Chapter 187: Kill the Chicken

The Goryeo Palace, no! It should be the Korean Palace. The King of Korea, Lee Chenggui, paced back and forth in the palace anxiously, feeling upset. He had already received the news that Anbiancheng was captured by the Ming army. The main roads of Motianling were also cut off by the Ming army. The situation suddenly reversed. The food could not be sent to the front line. What does this mean for Li Bi's army? How could Lee Chenggui, who was born in the military, not know the severity of the situation.

Frankly speaking, Li Chenggui felt a little regretful. He never expected that Zhu Yuanzhang would really make up his mind to send troops. This was his misjudgment. He didn't know that the Northern Yuan Dynasty was split at this moment, and neither the Tatars nor the Oirat had yet to pose a threat to the Ming Dynasty. The situation in the north of the Ming Dynasty was eased. This was the condition for Zhu Yuanzhang to be able to move troops against Goryeo. Unfortunately, Li Chenggui didn't know.

Regret is one thing. The arrow has been shot out and he can't take it back. What's important now is not only how to save the 80,000 troops he sent to the north, but more importantly, Li Chenggui is worried that the Ming Dynasty will not admit that he will replace Goryeo and overthrow his throne.

Li Chenggui frowned, he sat down, stood up for a moment, and could not calm down no matter what. At this time, a guard came to report that Pei Kelian, the Minister of the Ministry of Works, asked for a meeting. After Pei Kelian failed to dissuade Li Chenggui last time, Li Chenggui was dissatisfied with him and demoted him to Minister of the Ministry of Works.

Li Chenggui sighed and said, "Let him come in!"

He knew the purpose of Pei Kelian coming. At this point, he could only listen to his ideas patiently. Soon, Pei Kelian was led into the palace by the guards, and he bowed and said, "I will meet with the king."

Pei Kelian also loyally supported Li Chenggui's important ministers to replace Goryeo. If it weren't for his last time urging Li Chenggui not to break the contract, he should have been more valued by Li Chenggui now. Pei Kelian also saw the crisis facing North Korea. If Li Chenggui did not make up for the apology, the Ming Dynasty would definitely take this opportunity to depose him. But he could not say it openly. Pei Kelian said implicitly: "King, the situation in front of us is extremely unfavorable to us. King Goryeo has been neglecting combat preparations for a long time, making our weapons and equipment much weaker than the Ming Dynasty. The army only has 200,000 troops. We will definitely lose in this battle. What I am worried about is the king. The king has just ascended the throne. If Li Bijun was annihilated by the Ming army in the north, what do the people think about the king? And the Emperor's attitude towards the king replacing Goryeo is not clear. Please think twice, king?"

Li Chenggui glanced at him and asked slowly, "Then do you have any good suggestions?"

Seeing that the king had surrendered, Pei Kelian was excited and hurriedly said, "We are a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty after all. Even if the Emperor Ming sent troops, I would teach my son a lesson. This is completely different from the Northern Yuan Dynasty. I think the king should send someone to the Ming Dynasty to apologize and then turn the blame on the old King of Goryeo. Emperor Ming should forgive the king."

Li Chenggui pondered for a while and said nothing. At this moment, several guards rushed over and reported in great horror: "King, hundreds of Ming warships appeared on the sea outside the capital. Please decide."

Li Chenggui was shocked. He didn't care about what to say to Pei Kelian, and immediately drove to the beach. The capital was about thirty miles away from the beach, but the road was flat and a straight road led directly to the dock. In just one hour, Li Chenggui arrived at the beach.

He jumped out of the carriage and was stunned. He saw more than a hundred Ming warships lined up in dense arrays five or six miles away from the sea. One of them was extremely huge warships standing on the sea like a mountain, and the warships were all full of troops.

This is a memorial jointly submitted by Li Weizheng and Zhu Zhi to Zhu Yuanzhang, asking the Shandong Navy to send troops to open the city and put pressure on him. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious when he learned that Xie Jin was detained and immediately approved their memorial and ordered the Penglai Navy and Weihai Guard to send troops to pressure Kaijing.

Li Chenggui looked at the black cannon on the warship in a daze. Finally, he sighed and turned to Pei Kelian and said, "Okay! I'll bother you to go to the Ming Dynasty and take me Zi Fangyuan with me, so I'm leaving it to the Ming Dynasty as a hostage."

In the VIP hotel in Kaijing, Xie Jin had been under house arrest for more than a month. He didn't know any other news from the outside world except to know that Goryeo had been replaced by Li Chenggui, but he was not worried. He knew that the emperor sent him on missions to be polite first and then soldiers. Since Goryeo was not tactful, this war was inevitable. For more than a month, no one came to disturb him. He just thought it was studying behind closed doors, and his life was peaceful and fulfilling.

That morning, Xie Jin was studying in the room when a follower suddenly came to report, "Sir, something happened."

"What's so panicked?" Xie Jin put down the book and asked with some displeasure.

"Thousands of fully armed soldiers came outside and surrounded our residence."

Xie Jin was shocked. Could it be that Li Chenggui was going to attack him? It is impossible. To attack him, a glass of poisonous wine is enough. There is no need to mobilize troops. He thought about it and asked, "Do those soldiers face the inside of the mansion or the outside?"

“He is facing out.”

Xie Jin couldn't help but stroking his palm and laughed, "What a Li Weizheng, I admire him for his movements so quickly!"

He stood up and said, "Change my clothes! Li Chenggui is coming soon."

As soon as he finished speaking, a loud shout came from outside: "The king is here!"

As soon as Xie Jin put on the Ming Dynasty official uniform, countless guards rushed in. A Goryeo official said anxiously: "My king is here, please go to the envoy to meet in the lobby."

"I understand." Xie Jin sorted out his official uniform and walked towards the lobby.

As soon as he entered the lobby, Li Chenggui stepped forward with apologetic expression and bowed to him, "I have been busy with domestic affairs for more than a month and have no time to take care of my companions and neglect you."

The translator accurately expressed Li Chenggui's apology to Xie Jin. Xie Jin smiled and replied, "I know that the king has just ascended the throne and is ready for everything. I personally have no dissatisfaction, but my Ming Dynasty has been suppressed by the king for more than a month. This is not just apologizing. What should I do? The king should consider it myself!"

"I know we were the ones who missed the state." Li Chenggui explained sincerely: "My opinion is to accept the negotiations of the Emperor of Ming Dynasty and abide by the agreement on Tanluo Island. However, many old Goryeo ministers refused. For this reason, I had a fierce conflict with them. It was this incident that directly led me to replace Goryeo. Please forgive me."

After hearing his extremely far-fetched explanation, Xie Jin couldn't help but sneer inwardly. It's almost a month since Li Chenggui ascended the throne. Now he just ran away and said that it was an old minister of Goryeo who objected. Isn't this ridiculous? He did not expose it, but said lightly: "I can't ask about things before, just pretend that nothing has happened. I just want to ask the king what to do in the future?"

"In order to express my city intention, I will send Pei Shizhong and my fifth son Li Fangyuan to accompany me to the Ming Dynasty to submit a letter of Korea. As for the land in the north, I will return it to the Ming Dynasty unconditionally. Please follow me to the palace and we will sign a formal agreement immediately."

Li Chenggui was impatient to return the northern land. He hoped that the Ming envoy could promptly inform the Ming army that the war was over, so that his 80,000 troops could be withdrawn smoothly, but he did not know that his wishful thinking in the north had failed.

From dawn, the sky was gloomy, dark clouds hang down, and the stern cold wind swept from the distant north. The last few leaves were finally pulled away from the big trees on the edge of the forest. North of Huangcao Ridge, a rapidly walking army appeared in an endless wilderness. The army had about 50,000 people, stretching for several miles. The army was arranged in an orderly manner with guards, cavalry, infantry, and firearms. Their armor was bright and their eyes were cold. There were also horses carrying cannons in the middle of the team.

In front of the team, Li Wei was looking at the distant mountains with cold eyes. He received Chen Wanli's express four days ago and ambushed the Goryeo Army successfully. He knew that the fighter had arrived and immediately ordered the army to cross the river. In just one night, 50,000 troops crossed the Tumen River and advanced to the Goryeo Army camp. At this moment, the scout found that the main force of the Goryeo Army had also retreated south. They did not go to Anbian, but detoured the southeast direction and crossed Huangcaoling and entered Xizhou. The road there was long and the road was bumpy. Especially crossing Huangcaoling was far away as easy as crossing Motianling, but the benefits were also obvious. When entering Xizhou, they had sufficient food supply. At the same time, the other 30,000 troops by the Yalu River could also come to meet with them.

In order to intercept the main force of Goryeo, Li Wei was leading the army to almost race against the Goryeo army. He walked on the bowstrings and the Goryeo army walked on the bow back. There was already Huangcaoling in front of him. The wilderness in front of him was the place where the two armies met. Since the vanguard troops he sent did not reply, it means that the Goryeo army was still behind him. Li Wei was riding a horse and rushed to a slope. He looked northeast with a thousand miles eyes. There was an endless forest in the distance. A big river came out of the forest. The flowing water was small and the large riverbed was exposed. This river was the only passage for the Goryeo army to move south. At this time, he suddenly saw a team of cavalry running towards this side. This was the scout he sent back.

Li Weizheng immediately waved his hand and said, "The army stopped!"

The 50,000 troops slowly stopped moving forward. The scouts rushed over, jumped off their horses for the head flag, and half-kneeled to salute Li Weizheng, "Report to the general, the main force of the Goryeo Army is coming here, and it is less than twenty miles from here. They are not walking fast and will arrive in about an hour."

Li Wei was pondering for a while and asked again: "Can they see their spies?"

"My subordinates had already encountered their spies yesterday, but the main force of Goryeo did not turn around and continued to drive here."

Li Weizheng nodded. As he expected, the Goryeo army could no longer turn back. After they walked for four days, the food should be almost cut off. If they turned around, the ending would be that they would collapse without fighting. Therefore, the Goryeo army now has only one way, which is to fight with them before the food was cut off, and it depends on how many people could escape back.

Thinking of this, he looked at the sky and ordered again: "Let the troops line up on the spot and prepare for battle!"

In the wilderness, the Ming army began to change its formation. The soldiers were well-trained and quickly adjusted their positions. The 50,000 Ming army was divided into three camps on the left, middle and right, arranged in a fan shape. Ten thousand musket soldiers stood in front. On average, two people had one musket, one was the main fire, the other was the ignition and guard. There were hundreds of cannons in the middle, and behind them were 15,000 cavalry, the horses were neat, and the cavalry was equipped with sharp sabers, but the main weapon of the cavalry was the mace, which was a sharp weapon against infantry, and was lined up in the cavalry.

Behind the soldiers were there 15,000 infantry. They held spears and formed a square formation. Although the attack was not as sharp as the cavalry, they were solid and steady, with extremely strong defense. They were the backbone of the Ming army. Finally, they were the baggage team and the command center. They were guarded by 5,000 heavy armored infantry. A large wooden platform of four or five meters high had been set up in the baggage team, with more than a dozen large flags on it. In fact, this was the most important soul of the Ming army. Without the flag order issued on this wooden platform, the army would not be able to fight together, and would even be in chaos.

In less than half an hour, the Ming army's formation was completed, and 50,000 troops stood majestic in the vast wilderness, with the north wind whistling, and they were waiting for the final blow.

As the scout reported, the main force of the Goryeo Army was less than fifteen miles away from the Yellow Grassland. In fact, Li Bi set out one day earlier than Li Weizheng. When he received news that Zheng Dongming was ambushed halfway and the entire army was wiped out, he knew that the situation was over. Although he had grabbed a lot of Jurchen food from nearby, it was still a bucket of food for the 40,000 troops. He only had six days of food left, which was equivalent to the Goryeo Army's throat being pinned by the Ming army. As long as they dragged it for five or six days, the Goryeo Army would collapse without fighting. In desperation, Li Bi could only order the entire army to evacuate southeast, exposing his whereabouts and intentions to the eyelids of the Ming army.

In fact, in terms of grain logistics supply, Li Chenggui made a strategic mistake. The Goryeo people had already established many cities between Anbiancheng and Tumenjiang during decades of northern invasion, such as Jizhou, Xianzhou, Jiazhou, Xingqing, etc. On the one hand, they were used to resettle the Jurchens who surrendered to Goryeo, and on the other hand, they also immigrated to the north. They had begun to take shape in decades. However, in order to return to Danluo Island, Li Chenggui made a pretentious move and ordered all the Goryeo military and civilians in each city to temporarily withdraw to the south of the Motianling Mountains, and at the same time swept the food and resources all over the city. Almost all cities were empty cities. If Li Chenggui did not make this mistake, these cities could still provide some military rations to the Goryeo army, and it would not be as if they were out of food today.

Li Bi already knew that the Ming army was waiting for him in front, but he had no way to go. He had only two days of food left. Behind him was hundreds of miles of unmanned land, high mountains and steep forests and wilderness. Walking back was a dead end. Moreover, the Ming army had discovered them. Most of them were infantry, so how could they run past the Ming army's cavalry chase.

He could only move forward and fight a fierce battle with the Ming army. Perhaps half of the troops could escape back to Goryeo, no! It should be North Korea. Li Bi now hates these two words, which is the person who established this country name, and wants to fight against the Ming army over his own abilities, but they were the ones who died in the end.

Li Bi invited more than a dozen important generals to discuss countermeasures. He told them the serious situation in front of him and finally said: "The nearest supply area to us is Xizhou. After passing Huangcaoling in front, it is a dead end, back, east and west. Come and come out with your advice! The main force of the Ming army is ahead. How should we fight this battle?"

After saying that, he glanced at everyone, everyone lowered their heads and no one said anything. At this time, the person behind raised his hand and said, "Master, I have a solution."

Li Bi was excited and hurriedly said, "Tell me quickly!"

The subordinate stepped forward and offered advice: "Master General, it is better for us to divide the troops from two groups. We can order 20,000 troops to resist the main force of the Ming army. The lord led 30,000 troops to retreat south."

This idea seems good, but Li Bi thought about it and shook his head and said, "If I live a secret way, how long can these 20,000 troops resist? It just happened to defeat the Ming army, and only with all our might. Maybe we still have a chance to survive. This plan is inappropriate! Do you think there is any other way?"

"It's better to surrender." A general muttered.

In an instant, more than a dozen people were silent, and everyone seemed to have stopped breathing. Li Bi's face suddenly darkened, his eyes were extremely stern. He looked at his subordinates one by one, "Do you all think so? Forget surrender? Is that true!"

His voice became louder and louder, and finally he shouted loudly. The generals were so scared that they were trembling and said repeatedly: "I dare not! I dare not!"

"Hmph!" Li Bi hummed heavily. He stopped discussing anything and pulled out his sword and said, "Tell me the order, the army is ready for battle, and fight to the death with the Ming army!"

The Goryeo Army accelerated its march. More than an hour later, the Goryeo Army left the mouth of the river valley and came to the endless wilderness. About ten miles away, they saw a long black line, which was the formation set up by the Ming army.

Li Bi is not Zheng Dongming. He has rich experience in leading troops. Although he has no experience in large-scale combat, he has been in the army for nearly 30 years and has a high prestige. The soldiers and officers all obeyed his command. Under his dispatch, the Goryeo army quickly formed a formation. This time, Goryeo sent 80,000 troops and arranged 30,000 troops on the Yalu River line. The remaining 50,000 were led by Li Bi. If the Ming Dynasty did not send troops, they would advance to the north of the Douman River and take the land dozens of times that of Goryeo into their arms. However, there are only 40,000 troops left, and the other 10,000 ambushed by the Ming army were wiped out. Among these 40,000 troops, there were no musket soldiers, nor cavalry, all infantry, but there were five thousand archers, and the rest were 20,000 spear soldiers and 15,000 sword and shield soldiers.

Although the Goryeo Army's equipment is far behind the Ming army and has no firearms, it is not even without armor. The key is that Goryeo's elite troops were used by Li Chenggui to defend the capital. He had just replaced Goryeo and could not transfer his elite soldiers. However, the army led by Li Bi was formed by the local army of the 200,000 troops of Goryeo. They are not directly-owned troops. They are far from being treated, equipment, training and combat effectiveness of Li Chenggui. To put it simply, most of them are ordinary people. They usually have to work and farm at home, but they just gather to train regularly.

They were wearing leather armor, which was two pieces of front and back. They were simply tied with ropes, and the legs were gaiters. The spears and swords and shields were roughly crafted. Li Bi also put a lot of effort into training this army. Although they were gathered from various counties, under Li Bi's intensive training, they could barely arrange a large formation to fight. They shouted and assassinated, and the drums rang when they rang, and they stopped when they stopped. They were still very well-like. Li Bi was greatly encouraged. He believed that his team could compete with the Ming army.

But he didn't expect one thing. These troops were half-armed and half-agricultural in the local area for a long time. They were not like Li Chenggui's direct army and had small-scale battles with the Ming army. This army had never seen the Ming army at all, nor had they seen the real army. When the main force of Goryeo got closer and closer to the Ming army, these soldiers saw the true face of the Ming army. The armor was neatly tidy, the military flag was waving, and the murderous pressure. Thousands of muskets were aimed coldly at him, as well as cavalry, tens of thousands of cavalry, and the stormy aura had already made the Goryeo soldiers frightened. When less than three miles away from the Ming army, the front army stopped and refused to leave. The team began to be a little confused, and many soldiers in the first row began to retreat.

Several miles away, Li Weizheng and more than a dozen generals were looking coldly at the Goryeo Army, whose team was getting messy. They were ready to fight the Goryeo Army, but the situation in front of him made Li Weizheng realize that he had made a mistake. He was too arrogant to look down on the so-called Goryeo main force, and there was no need to attack Anbiancheng. No wonder Chen Wanli was able to annihilate 10,000 Goryeo Army with 500 cavalry, and one person was not dead. It was indeed true. It was not a false claim to military merits. This army was vulnerable. He was killing chickens with a bull knife.

Li Weizheng immediately changed his deployment, and he immediately ordered: "Ship the Qianhu Office of the First and Second Cavalry of Jianzhou Guards immediately encircled from the left and right, cut off the rear of the Goryeo Army, and the rest of the cavalry teams were launched from the front and killed me!"

The drums sounded, the flag waved, and the cavalry started. The two wings of Jianzhou Guard were circling left and right like two long dragons. They cut off the retreat of the Goryeo Army, while the remaining more than 10,000 cavalry galloped, rushing towards the Goryeo Army. They waved wolf teeth and sticks, and their momentum was like the sky collapsed and the earth was cracked, and the murderous aura seemed to cover the world...

In the autumn of the 25th year of Hongwu, Li Weizheng led the main force of the Ming army to intercept the Goryeo army retreating south on Huangcaoyuan. The Ming army had only one wave of cavalry attacks, and the formation of the Goryeo army was destroyed. Forty thousand Goryeo collapsed instantly, and countless people were killed. In this battle, the Goryeo army was beheaded more than 20,000 people, and the rest all surrendered. Li Bi, the chief general of the Goryeo army, also died in the chaos. Ten days later, another Goryeo army that received the news surrendered to King Zhu Zhi, the Liao king, before Li Weizheng's army arrived.

The battle of Huangcaoyuan completely disintegrated Li Chenggui's desire to resist. He sent a delegation and his son to apologize to Emperor Ming Zhu Yuanzhang, saying that he would never resist the Celestial Empire.
Chapter completed!