Brocade tears

The Six Forts of Kuandian refers to the six defensive fortresses stretching from north to south on the Great Wall in the easternmost section of the Ming Dynasty. , Yongdian Fort, Changdian Fort, and Sudian Fort that defended southwest.Liubao is also known as "Liudian", which not only means to establish, but also contains a trace of shock and evil spirit for the intruders to enter the memorial ceremony.A fortress manages a section of the Great Wall, which stretches for more than 300 miles.The history of these six fortresses is not too long. They were built and completed under the auspices of Zhang Juzheng and Li Chengliang in the early years of Wanli.

Since the Ming Dynasty, the frontier policy in Liaodong has been frequently misplaced, which has gradually weakened the Ming court's control over Liaodong.Chengzu moved King Ning, who guarded Liaodong, from Daning to Nanchang, which caused a huge loophole in the defense of Liaodong facing most of Mongolia; Xuanzong allowed the Jurchen tribes recruited by Hou Xian to move inward, which caused the natural barrier of the Changbai Mountain branch to lose its effect, and opened Kaiping again. The relocation of the guards led to the complete disintegration of the defense system north of the Great Wall built by Tai/Zu with Dongshengwei, Kaipingwei, and Daningwei as the core, and the loss of the frontier outposts of the Ming Dynasty. The cavalry was able to rush directly to the field of the Liaodong capital of the Ming Dynasty in Liaoyang; during the Xiaozong period, Ye Qi, Minister of the Ministry of Households, reformed the open-center system, called the open-center color system [Note].This move led to the complete destruction of all the commercial and civilian villages in the important frontier defense towns of the Ming Dynasty, including Liaodong.Among them, Liaodong has no prefectures and counties, and immigration has not been implemented, so the problems of "short land and few people are difficult to raise an army", and problems such as "short land and few people are difficult to guard" are particularly prominent.

Before Li Chengliang became the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, Liaodong had serious problems such as poor livelihood, low morale, empty defense, corruption of generals, and continuous fleeing of military households. In ten years, Wang Zhidao and other three generals of Liaodong died in battle, so that the Hai and Jian tribes became stronger day by day, and Jianguo became the Khan.

After Li Chengliang took over Liaodong, on the basis of several key victories in the early stage, he analyzed the military defense problems existing in Liaodong, and clearly lacked frontier defense outposts, huge defense loopholes facing Mongolia, natural barriers lost their function, open land and few people, and open land The lack of soldiers and other problems enabled the tribes of the Tuman and Jurchen to form a double-team situation against Liaodong from the west, north, and east. As a result, the Ming army would fortify everywhere when deploying defenses, and the troops everywhere were weak; If you fortify yourself, you will lose sight of the other.Moreover, when sending troops to attack the Tuman or Jurchen, they often dare not go deep into the pursuit because they are worried that the other party will take the opportunity to attack. Therefore, the Tuman or Jurchen must be "guarded" so that they cannot affect the Ming army in Liaodong. military action.

Based on his many years of experience in fighting in Liaodong, Li Chengliang accurately chose the object of "care"-the relatively weak Jurchen tribes.

In fact, the reason why Li Chengliang chose the Jurchen tribes is not complicated. The main reason is that if the Jurchen tribes want to invade Liaodong, they must pass through the Shichakou near Kuandian. Offending the important road is a place where all the barbarians must fight.Therefore, as long as Li Chengliang sent troops to occupy the Kuandian area, he could "guard" the Jurchen tribes.

Coincidentally in the first year of Wanli, Zhang Juzheng sent Wang Daokun, the minister of the Ministry of War, to inspect Liaodong, so Li Chengliang proposed to him a plan to occupy the Kuandian area-relocate the five forts of the dangerous mountain to the Kuandian area, and build a new Kuandian on this basis. Dian Liubao.

Later, Wang Daokun wrote Li Chengliang's plan to relocate and build the Six Forts of Kuandian into a Tang newspaper and submitted it to the cabinet. He mentioned: "The soil of Zhangqiharadianzi is fertile and arable, and it is easy to go to Nuanyang and other places. The mountain castle is in its place... 180 miles away from the dangerous mountain, you can also get fertile land. The five districts of Kuandianzi, Changdianzi, Shuangtaer, Changling, and San, and Songziling, etc. are extremely rushing places. The fort army moved to various places and built six forts...".

After receiving Wang Daokun's Tang Bao, Zhang Juzheng praised Li Chengliang's plan to move and build the Six Forts of Kuandian, so he immediately appointed Zhang Xueyan, the censor of Youqin Capital, as the governor of Liaodong to support Li Chengliang's move to build the Six Forts of Kuandian.

After Zhang Xueyan arrived in Liaodong, he immediately conducted a comprehensive inspection of Liaodong's defense situation.Afterwards, he came to a conclusion: Liaodong was sparsely populated, and the defense was not well organized. The Guangning and Liaoyang officers and troops were unable to respond at the moment.If measures are not taken quickly, it will be a few years later, not only will it become a problem of captives, it will be difficult to grow, and internal changes will grow latently.Then, under the leadership of Li Chengliang, Zhang Xueyan went to the Kuandian area to conduct a field investigation, and slept there for three nights. He believed that Li Chengliang's plan to relocate and build the six forts in Kuandian could indeed "seize the tiger's den as a barrier to the inland, and according to his guts, use Donghu as a barrier." the hole".So far, Li Chengliang's plan to relocate and build the Six Forts of Kuandian was approved and started to be implemented immediately.

After the completion of the construction, the Kuandian Six Forts are generally named after the Kuandian Fort where the main guard is stationed, and are called the Kuandian Six Forts.Kuandian Fort is not very big, its circumference is only eight miles, the city is two and a half feet high, wide in the north and narrow in the south, forming an inverted trapezoid.There are no gates in the north of the city, and there are only two gates, the west and the south, while the east gate faces the enemy directly and is heavily guarded.After the fall of the capital of Joseon, Lee Chan, the king of Joseon, who fled all the way to the northwest, finally fled to Kuandian Fort, where he was protected by the Ming army in Liaodong.And the vanguard army led by Zha Dashou arrived at this fortress.

The ninth day of November was the second day that Zhao Ziyang, the Meng family and the United Commercial Bank team arrived at Fort Kuandian.They arrived very late the day before yesterday, so the defenders of Fort Kuandian did not have time to host a banquet after they arrived, but only arranged for the vanguard to camp.

After a rest overnight, in the morning of the second day, a group of the Meng family, who were eating the food, received a message from a deputy general of Zha Dashou, saying that a group of about 200 Jinyiwei had just arrived at Kuandian Fort from the south of the Yahu Pass. Ten miles outside the west gate, there has been a report.

As soon as they heard that it was the Jinyiwei, everyone in the Meng family immediately regained their spirits, and hurriedly asked the sergeant who reported the letter if he mentioned who the commander of the Jinyiwei was leading the team.The lieutenant told them that it was Guo Dayou who came.

Everyone was overjoyed, if it was really Guo Dayou, then Meng Kuang and Sui Er would most likely be with him, and their family could finally be reunited!Overjoyed, a group of people hurriedly got up, ready to meet Jin Yiwei outside the west gate.The deputy general hurriedly stopped Zhao Ziyang and said:

"Master Zhao, Vice President Zha ordered me to look for you. He hopes that you can go with him to the castle to meet the King of Joseon."

"Are you going right away?" Zhao Ziyang asked.

"Yes."

"Okay, I'll change into an official uniform, and I'll let you go." Zhao Ziyang said helplessly.

The so-called "fortress" is actually a rammed-earth courtyard in a fortress where the general of Kuandian Fortress lived. It is really not luxurious.The king of Joseon is now living here in desperation. The guard of Kuandian Fort gave him his main house, and he lives in a side house. There are only three or four people accompanying the king of Joseon to take care of Li Yan's daily life. , most of the women's relatives can't even live in this yard, so they can only let the nearby houses give up the yard for them to live in.

Zhao Ziyang followed Zha Dashou and entered the castle with two other lieutenants. Tong Yang, the guard of Kuandian Fort, was welcoming them at the door and guiding them to the main house.

"Brother, your courtyard can be regarded as full of splendor. Even the king of Joseon has come to live here." Cha Dashou joked to Tong Yangzheng.

Tong Yang has been staying in this bitter cold place for a long time, his face is full of wind and frost, but his eyes are very firm, he doesn't look like those other Liaodong guards who are drunk and dreaming.Hearing that Zha Dashou made fun of him, he also laughed, and responded in a rough voice:

"Yeah, how many people can't cultivate the blessing in their lifetime, but I would rather not have this blessing. You said that the majestic lord of a country can only be sheltered in a border city of another country, how embarrassing it is, why not Find a crooked neck tree and hang yourself, at least you still have some backbone."

"Haha brother, don't let the King of Joseon hear your words, and you won't be so angry that you vomit blood. I am here to help him fight the war this time. Let's be more polite. I think the benefits will be great in the future." , the mind is a chicken thief.

"Come on, the king of Joseon can't understand what I'm saying. There's a Laoshizi interpreter next to him. He's a bastard. It's like there's a stick in his mouth when he talks about us. I have to listen to it three times to understand. What did he say?" Tong Yangzheng made a wretched gesture in response to this passage.

"Hahahahahahaha..." Zha Dashou was amused and laughed out loud, the smiles on the faces of the two people were really tacit.

This rude conversation made Zhao Ziyang, who was reading the sage's books at a young age, grimacing. He thought that he was a monarch of a small country, and it was pitiful to be humiliated by the generals of a big country.

Entering the main hall of the main hall, Zhao Ziyang saw the king of Joseon Li Yan sitting on the head, dressed in Korean scholar clothes, with a net scarf wrapped around his head, and a big hat.The king of Joseon seemed approachable, and he didn't put on airs in such an environment. He didn't wear royal clothes or put on a guard of honor. It seemed that he was very clear about his current situation and could distinguish priorities.It's just that even though he tried his best to maintain a majestic and calm face, he couldn't hide the trace of humility and joy that floated up when he saw the general of the Ming army.The cloudy and sad look between his brows cannot be reduced by relaxing his eyebrows and eyes in a short period of time, and the white hair on his temples and the messy beard that has not been trimmed for a long time have exposed his current predicament.

Li Yan is only 40 years old this year, but he looks like he is in his [-]s.

When Zha Da received him, he restrained his arrogance and saluted respectfully, but did not kneel down.Everyone behind him followed suit, including Zhao Ziyang.Li Yan didn't care about etiquette at all, and invited everyone to sit down with a smile on his face.Then he spoke first, interpreted by a North Korean eunuch beside him.This accent is really difficult to understand as Tong Yangzheng said, and it took a lot of effort for everyone to understand what he was talking about. However, because the Korean state and Ming Dynasty can communicate with each other, there is still a way to talk, and the King of Joseon has been following him all the time. A recorder recorded what the King of Joseon said in handwriting, and the recorded text would be circulated to the following Ming generals for the convenience of everyone to understand.

At first, it was nothing more than greetings. Li Yan was grateful for the arrival of the generals of the Ming army, and Cha Dashou also expressed that he would do his best to help North Korea resist the Japanese pirates.Then Li Yan introduced the current situation in North Korea to Zha Dashou, focusing on the First Army of President Konishi stationed in Pyongyang.

"The Japanese army has been exhausted. If we can severely damage Xiaoxi, which occupies Pyongyang, we will be able to force the Japanese pirates to retreat, and then the situation will be clear." Li Yan said.

Zha Dashou, Tong Yangzheng and Zhao Ziyang stood up, looked at the map posted on the wall in the main room, and fell silent.

Not long after, Zha Dashou asked Tong Yangzheng: "What does Zu Chengxun mean?"

"The old ancestor has a strong will to wash away his shame. He has repeatedly reported to the general army and asked to enter the DPRK as a vanguard again and conquer Pyongyang. Now he has 400 soldiers in Jizhou Town under his command, plus the soldiers who were supposed to be sent to the Jianzhou Guard has 600 gunners and 3000 men under Zhang Qigong's guerrilla. They have been stationed by the Yalu River since September. They have been continuously expanding their military strength and preparing food and grass. Now they have gathered nearly [-] people, ready to go. Lao Cha, your vanguard The battalion may not enter the court so soon, and the commander-in-chief will keep your troops for future use." Tong Yangzheng said.

Zha Dashou nodded, and said: "Before, it was because of the shortage of food and supplies and the lack of troops. We had to wait until the end of the Northwest War. Now we have to wait another ten days before we are ready."

"It will be the twelfth lunar month, when the Yalu River will be completely frozen, and it will be easy to cross the river, but..." The translator translated Zu Chengxun's words to the Joseon King Li Yan, who said worriedly.The second half of his unfinished sentence clearly refers to "it will be easier for the enemy to fight over".

Zha Dashou ignored Li Yan's anxiety, and asked again: "Is it possible for the guerrilla sent to negotiate with the Japanese pirates, the surname Shen, to buy us some more time?"

"Guerrilla Shen Weijing reached a [-]-day truce agreement with President Xiaonishi before, but this is about to expire. President Xiaonishi may not be able to sit still. Shen Guerrilla will go to Pyongyang soon. Progress." Tong Yangzheng said.

"What about the situation of the enemy army he reported back? How many people and how are they equipped?" Zha Da was asked.

"It's... hard to say." Tong Yangzheng hesitated to speak.

"What is hard to say?" Zha Dashou frowned, and Zhao Ziyang also became suspicious.

Tong Yangzheng said: "Shen Guerrilla asked the North Korean minister to send back news from Pyongyang, saying that Pyongyang has only a thousand people, and most of the army is in Hamgyong Road. But when Shen Guerrilla returned, he brought back the completely opposite statement, saying Most of the Japanese troops were stationed in Pyongyang, and it took 7 people to conquer it. The Japanese pirates released news of 40 to [-], which may be false, but the reports of the spies sent out were different. To say that there are few people is really in the fog, and I can’t figure it out.”

"Your Shen Guerrilla, he is untrustworthy and capricious." Joseon King Li Yan said aloud after listening to the translation.

The King of Joseon is honest and upright. Most people in the Liaodong Army also think that Shen Weijing is not trustworthy, but he is the only Ming man who has entered Pyongyang City after all. The 7 intelligence he brought has been taken seriously, and he is currently stationed by the Yalu River. The ancestral training army is composed of [-] people, and it is known as [-] to the outside world.

"This won't work. What's the point of fighting if we don't even know the intelligence? Our spies are too weak. It is said that Jin Yiwei sent [-] patrol elites to Liaodong to specialize in intelligence. Where are they now?" Cha Dashou ask.

"I just received a report that 200 people have just arrived at Kuandian Fort. There are another 100 people who are currently on the frontline by the Yalu River. This is the news from Jiulian City two days ago,"

"What a coincidence? Let's go see Jin Yiwei!" Cha Dashou said excitedly.