Chapter 20: Sunset in the West (2)

The Liaodong Navy set out in the early morning and faced the rising ranks. The ship was loaded with one thousand people, five hundred old Goryeo troops recruited by Wang Luchao, and five hundred Jinzhou Guard Marines lent out by Zhu Zhi. Their mission was to take down Danluo Island to establish a base.

The ship was also loaded with three months of food, tools, etc. In addition to occupying Danluo Island, their mission was to build a port for the Liaodong Navy.

Wang Ziruo stood at the stern of the boat and looked at Zhu Zhi who was seeing him off on the pier with melancholy. Wang Luchao patted his sister on the shoulder: "Stop looking, we can't afford to climb on, they are the princes of the Supreme Kingdom of the Celestial Kingdom.

"Wang Ziruo heard this and tears were already bursting out. When Wang Lu Chao saw his sister sad, he could only comfort him: "Brother promises you that when we return to the country, we will definitely propose marriage to the sister who becomes the princess."

The winter of the 27th year of Hongwu was particularly cold. In two months, Liaodong had suffered three blizzards. Guangning Zhongwei overcame the difficulties of the climate and acted as a trail-slitter on the entire Sino-North Korea border.

When they encountered the small Jurchen tribe, the surrendered ones were taken away, and those who did not surrender were directly wiped out. All roads from Goryeo to Haixi Jurchen were blocked, and all caravans who dared to continue to trade with the Jurchen were intercepted, and the armed escorts were wiped out, and all the goods were sent to Guangning.

These goods stolen from North Koreans brought the first income to the "Liaodong Lianhao".

Rulin, who had criticized the "Liaodong League" at the beginning, finally knew what the "Liaodong League" was used for! It turned out to be a robber organization, specializing in making money by cutting the path.

The scholars became even more annoyed, and criticized them one after another. They did not dare to scold Zhu Zhi directly, so they vented their anger on the merchants and scolded the merchants to instigate the prince to deviate from the king's way.

Some manifestos that scold merchants often appear on the walls of restaurants and teahouses, and of course the merchants are not willing to be outdone. They often invite some gunmen to respond to the pedantic scholars and also post manifestos on force.

It is said that this matter is in line with the spirit of the court's "Fair Trade Order" and is the way for the government to compensate merchants. The two sides attack and defend against the wall, which is very lively.

But Zhu Zhi stayed in the palace and covered his mouth and laughed. You just make a fuss, it would be better to form such a debate.

...

In the warm tent of Laru, the calm sweat could no longer sit still. He kicked a stove and the people quickly helped clean it up. But the carpet had been burned out several small holes.

"Idiots, they are all a group of idiots. Where did the thieves come from? Have you figured it out?" Zahaqi angrily cursed the generals crawling below.

A handsome young man replied: "Go back to Ama, it has been found out that these thieves are traitors from the Jianzhou Jurchen Niaohulu tribe, the Uyewu tribe, and the Edala tribe who defected to the barbarians.

They received equipment and training from Liaodong barbarians, which is no longer the same as before. In the past two months, they have appeared between the white mountains and black waters, intercepted eight out of ten caravans, and destroyed eight of my small tribes. They kidnapped thousands of cattle and sheep.

Zahaqi said angrily: "A group of idiots, why didn't they know how to send troops to protect the trade route for so long?"

The young man said: "Ama, have you forgotten that last month, the Liaodong barbarians gathered more than 30,000 people from four guards to the front line of Andongzhou at Fushun and made a large-scale out-of-bounds. It was you who ordered the elite troops of all departments to go south to defend Nadan Prefecture and Huifa City.

There was no extra force to be transferred to Helan City."

"I've been fooled. I've been fooled. They gathered their troops to attract our attention. In fact, they still have to achieve the goal of blocking our place. Zhu Zhi, Zhu Zhi is good at making plans, good plans."

Zahazi secretly blamed himself for caring too much about Nadan Mansion. "It must be that Guni's old dog betrayed Zhu Zhi, so he used Nadan Mansion to attract me."

The young man said, "Ama, let's make an idea. It's too cold, and cattle and sheep die in batches, and many people can't get rid of the blame at home."

Zahazi said: "Feler, do you know what our ancestors would do when this is the case?"

Feile was the young man, shook his head in confusion, and Zahazi said, "Get! When spring is warm and flowers bloom, that is, when the Han people start farming, kill and snatch his mother.

Let everyone slaughter all the frozen cattle and sheep, freeze them, and survive this winter first."

...

Cars and horses, and pedestrians and bows and arrows are all on their waists.

When the first ray of spring sunshine spread on the land of Liaodong, the people in Liaodong deeply felt the changes around them. After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the soldiers on the road drove northward without interruption.

Those well-informed people have realized that a major war is about to take place in Liaodong: "Mom, the war is going to be fought, is there enough food in the family's land?"

On the second day of the second month of the 28th year of Hongwu, the dragon raised its head.

Zhu Zhi led the Liaodong Dusi and the officials of the Liaowang Palace to go to the Dragon King Temple beside the Liao River to pray and burn incense.

"The Dragon King is above, and Zhu Zhi led all officials from Liaodong to worship him. The Dragon King blesses me, Liaodong's weather and prosperity for the whole year, and the country and the people are safe. In the spring, our Liaodong army will attack the Jurchens in the north, and the Dragon King blesses me, the Ming Dynasty's strong flag will be opened to victory and flatten the sea.

"As he said, he piously inserted three incense sticks into the incense burner.

"Tie Changshi, let me talk about the current military situation around Liaodong." The king and his ministers sat down, Zhu Zhi said.

Tie Xuan bowed to everyone, walked behind Zhu Zhi, opened the large map on the wall, and held a wooden pole in his hand and said, "Please look here. Since the beginning of autumn last year, all the training and adjustments of the Liaodong Army's secondary and above garrison stations have been completed.

Our army gathered roughly in two directions, Yulin Right Guard, Tieling Guard, Dingliao Right Guard, and Shenyang Central Guard gathered at Fushun Station, with a force of 35,000; Dingliao Central Guard, Dingliao Left Guard, and Dingliao Front Guard gathered at Jiuliancheng, with a force of 20,000.

In addition, the Guangning Central Guard is currently spending the winter in Ji'an. We still have about four mobile troops in our hands.

About 30,000 people from the Jurchens in Haixi gathered at Nadan Prefecture to confront our north route; Goryeo also gathered 30,000 people to confront our south route in Xinyizhou. However, King Lee Sung-gui of Korea had already handed a memorial to the King of Liao, saying that he had restricted the merchants from the Jurchens' business and requested the King of Liao to withdraw his troops from the border.

"The so-called closeness to Zhu Chi, after following Zhu Zhi for two years, Tie Hyun is now used to the words that he can't understand.

Zhu Zhi said: "This is the situation at present. I am determined to break up with the Haixi Jurchens within this year."

Tie Xuan said: "According to the news that the scouts heard, the Jurchens suffered natural disasters throughout the winter, and the lack of goods made life very difficult. According to the estimates of the General Staff of the Royal Palace, when spring is warm, the Jurchens will raise troops and go south to loot."

Zhu Zhixu said: "Last time, we fought in a passive situation and had not won a complete victory when the troops were not in order. This time, the Liaodong soldiers were in good condition and had enough food, so the Jurchens had to fight at the time and place we chose.

I said that it was going to be a break and I didn’t want to be too late with the Jurchens anymore. The battle code name is ‘Wei Qing’, and we must be like our ancestors. We must sweep the Tartars and uproot the roots. The specific situation will continue. “

Tie Xuan said: "This is based on the current situation, the General Staff has formulated a comprehensive combat plan against the Haixi Jurchens. The first part of the plan is to lure the enemy, with His Highness the King of Liao as the commander, Qu Neng, deputy to the Central Lu Group, and govern the Yulin Right Guard and Tieling Guard.

Dingliao Right Guard and Chenyang Central Guard, with 35,000 troops, left Fushun, and took Nadan Mansion. Ula City, Nalinhe, and attacked Lalu. This is the first step of the entire plan, and the purpose is to mobilize the Jurgend forces here.

Left Road Group. With General Ye Wang as the general, he governed the Liao Zhongwei, Dongning Wei, and Liaohai Wei, with a force of 20,000. He left Zhenbei Pass and took the Yidong River to go straight to Lalu.

This is an important part of the entire plan. Only when His Highness’s army in the middle road attracted enough Jurchens can the left-road group be successful in its operation. This is the second step in the plan.

After the left-road group approached the city of Lalu, they surrounded the city without fighting. They mobilized the main force of the Jurchen front to return to the rescue, and then set up an ambush halfway and annihilated its main force in one fell swoop. This is all the plan of "Wei Qing".

After the Eastern Front was transferred to the Dingliao Central Guard, Gaizhou Guard and Fuzhou Guard filled the vacancy and continued to maintain pressure on Goryeo.

Dingliao defenders and Haizhou guards as reserve team gathered in Tieling and were ready to support the middle and left directions at any time.

This is a plan that Zhu Zhi helped the General Staff Department formulate, and he was very satisfied. He asked with a smile: "Everyone, what else do you have to say? Just put it forward."

Ye Wang said: "The last one will object! This is equivalent to letting Your Highness serve as bait. It is absolutely not possible, it is too dangerous."

Zhu Zhi said: "What's the danger? It's not that I haven't fought with Zhaheqi, but Er'er. Moreover, the key to this battle is to do it on the left side of the middle lane. General Ye's attacking moves are fiercer and faster, the safer I will be.

Moreover, I have decided, so there is no need to say that you will go down and prepare. On the first day of March, you must prepare all of them."

After the meeting, Ye Wang pulled Tie Xuan and said, "After listening for a long time, why didn't Guangning Central Defense have anything to do?"

Tie Xuan said: "The Guangning Central Defense has special tasks."

Ye Wang laughed and said, "I'm afraid the articles on the left side of the road need to be done by Guangning Zhongwei?"

Tie Xuan smiled embarrassedly: "This is absolutely confidential, Guangning Central Defense General..."

...

Of course, the news of the assembly and mobilization of the Liaodong army could not be hidden from the Jurchens in detail, and the information was passed to Zahaqi of the Lalu Prefecture. Similarly, the Jurchens' military meeting was also being held.

Zahachi ordered: "Dexing A, Feel, you will lead a 15,000 army to set off tomorrow and attack Zhenbei Pass on the fifth day of March. The more you fight, the better. The Khan needs to attract all the main forces of the Ming Army's North Road."

Dexing A is Zahazi's younger brother and one of the 1st-time Jurchens in Haixi. He and Feile took the order. Feile asked, "Ama, do you mean that our path is just a feint?"

Zahaqi said: "Yes, you are a feint attack. Ben Khan personally led 40,000 main forces to attack Fushun Pass, and then defeated Tieling, and encircled and annihilated the main forces of the Ming army in one fell swoop.

So the key to this battle is to attract and speed. The more you fight fiercely, the more main forces you will attract, the less enemies Ama faces in front of Fushun Pass, the shorter the time to defeat them. Do you understand?"

Dexing Adao: "Ahun, Lalu only has five thousand men to guard the garrison, is it enough?"

Zahaqi looked grim: "I can't take care of so many things. We are few Jurchens and cannot withstand the consumption of the Han people. Only by taking dangerous moves in the army, we must make the Ming Dynasty hurt before seeking peace with them. This battle will lay the fate of the Jurchens in Haixi in one fell swoop.
Chapter completed!