Chapter 30: The Siege of Seoul The Beheading Operation

The chief of staff patted his head, he knew that a large number of North Korea's baggage and artillery were lagging behind, and it was not easy to escape, but the division commander was thoughtful, and he was happy as soon as he won the battle, and forgot about it, it seems that Jiang Lao is still spicy!

Four-wheel drive cars are the favorite of officers and men, they can walk on any road, and they are particularly durable. A company of more than 30 four-wheel-drive vehicles rushed wildly along the dirt road, and several vehicles with their first and first vehicles kept firing at the North Korean soldiers fleeing along the road with their on-board machine guns, ignoring the North Korean soldiers hiding on the side of the road. From a distance, they saw a large contingent of North Korean soldiers who had turned around and walked back, as well as a long line of cannons, and heavy machine guns on their cars fired warning at these North Korean soldiers. The Korean baggage soldiers and artillerymen, who were already frightened birds, soon scattered and fled.

The company commander reported the situation to the command by radio, and the chief of staff told them to be on alert, and the infantry immediately rushed over to assist them in handling the baggage and artillery.

In fact, the officers and men of the Yaogang army did not take the artillery of the Koreans in their eyes at all, and it was impossible for them to use these cannons, but these cannons were a threat in the hands of the enemy after all, and they must be captured.

Song Ying and they fought a battle to capture the city and a field battle in Daqiu, which was enjoyable. Since they had finished capturing the Japanese in Japan, they had nothing to do except participate in labor all day long, and they were uncomfortable one by one, so they came out in this way, seized the port of Busan, occupied Daegu, and routed tens of thousands of Korean troops. Officers and soldiers are so happy! Especially after the battle, horse meat can be eaten casually. The Yaogang army is already very old at cooking horse meat, and the meat can be boiled even if it is rotten and not noodles.

The army of the Western Front commanded by Wei Xiang has broken through the defense line of the Koreans, and many of the Korean fortifications along the way have been left behind, and there is almost no obstacle to the attack on the Korean king's capital Hancheng, and the defense line of the Koreans on the Western Front has been broken. But their armies on both the north and south halted their advance at some distance from Seoul.

There was no suspense about settling the matter of North Korea by force, but Wei Xiang didn't want to fight the battle for too long, and the reason why they didn't attack Seoul immediately was to wait for Song Yingshi, who had come from Daqiu, and to give Li Liang time to gather the army to Seoul, so that they could concentrate on destroying the Korean army. Otherwise, it would be troublesome to round them up all over the territory of North Korea.

The king of Joseon, Li Liang, sat down in his chair and sweated profusely when he heard the news that the tens of thousands of troops he had sent out had been completely defeated by the Ming army and that the army was fleeing. He had long known that there was no hope of victory in the confrontation with the Ming army, but he thought that the Ming army from the east had landed from the sea, and there would not be many people, so he concentrated a part of his forces and sent someone he thought was the most capable of fighting to command, so that he could rub the sharpness of the Ming army, and then send people to negotiate with the Ming army, which was also a bit of capital at that time. He still thought that the Ming army had not given a reply to the Ming Dynasty because of the demarcation, and the Ming Dynasty was unhappy, so he sent troops over. Then send someone to agree to the Ming Dynasty's request, or allocate more land to the Ming Dynasty, and they may agree to withdraw the army. Although he also knew that the Ming Dynasty had almost unified the world, and this time it was likely that the Ming army would not be able to withdraw from the army by using land, but there was no other way now. I am really unwilling to give up the country to others for nothing, and I have to fight to the death.

The anxious ministers of the Manchu Dynasty waited for Li Liang to recover a little more and surrounded him.

Li Qi wiped the sweat from his face and asked, "Has the order to transfer troops to various places been issued?" ”

Someone replied: "It has been sent out a long time ago, and it has been sent out again yesterday and today!" ”

Someone else said: "Many troops have already arrived, and more are coming!" ”

One of the ministers said, "Your Majesty, I think there is something wrong! ”

"Hey! When is it, if you have something to say, say it quickly! Li Qi was really angry.

"That's the case, the Ming army in the west has broken through our defense line in succession, but when they are not blocking the army in front, they all suddenly stopped marching towards Wang Jing, is there a deception in this?"

"Do you want them to hit Wang Jing directly?" Li Qi asked angrily.

"No, no, Your Majesty is angry, we have to think calmly now, did the Ming army do this on purpose?"

"Done on purpose? What do you mean? Li Qi didn't understand.

"I think there is such a possibility, they want to force us to concentrate all our troops in Wang Jing and fight us again!"

The minister did not dare to say it, gathered together to eliminate it, but said a decisive battle.

Li Liang didn't understand the meaning of this sentence, "Hey! We have to concentrate on fighting them. There is no place for me to go in the whole of North Korea, Wang Jing can't hold it, so I will live and die with Wang Jing! ”

Li Liang not only mobilized his army to converge on Seoul, but also many young and strong people. When Song Ying and them rushed to Seoul from the south, Wei Xiang and his two divisions also approached Seoul, and Seoul had already collected the defeated troops from all over the country, as well as more than 200,000 troops, and hundreds of thousands of people, plus the people in Seoul, known as millions of people.

Seoul could not be inhabited at all, and the North Korean army laid out three lines of defense outside the city.

Wei Xiang summoned the commanders of the three divisions outside Seoul to the warships on the Han River for a while.

Mu Yi and Zheng Zhilong also attended the meeting.

According to the rank, Mu Yi and Zheng Zhilong are higher than Wei Xiang, but they all know that Wei Xiang is one of the "Eight Heroes of Lingshui" who fights the world in Yaogang, and he is also the feudal official who guards one side, and this time he is still the commander-in-chief of the Korean operation, so he does not dare to despise it. This time, Wei Xiang successfully attracted a large number of North Korean troops to Seoul, and Mu Yi and Zheng Zhilong were also very impressed. Concentrating most of the main Korean forces in Seoul can completely solve the Korean problem in the first war, and there is another thing that can also give full play to the advantages of naval artillery fire, and the surroundings of Seoul are within the range of heavy artillery fire from warships. It can be said that no matter how many troops the North Koreans have, they are a live target in front of artillery and heavy machine guns.

Everyone sat down, and Wei Xiang said, "Today our troops are all in place. However, the total number of our three armies is less than 40,000. It is impossible to form a siege of the whole of Seoul. There are more than a million Korean troops and young men in and around Seoul, and our aim is to destroy the enemy in large numbers here, and it is best to force Li Liang to surrender. With Li Liang's cooperation, it will be much more convenient for us to govern here, and this is also the experience we have summed up in various places. So our army, not too close to Seoul, controls a few points on the periphery. Now the enemy fortified defense gives us the opportunity to massively deplete the enemy with artillery. ”

Mu Yi interjected: "Now the production capacity of our artillery shells will also be greatly improved, and the barrels of artillery shells on our warships are sufficient." ”

Song Ying said: "We found that the current North Koreans are very strange, not only the soldiers defending the city are very tenacious, but even the people defending the city are also very tenacious. It's not like the previous army, which surrendered as soon as it was fought! ”

Wei Xiang said: "The people stationed in the city are afraid that the enemy country will occupy the city, they have been occupied repeatedly for generations, and the crimes they have suffered make them fight to the end rather than die." It's not like the peasants on our border, whoever comes doesn't harm them. Therefore, when we attack Seoul, we must also be prepared to face such people. ”

Zheng Zhilong said: "Actually, there is nothing remarkable, just tell the officers and soldiers not to be soft, so as not to suffer losses." We have enough shells, hand **, bullet tubes. ”

Wei Xiang smiled and said, "Commander Zheng is right! We are fighting here, and ammunition can be transported directly by ship, and it is very convenient to replenish it. Starting tomorrow, we will begin to consume the enemy. Don't be impatient, we have time to play with them. ”

Although there were a large number of troops in Li Liang's hands, none of the generals dared to lead the troops to take the initiative to attack, they were all officers and soldiers who trembled when they heard that the Ming army was coming. However, these officers and soldiers worked very hard to build fortifications. Most of the trees around Seoul have been cut down, and even the houses of many people in the villages have been demolished, and the timber and bricks have been pulled over to build camps. The North Koreans work day and night, and they work very hard.

The forts on the banks of the Hancheng River near Seoul have long been flattened by the warships of Yaogang. The flat-bottomed warships were parked on the edge of Seoul on the Han River, and the warships of the Fubune system also sailed into the mouth of the Han River, and the whole of Seoul was covered by the artillery fire on the warships. Wei Xiang used three artillery regiments, as well as more than a dozen artillery battalions belonging to the infantry regiment. Their artillery bombardment was aimed at one or two lines of defense from the north outside Seoul, away from the Han River.

As soon as the morning dawned, the cannons of the warships on the Han River began to power first. The 203-caliber cannon and 130-caliber cannon shells first smashed into the camp that the North Korea had painstakingly built, and at the same time, the artillery of the infantry on the shore also began to cover the fire according to the assigned target.

The whole of Seoul trembled with the sound of shells. The North Korean officers and soldiers who were hiding in the wooden fence camp thought that the camp was very firmly built, but when the shells fell, they immediately became like flying leaves, and even many officers and soldiers did not seriously understand what was happening, and they turned into blood flowers and flew with them.

The North Koreans did not know where the Ming army had come from so many shells, and they continued to shell for nearly half an hour.

As soon as the shelling stopped, the hissing sound in the ears of the North Koreans had not subsided, and the black smoke of the Ming army artillery trucks had already driven up the blazing North Korean positions that had been blown up by the shells. They saw that in addition to the corpses that had been blown up on the battlefield, there were also those who were not dead, and they all rolled their eyes stupidly, looking at a soldier who walked up to their position, motionless. Most of them could no longer hear in their ears, many had been driven crazy by the shells, and some still did not know if they were dead or alive. In short, the stakes on the fence that looked solid were gone, and there were no North Korean soldiers to resist. A heavy artillery shell fell in the pile of people, and dozens or hundreds of people were blown up, and they understood that the war could not be fought!

Several generals on the walls of Seoul who came to watch the battle braved the wind of cannonballs and saw that the position covered by cannonballs had suddenly come to naught. As soon as the artillery fire stopped, he rushed to the palace and reported the situation to Li Liang. Li Wei heard it and broke out in a cold sweat. In fact, in the palace, Li Liang had already felt the shaking of the earth caused by the explosion of the cannonball, and he could also imagine the tragic situation of the officers and soldiers who were bombed next to the cannonball.

When Li Liang heard that tens of thousands of officers and soldiers on the first and second lines of the north had not withdrawn, he couldn't bear it, and shouted: "Hurry up! Hurry up and send someone to negotiate with the Ming army to see what they are going to do? ”

However, no one went out of the city to negotiate at this time, which shows that the military artillery blockade is so powerful that it cannot get out!

Wei Xiang had a good grasp of the rhythm of putting pressure on Li Liang. After the first shelling, troops were sent to occupy the first and second line positions of the North Koreans north of Seoul. After a long pause at noon, after the officers and men had taken a nap, the second shelling was carried out on the first and second line positions of the Koreans on the east side of Seoul. It was still the old tactic, and the Yaogang infantry still successfully occupied the first and second line positions of North Korea.

There is another problem with this first- and second-line position, that is, it is far away from the walls of Seoul, and the cannons on the walls do not have enough range to hit here. The artillery on the walls of Seoul sounded a few times just to strengthen the courage.

The Yaogang people were not in a hurry, and occupied the first and second line positions in two directions outside Seoul in the morning and afternoon. Li Qi and his ministers were in a hurry, and there were only hundreds of thousands of troops, and they had no power to fight back.

At night, the North Koreans saw piles of fires outside the city, which turned out to be the burning of corpses, and it happened that the wind was blowing towards Seoul, and the whole Seoul could smell of burning. The soldiers and civilians of Seoul were even more panicked, just one day, more than 100,000 people were gone, how could this battle be fought.

Li Liang, who had survived the night in anxiety, got a good news at dawn, and the Ming army sent a mortar into the city to send a letter of persuasion. The letter demanded that Li Ju surrender unconditionally, and that the Ming army guarantee his life.

Li Liang knew that hope was coming, and immediately forced a minister to go out of the city to negotiate. The minister who came out was very valued, and Wei Xiang personally received him. When this person heard that Wei Xiang was in front of him, he couldn't wait to eat Wei Xiang's meat, because they Koreans had always dealt with Wei Xiang and had suffered too much from Wei Xiang. However, with a smile on his face, he arched his hand and said, "Hey! General Wei is an old friend of our Koreans! I don't know why General Wei brought troops to the door again, if we do something wrong, General Wei can give us a letter! You see, there are countless dead and injured people now, and it is damaging to the relationship between our two countries! ”

Wei Xiang saw that the person who came was still very able to speak, and he didn't want to talk nonsense with him, "Why did you beat you, you know, don't pretend to be confused." Now I command you to surrender at once, or we will attack the city according to our plan, and then there will be more deaths!" ”

"Is there a war, we Koreans are not afraid of death," the person who came was still very face-saving, "However, our King asked me to come just to ask, what are your requirements for sending troops to war, we want to discuss with you!" ”

"It's not negotiable!" Wei Xiang said, "Let your king Li Liang come out and surrender, and we will take over Korea!" If you are interested, you will surrender on your own initiative, and if you are not interested, we will attack the city by force. You go back and discuss with Li Liang, just go out of the city and surrender before noon. Otherwise, we will start the siege in the afternoon! ”

As soon as the minister saw that there was nothing to say, he came back and told Li Ju the opinion of the Ming army. Such an opinion, where can Li Liang accept it all of a sudden. Naturally, he didn't go out of the city and surrendered before noon.

This was also expected by Wei Xiang, and in the afternoon, the Yaogang artillery once again exerted its might and occupied the first and second line positions west of Seoul.

At this time, only the direction of the Han River, the North Korean army, and the first and second line positions remained. However, the Korean officers and soldiers here fled to the city one after another, and some even secretly surrendered to the Ming army.

Early the next morning, Li Liang sent the minister who had negotiated with Wei Xiang out of the city to meet Wei Xiang, and Wei Xiang ordered a temporary halt to the operation.

When the minister saw Wei Xiang, he bowed his hand and said, "General Wei, our majesty has discussed with your lords, as long as you can withdraw your troops and go back, we are willing to cede a part of the land to you." I can also compensate you for some losses! ”

"My lord, isn't what I said last time clear enough?" Wei Xiang didn't want to talk nonsense.

"No, no, it's clear, it's clear! But you can't afford not to leave us a little leeway, can you? ”

"If you don't know how to lift, the room is the grave!" Wei Xiang said fiercely, turned around and ordered, "Continue to act as planned!" ”

"Yes!" The staff officer promised to go out and gave the order to go!

Soon the cannon fire began again.

The minister knew there was no need to say anything more, and got up and went back.

Wei Xiang said to him: "Before tonight, Li Qi will not leave the city, and tomorrow we will go into Seoul to arrest him!" ”

There was no suspense, the outer positions of Seoul, the first and second line positions in the direction of the Han River, were occupied by the Yaogang people again.

Of course, Li Liang did not go out of the city to surrender before the evening, but the time for the Yaogang people to enter Seoul did not wait until the next day.

Every time the minister came out of the city, he came out from the north gate, which shows that the north gate of the train was not blocked from the inside, and the breakthrough of the Yaogang people to break through Seoul was chosen here. Wei Xiang didn't want to destroy the walls of Seoul, because in the future this was the capital of Joseon Province, and it would be useful to keep the walls.

The first to start the operation was the special forces squadron that returned from Yaogang and Wei Xiang. They learned a lot about the situation inside the Joseon royal palace, and they also did several reconnaissance and photos from the air. Therefore, the leader of the special forces squadron proposed a plan of action for decapitation. When Wei Xiang heard this plan, he was also surprised, "Oops! Lao Tzu hasn't stayed in the kiln gang in the past few years, and he is a little outdated! Your plan is bold and thoughtful, and I agree with it. ”

The team that attacked the north gate began to prepare at night, and had already assembled and stood by after the war meal.

After a while, a delta-wing aircraft of the special forces flew into the sky in the night, and they determined the direction and flew towards Seoul. There were two people on board, and one of the latter was searching carefully with a telescope intently, and suddenly he reported on the radio that he found the royal palace, and there were lights in the palace, the target was clear, and everything was normal.

The leader of the special forces squadron outside Seoul ordered by radio: "Attention all! Let's go! ”

This special forces squadron brought thirty-two delta-wing aircraft. The special forces who received the order, driving the aircraft to rise into the air in turn, they formed according to the lights, flew over Seoul, and after meeting with the delta wing that had taken off earlier, the squadron leader ordered: "The operation begins!" ”