Chapter 426 Liangshan Heroes Cross East to North Korea
Li Ruzhen certainly looked down on a group of bandits like Liangshan.
The Jurchen Association he led were all elites raised by the Ming court with sufficient salaries and rewards.
All the soldiers of the Jurchen Association are brothers of the same race as Li Ruzhen. The Jurchens are inherently barbaric and always rush to the front in every battle.
Although the Jurchen Association is not as elite as the wing cavalry (musketeers) led by Li Rusong, it is still considered a unit with high combat power among the new Ming army.
Li Ruzhen didn't even hide his whereabouts. He refused the assistance of the landlords and township groups along the way and went directly to the foot of Liangshan Mountain.
All of this was naturally discovered by the spies arranged by Yi Sun-shin.
The Jurchens originated between the white mountains and black waters, and are also good at fighting in the mountains.
Just when Li Ruzhen sent people into the mountain and prepared to go up the mountain, Li Sunchen led the most elite soldiers in Liangshan around to the foot of the mountain.
Kinoshita Tokichiro, with the remaining soldiers on Liangshan Mountain, had already laid out a large number of traps and set up an ambush circle on the mountain. .
In this attack on Huncheng County and Dong'a County, Yi Sunchen not only wiped out the arsenals and gunpowder depots in the two counties, but also brought all the gunpowder raw materials in the county to the mountains.
The people on Liangshan Mountain used folk wisdom again and set up various traps.
Holes were dug out in the dense forests of the mountains. Sharpened bamboos were inserted into the bottom of the holes, and then branches were used to spread turf. The new soldiers of the Ming Dynasty who fell into the trap were either dead or disabled.
A hunting noose was set up in the dense forest. Once he stepped into the noose, he would be hung up a tree and stabbed to death with a spear by Liangshan heroes who were ambushing in the tree.
Explosives were buried in the narrow places on the mountain roads and detonated when the new Ming army passed by.
Set up a rockfall trap near the top of the cliff, and wait until the Ming Dynasty's new army approaches the cliff to push down the rockfall.
A cauldron for boiling dung water was placed on the walled city. As long as the Ming court's new troops climbed up and poured the "golden juice" from their heads, they would die of wound infection if they were not scalded to death.
The people in Liangshan were already familiar with the terrain and were fully prepared.
Li Ruzhen despised Liangshan very much and did not even do basic intelligence work. He just rushed up the mountain with bravery.
Being prepared or not, the result was naturally a huge defeat for the Ming government and its army.
Li Ruzhen was stunned as soon as he went up the mountain. Every day, soldiers performed various bizarre methods of death in front of him. When they arrived in front of the Liangshan village, even the most courageous Jurchen Association became frightened. They didn't dare to look at the strong walled city. Come forward.
Li Ruzhen used military law to select a death squad, and paid a reward on the spot, and then the death squad rushed up to climb the mountain stronghold.
As a result, the hot "golden juice" was poured from the head, and Kinoshita Tokichiro directed the selected sharpshooters to shoot at the climbing soldiers. These soldiers were unable to dodge while climbing and became a living target for the Liangshan heroes to practice shooting.
When the battle reached this point, Li Ruzhen also knew that the situation was over. He gathered his remaining soldiers and prepared to go down the mountain. As soon as he retreated to the foot of the mountain, he encountered the elite soldiers that Li Sunchen had already ambushed.
To say that this Jurchen Association is indeed brave, it still fights to the death under such circumstances. Li Ruzhen led his guards to break through a gap, and even broke out with more than 200 people, causing the largest casualties in the Liangshan battle.
When Li Ruzhen escaped from Liangshan, Li Shunchen retreated when he saw the situation was good. He ordered Jin to withdraw his troops and led everyone back to Liangshan to clean up the battlefield.
After this battle, Liangshan became famous in Shandong.
The Ming Dynasty's new army has been known as an elite force since its establishment, but in fact so far, the Ming Dynasty's new army has not fought a single battle.
When Xu Wenbi was the Minister of the New Army, the new army of the Ming Dynasty attacked Xuzhou along the Surabaya River. The other army was defeated before they reached Xuzhou. The new army of the Ming Dynasty immediately stopped patrolling and never fought a battle in the southeast.
Now it's good. The first defeat of the Ming Dynasty's new army was actually lost to a group of bandits on the mountain. Now, no matter how fanciful it was before, how advanced the weapons and equipment were, after the powerful myth was exposed, the entire Shandong Province followed the example of the refugees in Liangshan. They began to rebel.
The entire Shandong Province was in turmoil.
Li Ruzhen was defeated and retreated to Jeju City. Li Chengliang, who was furious, personally whipped him ten times and tied him up outside the military camp for public display.
Li Chengliang was also very decisive and immediately led the entire Ming court's new army to attack Liangshan.
Here, Yi Sun-shin and Kinoshita Tokichiro did not rejoice because of the victory in a battle. They received the news that the entire new army of the Ming Dynasty in Jeju City was dispatched and immediately convened everyone for discussion.
Yi Sunchen immediately made a decision and led everyone in Liangshan to move.
Li Chengliang's new army is a regular army, and since the Song Dynasty, Liangshan has changed greatly. Today's Liangshan is no longer the easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack Liangshan River in Water Margin. There are no dangerous places to defend.
However, Liangshan's waterfront cannot be defended, the mountains are not very high, and the forests are not very dense. Li Chengliang's entire army is dispatched, and Liangshan has no power to fight.
Yi Sun-shin brought together those who were willing to follow him. A total of two thousand people gathered together, holding the banner of "Practice for Heaven" and headed north.
Yi Sunchen's original plan was to lead everyone from Liangshan to Dagu, and then return to the southeast by boat from Dagu Pass.
But the plan could not keep up with the change. After Li Chengliang defeated Liangshan, he immediately sent winged cavalry to intercept them.
Seeing that Yi Sun-shin could no longer run north, he led his troops to break out eastward.
Southeast also has a port in Laizhou, Shandong. If you can reach Laizhou, you can also take a boat back to Southeast.
But Li Chengliang didn't want to let go of this team that gave the Ming Ting's new army their first defeat. He pursued and intercepted them all the way.
By the end of February, Yi Sun-shin's team of 2,000 people was dispersed. When Yi Sun-Shin came to the beach, they counted the number of people and found that only one thousand people were left.
At this time, they had reached a desperate situation. Both Yi Sunchen and Kinoshita Tokichiro were in a very embarrassed state. They sent people to inquire and found that they did not go to Laizhou Port, but came to Weihai, the easternmost part of the Shandong Peninsula.
Ahead was the vast sea, but this force had been surrounded by Li Chengliang on a small promontory. At this time, Yi Sunchen had a crazy plan, and he convened everyone again for discussion.
After being chased by the army for a month, everyone was in a very embarrassed state. This time Li Chengliang regarded the Liangshan people as a chicken to scare the monkeys, and he must put an end to the Liangshan rebellion to deter the refugees in Shandong.
Li Chengliang refused to accept surrender and killed everyone in Liangshan. At this time, everyone had no way out.
Yi Sunchen said:
"Weihai has been blocked by Li Chengliang. It is impossible for us to break out from the land."
Everyone became more desperate. Yi Sunchen continued:
"But we still have a way."
Everyone raised their heads and stared at Li Sunchen. Shun Chen, he pointed to the sea to the east and said: "On the sea."
"On the sea? We have no ships, how can we return to the southeast from the sea." Kinoshita Tokichiro asked.
Yi Sun-shin said: "Without a big ship, we can't return to the southeast, but who said we are going to the southeast." "
Where can we go if we don't go to the southeast?"
Yi Sun-shin unfolded the map and said, "North Korea!"
"What?"
Yi Sunchen said: "It is March now, and the east wind is blowing on the sea. The distance from Weihai to North Korea is very close. Fishermen from Weihai often go fishing near North Korea. Fishing boats can pass by. We only need to build simple boats. Float over."
Everyone, look at me, I look at you, although no one wants to go to North Korea, but now everyone in Liangshan has been surrounded by Li Chengliang, and it seems that there is only one way.
Immediately afterwards, Yi Sun-shin led the people to cut down trees and dismantle all the usable wood nearby, and built some simple boats.
Some weren't even boats, just a bunch of rafts connected together and towed behind a small boat.
Yi Sun-shin searched for nearby fishing boats, connected the simple fleet with ropes, and then took all the weapons and supplies on board these small boats.
God provided for it, and as soon as everyone on the beam boarded the boat, an east wind blew, and the boat and raft carried a thousand people, drifting from Weihai to North Korea in the east.
When Li Chengliang led his troops to fight over, he only saw the materials abandoned by the Liangshan people on the beach. Li Chengliang was so angry that he had to lead the new Ming army to suppress the rebellion of other refugees in Shandong.
After all, the new army of the Ming Dynasty was an army that the Ming Dynasty had spent great efforts to cultivate. Li Chengliang personally commanded the army, and the refugee armies in Shandong were wiped out one by one.
Although the refugee army was exterminated, Shandong is already riddled with holes. More people have lost their land and become refugees. More importantly, this year's spring plowing in Shandong has also been delayed.
Li Chengliang could only write a memorial to the Ming court to request food, and at the same time summon local civil affairs officials in Shandong to ask the people to replant spring planting. However, this autumn's food harvest in Shandong has become a foregone conclusion.
Zhang Juzheng, who was implementing the New Deal, received good news from Shandong, but he was not happy at all.
Although Li Chengliang easily suppressed the Shandong refugee uprising, he consumed a large amount of supplies and food, further increasing the burden on the court.
However, Zhang Juzheng could not rebuke Li Chengliang. If he were in Li Chengliang's position, he could not guarantee that he would do better or decisively than Li Chengliang.
Zhang Juzheng could only send an envoy to express condolences to Li Chengliang, write down a wave of rewards for the new army, and accept all the names recommended by Li Chengliang for promotion.
Zhang Juzheng and Li Chengliang had an unpleasant experience when they were in Shandong. Speculators in the Ming court originally hoped that a conflict between Zhang Juzheng and Li Chengliang would weaken Zhang Juzheng's authority.
But he didn't expect that the two of them worked together seamlessly this time and there was no conflict at all.
Now those speculators could only lower their heads again and continue to implement the New Deal under the leadership of Zhang Juzheng, the powerful prime minister.
Zhang Juzheng delegated the power to establish new workshops to the governors of various regions, and then personally held this Spring Festival.
This time Chunwei admitted a total of 500 Jinshi. This was the first time that the number of Jinshi in the northern provinces exceeded that in the south, even though the traditional king provinces of Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangxi did not participate.
Among them, Shaanxi became the biggest winner in this spring. Although the total number of Jinshi in Shaanxi was not as much as that of Beizhili, in the first and second grades of the imperial examination, Shaanxi people ranked first in the local spring, and the number one scholar and the top prize were both from Shaanxi.
There is another special feature of this spring palace, that is, the emperor did not preside over the final palace examination. Instead, Zhang Juzheng personally presented the questions on the spot. The policy topic of the examination was naturally how to implement the New Deal.
Not even a single member of the royal family participated in the imperial court's most important task of recruiting scholars. The entire Ming court was even more afraid of Zhang Juzheng's power, and there were even private rumors that Zhang Juzheng had the idea of usurping the throne.
However, Zhang Juzheng really had no intention of usurping the throne. He was still struggling to implement his New Deal.
The Ministry of Household Affairs finally issued a batch of new silver coins and copper coins. Although they were not of high quality and were far less useful than the silver coins from the southeast, they at least circulated the silver coins and preserved the financial operations of the Ming Dynasty.
Not to mention that people's potential is still endless. Under Zhang Juzheng's intimidation, Huang Bingkun, the Minister of Household Affairs of the Ming Dynasty, used his own wealth, plus the money drawn from the workshops under the Ministry of Households, to finally turn the Mint Workshop into a new one. The operating costs have been raised.
Huang Bingkun's solution to the shortage of silver money in the market was to melt the silver coins issued in the southeast, cast them into Ming silver coins doped with lead and Japanese lead, and then put them on the market through the Ming government.
This move can be regarded as a mistake. Although it further damaged Mingting's financial credibility, it also saved Mingting's shaky economy.
A Southeast Silver Dollar of sufficient quality can be recast into ten Ming Dynasty Silver Dollars.
After alleviating the money shortage in the Gyeonggi region, the Ministry of Household Affairs benefited even more. More coin workshops were built, and they even became an important source of fiscal revenue for the Ming Dynasty.
Although Zhang Juzheng knew that doing so was poisonous to quench his thirst, but now that reforms cost money everywhere, he could only acquiesce to Huang Bingkun's behavior and even secretly rewarded Huang Bingkun.
While the Ming court continued to toss, scholars from the Southeast gathered in Nanjing, and the first imperial examination in the Southeast was about to be held.
(End of chapter)