Song Yingchang's order was full of temptations, but Li Rusong's response was unexpectedly good. After Zha Damou got the order, he quickly ordered his troops to go out. Li Rusong even temporarily allocated him a batch of newly arrived Beijing wood. Hand grenade, also known as hand grenade in later generations.
However, what Song Yingchang didn't know was that Li Rusong had already contacted Gao Pragmatic during this period. The reason why the troop dispatch was carried out without any compromise was mainly because Gao Pragmatic had made some promises to him. Of course, at the same time, Li Chengliang's reply also arrived, which probably meant that he and Gao Pragmatic had reached an agreement, and the two sides had reached some principled consensus on the losses of the Li family army in the Korean battlefield.
Tracing the origin of this issue is actually a bit complicated, mainly in two aspects. The first aspect is that the core force of the Li Jiajun is the servants, but the so-called 40,000 Li Jiajun are not all calculated as servants in terms of "organization". Only 10,000 of them actually receive "house servant subsidies" from the court.
The military system of the Ming Dynasty is now very complex. For a general, the army under his command can often be divided into several levels: the general's own personal soldiers, the general's personal soldiers, ordinary conscripts, and guard soldiers.
The ones with the best treatment and the strongest combat effectiveness here are the marshal's own personal soldiers. For example, the thousand elites that Li Rusong personally brought over during the Battle of Biti Pavilion are of this level and are the core combat strength of the Li family army. It can even be seen as the cornerstone of Tieling Li's position as the world's leading general.
For Li Rusong, this kind of personal soldiers who are all servants are the backbone of the Li family who receive subsidies from the court but are loyal to him or Li Chengliang himself. They are the foundation for the Li family to maintain their status as generals.
Among the "Li Family Army", the army second only to the "general commander's retainers" is the retainers of the generals and retainers. These retainers are also retainers, but in principle they are not the retainers of Li Chengliang or Li Rusong, but the retainers of people such as Zu Chengxun and Zha Da. Received personal soldiers from direct generals of the Li family army such as Yang Yuan.
If we were to force an analogy to this situation, we would have a feeling of "the vassals of my vassals are not my vassals." However, this is not complete. After all, the era of "narrow feudalism" in China has long passed. In fact, as long as the commander-in-chief's prestige is high enough, he still has the ability to directly give orders to "the vassals of my vassals", and these "vassals of my vassals" will not dare to disobey them.
However, under the actual situation of the servant system, theoretically "my servant's servant" is indeed not "my servant". "I" only rely on the huge prestige and the power of life and death over "my" generals who have become the commanders of an army but were originally "my servants", thus indirectly possessing a deterrent force against "the servants of my servants".
Then a question arises: if "I" lose such prestige and the power of life and death over the generals who were originally my servants, then those more numerous "house servants" can still obey For me? Maybe they will obey for a while, but "my" deterrence against them will continue to decline until collapse.
With this explanation, Li Rusong's performance can be reasonably explained: Zu Chengxun, Zha Dashou and even the other generals of the Li family army who were directly from the Li family but did not really have the surname Li. No matter how much they suffered in the war, they would not care about the Tieling Li family. All these losses can be tolerated, because as long as the Tieling Li family remains strong and their political status remains stable, these losses can be made up for in the future.
However, if the core strength of the Tieling Li family collapses, things will become complicated: How do you know that these "non-direct generals with the surname Li" have no intention of establishing their own business? How do you know that the imperial court did not want them to establish their own business early on? Once they all set up their own businesses, can the Tieling Li family still be considered the best general in the world?
Taking the original "three major generals" under Gao Jingshi as the Ma family, the Ma family, and the Liu family, the Ma family and the Ma family, which were part of the Northern Army system, were maintained by the direct command of their own generals. For example, in addition to Ma Gui, the current head of the Ma family, there are also a large number of nephews and generals such as Ma Chengen and Ma Chengxun. After Ma Fang became an official in the Ma family, brothers Ma Dong and Ma Lin also took charge of their own armies. He also has his own children and nephews under him.
The only exception is the Liu family. After Liu Xian, the only son of the Liu family, Liu Wei, is in charge of the army. Although Liu Xin also had a relatively small number of soldiers and horses, because she was a woman and was not a chieftain, this army only existed in the Ming court establishment during the Yunnan-Burma War, and It is still nominally affiliated with Liu Wei.
As for later, this army simply broke away from the Ming Dynasty's establishment and was taken to southern Xinjiang by Liu Xin. It is currently dumped in Dingnan. It exists as part of the Siam Palace garrison in name, but is actually under the command of Huang Zhiting.
In Liu Xian's army, because he did not have enough blood relatives, he implemented a system similar to that of the Li Jiajun (but it should be noted that the Li Jiajun did not have many blood relatives), relying on many of Liu Xian's adopted sons (renamed Jiading) and their children (renamed Jiading) son) to control the entire army.
Here we must extend the discussion to discuss the difference: For generals, blood relatives must be the most credible force, because under the current system, blood relatives of generals can maintain unity. After all, they are more powerful when united. Therefore, blood relatives of generals can maintain unity. Easier to maintain in the long term.
The adopted son model can usually be maintained for one or two generations, but when the adopted sons become more powerful, they often receive the reward of changing back to their original surnames. As time goes by, they often become new generals on their own after varying lengths of time. Therefore, Basically out of the control of the original general - of course, a special relationship will usually be maintained, but it is usually just for face. If there is a real conflict of interest, one's own interests must prevail.
Li Rusong had lost some of his immediate family members during the Battle of Yuan Dynasty, which was why Li Chengliang was angry and cut off his confession. This time, he lost a lot of money at Biti Pavilion. Adding up the losses before and after the Northern and Southern Wars, Li Rusong lost 2,000 yuan. Many of the most important direct servants.
The loss of more than 2,000 people does not seem to be much for the Li family army with 40,000 troops. However, since it is a loss of core strength, it actually has a considerable impact on the "general system" of the Li family in Tieling, so Li Rusong Only then did he have to withdraw his troops and return to Pyongyang. On the one hand, he sought the forgiveness of his father Li Chengliang, and on the other hand, he quickly found a way to make up for these losses.
So obviously, the consensus reached by Li Chengliang and Gao Pragmatic is naturally to supplement the core strength of Li Jiajun. The news they replied to Li Rusong was that his immediate servants in the Korean battlefield had been lost. The Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of War would work together to ensure that the force was fully replenished. Not only would the "formal servant establishment" not be reduced, but their new weapons would be ensured in the next round of military reform. Equipment will be provided first.
The reason why the Zha Da Shou Department was able to immediately dispatch troops in response to Song Yingchang's dispatch was inseparable from the fact that Li Rusong received such a guarantee. Of course, even so, Li Rusong will obviously become more cautious in the next battle.
After all, as long as the Ministry of War is willing to provide personnel and the Ministry of Household Affairs is willing to provide money, it is indeed easier to supplement the soldier issue. However, if too many recruits are recruited into an elite team at once, can this "elite" be considered a real elite? It’s hard to say.
Fortunately, what Song Yingchang wanted to transfer was only to investigate the Ministry of Education, and what he wanted to test was Li Rusong's attitude towards executing his orders, so Li Rusong could save a lot of worries and just agree directly.
From Li Rusong's point of view, even if the Zha Da Shou Department is damaged, as long as the Li family is still there, it will be able to make up for him sooner or later. Moreover, he has lost strength and needs to rely more on the Li family. This is not only not a trouble, but an opportunity.
Talking back to the Japanese army, at this time, the Japanese general Ukita Hideie saw that all three battles were defeated. He was really furious and shouted angrily: "Incompetent! A group of incompetent people! We faced tens of thousands of Ming troops in the Battle of Bitokan Even though they were able to repel them, now facing a mere few thousand weak North Korean troops, our army has been unable to defeat them repeatedly! I would like to ask you, where is the power that we used to attack Hanyang in the past month and win every battle! "
Ukita Hideie has a special status, but he does not get angry very often. At this moment, when he was furious, Konishi Yukinagawa, Ishida Mitsunari and Kuroda Nagamasa all had dark faces but did not dare to say anything, allowing Ukita Hideie to fully experience The authority of a general. Then Ukita Hideie decided to personally lead the fourth formation to attack Koshu!
Seeing the general coming out, the Japanese army's morale greatly increased and they charged forward desperately. As a result, the front line suffered many casualties. However, at this time, the Japanese army was not afraid, and they advanced one by one, and finally broke through the first barrier of the fortress.
Immediately, the Japanese army relied on the bunker to set up an iron artillery array and began to fire back at the North Korean defenders, while the remaining Japanese troops continued to charge towards the second fence. That fearless bravery frightened the North Korean army, which was already weak in combat effectiveness.
Quan Li personally climbed up the tower to supervise the battle. Seeing that the North Korean army was shaken, he decisively ordered the deserters to be killed and ordered the North Korean army to reorganize their defense. Although the flying thunderbolts fired by North Korean artillery had a limited range and average power, they had a large killing range. In addition, North Korea's crossbows and other defense facilities were powerful, and the intensive continuous firing of crossbows still made it difficult for the Japanese army.
An unexpected bonus was that Ukita Hideie himself was hit by two arrows and fell to the ground. He was rescued and dragged out of the battle by his subordinates. At this time, when the Japanese troops of the fourth formation saw that the general was injured and retreated, they finally wanted to retreat and gradually retreated to the first fence for defense.
Seeing that the situation was not going well, the Japanese Fifth Formation Yoshikawa Hiroyuki immediately took over and launched the attack. The Japanese and Korean armies then met in close combat at the second fence. At this time, both armies were going all out, using whatever means they could, whether it was burning lime, burning smoke, or biting and gouging eyes.
Quan Li also personally went into battle to fight the Japanese army, resulting in a stalemate between the two armies. Yoshikawa Hiroyuki suddenly came up with a plan, ordered the Japanese troops to retreat, and gathered kerosene and hay to prepare to burn Xingzhou.
Seeing that the Japanese army was preparing materials for a fire attack, Quan Li hurriedly ordered his subordinates to dig a dam and divert water from the Han River to flood the Japanese army. Soon the water flooded to the Japanese army's knees. Seeing that the fire attack was impossible, Yoshikawa Hiroyuki's family had to order a retreat. .
After the fifth team withdrew, Kobayakawa Takakage of the sixth team continued to take over the attack. The sixth formation waited for the water to pass slightly, used iron cannons to cover, took a loose position, and brought in a large number of baked jade to throw and bombard. Soon the second fence was opened. Kobayakawa Takakage ordered an assault. Upon seeing this, the Korean army hurriedly swarmed forward and sacrificed their lives to prevent the Japanese army from breaking through.
On the other side, Ming generals Cha Damou and Mao Guoqi led three thousand troops and rushed towards Hanyang. Soon they saw thousands of Japanese troops stationed at the key road in front of Hanyang. Zha Dashou divided a thousand troops to lay out artillery behind the mountain and waited for orders. He ordered Mao Guoqi to lead 1,700 infantry and cavalry to ambush him, while he personally led 300 fine cavalry to fight out and lure the enemy.
Fukushima Masanori was so excited when he saw the Ming army fighting that he immediately organized a fight. After the Japanese army was attacked by the Ming army's cavalry for a while, the Fukushima army's iron artillery team finally fought back. Under the iron artillery battery, the Ming army suffered more than 20 casualties and retreated in defeat. Fukushima Masanori saw that his side's losses were greater than There were many Ming troops, and they angrily ordered a pursuit.
There is no doubt about what happened next. When the Japanese army pursued, the Ming army ambushed all their troops. This time the Ming cavalry all possessed Wanli II-type lances and were equipped with new sabers, which combined speed, firepower, range and close combat lethality. On the other hand, the Japanese army pursued in a hurry and had no time to set up their formations. The two sides fired at each other. Although there were casualties on each side, the Japanese army was obviously at a complete disadvantage.
In the melee between the two armies, Fukushima Masanori still wanted to create a "one-horse attack" and personally confronted Cha Damou. As a result, the two of them stabbed each other with swords, but Fukushima Masanori just wanted to kill the general with his own hands, but Zha Damou just wanted to win the battle. After several exchanges, Zha Damou, who had been distracted by observing and commanding, was knocked off his horse.
Fukushima Masanori was about to kill Zha Daishou with a last blow, but the experienced Zha Damoushou threw a cloak to cover his sight. Instead, Zha Damosuke cut off the horse's leg with a knife and fell off the horse, and his saber also fell to the ground.
However, Masanori Fukushima was really brave. He picked up a spear and stabbed it continuously, turning the spear to attack. The saber in Zha Dashou's hand was suitable for mounted combat but not for infantry combat. He gradually became invincible while blocking with the left and right, and was stabbed by a spear. On the right rib, fortunately his armor was strong and the soldiers around him rescued him in time. Masanori Fukushima was restrained by several people, and Zha Dashou was able to escape.
After escaping, Zha Dashou saw that the battle situation was in line with expectations, so he ordered the Ming army to retreat immediately, but Fukushima Masanori continued to pursue the army as expected.
The Ming army's cavalry had the advantage and could obviously run faster. However, the Japanese army was suddenly bombarded by repeated bombardments. The mountains opposite seemed to be densely covered with flags, and there were sounds of killing everywhere. At this moment, the shelling was intensive, shaking the sky. It was Mao Guoqi who ordered the ambush troops to rush out to meet Cha Dashou.
The Confederate army's artillery and artillery were matched from both distances, giving them a huge advantage. The Japanese army was already outmatched, and because they were ambushed, they were immediately routed and retreated. Seeing this scene, Fukushima Masanori was astonished and thought that the main force of the Ming army might be here. He immediately sent someone to notify Ukita Hideie and lead troops back to the defense and mobilize troops to assist.
In the blink of an eye, the battle in Xingzhou was approaching dusk, the second fence was also breached, the Korean arrows were exhausted, and the people of Xingzhou used their aprons as bags to transport stones. The Japanese army's offensive continued, and the Korean army was almost out of ammunition and food. When Quan Li was at his wits' end, he saw many warships coming from the Han River. It turned out that Li Ke was transporting reinforcements and arrows to help the battle. The soldiers and civilians of Xingzhou rejoiced and fought back against the Japanese army again after receiving assistance.
By sunset, Xingzhou had repelled nine Japanese attacks and killed nearly 2,000 enemies. Ukita Hideie became angry and ordered the entire army to attack again. Regardless of his injury, he personally went to the front line again. A large number of Japanese generals were afraid that he would be injured again, so they followed him around, while the Japanese matchlock team advanced steadily with continuous fire.
The remaining samurai and ashigaru troops still fought hard to attack the city and prepare to climb the city. However, Koshu's arrows were about to be exhausted again, causing many casualties among the soldiers. Quanli himself was also hit by a Japanese matchlock gun. Although he was able to hold on forcefully and refused to retreat, he was unable to retreat. No more swinging the knife.
Soon after, the Xingzhou city gate was finally destroyed by baked jade. The Japanese army was overjoyed and planned to swarm in. The Korean soldiers and civilians resisted vigorously. The Xingzhou city wall and gate almost turned into a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. Ukita Hideie sent a murderous order to mobilize the large tube troops to come forward, and strictly ordered each Japanese army team to take Xingzhou in one go.
Just as they were expecting Xingzhou to be defeated, the Ukita Hide family received a message and learned that the main force of the Ming army was approaching Hanyang, and the situation was extremely critical! The Ukita Hide family was shocked. Although they were extremely unwilling and shouted angrily to vent their anger, they were still forced to abandon Xingzhou and lead the army back to Hanyang.
Seeing the retreat of the Japanese army, Quan Li naturally announced that the army and the people would celebrate the victory together, and ordered the corpses of the Japanese soldiers to be dismembered and placed on wooden stakes for public display. The soldiers and people of Xingzhou rejoiced. However, Quan Li himself was very worried. He said to Master Li Xie and Chu Ying: "Xingzhou is defeated by a small number and the Japanese army is defeated. However, our army suffered huge casualties. It is impossible to defend Xingzhou with only the remaining troops. The imperial court is in need of troops and food." It should be difficult to replenish Xingzhou's troops immediately, and Xingzhou has been damaged after this battle. In my opinion, we can only abandon Xingzhou and retreat to Paju with all the soldiers and civilians to defend it."
No one had any objections, so Quanli led the remaining army and people to retreat to Paju early the next morning. With his withdrawal, Xingzhou became an empty city and was soon occupied by the Japanese army.
However, although the Battle of Xingzhou ended in Japanese occupation, the Korean army finally withstood the fierce Japanese attack on a frontal battlefield for the first time, which can be regarded as setting its own record.
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