Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

On the other side, Huang Taiji and others watched the floating bridge on the ice suddenly explode. They were startled at first, but then they calmed down.

The Ming army in Yizhou City was right next to them. When they crossed the river, it was impossible for them not to be on guard against attacks on the people behind them.

Although Huang Taiji was somewhat surprised by the rebellion of some Han soldiers, he still gave orders in an orderly manner:

"Tell Dudu to lead his troops to support Abatai."

"And teach the Ming army a lesson so they won't dare to chase us."

Du Du was responsible for guarding the Tieshan area, and his main responsibility was to watch over Dongjiang Town.

He failed to do this well, so Huang Taiji ordered him to make amends for his crime. He risked his life crossing the river on the ice downstream and lay in ambush.

At this time, Du Du was really hardworking and hoped to gain a higher position in the Jin Kingdom with his performance.

After Huang Taiji ordered his men to give the signal, he immediately gave a loud roar and led more than a thousand of his men to rush forward.

Although these people were small in number, they were a fresh force and extremely ferocious, attacking the flank of the Korean army under Hong Chengchou.

When the Korean soldiers on the flank saw the murderous Jurchens, they instantly remembered the fear of being killed by the Jianlu. They barely put up any resistance and were dispersed by the more than 1,000 Jurchen cavalry.

Moreover, under the deliberate driving of the Jurchens, they retreated towards the center of the army.

Hong Chengchou was shocked when he saw this, knowing that if this continued, the central army where he was stationed might also be overwhelmed.

By then the army would fall into chaos, and it would be hard to say what would become of me in the midst of it.

For a moment, he wanted Cao Bianjiao to protect him and escape. But thinking about the fate of Yang Hao, Xiong Tingbi, Wang Huazhen and others, as well as the title of nobility promised by the emperor, he forced himself to calm down and shouted:

"Whoever can capture and kill this beast, I will recommend him for the hereditary title!"

Kong Youde shouted, "I'm here!" and led his three thousand soldiers who had been trained for a long time, and rushed towards Du Du.

Geng Zhongming was not to be outdone, and he dispatched 10,000 soldiers under his command to surround and kill Du Du.

Both of them knew that Li Jiuchen was made a hereditary baron because he had captured nearly a thousand heads, and they hoped to achieve the same feat and obtain a hereditary title.

Geng Zhongming was very shrewd and even had his guards shout among the Korean soldiers:
"Have you forgotten the hatred?"

"Don't you want to rescue your loved ones?"

This made these Korean soldiers gradually forget their fear and remember their hatred towards the Jianlu.

Many of them joined the rebel army because their relatives were killed. Now that the Jianlu were right in front of them, they slowly gathered up their courage.

The fleeing soldiers on the right wing stopped fleeing and some even turned around to kill the enemy.

Although their fighting power was far inferior to that of the Jianlu, it still caused a delay. Du Du soon realized that he no longer had the unstoppable momentum he had before.

This made him afraid to fight, so he went around in a circle to face the approaching Kong Youde, just chasing the scattered Korean soldiers and killing them, preventing them from forming a military formation.

Abatai, who fought back from the Yalu River, also rushed over after seeing that the Korean army was in chaos.

After he joined forces with Du Du, he had 3,000 Jurchen troops and more than 2,000 Han soldiers who were still loyal to Li Yongfang.

This force of 5,000 people was too powerful for the Korean soldiers led by Hong Chengchou to defeat, and even the Dongjiang Town found it quite difficult to fight against it.

Moreover, Dongjiang Town was blocked by Korean soldiers and could not engage in direct battle with the Jianlu. Moreover, they had to allocate troops to guard against the Jianlu who seemed to want to take the risk of crossing the river.

The annihilation battle that Hong Chengchou had been looking forward to suddenly turned into a melee. They had the advantage in numbers, but they could only let the Jianlu charge left and right and could not stop them at all.

This was like a bucket of cold water poured over Hong Chengchou, who was hoping to be granted a title.

Now it is not a question of whether he can be awarded a title for his meritorious service. He just hopes that he will not fail so badly that he will be blamed by the court or even dismissed from his position.

This made him prioritize stabilizing the situation when deploying troops. Dudu, Abatai, and Li Yongfang led the army to break out.

They would head downstream to the path explored by Dudu and cross directly over the ice.

Hong Chengchou looked at Cao Bianjiao's 300 cavalrymen and did not send them to chase. These people were all treasures sent by the emperor, and Hong Chengchou certainly did not dare to let them carry out the mission of sending themselves to death.

Gathering the troops and counting the gains, Hong Chengchou found that he had only harvested less than a hundred heads in this battle. The casualties on his side were roughly estimated to be more than 2,000, and many people turned into defeated soldiers and fled.

If there were not more than 2,000 surrendered Han soldiers of the Jianlu Army, this battle would have been a great defeat.

"The Korean soldiers are still not capable of close combat with the Jianlu!"

"No wonder His Majesty asked me to train as a musketeer. The weapons sent to me are all firearms."

Looking at the gains from this battle, Hong Chengchou sighed to those around him.

After today's battle, he not only understood the difficulty of large-scale military operations, but also deeply realized the combat effectiveness of the Jianlu soldiers.

Not to mention that the Korean soldiers were not capable of fighting the Jianlu in the field, there were not many soldiers in the Ming Dynasty who had such capabilities. It is estimated that only some elite soldiers in Liaodong had the strength to fight the Jianlu in the field.

After a chaotic battle, less than a hundred heads were harvested, which made Hong Chengchou think it would be better to select snipers who were good at shooting from these Korean soldiers, equip them with rifled muskets, and then ambush them quietly.

In this way, fewer soldiers will be mobilized, less money and food will be consumed, and the results may be greater, possibly exceeding one hundred.

Geng Zhongming felt the same way. What made him most angry was that Hong Chengchou assigned the 3,000 Korean soldiers who had been trained for the longest time to Kong Youde. Kong Youde, that rough man, led these musketeers who were good at shooting to fight in close combat.

This made him feel that it was a waste of resources. If he led these soldiers to fire a round of bullets, he would not have achieved just this much.

It can be said that after a battle, they found many problems. Fortunately, because the Jianlu had few soldiers left, these problems did not cause them to be defeated.

In the future, we will naturally need to strengthen our capabilities in a targeted manner and make the best use of our strengths and avoid our weaknesses when fighting.
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Huang Taiji, who was on the other side of the river, also saw the battle through a telescope.

Unlike the regrets and summaries of the Ming army generals, his heart was filled with solemnity at this time.

Because in his opinion, 3,000 Eight Banners warriors were enough to defeat 40,000 to 50,000 Koreans.

Before that, he only sent out 300 advance teams and defeated 10,000 North Koreans.

However, the courage and resilience shown by the Korean soldiers in this battle were beyond his expectations. They managed to maintain their basic formation even though they were defeated. As a result, the Eight Banners soldiers gained very little and could only successfully break out.

If all North Korean soldiers have this combat capability, he will need to bring more soldiers when he attacks North Korea next time.

Thinking of the road to death that cost the lives of two Beile, a layer of gloom rose in his heart again. He felt vaguely that he would suffer the same loss if he passed through that place again in the future.

Maybe this is his last time to come to North Korea, and it will not be easy to plunder supplies from North Korea in the future.

This made him feel a little regretful:
"If Amin is allowed to guard Korea in the Dingmao year, the Korean monarch and his subjects will certainly not dare to disobey."

"Now that we have the support of Ming, it will be difficult to fight against Korea!"

Huang Taiji felt somewhat regretful for not allowing Amin to become a vassal state in Korea. He thought of the Dalingh River and Ningjin defense lines, and then of the attacks on the Mongolian tribes that were dependent on the Jin Dynasty. He knew that the Ming Dynasty had already launched a full-scale offensive, and he had to choose a direction to break the deadlock.

But North Korea has clearly begun to change again. It is much more difficult to occupy it than it was two years ago.

This made Huang Taiji withdraw from North Korea with many regrets.

He also had to lead troops to rescue the tribes that were attacked on the grassland. The Eight Banners soldiers, who had been fighting for nearly a year, had to continue fighting.
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On the east bank of the Yalu River, Hong Chengchou breathed a sigh of relief as he watched Huang Taiji lead his troops to withdraw.

Although the ambush in the last battle was not carried out well, and he did not achieve the feat of suffocating the Jianlu to death in Korea and making him a duke, the withdrawal of the Jianlu from Korea was still a great victory for him.

This will make his position in North Korea extremely stable and completely complete the task of transforming North Korea and bringing it under his control.

He had already decided in his heart that he would completely transform Korea according to his own wishes and train 100,000 musketeers as a means of gaining merit.

It would be fine if Jianlu doesn't come again, but if he comes to Korea again, he will definitely suffocate everyone who comes.

When the Korean soldiers are well trained, he will take the initiative to send troops to harass the Liaodong area.

So, Hong Chengchou looked at the Korean soldiers lying on the ground, crying out the names of their loved ones, and said loudly:
"Everyone get up!"

"Remember this humiliation and train well next time."

"I will take you to Liaodong to rescue your relatives."

Let these North Korean soldiers remember the hatred and train and fight harder.

These Korean soldiers also realized that they did not have the strength to fight the Jianlu, and crossing the river would not save their loved ones. Some of them gave up completely, but some chose to train harder to gain the strength to compete with the Jianlu.

Choi Nam-yi, who is admired by many North Koreans, has become their role model. Most North Korean soldiers choose to train with muskets and strive to become snipers.

Hong Chengchou knew that this momentum could only be encouraged and not deflated, so he quickly arranged to reward the soldiers who had made contributions and to fulfill the various promised rewards.

Mao Wenlong was asked to send some Korean soldiers to Liaodong to explore the way, to see if they could encounter a small group of Korean slaves escorted by the Jianlu, and take the opportunity to rescue them.

He believed that as long as they could achieve results, Korean soldiers would be more motivated to fight in Liaodong. The 100,000 Korean slaves taken away by the Jianlu and the killings done by the Jianlu in Korea were the motivation for Korea and the Jianlu to continue fighting.

The emperor's strategy of using Korea to contain the Jianlu could still be implemented.
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Beijing.

Zhu Youjian soon received a report on this battle.

Although Hong Chengchou and Mao Wenlong both tried to cover up the Battle of the Yalu River, the reports from the Embroidered Uniform Guard made it all clear to the Privy Council.

Seeing that Hong Chengchou led more than 40,000 Korean troops, and Mao Wenlong and Yang Yufan led more than 30,000 Ming troops, but failed to keep the 3,000 Jianlu people, the officials of the Privy Council who were immersed in victory before suddenly felt their faces burning.

They were not ignorant of military affairs. They knew that although Hong Chengchou had not expected the ambush of the Jianlu in this battle, his response in the battle could be considered excellent.

If it were someone else, it might have been a major defeat, and even Mao Wenlong's Dongjiang Town would have been implicated.

The battle turned out like this simply because the Korean army was inferior in combat power. The Dongjiang Town troops, who were good at harassment, did not have the ability to fight the Jianlu head-on.

This made some officials of the Privy Council who were planning how to eliminate the Jianlu and achieve greater achievements wake up as if they were poured with a bucket of cold water. Knowing that the Ming Dynasty did not have the ability to eliminate the Jianlu, they had to be cautious in suppressing the rebellion.

However, there were also some people who, either out of shame or with ulterior motives, leaked the matter to outsiders, leading to the impeachment of Hong Chengchou by officials from the Ministry of Rites.

Even the Left Censor-in-Chief Wang Zaijin linked the incident to Liaodong, believing that it was Sun Chengzong's failure to command the overall situation and the insufficient restraining effect of Liaodong's troops that led to the failure of this battle.

Soon, more and more officials came to impeach Sun Chengzong.

While the armies of Dalingh River, Dongjiang Territory, Korea, Jiangling Principality, Black Dragon Camp, and Grassland Coalition had all made gains, Sun Chengzong, who had more than 100,000 elite troops but only sent 5,000 cavalry to Liaohe River to bluff, was considered to be incompetent.

The dispute between Wang Zaijin and Sun Chengzong was also brought up. Many people believed that Sun Chengzong's strategy was a failure and that building a city and raising troops in Liaodong was just a waste of money and food.

Even some officials in the Privy Council believed that if the silver used to support the Liaodong troops was used to build muskets, they would be more powerful.

The mountains in the Liaoxi Corridor area are as steep as those in Korea. Musketeers who can set ambushes in the wild are more powerful than soldiers who can only defend the city.

The momentum of this speech was so great that even Yuan Keli, the Privy Councilor who was inclined towards Sun Chengzong, and Han Yu, the Chief Minister of the Cabinet, were unable to suppress it.

In particular, Yuan Keli now had to consider the distribution of money and food for the troops in various places, and Han Yu was in charge of the Finance and Economics Committee to provide silver for the troops. They had been urged by the emperor to count the merits and cash the rewards to the soldiers as soon as possible.

Although most of these rewards were land and titles, there were also quite a few places where money and grain were spent. It was roughly estimated that 300,000 taels of silver would be used as rewards and pensions for meritorious soldiers.

This made Han Yu and Yuan Keli feel uncomfortable when looking at the four or five hundred taels of military pay from Liaodong.

In particular, Han Yu knew that if he could not come up with the money, the emperor might take action against his hometown and confiscate the guilty Shanxi merchants.

This made him sigh at home frequently, feeling that the pressure on him as the Prime Minister was too great.

It is true that the emperor delegated power, but along with power comes responsibility.

Unlike the prime ministers in the past, who only needed to write bills.

Fortunately, his dilemma did not last long, as a sum of silver sent by Yuan Shizhen resolved the current situation.

After being sent to the south by the court to take charge of salt administration, Yuan Shizhen made great efforts to rectify the situation and collected more than one million taels of salt tax this year. These taxes were directly included in the Ministry of Revenue's Salt Administration, deposited in the Ministry of Revenue's bank account, and controlled and distributed by the court.

Han Yu's dilemma was solved at once, and he even had money to celebrate the New Year.

Yuan Keli was also overjoyed and hurriedly arranged for rewards and pensions for the meritorious soldiers. (End of this chapter)