Meng Guzhezhe was just shy, but with his pragmatic and thick skin, he would not fall into such a predicament. He directly ignored Liu Xin's teasing and talked about business, saying: "How could I use the mirror to deceive the generals? Ji Chen? What I want to say is all the truth..."
"Oh?" Liu Xin couldn't help laughing, her beautiful eyes curved into two crescent moons: "Does the Marquis have anything to say to Nurhachi?"
Gao pragmatic smiled slightly and ignored the obvious disbelief in Liu Xin's words. Instead, he said seriously: "I will inform Nurhaci and tell him that Kato Kiyomasa, one of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's generals and one of the 'Seven Guns of the Mountain,' will He will personally lead the second Japanese Army Corps into his territory."
Liu Xin's smile faltered when she heard this, but seeing that Gao Pingshi didn't seem to be joking, she couldn't help but wonder, "Is this true?"
Gao pragmatically replied: "There will probably be no difference."
Liu Xin suddenly frowned, but even now, she still doesn't understand the situation in Japan as well as Gao Pingshi, so she had to ask: "What are the characteristics of Kato Kiyomasa, and what is the strength of the Second Army?"
Gao pragmatically replied simply: "The biggest characteristic of Kato Kiyomasa is toughness. As for the strength of the Second Army, in terms of military strength, it ranked third among the nine armies sent by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the first wave of fighting in North Korea. Second only to the 30,000 men of Terumoto Mori's 7th Corps and the 25,000 men of Fukushima Masanori's 5th Corps, the total strength of the entire corps is about 22,000."
"What is his mission?" Liu Xin asked again.
Gao pragmatically said: "Judging from the time, he should still be near Seoul or Kaijing now, but next, his task should be to conquer Xianjing Road."
As he spoke, he was afraid that Liu Xin was not very familiar with the situation in North Korea, so he simply asked Gao Mo to fetch a map of Northeast Asia and hang it next to him, roughly explaining the approximate locations of the current Japanese legions.
In fact, Liu Xin was very familiar with the topographic maps of North Korea. She just didn't understand the current progress of the Japanese army. After listening to Gao Pragmatic's description, she suddenly said: "In other words, the Japanese army will move to northern Korea next." The strategy is basically left to Yukinagako Konishi's first legion and Kato Kiyomasa's second legion.
Among them, Yukinagako Konishi is in charge of the West Road, and the main target should be Pyongyang when attacking Pyongyang Road; Kato Kiyomasa is in charge of the East Road, and the main target should be Hamhung when attacking Hamgyong Road? "
"You should have guessed correctly about the situation on President Konishi's side, but judging from the time, I expect that he will be able to capture Pyongyang, and then it will be Li Rusong's turn to defeat him." Gao Pingshi said this with a salty finger. Jingdao area, said: "But Kato Kiyomasa's side may be slightly different from your guess. In fact, I think the Japanese army actually has a relatively limited understanding of the situation in North Korea, so they made such a deployment of troops."
Liu Xin was a little surprised and asked, "How do you say this?"
Gao pragmatic snorted softly and replied: "The essence of North Korea is in the west rather than in the east. The so-called 'three capitals' are Seoul, Kaesong, and Pyongyang from south to north, all of which are close to the Bohai Sea. In other words, This is the road that Governor Konishi is responsible for.
Although Hamgyong Road in northeastern North Korea is vast and somewhat narrow, it is not highly developed and not densely populated. Its current strategic value is far less than that of Ping'an Road.
Of course our Ming Dynasty is well aware of the situation in North Korea, so once troops are sent out, the main force will also go to this line. However, before receiving reinforcements, the First Army Corps under Konishi Governor only had about 18,000 soldiers, which was even fewer than Kato Kiyomasa's Second Army Corps. You are knowledgeable, so of course you know what consequences this will lead to. "
He had already talked to this extent. Of course Liu Xin understood it as soon as he heard it and suddenly said: "That means that Governor Xiaoxi will face big trouble after Li Rusong sends troops, and he will probably feel that his troops are seriously insufficient. At the same time, There may not be any Ming army on the Hamgyong Road side of Kato Kiyomasa's strategy, and we only need to eliminate some resistance from the Korean army.
Therefore, he may feel that he still has quite a bit of energy left, and hopes to do more and achieve more military exploits in order to obtain more rewards after the war. Therefore, it is very likely that he will continue to advance north after taking the Hamjing Road... and then enter Manchuria. "
Gao pragmatic nodded and said: "Not bad."
"But that's not right." Liu Xin wondered: "Since President Konishi will soon feel that the troops are insufficient, but Kato Kiyomasa has a surplus of troops, wouldn't President Konishi go to Kato Kiyomasa for support? At the same time, for Kato Kiyomasa, if it can help Governor Konishi defend Pyongyang, wouldn’t that be a great achievement?”
Gao Pingshi laughed, shook his head and said: "That's not true, because Kato Kiyoshi is from the military commander faction, and Konishi is from the obedience faction. They had a big quarrel in Chungshu not long ago and almost started a fight. So, Konishi Even if the commander is in trouble, he most likely will not go to Kato Kiyomasa for help, and conversely, even if Kato Kiyomasa receives a request for help from President Konishi, he most likely will not send troops."
Liu Xin rolled her eyes and said angrily: "The east and west forwards are at odds with each other? Toyotomi Hideyoshi is really good at using soldiers."
Gao Pragmatic said calmly: "Toyotomi Hideyoshi has always been more manipulative than strategic."
"Is using troops like this a part of the strategy?" Liu Xin thought for a moment and asked, "Out of balance considerations?"
"The first is balance, and the second is mutual restraint." Gao pragmatically said: "For example, there is a high possibility that Toyotomi Hideyoshi was inflated to the extreme and believed that both forwards could win, so he let the obedience faction and the military commander faction each If one person comes out, both sides can share in the pioneering work."
Liu Xin thought for a while and then asked: "So about Kato Kiyomasa's attack on the Jurchens...what does the Marquis think the final outcome will be?"
Gao pragmatically replied with confidence: "Win first and then lose."
When Liu Xin saw how confident he was, she already guessed that this was probably something that had happened in history, but now she and Gao Pragmatic were not the only ones present, so it was inconvenient to ask.
But something unexpected happened at this time, and Meng Guzhezhe said: "Does the master mean that Kato Kiyomasa will fight Nurhachi and win first and then lose?"
This question is difficult to answer, because in the original history, although Kato Kiyomasa was the only Japanese general to invade the territory of the Ming Dynasty (Jurchens are counted as the territory of the Ming Dynasty) in this war, he was not involved with Nurhachi at the time.
Since there are not many records about this incident in history books, and it is rarely mentioned, I will briefly summarize it here.
The situation at that time was as follows: Due to the depletion of North Korea's armaments at the time, its Eighth Route Army almost fell quickly. However, Kato Kiyomasa's Second Corps, one of Japan's two pioneers, defeated North Korea at Jinhaejingcang, Hamgyong Province. Han Kecheng, the envoy of North Hamgyong Province, and the most elite northern cavalry in North Korea led by him, he was still unsatisfied, and he actually broke into the Ming Dynasty.
Didn't Daming have a strong reaction to such a big thing? There really wasn't any at first, because the other areas in Northeast China north of Liaodong have always been the territory of the Jurchens, and they did not belong to the interior of the Ming Dynasty. When it comes to the Ming army, the armed forces there are all Jurchen armies.
So the key question is, where was Kato Kiyomasa's position across the border? In Juzi Street - probably near Yanji City, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province. This place was roughly at the junction of the Zhusheli tribe, one of the three tribes in the Changbai Mountains, and the Ula tribe of the Haixi Jurchens.
There is an interesting point here. The Zhusheli Tribe has been captured by Nurhachi, but what were the Zhusheli Tribe and the Ula Tribe busy with during this period in original history? They are busy fending off Nurhachi who is preparing to unify the Jurchen.
In other words, in the original history, after Kato Kiyomasa penetrated North Korea, the opponents he faced were either the Ula tribe or the Zhusheli tribe, or even the Nayin tribe. But in short, there was nothing wrong with Nurhachi, and now there is a high probability that he will fight with Nurhachi. If you encounter one, there is a small chance that you will encounter the Nayin tribe or the Ula tribe.
[Note: In this book, because Nurhachi was previously calculated by Gao Pragmatic, he was forced to move a certain distance eastward after the "three-point state establishment" and could only develop eastward. As a result, he captured the Yalu River and Zhushe earlier than in the original history. There are two parts in it. ]
Gao pragmatic gave a brief explanation to Meng Guzhezhe, but Meng Guzhezhe was taken aback and said: "Maybe he collided with the Nayin tribe?"
Her surprise is not surprising, because as mentioned before, the Nayin tribe has now taken refuge in Ye He, and it is an important production area for Ye He tribe to obtain ginseng.
However, there is another problem here, that is, although the Nayin tribe defected to Ye He, it was because Ye He had actually been supported by Gao Pragmatism to become the strongest tribe in Manchuria. The Nayin tribe's defection was just a fake attempt to avoid being defeated by Nurhaci. annexation. In fact, the Nayin tribe and the Yehe tribe are not directly adjacent to each other. There is also the Huifa tribe of the Haixi Jurchen between them.
At this time, Meng Guzhezhe's performance immediately made Gao Pragmatic react and asked: "Are you worried that the Nayin tribe will be defeated by the Japanese army and affect Ye He's ginseng supply?"
Meng Guzhezhe, who had rarely participated in discussions on internal affairs in Beijing before, gave Gao Pragmatic a surprise this time. She shook her head and said: "If that's all, the situation is not the worst. What I am worried about is that after the Japanese army defeated Na Yin, Ye He The reinforcements had not yet arrived, but Nurhaci arrived first and defeated the Japanese army..."
"Oh, you are worried that Nurhaci will use this as an excuse to stay on the ground of the Nayin tribe." Gao pragmatic understood immediately.
But I understand that if this matter continues to develop according to this conjecture, it will be really troublesome. At that time, either Ye He and Nurhaci will fight, or Ming Dynasty will have to threaten Nurhaci to withdraw. If Nurhaci takes advantage of the Korean war and refuses to listen, Ming Dynasty may have to end it personally.
Why does Nurhaci always have to retreat, but not Ye He? Because Ye He couldn't afford to retreat, Gao Pragmatic would not allow Ye He to retreat. As soon as Ye He retired, the Liaoning ginseng trade was really monopolized by Nurhaci, which was worth hundreds of thousands of taels of silver a year. If Nurhaci completely controls the pricing power, the power of Jianzhou Zuowei will surely expand rapidly. Just like in the original history.
However, there are considerable risks in pushing Nurhaci too hard at this moment. One of the risks is that Nurhachi will unite with Japan. This kind of thing did not happen in the original history, but Gao Pragmatic believes that this possibility cannot be ruled out. After all, the current situation is different from that in the original history.
In the original history, Nurhachi did not unite with Japan in the 20th year of Wanli because he wanted to take the opportunity to annex the Jurchen tribes. Now if Ming Dynasty targets him in advance, then he will not be able to grow up anyway, so why not unite with Japan? But for Ming Dynasty, it was like finding another enemy for no reason.
With Caojun, Bozhou, Japan, and Nurhaci, the Ming Dynasty would have too many troubles, and this was unnecessary.
"In this case, Ye He will make preparations early in the morning." Gao pragmatic pondered for a while and said: "Let's do this, Meng Gu, you inform your two brothers in advance and say that I will make arrangements in the name of the court in the next few days. Some of Ye He's troops rushed to assist the Na Yin tribe, in the name of preventing the collapse of the Korean border army and the Japanese army's cross-border invasion. At that time, whether Kato Kiyomasa crosses the border to the Na Yin tribe, or Nurhachi takes the opportunity to advance, Ye He's tribe will help him hold on."
Meng Guzhe replied: "Yes, Master, I will go and talk to Sorguo later."
When she mentioned Sorguo, Gao pragmatically thought of Sorguo's son Fei Yingdong, and simply confessed: "Your two brothers have just returned from the expedition. There is no need to lead troops out of the country again this year, so Fei Yingdong is asked to go to Nayin." Let's go." Meng Guzhezhe didn't have much opinion on this and agreed again.
Liu Xin asked at this time: "Master Hou, didn't you originally mean that Kato Kiyomasa would probably run into Nurhachi? Now... this is just a precautionary measure, but we should still focus on considering Nurhachi and Nurhachi. Kato Kiyomasa’s arrangements after the battle.”
She paused and continued: "According to what the Marquis said, Kato Kiyomasa should win first and then lose. I think what the Marquis meant was that it might be difficult for Nurhachi to determine the direction of Kato Kiyomasa's attack at the beginning, so Kato Kiyomasa He was able to achieve some results first, and then with Nurhachi’s main attack, Kato Kiyomasa was no match for him... So, what happens next? If Nurhachi wants to pursue, will the court be allowed to do so or not?”
Gao pragmatic knew the subtext of Liu Xin's question. She actually knew that the issue was not whether the court allowed Nurhaci to pursue him. The question was what would the Ming Dynasty do if Nurhachi chased Kato Kiyomasa and occupied some areas in Hamgyong Road but refused to return them to North Korea.
However, he was pragmatic but not afraid of this issue. He smiled and said: "I know you are afraid of the court's dilemma... However, if North Korea is included, then this issue will be much simpler. At least the court will not have to give North Korea any explanation. Moral loss.”
"North Korea is included?" Liu Xin was surprised: "Do you want the Ming Dynasty to take over North Korea?"
Gao Pragmatic's smile became brighter and brighter, and he said, "Why else do you think I have to convince the emperor to put aid to Korea as the last of the three major things?"
"Oh, you have long made up your mind to make North Korea's monarchs and ministers feel completely hopeless, and take the initiative to bring up the Ming Dynasty." Liu Xin suddenly realized, and sighed: "I'll see you in the end."
"How can you say that you are trying to make a fool of yourself?" Gao Pragmatic said seriously: "Isn't it a great blessing for the Korean people that they can find peace at the time of the country's subjugation and the opportunity to join the Celestial Empire?"
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