Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1446 Examination (Part [-])
Zhu Yijun's final decision was still to let Li Rusong return to Liaodong, which was not too beyond Gao Pragmatic's expectations, but it was indeed not the most ideal result in his mind.

Regarding Li Rusong, Gao Pragmatism has a positive attitude on the whole.However, this positive is mainly due to the fact that he is simpler than Naifu.

Li Rusong is a typical traditional general, and he is the kind of general who the emperor tells him to fight, and his ability to command troops is also enough to be selected as a famous general.As a knife, Li Rusong is definitely qualified, even called a precious knife.

However, this does not mean that Gao Yushi thinks that Li Rusong is the best candidate for Liao Shuai at this time.Li Rusong's status has both plus and minus points for him to be Liaoshuai.

The extra points are obvious. He grew up in Liaodong since he was a child. He followed Li Chengliang to fight in Liaodong when he was young, and he is fully familiar with all aspects of Liaodong.And as Li Chengliang's eldest son, he has always been treated as a young marshal by the Li family army. Li Chengliang's generals are counted as one, and they all admire him. None of the younger brothers dared to be dishonest in front of his elder brother.

From these perspectives, letting Li Rusong replace Li Chengliang can almost make Liaodong's coaching change without any disturbances, just as natural as the drizzle in early spring replacing winter snow.

In addition, as Zhu Yijun mentioned just now, if Li Rusong succeeds Li Chengliang, others will not say that he, the emperor, is mean and ungrateful—you, Li Chengliang, have lost so much, I still let you go back to Jing’an as Ning Yuanbo keep.I also handed over the post of Liaodong General Soldier that you retired to your legal heir to take over.May I ask if my favor and trust in your Li family cannot be increased?
But these are only from the good side. In fact, Li Rusong's replacement of Li Chengliang as Liao Shuai also has a bad side.

First of all, Li Rusong is Li Chengliang's eldest son no matter what. Even though he himself dares to fight to the death and is not greedy for money, the people under him are still the group brought out by Li Chengliang.This group of people admired Li Rusong, but at the same time, it was impossible for Li Rusong not to save any face for them.

When it's time to make them rich, Li Rusong will definitely not be able to let them have peace of mind; if something goes wrong with them, when it's time to protect them, Li Rusong will not be able to put down his face and say that I don't have subordinates like you.

The butt will always determine the head.Li Rusong would probably be more reliable as the Liao commander in chief than the current Li Chengliang, but it would be too embarrassing for him to expect Li Rusong to get rid of the old evils and completely clean up the Liaodong army.Whoever faced a bunch of uncles under his command would not be ashamed to shout and kill them.

Secondly, Li Rusong himself is too stubborn.In the evaluation of Li Chengliang in later generations, there is a saying called "able to be brave and timid".Among them, the Battle of Zuosuo, the Battle of Panshanyi, the Battle of Zhuoshan, the Battle of Pinglubao, the Battle of Hongtucheng, the Battle of Yangshanmu, the Battle of Yaerkui, the Battle of Diaobei Mountain, the Battle of Liaohe, the Battle of Azhou The Battle of Fushun, the Battle of Fushun, the Battle of Shenyang, the Battle of Kaiyuan, the Battle of Aorang Rabbit, the Battle of Caozigu, the Battle of Gulezhai... There is no doubt that they are brave every time.

This has also become a tradition of the Li family army. In the early years, including Li Chengliang himself (he was over [-] years old at the time), he took the lead in the charge during the battle.

Needless to say, Li Rusong, this brother is more ruthless than his father, and he always rushes to kill himself.In its history, in the battle of Byekjekwan in North Korea, three horses were killed on the spot just because of the horses they were riding, which shows the ferocity.

But Li Rusong did not learn Li Chengliang's "ability to fear".

What is "able to fear"?For example, Zhu Yijun granted Li Chengliang the title of Uncle Ning Yuan at that time, and Li Chengliang even asked to resign; this time Li Chengliang was defeated, he also immediately asked for punishment.For example, when Gao Yushi went to Liaodong, Li Chengliang was so angry that he was suppressed, but he still chose to smash his teeth and swallow his blood, and never fought Gao Yushi head-on. This is "being fearful".

The "ability to be fearful" here does not mean being timid and afraid of getting into trouble, but being able to be a human being, and even an official.

The emperor conferred Li Chengliang as Uncle Ning Yuan, that is his credit is enough, but he repeatedly resigned, this is "not conceited for taking credit"; this defeat, he was the first to ask for punishment by himself, this is "dare to take responsibility" , Don't shy away from saying defeat"; in the past, if you didn't compete head-on with high-level pragmatism, it was to assess the situation and forbearance.

Regardless of Li Chengliang's starting point for doing these things, judging from his behavior, at least no one can say that he committed suicide.

However, Li Rusong didn't learn this, he was too upright.Straightforward is a good word for generals, but as the saying goes, too rigid is easy to break, wisdom will hurt if you are extremely strong, and you will be humiliated if you are strong, and love will not last - if you are too rigid, you will easily get into trouble and suffer serious setbacks.

In the original history, Li Rusong suffered a severe setback when he was ambushed and died in a battle against the Mongols after his glorious Korean War.Historical records: "(Li) Rusong led Qingqi away from the nest, and died in an ambush."

Judging from this brief record in "History of the Ming Dynasty", Li Rusong's death was quite unexpected: he led a small number of elite cavalry into the captive territory, but died in an ambush.

Originally, Gao Wushi also thought that Li Rusong's death was mainly due to his own underestimation of the enemy. Although it is a pity, there is no way.

However, after Gao Wushi came to Daming for so many years, deeply intervened in politics, and played with countless conspiracies, he realized that Li Rusong's death in the original history was not that simple.

Li Rusong's performance in the first stage of the Korean War was dazzling. He entered the Korean War with only [-] soldiers and won successive battles. He successively conquered Pyongyang, recovered Kaesong, and forced the troubled Japanese army to withdraw from Seoul.In less than a hundred days, the three capitals of North Korea were recovered.It also completely allowed Japan at that time to experience the true strength of Daming, and shattered Toyotomi Hideyoshi's fantasy of attacking Daming in one fell swoop.

Later, because the Chinese and Japanese armies tended to end the war through peace talks, Li Rusong made a triumphant return to his class, and was named the Prince Taibao, and the Zuo Dudu of the Chinese Army Commander's Mansion.So far, the war has come to an end.

But things are not over yet.A few years later, the peace talks broke down.In the 25th year of Wanli, the Japanese army made a comeback again and crossed the sea to invade. Just like the replica of the previous time, the Japanese army once again pointed directly at Wangjing Seoul, and North Korea was in a hurry again.

This time, Daming responded quickly and was invited to send troops to support him again, and appointed Ma Gui as the main general to sit in Seoul.Under the unfavorable situation where Namwon and Jeonju fell one after another, and the Japanese army pressed hard on the periphery of Seoul, the Battle of Jishan was launched and the situation was stabilized.

Later, more and more reinforcements from the Ming army went to North Korea, and the Japanese army changed from strategic offensive to strategic defense, and returned to guard the fortified Japanese city built along the coast. It's completely over.

But here comes the question: this second phase of the war to aid Korea is the time when Ma Gui is in command. Since Li Rusong performed well last time, why not let Li Rusong take command again this time, and send Ma Gui over from thousands of miles away? ?
Of course Ma Gui is also a famous general in the world, but what is Li Rusong doing at this moment, why didn't he go?

The fact is that Li Rusong made up for the vacancy of the Liaodong Army in the winter of the 25th year of Wanli, and returned to Liaodong, where his father Li Chengliang had been in charge for many years and was deeply rooted.

Gao Yushi had to carefully examine this point in time, which happened to be some time after the outbreak of the second phase of the war to aid Korea.Specifically, after the Battle of Jishan, the Ming army had basically stabilized the front line, forcing the Japanese army to shrink the line of defense and switch to a strategic defense.The Ming army, on the other hand, began to switch to a strategic offensive after reinforcements arrived one after another.

Now that the front line has stabilized, there is no need to send Li Rusong to rescue the emergency.However, not long after, in April of the following year, according to Ming history records, when fighting against the Mongolian invaders in Liaodong, Li Rusong led his Qingqi out of the nest and died in an ambush.

Fuck!Such a famous general died in such a small battle for no reason?And still died in battle because of such a low-level command error?
Are you kidding me?This TM is Li Rusong's level?
It would be hard for normal people to believe it, because in North Korea a few years ago, Li Rusong once fought a battle very similar to this battle, that is, the famous Battle of Byejeon.

During the Battle of the Blue Hoof Hall, Li Rusong had quite an experience in dividing the cavalry under his command into three groups.The vanguard team, the own team, and the second team led by the direct general Yang Yuan as support, the three teams marched one after another.

In this battle, the vanguard was besieged by heavy Japanese troops first, and Li Rusong immediately led his team to meet him. After breaking into the siege, he fought hard for a long time.Just when both sides were a little tired, Yang Yuan's rear team arrived in time, and Li Rusong was able to take the opportunity to break through and counterattack, and finally killed and retreated the Japanese army.

Then it is not difficult to see from the battle of the Blue Foot Hall that Li Rusong is actually rough and detailed in commanding operations. He attacked boldly, but he also left behind tricks.What's more, how could Li Rusong, who was in danger and besieged during the Battle of the Blue Foot Pavilion, not be more cautious afterwards, and instead easily commit danger again?This is just too weird.

In Li Rusong's contemporary Zhao Shizhen's "Sacred Artifact Book", there is such a record: "I saw that Liaozuo surrendered Li Pinghu to Li Pinghu, because of the rich salary of the high-ranking officials of the court, and the kindness of nurturing Ningyuan and Ningyuan, after all, the coach went out of the fortress. During the period, Li Rusong's body was anointed on the grass, and his bones were blocked."

According to Zhao Shizhen's records, the root cause of Li Rusong's death is that Li Pinghu leaked the date of Li Rusong's departure from the fortress!
Is this an isolated case?No, Zhao Zhigao was the chief assistant of the cabinet at that time, and there are more detailed records in his epitaph written for Li Rusong. [Wufeng Note: Due to the ambiguity of the inscription, the unrecognizable parts are replaced with "□". ]
"Gong (referring to Li Rusong) likes to use the few to overwhelm the crowd. My long-term skills should be in the art of cultivating goodness. I already know that there will be ambushes. I have carried 5000 people into the battle for hundreds of miles. , going to and fro □pounding thousands of people as if there was no one there. Let Li Pinghu and Zhang Yudai have an army to support them, and the captives did not know how much haste, one □□, flanking the back, wouldn't it be even more amazing victory. □□No life, Commander-in-Chief and the enemy, with all their strength, generously killing the horses they sit on, earning fame for thousands of miles, leaving their bodies crippled after hundreds of battles, making them a mess. It's so sad, oh so sad!"

At this point, the direct cause of Li Rusong's death has been revealed!It seems that in this battle, Li Rusong is the same as in the previous battle of Bichi Pavilion, and Li Pinghu and Zhang Yu are also arranged as backup.

If the two of them come to support them according to the plan, there is a high probability that they can turn defeat into victory, and at worst, they can rescue Li Rusong like the battle of Bishou Hall.

However, for some reason, Li Ping and Hu didn't arrive in time to respond like Yang Yuan did in the Battle of the Blue Foot Pavilion!

It stands to reason that things are almost clear here.However, a very strange thing happened, which made the whole incident even more confusing.

That is, what happened to Li Pinghu?
It stands to reason that the capital of the imperial court has spoken. It was you, Li Pinghu, who killed the imperial court's Liaodong general, and Li Rusong himself was the captain of Zhu Yijun's firefighting brigade. How could it be possible not to behead the traitor for public display?At the very least, he should be dismissed and investigated, right?

There are so many veteran veterans of the Li family in Liaodong, how could they easily let go of this guy who killed Li Rusong?In particular, Li Pinghu himself was also a servant of the Li family army, and now that he killed the young commander, is this still not punished?

However, the fact is that Li Pinghu's name appears again and again in the No. 60 eighth volume of Ming Xizong Shilu.At this time, almost twenty years have passed, and the grass on Li Rusong's grave is probably already tall, but Li Pinghu still appears in the historical records, and even leads troops to fight.

In other words, after Li Rusong's death, Li Pinghu was not severely punished, and he still holds actual military power more than [-] years later.

This is strange, it stands to reason that Li Pinghu has always been favored by two generations of the Li family, and the Li family has really treated him well.What's more, after betraying Li Rusong, Li Pinghu himself did not defect to Mongolia or other forces, but continued to stay in the Ming Dynasty and served as a general until 20 years later.

That being the case, why did he betray Li Rusong?What good would it do him to betray his young marshal?It was such a big responsibility to betray Li Rusong, why didn't he do anything about it?
Gao Wushi felt that there must be a problem.But at present, it seems to be in a dead end, so we have to look at it from a higher perspective.Examine what?Take a look at what happened to the people around Li Rusong.

First of all, his second brother Li Rubai. Although Li Rubai's ability is only average among the Li family members, because he is the second child, he served as Li Rusong's deputy in the first stage of the war to aid Korea. Zhong also made a contribution.

After the class division, he successively served as the commander-in-chief of Guizhou and Ningxia. One year before Li Rusong died in battle, Li Rubai resigned due to illness-this resignation was not a joke, and he stayed at home for more than 20 years. It was almost 70 years old at the time of the Battle of the Marsh before it was used again. This is a later story.

One year before Li Rusong's death, Li Rubai, who was in his prime, "resigned due to illness" and stayed at home for more than [-] years. Could this not be just a coincidence?
Well, let's just pretend it's an unrelated accidental coincidence.Gao Yushi re-examined one more person, that is, Yang Yuan, a direct descendant of the Li family army who had previously served as a backup in the Battle of Bichiguan and rescued Li Rusong from the Japanese encirclement.

In the second phase of the War to Aid Korea, Yang Yuan led [-] Liaodong cavalry under his command and was sent to the front line of Nanyuan City by his new boss Ma Gui.Then encountered more than ten times the siege of the Japanese army. After holding on for a period of time, because they were really outnumbered and reinforcements were delayed, the army was forced to break out of the siege and withdraw after standing alone for several days. Most of the defenders died in battle.

At this stage, compared to Chen Yuzhong, another general in Quanzhou who not only refused to save his troops, but also fled the city without a fight, Yang Yuan's performance can be described as conscientious.Even after returning to Seoul, Ma Gui said to him, "The defeat of Nanyuan was not a crime of war."

But please note that Ma Gui ordered Yang Yuan to be beheaded to show the public.

According to "Those Things in the Ming Dynasty", the reason why Ma Gui killed him was to behead Yang Yuan to warn the rest of the people: if you win this battle, you will die!

Okay, let’s kill a chicken and show it to the monkey, that also makes sense.But Gao Pragmatism still has doubts: Why can't there be any records of how to deal with Chen Yuzhong who fled without a fight?

Okay, let's just treat Chen Yuzhong as someone in the court, but there is a bigger problem: since Yang Yuan was killed to warn the whole army on the front line, it is natural that killing Yang Yuan at the front line in Seoul would be the best.However, according to records, Yang Yuan was sent back to the border of Daming, where he was beheaded in Liaoyang, which was less than eight poles away from the front line of Seoul.

This is amazing, now the chicken is killed, but which monkey is it for?

If it is really to motivate the entire army on the front line in North Korea, why bother to be executed hundreds of miles away in the country? Wouldn't it be better to kill them on the spot?And from the point of view of time, Yang Yuan should have died around the beginning of the 26th year of Wanli, not far from the death of Li Rusong.

Well, Li Rubai's resignation is a coincidence, and Yang Yuan's death is an isolated evidence, so Gao Wushi will continue to examine and see if the fate of Li Rusong's family general Li Ning is better.

In September of the 26th year of Wanli, that is, within half a year of Li Rusong's death, in the Battle of Sacheon on the Korean battlefield, Li Ning entered the enemy line alone and defeated the Japanese army.

What's going on?Why is it so outnumbered after the lone army enters?How could this be incomparably similar to Li Rusong's method of death?

In the battle of Sacheon, the Ming army possessed an absolute superiority in strength, yet there were incidents where important generals were outnumbered and killed in battle after defeating the enemy.Gao Yushi can guess this time without careful recollection. In all likelihood, after Li Ning broke through first, the follow-up troops that should come to meet him have not arrived.

Why didn't the follow-up troops come?Another accident?There were a lot of accidents in the Ming Dynasty!

Gao Wushi felt that he should look at the last one again: Li Rumei, Li Rusong's younger brother.

As Li Rusong's fifth younger brother, during the first phase of the war to aid Korea, Li Rumei's role was not as important as that of his second brother Li Rubai, but he still had a sense of presence on the battlefield.

Historical records: "Thirty miles away from Wangjing, I suddenly encountered a Japanese, and the siege was heavy. Ru Songdu's subordinates fought fiercely. A gold-armored Japanese fought as fast as Song, and commanded Li Yousheng to save him. Mei shot the golden armored Japanese and fell off the horse, and Yang Yuan's soldiers also arrived, and they were encircled heavily, and the Japanese retreated."

This record says that the situation in the rebellious army was critical at that time, seeing that Li Rusong was almost killed at the hands of a golden-armored Japanese general of the Japanese army, it was Li Rumei who opened his bow and shot him off the horse, saving Li Rusong.Li Rumei was known as Li Guang among the five sons of the Li family. It was only natural that this arrow came from him, and he was handsome enough.

In the second phase of the War to Aid Korea, although Li Rusong and Li Rubai did not come to participate, Li Rumei still came, and there are records in Ming history. , and let the guerrilla pendulum race lure the thieves with light cavalry, behead four hundred, and the remaining thieves fled back to Daoshan." It can be seen that Li Rumei at this time was already brave and resourceful, and made military exploits.

After Li Rusong's death, in order to embody the meaning of compensation, the emperor immediately let his younger brother Li Rumei take over the post of Liaodong General Soldier.From this point of view, Li Rumei seems to be a lucky counterexample among Li Rusong's brothers and veterans.

Is it really?otherwise.Li Rumei, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, only worked for less than a year, and was dismissed at the beginning of the second year.The reason for the dismissal is also jaw-dropping: a minister in the court impeached him for being afraid of the enemy, so he was impeached and dismissed.

Fear the enemy?After reading Li Rumei's battle records above, with the two time points so close to each other, this person who is afraid of the enemy... is really Li Rumei?

It must be true, but why did Li Rumei, who was still fighting desperately, make a 180-degree turn in a short period of time, turning into a person who is afraid of the enemy?
For a long time, Gao Yushi thought that it might be because the direct descendants of the Li family had lost too much, and Li Rumei didn't dare to fight at this time, but after examining those people and things in front of him, he realized that the reason must not be so simple.

Li Rumei is indeed afraid of the enemy, but what he fears is not the enemy in front, but the enemy in the rear.

However, in this life, he appeared with high pragmatism, so there was the opposition of the Real School, the Heart School, and Li Chengliang joined the Heart School, so Li Jiajun had enemies in the court.The original School of Reality in history has long since disappeared. Why are there still people in the court targeting Li Jiajun?

What is even more strange is that before Li Chengliang stepped down, Li Jiajun's reputation in the court was not bad.

Why? ——
Thanks to the book friend "Lu Sen" for the support of the monthly ticket, thank you!
(End of this chapter)