Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The battle to destroy Goryeo did not require many troops.

Three thousand field troops and five thousand garrison troops, for a total strength of eight thousand, are enough.

However, some private merchant ships were requisitioned, all of which carried trade with Korea and Japan all year round.

While the civil and military officials in Liaoning were waiting for the court's order, although they did not dare to dispatch troops without authorization, they could mobilize food and grass in advance. Grain from Changpingcang in various parts of Liaodong was transferred to Gaixian County, and then transported to the north bank of the Datong River by sea ship.

At the same time, the Ming army was also gathering in Pyongyang.

It was impossible to keep such an obvious troop and food transfer completely secret, and soon Korean merchants passed the news back.

Baek Gongmei, the governor of Goryeo's Western Sea Route, was so frightened that he frantically sent a letter to the military government asking for help.

Facing the Ming Dynasty's military front, Xikai Road was the first to bear the brunt. The three states of Saikaido are Huangzhou, Haizhou and Yangzhou. These place names are obviously borrowed from China.

Yangzhou is very far away and is already close to the Han River.

Huangzhou City is very close, only more than a hundred miles away from Pyongyang.

Zheng Zhongfu turned the center of Goryeo into a cabinet system, but local officials were too lazy to change it, and it was very weird and interesting.

Administrative districts at the provincial level follow the old system of the Tang Dynasty.

In the early years, just like the Song Dynasty, each road had a transfer envoy. Later, for some reason, it was abandoned and changed to a very retro "zhoumu".

In addition, there are also governor envoys, honest visiting envoys, etc.

Below the Dao level, there are also magistrates, magistrates, and county magistrates, which are no different from the Song Dynasty.

"Why hasn't the imperial court sent reinforcements?" Bai Gongmei was extremely anxious.

Zheng Shiyou, the magistrate of Huangzhou, sneered: "A group of warriors are busy fighting for power in Kaijing. They don't trust the local civil officials, and they probably thought it was false news. How can they send reinforcements quickly?"

"How to deal with it?" Bai Gongmei asked.

Zheng Shiyou shook his head: "I don't know. For military matters here, you have to ask Xin Dutong."

Xin Jia, the commander-in-chief of the capital, said: "Without money and food, the soldiers are starving. How can I lead the troops to fight?"

The state pastor responsible for the management of Saikaidō is concurrently held by central officials. Currently, he is in the capital and has no real power.

There are no actual governors in Saikaido at all, and their powers are decentralized by several "envoys", the most important of which are the governor envoy and the commander-in-chief - which can be understood as the governor and the commander-in-chief.

The commander named Xin Jia was already filled with resentment.

When civilian officials were in power, there was insufficient food and salary, but when military generals seized power, there was still insufficient food and salary. The central court has ushered in the era of warriors, but the place is still controlled by wealthy families.

For local military commanders, the bullshit era of warriors is just about changing the soup without changing the medicine!

Xin Jia's intention was obvious. If he wanted him to work hard to fight, he could quickly ask the civil servants and wealthy families to get food and grass.

Bai Gongmei said: "The Huangfu family is already persuading all the major families to provide food."

"Let them gather the food and come to me again!" Xin Jia walked away.

The largest family in Huangzhou of Goryeo was the Huangfu family. The fourth concubine of the founding monarch of Goryeo was the daughter of Taiwei Huangfu Tigong and was named Queen Mother Shenjing.

Due to the military coup, the prominent figures of the Huangfu family have been massacred in Kaijing.

The most prestigious and talented person in his hometown of Huangzhou went to Beijing to become a civil servant in name only. The Huangfu family got a cabinet minister, a minister, two ministers, a Hanlin, three censor posts, and many temple officials in a mess.

Now the person controlling the situation in his hometown is an old man named Huangfu Minzhong.

"Uncle, the money and food for my royal family are all earned through hard work. Why should I give them to those warriors as food and wages?" A middle-aged man was the first to object.

Another person immediately echoed: "That's right! The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty are invincible, and even the Kingdom of Jin was destroyed by them. How can the old, weak, sick and disabled people in Huangzhou stop the tiger and wolf army? Give them the money and food, rather than throw them away directly What's the difference in the sea? What's more, if the Ming Dynasty annexes Goryeo and finds out that we have provided money and food to support the defenders, the Huangfu family will be wiped out. "

As soon as he finished speaking, someone else said: "I am in charge of the family business. Since the Ming Dynasty occupied Pyongyang, we have been able to make money doing business with those Ming Dynasty merchants on the south bank of the Datong River. In recent years, the money and grain income of each clan of the Huangfu family has , one year is worth several years. If the whole Huangfu family surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, why should they guard this broken ship of Goryeo? "

The Huangfu family, which owned half of Huangzhou's land, was divided into several clan branches, large and small.

Huangfu Minzhong, who was already sixty years old, took advantage of the situation and took the position of head of the Huangfu clan because Wu Ren made a rebellion and killed the family leader. Regardless of his prestige or ability, he cannot control the various forces.

None of the sects in front of him were willing to provide money or food, so Huangfu Minzhong could only sigh helplessly.

After everyone quarreled for a long time, Huangfu Minzhong said: "Send someone to contact the Ming Dynasty. If we can keep half of the Huangfu family's land and wealth, we are willing to be loyal to the Ming Dynasty. Otherwise, we must spend money and food to stop the Ming Dynasty army! You must know After the chaos in Pyongyang, the surviving wealthy families were unable to get their property back. The Ming Dynasty government distributed their property to poor families and common people, and even the former untouchables were able to share their property."

The representatives of each sect stopped talking, and they were also considering the pros and cons.

They felt that the Goryeo army was too bad and would definitely not be able to stop the Ming army. But he was also afraid that the Ming army would come and confiscate his property.

How to choose?

…

A young man named Huangfuying crossed the river to find Li Yi, the prefect of Pyongyang.

Li Yi was too lazy to even say polite words, and directly offered the treatment: "If the Huangfu family abandons the dark and joins the light, they can obtain business privileges and issue you some special licenses. You can also keep all your floating wealth. However, 80% of your shops and lands must be confiscated. The slaves you keep at home must sign new employment contracts. All the tenants and serfs under your control must be released as free people."

"This... is too harsh." After hearing the treatment, Huangfu Ying already had the urge to recruit soldiers to resist.

Li Yi said: "Once the heavenly soldiers arrive, do you have any other choice? If you are stubborn to the end, you will not be able to keep the 20% of shops and lands!"

Huangfu Ying said: "This is a serious matter. I need to go back and discuss it with the elders."

Huangfu Ying quickly returned to Huangzhou and told the conditions of the Ming Dynasty, which made the various branches of the Huangfu family curse.

Then there was an internal quarrel. Some people said they would recruit soldiers to resist the enemy, some said they would donate food and grass to the defenders, and some were afraid of death and wanted to accept the conditions of the Ming Dynasty.

There was no consensus, and no conclusion could be reached at all.

That night, someone sneaked across the Taedong River and accepted the harsh conditions of the Ming court on behalf of their branch of the Huangfu family.

Some people also took out money and food to send to the Goryeo soldiers, and even recruited soldiers on the spot to defend the city.

"Boom boom boom!"

The Ming army's inland warships on daily patrols on the Taedong River suddenly fired at the defenders on the south bank.

Then, countless requisitioned civilian boats carried Ming soldiers to cross the river to fight.

There are several Goryeo fortresses on the south bank of the Taedong River, all of which have been defended. The soldiers of the garrison no longer work to earn money, and finally they can get rations. They have been stationed in the fortress for more than a month.

As soon as the cannon sounded, they fled for their lives!

They were willing to stay in the fortress purely to make a living, so how could they defend desperately?

The first batch of Ming army soldiers who crossed the river had just boarded the ship, and the Goryeo defenders on the other side had already run away.

Most of the defenders fled back home, waiting for the war to end quickly with their starving wives and children, and then continued to look for work.

Some generals took a few elite troops and fled all the way to Huangzhou City.

In fact, the only one who crossed the river here was Zhang Yi, the general of Pyongyang, who had only 3,000 people under his command.

The other 5,000 Ming troops took a sea ship directly to Haizhou.

The 3,000 Ming soldiers killed their way to Huangzhou City, a hundred miles away, without encountering any resistance.

Along the way, they recruited Korean people as civilians, claiming that they could eat enough every day and get a bucket of rice as a settlement fee.

After the people on the south bank received a bucket of rice, they immediately cheered and regarded themselves as Ming people. They were also sent out to recruit people, running around to tell others, and pulling more Korean people to be civilians.

Huangzhou City.

Governor Bai Gongmei, General Xin Jia, and Zhizhou Zheng Shiyou took a group of Korean civil and military officials to the city wall.

There were other officials and local nobles around them.

Outside the city, there were only 500 Ming cavalrymen, who were the vanguard to persuade them to surrender.

Bai Gongmei asked: "General Xin, there are only a few hundred enemy troops outside the city, but we have more than 10,000 soldiers. Can we go out of the city to fight and kill the enemy's vanguard?"

Xin Jia smiled bitterly and said: "Half of our more than 10,000 soldiers were recruited temporarily, and many of them even had only a stick in their hands. The real elites are only more than a thousand people. How can we fight against the Ming cavalry?"

"It seems that we can only defend the city to the death." Bai Gongmei sighed.

Defend to the death!

Xin Jia looked at the Ming cavalry outside the city and had no idea of ​​defending the city at all.

After dark, Xin Jia took more than a hundred personal soldiers and directly opened the city gate and ran away. The reason why he did not surrender the city was purely because he was worried that his relatives in his hometown would be implicated and executed.

The main general ran away, and the army was in chaos.

The governor-general Bai Gongmei scolded him angrily and simply ran away. He was born in a noble family and was not afraid of being executed. He could continue to fight after retreating to Haizhou.

All the top civil and military officials fled, which soon led to a wave of escape.

Especially the temporarily recruited militia, seeing that the officials had all fled, they also followed suit.

The five hundred Ming cavalrymen outside the city took the opportunity to chase and capture.

When Zhang Yi led the main force to arrive, Huangzhou City had been captured by five hundred vanguard troops.

Huangfu Minzhong and his clansmen knelt outside the city and shouted: "Huangfu Minzhong, a descendant of Yanhuang, and his clansmen welcome the general into the city!"

The cavalry general Cui Shan came up and reported in detail: "General, these Koreans are very strange. When we persuaded them to surrender, they did not open the city gates. They began to flee inexplicably at night. I led the troops to capture more than 3,000 prisoners. At dawn, the city gates suddenly opened, and the local nobles came out to surrender with the officials who did not escape."

Zhang Yi sighed: "I hope the enemy troops in the south can resist, otherwise it will be difficult to write a detailed battle report to the court."

Of course they will resist.

The Korean army has set out from Kaizhou.

The excuse for Ming to send troops this time was that the Goryeo warriors rebelled and abolished the king appointed by Ming.

As the leader of the warriors, Zheng Zhongfu had no way out. Even if he surrendered, he would be executed by Ming!

(Grandma's body functions have aged. She hasn't eaten for a month and relies on intravenous drips to stay alive. Today she was critically ill and the doctor said she didn't have much time left. I will try to keep updating in the next few days, but it will probably be delayed.)