Daming talker

Chapter 690: Settlement of Accounts after Autumn
In a city defense battle, if one gate is breached, there is little point in defending all the gates.

So when the Lu Gate in the South City was breached and five or six thousand Ming troops rushed into the city first, the Japanese soldiers gradually gave up the gates in the West and South City.

While relying on the earthen caves built in the city to defend themselves, they retreated to the East City which was not attacked by the Ming army.

After Lin Jinglue fled along the city wall from Lumen to Pugongmen, he opened the Pugongmen and let in the Ming army under Li Rubai.

Standing at the edge of the city gate, under the close protection of his personal soldiers, Lin Jinglüe, who had accomplished another great feat of "being the first to ascend the city", began to take off his armor.

After all, this is a special heavy armor weighing eighty kilograms. Lin Jinglie will be tired after wearing it and finishing the battle.

At this time, Li Rusong, commander of the First Corps, Li Rubai, deputy commander of the left wing of the First Corps, and other generals came forward to pay their respects.

As Lin Jinglue took off his armor, he said casually, "This trivial matter of climbing the city gate has already been done by our department.

Now I will give you the difficult task of entering the city to wipe out the stubborn bandits. You will not fail to do it, will you? "

Li Rusong was speechless. There might only be one civil official like him in history who liked to be the first to ascend the stage.

It was the case in Ningxia City that time, and it was the case in Pyongyang City this time. Is it because he is seeking excitement and has become addicted to it?

If Lin Tailai was just a small soldier, he might be able to directly become a hereditary centurion based on his merit of being the first to reach the top in a battle.

But as a minister of strategy, I really don’t know why he risked his life by climbing the city walls to kill the enemy.

Li Rusong could not help but advise: "The lives of the generals are worth a lot of money, and the matter is of great importance. You should not personally risk the lives of the generals.

If the army is harmed in the slightest, we, the generals, will die without redemption, and how can we explain this to the court?"

This is true. If the Minister of State Affairs was punished, the commander of the army, Li Rusong, would also be punished. So when General Lin suddenly appeared on the top of the city wall, the person who was afraid in the end might be General Li.

Lin Tailai said calmly, "Are you teaching me how to do things? If you are the first to take the credit, this department can give it to you, or not."

Li Rusong suddenly realized that Lin Jinglie's bravery in going first was probably to intimidate the arrogant and powerful generals from Liaodong.

According to the earliest deployment, Li Rusong supervised the battle in the northwest direction, and Lin Jinglue supervised the battle in the southwest direction.

In other words, Li Rusong was responsible for supervising the battle along the line from Mudan Peak and Mitai Gate in the north city to Qixing Gate in the west city, and Lin Jinglue was responsible for supervising the battle along the line from Hantan Gate and Lu Gate in the south city to Ordinary Gate in the west city.

But on the night before the siege, the generals from the Liaodong Army were worried about injustice, so they asked Li Rusong to supervise the entire battle in Xicheng.

This was mainly because the Minister of State Administration, Lin Tailai, was from the south and was obviously close to the southern soldiers. Apart from anything else, two of the three military camps directly under the Minister of State Administration were from the southern soldiers system.

This inevitably made the generals of the Liaodong Army feel uneasy, fearing that they would be unfairly rewarded or punished.

For example, if several people attack several city gates at the same time and break through the gates at about the same time, how do we calculate the credit for being the first to break through the city?
But no one expected that Lin Jinglie would slap himself in the face in this way.

Looking at Li Rubai and the Liaodong Army officers behind him, Lin Jinglüe sneered again: "The credit given to you by this department is the credit. No one can take away what this department does not want to give!"

The generals were silent and did not dare to look at the minister.

Li Rusong tried to smooth things over by saying, "The war is not over yet, so let's continue to suppress the bandits."

Lin Tailai then issued an order: "According to reports from scouts on the other side of the Taedong River, the Japanese troops coming to rescue Pyongyang have already retreated halfway.

Now pass on my military order, the battle for Pyongyang must be ended before tomorrow morning!
If you are incompetent, all the officers in charge of the main attack on West City today will be demoted by one rank!"

The generals lowered their heads and rushed into the city.

The course of the battle after that was roughly the same as in history. The Ming army kept setting fire to the Japanese soldiers' earthen fortifications. Thousands of Japanese soldiers were burned to death inside, and the stench spread for ten miles.

Seeing that the fortress built in the city could not stop the Ming army, the commander of the Japanese First Corps, Konishi Yukinaga, retreated to the east city with his remaining tens of thousands of soldiers.

However, the Ming army remained unceremonious and continued to set fire. After all, this was a city of Korea, so they had no regrets about burning it.

Seeing that the Ming army had a huge advantage and that reinforcements had not arrived yet, Konishi Yukinaga broke out from the east city.

When Lin Jinglüe deployed his troops to siege the city, he adopted the strategy of "surrounding three sides and leaving one side open" and did not deploy troops in the east city.

Therefore, it was easy for Konishi Yukinaga to lead the remaining troops to break out of Dongcheng in the middle of the night, but it did not mean that they could escape successfully, because the Taedong River was outside Dongcheng.

Under the pursuit of the Ming army, the Japanese soldiers who broke through either turned back and struggled to their death, or were forced to jump into the Taedong River in the chaos.

In this late night of reaping lives, thousands of Japanese pirates were drowned in the Taedong River.

The Japanese commander Konishi Yukinaga crossed the Taedong River and continued to flee under the desperate protection of his Konoe.

History had a butterfly effect here. Three Ming army columns that had been ambushed on the banks of the Taedong River, as well as Shen Weijing, a big liar who could speak Japanese, appeared in front of Konishi Yukinaga and the remaining soldiers.

"Xiao Xisang! I've bought you a chance to surrender." Shen Weijing said earnestly in fluent Japanese: "As a good friend, I've risked my life to save you. Otherwise, the Ming army would have killed you all to claim credit."

Konishi Yukinaga: “.”

After a day and night of continuous fighting, the battle of Pyongyang was basically over.

The Record of Punishment and Caution of the Joseon Kingdom in this time and space records: “In the morning, all the cannons were fired at the same time, as if the sky was collapsing and the earth was splitting, and then the heavenly soldiers bravely rushed to attack each gate.

Tianshuai Lin Tailai came to supervise the battle at Lumen. He took pity on the casualties of his soldiers and personally put on heavy armor and led the way up the city wall. He killed dozens of Japanese bandits with his own hands. The Japanese bandits were terrified and fled. Then he seized the gate and broke into the city.

The Wanli Dichao Renchen Volume says: "General Lin Tailai braved blood and led the royal army to behead more than 3,000 people, burn more than 6,000 people to death, drown more than 5,000 people, and captured the Japanese pirate leader Konishi Yukinaga alive."

October 17th was another early morning. After daybreak, Lin Tailai appeared in Fengyue Tower in the north of the city.

This is a tower that was previously the "headquarters" of Konishi Yukinaga's corps and is now requisitioned by Lin Jinglüe.

Although the bottom floor of the tower was quite spacious, Lin Tailai disliked the clutter and stuffiness inside, so he placed the handsome chair on the platform outside the building entrance.

Shen Weijing brought a dishevelled captive over and introduced him to Lin Jinglue as if he were presenting a treasure: "This is the Japanese army's chief general, Konishi Yukinaga, who I persuaded to surrender."

Lin Jinglue did not express anything special, just like he was facing an ordinary prisoner. He pointed to a head beside the seat and said to Shen Weijing: "Ask Konishi Yukinaga if he knows who this is?"

Shen Weijing turned around and asked a few questions to Konishi Yukinaga who was pressed to the ground. Then Konishi Yukinaga looked up to identify the head and answered a few more questions.

Shen Weijing then said to Lin Tailai, "This head belongs to the Japanese Tango no Kami Omura Kizen."

Lin Jinglüe finally knew exactly who the Japanese general was who had the honor of being the first to be killed by him, and he suddenly felt clear-headed.

Otherwise, this doubt would really bother him for the rest of his life.

There were really not many prisoners this time. They had asked before, but no one recognized the identity of the head, which made Lin Jinglie a little anxious.

"So your name is Omura Kizen. Congratulations again on leaving your name in history." Lin Tailai said to the head, waved his hand, and let Dayun take the head away.

Then he said to Shen Weijing, "Take Konishi Yukinaga away, give him food and wine, and keep him under good care."

Shen Weijing was stunned and asked, "That's it?"

This is the commander of the Japanese army. Now he is captured alive in front of you, General Lin. Don't you want to have a heart-to-heart talk with him? Don't you want to exchange some experiences and get some intelligence?
How come in Lin Jinglie's eyes, Konishi Yukinaga is no different from passers-by A, B, C, and D, and his only role is to help identify a head?
The most important thing is, if you, Lin Jinglie, do not have in-depth exchanges with Konishi Yukinaga, how can Shen Weijing be useful?

"What's the matter? Is there any problem?" Lin Tailai asked the stunned Shen Weijing.

What? After playing too many Glory games, do we need a scene where heroes recognize heroes and heroes appreciate heroes?
Shen Weijing reminded him, "This is the vanguard commander of the Japanese army. Do you want to ask him something?"

"No need!" Lin Tailai decisively ignored it. "Just take him away and lock him up. You are responsible for guarding him."

Shen Weijing: “.”

What do you mean by unnecessary? Is this how you get intelligence, Lord Jinglüe?

Lin Jinglue urged impatiently, "You go down first! There are still many matters to be dealt with after the war!"

Afterwards, the generals of the 27 columns of the First Corps came to Fengyue Tower one after another, stood under the platform, and waited for the summary of the Minister of Strategy.

Lin Jinglie had some minor injuries, so he called a doctor over to treat his wound in front of all the generals.

After taking a look at the thirty or so generals, Lin Jinglue said to Li Rusong, the commander of the First Corps, in a sarcastic tone: "Li Rusong, you are very strong now."

The matter began to be settled. Li Rusong said helplessly, "I don't know what the general means."

Lin Tailai smiled and said: “You have nearly 40,000 troops under your command, which is half more than the other corps combined, and most of the generals are you old men from Liaodong!

It seems that you alone are enough to influence the war situation in Korea, so why not let me, the Minister of Strategy, take charge of it as well?"

Li Rusong said quickly: "I dare not! I dare not!"

Lin Tailai's expression turned cold, and he asked, "On the night of October 15, the day before yesterday, which generals proposed to change the arrangements for supervising the battle?"

Li Rusong felt that he was now caught in the middle and was in a difficult situation. The generals of the Liaodong Army proposed to change the arrangements for supervising the battle in order to prepare for competing for credit.

If he had indeed made great contributions, the Liaodong Army would still be able to stand up to Lin Jinglie.

But the problem is that all the credit for being the first to capture the gate was taken away by Lin Jinglie alone, without even a competitor.

To put it bluntly, the subsequent battles were just going with the flow and cleaning up the battlefield, which is far from being comparable to "being the first to reach the gate."

The generals of the Liaodong Army spent a long time thinking about how to compete for credit, and even showed some doubts about Lin Jinglie. Now they are completely embarrassed.

Lin Tailai looked at the silent generals and sneered repeatedly.

There was indeed a certain gap between the main Liaodong Army and other troops, especially those from the south. This was an objective phenomenon in history.

Since Lin Jinglie took over this matter, he was of course mentally prepared for it.

He was not interested in doing any detailed work such as "ideological work", and people of this era did not have such noble consciousness.

So they just used violence to break the situation, used their personal bravery to establish their prestige and suppress the enemy with force.

Finally, it was Li Rusong who broke the silence, gritting his teeth and saying, "It is my fault for indulging my subordinates before! I was not strict with my subordinates, and I am willing to accept the punishment!"

Lin Tailai responded: "I have said that when a large army is fighting, military discipline must be strict! The commander must deal with it, and the subordinates must also be dealt with! You don't have to take advantage of the opportunity to buy people's hearts!
If anyone had a problem with the deployment, why didn't they raise it when it was deployed on October 13? Why did they have to submit a change request at the last minute, the night before the attack?
To put it more seriously, is this damaging our military's morale and coercing our superiors wrong?"

Li Rusong felt that his life was really difficult. He was really blinded by greed and helped the generals of the Liaodong Army so presumptuously!
Lin Jinglie seemed to have turned into a chatterbox and started to taunt, "Why are you silent?
I thought you were all very capable, and that each of you seemed to be able to perform great deeds, so I was worried about unfair rewards and punishments, but in the end, it was still up to the headquarters to break the door in person."

If other civilian officers were to attack in the face like this, perhaps some generals who were in the group would jump out and stab them.

But now, all the generals looked at the 80-jin heavy armor that had been dyed red beside the commander's chair and lowered their heads.

At this time, Li Rusong had actually realized that Lin Jinglie could have clearly refused the night before, but he still agreed. Although he seemed to be giving in, he definitely had "bad intentions" in his heart!
It can even be said that since he began to endure it the night before, Lin Jinglie had already begun to think about how to steal the credit and slap the other person in the face, and then settle the score later!
Even the choice to supervise the battle in Lumen was probably a carefully planned one.

This method is obviously the old and sinister method used by intellectuals and politicians!
That’s not right. The feat of climbing up the city wall, breaking through the gate and killing dozens of enemies with bare hands is not something a normal person can accomplish, so is this a new type of old-fashioned trick that “mixes civil and military skills”?
Just as he was daydreaming, he heard Lin Tailai say, "Even if you refuse to answer, Li Rusong, I can probably guess that the person who instigated you the night before must be the general who led the attack on the ordinary gate!
Because only they have the need and motivation to let you supervise the battle! The generals in the direction of the Seven Star Gate are already supervised by you, so there is no need to do this again!"

Li Rubai, the general in charge of commanding the attack on the ordinary gate, finally could no longer remain silent and stepped forward and said, "I am also willing to be punished. There is no need to pursue the matter further."

Lin Tailai said, "Then you two brothers will each be punished once! If you do it again next time, you will be punished together!"

General Li breathed a sigh of relief. The matter was finally over. He said, "Thank you for your generosity!"

Lin Tailai sighed deeply and said to Li Rusong: "I am doing this for your own good, to help you improve military discipline."

To this kind of routine talk, General Li just wanted to say "hmmmm". We have been brothers for many years and have become immune to PUA.

Then he heard Lin Jinglie continue to say: "Otherwise, when you lead the army alone, how can you win if your officers are not used to strict military discipline?"

"What? Leading the army alone?" General Li couldn't help but be surprised, and his facial expression was almost out of control.

(End of this chapter)