Li Jinglong led 500,000 Northern Expedition troops towards the city of Beiping. It was October at that time and people in the south had just started wearing padded jackets, but people in the north had already started wearing cotton-padded jackets.
The first commander of the Northern Expedition, Geng Bingwen, came with the Southern Army in August. At that time, everyone thought that the 300,000 Southern Army would definitely win and would probably be able to return home in time for the Double Ninth Festival. However, the Southern Army underestimated the enemy, so they did not prepare winter cotton clothes during the march.
As Li Jinglong was eager to attack the city, he continued to march north without waiting for supplies such as food, fodder, and cotton clothes to be delivered. Senior officers had cotton clothes to keep warm, but junior officers and ordinary soldiers basically relied on walking to keep warm, or sewing the grass eaten by war horses into their clothes to keep warm.
It was fine during the day, but at night, the ground was covered with white frost, and the soldiers' hands and feet were frozen and had frostbite. They also had to save food and wait for supplies, so they complained a lot on the march.
The army’s low morale was not a big deal, but in Li Jinglong’s view, all he needed was a victory, and the rich city of Beiping would be the largest supply station.
Some men reported that it was too cold at night and many soldiers were sick from the cold.
Li Jinglong said: "It's cold at night... so why not just stay awake? March day and night. Once we capture Beiping, we will have everything."
Li Jinglong's remarks of "why not eat meat porridge" made the soldiers very disappointed.
Li Jinglong had a gorgeous carriage, in which he could sleep with warm furs as his pillow without delaying his journey, but the soldiers had to rely on their two legs.
The soldiers all remembered the good things about their former commander Geng Bingwen. Marshal Geng was already old, but he never asked for any special treatment. He ate and slept with the soldiers, and never took off his armor or clothes. What a noble character he had!
Alas, each term is worse than the previous one.
When the Southern Army reached Lugou Bridge, an important gateway to Peking, Li Jinglong was prepared to fight a battle to seize the bridge. However, spies in the front reported that there were no Yan troops guarding the Lugou Bridge and it was empty.
Li Jinglong was overjoyed: "That fat guy, the Prince of Yan, is really a loser. He doesn't even dare to fight and hides in the city. Let's keep moving forward. Maybe we can capture Beiping City tonight. Let's all have a good sleep."
The Southern Army was at the gate of the city. Their noses were frozen and their eyes were green with hunger. They wished they could break through the city wall immediately so that they could grab a cotton jacket.
Li Jinglong was very proud of our high morale and believed that the city of Beiping was in his pocket. Just as he was about to order an attack on the city, an arrow with the tip of the arrowhead removed was shot down from the city wall with a letter tied to it.
When Li Jinglong opened it, he found it was a letter from the Prince of Yan requesting peace talks, in which he repeatedly addressed him as his cousin.
According to seniority, Li Jinglong was indeed the cousin of the Prince of Yan. Zhu Gaochi said in the letter that we are all family members, we want peace, not war, and if we have any requests, we can sit down and talk it over.
Li Jinglong was somewhat hesitant, so he convened an emergency meeting and handed the Prince of Yan's letter of peace to the generals for their review.
Someone advocated a fight: "He took off his pants and showed us this? Don't be scared, just do it."
Someone advocated peace talks: "The art of war says that it is a real skill to conquer the enemy without fighting. Didn't King Kaiping Xu Da take the city without fighting a single soldier? King Kaiping can do it, and Duke Cao can do it too."
Li Jinglong was very pleased with the flattery. After all, it was a great honor to be compared with the first meritorious minister of the founding of the country.
If we can really take over the city of Beiping without any soldiers, I, Li Jinglong, can also be crowned king!
So Li Jinglong wrote a reply to discuss peace talks between the two armies.
In Beiping City, Prince Zhu Gaochi of Yan gave Li Jinglong's reply to his mother, the Princess Consort of Yan.
After reading the reply, Princess Yan smiled and said, "Li Jinglong is indeed a man who seeks fame and reputation. He wants to conquer Beiping without a single soldier just like my father did. He doesn't even look in the mirror. Is he worthy of being compared with my father? Now your father is still supporting Yongping and is unable to send troops to rescue. We have to wait for reinforcements every day."
The Princess of Yan was brave and resourceful. She was prepared for a do-or-die battle and even gave her only grandson Zhu Zhanji to Mu Chun to take to Yunnan for protection. However, she also tried her best to win and tried every possible means.
Zhu Gaochi said, "Yes, my son will reply right away and slowly discuss the time and place of the peace talks with Li Jinglong. We can at least delay it until tomorrow morning. The southern troops don't have cotton clothes and are wearing straw mats to keep warm. They are just like a group of beggars. If they endure this all night, a lot of them will surely fall ill the next day."
That night, the Southern Army and the Yan Army sent letters to discuss peace talks.
As the saying goes, the first push is strong, the second is weak, and the third is exhausted. When the Southern Army first arrived, they wanted to attack immediately to grab food and cotton-padded jackets, but the commander Li Jinglong wanted to negotiate!
Five hundred thousand against ten thousand, and still want peace talks
In October in Peking, the cold wind was howling. The Southern Army felt cold both physically and mentally. They huddled together, too cold to sleep, and basically relied on shivering to keep warm.
Because the Princess of Yan ordered to "fortify the walls and clear the fields", not a single straw, a grain of food, or a piece of tile was left. Even the trees were cut down and dragged into the city. The Southern Army didn't even have wood to make a fire, so they couldn't light a fire to keep warm.
After finally making it to dawn, many people were too weak to get up and were so cold that they caught typhoid fever.
The Yan army asked the Southern army to retreat to a place two miles away from the city gate and set up camp, and then set up a tent one mile away from the city gate. Each side sent ten representatives to lay down their weapons and go to the tent to negotiate.
This request did not seem excessive, so Li Jinglong withdrew his troops to Erli and set up camp, and sent representatives to negotiate.
The Southern Army demanded: lay down weapons, abandon the city and surrender, and that Peking be taken over by the Southern Army. All the people in the Prince of Yan's Mansion would follow Li Jinglong back to the capital. However, the Princess of Yan and the Prince of Yan would personally write a letter to the Prince of Yan persuading him to surrender.
The Yan army requested that a letter of persuasion to surrender could be written, but Beiping was granted to the Prince of Yan by Emperor Gaozu, and Li Jinglong had no right to seize the city. In addition, the safety and due dignity of the Prince of Yan's family must be guaranteed.
The key point was the ownership of the city of Peking. The two sides talked for a day but failed to reach a consensus. However, the sky was indeed getting dark and the cold and long night was about to come.
The negotiations were full of anger and hunger, and most of the Southern Army officers asked Li Jinglong for permission to attack the city:
Someone else said something that hit the nail on the head: "Marshal! That fat guy, the Prince of Yan, is really bad! The Yan army is deliberately stalling for time and waiting for reinforcements. We must not fall for their delaying tactics!"
"Yes! If our army doesn't attack the city, the number of soldiers who will die of freezing or disease will be greater than those who will die in battle."
After a day of fruitless talks, Li Jinglong became annoyed. Just as he was about to order an attack on the city, he suddenly smelled a tempting aroma of barbecue!
It turned out that in order to show her sincerity in the peace talks, the Princess of Yan ordered people to send one hundred roasted lambs, one hundred jars of good wine, and one thousand cotton clothes out of the city.
With food, drink and clothing, it seems that the Yan army is really sincere.
So Li Jinglong softened again, distributed the wine, meat and cotton clothes, and asked everyone to stay calm and focus on peace talks.
However, Li Jinglong was still cautious and asked to stay up all night to negotiate, not wait until tomorrow, and it would be best to reach an agreement before the sun came out.
Although the gifts sent by Princess Yan were many, they were not enough to be divided among the 500,000 soldiers of the Southern Army. Princess Yan's plan was clearly to "kill three soldiers with two peaches". So in order to grab wine, meat and cotton-padded clothes, the Southern Army was seriously divided and almost had an internal conflict and mutiny. That night, the Southern Army camp was in chaos and the negotiation tent was filled with saliva flying, making it very lively.
Li Jinglong listened to the official language going back and forth like the wheels of a wheel in the tent. In the second half of the night, he could not bear it anymore, so he tightened his fox fur coat and fell asleep.
At dawn, there was still no result, but the sound of fighting and killing was heard. Li Jinglong suddenly woke up, "The Yan army actually dared to go back on their word and attack our army outside the city. It's really—"
"Marshal, our troops got into a fight over a cotton-padded jacket. Go and take care of them!"
When Li Jinglong came out of the tent, he saw that the Southern Army was scrambling for the cold roasted mutton like a group of beggars. The thick cotton jackets were torn into pieces and the sky was full of flying cotton wool.
Before it even started, his family was already in disarray. At this point, even a fool would have understood the evil ambitions of the Yan army. This was not a negotiation, they were clearly making a fool of him!
In order to divert the anger of the Southern Army and divert internal conflicts, Li Jinglong had to order an immediate attack on the city.
Due to the suddenness of the incident, the Confederate Army had no plan for attacking the city. They only used human wave tactics and rushed forward in waves.
Five hundred thousand troops swept in like a tide, shaking the earth. The huge city of Peking was like a small boat in the huge waves, about to be hit and attacked by wave after wave of shocking waves.
On the city wall, Princess Yan ordered the Yan army not to shoot indiscriminately, and only raised the flag when the first wave of Southern Army was within shooting range.
Thousands of arrows fired at once!
The arrows were so dense that they blocked out the morning sunlight, and the sky suddenly became dark. Faced with such a dense array of arrows, the Southern Army quickly formed a wall with shields and connected their heads with shields. They slowed down their speed and continued to charge forward like turtles.
The black muzzles of the guns were pointed at the turtle formation, and all of a sudden, the cannons fired.
The shields were like tortoise shells, bursting apart piece by piece under the artillery fire, and the people hidden inside were exposed to the arrow array.
Under the fire of artillery and arrows, wave after wave of Southern Army fell to the ground, but military orders were as heavy as a mountain and they could only advance and not retreat. The waves behind pushed the waves in front of them and beat them to death on the battlefield. After several rounds of shooting, corpses piled up like a mountain outside the city of Peiping.
Li Jinglong's blood boiled, "Charge! The main force of the Yan army is in Yongping, and the artillery and arrows in Beiping City will soon be used up!"
Li Jinglong's estimation was correct. By noon, the sound of artillery fire and arrows from the city walls became noticeably sparse. By the afternoon, it was as sparse as the hairline of a greasy middle-aged man. The firepower of the city of Peking was almost exhausted.
Li Jinglong was overjoyed. "No wonder the Prince of Yan wanted to negotiate from the beginning. It turns out he was stalling for time. If a real fight breaks out, Beiping City won't be able to be defended for even a day. Charge! Keep charging!"
The starving Southern Army continued to charge forward. Their arrows were almost running out. Moreover, Peking had nine gates. How could 10,000 defenders be enough
The wife of the prince of Yan ordered the strong women in Beiping to climb the tower and throw stones down the city. The concubine Guo ordered the old and weak to boil pots of water, carry them to the tower, and pour boiling water down. The wives and concubines cooperated tacitly and fought against the enemy together. With good wives and concubines, Zhu Gaochi's luck was as much as the fat on his body.
Burns are more terrible than arrow wounds, and the Confederate soldiers screamed in pain from the burns.
The city of Peking put up a stubborn resistance, but by nightfall, the Confederate Army still had not been able to capture any of the city gates. At this point, the Confederate Army was exhausted and had no strength to fight anymore.
Only then did Li Jinglong realize how formidable his opponent was. The arrow was on the string and had to be shot. If 500,000 could not defeat 10,000, how could he win against the main force of 100,000 of the Prince of Yan in the future
Must win!
Li Jinglong gritted his teeth and said, "Kill the horse and eat the meat. After we are full, we will rest for the night and continue the fight tomorrow!"
The staff said: "Marshal, killing the horses will shake the morale of the army."
Li Jinglong cursed: "If we can't win, we'll all die. Start with my mount. I don't believe that we can't even beat a fat man."
Outside the city, there were the sad cries of war horses. Without horses, there was naturally no need for food and fodder. The Southern Army cooked bean cakes and horse meat together in a pot, and used the horse fodder to make fire for cooking. It was very desolate.
At this time, the Yan army on the top of the city sang an ancient song, which was Cao Zhi's famous "Seven-Step Poem":
"Cook the beans and make soup, strain the beans and make juice. The firewood is burning under the pot, and the beans are crying in the pot. We are born from the same root, why are we so eager to hurt each other?"
The scene of using horse grass to cook bean cakes and horse meat as horse rations is similar to "the firewood is burning under the pot and the beans are weeping in the pot", which makes it even more desolate. Some people even collapsed on the spot because of the loss of their beloved horses.
So killing horses to hurt morale is definitely not hearsay. After hearing this, Li Jinglong cursed the Prince of Yan, "You fat bastard, come out and fight me if you have the guts! Are you a man if you use such a dirty trick?"
Zhu Gaochi still looked like that chubby, good old man with kind eyes and benevolent features, just like the fat Buddha in the temple, and looked very reliable.
Zhu Gaochi replied: "Cousin! You are my cousin. We both have Zhu family blood flowing in our veins. We are from the same roots. Why are you so anxious to hurt me?"
It was Huang Zicheng, Fang Xiaoru and other treacherous officials in the court who instigated the rift between my nephew and my uncle, and my cousins also fought and killed each other, so my father raised an army to help the king and get rid of the treacherous officials! "
"My dear soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, my father has absolutely no intention of rebellion. He is just acting according to the Imperial Ming Ancestor's Instructions. If there are treacherous ministers who deceive the king and bring disaster to the country and the people, it is our duty to raise troops to serve the king, eliminate the treacherous ministers, and uphold justice. What my father wants is always peace! Cousin, I am willing to cease fire and negotiate with you later!"
The morale of the Southern Army was greatly damaged. After hearing Zhu Gaochi's sincere words, many people began to waver. What the hell is the point of reducing the power of the vassal states? In the past, during the Hongwu Dynasty, they all united to fight against the Northern Yuan Dynasty. How could so many people die in the civil war? They were all Ming troops, why did they fight against themselves
Even if I die in battle, it would be a miserable death. It would be better to fight the Northern Yuan Dynasty quickly.
Li Jinglong pouted, "The peace talks are fake, but the delay is real. Do you really think I'm a fool? If I can't capture Peking, I'll write the word Li upside down!"
There was no hope for peace, and they had to commit suicide. The soldiers felt very uncomfortable eating horse meat.
At dawn, Li Jinglong ordered the Southern Army, which had taken a short rest, to launch another fierce attack. Wave after wave of attacks continued until all the stones in Peking City were thrown out. Corpses were scattered all over the ground below the city, gradually forming small hills. Together with the stones thrown before, the horizon was raised, and the tall city walls seemed to become shorter.
This was because some of the food, fodder and cotton clothes sent from the rear had finally arrived. The Southern Army was finally able to keep warm and no longer had to slaughter their war horses.
The morale of the Southern Army was boosted after receiving supplies. They advanced on the corpses of their comrades and finally opened gaps in several city gates. They even broke through Xizhimen at one point. The Yan Army counterattacked and Xizhimen changed hands several times. Finally, under the encouragement of the Princess of Yan who led the troops herself, the morale of the Yan Army was greatly boosted and they followed the Princess of Yan to barely defend Xizhimen.
It was the end of October, and it was the season when water in Beijing would freeze into ice, and snowflakes were falling.
Princess Yan stretched out her hand and caught a large snowflake. Because the weather was so cold, the snowflake did not melt immediately after falling on her hand.
The Princess of Yan was overjoyed and gave the order: "Fill the gaps in the city wall with straw and then pour cold water on it to turn the city wall of Peking into an indestructible ice wall!"
The Southern Army attacked again, while the Yan Army defended the city while repairing the city wall with ice water. Princess Zhang and concubine Guo of Yan also climbed up the city wall to repair it. The two women's pampered hands got frostbite. As the weather became bitterly cold, the women on the city wall had already replaced boiling water with cold water. The cotton jackets that the Southern Army had put on with great difficulty were soaked by the cold water and then blown hard by the north wind, turning into ice armor.
The Southern Army was not resistant to the cold to begin with, and now even though they were full of passion, their hands and feet were trapped, and the only word left in their minds was - cold!
Overnight, the walls of Peking City were covered with ice and snow. By pouring cold water on straw piles, the walls "grew taller" overnight and turned into a series of desperate Great Walls!
The Great Wall of Ice and Snow was extremely difficult to climb. When the Southern Army chopped it with a knife, there was only a white mark. Moreover, the wall was very slippery when they climbed it, so they couldn't climb up at all.
Li Jinglong originally planned to use the human wave tactic, like a python to strangle Peking to death, but he forgot that snakes need to hibernate. No matter how long a snake is, it is afraid of the cold. Let alone entangle others, it is difficult for it to even protect itself.
"Princess! Beiping is saved!" The hair of Princess Zhang, the Crown Prince of Yan, was all knotted into strands of ice, but her eyes were full of joy.
The Crown Prince's concubine, Guo, ran up to the tower, "Princess! I received a message via carrier pigeon that reinforcements have arrived! Eunuch's army has crossed the Baihe River and will soon attack the rear of the Southern Army!"
"So I always tell you that when we women are in trouble, we should first think of ways to save ourselves and not wait for men to save us." Princess Yan looked at her two daughters-in-law with relief, "Pass the order down, continue to defend the city, and don't take it lightly."
In special times, daughters-in-law can also be used as warriors. Under the leadership of their mother-in-law, the wives and concubines have an extraordinary strength. They believe that as long as they work hard enough, they can control their own destiny, which also determines their future destiny.
Li Jinglong was helpless against the desperate situation of the Great Wall. Spies from the rear came to report that Prince Yan was leading troops to support him and would soon arrive in Peking.
Li Jinglong didn't believe it: "Baihe is the only way to get to Beijing. It would take half a day for 100,000 Yan troops to cross the river. How could they come so quickly?"
The spy said: "It is cold in the north, and the Baihe River is covered with thick ice, enough for horses to run on, so the Yan army arrived very quickly."
Seeing no hope of conquering the city and with enemies coming from the rear, Li Jinglong hurriedly ran away - while running he even forgot to order the Southern Army that was attacking the city to retreat. When the Southern Army saw their commander fleeing in panic, they immediately collapsed and dropped their weapons in surrender.
In order to escape faster, Li Jinglong not only abandoned his soldiers, but also ignored the remaining food and grass. He just ran away, and all the food went to the Prince of Yan's Mansion.
The Yan army was about to block the Southern army, and the Southern army retreated on all fronts. The 500,000-strong army was like a pile of loose sand. Li Jinglong fled to Dezhou, and the Yan army chased him to Dezhou. Li Jinglong then fled to Jinan. The Yan army was so powerful, but they couldn't catch Li Jinglong!
Even the King of Yan couldn't help but sigh, "It turns out that no one is completely useless. Even a loser like Li Jinglong, I am inferior to him in the skill of escaping."
In order to escape, Li Jinglong traveled between Hebei and Shandong. The process of his escape was so exciting and thrilling that it was like a large-scale youth inspirational idol outdoor reality show - Run, Brothers!
The author has something to say: The story of the Jingnan Campaign is almost finished, and to be honest I am a little reluctant to let it go. After all, this is the first time that a war has been written so cheerfully, with all the dramatic twists and counterattacks that even screenwriters dare not write, but which really happened in history.
I will give out 100 red envelopes tonight, and everyone is welcome to leave a message.
Congratulations to readers 鷋 and tit for receiving 100 points red envelopes respectively
[-Collapse] Netizen: 鷋 Comment: "Hu Shanwei" Score: 2 Published time: 2019-04-24 00:26:32 Reviewed chapter: 183
Bah! I am a tortoise and you are a turtle
№18 User: tity Comment: "Hu Shanwei" Score: 2 Published: 2019-04-24 07:16:01 Reviewed chapter: 183
What if I never come back? To be honest, I'm a little nervous.
All from "Ranwu Chunqiu"