered away.Before Liu Ting said anything, spies came to report in a hurry, saying that the Japanese army had begun to destroy the city. Liu Ting did not understand, what did you say?Destroy the city?Not building a city, but destroying it?The spies said yes, it was to destroy the city. Liu Ting hurriedly took people to see it, and sure enough, as the spies said, Xiaoxi commanded the Japanese soldiers and demolished a section of Xicheng more than ten feet away.Liu Ting didn't know what kind of medicine was sold in Xiao Xixing's long gourd, so he didn't dare to act rashly.At night when the sun was setting, he finally understood that after Xiaoxi demolished the city wall, he built a gate here. The gate was very wide and the road was relatively smooth. On the fifth day of October, a group of Japanese knights rushed out from this new gate. They went to the Ming army camp and fired a few symbolic shots, then turned and ran eastward.Liu Ting didn't give an order, and the Ming army didn't seriously pursue it.At night, the North Koreans found something strange. In Liuguanbao, 30 miles south of Sacheon, there is a beacon tower called Three-day Houfeng.This beacon has been abandoned for a long time, but on this night, a fire suddenly lit up.What's even more strange is that after three days the flames of Houfeng shone brightly, the highest three-storey castle tower of Suncheon Wajo Castle also lit up with fire, matching each other. This is obviously a way for the defenders on both sides of Suncheon and Sacheon to communicate with each other.The Japanese cavalry who had fought out in the morning went straight to Sacheon. After hearing the latest battle situation, Feng lit a torch three days later to report the situation to Suncheon. The news of Sacheon's disastrous defeat had already reached the ears of the West Route Army, but the Ming army had already surrounded Suncheon Wa Fortress, so Governor Konishi was not very clear about Shimadzu Yoshihiro's movements.But as soon as these two fires were ignited, President Xiaoxi immediately understood everything. Quan Li got this news and was very worried.After the Suncheon pirates knew about the disastrous defeat of the Ming army in Sacheon, their morale would definitely be greatly boosted, and they might cooperate with the Sacheon reinforcements internally and externally, which in turn would be detrimental to the coalition forces.For this reason, he sent more than a thousand people to guard Chanjin to monitor the movement of the Japanese army.And Yi Sun-shin also sent a fleet to Luyang and Zhangdao to block the sea route between Sacheon and Suncheon. What Quan Li was most worried about was not that President Xiaoxi knew about the fiasco in Sacheon, but that Liu Ting knew that President Xiaoxi knew about the fiasco in Sacheon. Liu Ting didn't have any fighting spirit in the first place. Hearing this kind of news, how can he still have half a bit of aggressiveness? Quan Li's worries were quickly confirmed. On October 6th, Liu Ting summoned all the generals and said that we will stand here for a long time. If any of you have old, weak, sick or disabled in the army, send some food and send it to the rear first.Quan Li understood as soon as he heard it, Marshal Liu didn't want to fight anymore, let's create an atmosphere first. On October 7th, Liu Ting said again that it is useless for the North Korean army to stay here, so you should leave as soon as possible.Li Dexin wanted to say a few more words, but Quan Li tugged at his sleeves, turned around and left without even arguing.He knew that there was nothing to talk about with this person. In fact, they all misunderstood Liu Ting. The fiasco in Sichuan not only didn't frighten Liu Ting, but helped him. From the very beginning, Liu Ting had no interest in fighting.All he did after the war was to find various excuses to procrastinate, trying his best to avoid going to war head-on, in order to preserve his own strength.His only concern was that he was worried about military punishment or impeachment by the supervising army, so he persisted on the front line. Now that Sacheon has suffered a disastrous defeat, and Ulsan has retreated without a fight, Liu Ting's worries are gone all of a sudden.The other two armies have all retreated, and no one can say anything about my retreat now. So after the North Korean army retreated, Liu Ting ordered the Ming army to move out overnight.The entire West Route Army couldn't wait to start retreating. Liu Ting thought the withdrawal speed was too slow, so he threw away the 8,000 shi of grain, livestock, weapons and equipment that were too late to be transported away.The Ming army retreated so fast that even the enemy was unexpected.The Japanese army saw an empty camp the next day, and they didn't believe that the Ming army had just retreated. They thought there was some kind of trap, and it was not until the sun was about to set that they were sure that Liu Ting had really left. Chen Lin, who was far away at sea, originally planned to attack again on the seventh day of the lunar new year. When he heard the news that the Ming army was retreating, he cursed: "I would rather be a ghost of Shuntian, and I can't bear to follow your retreat." He ordered the fleet to stay on the sea. , not allowed to return to the teacher. Liu Ting ran much faster than Chen Lin imagined. He withdrew to Fufu, north of Suncheon, one day and one night, and then stopped.On October 11th, Wang Shiqi, the supervising army, rushed to Fufu from Nanyuan. He had no nose and no face and scolded Liu Ting severely, saying how dare you retreat without fighting, and go back quickly, or you will be punished for cowardice .In order to scare Liu Ting, Wang Shiqi also took Wang Zhihan and Si Maoguan down to behead them. Faced with this pressure, Liu Ting reluctantly led his army to turn around and head south again, and moved slowly along Shuangam and Buyu to the old city of Suncheon.When he got here, he refused to move any more, so Wu Guang was stationed in the old city, and Wang Zhihan, Si Maoguan, and Cao Xibin were stationed outside the city.And Liu Ting himself and Wang Shiqi—in fact, it is more appropriate to say that he was escorted by Wang Shiqi—stayed in Shuangyan Temple, ten miles away from Wacheng. In fact, at this time, President Xiaoxi was also in a hurry in Suncheon Wacheng.The Japanese army's retreat had already begun, and the others had repelled the Ming army, so they packed their luggage in a leisurely manner. He was still being watched by Liu Ting and Chen Lin, and he was still worried. One is anxious to leave, and the other is unwilling to start a war.These two generals, who had no fighting spirit, hit it off and raised the banner of peace talks again. Liu Ting sent three negotiators, one was Wu Zongdao, an old friend of the Japanese, and two companions, one named Liu Wanshou and the other named Wang Dagong.Both of them were standard bearers, and they pretended to be generals—because Liu Ting was afraid that the Japanese would also behead him, so he didn't dare to send too high-ranking officers there. This is obviously to measure the president's belly with Liu Ting's heart.Although the Japanese are tyrannical and cruel, they have a good reputation in this regard, and they have never had a record of attacking their negotiating partners. The three of Wu Zongdao brought fifty servants to Shuntian to negotiate, and the long talk with Xiao Xixing went very smoothly.Soon they returned to Shuangyan Temple and relayed President Xiaoxi's conditions to Liu Ting. Director Xiaoxi was very happy, and said straight to the point: I will leave you six Japanese hostages, and then keep hundreds of heads and belongings, and you let me out of the city.After I'm out of town, I'll let you pick it up. Such a good condition, Liu Ting agreed without blinking an eye, and kept a man named Liu Tianjue as a hostage.The two sides stopped their troops and lived in peace. At the time of the Luliang naval battle, Captain Xiaoxi abandoned Wacheng, boarded a ship and retreated, leaving the mainland to wait for an opportunity to escape.Liu Ting led his troops into the deserted Japanese city, and found that he really kept his promise, and there was no shortage of hostages, heads, and property.The only flaw is that most of these heads belong to the captured soldiers and civilians of North Korea, not Japanese pirates.Liu Ting thought about it for a while, and said it was also applicable, and used it together to count merits—as for the six Japanese soldiers who were hostages, Liu Ting didn't even look at them, and ordered them to be executed directly, adding six more battle results to the merit book . Liu Ting was very satisfied with the ending, and accomplished the planned strategic goal without fighting, completely overshadowing the limelight of the other two roads, which is really gratifying.He had people paint the words "Great Victory on the West Road" in gold letters, and reported to Xing Jun's gate to show off his victory.Knowing the actual situation, all the North Korean soldiers secretly curled their lips, thinking that this General Liu is really unreliable to the extreme. Judging from the results of the battle, the West Route Army achieved the most results among the three offensives, with losses of no more than a thousand people.But Liu Ting's performance was the ugliest among the three generals.In order to avoid war, he would rather let his friendly forces fall into crisis and miss the great opportunity to annihilate the enemy; in order to save his life and retreat, he would not hesitate to give up valuable strategic materials;Corruption is obvious at a glance. You know, if Liu Ting could be a little aggressive and cooperate with Chen Lin in the night battle on the third day of October to break through the city of Suncheon, instead of exchanging a few heads for Xiaonishi Xingchang's Yuandun, there will be no such thing in history. What an exposed naval battle. The North Koreans had a good impression of Liu Ting at first, but after the First World War in Suncheon, their evaluation of Liu Ting took a turn for the worse.At that time, the rulers and ministers in Seoul secretly sighed, saying that if Manager Yang was still in North Korea, he would definitely not allow this kind of thing to happen. Compared with Ma Gui and Liu Ting, although Dong Yiyuan suffered the worst defeat, he was considered the most conscientious general of the three routes. He had really fought against the Japanese army with real swords and guns, and instead won a lot of praise from the Koreans. To make a digression, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the generals who aided Korea returned home one after another.But Dong Yiyuan refused to leave. I don’t know whether he felt that North Korea’s climate was suitable for living, or he felt ashamed to return to China. In short, after returning to China for a short time, he returned to North Korea with his two sons, Dong Dashun and Dong Changshun, and chose to settle in Guangchuan.Their lineage gradually evolved into the lineage of the Dong family in Guangchuan, Korea, and there are still descendants. The Ming army's three-way offensive was an anticlimactic attack, which wasted countless manpower and material resources, but the progress was not satisfactory.The main generals of the three routes avoided the battle in two routes, and were defeated in one route, and none of them achieved the expected spectacular results.It is really disappointing that the 90,000 Ming army fought against the 60,000 Japanese army who were in constant panic. The reason lies in the general appeasement mentality of Ming army generals before the war. They believed that the Japanese army was huddled in the coastal Japanese city, fearful, and the victory of the allied forces was unshakable.Based on this understanding, neither Ma Gui nor Liu Ting were willing to take out their direct troops to go shopping, and would rather wait for the Japanese to retreat before entering Zhankong City.他们的目的不是打败日本，而是在尽量保存自己实力的前提下打败日本。 说的极端点，如果不是有朝鲜和朝廷派来的监军掣肘，明军真有可能跟日本签订和平协议，高高兴兴把他们送回国，两边都不死人，皆大欢喜。从东、西两路后来的举动来看，这么说他们可是一点也不冤枉。 讽刺的是，中路军之所以在三路中打的最积极，不是董一元的觉悟有多高，而是因为他麾下派系林立，没有自己人，于是也就没什么保存实力的心思——可惜这派系林立最终还是把他给害了。 当然，对于这些情况，在战报上邢玠没敢写的太明白。他知道如果如实上报，援朝军从上到下都吃不了好果子，所以稍微曲笔了一下。在报告里，他除了中路泗川打败无法遮掩之外，其他两路都报的是大捷。 但我们现在知道，这一战无论是战术上还是战略上，明军都是失败者。在战略上，明军没有达到切割孤立顺天、泗川、釜山、蔚山四大防区的目的，让日军大撤退时显得十分从容；在战术上，他们无法击破各地的日军防线，歼灭敌人有生力量，反而损兵折将。 如果说明军这一次四路出击有什么正面意义的话，那就是让日军意识到，联军的整体优势已不可动摇，从而加速了撤退的决心。 That's all. 明军的九月攻势，是整个壬辰、丁酉战争中的最后一场陆战。明军以一场失败的平壤之战揭开了援朝的帷幕，又以一场失败的四路出击结束了与日本在陆上的交锋。这不能不说，是一个极大的遗憾。 我每读史至此，总忍不住扼腕叹息。尽管明军在与日本的大部分交锋中占据上风，但这一头一尾两战的失败，遮蔽了后世无数人的双眼，让他们以为明军在整场战争中无所作为，从而得出“即使没有明军，朝鲜战争一样可以击退倭寇”的奇谈怪论。 刘綎、麻贵、董一元，如果你们再稍微争争气，也不至于几百年后被抹煞掉明军的功绩呀。