On the fifth day of October, Guo Zaiyou arrived at Huangzhou with more than three thousand troops. They rested there and then sent scouts to the front to search for important information.
The news they received was not optimistic.
Because of the invasion of the Jurchen bandits, the north of Huangzhou was already in chaos, and there was a large-scale exodus in the Pyongyang area. The people all fled south, probably because they could not forget the painful memories from seven years ago. This time, they chose to escape their homeland without hesitation.
The situation was not good. The fighting strength of the Jurchen bandits was beyond imagination, and Guo Zaiyou also had doubts about their purpose.
If it was just to rob, why would they attack the big cities?
Ordinary bandits mainly robbed towns and ran away after robbing, but this group of bandits not only went south, but also robbed cities and even broke into some cities. This really made him very vigilant and confused.
He began to suspect that these Jurchen bandits might not be here to rob.
At the same time, he also became worried.
Seven years ago, a war that almost destroyed the country had destroyed more than a hundred years of hard work by the North Koreans. The weakness of a small country was obvious. Not only did it lose quickly, but it also recovered slowly. After the complete destruction of the regular army, most of the current North Korean government forces were reorganized from the civilian army.
At the same time, the national power was greatly reduced, and the military power was also greatly reduced.
There was no need to talk about the army. Whether it was in the past or now, it was very weak.
During the war, although they received some help from the original Daming army, and under the guidance of Wu Weizhong, they were trained like Qi Jiguang and taught some tactics of the southern army, such as the tactics derived from the Mandarin Duck Formation, and there was also training with firearms, it did not last for long.
When Xiao Ruxun decided to attack the Nihon territory, all the military instructors of the Daming army were stationed there, and the training of the army was interrupted.
The navy was originally very impressive, and even Emperor Daming admired the navy's general, Yi Sun-sin. But four years ago, Yi Sun-sin was forced to be dismissed in a political struggle and died of illness three years ago. Since then, the navy gradually fell into disuse.
The North Korean emperor and ministers felt that Nihon had been occupied and controlled by the Daming, and there was no need to worry about Nihon at all, so there was no need to spend so much military money to maintain a large navy.
They had the same view on the Army. In the name of developing the people's livelihood, they cut the military budget and took away all the aid that Daming had given them.
He said that he wanted to develop the people's livelihood, but he did not know what he did. There was no development in the people's livelihood, and the army had actually weakened.
As a result, the army and navy, which had some momentum towards the end of the war, began to decline one after another. The army, which had been quite spirited, once again became a motley crew.
Even the Six Towns Cavalry, which could be considered as the elites of Hamgyong Province, were gone. The North Korean army's current strength was even weaker than before the war.
The North Korean emperor and his ministers had always believed that Daming would protect them, so they had no real feelings for the army. They valued civil and military affairs more than Daming, even more so after Daming sent the army to help.
Although Daqin's overthrow of Daming at the beginning of the year had brought a certain crisis to North Korea, North Korea and Daqin soon re-established the relationship between the monarch and the vassal. The crisis alarm was lifted, and North Korea's monarch and vassal could continue to fight happily.
Therefore, although Guo Zaiyou was somewhat dissatisfied, he, who came from a wealthy family, knew that the current political trend was no longer biased toward the military.
He had thought there would not be any more major turmoil, but he was soon slapped in the face.
Even the elites under Guo Zaiyou's command were said to be elites, but their morale was not even as good as the civilian army that Guo Zaiyou had gathered in the past. Their weapons were also a mess. There were Great Ming's standard muskets, Great Ming's southern cold weapons, and long spears and spears.
Guo Zaiyou had never led the Royal Capital's army before, but it was clear that this army did not have much combat strength.
Guo Zaiyou originally thought they were just a group of roving bandits, but now that he knew the combat strength of these female roving bandits, Guo Zaiyou started to get a little nervous. Therefore, he urgently trained this army to a certain extent.
He would not know if he did not train them, but after training them, he realized how rusty the tactics and tactics of this seemingly well-dressed army were. It was probably because they had not trained seriously since the war.
Guo Zaiyou, who was very helpless against the two groups of officials in Beijing, could only urgently train them. He stopped the army in Huangzhou and did not continue advancing.
However, the news from the frontlines was not good. It was said that Sunan, north of Pyongyang, had also been attacked by the Jurchen barbarians. Now, a large number of civilians were dragging their families south. Over the past few days, Guo Zaiyou noticed that more and more civilians were migrating south. Their faces were filled with panic.
Things had become a little unexpected.
What were the origins of these Jurchen barbarians?
What were their plans?
From the looks of it, they did not look like roving bandits at all!
Guo Zaiyou continued to carefully gather information. He collected important information that most of the Jurchen bandits were cavalry, had strong combat strength, and were very organized in their movements. There were at least 2,000 of them, and so on.
However, before Guo Zaiyou could continue gathering information and make preparations, a request for help from Sunan and Pyongyang arrived. It passed through Huangzhou and was sent to Han City. When Guo Zaiyou saw it, he began to struggle in his heart.
Coincidentally, the imperial court had sent someone to inquire about Guo Zaiyou's military situation. When the envoy arrived in Huangzhou and saw the scene of the refugees fleeing, he was greatly shocked. He immediately asked Guo Zaiyou what was going on. After listening to Guo Zaiyou's explanation, he immediately ordered Guo Zaiyou to head north to Pyongyang. He absolutely could not allow anything to happen to Pyongyang.
Guo Zaiyou knew that he could not refute such an order. The envoy had the imperial order, and he could not resist.
After thinking about it again and again, Guo Zaiyou still decided to set off with his troops from Huangzhou to Pyongyang. At the same time, he asked the envoy to immediately return to Han City and report to the imperial court, saying that the Jurchen bandits were very fierce and did not seem like ordinary bandits. Their goal was also unclear, and he asked the imperial court to immediately prepare the army for an emergency.
Guo Zaiyou led the army forward, and after a day of rapid marching, they arrived at Zhonghe, south of Pyongyang. Here, he was shocked to hear from the refugees that Sunan had fallen and that Pyongyang was in danger.
He did not have time to verify the truth of the matter, because Pyongyang was simply too important. Thus, regardless of the exhaustion of his army, he immediately led his troops in the direction of Pyongyang, planning to reach Pyongyang first no matter what.
When he led his troops to a place twelve miles south of Pyongyang, where they could already see the walls of Pyongyang in the distance, they encountered a long-prepared attack by Nurhaci.
Three thousand Jurchen cavalry moved out and surrounded Guo Zaiyou's army on the flat terrain south of Pyongyang. They attacked him as if he was chopping melons and vegetables. Although Guo Zaiyou was panicking, he quickly calmed down and commanded his troops to fight back.
Despite using all methods, such as muskets and spears, the North Korean army, which lacked training and formation, was quickly routed. Guo Zaiyou struggled bitterly and was besieged by more than a dozen Jurchen cavalry. Although his personal guards fought to the death, they were all wiped out, and Guo Zaiyou himself died in battle.
Until his death, he still did not know that Sunan and Pyongyang had not been breached at all. Even the siege was just a smokescreen. Nurhaci did not even intend to attack these two cities.
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