Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Huang Taiji's strategy for attacking Korea was completely different from Amin's.

After the failure of the attack on Dalinghe Fort, he deeply realized that the strengths of the Eight Banners soldiers were not in attacking cities. When attacking Korea, he abandoned Amin's city-by-city fighting method and adopted a new strategy.

On November 300, Huang Taiji had just arrived in Korea when he sent Generals Mafuta, Laosa and others to lead elite cavalrymen, disguised as a caravan, to Seoul to explore the roads along the way.

He planned to take advantage of the Eight Banners' high mobility, use elite cavalry as the vanguard, and attack Seoul, the capital of Korea.

Then, he appointed Dorgon and Ajige as the left wing, and Duoduo and Shuotuo as the right wing, responsible for supporting the central army.

He also ordered Du Du to lead a troop to Tieshan to intimidate Dongjiang Town which had retreated to Pi Island.

He personally led the army and set out on November 10th, heading towards Xuanchuan in a mighty manner.

Looking at the inconspicuous town in front of him, Huang Taiji asked his attendants:

“Is this the so-called Xuanchuan?”

“My son and brother-in-law died here?”

A general with a yellow flag next to him said:

"Yes! This is Xuanchuan."

"But the master did not die here, but on the road to death ahead."

Huang Taiji couldn't help getting angry when he saw how timid he was.

But most of the soldiers of the Bordered Yellow Banner are like this now, like frightened birds.

This made him angry, but he also realized that he had to attack Xuanchuan and break through this obstacle.

In addition, Xuanchuan City is strategically located and can be considered the only way to go south. In order to ensure the safety of his retreat, he also has to capture this city.

So he ordered:
"attack!"

Li Yongfang was also sent to lead the Han soldiers to attack the front and fill up the moat first.

Li Yongfang had become somewhat numb, knowing that the Khan was trying to kill the Han soldiers.

But he had no way to resist and could only drive his soldiers forward.

The Han soldiers numbly rushed forward carrying stones on their backs, ready to face artillery fire and bullets, but to their surprise, the artillery in Xuanchuan City was extremely scarce and the firing speed was extremely slow.

This made them very happy, and they rushed forward hurriedly. When they were 300 meters away from the city, they encountered arrow-shaped bullets as expected.

However, the crudely made arrow-shaped bullets that the Koreans imitated were far less accurate than those of the Ming Dynasty. The Han soldiers found that as long as they stood away, the arrow-shaped bullets would most likely not hit them.

This made them even more surprised. When they ran to a distance of 100 meters from the city, the casualties began to increase.

This is because North Korean soldiers are not equipped with many conical bullets. The most common bullet they are equipped with is the Isan bullet, which consists of one large and three small spherical projectiles.

However, due to the slow firing rate of the matchlock gun, most of the Korean soldiers only fired one or two rounds before being rushed to the front of the moat by the Han soldiers.

Some Han soldiers did not even risk their lives to fill the river, and they were able to run back after throwing down the stones.

This also surprised Li Yongfang a little. He realized that the combat effectiveness of the Korean soldiers was far inferior to that of the Ming soldiers, and the number of firearms was far less.

So he immediately gave up the idea of ​​using stones and corpses to fill the river, and asked the soldiers to carry sandbags forward. Some soldiers also put sandbags in front of their bodies to protect them from bullets.

In the end, less than a thousand of Li Yongfang's men died, and they successfully filled the moat.

The process went so smoothly that he even felt like he was in another world.

But he did not realize that after nearly a thousand more people died, the Han soldiers looked at him with hatred. Some fathers, sons and brothers who were all killed in the battle had other plans.

Huang Taiji watched the Han soldiers successfully fill up the moat, and he couldn't believe it.

The failure of the Battle of Dalingh River also left a shadow in his heart.

But thinking about the success of the previous attack on Liaodong city, he felt that this was the right way.

He immediately ordered Abatai:
"You lead the soldiers to charge and capture this city!"

Abatai was very reluctant because after the defeat at Dalinghhe, the Eight Banners soldiers generally did not want to fight a siege.

But he still had to obey the Khan's orders, so he could only say in a muffled voice:
"Yes!"

He sent out his most elite Niulu soldiers to attack the city.

Although these soldiers were somewhat afraid of the siege, they did not completely lose their bravery and rushed to the moat in one go.

Then he set up a ladder and climbed up the city wall.

To their surprise, the North Korean soldiers had very little will to resist. As soon as they climbed onto the city wall and started hand-to-hand combat, some soldiers fled.

This encouraged them, and Abatai was overjoyed. He sent all six of his Niulu up there.

In the end, Abatai captured Xuanchuan City with only dozens of casualties, and then his soldiers began to loot the city.

When the soldiers of the Bordered Yellow Banner saw this scene, they simply couldn't believe it. The Xuanchuan City that had made them so afraid was captured just like that.

Thinking of the clumsy use of muskets by the Korean soldiers and the invincibility of the Jurchen warriors in hand-to-hand combat, a general of the Bordered Yellow Banner murmured:
"It turns out that those who use muskets are really idiots, and those who use swords are heroes!"

The bow and arrow that Yangguli mentioned was changed into swords.

This reminded many Eight Banners soldiers that they had hardly ever been defeated in close combat, and they regained some confidence in their own strength.

Then, under Huang Taiji's order, he joined in the looting of Xuanchuan City.

Because of the anger they had accumulated in Dongjiang, they showed no mercy in the robbery, and they slaughtered all the Korean independence factions that Kim Ji-jeon had sent over.

The entire Xuanchuan city was covered in blood, and not many North Korean soldiers and civilians survived.

Through this kind of violent catharsis, the soldiers of the Bordered Yellow Banner released their frustration.

Huang Taiji then led them to the so-called road of death:

“Is this the road to death?”

“Nothing special!”

The Death Road, which was made to sound magical by the soldiers of the Bordered Yellow Banner and the Bordered Blue Banner, was actually just a mountain path with hills on both sides.

This mountain road was nothing special before, but after the range of the musket reached three hundred meters, it suddenly became an excellent ambush site.

Many soldiers from the Bordered Yellow Banner and Bordered Blue Banner were killed here.

Huang Taiji said it with contempt, but he still attached great importance to this road in his heart, because the supplies he looted after going south would inevitably pass through here on his way back.

So he ordered:
"Set fire, burn the mountain!"

"Burn this place to the ground."

He ordered the Han soldiers to go forward and set fire to both sides. It was November, and the grass and trees in the mountains and forests were dry and easy to ignite.

The raging fire even spread to the nearby mountains, causing the beasts and birds inside to flee everywhere.

After the flames were extinguished the next day, Huang Taiji ordered the Han soldiers to take the lead, clear out all places where people could hide, and move forward to Dingzhou.

This is the capital of Dongjiang Territory. The city is relatively prosperous and many Koreans have not left. Jin Zidian also sent some independent factions.

In order to completely restore the combat effectiveness of the Bordered Yellow Banner, Huang Taiji continued to order the Han soldiers to fill the moat and then let the Bordered Yellow Banner attack.

Just like the attack on Xuanchuan, as long as the Jurchen soldiers climbed onto the city wall and fought with the Korean soldiers, those Korean soldiers would be defeated.

It took Huang Taiji only three days to completely capture the Dongjiang Territory, which had trapped Amin and Hauge for several months.

This made many of the Eight Banners soldiers look at Amin with disdain. Huang Taiji also re-established his prestige and told the Eight Banners soldiers that

I am still their invincible Khan!
The Korean soldiers and civilians in Dingzhou were not completely massacred. This was not because the Jurchens wanted to let them go, but because they wanted to use them as cannon fodder.

All of them had their heads shaved and walked in the front instead of the Han soldiers.

Those who wanted independence and even radically launched a northern expedition became disheartened after having their hair shaved, and fully realized that North Korea had no capital for independence.

At this moment, they only hoped that the Ming Dynasty soldiers would come and save North Korea.
-
The Korean king and his ministers in Seoul also shared the same idea.

On November 13, King Yi Jong of Joseon had just received news of a large-scale invasion by the Jianlu. On the 14th, he learned that the Jianlu cavalry had arrived on the outskirts of Seoul.

Although this group of Jianlu who sneaked through disguised as a merchant caravan consisted of only 300 people, they terrified the Korean king and his ministers.

The Korean independence faction, which had previously clamored for a northern expedition to Liaodong and a display of North Korea's strength, did not have a single person come up with a countermeasure.

Zhou Yuji, the Ming general who was sent to protect the King of Joseon, said after Li Jong left the court:
"Didn't His Highness train a firearms army?"

"Why not let them fight?"

Li Jong suddenly seemed to have grabbed a life-saving straw and urged them to fight.

This Korean firearms army has 10,000 soldiers, 2,000 of whom are equipped with firearms supported by the Ming Dynasty.

This was withheld by the Korean king and his ministers when the items were sent to the front line.

There were also more than 5,000 people equipped with Korean-imitation Ming Dynasty muskets, previously imitated bird guns, and iron cannons purchased from Japan.

They also learned formations such as the hollow square from the Ming army, which theoretically allowed them to set up bayonets and avoid being dispersed by cavalry.

However, after leaving the city, this army failed to fully exert its combat power.

Because at that time in Korea, musketeers were divided into three grades: upper, middle and lower.

Among them, the well-trained and outstanding musketeers serve as guards for generals at all levels, such as the military commander, and can receive more ammunition.

Not only did middle and lower-level musketeers have to fight on the front lines, they were also rationed with less ammunition. Each person could only get two taels of gunpowder and a number of bullets.

This was a helpless move due to North Korea's insufficient national strength and insufficient ammunition, and it was also to prevent middle and lower-level musketeers from using muskets to cause chaos.

At this time, North Korea paid a heavy price for this. After the middle and lower-level musketeers ran out of ammunition, they called on their superiors to send more senior musketeers and gunpowder to support the front line.

Many of the Jurchen soldiers on the other side spoke Korean. Many of them had been killed by the firearms, so they immediately raised their weapons and rushed towards the Korean army.

The cavalry was so fast that many Korean soldiers saw the swords and guns of the Jianlu stabbing at them before they received ammunition to reload.

Except for the fire muskets supported by the Ming Dynasty, other fire muskets of the Korean army were not equipped with bayonets. After entering the hand-to-hand combat, the left formation of the Korean army was quickly defeated, and the Jianlu continued to attack the right formation with the power of victory.

After seeing the defeat of the left camp, some of the Korean soldiers on the right camp began to become nervous and fearful. When a soldier retreated into the camp to collect gunpowder, he actually dropped the burning fuse into the gunpowder bag.

This immediately caused a fire, killing two Korean officers responsible for distributing gunpowder, and sparked a riot on the right side.

The Jianlu cavalry took advantage of the situation and attacked, easily defeating the right formation. Even the commanding general was killed in the chaos.

This made Cao Bianjiao, who led his troops back to Seoul and watched the battle with a telescope, simply unable to bear to watch.

He really didn't expect that 10,000 Korean troops could be defeated by 300 Jianlu.

This made him look at the 300 warriors under his command and ordered:
"Attack, don't let the North Korean soldiers come over!"

They took the initiative to move forward with swords and guns in hand, shouting loudly, asking the Korean soldiers to disperse to both sides.

Those Korean soldiers were afraid of being killed by the Jianlu cavalry, so they hid when they saw the cavalry.

The brave warriors under Cao Bianjiao successfully confronted the 300 cavalrymen of Jianlu and finally stopped them from wreaking havoc in the Korean army.

These cavalrymen in the imperial camp were not traditional cavalrymen, and each of them carried at least two firearms.

When they encountered the Jianlu cavalry, they raised their pistols and fired a single shot at the Jianlu cavalry.

Almost as soon as they met, the Jianlu lost dozens of people.

Cao Bianjiao, who fought against Ji Jike and others every day in the Imperial Camp, was invincible in the Jianlu Army.

This made Ma Futa, who was so eager to kill, a little scared, knowing that he had encountered the real elite of the Ming army. Some of their men were already tired, so they immediately began to leave the army.

Although Cao Bianjiao wanted to catch up and wipe them out, he was unable to do so because of the obstruction of the Korean rebel army.

He could only let his warriors cut off heads and take the credit first.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty had not yet abandoned the practice of rewarding people for their heads, and because firearms were often used in combat, headshots were still very valuable.

The soldiers who followed him into battle smiled as they cut off the heads of the dead Jianlu, and distributed the heads that could be confirmed as the killers to each person, and the other heads were regarded as collective merits.

After counting the heads, they found that there were more than 100 heads, half of which were killed by them, and the other half were killed by Korean soldiers with muskets.

But they obviously won't share the credit with the North Korean soldiers, and regard all of this as their own -

The price of a head of the Plain Yellow Banner soldier is half that of an ordinary Eight Banner soldier. Each head is worth at least one hundred and fifty taels of silver, and the price will be even higher if the rank can be confirmed.

They made a lot of money in this battle, and few people on their side died.

The North Korean generals and officials did not dare to compete with them for merit, because they clearly saw:

Three hundred Jianlu cavalry defeated the 10,000-strong Korean army.

If it were not for the rescue of the Ming cavalry, these Korean soldiers would most likely have been captured or even used as vanguards by the Jianlu to attack Seoul.

What they are thinking about now is to escape from Seoul to avoid being trapped in this city when the Jianlu army marches south.

At this time, the Yongjong Island that had been built before came in handy, and the Korean king and his ministers begged Zhou Yuji to lead his troops to protect them and escape.

Zhou Yuji only had 3,000 Ming soldiers under his command, so he certainly had no confidence in stopping the tens of thousands of Jianlu troops. He asked Cao Bianjiao to guard against the hidden Jianlu cavalry, and he escorted the Korean monarch and his ministers to retreat according to the plan he had made before.

He also ordered the Joseon King Yi Jong to impose martial law and appointed the resident minister Hong Chengchou as the commander-in-chief of all the Joseon provinces to lead the national military. (End of this chapter)