The explosion of the gunpowder depot in Dong Yiyuan's army seems quite strange, but in fact there are traces to follow, and to some extent it can even be said that he asked for it.
The source of the problem occurred after the Battle of Pingbo. At that time, Dong Yiyuan's troops were transferred to the north. It was originally planned for him to return to Gansu and Shaanxi. However, after he left for a while, he heard that the Marquis of Nanning intended to conquer North Korea in person, and he immediately believed that North Korea would definitely make a great contribution. place - this is not surprising, but the wars that Van Gogh pragmatically and personally took part in have always been a success for the generals under his command.
The Dong family was originally a family of generals, and he and his brother Dong Yikui were also considered to be one of the famous generals in the world. Although they were naturally inferior to the older generation such as Qi Jiguang and Li Chengliang, they were still better than the younger generations such as Ma Gui and Li Rusong. The advantage lies in seniority.
However, although the Dong brothers have made many military exploits over the years, they have also suffered a lot of trouble due to various reasons. As for the official position, it naturally rises and falls, not to mention increasing the title. When you are lucky, you will be promoted to palace security, and when you are unlucky, you will be promoted to the end.
All in all, after the Battle of Pingbo, he managed to get Gongbao back, but Enyin was still a little short of enough to share with his sons.
So Dong Yiyuan was moved. He thought that since Nanning was going to North Korea, the war in North Korea would definitely be stable. As long as he could find a way to join this war and gain some achievements, he could properly arrange the future of his sons. Isn’t it beautiful that life can be spent leisurely wandering in the woods and playing with grandchildren?
But although the idea is good, the problem also exists objectively, that is, the soldiers under his command suffered a lot in the Battle of Pingbo. Some were killed in battle, and some were disabled. These were all sudden losses. Difficult to replenish - Replenishment does not only refer to soldiers, but also refers to things like training.
He can now gather around three thousand servants, which is quite a few, and he is considered to be quite powerful among the generals of Gansu and Shaanxi. With three thousand servants as the core, it is common for an army of twenty to thirty thousand to go on an expedition. However, the problem is where he will gather "twenty to thirty thousand soldiers".
Originally, the Ministry of War asked him to return to town, mainly because the pressure in the northwest increased after Tumen Khan fled to the west. Gao Pragmatic had always advocated strengthening the defense of the northwest. Therefore, as a famous northwest general, he should return to town as soon as possible after completing the Pingbo War to prevent the remnants of Mongolia from causing trouble. What's going on.
Because of this relationship, Dong Yiyuan knew that he had better not advise the court to mobilize too many troops from the northwest. In addition to his own three thousand servants, the maximum number of northwest frontier troops mobilized should not exceed 10,000.
In this case, even if he only brings 20,000 non-domestic troops to North Korea, there will still be a gap of 10,000 people to fill. Dong Yiyuan thought about it, contacted several of his old subordinates who had been fired from their posts in the previous few years for some reason, and discussed a good solution.
This method is very characteristic of the Ming Dynasty: Dong Yiyuan came forward to ask for the war, saying that several of his former subordinates were willing to contribute people to serve the emperor, as long as the Ministry of War was willing to "establish" them, and the generals would have to figure out the personnel problem themselves.
Generally speaking, after receiving such a petition for war, the imperial court usually approves it for two reasons: First, this group of people's initiative to petition for war is worthy of praise. Many of the people who were fired from their posts before were just a way for civil servants to control the generals. That is to say, you didn't make any big mistakes, but I just chose a mistake to suppress you and let you know who is the boss.
Most of the military generals of the Ming Dynasty had this kind of experience, and even spent their entire lives in this cycle of "exerting special orders - receiving rewards for meritorious service - making mistakes and being demoted - committing crimes and meritorious service". Of course, Dong Yiyuan's old subordinates could not escape. At the same time, in the eyes of the court, this time was just the right time for them to make meritorious deeds.
The second reason is that the imperial court believes that their servants are worthy of use. The generals of aristocratic families are not only generals with high-level generals like Dong Li and Xi Ma, but also many junior generals. Regardless of the generals or junior generals, they basically have a team of servants in varying numbers, and these teams are what make them become generals. The source of strength.
In this case, the imperial court certainly believed that since Dong Yiyuan dared to take the lead in asking for a fight on their behalf, these people must have many servants under their command. Maybe they have been training hard in the past few years, just waiting for a good opportunity to make meritorious deeds!
What is this called? It is better to mobilize the generals than to dispatch them. With such dedicated generals, how can they be afraid that they will not be able to fight to the death when they go to the battlefield? Therefore, the strength of this group of people is guaranteed.
The Ministry of War calculated the strength of troops in various places and found that with the expansion of the defense zone, it was indeed getting more and more difficult to mobilize troops. Since Dong Yiyuan and his old generals took the initiative to ask for a battle, let them go.
As a result, Dong Yiyuan successfully got the opportunity to go on an expedition, but as expected, the court only allowed him to take away 10,000 Shaanxi-Gansu border troops. In addition to his own 3,000 servants, he also had to urge his old generals to Twelve thousand men were gathered to accompany the army, bringing the total strength to twenty-five thousand, which was in line with the strength that a general soldier should have.
It is common for old generals to be brought together to commit crimes and perform meritorious services. After Dong Yiyuan assigned the tasks, he didn't pay much attention to them. Who knew that this was where the hidden danger occurred.
One of Dong Yiyuan's old generals named Peng Xingu was a guerrilla who had been demoted from his post for seven years. During these seven years, Peng Xingu was quite unlucky and everything went wrong. Since his old leader, the Dong brothers, were also unlucky from time to time, they could not help him much.
Peng Xingu then decided to go to Beijing - oh, he was not going to petition, he was going to "take care of things". Unfortunately, his family was just a local general and was not ranked high in the eyes of the elders in the capital.
He has been busy for two or three years, but he has not seen any big shots who can speak effectively. Instead, he has ruined the family business, and even the more than a thousand servants he originally owned have been scattered. The young general of the Peng family is about to disappear. Want yellow.
It happened that at this moment, Dong Yiyuan planned to ask Dongzheng to give him a hand. It can be said that there is no way out after mountains and rivers, and there is a bright future in another village. However, a question arises: How can we send out troops if our servants are gone?
Peng Xingu refused to let go of such a good opportunity, because he knew that if he missed this opportunity, the young general of the Peng family might really fall into his hands, and he would become the sinner of the Peng family. useless.
So he changed his mind and thought of a "wonderful idea": use all his last money to "spread money" and recruit a group of "ferocious people who dare to die" in the capital to fight in Korea!
Although the money in his hands can support these "households" for two or three months at most, Peng Xingu thinks it is not a big problem: The Marquis will never treat the soldiers badly when he goes on an expedition. As long as there are quotas and sufficient pay and equipment, there is no need to worry. , and as long as you get military merit, the reward will never be less than a penny.
In other words, as long as you can find an opportunity to perform meritorious service within two months of sending troops - it is not difficult to perform meritorious service, just fight a casual battle - then the whole plan will be complete, and a comeback can be successfully achieved.
Peng Xingu's plan seems to be very sophisticated and interlocking, but there is only one thing that seems to be a problem: are there really so many "ferocious people who dare to die" in the capital?
Peng Xingu thought there was, so he recruited a group of... rogues. Yes, you read that right, a scoundrel.
You must know that time to recruit manpower is very tight at this time. How can ordinary people with a little ability in Hukou be willing to go all the way to fight in North Korea? Only these scoundrels are easy to fool - North Korea is not my Ming Dynasty, not to mention that most of the eight roads in North Korea are occupied by Japanese invaders. Therefore, when you arrive in North Korea, no matter which city is captured by the Japanese invaders, I will allow you not to seal the sword for three days!
What does "not seal the sword for three days" mean? Instead of giving them three days to massacre the city, we gave them three days to ignore all military disciplines, rob and plunder the traitors, and do whatever they wanted.
This kind of condition is very useful for winning over scoundrels, not to mention that Peng Xingu also quietly revealed that this battle will be under the command of the Marquis of Nanning, which is even more difficult to say - it is a must-win battle, so what? Being able to "not seal the sword for three days" is not a hundred times better than blackmailing merchants in Beijing? You must know that this businessman in Beijing is getting more and more impatient now. It would be great to go to North Korea and work hard!
In this way, Peng Xin didn't spend much of his ancient money, but the number of people he killed was far greater than expected. When Dong Yiyuan arrived in Beijing to collect his ordnance and pay, he discovered that this guy actually pulled out a "quite powerful" army with a large number of people. About two thousand "housekeepers" are coming!
Although Dong Yiyuan quickly discovered that Peng Xingu's "servant" seemed to have some bad military discipline, when he asked Peng Xingu for questioning, the answer he received was: "I have had a hard time these years, and I really don't have time to control him." , to the point of breaking military discipline... But Commander, don't worry, in just one month, I will definitely train them to be as good as before!"
Dong Yiyuan thought it was understandable. After all, this guy had been raped for seven or eight years and had tried countless ways but still couldn't get the chance to make a crime. It's not surprising that the servants were used to letting him go. As for whether he could be trained to be "the same as before" in one month, Dong Yiyuan naturally didn't believe it, but since he himself felt that there would be no problem in fighting with the Marquis, he pretended to believe it - in short, everything is going on right now The most important thing is to be able to dispatch troops smoothly!
The army went out successfully. Dong Yiyuan divided the ordnance received from the Ministry of War. Considering that Peng Xingu had been unlucky for seven or eight years and he could not do anything to help him, he kindly gave him a lot more. Firearms include not only Wanli Type II muskets, but also more than a dozen artillery pieces.
After arriving on the Korean battlefield, Dong Yiyuan himself was actually a little worried about the strength of his opponents, so he did not dare to fight for any opportunity to fight a tough battle.
Ma Gui also heard that he has a large number of old generals who have committed crimes and have made meritorious service. They are all the kind of people who have not fought in many wars for many years. Considering that there are many marriages between generals from the Xuan Da family and the Shaanxi-Gansu family, Both sides basically regarded each other as allies psychologically, so Ma Gui assigned them a simple but rewarding task: to cut off the connection between the northern and southern Japanese armies and open up the road between Hanyang and Wonsan.
By the way, Ma Gui explained that if he successfully captured Yuanshan and found that the remaining Japanese pirates in the north were not strong enough, he could consider joining forces with Nurhachi to encircle and annihilate them. At the same time, Ma Gui also hinted to Dong Yiyuan that the main purpose of doing this was not actually a combat mission, but to take care of the Jurchen coalition forces in Nurhachi's hands and prevent them from doing whatever they wanted.
Dong Yiyuan patted his chest and assured that this matter would be easy to handle - of course, in theory, this matter was indeed not difficult. From Hanyang to Wonsan, there was no main Japanese army, so it was easy to capture. As for "guarding the Jurchen Allied Forces", there is no problem, because although the Jurchen Allied Forces seem to have 20,000 people, which is no less than Marshal Dong's strength, among them, whether Ye He, Hada or Jianzhou Right Guards, these are It is certain that they will be obedient. Only the four or five thousand people led by Nurhachi himself may not be honest.
But so what? I, Dong Yiyuan, have more than 20,000 heavenly soldiers in my hands, and with the support of other Jurchen tribes, how can you, a mere bandit chieftain in Nurhachi, turn the world upside down?
Facts have proved that Dong Yiyuan's idea was basically correct. He captured the two important places of Gushan and Yuanshan along the way, and encountered little resistance. Then he felt that he could carry out Ma Gui's subsequent orders, so he led his army northward and captured Yongxing, which was less than a hundred miles away from Xianxing.
At this time, the Jurchen coalition led by Nurhachi had already captured Chongjin, the main city in the northeast of Hamjing Road, and had basically moved southwest along the coastline, seizing along the way - oh no, helping North Korea recover - Jingcheng. , Myeongcheon, Dancheon and other places, and finally captured Xinxing, a small town about thirty or forty miles northeast of Hamhung.
In this way, Dong Yiyuan and Nurhachi were equivalent to outflanking Xianxing City from the north to the south. In their eyes, the 5,000 men from the Nabeshima Naomao Fourth Army Corps in the city had become a turtle in the urn. Now, it's time to discuss how to catch this turtle.
Dong Yiyuan, the dignified commander-in-chief of a town in the Ming Dynasty, naturally would not condescend to pay a visit to Nurhaci, so he sent an order directly to the Jurchen coalition camp, asking Nurhaci to hold a Yongxing military meeting with his generals.
Unsurprisingly, Nurhachi did not dare not come, and honestly brought most of the generals, leaving only a few people to lead the troops in Xingxing to avoid Japanese pirates' sneak attacks.
Arriving at Dong Yiyuan's army, Nurhachi quickly realized that Marshal Dong wanted to show off his force in front of him. Yongxing's Ming army had bright helmets, the Wanli II Style in their hands, and cold iron Yanling sabers hanging on their waists. However, his army of more than 20,000 people actually deployed nearly a hundred cannons, like a swarm. The tigers of the army squatted in the artillery camp, which was terrifying.
Not far behind the artillery is a newly built gunpowder magazine, with three large rooms built to store gunpowder. Nurhachi secretly calculated in his heart that the gunpowder there was at least tens of thousands of kilograms, which made him change his color quietly.
Dong Yiyuan saw Nurhaci's expression and couldn't help but feel very proud. He made a casual introduction and said: "Ai Longhu is looking at our army's gunpowder depot? There are 70,000 kilograms of gunpowder there, and we are moving from Bu Ying. Peng guerrilla guards, this time I am planning to capture Hamhung with this huge force..."
"President Dong is so powerful. Although Xianxing is a big city, it will be instantly turned into powder in front of such powerful artillery..." Nurhachi complimented casually, and suddenly asked with some worry: "But this gunpowder depot is far away from the Chinese army." Is the camp too close?"
Dong Yiyuan said in his heart: If it weren't for the purpose of frightening you, the captive chieftain, why would my newly built gunpowder depot be doing well next to our Chinese army?
Just when he thought of this, before he could speak, he heard an earth-shaking loud noise - it was the explosion of the gunpowder magazine!
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Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "tutte" and "Cao Mianzi" for their monthly support, thank you!
ps: The whole family went to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday tonight and came back late, so the update is half an hour late, sorry.
