Chapter 85: The Northeast Expulsion War (3)
After Man Gui returned to the station, he found Niyaha, they are now brothers-in-law, and the result of the discussion between the two was not to panic, just wait for Sun Chuanting's troops to drive people from north to south, and at the same time, combined with Kong Youde's mountain infantry cavalry soldiers and people from their own tribe continued to infiltrate the Jurchen residential areas, spread the news to them that the Ming army was going to attack on a large scale, and then told them that there was a civil strife in Korea, and Nurhachi was going to attack and migrate to the North Korean area, encouraging them to move to the Yalu River. After the completion of the battle, the soldiers of the mountain infantry battalion infiltrated the area around Hetuara City to reconnoiter the terrain and the distribution of troops, and then Sun Chuanting's troops drove the Jurchens over to take further action.
When the news came that Sun Chuanting had driven most of the Jurchens over, Man Gui immediately led his subordinates to act, except for 10,000 people guarding Siping, the remaining 15,000 people rushed to Kuancheng, and the occupation of Kuancheng meant that the Jurchens who rushed from the south bank of the Heilongjiang River had to enter the Changbai Mountains and could no longer move westward, so that they formed a large encirclement with Sun Chuanting's troops, and then the two armies cooperated with each other to encircle and intercept, and finally when Sun Chuanting's troops occupied the area of Jilin City, drove nearly 200,000 people belonging to the entire Jurchen clan into the depths of Changbai Mountain. Leaving Sun Chuanting's troops to besiege here, or to rest, Man Gui returned to Siping with his troops, and after a little rest, he directly captured the Liaoyuan area, which was already deep in the Jurchen area.
Zhao Shujiao's task is heavier, after starting to act, he led his subordinates to attack and advance to the southeast, because Fushun has He Shixian to guard, Benxi is handed over to You Shigong to guard, Zhao Shujiao has no worries, he boldly swept all the way, and all the Jurchens who encountered them did not flee were killed, and after more than a month of difficult battles, they finally gradually approached the front line of Hetuala. However, he was surprised that Nurhachi did not have any particularly big reaction to this large-scale operation of the Ming army, and he was afraid that Nurhachi had some conspiracy, so he stopped and asked Xiong Tingbi for instructions.
Besides, Mao Wenlong, he let his three subordinates leave a squadron each, and he took more than 1,000 people and quietly drove into the depths of the Jurchen tribe east of Fushun, and he continued to plunder in all directions for a month, because he brought these soldiers from the mountain infantry battalion, whether it was in the mountains or the plains, he had no scruples, plus this guy had a flexible mind and strange combat methods, so Nurhachi had nothing to do with him, which is why Zhao Shujiao couldn't wait for Nurhachi's big operation. When Mangui occupied the Liaoyuan area, Mao Wenlong finally discovered a strange thing, that is, Nurhachi's counterattack against him was getting weaker and weaker, and it turned out that most of Nurhachi's troops began to move to the east, so Mao Wenlong quickly sent someone to contact Mangui, transferred 10,000 cavalry from Liaoyuan, and rushed to the meeting place in two days. After a short rest, Mao Wenlong and Kong Youde led 2,000 mountain cavalry first, and Man Gui led 10,000 cavalry to follow, and they went straight to the city of Hetuara in Nurhachi.
Why hasn't there been much movement on Nurhachi's side? It turned out that this was the case, in the battle in the spring of the first year of the Apocalypse, the military Fan Wencheng and Manggutai received an ambush, Manggutai was killed on the spot in the artillery attack, Fan Wencheng was nowhere to be found, although Nurhachi was furious, but there was nothing to be done. Fan Wencheng is indeed extremely cunning, when he saw that the situation had been defeated, Nurhachi would definitely blame him, so he didn't do anything, and fled from the battlefield with his generals in chaos, he didn't dare to go back to the Central Plains, and he didn't dare to go back to the Jurchen tribe, so he gritted his teeth and went to North Korea. In today's North Korea, Chinese is basically the lingua franca in the upper-class personnel, plus this guy is a talented person, and he is good-looking, and on the way to escape, he robbed a few shops, so he turned into a businessman in North Korea, and it didn't take long for him to get mixed up.
In Fan Wencheng's heart, the temptation of power is always the greatest, so when the business grows bigger, he has to have dealings with the government, and he slowly mingles with the local officials. Under the continuous encirclement and blockade of the Ming Dynasty army, Nurhachi's life became more and more bleak, and there was a serious shortage of living materials, especially salt. Because North Korea is a subject country of the Ming Dynasty, it is still a hostile country. Fan Wencheng had a flexible brain, so he began to collude with local officials to start a smuggling business, transporting ginseng, mink, bear bile and the like from the Jurchens to Shandong by boat, and then smuggling salt and grain to the Jurchen tribes, and in less than a year, Fan Wencheng owned dozens of cargo ships.
Fan Wencheng has money, and his ambitions are even greater, coupled with the intrigues of various parties in the court of North Korea for interests, Fan Wencheng has a bigger idea, using sugar-coated cannonballs to make friends with Westerners, and gradually participates in the party struggle in the imperial court. On the other hand, he got in touch with Nurhachi again, persuaded Nurhachi with his three-inch tongue, and became Nurhachi's loyal servant again. Shortly after the North Korean Palace Rebellion in March this year, Fan Wencheng contacted Nurhachi, hoping to take the opportunity to enter North Korea.
Nurhachi's Jurchen tribe was having a hard time under Xiong Tingbi's continuous attacks and blockades, and Fan Wencheng's arrival made him overjoyed. Fan Wencheng also lived up to his expectations, and sent a steady stream of materials and intelligence. When the Ming army expelled the Jurchens, Fan Wencheng suggested that he take advantage of the chaos in Korea to occupy Korea as a foothold, and then rest and recuperate before trying to achieve great things. So, Nurhachi accepted Fan Wencheng's suggestion, and quietly moved his troops to the current direction of Tonghua on the one hand, and received other Jurchen tribes driven by the Ming Dynasty from Sixiali, while Fan Wencheng quietly transported the Jurchens across the Yalu River by boat, preparing to raid the territory of the Koreans, which is also the reason why Nurhachi was vain and unkind to the Ming army.
Although Mao Wenlong didn't understand Nurhachi's purpose, he noticed that there was some emptiness in the area of Hetuala, so he took action without hesitation. On September 12, Mao Wenlong, Man Gui, and Kong Youde's men and horses quietly approached the city of Hetuala, and at night, Mao Wenlong and Kong Youde led nearly 2,000 people from the mountain foot cavalry camp to blend into the city with skilled Jurchen words, and Man Gui surrounded three and left the east gate. In the middle of the night, Mao Wenlong and Kong Youde led the soldiers to suddenly kill into the palace of Nurhachi, and for a time the fire soared into the sky, frightening the Jurchens who were sleeping in a panic and confusion, and the soldiers of Mangui outside the city shouted to kill the sky, and the Daishan who guarded Hetuala saw that it was not good, so he took the men and horses to desperately rescue Nurhachi's family and fled to the east gate, and Mangui led his troops to chase and kill.
Man Gui and Mao Wenlong captured the city of Hetuara by surprise, Xiong Tingbi immediately ordered all his subordinates to start a comprehensive encirclement and suppression, note that it was not a full-scale attack, the purpose was to consolidate the captured area. Now, there are nearly 500,000 Jurchens gathered in the entire Changbai Mountain area, of course, this includes men, women, and children, so Xiong Tingbi is still more careful.
Nurhachi is now happy and afraid, happy that the Ming army helped send him a large number of people, and he can pull up a larger team, but he is afraid that the Ming Dynasty army is getting stronger and stronger, and he can't resist it at all, and it seems that the development of North Korea is the only direction.
Nearly the end of September, Xiong Tingbi saw that the battle line had stabilized, so he ordered a rest and preparation for winter, the winter of Changbai Mountain was too cold, and now the heavy snow was about to close the mountain. Seeing that the strategic intention had basically been achieved, Zhu Youxiao also issued an order to stop the army in preparation for another war next year.