Chapter 182: King Zhu Zhi of Liao

After Li Weizheng Jinzhouwei held a simple ceremony, he set off to Liaodong Town, the capital of Liaodong. His official position was the assistant commander of Liaodong and needed to serve in Liaodong Metropolitan. The full name of Liaodong Metropolitan is the Liaodong Metropolitan Commander. It, together with the Daning Metropolitan Commander and Wanquan Metropolitan Commander, became three areas directly under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty. There was no governing and inspector department here, and it implemented integrated military and political management. It was divided geographically. The Liaodong Metropolitan Commander was divided into two parts with the boundary of Sancha River (now Liaohe River). One is the Liaoxi Corridor and the other is the Liaodong Region. The Liaoxi Corridor is narrow, but the population is dense and relatively rich. The Liaodong Region is vast and sparsely populated, mostly covered by forests, inconvenient transportation, and the news is also very closed. It has never been valued by the court, so there are no government prefectures and counties here.

The Liaodong Dusi is located in Liaodong Town in the northern part of the Liaodong region, but the Liaowang Mansion is not here, but in Guangning, the north of the Liaoxi Corridor. From this we can see Zhu Yuanzhang's layout, the real purpose of enthroning the Liaowang is in Mongolia, and Goryeo is just a lesson, and his future prevention and aftermath will be left to Li Weizheng.

That afternoon, Li Weizheng's guard entered Liaodong Town. Liaodong Town is the Liaoyang Prefecture, the Liaoning and Jin Dynasties of Tokyo, which was originally called Xiangping. It was the capital of Andong Protectorate during the Tang Dynasty. At the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, it did not pay attention to the Liaodong area. The role of establishing the Liaodong Dushi was only to appease the barbarians in the northeast. Therefore, Liaodong Town seemed relatively old. Most buildings have a history of hundreds of years. After a hundred years of wind and rain, the buildings were mottled and the beams were dilapidated. There was just an autumn rain last night. The ground was very muddy, and the pedestrians on the street were sparse. There was also scarce supplies in the shops along the street. There was no customer. The shopkeeper was dozing in a sleepless manner.

When Li Wei saw the city so old and dilapidated, he couldn't help frowning. He turned around and asked Chen Zhian: "Is there many Han people or many barbarians in the Liaodong Dusi?"

Chen Zhian did not stay in Jinshanwei just because Li Weizheng took office. He volunteered and accompanied Li Weizheng all the way to Liaodong Dusi. When he saw Li Weizheng asking him, he hurriedly smiled and said, "If it is not a military household, the people of Liaodong Dusi are mainly Han people and Jurchens, each accounting for about half of them. Most of the Han people are concentrated in the western Liaoning Corridor, and the Liaodong area is mainly Jurchens."

Li Wei was stunned. He pointed to some people on the way and said, "But I think they are all dressed in Han people, so what kind of Jurchen people are they?"

"Adults don't know that there are two types of Jurchens. One is the original Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty. They lived with the Han people for a long time and had long been in the Chinese. However, they were slightly different from the Han people in terms of customs, but they were no longer distinguishable from the Han people in terms of appearance and language. The other is the Jurchens who moved from the north. They are what we often call the barbarians, wearing animal skins, living in grass nests, and making a living by hunting. Each person is almost bald, and there is a big braid behind them, which is easy to distinguish."

Li Weizheng sneered constantly. Of course he knew who these Jurchens were. Since Li Weizheng came to Liaodong, he would not give them a chance to rise.

After walking about a mile, Chen Zhian pointed to a mansion in front of him and said, "Sir, there is Dusi Mansion."

Li Wei saw that the Dusi Mansion was also dilapidated, even a county government in the Central Plains. He had a history of hundreds of years. Most of the walls around the walls were peeled off, revealing the soil and wheat straw inside. The red painted door was mottled and could not see its true nature at all. Only two stone lions have been vicissitudes for more than a hundred years and are still majestic, showing the yamen's courage.

He turned over and dismounted, and was about to step forward, when a dense sound of horse hooves suddenly came from behind, hitting the ground like heavy rain. Someone was shouting: "Doway ahead, Your Highness, the King of Liao arrive!"

When Li Wei turned around, he saw three or four hundred cavalry wearing black armor sweeping over like a gust of wind. Among them, there was a young general with golden armor and silver helmets. This should be the newly-elected Liao King Zhu Zhi. He should be in Guangning. Why did he run to Liaodong Town?

Seeing that the King of Liao and his entourage were coming, Li Wei pulled his horse to the side, and his entourage leaned aside and made a way out. In a blink of an eye, Zhu Zhi's cavalry team rushed to the front. Zhu Zhi was about twenty years old, tall and burly, with a handsome appearance, and a bit like Zhu Di between his eyebrows and eyes. Most of Zhu Yuanzhang's sons were all-round and talented, and Zhu Zhi was no exception. He was skilled in archery and horse training since he was a child, and he had received great Confucian teachings. He was quite sensible and cautious in doing things. He did not dare to take risks easily. Zhu Yuanzhang asked him to come to Liaodong to establish a vassal in the hope that his Guangning Guard could form the horns of the King of Yan and King of Ning and become their support. Fighting Goryeo was just a way to go. After all, Goryeo was a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, so you could teach a lesson. The real enemy of the Ming Dynasty was still the Mongols.

Zhu Zhi rushed past Li Weizheng. Suddenly, the horseback riding team slowed down and stopped. Zhu Zhi glanced at this side and happened to meet Li Weizheng. He had seen a team of military horses here, and he was also a little confused. Li Weizheng was wearing a high-quality military uniform. The commander Yang Wen was only named after him. He had been staying in the capital for a long time. He had seen all the commander-in-chief and the other commander-in-chiefs. Who would this young high-quality officer be in front of him? A name suddenly popped up in Zhu Zhi's mind. Yes, it should be him. He had heard King Ning describe Li Weizheng's appearance.

He turned over and dismounted, stepped forward and bowed and smiled, "May I ask, is this general the new assistant commander of Liaodong? "

Li Weizheng smiled slightly and half-kneeled to Zhu Zhi to salute, "I am here to see Li Weizheng, see His Highness the King of Liao."

Zhu Zhi quickly helped him up and said, "Mr. Li, don't be too polite. The prince wrote a letter to ask me to take good care of you. In fact, I am a newcomer. We should take care of each other and we will communicate with colleagues in the future."

He was telling the truth. Although Li Wei would be his deputy when he was fighting Goryeo and was considered his subordinate, he knew that Li Weizheng was the prince's confidant. After the prince ascended the throne, Li Weizheng would definitely be given more. He would rely on him more in the future, so he was very polite to Li Weizheng.

Li Weizheng was not polite, and he smiled and said, "It just so happened that I was going to Guangning to discuss the matter of Goryeo after taking office, but I didn't expect that Your Highness would come."

"A coincidence, I came to discuss the matter of Goryeo with you."

The two looked at each other and laughed loudly. They soon became familiar with each other with laughter. They walked towards the Dusi Yamen with their arms.

"Mr. Li came from the sea!"

"Yes, I arrived at Lushun Port five days ago. The roads on the Liaodong Peninsula were really difficult and rugged. I came from Jinzhouwei and walked for five days."

Zhu Zhi sighed and said, "This is impossible. The court does not value Liaodong. It has always regarded it as an exile and a barbaric land. Most officials refuse to come here. If it weren't for the attack on Goryeo, Lord Li would have been so incomparable to come to Liaodong."

Li Weizheng smiled and said, "What talent do I have? I am so grateful to the emperor for helping me come back. It's actually the same wherever I go. I'm all loyal to the emperor."

"Mr. Li is right. A man should start a business in a difficult place. Liaodong is a little harder, but he can do something."

The two of them walked as they spoke and soon arrived at the yamen. Several soldiers stood at the yamen. Seeing a large group of people coming, someone had already run in to report. As soon as they climbed the steps, the left commander Tongzhi greeted him. Tongzhi, the commander Tongzhi, had two people on the left, and were the deputy generals of the commander. Because the Liaodong Dushi was integrated with military and political affairs, one of them was in charge of the military logistics supplies, and the other was in charge of local civil affairs. The commander Tongzhi in front of him was responsible for managing local civil affairs, named Du Zhuo, who was about forty years old.

He only heard that the King of Liao has arrived, but he saw another person beside the King of Liao. He couldn't help but feel surprised. But he had no time to think about it, so he knelt down on one knee and bowed: "I am not good at the King of Liao."

"Please get up, Lord Du." Zhu Zhixu helped him. He looked at the yamen and smiled and said, "What, is Lord Zhang not here?"

"Mr. Zhang went to Beijing five days ago to go through the handover procedures for military supplies."

"Have the military supplies arrived?" Li Weizheng asked next to him.

Du Zhuo glanced at Li Weizheng, and he asked quickly: "Your Highness, who is this?"

"Let me introduce it." Zhu Zhi pointed at Li Weizheng and smiled: "This is Lord Li Weizheng and Li, your new commander of the Liaodong Metropolitan Commander."

Du Zhuo is from Huangzhou, Huguang. Although he was a second-rank high-ranking official, he was just a local military officer with a high rank. He may not be as powerful as the third-rank commander. He has been in the Liaodong Dusi for nearly six years and has been unable to bear this barbaric place, but he has no backstage in the court. Therefore, he has been trying to find opportunities to transfer. He once asked someone to find Sun Jiatai, the Minister of War, to ask him for personal feelings, but Sun Jiatai

He told him that he was powerless, and that if he wanted to transfer a level like him, it was up to the emperor to decide. Just when he was almost desperate, his friends in the court suddenly heard him urgent news that the emperor had just appointed Li Weizheng as the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, and this Li Wei was the confidant of the new crown prince. Du Zhuo seemed to see the sun, which made him see a glimmer of hope. In the future, Li Wei was gaining power because of the crown prince, so he could escape from this sea of ​​suffering.

But Du Zhuo is a high-ranking official after all, and he is not as flattering as a low-ranking official. He has to maintain his official attitude. He respects him and bows to Li Wei and says, "I have long admired the name of Lord Li, and I am waiting for Lord Li to take office!"

Li Wei is the chief commander, the third rank. In terms of rank, he is half a level lower than Tongzhi. However, like Tongzhi, the chief commander is the chief commander, so the two of them are colleagues. Seeing that he is polite, Li Wei Zheng smiled politely: "Please take care of Tongzhi in the future."

Du Zhuo was followed by a group of subordinate officials of the Dusi Department. Among them, like Li Weizheng, there were three officials who served as the assistant chief of the Dusi Commander. They were all idle positions to read newspapers and chat when they were at work, and then they received a share of the Lumi to support their family. Therefore, Li Weizheng was appointed as the assistant chief of the Dusi Commander, but his real power was the commander of the Three Guards. Everyone came forward to kneel down to greet His Highness the King of Liao, and then exchanged a few greetings with Li Weizheng. Then they surrounded them and entered the yamen. Their accompanying personnel were arranged by themselves.

The inside of the yamen is slightly better than that outside. It can be seen that it has been renovated and covers a huge area. The total number of yamen is hundreds of houses. Because this yamen has a century-old history, the trees in the yamen are particularly tall and dense. At this time, it was already early autumn, and the leaves began to turn red and yellow, and the entire yamen was full of golden colors.

Li Weizheng took out the appointment letter of the Ministry of War and prepared to go through the procedures for taking office. Du Zhuo had already prepared his procedures for taking office. He only needed Li Weizheng to sign a few words to finish it. He handed over the rest to another clerk to handle the rest. The King of Liao was not here to travel around. He came here to discuss the matter of going to war against Goryeo. Because the Ming Dynasty needed to be courteous and then soldiers with the troops, the official decree on fighting against Goryeo has not been reached yet. However, Zhu Zhi had already received the verbal appointment from his father. Once the war started against Goryeo, he would be the main general, Li Weizheng was the deputy general, and the Liaodong Dushi was the logistics supplies. At that time, more than 60,000 people were from the Jianzhou, Shenyang, Dingliao Sanwei, Dongning, Gaizhou, Haizhou, Jinzhou, Fuzhou and other ten guards, plus the 30,000 troops of Guangning, under the Liao Dynasty, a total of more than 90,000 troops went to war against Goryeo.

The small conference room of Liaodong Dusi was immediately set up as a temporary war room. Zhu Zhi, Li Weizheng, Du Zhuo and a four-person officer who had been preparing to take over the land for the grant of Goryeo, held the first temporary meeting on the battle against Goryeo.

The deputy commander of the commander, whose surname is Chen, was a Jurchen. Of course, he was a Chinese Jurchen, rather than a Jurchen who was dragging a whip. He first hung up a map of the Liaodong Dusi. The map was drawn in imitation of the map during the Yuan Dynasty and changed it directly to the name of the Ming Dynasty. From the map, it can be clearly seen that the northeastern region of Goryeo should be the land of the Ming Dynasty, and has now been occupied by Goryeo.

Chen Qianshi picked up a wooden stick and pointed to the map and said, "We collected information from some merchants who fled back. From them, they learned that this time the Goryeo army was divided into three groups to go north, crossing the Motianling and heading northeast to the Tumen River. The other two groups set off from Xizhou and Yizhou in Goryeo and finally converged on the Yalu River. We estimated that there were about 80,000 troops in total, of which a group of about 60,000 people went to the Tumen River and about 20,000 people arrived on the Yalu River."

"What equipment are they? Do you have any information here?" Li Weizheng asked in the air.

"I know this."

Du Zhuo stood up and smiled and explained: "The equipment of the Goryeo Army is inferior to that of the Ming Army. Most of them are infantry and have no firearms. Long-distance shooting is mainly bows and arrows. Close-distance fighting uses knives and spears. The armor is mainly leather armor. Moreover, their morale is not stable. According to the information we have obtained, Li Chenggui has just usurped the throne and has not yet been able to get the full allegiance of the army."

Zhu Zhi nodded, "Mr. Du said it well, unstable military morale is a taboo for military strategists. It seems that Li Chenggui is determined to be a sure thing, we dare not send troops, otherwise he would not be so careless."

Li Wei stared at the map thoughtfully, and he suddenly asked: "The information about Chen Qian is accurate. I mean they only have 20,000 people by the Yalu River, but there are 60,000 people in Tumen River."

Chen Qianshi thought about it and said, "The information is obtained by gathering the experiences and hearings of dozens of merchants, and it should be basically correct."

Li Wei was slowly walking forward and pointed at the large tract of land north of the Tumen River with a wooden stick and said, "The large tract of land north of the Tumen River has not been effectively controlled yet. Goryeo deployed 60,000 troops here, while the Yalu River next to the Liaodong Dusi only has 20,000 troops. Let's talk about what they want to do?"

The three of them looked at each other, and Li Weizheng's meaning was very clear. The Koreans were inflating ambitions and wanted to cross the Tumen River to continue to occupy a large area of ​​land north. Seeing that they understood, Li Weizheng nodded and said, "After all, Li Chenggui was still betting that the Ming Dynasty did not want to send troops. If he won the bet, he would send people to apologize to the Ming Dynasty, and on the other hand, he would cross the Tumen River to continue to march northward, and even put this big island."

Li Weizheng pointed to Sakhalin Island and said, "We also need to take this big island into consideration, because the Ming Dynasty has no control over there. By the time we know, the raw rice has been cooked."

"Don't think about it!" Zhu Zhi punched the table hard, stood up and said, "If this is the case, we can't be too passive. We should start preparing for war now."

"This is what I want to say!" Li Weizheng turned around and asked Du Zhuo, "I want to know how much food and materials are there in Liaodong Dusi, and when will the imperial court's money and grain arrive?"

"Please wait!" Du Zhuo ran out, and after a moment he took a book in a tent, he looked through two pages and said: "Now there are about 150,000 stones of grain stored in the Liaodong Dusi military warehouse and 500,000 jin of money. As for the money and grain of the court, it should arrive soon. Lord Zhang went to go through the handover procedures. In fact, the money and grain should be on the way."

Li Wei Zhengxin calculated and said, "The food in Jinzhouwei is too poor, and the brothers are not full. When I came, I ordered the supply to double. In this way, the Jinzhouwei's grain storage can only last for half a month at most. When I came, I had already spent five days, and it took at least ten days for the money and grain. I asked to immediately allocate 50,000 shi of rice and 100,000 guan of money to go through water, go to sea from Liaohe to Sanchahe, and then transport it to Jinshanwei. Otherwise, the army would lose food and the consequences would be unimaginable."

As soon as Li Wei finished speaking, Zhu Zhi said decisively: "The army has no food, and we can't afford the consequences. Lord Du, please make arrangements now, be sure to set off overnight tonight."

"But, our Liaodong Dusi are all small boats, and we can't get off the sea, so we may walk on the sea..." Du Zhuo hesitated a little.

Li Weizheng smiled slightly and said, "Don't worry, sir, I ordered the navy patrol boat to go north to pick up grain before leaving. They should have been waiting at the mouth of Sancha River. It's okay if you send it."
Chapter completed!