,!
It so happened that when Zhang Wanbang and Li Shanhai reached a cooperation agreement, it happened to be a time when the military situation in southern and central North Korea was undergoing new changes.
On this day, on the land in southern Korea, the four forces were intensifying their mobilization. These four forces are the main force of the Japanese troops going south, the Gao pragmatic direct headquarters, Liu Wei's department, and Li Rumei's department. In fact, there were also troop movements at sea on this day, but I will not mention it here for the time being. I will explain it later.
In central Korea, the main changes also occurred in four forces. The four forces here are the Ming Army Dong Yiyuan's Department, the Ming Jurchen Allied Army Nurhachi's Department, the Japanese Army Nabeshima Katsushige's Department, and the Japanese Army Shimazu Yoshihiroki. The remnants of Kato Kiyomasa.
Due to different war zones, these eight forces on land can still be divided into two parts: the southern part and the central part.
Let’s talk about the south first. The changes in the south began with Gao Pingshi's guess that Kuroda Rushui would make a desperate move to launch a sneak attack on Sichuan where he was. At that time, Gao Pangshi quickly sent his servant Ding Shaoqi as a messenger to inform Liu Wei and give him some instructions. He also contacted Li Rumei as soon as possible and gave him some instructions as well.
At this time, the Japanese army did two things: First, they held a meeting at the corps commander level. Kuroda used hard and soft tactics to persuade the generals present, win their support, and decided to take advantage of the fact that Li Rumei had been temporarily dumped. tracking, and launched an all-out sneak attack on Sichuan as quickly as possible.
Second, send people to contact Busan to try to allow the Japanese navy stationed in Busan to sneak out of the port and block the Sacheon port.
There is nothing to say about this first point. It is entirely within Gao Pragmatic's expectations. If there is something that even Gao Pragmatic cannot fully guarantee, it may be the specific marching route of the Japanese army. There may actually be three routes on this route. , but the last section would all converge on the same road, so Gao Pragmatic didn't pay much attention to it. After all, he himself didn't plan to lead his army to meet the enemy.
The second point is very critical. The Japanese army hopes that the Japanese navy stationed in Busan will sneak out of the port and block the channel to the sea in Sichuan. Is this operation likely to succeed?
There really is.
This needs to be explained. We are still in the age of sails. First of all, the self-sustainability of this ship at sea is far from comparable to that of later generations. After all, you don't have any seawater desalination equipment. You may be able to persist if other things are gone, but it's really impossible if there is no fresh water.
The several methods that Gao Pragmatic "came up with" in his early years can only be said to be more or less extended for a certain period of time, and it is impossible to strengthen them to the point where they can stay at sea and never go ashore, just like cheating.
Therefore, the Ping-Japanese Fleet's blockade of Busan Port these days is not to pull the entire fleet out of Busan Port like a chain of iron chains, but to rely on the nearest base to dispatch multiple routes and batches of faster ships to the outer sea. Pull the net shuttle patrol.
In other words, the Japanese navy now looks outside the Busan Port. There is not a wall there, but one or several steel knives twisting above and below you in turn - so theoretically, if they can figure out The Ping-Japanese fleet patrolled regularly, so one could still find opportunities to sneak out.
There is another problem here, that is, the Ping-Japanese fleet's net-drawing shuttle patrol has a focus. There is no doubt that the focus of the Japanese fleet is to cut off the Japanese navy's delusions of escaping southward back to Japan (regardless of whether it carries Japanese land divisions), and this means that this shuttle patrol mainly targets the coastal waters of the port and the southern waters of this sea area. .
During this period of time, the Japanese navy did not just stay in Busan Port and eat nothing. They also sent several speedboats out to sea to deliberately hit the wall, and basically tested this situation. Therefore, after receiving the news from Kuroda Rushui, Kuki Yoshitaka agreed to this dangerous plan and personally formulated a battle plan. [Note: Historically, Kuki Yoshitaka had been officially dismissed at this time, but this did not happen in this book due to changes in circumstances. ]
Jiugui Jialong believes that although 70% to 80% of the trap set by the Ming Navy has been discovered, after all, the enemy is extremely powerful and there may still be some untouched situations. Therefore, it must not be like the Lu Division. Just like a desperate move, gather all the troops together and act together.
It is definitely impossible for the entire navy to act together in this battle. In that case, the best result is that the Ming army does not notice it at first, but soon after it is discovered, it can rely on the advantages of ship size and speed to surround it. In the end, the Japanese navy was overtaken before it arrived outside Sichuan Port, and had to fight a decisive battle at sea with the Ming navy - it was a sure defeat, and there was no need to take any chances.
Therefore, naval generals such as Todo Takatora, Kato Yoshiaki and Wakisaka Yasuji all made suggestions, and finally it was Kuuki Yoshitaka who made the final decision: to send nearly 30% of the main warships of the Japanese Navy in Busan Port to sea to break out, pretending to use the main combat power The posture of withdrawing to the Japanese mainland attracted the attention of the Japanese and Japanese fleets, and tried to attract the main force of the Japanese and Japanese fleets.
Then, after the Japanese-Japanese fleet left the coast of Busan Port, the remaining navy ships were quietly sent out of the port and rushed westward almost along the coastline to Sacheon.
There are two troublesome or very dangerous aspects of this plan. One is that the main warships of the Japanese navy used as bait must be the real main force. Otherwise, the Ping-Japanese fleet has been exploring the Pusan Port for so long. At first glance, it is not a real battle. The main force will definitely not be fooled. This task of luring the enemy is 100% impossible to complete.
But here comes the problem. If the real main force dispatched, which accounts for 30% of the total number of warships, is really swallowed up by the Taira-Japanese fleet, then the pot is too big. Kuki Yoshiro asks himself that he cannot bear such a big responsibility - not only is this There is the Nippon Maru and those of His Highness Taikaku's sweethearts in the new fleet.
The second danger lies in how the real large fleet that goes to sea later can escape the inspection of the Japanese fleet - although there is a main fleet acting as a decoy, the size of the Japanese fleet is so large that no one can guarantee that they will destroy all the ships. They were all mobilized to contain this bait, right? Even if they just leave a few ships around and discover the Japanese fleet leaving the port, the subsequent operations will basically be in vain.
Due to the obvious strength gap between the two sides, there was not much room for adjustment in the combat plan itself. Therefore, several Japanese naval generals discussed and decided to set the time for the decoy fleet to go to sea in the afternoon, and the time for the large fleet to go to sea in the evening.
The Ming army also had to eat in the evening, and the Japanese navy went to sea in the evening, and it happened to be night when they left the port. At that time, the Ming army sailors had just eaten and drank enough, and their vigilance was at their worst, and it was just after nightfall when their vision was extremely poor. , even if there are still some ships responsible for monitoring Busan Port, the chance of discovery is very slim.
Another advantage of doing this is that according to their arrangement, after the bait fleet attacked for a while, they had to pretend to be invincible - well, there is no need to pretend - and then retreat to Busan with all their strength. If all goes well, the period from evening to night happens to be when the bait fleet returns to port. If this is successful, then this plan will almost complete the plan of vacating the cage and replacing the birds.
This is the end of Kuroda Asui's arrangements after contacting the Japanese navy and the Japanese navy, and continues with the actions of the main force of the Japanese army. As mentioned before, Gao pragmatically judged that the main force of the Japanese army had three options for a sneak attack on Sichuan, and these three options would eventually lead to the same road. Why?
Because since the Japanese army did not go west of the Nakdong River where Liu Wei had set up a posture, they could only cross the Nakdong River south of Changning. It is difficult to determine where the Japanese army will cross the river, but after crossing the river, according to different crossing positions, there will be three towns in front of them that they may enter and settle in. These three places are Jinhae from east to west. , Xiongchuan, Mashan.
The situations in these three places are not the same at this time. Jinhai is located in the east, so it is closest to Busan, and is still under the control of the Japanese army. Xiongchuan and Mashan were areas that Liu Wei had previously sent troops to recover, but no troops were stationed. This is actually not accurate, because there are Although no Ming troops were stationed, Liu Wei's generals appointed the leaders of the local militia as temporary guards after recovering the two places.
It is actually enough to have these militia groups to maintain law and order in normal times. As for whether they will be useful after the Japanese army arrives, that is of course two questions. Gao Pragmatic actually tends to believe that once the Japanese army arrives, these militia groups may not even be able to report information to themselves or Liu Wei, so it is better not to have too high expectations for these people.
Kuroda Ruishui did not go to Jinhai, which was still under Japanese control, but finally chose to attack Xiongchuan immediately after crossing the river. In later generations of Korea, Xiongcheon was probably located in Changwon, very close to Masan further to the west. The distance between the two places was only twenty miles.
The terrain of Mashan is low, and the terrain of Xiongchuan is higher. Therefore, when the Japanese army attacked Xiongchuan, if Xiongchuan could light a beacon fire or something, it would be visible to the naked eye on the Mashan side.
It's a pity that this naturally didn't happen. The Japanese army originally marched quickly while hiding their whereabouts as much as possible. When they reached Xiongchuan, the local area was unprepared. When the Korean militia in Xiongchuan discovered that tens of thousands of Japanese troops were approaching, they waved white flags to welcome the Japanese troops into the city without saying a word. . His performance can be described as extremely bachelor, without thinking at all.
Kumagawa's surrender was completely expected by Kuroda Ruishui. This is actually not surprising. This is just a small town, so small that it is impossible for tens of thousands of Japanese troops to squeeze in. In fact, Kuroda Rusui only sent 300 people to control the Korean militia, and then the attack on Xiongchuan was completed. of occupation.
Not only did the remaining Japanese troops not enter the city, they even continued to advance westward without rest, and arrived at Mashan that evening.
Mashan is also a small town, but it is much larger than Xiongchuan. At least if the Japanese army is willing, they can squeeze tens of thousands of people into the city while driving the Koreans out of the city. However, Kuroda Rushui didn't do that.
It’s not that Kuroda Rusui loves the Korean people like his own son, but what he fears most now is that the news will leak out. If the Koreans in Mashan City are driven out, and they run to inform the Ming army in Sichuan that the Japanese army has captured Mashan, then Wouldn't it be a big deal?
But the problem was that the Japanese army was marching like crazy, and it was really time to rest. So Kuroda Asui, a Japanese monk who had become a monk, did a very professional thing: to save North Korea in the city. people.
Although tens of thousands of Japanese troops could be squeezed into this small city, the reason why we say "squeezed in" is because the city is indeed not big, and there are not too many Koreans in the city - this place has been attacked twice by the Japanese army. , the population has been much smaller to begin with. Currently, there are only more than 4,000 people in the city, including a militia group of more than 200 people.
The performance of the Mashan militia was exactly the same as that of Xiong Chuan. They also surrendered on the spot with a white flag and let the Japanese troops enter the city. However, their fate was far inferior to that of Xiongchuan. The Japanese army immediately sent 3,000 troops into the city and slaughtered all the militia and Korean people. The remaining Japanese troops set up a dragnet outside the city and cleaned up any fish that slipped through the net one by one.
The bloody city of Mashan could not stop the Japanese army's sleepiness. Japanese generals such as Kuroda Rushui seemed to be accustomed to massacres of the city - even those generals who were not accustomed to it would not show it because they were all "the pillars of the Wu family" ", who refused to admit that he had any compassion. In their view, "compassion" is something weak and can be bullied.
At this point it’s time to talk about terrain issues. The straight-line distance from Masan to Sichuan is about a hundred miles, but the problem is that this straight-line distance is actually not very meaningful, because there is a mountain between the two places. This mountain is called Yeonhua Mountain, which is one of the southern remnants of North Korea's Taebaek Mountain. one.
The most coincidental thing is that the main peak of Lianhua Mountain is right in the middle of the straight line distance from Mashan to Sichuan. In other words, even if people can leave this place, it is definitely not suitable for large armies to pass through normally.
Where is the road? There is a road from Mashan to Jinzhou. Whether the Japanese army attacked Jinzhou twice from Busan when they swept across the Eighth Route Army of Korea, or when Liu Wei sent troops from Jinzhou to regain Masan, both sides took this road.
However, although the road was ready-made and fully suitable for the march of the army, Kuroda Rushui firmly disagreed with taking this road to attack Jinzhou.
What a joke, how could Gao Pingshi not get the news in Sichuan if Jinzhou was attacked? Even if Liu Wei's main force is still waiting stupidly near Sanjia, west of the Nakdong River, he will definitely not leave any troops in Jinzhou.
The Ming people are not Koreans, and the Ming army is not a Korean militia. The Korean militia would surrender directly when they saw the Japanese army coming, but the Ming army would only light beacon fires and send cavalry messengers when they saw them. The Japanese army couldn't stop these two methods of communication, which would be bad, so Jinzhou must not go, at least not now.
Kuroda Rushui asked the entire army to cross the mountains and ridges, cross the Lotus Mountain, and go straight to Sichuan City!
In fact, this order is not without opposition among the Japanese generals, but it is just that the matter has come to this, and the objection does not have much meaning. After all, there is no turning back when the bow is fired. I have bowed ninety-nine times, so I can't let this last one tremble. superior.
Therefore, regardless of whether they were happy or not, the Japanese generals had no choice but to go out in person to cheer up their subordinates. After being very encouraging, they promised various benefits, especially based on the merits of "capturing Tang Xiang". The morale of the entire army soared. .
After mobilization was completed, the Japanese army marched towards Lianhua Mountain.
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Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Lao Xi of Altay", "Cao Mianzi", and "Ling Qi Zhao Bi Xin" for their monthly support, thank you!
ps: The delay in posting this chapter is not because I fell asleep in the middle of the night, but because I hesitated in my rare writing. Mainly because I hesitated for a while whether to write according to the timeline like most of the time before or to finish writing the Hanyang side first. Then I thought about it and followed the timeline in the usual style.
