Zhu Yunwen unfolded Li Fangyuan's letter and read it carefully. His brows gradually furrowed. Then he handed the letter to Xie Jin and said, "Please take a look."
After reading the ancestral biography, Xie Jin, Ru Yu, Yang Rong and Xu Hui couldn't help but be a little surprised.
Xu Huizu was unsure and said: "Li Fangyuan said that the Japanese invasion of Korea was serious and he hoped that the Ming Dynasty would help. What did he mean by this?"
It stands to reason that no matter how serious the Japanese invasion of Korea is, it would not be Li Fangyuan's turn to come to Ming Dynasty, let alone take secret letters, but Li Fangyuan did this!
Xie Jin looked troubled and said: "The King of Yan once met Li Fangyuan and spoke highly of him. In my opinion, Li Fangyuan's plan is not as simple as asking the Ming Dynasty to send troops to suppress the Japanese pirates."
Zhu Yunwen nodded slightly.
Although Li Fangyuan's secret letter was written around "suppressing Japanese pirates", his hidden meaning was not.
"Does Liaodong Capital Secretary Yang Wen have any report?"
Zhu Yunwen asked.
Xu Huizu shook his head and replied seriously: "Although there is some chaos within North Korea, there are no signs of army mobilization near the border. And the current strength of North Korea is simply not enough to invade Liaodong."
Zhu Yunwen sat down, looked at Li Fangyuan's letter, and said, "Yang Rong, you should have some opinions, please tell me."
Yang Rong is very cautious. Although he has been favored by Zhu Yunwen and the Ministry of War many times, he is never arrogant or arrogant. He usually hides himself honestly because he knows that he is just a newly promoted official.
His performance in the court was often limited to "a few occasions".
"Your Majesty, Li Fangyuan sent a secret letter requesting the Ming Dynasty to send troops to jointly suppress the Japanese pirates. I'm afraid this is an unusual signal."
Yang Rong spoke slowly, as if he was considering which words were more appropriate.
Zhu Yunwen raised his head, looked at Yang Rong with a smile, and encouraged: "It's an unusual signal, tell me, show your opinions."
Yang Rongli said he didn't dare, and then became serious: "First of all, Li Fangyuan is not qualified to ask the Ming Dynasty to send troops. As the Lord of Jing'an, he exercises the power of the king and violates the etiquette, which is trespassing. He is a smart man, he will not know This, but he still dared to spread the message to the Ming Dynasty..."
Ru Yun nodded and added: "It shows that Li Fangyuan is ambitious and thinks that he is the real king! Right?"
Yang Rong looked at Ru Yun, nodded slightly, and then said to Zhu Yunwen: "What Ru Shangshu said is exactly what I said."
"A careerist?"
Zhu Yunwen smiled lightly.
It seems that there are not only careerists in Ming Dynasty, Annan is also very productive, and North Korea is not far behind.
For the sake of power, everyone wants to climb up, especially those from the royal family or those close to the royal family.
Yang Rong said again: "In addition to Li Fangyuan's ambition, we can also see that although Li Fanguo became the king of North Korea, his status is unstable because he was not canonized by our court. And Li Fangyuan must be powerful enough to threaten Li Fanguo , and even controls the border troops.”
Zhu Yunwen raised his brows, looked at Xu Huizu, and asked: "I remember that Li Fangyuan was in charge of the soldiers and horses of Jeolla Province. The border troops should be Hamgyong Province and Ping'an Province. The troops here are also controlled by Li Fangyuan?"
Xu Huizu shook his head and said: "Your Majesty, according to Yang Wen's report, Xianjing Road and Ping'an Road are loyal to Li Chenggui."
"Huh, Li Chenggui? Forget it."
Zhu Yunwen sneered and shook his head.
Li Chenggui established the Li Dynasty of North Korea, but he was old after all. During last year's Prince Rebellion,
, he lost his youngest son and his wife, and was forced to pass the throne to Li Fanguo.
This means that Li Chenggui has lost power, and the power of the border army will never be controlled by him.
If it’s not Li Chenggui, it can only be Li Chenggui’s son. As for whether it’s Li Bangguo, Li Bangyuan, or Li Bangqian, it doesn’t matter. What’s important is that although Li Bangyuan is far away in Jeolla Province, he can still be in Hamgyeong. Tao and Ping An Tao activities.
"I'm afraid internal disputes in North Korea will still arise."
Xie Jin sighed.
Zhu Yunwen and others agreed with Xie Jin's words. If the leader is weak and the minister is strong, there will be disaster. This has almost become a rule.
"Your Majesty, if there is civil strife in North Korea and a military disaster, it may disrupt Liaodong. Do you need to order Yang Wen to rectify the sergeants and increase the defense on the Yalu River?"
Xu Huizu was a little worried.
Zhu Yunwen looked at Ru Yu with questioning eyes.
Rujun said solemnly: "Necessary precautions should still be taken, but it should not be pushed as far as the Yalu River to avoid misjudgment within North Korea. I believe that defenses can be deployed in Phoenix City, Tangzhan Fort, Xianshan Fort and other places, that is, You can take precautions before they happen, and you can also advance and retreat with evidence."
Zhu Yunwen nodded and said: "Although North Korean sergeants may not enter our border, we still need to take some precautions. I will inform Yang Wen that if North Korean soldiers enter the country just to survive, they can be detained but not killed. The land must not be in chaos.”
Ru Yu and others nodded.
Chaos in North Korea will definitely disperse Ming's military power in Liaodong. If there is a flaw in Liaodong, Duoyan Guard and Fuyu Guard to the west of Liaodong will inevitably become restless, and may even lead the Tatars to advance eastward.
"The Romance of Fairy Wood"
By then, the entire Northeast of Ming Dynasty will be plunged into melee.
"Your Majesty, how do you respond to Li Fangyuan's request?"
Xie Jin pointed to the letter on the desk and asked.
Zhu Yunwen glanced at the letter, shook his head and said, "If you don't reply, you just reply."
Xie Jin and others' eyes lit up.
Ru Yun's face lit up and she supported: "Li Fangyuan is not the king after all. Once Li Fanguo knows about his reply, it will definitely make him uneasy and think that I, Ming Dynasty, have conspired with Li Fangyuan. It is better to ignore it."
Zhu Yunwen ordered Shuangxi to take out the map, looked at North Korea, pointed to Jeolla Road, and said: "There are eight North and South Korea roads. Jeolla Road and Gyeongsang Road face Japan across a strait. Japanese pirates have repeatedly invaded our Shandong and southeastern areas. I want to come here." He will not let go of Jeolla Province and Gyeongsang Province of North Korea. Li Bangyuan's request for help may not necessarily be a lie."
"The emperor means not to reply to the letter, but to tell Li Fangyuan with actions that Ming Dynasty supports him?"
Xie Jin whispered.
Zhu Yunwen looked at Xie Jin, smiled easily, and said: "I do not support Li Fangyuan, but I support the fight against Japanese pirates. I have ordered Zheng He to go fishing off the coast of Jeolla Province after repairing Dengzhou."
Xie Jin marveled at Zhu Yunwen's arrangement. He clearly supported Li Fangyuan, but it was not clear yet. This level was really high...
Guangxi, Zhennanguan.
Zhang Fu opened his bloodshot eyes and looked at the sergeants and civilians lying or sitting on the city wall with a smile on his face. Then he looked at the piles of corpses under the city gate.
Hu Du returned to the camp. This battle frightened him. The Ming sergeants were so crazy and so difficult to fight. They fought repeatedly and suffered countless casualties. They just couldn't defeat a small Zhennanguan Pass!
Nearly half of the manpower was lost. If the fight continued, he would be killed here without waiting for Han Guan to catch up!
"You're going to die here."
Inside the account, one
A weak voice said with a cold curse.
Hu Du turned his head suddenly, looked at Huang Chuyun who was shivering in the corner, and said sternly: "I will not die here. Zhennanguan is on the verge of collapse. As long as I attack again, the city pass will belong to me Annan! By then, , I will chop off everyone’s heads!”
Huang Chuyun, who was pale, covered his body with his hands, looked at Hu Du coldly, and said, "You have killed so many people, you can't leave."
Hu Du was furious. He took a few steps forward, mentioned Huang Chuyun, and said sternly: "You will die before me!"
Yang Xiu hurriedly entered the tent and shouted in panic: "It's not good, it's not good."
"What's up?"
Hu Du drank coldly.
Yang Xiu said tremblingly: "I just got the news that Chen Zhe and Li Xingyuan surrendered to Han Guan. Han Guan's army is less than five miles away from here!"
"What?!"
Hu Du's eyes widened and he couldn't believe it.
Chen Zhe and Li Xingyuan really surrendered. The two led their troops to fight Han Guan's vanguard at a place between two mountains. They fought all night and suffered injuries to each other, but they still blocked Han Guan's army from the outside.
However, Chen Zhe knew very well that this resistance was only temporary. After all, Han Guan's military strength exceeded his own by four or five times. Although he had a slight advantage due to the geographical location, the Ming army was not without options.
The Ming army was equipped with a large number of muskets and crossbows. If they showed up here, they would hit them there. Even if they held stones in their hands, they could not throw them.
The most disgusting thing is that Han Guan also cut down a lot of trees on the mountain, built a catapult, and threw rocks everywhere. Although there was no big damage due to the cover of the trees, this posture was too scary.
The soldiers were psychologically overwhelmed. In addition, they were defeated at Zhennanguan. They were exhausted physically and mentally and could no longer hold on.
What made Chen Zhe and Li Xingyuan decide to surrender was the news of Hu Du's defeat.
Hu Du had more than 4,000 elite personal guards and divine machine guns. They fought all night but failed to knock down the city gate. Instead, they suffered heavy losses and had to retreat for repairs.
Chen Zhe understood that Hu Du could not get out, and no one could go back.
Therefore, Chen Zhe chose to surrender in order to survive.
Han Guan accepted the surrender of Chen Zhe and Li Xingyuan's troops, arranged for them to be sent to Naliu to meet with Huang Guangcheng, and personally led the army forward to approach Hu Du's camp.
When the news came out, the morale of Hu Du's troops was in great confusion, and some sergeants even began to flee. Although Yang Xiu captured several people and chopped off their heads as a warning, he still couldn't stop more people from running for their lives.
Hoodoo was in dire straits.
Han Guan did not order an attack, but arranged for his sergeants to block the mountain road and shouted to the Annan soldiers in the distance: "Capture Hu Du alive, surrender without killing him."
Meng Cha, Xu Liang and other generals were very depressed. The enemy was right in front of them. They could just give the order to fight. Why would they want to play this trick?
But Han Guan doesn't think so.
Hu Du was not an idiot. The camp he chose was located on a low mountain. If the Ming army attacked from behind, the losses would be huge. They had to waste it slowly. Anyway, Hu Du wanted to eat and drink water. There might be food on the mountain, but this There is no water on the low mountain...
Rather than filling it with human lives, it is better to wait.
Han Guan was not in a hurry. Under his own blockade, Hu Du had no way to attack Zhennanguan. In fact, he couldn't go anywhere and could only stay on the mountain and wait for his last moments.
To Han Guan's surprise, Hu Du actually sent an envoy, and what the envoy said surprised Han Guan even more...
