In the 34th year of Jiajing, while Daming was suffering from the Northern Barbarians, North Korea was also in trouble. A group of Japanese pirates under Wang Zhi's command landed in North Korea and ravaged the border and coast of North Korea for several months. Fortunately, their numbers were small and they were defeated by the North Koreans. This was known as the Yimao Incident.
North Korea's local military system was originally based on town control. This system was similar to China's military governor system. The military power was delegated to the local Dao and Patrol Envoys. However, ever since the Yimao Incident, the Lee Dynasty government was wary of the Taoist government and removed the command of the local military from the Taoist government.
They created an independent system, the military power was broken up, and it belonged to the Dao's Army and Water Envoy, and above that was the Defense Commander, then the Defense Envoy, the Patrol Envoy, and finally the Grand Marshal. The various Daos were not allowed to interfere, and could not command.
To put it bluntly, within North Korea, the government and the military were separated into two parallel lines. Neither had to listen to the other. If there was any enemy information, the Taoist government could discuss it with the Commander of the military. If the two had a good relationship, they could cooperate. However, if the Commander of the military ignored the civil officials, the civil officials could do nothing about it.
This system of separation between the military and the government was advanced and effective. The military power belonged to the imperial court and the civil officials could not interfere. The Commander-In-Chief of the military was appointed by the King of North Korea and the civil officials could not interfere.
Therefore, at the beginning of the war, Lee Jue, Pu Hong and the other generals dared to retreat a thousand miles and ignore the restrictions of Song Xiangxian and Pu Jin. This was the embodiment of the separation between the military and the government.
When Xiao Ruxun heard Yoo Chenlong talk about this, he was interested. He asked Yoo Chenlong to explain in detail. Yoo Chenlong smiled bitterly and said that this method was good. However, if there was an invasion from such a strong enemy, the drawbacks would be revealed.
The local military and government systems were different. Some generals resisted and the civil officials escaped. Others resisted and the civil officials escaped. If the two sides did not cooperate, the government would not be able to gather all its forces to fight against the enemy. Although it would guarantee the royal power, it would be inconvenient for the country.
Xiao Ruxun began to think things through. Actually, at the very beginning, the Great Ming Dynasty did the same thing. The Wei Suo system and the Military Governor's Office of the Five Armies became a single line of military management, and did not interfere with the civil service system. However, after the Tumu Castle incident, the Wei Suo system declined, and the quality of the Ming Army's generals and soldiers greatly decreased. They were no longer able to meet the needs of the country.
To put it bluntly, Zhu Yuanzhang's system of soldiers protecting the country from generation to generation was fundamentally wrong. From the root, it was certain that the collapse of the military system was inevitable, and the decline of the military would inevitably lead to the infringement of the civil officials. After the Tumu Castle Rebellion, the civil officials who had been selected through the imperial examinations were constantly joined by new blood, and the military officials who had been passed down from generation to generation were rotten, and their quality could not be compared to the civil officials, so it was inevitable that their military power would be seized.
Old Zhu did not have foresight and wisdom, causing the Daming Dynasty to be like a bamboo. From the moment the seed was planted, it was destined to perish. If they wanted to change all of this, they had to act against Zhu Yuanzhang's Wei Suo system and fundamentally solve the decline of the Daming Dynasty's generals. It would be best if they could establish a military academy to train generals and allow them to rise again.
However, that would be too big of a move. The civil officials could not allow the military officials to grow. Even with the emperor's support, it would be difficult to see results without twenty to thirty years. During this period, the party members who were experts in internal strife and amateurs in external warfare could use a little trick, and a big hat of "tampering with the ancestral system" could make all of their efforts go to waste. The risk was too great.
Using the Three Great Expeditions and the Ming-Burma War to train a group of powerful generals could only temporarily improve the generals' situation. With the advent of peace, the status of the generals could not be improved. Moreover, after that, it would be a matter of life and death for the Daming Dynasty. Who would have the time to make these moves?
What should they do?
After reprimanding the Korean officials so that they no longer dared to talk nonsense about war, Xiao Ruxun ordered the army to gather in Pyongyang. The materials piled up in Uiju, Dingzhou, and Anzhou were all transported to Pyongyang. They were to be completed within ten days. Then, he ordered the sentries to go south to search for information about the Japanese pirates. Xiao Ruxun was stationed in Pyongyang to oversee the overall situation.
On the Korean side, Li Zhi ordered officials of all sizes to rush to various places in Heonan and Hamgyong to restore governance and production, pacify the refugees, and begin to treat the land that had been ravaged by the Japanese pirates.
For the time being, they did not have the time to harass the Ming Army. Xiao Ruxun also obtained a precious period of rest. He allowed the lightly injured soldiers to receive treatment and return to the troops as soon as possible. He stabilized the condition of the seriously injured soldiers and stayed in Uiju to recuperate to ensure the integrity of the Ming Army's combat power.
Xiao Ruxun's approach was incomparably correct. After the 45,000 Ming Army annihilated 36,000 Japanese soldiers, they still maintained about 42,000 soldiers who could fight. They were not weakened in the battle, and their morale was even higher. The ratio of casualties reached an astonishing one to twenty. It had to be said that it was a solid victory.
This great victory established Xiao Ruxun's position in the Eastern Punitive Ming Army. It also caused this name to set off a whirlwind of fear in Seoul. On the sixth day of November, the Seoul Front Army heard from the mouths of a few people from the Fengshan Army who were lucky enough to escape that the Ming Army had attacked Pyongyang. On the eighth day of November, the Japanese High Command in Seoul welcomed three special messengers.
The three Japanese captives who did not die in the encirclement and annihilation of Pyongyang were hiding in a dry well. After the battle, they were found by Chen Xie. Chen Xie was about to behead them, but he was stopped by Yuan Huang. He wrote a letter and asked them to take the head of the brother of President Konishi and the head of the owner of Tsushima Island to Seoul to "report the good news" to the Japanese High Command in Seoul.
Together with these three people was Kuroda Nagamasa, who was shocked by the annihilation of the 2,000 reinforcements brought by Otomo Yoshitsune. He weighed the pros and cons and felt that if he braced himself to defend Hwanghaidao, he would only end up worse than President Konishi. His Third Legion only had more than 10,000 people, and so far he had lost one-third of his troops in the battle. So he directly gave up Hwanghaidao and took the remaining soldiers to Kaesong to join forces with Kobayakawa Takagi and went to Seoul himself.
So the Japanese High Command learned that President Konishi's First Legion of 15,000 people was completely annihilated. Only the three of them were released. President Konishi was not dead, but he was captured and was to be sent to Beijing to be presented to Emperor Ming. The rest of the generals, such as Matsuura Shinobu, Arima Qingxin, and others, had all died in the battle.
The commander-in-chief of the Japanese army, Ukito Hideie, who was two years younger than Xiao Ruxun and only twenty years old, felt inexplicably terrified. He was originally sent by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to gain experience and gain experience. He didn't expect him to achieve much in the first place. All he needed to do was to follow the advice of the elders that Toyotomi Hideyoshi had sent him and steadily build up his prestige.
He was a young man that Toyotomi Hideyoshi valued. He planned to cultivate him as a hardcore confidant to increase his authority, as well as an existence that could be entrusted to him if he died.
But in this situation, Ukito Hideyoshi, who had always been smooth sailing, panicked.
He quickly convened a meeting of the elders and told them about the letter and the news. The elders looked at each other in dismay. Only then did someone remember Kuroda Rusui's harsh advice when they were discussing the war in Pyongyang.
Kuroda Rusui's name was not often known. Everyone was more familiar with the name Kuroda Imperial Guard and the title of "Rare Famous Military Advisor." It could even be said that he was Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Guo Jia. Kuroda Imperial Guard also helped Toyotomi Hideyoshi dominate Japan. Although it was not a reality, in terms of relative merits, Kuroda Rusui was indeed not to be underestimated.
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