In February of the 21st year of Wanli, Li Rusong, the general of Fufu, and Li Ru*, the general of Liaoxi, captured Pyongyang City. After making great contributions, he refused to obey the orders and privately led 7,000 troops to raid Seoul. He met the Japanese pirate army at Bitiguan twenty miles away from Seoul. The two sides fought fiercely for one day. The Ming army lost more than 2,000 cavalry, killed nearly 7,000 Japanese pirates, and nearly 100 Japanese pirate generals.

When he was withdrawing, Li Rusong, the general of Xuanfu, was attacked by Japanese pirates. He fell off his horse and his leg was broken. Fortunately, his personal guards were rescued by the death battle. He retreated all the way and returned to Pyongyang City to recuperate.

After this battle, the Japanese pirates claimed a great victory, claiming to beheading more than 200 generals of the Ming army and annihilated more than 3,000 Ming cavalry. Li Rusong was shot by a bow and arrow, and his own side had only 2,000 deaths.

Before this battle, the Ming army firmly controlled the Pekan Road and the troops arrived at the Huanghai Road. However, after this battle, the Ming army retreated to the Datong River and defended with Pyongyang City. The Japanese pirates invaded the southern part of Pekan Road. The second Japanese pirate army in Hamkyung Road also continued to harass them from east to west. Now the Ming army can only maintain the western coastal route on the Pekan Road. The only luck is that the road has not been cut off yet, and the defense of Pyongyang City is still stable.

The general of Liao Town, Li Chengliang, knew the defeat at the first time. The news he knew was not accurate at that time. There was a rumor in front of him that Li Rusong died in battle and Li Rubai was seriously injured. A famous general Li Chengliang fainted from a stroke in his mansion. When he woke up, he could not take care of himself in his words or actions.

The news also quickly reached the capital, and the voices that were building momentum for the Li family were all gone, and Emperor Wanli was extremely angry.

If Wang Tong had not submitted a memorial to plead for the Li family and said that the generals had changed at the last battle, Pyongyang would have been unstable, so he did not punish the Li family and imprisoned him. However, no one with discerning eyes could have seen at this time that the two positions of the General of Xuanfu and the General of Liaoxi could not be preserved after the war, and the conspicuous Li family's generals disappeared like this.

What made Emperor Wanli angry was not just the failure of the Li family to do its own business. This defeat made the wealthy Ming Dynasty, who had always been full of confidence and were ready to make money and fame in the war, felt worried and panic. If elite cavalry like Liaozhen have suffered such great losses, will the army led by Wang Tong be smooth sailing?

In the pre-war war, people were most concerned about this spirit and public opinion. The Li family’s arbitrary behavior was equivalent to venting morale, which cast a shadow on the situation.

Emperor Wanli didn't have much to do now, but just sent people to Yizhou to prosecute and pacify. At the same time, he once again emphasized to the generals everywhere that he should obey the control of the Duke of Liao.................. Compared with the chaos in the capital and the miserable and sad western Liaoning, the inside and outside of Yizhou City on the border of the Ming Dynasty was very calm. The army led by Wang Tong had been stationed here for about ten days.

Yizhou is filled with various ethnic groups, including Han, Mongolian, Jurchen and Koreans. They are used to seeing large troops crossing the border. What surprised them was that this time the army seemed to be different from before and was incredibly strict in military discipline. The soldiers were obviously elite and powerful characters, but they did not act arrogantly. They stayed in the barracks and never harassed the place.

Although Wang Tong has restricted his troops in terms of both types and scale, his daily consumption is still very large, but his reserves are still sufficient.

Needless to say, the improvement of the capacity brought by the four-wheeled and four-horse carriages is that for the sake of their own business, Bet Shoulian has been repairing roads outside the wall to various parts of Liaoning, Jianzhou and Haixi, etc., as well as the grain produced by local Jurchen farms can be sold through this road.

The court allocated silver, and Liaoning itself also had a lot of storage. Some of the silver was not short of salt and necessities, and the food was ate enough. However, the situation was not much better than when the Li family urged the food and grass to be sent. The food and grass stored in the Yizhou Daying was constantly transported and consumed. Moreover, these food and grass were not just for the army itself, but Pyongyang still needed transportation here.

The traffic between Hamkyung and Pekan Road is not very good, so the troops sent by the Kato tribe of the Second Army of the Japanese pirates were not very large, but be careful first, and the teams escorting food and grass were rotated. Wang Tong arranged for the First Regiment to rotate the escorting food and grass teams to enter North Korea from the Seventh Regiment, and also allocated 500 horse army.

This is to make the various camps of the Huwei Army familiar with the terrain of North Korea and enter the state of war as soon as possible. Compared with the calm Wang Tong and others, Xu Guangguo, the civil servant of the commander this time, was also very anxious.

The Liaoning Governor Xu Guangguo has a clear position on himself. He is either in charge of the affairs, but to provide various conveniences to the army. He is the chief officer of military logistics. He is as anxious as an ant like a hot pan. It is too little for such a war to use for fifteen days.

At present, almost all the cars and horses that can be used in Liaoning have been mobilized by Xu Guangguo, and there are continuous food everywhere, but this storage status cannot be improved at all. Xu Guangguo has never found any solution, and in the end he found Wang Tong.

Because the King of Korea lives in Yizhou, several large houses with regulations are built. According to the saying that when a person like Wang Tong arrives, his identity is actually higher than that of the King of Korea Li Pan and should also live in the city. However, Wang Tong set up a general tent in the military camp, and everything is in accordance with the wartime.

Xu Guangguo has been here several times. Because he is also a member of the Liao Duke, he is not shy away from many things. Xu Guangguo often sees various peddlers and pawns coming in and out, which starts to make him quite surprised. The Central Army commander's tent is the most heavily guarded place, how can these people be allowed to come in and out?

Later, Xu Guangguo realized that these were spies sent to North Korea. There were often some people who traded business between the Ming Dynasty and North Korea, and it was not cut off until the war, so it happened to use this to inquire about the news.

It was reported that when Xu Guangguo went in, he saw a man dressed in a Korean general walking out, and he should be a spy or something.

When he saw Wang Tong's expression was not very good, Xu Guangguo didn't dare to ask. Wang Tong just signaled him to sit down and said, "Do you understand Japanese? There are too few people who speak hunched. You can't get in there. The news you inquired is very vague and often you can't take it seriously. What's the matter with you today?"

"Duke, this time, I came to the government for the purpose of accumulating food and grass. Now I have a full plan. At most, it will be the 18th day of the food and grass. If a large army enters the country, it will be a discount on this day. The government is really incompetent. If the warplane is delayed, this..."

Speaking of this topic, Wang Tong just shook his head and said with a smile: "It's also a lot of things, and I haven't called him any more. How did you supervise the ships used to cross the river?"

After changing the topic, Xu Guangguo quickly replied: "The river water is open and there is no longer too much ice on the river surface. You can go into the water immediately and will not delay the army from crossing the river."

Wang Tong nodded and continued with a smile: "Since the Yalu River has been open, the sea can already be passed through!?"

Xu Guangguo was different from those scholars who studied hard. He understood these practices and replied with a smile: "The rivers have been open, and the sea should be earlier."

Wang Tong smiled and leaned on the back of the chair and said leisurely: "Since the sea can pass, you don't have to worry about the supply and storage of food and grass."

After saying this, Xu Guangguo's eyes lit up when he heard this and he asked, "Master Duke is saying that food will be transported from the sea."

Seeing Wang Tong nodding, Xu Guang couldn't help but clap his hands and exclaimed: "If this is the case, the officials will really not worry about it. If the army enters North Korea, military rations can also be delivered to the port on the coast, which is even more convenient!"

"You learned from one example."

The atmosphere in the tent suddenly became relaxed. It was not necessary to say that the sea was transporting grain at sea and the huge load of sea ships was not small. Moreover, the manpower required was not much, and the animal power was not necessary. Compared with the current road transportation methods, I don’t know how much convenient it is, let alone North Korea’s land travel is more suitable.

North Korea is a narrow peninsula. When large troops enter North Korea, sea ships need to transport grain to the port on the coastline, and then transport it to the army on the port. This will save a lot of manpower and animal power. The consumption is greatly reduced, and the efficiency has been improved by many times.

In the past, the settlement of Liao Town was not good: when there was a shortage of food, Shandong was transporting grain to Liaodong at that time. However, Liaodong was vast and Shandong was insufficient in shipment capacity, and the transportation of grain was not very smooth. But now there is no such concern. The shipping between Liaoning and Tianjin Wei is extremely developed. I call ships to transport grain and then ship specialties back. I believe countless people will participate. According to Xu Guangguo's speculation, Wang Tong must have made an agreement with the maritime merchants, so there is no need to worry about it.

After solving this problem, Wang Tong pondered for a while and said, "The current situation is that within these twenty days, there should be at least one imperial guard in Pyongyang City. With the troops from Xuanfu and western Liaoning, it is not a big problem to defend it. However, the entire Ping'an Road may not be very stable, so you must cross the river as soon as possible and establish a camp on the Korean side of the Yalu River. You can arrange the ships and radius as soon as possible!"

Xu Guangguo quickly stood up and agreed. He was discussing the matter of food and grass, but he didn't expect that the war would begin so soon. Wang Tong would lead the army into North Korea so soon, and some of them would be busy next.

While he was talking, he heard a noise outside, and a personal guard reported outside the tent door: "Master General, Lord Li, the general of Xuanfu, has come."

Xu Guangguo looked at Wang Tong with some surprise. Wang Tong sighed, stood up and shook his head and said, "He was seriously injured. I am afraid that he will be delayed in the place where there is no medical treatment or medicine in Pyongyang. I'd better arrange to come back to treat the disease and recuperate the injury!"

"Duke, the Li family's crime of violating military law..."

Wang Tong pondered for a while and said, "No matter what, he was injured in fighting with the Japanese pirates, and he was loyal. I would not make things difficult for the Li family."
Chapter completed!