Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 302: Goryeo's Ambition

Yonghui City, fifteen miles to the east.

A Jurchen team of more than a thousand people was marching quickly. In addition to most of the cavalry, there were also hundreds of infantrymen escorting food and supplies.

The supplies on these vehicles were varied, including the common cattle and sheep accompanying the army, as well as domestic pigs, ducks, chickens, and geese, as well as vehicles filled with a variety of grains.

However, the quantity of these supplies is small, and it is not enough to support the consumption of a brigade of a thousand people.

There were even a few prison vans carrying a dozen young women, their clothes ragged and torn, revealing a lot of skin, and bruises on their faces.

If the weather hadn't been warmer now, the women in these prison cars would have probably frozen to death long ago.

These supplies and women don't look like what a regular army would carry. Rather, they look like they were looted from everywhere.

Protected by a group of fierce and loyal Jurchen guards, Jurchen Left Guard Dong Shan and Jurchen Guard Li Manzhu rode at the front of the team.

Dong Shan was a sturdy and strong man, in his early thirties, at the prime of his life, but the defeats and escapes in the past few months had left him physically and mentally exhausted, with a face full of fatigue.

Li Manzhu was already over fifty years old, the oldest among the three guards leaders. After months of running around and fighting, he seemed to have aged all of a sudden, and even his hair had turned a lot whiter.

Since the great defeat at Yafu Pass, most of the Jurchen elite troops were lost, the right guard leader Fanercha was beheaded on the spot, and Dong Shan and Li Manzhu escaped with only a thousand cavalrymen.

But before he could catch his breath, the Great Zhou soldiers launched a pursuit and stranglehold on them in three directions, forcing them into a desperate situation step by step.

They led their troops to flee, and when they passed through the Jurchen villages along the way, they not only ruthlessly plundered their food and fodder, but also scraped their bones and marrow to gather the remaining young and strong men from various Jurchen tribes.

They actually managed to gather more than a thousand soldiers and replenish precious fresh blood to the remnants of the Three Jurchen Guards after their great defeat.

The remaining troops of the Three Guards once again exceeded two thousand, and half of them were old soldiers who had survived a bloody battle. These were the last elite of the Jurchens and also the strongest elite.

As long as the three Jurchen guards still have this last bit of courage, it will only take ten years for the Jurchen tribes to recover their strength, and at most fifteen years, they will be able to dominate Liaodong again.

The elderly Li Manzhu might not be able to wait until that time, but he still has descendants who can inherit his glory.

Dong Shan was in his prime and still had enough courage to fight fifteen years later.

No matter whether it was Dong Shan or Li Manzhu, their ambitions remained high even after such a great defeat. The addition of more than one thousand new brave men gave them more hope.

……

But these remaining hopes were soon shattered.

Because they didn't expect that among the Zhou troops chasing them, there would be such a sharp and difficult opponent.

The Zhou army along the way had extraordinary insight and seemed to be able to accurately lock onto their movements, chasing them relentlessly and attacking them relentlessly.

What made Dong Shan and Li Manzhu feel most troubled and frightened was that the pursuing troops were composed of the elite firearms soldiers of the Great Zhou.

In the battle of Yafu Pass, the tremendous power of the Great Zhou's firearms left an indelible shadow on the Jurchens.

Those lives whose flesh and blood flew everywhere in the firelight were completely different from the horrible deaths caused by knife cuts and gun stabbings. They had become a nightmare in the minds of these brave Jurchens.

Therefore, every time this strange Great Zhou army chased until it met the Jurchen army head-on.

As soon as the two sides engaged in battle, the Jurchen soldiers were quickly defeated by the roar of the other side's muskets and the explosion of porcelain mines.

Because these Jurchens knew very well that the power of firearms could not be easily countered by their fast horses and curved swords.

When the two armies were fighting, the result of the decline of fighting spirit was predictable. The Jurchen brigade could only escape on fast horses to escape the powerful killing power of the Zhou's firearms soldiers.

Along the way, the Zhou's firearms soldiers and the remnants of the Jurchen army continued to chase and fight, and occasionally the Jurchen brigade would encounter the other two groups of Zhou soldiers.

More than a thousand new warriors recruited by the Jurchens along the way were consumed in such repeated fierce battles, and almost all of them were killed by the firearms and swords of the Zhou army.

……

This almost made Dong Shan and Li Manzhu so angry that they beat their chests and stamped their feet. Originally, they planned to retreat to Yonghui City with the last blood and courage of the Jurchens, hold the city and prepare for the future.

However, no one expected that they would be hit so hard by the Zhou's firearms soldiers while fleeing. Relying on the remaining thousand or so veteran soldiers, they were no longer able to defend Yonghui City for a long time.

In the end, it was Li Manzhu who was shrewd and took advantage of the fact that the Jurchen group was attracting the attention of the right-wing army of the Zhou Dynasty to secretly send elite servants and envoys to sneak across the Yalu River and ask for help from the Goryeo King Imwon.

Since Imwon the Great ascended the throne, Goryeo's national power has become increasingly powerful, and its ambition to expand eastward across the Yalu River has continued to grow.

Originally, the Great Zhou established three Jurchen guards in Liaodong, which indirectly blocked Goryeo's eastward expansion.

Goryeo closed Qingyuanji and cut off the Jurchens' access to supplies. This was a strategy of killing three warriors with two peaches, which was also the internal driving force behind the Jurchens' southward harassment.

Now that the Great Zhou and the Jurchens are fighting to the death, Prince Linyuan is happy to sit on the mountain and watch the fight.

However, if the Great Zhou Dynasty exterminated the Jurchens, it would definitely change its previous policy of controlling Liaodong and instead send temporary officials and a large army to garrison there.

By then, the influence of the Great Zhou in Liaodong will become more and more profound, and Liaodong will truly be incorporated into the territory of the Great Zhou.

All areas west of the Yalu River will become the sphere of influence of the Great Zhou, and Goryeo's attempt to expand eastward will be permanently shattered.

Therefore, taking in the last elite of the Three Jurchen Guards has long-term strategic significance for Lord Linyuan. As long as this unstable force in Liaodong is preserved, with the Jurchen tribe's strong obsession with their homeland in Liaodong, they will definitely return to Liaodong one day when they have recovered their vitality!
By then, the balance in Liaodong would be broken again, and Goryeo would once again have an opportunity to expand eastwards.

When Prince Linyuan received Li Manzhu's request for help, he responded as quickly as possible, demonstrating his courage to take advantage of the situation in Liaodong.

In order not to attract the attention of the Zhou army, Prince Imwon only sent a small number of Goryeo troops to support them on the east bank of the Yalu River.

In order to avoid giving any excuses, the ships mobilized were not standard military ships, but civilian ships of varying sizes.

Originally, all this could be done without anyone noticing, but Jia Cong still noticed the clues in advance.

If it weren't for the heavy fog, which caused him to temporarily lose track of the Jurchen brigade, he would have decided to speed up the march and infiltrate the front of the Jurchen brigade.

If it weren't for the proximity to the Yalu River, he would have felt a certain indescribable alertness, and would have spent the entire night examining maps to deduce the battle situation, and even climbed up Qingyuan Mountain overnight to investigate the situation.

Perhaps Li Manzhu and Prince Linyuan would have succeeded.

By then, the last elite troops of the Jurchens would be spread out, and perhaps in a few years, the war in Liaodong would be reignited.

The lives of those border soldiers who died in battle and the Han people in the border areas who were slaughtered will become meaningless...

……

Qing Yuan Ji, the sunset is like blood.

The layout of Qingyuanji is very simple, with a wide road paved with rocks and many shops and houses on both sides of the road, but they are now abandoned.

Just pass through the central road of the market and rush 500 steps to reach the west bank of the Yalu River.

This once bustling market has now become a dead, ghostly place.

Behind the houses on both sides of the road is a large area of ​​dense forest with mixed trees extending from the foothills of Qingyuan Mountain.

Under the shadow of the setting sun, dense black shadows can be vaguely seen in the woods on both sides, but as soon as the sun sets, nothing can be seen clearly.

Jia Cong sent out several scouts to investigate the movements of the Jurchen brigade, and received accurate reports in less than half a day.

More than a thousand remnants of the Three Jurchen Guards hid from the central army led by guerrilla general Deng Hui near Yonghui City.

Instead of entering Yonghui City, they took a detour to the east of the city and headed straight towards Qingyuanji. Everything was just as Jia Cong had expected.

Early this morning, after inspecting the situation at Qingyuan Mountain, he did not immediately lead his troops to Qingyuanji, but hesitated.

Even if he had sensed the opportunity in advance, he would not have been able to arrive at Qingyuanji half a day in advance to set up an ambush and intercept.

……

It was not until the sunset completely sank behind the other side of the Yalu River and the earth was plunged into darkness that the thundering sound of horse hooves could be heard from the foot of Qingyuan Mountain.

A dozen Jurchen vanguard scouts holding torches rushed into Qingyuanji and ran back and forth on the wide road.

They held up torches, illuminating the abandoned shops on both sides, and the long swords in their hands flashed coldly in the firelight.

After a brief investigation, he made sure that everything was safe and quickly returned, leading the Jurchen brigade into Qingyuanji.

These more than a thousand elite Jurchens were all veterans who had survived hundreds of battles. They had fled over long distances and fought countless battles, and many of them were injured.

As food and grass along the way were gradually consumed and most of the beef and mutton were basically used up, the Jurchens had begun to reduce military rations when they approached Yonghui City.

Each person could only eat a meal of thin porridge and wild vegetables every day, and the supply was not enough. In addition, the constant long-distance raids consumed a lot of physical energy.

The old soldiers who were once brave had also lost most of their fighting spirit and sharpness.

Fortunately, when approaching Qingyuanji, Li Manzhu and Dong Shan issued a military order that the entire army would cross the Yalu River and withdraw to Goryeo, and the Goryeo people had already responded on the other side.

This news rekindled the morale of the exhausted Jurchen soldiers.

As long as they retreat into Goryeo, they can escape the endless pursuit of the Great Zhou army and save their lives.

If they enter Goryeo again, they will be able to have enough food to eat, live in houses with roofs over their heads, and even have warm and beautiful Goryeo women...

Even the vanguard scouts who first entered the Qingyuan Group, after completing their routine reconnaissance as usual, could not wait to lead the entire army into Qingyuan Group.

After months of fleeing and fighting, every Jurchen had lost the lives of many of their companions due to the Zhou army's incredibly powerful firearms.

Everyone's physical and mental strength had reached the brink of collapse. Even people as determined as Li Manzhu and Dong Shan were approaching the limit of their endurance.

All the Jurchens wished they could grow wings, cross the Yalu River, and get away from the land that had brought them great defeat and blood.

Li Manzhu and Dong Shan, protected by their personal guards, rode their horses at the front of the team. When they were almost halfway through the journey, the end of the team had just entered Qingyuanji.

Just as everyone was rejoicing, it seemed that the emerald green waves of the Yalu River would be visible soon.

Suddenly, countless gray-white shadows appeared in the dark night sky and fell into the densely marching Jurchen army. An earth-shaking explosion occurred in an instant.

(End of this chapter)