"Sir, there's a war report from the front of Korea." One of Tang Lu's personal guards walked in with a sealed letter.
Tang Lu was telling a story to his son and others. When he became the mayor of Suzhou, he had a leisurely and comfortable life. Although he did not have any great talents under him, he had many ordinary talents. As for the affairs of Suzhou, Tang Lu let Liu Rushi, Dayuer and others manage them, so naturally Tang Lu himself had nothing to do.
Tang Qi nodded, took the letter and opened it. It was written by Chen Zilong, mainly reporting on the battle between them and the Jiannu after they arrived in Korea. Although the Jiannu mobilized a team claiming to have 200,000 troops this time, there were actually only 90,000 people, most of whom were Mongolians. Since Huang Taiji suffered a loss at the hands of Tang Qi, he did not dare to withdraw all the troops in his territory, leaving the Jiannu's most elite troops to defend their old nest, Shengjing.
At the beginning, Huang Taiji led his men to advance in Korea at a very fast speed. This time, Huang Taiji did not want to rob Korea just once, but wanted to bring Korea under his own banner. Therefore, every time he occupied a city, in addition to looting all the things, he also sent troops to occupy it for a long time.
As a result, Huang Taiji's army lost the effect of a surprise attack. Instead of sending troops to raid deep into Korea, they pressed forward one city after another. In the first month, the attack was not hindered at all and advanced at a rapid speed, occupying almost one-third of Korea's territory. However, a month later, Tang Qi's reinforcements arrived and, relying on the mountainous terrain of Korea, adopted guerrilla warfare and constantly harassed Huang Taiji's army.
Tang Qi's men were no strangers to guerrilla warfare. As a latecomer, Tang Qi would not forget how powerful guerrilla warfare was. His troops not only had regular tactical training in frontal confrontation, but also put a lot of effort into guerrilla warfare. Moreover, people of this era could endure hardships and had much better survival ability in the wild than people of later generations, which also brought convenience to guerrilla warfare.
Hongniangzi, after Chen Zilong and his men arrived in Korea, the reinforcements from Taiwan Island also arrived in Korea. Chen Zilong chose a road that Huang Taiji and his men had to take, gathered his 4,000 regular troops, and had a small decisive battle with Huang Taiji.
Faced with the combat equipment, Huang Taiji, who had suffered losses before, did not send his cavalry to attack, but sent out the musket battalion. Huang Taiji thought that the opponent was equipped with muskets and his men were also equipped with muskets, so he would not suffer too much. However, reality once again taught Huang Taiji a lesson that when the defending side has military equipment, the attacking side will suffer a great loss.
At this time, Huang Taiji still did not realize that the breech-loading rifles under Tang Qi's command were much more advanced than his own muzzle-loading matchlock rifles. After this battle, Huang Taiji concluded that he suffered a loss this time because the enemy had defensive equipment and the enemy's training was far superior to that of his newly established musket battalion. He did not pay any attention to the differences in the enemy's muskets.
When the battle broke out, Huang Taiji was still full of hope. The musket battalion of more than 10,000 people had made many contributions to him since its establishment. However, within less than an incense stick of time from the end of the attack, Huang Taiji's musket battalion was crippled. This time, in order to severely damage this Jiannu musket battalion, Chen Zilong ordered his men to keep the enemy within a distance of 120 steps before counterattacking. This distance was also within the range of those muzzle-loading muskets.
The muskets under Huang Taiji's command all came from Tang Qi's military factories. Their performance was among the best of its time, even better than Western muskets. They also had a certain degree of lethality within this range. It was precisely because of this that Huang Taiji failed to notice that Tang Qi's muskets had a much greater range than his own.
Huang Taiji paid no attention to these matters. His musket battalion was defeated too quickly. Tang Qi's soldiers were well-trained, their marksmanship extremely accurate. The enemy's dense charge made them practically a target within a hundred and twenty paces. Furthermore, Tang Qi's men were using paper-shell bullets, which could be reloaded several times faster than muzzle-loading muskets. From the moment the gunfire rang out, the battle was one-sided.
After Huang Taiji's attack was thwarted and he retreated, his 13,000-man musket battalion left nearly 7,000 dead on the battlefield. Within the 100-step retreat, the distance was practically the line of death. It was enough time for Tang Qi's men to fire two more shots. Just these two shots from 4,000 men left over 2,000 Jiannu dead.
Huang Taiji had invested heavily in establishing this musket battalion. Seeing the heavy losses, Huang Taiji was heartbroken. The enemy had only suffered a few dozen wounded. This outcome not only taught Huang Taiji the power of muskets, but also allowed him to understand the distance between his own musket battalion and the enemy.
Huang Taiji still had 80,000 cavalry under his command. If they pressed forward with all their might, they could have broken through Chen Zilong's position. However, Huang Taiji had suffered a heavy loss at the hands of Tang Qi, and the scar still lingered in his heart. He was unwilling to pay that price. After the muskets were withdrawn, Huang Taiji planned to set up camp there and find another way to break through the enemy's position.
However, before Huang Taiji's order could be passed down, 7,000 Japanese auxiliary troops, led by local Koreans, crossed mountains and ridges, bypassed the Jiannu army, and launched an attack on the two sides.
As soon as the gunshot rang out, Huang Taiji, who had a slight phobia of muskets, couldn't help but shudder in his heart. He didn't know how many people the other side had sent, and it seemed that they were going to surround him. Huang Taiji didn't think much about it at the moment, and immediately the entire army retreated to break out. Although it was a bit hasty, it must be said that Huang Taiji had a good way of commanding the army. Following his orders, the Jiannu army did not cause much chaos, and broke out in an orderly manner, braving the bullets and grenades of the Japanese auxiliary army.
But the Mongolian army was far less organized than the Jiannu army, and fell into chaos almost as soon as the gunshots on the mountain began. Fortunately, the Jiannu army was the first to break through the retreat route, and the Mongolian troops followed suit and fled desperately, without suffering too much loss, leaving only about 3,000 corpses.
Seeing the enemy breaking through, Chen Zilong couldn't help but sigh, remembering what Tang Qi had told him. Apart from the Tang family army, the strongest army in the world was the Jiannu army. This time, if he hadn't ambushed the enemy, the consequences would have been unpredictable.
The enemy was cavalry, and once they escaped the encirclement, they would be impossible to pursue. On the one hand, Chen Zilong blocked this important road with heavy troops, and on the other hand, he broke the Japanese into small groups again and carried out guerrilla warfare. Korea was mountainous and not very suitable for the Jiannu cavalry, but mountain guerrilla warfare was very suitable for the interspersed march of infantry, which gave Huang Taiji a headache, and the battle between the two sides was temporarily deadlocked there.
After reading Chen Zilong's report, Tang Qiqi wrote back to praise Chen Zilong. At the same time, he warned Chen Zilong not to underestimate the enemy and rush into battle.
The stalemate there and the use of guerrilla warfare to drag the Jiannu people into the quagmire of the Korean War was a method that Tang Yu knew very well that some military powers in later generations were often dragged into the quagmire of war by this kind of guerrilla warfare, thus suffering heavy losses.
This battle concerned not only Tang Qi and King Lee Jong of Korea, but also Emperor Chongzhen. Although Emperor Chongzhen was overwhelmed by the rebellion in the country, he was also concerned about the actions of the Jiannu people. When the Jinyiwei spy presented the result of Chen Zilong's battle, Emperor Chongzhen could not help but worry about the combat effectiveness of Tang Qi's men.
In the past, the Jiannu people had defeated the Ming army and made them flee, but now Tang Qi's men were able to defeat the Jiannu people miserably. How could Emperor Chongzhen feel good about such a result? In the following days, several unlucky officials ran into Emperor Chongzhen's wrath. Some were beaten to death in court, while others lost their official positions for a little bit of trouble.
On this day, Emperor Chongzhen left the morning court with a sigh. After reviewing a number of memorials, he felt depressed and had no intention of working, so he brought two young eunuchs to visit Concubine Tian. To be honest, Concubine Tian was Chongzhen's favorite in his life, and Empress Zhou could not compare to her in favor.
The name of Concubine Tian was Tian Xiuying. Her father Tian Hongyu was a military household captain and did not have much education. It was quite good that he gave her such a popular name. Although the name of Concubine Tian Xiuying was popular, her appearance was one in a million beautiful. What was even more rare was that she was not only beautiful, but also smart and intelligent, and she was very good at pleasing Emperor Chongzhen.
At that time, the Tian family and the Tang family had a good relationship. Tian Xiuying and Tang Chen's predecessor were childhood sweethearts when they were young. Later, Tian Xiuying was selected into Prince Xin's palace and became the concubine of Emperor Chongzhen. Tang Chen's predecessor also changed his temperament because of this. Finally, due to alcoholism, he allowed Tang Chen to travel through time and space and possess his body.
Tian Xiuying was slightly surprised to see Emperor Chongzhen coming at this time, but then she was overjoyed. She stepped forward and asked, "Your Majesty, why are you here at this time?"
"Why, can't I come to you at this time?" Emperor Chongzhen doted on Tian Xiuying extremely, and precisely because of this, he would want to come to her when he was troubled.
"Your Majesty, I'm just happy to see you coming. There's no need to ask." Tian Xiuying walked forward coquettishly and took the hand of Emperor Chongzhen. Although she was not arrogant because of her favor, she still acted coquettishly. This was also the fun of life between her and Chongzhen. Queen Zhou Yufeng would not act like this in front of Chongzhen. Therefore, although Chongzhen respected his queen, he did not favor her, and always had an attitude of doing whatever he wanted.
Empress Zhou Yufeng was a very virtuous empress. Unfortunately, she lived in the chaotic late Ming Dynasty. No matter how virtuous she was, she could not save the Ming Dynasty from destruction. In terms of appearance, Zhou Yufeng was no worse than Tian Xiuying. Both of them were beauties who could topple a country. People in later generations only remember the fame of the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai, but forgot the beauty of Zhou Yufeng and Tian Xiuying. To be honest, they were not necessarily worse than Chen Yuanyuan who came later.
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