The tenth day of the seventh month in the twenty-seventh year of Chongzhen, Korea.
After more than a month of fighting.
Li Xianzhong's Eastern Army had completely captured Hamgyong Province and joined Li Dingguo's Western Army more than 100 miles north of Kaesong.
Li Dingguo's Western Army achieved greater results.
Not only did they take over Pyeongan Province, they also occupied half of Hwanghae Province.
They began to threaten the Korean capital, Seoul, which was more than 200 miles away!
Their progress was indeed slow, but they killed very cleanly.
There were only the corpses of Jiannu people in the places they passed by, but no Jiannu people breathing.
in addition...
They also killed many local gentry.
Especially those gentry who were loyal to the Jiannu and opposed to the Ming Dynasty.
Needless to say, the local tyrants and evil gentry who oppressed the people were all slaughtered by the Ming army.
The money and property in their homes were also "temporarily kept" by the Ming army.
This move not only solved the military pay problem of the Ping Liao army, but also won the support of the local people.
Inside the central military tent, Li Dingguo was listening to the scouts reporting on military intelligence.
"The Jiannu divided their forces into two parts, with 2,000 troops hiding near Haeju in Hwanghae Province, and the remaining 3,000 troops stationed 50 miles north of Kaesong. Their intentions are unclear."
After the scout finished speaking, he retreated.
Li Dingguo was somewhat puzzled: "Why do we need to divide our troops when the Jiannu are short of manpower?"
"Yeah, I'm wondering too!" Li Xianzhong said in confusion, "It's understandable to divide the troops when the troops are abundant, but dividing the troops when the troops are scarce is simply courting death. There must be something fishy going on here."
Li Dingguo pondered for a while but still had no clue. In the end, he was too lazy to think about it and said directly: "No matter what's going on, we have to send troops to investigate."
Li Xianzhong asked happily: "When will the troops be dispatched?"
Li Dingguo said, "The governor's troops will arrive at our current location around noon tomorrow. You and I will lead our troops to attack Haizhou and Kaesong respectively. There is no need to attack by force. We just need to find out why they divided their troops."
"Okay, let's wait until tomorrow!"
......
Haizhou.
In the central army tent, Dorgon had a worried look on his face.
More than a month ago, the Ming army marched south from Yizhou in the west of Korea and Jongseong in the east.
To stop the Ming army.
Dorgon ordered Luo Luohun to go to Anzhou to defend and ordered Wu Sangui to go to Jingcheng to deploy defenses.
There is a Cheongcheon River to the north of Anzhou.
On the day of arrival in Anzhou.
Luo Luohun burned bridges and boats to prevent the Ming army from crossing the river.
After arriving at the Cheongcheon River, the Ming army did not rush to cross the river. Instead, they built ships and sent out a large number of spies to find out Luo Luohun's background.
After learning that Luo Luohun was short of troops.
The Ming army deployed its troops along the river and crossed the river simultaneously in more than 30 places.
Luo Luohun tried his best but could only stop a part of the Ming army from crossing the river, but was unable to stop the rest.
As a result, Luo Luohun himself was injured in the battle of Anzhou.
Su Bai and Li Guohan, both of his subordinates, were killed in the battle.
Although Tan Tai, Gong Adai, Tong Tulai, Geng Zhongming and others were not injured, their troops were completely disbanded.
They fought and retreated all the way to Haizhou where they joined Dorgon who had been waiting for a long time.
Wu Sangui's situation is better than Luo Luohun's.
But it's not much better.
Wu Sangui was a very good fighter, and sometimes he was even able to rely on the terrain and elite troops to repel Li Xianzhong's attacks.
But as the fighting went on, Wu Sangui discovered a problem.
Regardless of victory or defeat, every time we returned to the camp and counted the troops, we would find that there were always fewer people.
If the reduction in personnel was caused by casualties, then wounded soldiers or corpses would definitely be found on the battlefield.
But Wu Sangui looked for it several times, but the number of people didn't match.
The number of casualties is always much greater than the number of wounded and killed combined.
This made Wu Sangui realize that the desertion problem that had been bothering him was not only not solved, but became more serious.
Dorgon was both happy and sad when he received the news.
The good news is that the fewer troops Wu Sangui has, the smaller the threat they pose to him.
The reason for sadness is that Wu Sangui was, after all, a general of the Qing Dynasty. His weakened strength meant that the Qing Dynasty's strength was also weakened.
This was extremely unfavorable to the Qing Dynasty.
Just as Dorgon was thinking, his guards shouted outside: "Your Majesty, Suksaha wants to see you."
Dorgon sat up straight in a hurry, sweeping away his previous decadent demeanor: "Let him in quickly."
Suksaha walked quickly into the central military tent and said, "Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you."
"Get up."
"Yes," Suksaha stood up and walked to Dorgon's side and lowered his voice: "Your Majesty, there is news from Shi Lang and Shang Kexi."
"Wait a minute," Dorgon glanced around the central military tent, and after making sure there was no one else, he asked in a low voice, "Have they arrived at Haizhou Port?"
As the Ming army entered Korea, Dorgon had no way to retreat.
So he followed Shi Lang's advice and planned to take a ship to Dongfan (Taiwan).
But his people didn't know how to take control, so he had to give this task to Shang Kexi.
Suksaha replied: "Yes, they are already waiting in Haizhou."
"How many ships are there?"
Suksaha replied, "Thirty-five ships."
Dorgon frowned again: "Thirty-five ships... are too few. We still have five thousand soldiers and horses. Even if we abandon our horses and board the ships, these ships can only accommodate more than three thousand people. The extra people will probably have to stay and fight the Ming army to the death."
Suksaha explained: "There are already quite a few. Some of these ships were bought from the North Korean navy, and some were stolen from passing caravans."
Dorgon consoled himself: "Okay, no matter how much, it's better than nothing. Have you prepared enough food supplies?"
"All are ready."
"Since everything is ready, let's send the order to go to Haizhou Port immediately and prepare to board the ship."
Suksaha bowed again and asked, "Then... who should be allowed on board?"
The Qing dynasty had a population of 5,000, but the ship could only accommodate 3,000.
This meant that two thousand people could not board the ship.
Only Dorgon could decide who could board the ship and who could not.
Dorgon lowered his head and thought for a while, then raised his head and asked: "How many troops does Wu Sangui have?"
Suksaha calculated and replied, "There are nearly 3,000 people near Kaesong, including 2,000 Guanning troops of Wu Sangui, and the rest are the troops of the surrendered general Li Chengdong."
Dorgon originally wanted to abandon both Wu Sangui and Li Chengdong in Korea.
However, considering that he was not sure what situation he would encounter after arriving in Taiwan, he had to bring more people.
"Well," Dorgon said, "Wu Sangui has repeatedly asked me for military pay and food, but I have not given him any. I think he has already started to rebel."
Suksaha listened quietly beside him, not daring to speak.
Dorgon continued: "In that case, let's just leave him in Korea."
Suksaha reminded him in time: "Your Majesty, what about Li Chengdong? He is with Wu Sangui!"
Dorgon raised his eyebrows and said, "Immediately transfer him to Haizhou and tell him that I have an urgent mission for him!"
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