In late October, Emperor Wanli issued an edict: ordered Li Rusong to premier the military affairs of Ji, Liao, Baoding, and Shandong, and served as the chief military officer of the anti-sea imperial war, and his younger brothers Li Rubai and Li Rumei were the deputy chief military officers, and went to Korea together. For this great battle, the Ming Dynasty mobilized more than 40,000 elites from all over the country, and its main composition was as follows: 10,000 iron cavalry in Liaodong, 8,000 elite cavalry in Xuanfu and Datong, 5,000 elite infantry in Jizhou and Baoding, 3,000 infantry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and 5,000 elite soldiers from Shandong. The light cavalry of Liaodong, Xuanfu and Datong was mainly used for assault, equipped with light armor, sabers and spears, and also equipped with fire commanders; The infantry of Jizhou and Baoding came from the Shenji battalion of the Ming army, with fire, shotguns and artillery as the main weapons; The soldiers of Jiangsu and Zhejiang have rich experience in resisting Japanese and are familiar with the Mandarin Duck Formation passed down by Qi Jiguang. At the same time, Liu Ling, deputy commander-in-chief of Sichuan, led a Sichuan army of 5,000 to march to North Korea as a follow-up force.

Due to the rich experience of fighting against Japanese in the three eastern prefectures of Shandong, among the 5,000 people transferred from Shandong this time, 1,500 each in Dengzhou and Laizhou, and 2,000 in Qingzhou, all of them were selected elites. On the Qingzhou side, Shi Changting personally led the team, took out nearly one-third of the troops in his hand, and reorganized with other Shandong soldiers to prepare for the attack, and Zhong Nan, as a pro-soldier battalion, naturally did not fall behind.

In fact, it is not only these actions, the Wanli Emperor intends to defeat the Japanese army in one go, so since Zu Chengxun was defeated and fled back to the Ming Dynasty, he has repeatedly sent guerrilla Shen Weijing to Pyongyang to negotiate with the Japanese army, the purpose of which is to delay the time and wait for the army to assemble. After receiving the order, Song Yingchang seized the time to prepare grain, grass, munitions, baggage and other materials needed for the war, and the household department gave priority to allocating a large amount of silver at the request of the emperor, and the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of War and other departments were also doing pre-war preparations.

At the end of October, all the troops under Li Rusong's command were assembled in place, and due to logistical and other reasons, the army aiding Korea temporarily rested in place.

Sergeant Shandong has been in Liaodong for more than a month, and in the face of the upcoming war, Zhong Nan is very entangled - he wants to start the war as soon as possible, so that it can end early; I also hope that the longer the delay, the better, after all, this is a real battle, not a drill, and if you are not careful, you may hang up on the battlefield. Although Zhong Nan knew that the war was won by the Ming Dynasty in the end, a military victory did not mean that there were fewer casualties, and if he was unlucky, dead or disabled, it would be too tragic. In the midst of such anxious days, the time came to the beginning of the lunar month, and the general Li Rusong finally gave the order to set off to cross the river.

It was a cloudy day, with occasional rays of sunlight falling onto the water, reflecting back waves. Standing on the troop transport boat, looking at the boiling Yalu River, Zhong Nan sighed, "It seems that this Spring Festival is going to be passed on the battlefield!" ”

Chen and Cui beside them laughed, it was not the first time they had been on the battlefield, so naturally they didn't have as much emotion as Zhong Nan. Now the relationship between the three has gone further, they formed brothers with different surnames soon after entering the barracks, and the three of them are ranked according to age, Chen Kepeng is the eldest brother, Zhong Nan is the second brother, and Cui Dazheng is the third brother.

During this period of time in Liaodong, Zhong Nan's riding skills have made great progress, and his archery skills have improved by leaps and bounds. Zhong Nan felt strange, now his body's coordination and flexibility were many times stronger than before, and his strength was also large enough to compete with the Liaodong warriors, and he couldn't find the reason for these changes, he could only attribute it to the high-intensity training that had never stopped before.

After crossing the river, the Ming army entered Korea and met with the only remaining officers and troops in Korea, and then the two armies merged into one, all under the command of Li Rusong. At the beginning of the first month, the army marched into Pyongyang. There are two gates of Datong and Changqing in the east of Pyongyang City, there are two gates of Lumen and Hanzhu in the south, there are two gates of ordinary and seven stars in the west, and there are Mitai Gates in the north, the terrain is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and at the same time, there are towering Peony Peak outside the north gate, and there are more than 3,000 Japanese troops stationed in the city, and Pyongyang is a horn of each other.

In the evening of the same day, Li Rusong discussed military affairs in the tent camp of the Chinese army, and Shi Changting also attended. Li Rusong divided the main army into three parts, with deputy general Yang Yuan as the central army, commanding 10,639 troops; With the deputy general Li Rubai as the left army, the commander of 10,632 troops; With adjutant general Zhang Shijue as the right army, the commander was 10,626 troops, but the Shandong soldiers were not among the main forces. As for the specific offensive deployment, Li Rusong repeatedly checked the topographic map, and discussed with the generals many times, and finally made the following arrangements: General Li Rusong was in the center to supervise the formation; Yang Yuan of the Chinese army and Zhang Shijue of the right army led the troops to attack the Qixingmen in the west of the city; Li Rubai of the left army and Li Fangchun, a staff general, led the troops to attack the ordinary gate in the west of the city; In the north of the city, the infantry led by Wu Weizhong, the general of Jizhou, took the lead, and the cavalry led by Zha Dashou, the deputy commander of Liaodong, attacked the fortress Peony Peak; The south of the city was led by Shi Changting and the Shandong soldiers were in charge; The eastern part of the city was a retreat route for the Japanese army.

After the military intelligence meeting, Shi Changting returned to his camp, summoned the guerrilla generals of Deng and Laizhou and his subordinates, and assigned the task - he was somewhat disappointed, because the Ming army said that it was the main attack on the south, west, and north, but from the perspective of troop distribution, the west of the city was the focus, and the Peony Peak in the north of the city was also more important, so the main force was arranged. Only Chengnan did not send superior troops, so it seems that the general Li Rusong did not have much hope for Shi Changting, so he arranged it this way. Fortunately, he can also understand that he is not from the Li family's faction, Li Rusong does not know his ability to lead troops, and the Ming army must win the first battle, so he must be cautious.

On the morning of the eighth day of the first lunar month, with an order, tens of thousands of people launched an attack at the same time. First of all, there was a "boom boom" explosion from the west of the city, which was the ace weapons of the Ming army - the tiger squat cannon, the general cannon, and the Franc machine gun were roaring, and hundreds of artillery pieces smashed lead bullets at the Japanese army defending the city. The Ming army in the north of the city was not to be outdone, and the old general Wu Weizhong launched an attack on Peony Peak with the elite soldiers of Jizhou. For a time, the land of Pyongyang was full of war, and it seemed that it was about to be drowned in a sea of guns and swords.

Let's take a look at the south of the city, Shi Changting's plan is to lead 2,000 Qingzhou soldiers to be the vanguard of the main attack, and 3,000 men and horses from Deng and Lai Prefectures will meet one kilometer away. Outside the Lu Gate, Shi Changting drew his long sword, pointed at the enemy opposite, and then shouted: "Brothers, rush with me!" Then the legs were clamped, and the war horse under the crotch also felt the strong fighting spirit of the master, and rushed forward after neighing.

When Zhong Nam and the other soldiers saw that the main general was the first to attack, they escorted the general to the city gate, and the 2,000 infantry wearing Korean military uniforms followed closely behind. Disguising himself as a Korean soldier is the way that Shi Changting thought, since there are not many troops, simply show weakness and deceive the Japanese army, if the other party is planning to underestimate the enemy, then it is not impossible for the Ming army to take the lead in breaking through the south of the city.

In fact, according to Li Rusong's idea, no matter where the city gate is broken through first, no matter where the south, west, and north sides are attacked, because as long as any Ming army enters Pyongyang City, it can pry the situation on the entire battlefield. It's just that he did pin his hopes on the west and north, and deployed them with his own lineage.

Getting closer and closer to Lumen, Zhong Nan could already see the appearance of the Japanese guards on the city wall - it was a typical Japanese, relatively short, shaved hair and combed buns, and thick lips, he saw a group of "Korean soldiers" attacking the city gate, grinning and shouting a few words to the left and right, as if giving orders, and then he saw the arquebusiers and archers of the Japanese army appeared at the mouth of the city wall, they began to shoot rhythmically, and suddenly the lead bullets and arrows flying in the sky were like rain towards the "Korean soldiers".

Soon, the first wave of "Korean soldiers" who dodged the rain of arrows came to the bottom of the city wall, this is Shi Changting and his personal army and a few soldiers, and the few artillery pieces on their side are also intermittently swaying artillery fire, hoping to help Shi Changting's attack. Seeing that the other side was about to build a siege ladder, the Japanese army on the city wall fired a fierce shot at the "Korean soldiers" below, and the "Korean soldiers" could not bear it, and then dispersed in a hurry. Shi Changting, who retreated to the range of the Japanese army, made a feint for a while before Mingjin withdrew his troops, and the Japanese general who defended the city laughed and pointed at the fleeing "Korean soldiers" and mocked for a while.

After a short rest, the "Korean soldiers" at the south gate attacked again, but this time the attack was even more thunderous and rainy, and they "broke out" again after placing a few rounds of arrows near the edge of the range of the Japanese army. After repeating this several times, the Japanese army only regarded this as a group of "Korean soldiers" who had no combat effectiveness, and the Japanese general even sat upright on a chair next to him, with a nonchalant look.

With another attack by the "Korean soldiers", the Japanese soldiers did not even bother to fire their arquebuses, and only let the archers release a few arrows at will. I thought that the other side would break and flee again, but the originally messy and scattered team suddenly accelerated after reaching the range of the Japanese army, and quickly set up a siege ladder after coming to the bottom of the city wall, and the brave soldiers seized the gap to climb up. The scattered artillery bombardment in the rear also intensified at once, and the shells whistled in, and it was only at this time that the Japanese army discovered that it was not the "Korean soldiers" who were attacking the city, but the regular troops of the Ming army, and suddenly the city wall became chaotic.