Chapter 708 0703 [Wanyan Zongfu]

Jin Kingdom, Posulu City (Dandong Jiulian City).

Wanyan Zonggan robbed a large number of people, wealth and food from Goryeo and returned to Shangjing happily.

After receiving the news that the Ming Dynasty stationed troops in Baozhou and Pyongyang, it was Wanyan Zongfu who came this time.

In the minds of the Song people in different time and space, the Jin Kingdom had four great princes who commanded troops, namely: Wanyan Zonghan, Wanyan Zongwang, Wanyan Zongfu and Wanyan Zongbi.

Zongfu and Zongbi, who had been with Aguda for a long time, were actually more inclined to exercise their internal affairs capabilities.

Zongbi was naturally the famous Jin Wushu, but he was actually serving as Zongfu's deputy in a series of battles, from scaring Zhao Gou to flee Yangzhou, to searching mountains and seas, the Battle of Huangtiandang, the Battle of Fuping, and the Battle of Heshangyuan.

The real strategic commander was actually Wanyan Zongfu.

And most of the later emperors of the Jin Kingdom were descendants of Wanyan Zongfu!

At this Bogile Conference, Wanyan Zongfu did not fight or compete, and only got a Yishi Bogile (deputy prime minister in charge of foreign affairs).

Although he seems to be a nobody, as long as Wanyan Zongfu speaks, everyone in the Jin Dynasty has to give him face.

Because when Aguda was still alive, most of the military and political orders of the Jin Dynasty had to go through Wanyan Zongfu. And Wanyan Zongfu was fair in his work, generous and honest. Under the condition of equal treatment, all factions owed him favors.

However, this guy did not like to argue with others, and even did not want to get involved in factional struggles.

Now that the Ming Dynasty has stationed troops south of the Yalu River, Wanyan Zonghan has to defend Shanxi, and Wanyan Zongwang has to defend Hebei. Wanyan Zongfu, who does not like to make trouble, can only go out in person.

He also brought his little follower Jin Wushu.

Xiemao Ali, who helped the Jin Dynasty conquer southern Liaoning and the northeastern part of the Korean Peninsula and made great contributions in the battles of encircling and annihilating Yelu Yudu, introduced the current situation and said: "Since the Ming army stationed in Baozhou, they have been strengthening and expanding the seaport at the mouth of the Yalu River. There are more than 40 warships patrolling back and forth in the lower reaches of the Yalu River."

The so-called more than 40 warships here are mostly inland vessels from the reduced Dongting Lake Navy. Because the hull is small, it was directly tied to the sea ship and brought over.

Wanyan Zongfu asked, "Have you sent people across the river to investigate?"

Xie Mao Ali said, "We did. Most of the population of the six cities east of the Yangtze River in Goryeo was taken away by our army, and the food had long been moved away. The Ming army did not station troops in those mountain cities."

Wanyan Zongfu confirmed, "Only Baozhou City on the other side has Ming troops stationed there?"

Xie Mao Ali said, "Yes, the Ming army only occupied Baozhou City, and ignored the mountain cities under Baozhou. Even Anzhou City, which is further south, has no Ming troops stationed there."

"What do you think?" Wanyan Zongfu asked.

Ximao Ali said: "The intention of the Ming army is very clear, that is, to cross the river from Baozhou to the north, not to take the opportunity to occupy the territory of Goryeo."

Jin Wushu, who followed his brother honestly, asked at this moment: "Since the Ming army only wants to go north, why station troops in Pyongyang, which is further south of Anzhou?"

Ximao Ali is familiar with the geography of this area, and immediately expressed his understanding: "Maybe they are afraid that our army will send troops from Helan Road, and then force and coerce the Goryeo army to go around to the south and attack Baozhou City together."

Wanyan Zongfu rode out of the city and came to the Yalu River. Pointing to the opposite bank, he said: "This is very suitable for crossing the river. Didn't the Ming army build a fort on the shore?"

"No, I'm afraid they want to trick us into attacking the city." Ximao Ali guessed.

Posulu City and Baozhou City are 20 miles apart across the Yalu River.

South of Posulu City in Jin, there are a large number of islands formed by the alluvial deposits of the Yihe River. These river islands are densely distributed, so the large warships of the Ming army cannot come in, and small warships are also very easy to be ambushed.

If the Jin soldiers want to cross the river, it is still easy to use the terrain.

But if the Ming army builds two forts on the opposite bank, it will cause great trouble for the Jin soldiers to cross the river.

Wanyan Zongfu muttered: "Neither occupying the mountain city nor building forts on the shore. This is too lazy to divide troops and waste manpower and material resources. It is estimated that when the Ming army has enough military supplies in Baozhou, it will cross the river to the north to attack Posu Road."

"Brother, should we take the initiative to attack?" Wanyan Zongbi asked.

Wanyan Zongfu sighed: "I'm afraid that after we transport soldiers and food across the river, the Ming navy will come to cut off our retreat. Although these islands in front of us are conducive to our army's ambush, we don't have so many warships. By that time, the Ming army will cut off our retreat, and our army can only capture Baozhou City before the soldiers and food are exhausted. Otherwise, we can only starve to death on the south bank of the Yalu River, or the entire army will withdraw from the mountains and ridges."

Although the large area on the south bank of the Yalu River belonged to the Jin Kingdom at this time, the Jin Kingdom only set up a Helan Road on the easternmost coast. The other mountainous areas were full of savages, and the Jin Kingdom took some of them away as raw Jurchens, and the rest of the Jin Kingdom was even too lazy to collect taxes.

Those mountainous areas are not suitable for marching, not suitable for withdrawal, and even not suitable for survival!

If the Jin soldiers were cut off from retreat after crossing the river, they would have to go south to Anzhou, and it would be easiest to return from the river valley northeast of Anzhou. The whole process could be pursued or ambushed by the Ming army at any time.

Wanyan Zongfu continued, "Even if the Ming navy does not come to block the river, can we really capture Baozhou? The Ming army defends the city, and we suffer heavy casualties in the siege. I'm afraid this is exactly what the Ming army wants to see. Although our warriors of the Great Jin are brave, they have never been good at siege. Even the Ming army is not afraid of being besieged. They can enter the river from the sea at any time and transport food to the outside of Baozhou."

"What should we do?" Wanyan Zongbing asked.

Wanyan Zongfu said: "Dispatch more soldiers to garrison the Posu Road."

Wanyan Zongbi said: "Where are there many soldiers?"

The Jin Kingdom was really short of troops. The coastal road was cut off by Li Bao, and all the cities in the Western Liaoning Corridor had to garrison troops for defense. Especially Jinzhou, which really produces brocade. It is one of the important tax areas and must not be plundered by the Ming army.

There were also Yelu Yujian and others in Lushun, leading a group of people of all ethnic groups who had surrendered. They relied on the Zhenhaikou Great Wall to watch there. The Jin Kingdom must station troops in Dalian and Jinzhou.

Now we have to station troops on the north bank of the Yalu River?

The reason why the Jin Kingdom originally gave Baozhou and six cities in Jiangdong to Goryeo, and the reason why later Zhu Di gave that large area to North Korea, was because the nearby terrain was complex and the population was insufficient. There is little use in garrisoning troops. If there are too many garrison troops, military supplies will be tight. Most of the food will have to be transported from other places.

But it had to be defended here. Once Posulu City was breached, the Ming army would be able to kill Fengcheng City in later generations.

It was very important during the Liao Kingdom. The prefecture was changed to a prefecture, and the prefecture was changed to a prefecture several times. It was even renamed "Kaifeng Prefecture" by the Liao State at one time, which had the same name as the capital of the Song Dynasty. Now it is Kaizhou of the Jin Kingdom, which has the same name as the capital of Goryeo.

After capturing this place, the Ming army can continue to move north and penetrate directly into Liaoyang, the hinterland of the Jin Kingdom!

At that time, Li Bao from the Liaoxi Corridor, Yelu Yujian from Lushunkou, and Zhe Yanzhi from the Yalu River side can attack Liaoyang in three directions.

Wanyan Zongfu did not dare to cross the river to attack the city, nor did he dare to withdraw his troops. He even had to continue to increase troops and garrison them.

The Goryeo Bohai people who had been taken away by the Jin soldiers had just planted grain in the Fuzhou area when thousands of them were forcibly moved here by Wanyan Zongfu.

A thousand young men were selected as the city's defenders, and the rest were placed in nearby ravines to clear up wasteland. No matter how many bans are established on the piers and platforms, once the Ming army is discovered crossing the river, all the men in the nearby villages will enter the city to defend it.

…

After receiving the news, Zhe Yanzhi took a boat to Baozhou in person.

Accompanied by Li Cheng, Zhe Yanzhi arrived at the other side of Posu Road City and picked up a telescope to observe for a long time: "The Jin people just increased their troops and didn't think about attacking the city?"

Li Cheng smiled and said: "Last time Wanyan Zongqian personally led an army across the river, he only besieged but not attacked, forcing the Goryeo defenders to surrender. Baozhou is a fortified city built by the Liao Kingdom. When the Goryeo soldiers were stationed, it was not easy for the Jin people to conquer it. . Now that I am the Ming soldiers stationed here, how dare the Jin soldiers come over?"

Zhe Yanzhi licked his lips: "I hope the Jin people come here to fight. How can there be any military exploits without fighting?"

Li Cheng encouraged: "Our army has just formed the Yalu River Navy. The soldiers and warships are all from the Dongting Lake Navy. They have completely controlled the dozens of miles of the Yalu River. Our army can cross the river at any time and attack and plunder the people on the other side from time to time." How about forcing the Jin soldiers to come out of the city to fight in the countryside?"

"How many golden soldiers are there in the city opposite?" Zheyan asked.

Li Cheng said: "At least more than three thousand, maybe four or five thousand."

Zhe Yanzhi hesitated and said: "The prince wrote to us and told us not to go north for the time being. The main purpose is to station troops in Baozhou and Pyongyang. One can contain the Jin Kingdom's troops, and the other can encroach on the territory of Goryeo. What if we cross the river without authorization and miss the prince's good deeds? ?”

"It's just a small group of harassment and no large-scale use of troops. What can happen?" Li Cheng's troops were reorganized and some of them were eliminated again. The rest were all re-equipped and received many powerful crossbows.

Although there were fewer soldiers in his hand, Li Cheng felt that his combat power had greatly improved. He is now like holding a hammer in his hand. When he sees a nail, he wants to hit it twice. If there is no nail, he even wants to hit someone.

But Zhe Yanzhi said: "The number of soldiers crossing the river for a surprise attack should not exceed 300 people each time. Even if they are defeated, it will not cause any harm."

This guy is an outlier among military generals. He actually wants to be a civil servant, and he is good at poetry, classics and history. When Prince Zhu gave orders, Zhe Yanzhi's first thought was not to perform meritorious service, but to obey the prince honestly, even if he missed the opportunity to fight, it didn't matter.

However, it was said that when Li Cheng personally led his troops and crossed the river many times to plunder the countryside of the Kingdom of Jin, Wanyan Zongfu, who was unwilling to be passively defensive, had already written to Harbin and Yanjing at the same time.

Wanyan Zongfu planned to use the food stolen from Goryeo to gather a large army and completely eradicate the Ming army's sea crossing stronghold.

Including Liaoxi Corridor, Lushun and Baozhou, Wanyan Zongfu must be removed!

…

Yanshan Mansion.

Wanyan Zongwang received two letters at the same time, almost at the same time.

After reading the letter, Wanyan Zongwang said to Shi Liai: "This is a letter asking for help from Hedong (Shanxi). The Ming army there has begun to attack Guancheng. Nianhan asked me not to lead troops there. The terrain there is narrow and there will be no more troops." The troops could not be deployed. He asked me to go south as soon as possible and attack Hebei in the Ming Dynasty. We must conquer Zhending and attack Zhang Guangdao from Jingxing."

Shi Liai shook his head: "Jingxing is really a natural hazard, and Zhending is a fortified city. It's difficult to capture any one place. How can it be possible to open up both places? The pressure on Nianhan is not low, and they are already talking nonsense."

Wanyan Zongwang added: "Yu Liduo (Wanyan Zongfu) asked me to send troops to open the seaside road. He gathered all the ministries in central Liaoning, eastern Liaoning, and southern Liaoning to pull out other Ming troops crossing the sea."

"Once the main force of the marshal leaves Youzhou, the Ming army in Hebei will definitely go north, and the land of Youyan will be in the hands of the Ming army!" Shi Liai reminded seriously.

Wanyan Zongwang was extremely entangled, and he became more and more sincere in wanting to negotiate peace with the Ming Dynasty.

Shi Liai said: "Marshal, we must never send troops to fight. As for Banghai Road, thousands of elites can be sent out to attack together with the Liaodong soldiers. Marshal's main force should be to defend Youzhou."

Shi Liai wanted to help Wanyan Zongwang preserve his strength, but Wanyan Zongwang shook his head and said, "A few thousand soldiers are not enough. At least 10,000 soldiers must be allocated to open up the sea route together with the Liaodong soldiers. The Great Jin is at a critical juncture, and we can no longer have those small thoughts."