Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

At the mouth of the Yalu River, the rice fields on both sides of the river have been harvested.

As early as the Goguryeo period, rice cultivation began here.

Zhe Yanzhi, Li Cheng, Zhao Li, and Yelu Yujian led their troops to assemble in Baozhou.

The troops under their command were either from Shandong bandits or from various ethnic groups brought across the sea. Only a few of them were from the local area.

There are only more than 20,000 people in total, and most of them belong to the garrison army, and the field army only has a few thousand.

The garrison even had to bring their families to farm in order to reduce the food and grass consumption of the garrison in Korea.

But they have already boasted that they have 50,000 elite troops.

This scared the Goryeo monarchs and ministers to the point where they did not dare to resist, and also made the Jin soldiers dare not cross the Yalu River and go south.

"The latest military order received is to bombard Posu Road City and Chen Bing on the south bank of the Yalu River to build more empty camps to intimidate the enemy," Zhe Yanzhi said. Some elites went into the mountains to wipe out the Jurchen tribe!"

Li Cheng was thinking about meritorious service and said unwillingly: "The war is coming, are we just here to contain it?"

Zheyanzhi said: "When the time comes, we can cross the river and attack the city. No matter what, among all the armies, ours here is the first to start fighting."

Zhao Li asked for help and said, "I will lead the troops to attack the mountain!"

"Be careful of an ambush." ​​Zheyanzhi reminded.

In the next few days, military camps were erected one after another in the rice fields that had just been harvested on the south bank of the Yalu River.

Many of the camps were empty. The straw men were bundled with fresh straw and dressed in Ming army clothes. Bright flags were set up everywhere.

Afraid that the Jin generals would have telescopes, the empty camps were set up at the back, and the straw men only showed a few pieces of clothing.

According to Wanyan Zongfu's plan, he first used fire attacks to sneak attack the Ming warships. Then they sent troops to the mountainous areas on the south bank of the Yalu River, and went out to plunder the people of the Ming Dynasty. They also robbed and burned the newly harvested rice of the Ming army.

For this reason, Jin Wushu was asked to lead three thousand elites over.

"Didn't it mean that warships would go deep into the Yalu River every now and then? I've been here for more than half a month and I haven't seen a Ming warship even once." Jin Wushu asked.

Xie Mao Ali guessed: "The Ming army will march northward in large numbers, so they will no longer come to rob the people."

Jin Wushu patrolled along the river by boat and kept observing with binoculars: "The enemy camp stretches for more than ten miles and extends for several miles to the south. I am afraid there are 70,000 to 80,000 people."

Xiemao Ali said: "From Pyongyang in Goryeo to Baozhou, they were all occupied by the Ming Dynasty, and there were many garrisons in each city. According to the information I heard carefully, there were a total of 50,000 people stationed. But in front of me, there were 70,000 to 80,000 people. It is estimated that It’s the Ming Dynasty that has increased its troops.”

Jin Wushu remained silent.

He was frightened by Li Bao's beating on Banghai Road, and he already had a psychological shadow on the Ming army's combat effectiveness.

Today, there are about 20,000 Jin soldiers in Posu Road City, but most of them are levy militia, and the real elite of the Jin Kingdom is less than 5,000.

Seventy or eighty thousand Ming troops are crossing the river to fight. Can they really be stopped here?

"Emergency military situation!"

A fast boat came from the upper reaches of the Yalu River.

The messenger came from the mountainous area on the south bank of the Yalu River, where the mountains are rolling and only scattered Jurchen and Bohai tribes live. They didn't even know how to read, so they relied entirely on oral communication to convey military information.

"Many enemies have entered the mountain, and Zhenming Village is gone!"

Zhenming Village is a newly built military village two years ago.

There is no decent garrison. If there is danger, the nearby Jurchens will gather in the stronghold to defend themselves against the enemy.

After hearing the military intelligence report, Jin Wushu did not dare to divide his troops to rescue.

He believed that this was the Ming army's plan to divert the tiger away from the mountain. Once he led his army there, the Ming army would definitely take the opportunity to cross the river and attack the city.

After thinking about it carefully, Jin Wushu said: "Move all the mountain tribes on the south bank of the Yalu River here. Half of the Haolan Road is no longer needed, and the Tongmen River (Tumen River) and Aiyeku River (the main trunk of the upper reaches of the Tumen River) ) to the south, all the garrison and people will move here!"

Jin Wushu planned to fight for his life.

In any case, he could not divide his troops for rescue, so he simply gave up all the territory south of the Yalu River and Tumen River. All the armies and tribes there were sent to Posu Road to defend themselves.

As long as the Ming army is defeated, any territory lost can be regained.

Of course, the mountain tribes were not able to move just because they wanted to.

Jin Wushu could only forcibly relocate the population in the main areas, but the tribes in the deep mountains and old forests would not obey at all.

"Woooooo~~~"

When the trumpet sounded at the top of the city, Jin Wushu was suddenly startled and hurriedly went ashore and rode back to the city.

More than a hundred river warships were seen on the river outside the city of Posu Road.

"Boom boom boom!"

The gunfire suddenly sounded.

Instead of directly bombarding Posu Road City, they were firing at Jiangxinzhou.

Where the Kui River flows into the Yalu River, it alluvializes a large area of ​​Jiangxin Island, dividing the Yalu River into two parts. The narrowest point of the north flow is less than 200 meters, and the narrowest point of the south flow is only tens of meters.

The city of Posulu was located on the west bank of the mouth of the Kehe River, and a walled city was built to garrison troops in Jiangxinzhou.

If the Ming army wanted to cross the river and attack Posu Road City, they had to capture Jiangxinzhou first.

"Boom boom boom!"

There was another burst of artillery, but it was the Ming army building a fort on the south bank of the Yalu River and bombarding the Jinbing Walled City in Jiangxinzhou.

Jin Wushu ordered: "Defend everywhere. Bring those warships and fireships to the mouth of the Kehe River in batches at night, and hide them all in Jiangxinzhou in the rear. If the Ming army ships dare to go deep, thousands of boats will attack the enemy ships with fire!"

As for the narrow and complicated waterway at the mouth of the Kueihe River, once the Ming fleet penetrated too deeply, it was really possible for the entire army to be annihilated by a fire attack.

Jin Wushu said to his soldiers again: "Take my handwritten letter and go to Liaoyang to ask for three thousand elite reinforcements. This means that the main force of the army is here, and the rice has just been harvested. Most of them will cross the river and go north to attack the city with all their strength!"

The Jin Kingdom also made detailed operations in the Ming Dynasty, but troops were being mobilized on various battlefields, and it was not clear where the Ming army's main attack direction was.

In other words, they can all be the main attack.

The Ming Dynasty's garrison in Goryeo was relatively "weak" in combat effectiveness, with only a few thousand elites trained by Han Shizhong himself.

Including Song Jiang's old troops, as well as Song Jiang himself, are all here.

Relatively weak does not mean that it is really weak.

Li Cheng and Zhao Li are both fierce people.

The former was a refugee commander and could eat and sleep with the soldiers; the latter took the initiative to join the army and serve the country. He was a desperate warrior who fought every battle with wounds all over his body.

Because of their insufficient qualifications and record, their troops were organized into garrison troops, and they even came to Korea to garrison.

Ju Ming was afraid that they would be dissatisfied and worried that the soldiers would be resentful, so he gave these troops additional allowances, and their military pay was only slightly lower than that of the field army.

There is also Yelu Yujian, whose subordinates are all Khitans and Xi people. They lost their home and were exploited by the Kingdom of Jin. Everyone was so reckless that they wanted to kill them back.

When the Jin militia encountered these troops, only those who were crushed were left.

No matter how you talk about the Ming army's formation on the south bank of the Yalu River, it really looks like the main force. Jin Wushu was so frightened that he called for reinforcements and even abandoned a large area of ​​territory and forcibly moved the troops and people to defend the city.

…

In the past two years, some senior generals of the Jin Kingdom have died of illness.

Wanyan Loushi died of illness earlier this year.

Wanyan's mother died of illness two years ago.

The elite troops under their command were inherited by their respective sons.

At this moment, Wanyan Zongfu came to Liaoyang and personally took charge of the entire Liaodong battlefield.

The powerful commanders of various ethnic groups were also transferred back to their hometowns to take charge of recruiting troops for war. These powerful commanders use clan soldiers as their core force, and then recruit people from their hometowns as militia, so that they can quickly form effective combat effectiveness.

Hesu Guancheng (Gai County).

Gao Biao has gathered more than 6,000 soldiers under his command, but there are only 2,000 real elites.

"Brother Xian, you can't fight me," clan brother Gao Hu advised.

Gao Biao said angrily: "More than half of your people and mine have been slaughtered by the Southern bandits. Do you still want to surrender?"

Gao Hu said: "If the Ming army comes across the sea, our Chenzhou Gao clan will be the first to bear the brunt. More than half of our clan members have been slaughtered, do you want to drag the remaining clan members to die as well?"

"Qiang!"

Gao Biao drew his sword, pointed at his clan brother and said, "If you dare to surrender again, I recognize your brother, but not the weapon in your hand!"

"Alas!" Gao Hu sighed and left.

As we said before, the Chenzhou Gao family was one of the three major Gao families in the Jin Kingdom.

And Hesuguan Road was called Chenzhou in the Liao Dynasty.

A few years ago, Zhao Li, Yelu Yujian and others crossed the sea. The city of Huosu Guancheng was burned down, and the Gao family's Wubao was destroyed, and all the Gao family in Chenzhou were massacred.

At that time, Gao Biao and some of his tribesmen and villagers were moved to Youzhou by Wanyan Zongwang.

Although Gao Biao perfectly avoided this difficulty, his parents and son all died at the hands of the Ming army. Even his wife and daughter were forcibly remarried to Ming army soldiers.

Now his wife and daughter have given birth to children for Ming army soldiers.

His daughter is even in Iwami Castle...

How can a man endure the hatred of killing his family and taking away his wife?

When Gao Biao inspected the military camp, he found that his soldiers were depressed. He summoned officers at all levels, detailed their grievances with the Ming army, and persuaded everyone to fight to the death to kill the enemy.

However, morale among the officers remained low.

They all participated in the Hebei War, and some of them were even treated as abandoned sons and left behind.

Of course they hate the Ming army because all their relatives died at the hands of the Ming army.

But they also hate the nobles of the Jin Kingdom and always let them die at critical moments.

In this battle, if the Ming army comes across the sea, they will probably be in front again.

This city was burned down a few years ago, and the Gao family's Wubao was also slaughtered. If they really fight to the death, even if the Jin Kingdom wins, how many of them will be left?

"The southern thieves are coming!"

Gao Biao turned around and saw smoke rising from the south.

It seems that the Ming army will attack Fuzhou first this time.

In fact, there is Ningzhou in the middle between Fuzhou and here. At the time of the war in the late Liao Dynasty and at the beginning of the rule of the Jin Kingdom, very few people in Ningzhou died. The Jin Kingdom directly revoked its organizational structure, and even the county-level administrative districts were not preserved.

"Light the smoke quickly to report the news!"

Gao Biao ordered.

There are beacon towers along the way, from the seaside to Liaoyang.

After Chengzhou received the news, Gao Jingshan immediately ordered to gather troops.

"Uncle, Liu E may surrender." Gao Song said.

Gao Jingshan said: "His mother and several brothers are either in Liaoyang or Shangjing. If Liu E surrenders, he will really be a disowned person. By the way, how did you know that he was going to surrender?"

The Liu clan and villagers were moved to Tangchi by the Jin Kingdom.

But Tangchi is a sub-base of the Gao family in Liaoyang, and the fertile land has long been occupied by the Gao family. Liu E moved his people here and was suppressed by the Gao family everywhere, which further strengthened his determination to bring down the Ming Dynasty.

Gao Song said: "I came back from Changsong Island and observed the words and deeds of various ethnic groups along the way. When passing by Tangchi County, I heard that Gao Zhen sent people to collect grain and deliberately levied heavy taxes on the people who moved here from Liu E, which almost forced the Liu clan to Making trouble on the spot.”

The Gao family in Liaoyang owned more than 100,000 acres of land in Tangchi County, of which 50,000 acres were awarded by the Emperor of Liao.

Although there were not enough serfs and tenants, much of the land was completely uncultivated. But the Gao family would rather throw it away than give it to the Liu family. Moreover, he evades taxes in various ways, and in order to collect enough taxes, he crazily exploits foreigners who have moved here in recent years.

The Ming army is about to attack, but the Bohai clan is still thinking of ways to pay less taxes.