Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 292 Kong Youde's Ambition
"Captain Marshal, Captain Marshal..."

Cao Shaozhong banged on the door hurriedly and shouted loudly, with a panic expression on his face.

His palms slapped against the heavy wooden door, making a dull sound, as if every blow was knocking at the anxiety in his heart.

However, there was no response from the house for a long time.

Cao Shaozhong turned his head and glanced at the guard at the door. The other party nodded slightly, indicating that the Marshal was in the room. There was a hint of lust in his eyes, as if he had already been accustomed to this kind of scene.

"It's already so late..." Cao Shaozhong smiled bitterly, stopped knocking on the door, and waited obediently at the door.

His fingers unconsciously stroked the hilt of the knife at his waist, but his mind was in a state of confusion.

"Uh..." A low roar from a man came from the room, with faint moans from a woman. The sound came through the crack in the door, with a bit of repression and indulgence.

"Dangdang!"

The door was opened heavily, and a sturdy man walked out of the room, tying his loose robe as he walked.

His expression was very dignified and his eyes were extremely sharp, giving people a cold and vicious feeling.

"Captain Marshal!" Cao Shaozhong bowed.

"What's the matter?" Kong Youde stared at Cao Shaozhong coldly, his voice a little low and hoarse, as if it still carried some lingering lust.

"...Captain Marshal"

Cao Shaozhong glanced at the situation inside through the open door. A naked Korean woman was lying limply on the bed, revealing her white flesh, which made him swallow his saliva immediately.

He quickly withdrew his gaze, lowered his head, and dared not look any longer.

"Captain Marshal, according to spies, the Kingdom of Korea is gathering a large number of local garrison troops in Jingcheng Prefecture, preparing to come and suppress us." Cao Shaozhong clasped his fists and reported solemnly.

"Winter is almost here, will the North Koreans raise a large army?" Kong Youde frowned, his tone tinged with disdain and suspicion.

"Hehe, it's our fault for making so much noise!" As he said that, Cao Shaozhong glanced into the house again and licked his lips subconsciously.

He had only taken a quick glance and the woman's figure was imprinted in his mind, as if the white body was swaying before him.

This woman has been played with by Marshal Du for a few days. Will he reward himself with a treat later?
"Hmph, the Koreans are nothing but a bunch of chickens and dogs!" Kong Youde said disdainfully, "Even if they attack with thousands of troops, what can they do to us?"

"Marshal, although that's true, our forces are quite limited. We can't fight the Koreans until they are wiped out." Cao Shaozhong advised carefully, "If we suffer heavy losses among our five or six hundred men, we won't have anywhere to replace them!"

“…” Kong Youde’s face suddenly turned gloomy when he heard this.

His fingers gripped the hilt tightly, his knuckles turning white, as if he was suppressing the anger in his heart.

In March last year, Denglai was captured by the imperial army, and tens of thousands of rebels were trapped in the city. Only Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming and others led a core force of more than 900 rebels, and escaped from the sea with more than 30 large and small boats collected from all over the place during the chaos.

They originally planned to cross the Liao Sea, land on the Liaodong Peninsula, and then surrender to the Jiannu.

However, they didn't expect that Huang Long, the general of Dongjiang Town, had been waiting in the waters near Lushun for a long time, waiting for them to fall into the trap.

After a fierce battle, Kong Youde and others, with half of their men killed or wounded, took advantage of the cover of night to escape.

Huang Long's troops were well-defended and dared not go to Liaodong Bay again. In panic, Kong Youde drove straight to the Yalu River, preparing to land there and then travel overland to join the Jiannu.

However, they were intercepted by Shen Shikui's troops in the waters near the mouth of the Yalu River and were immediately put in a desperate situation.

However, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming, relying on their status as former colleagues, personally stepped forward to negotiate with them, constantly pleading and begging, hoping that the other party would spare them for the sake of the deceased Marshal (Mao Wenlong).

You should know that when Mao Wenlong was in charge of Dongjiang Town, he adopted hundreds of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming were among the many adopted grandchildren, and were given the names Mao Yongshi and Mao Youjie respectively (Shang Kexi was also an adopted grandson, named Mao Yongxi).

The Dongjiang Town generals Jiang Donghui (Mao Youshou) and Su Yougong (Mao Yougong) who intercepted them were once Mao Wenlong's adopted grandsons, and Jin Shenghuan (Mao Shihuan) was his adopted great-grandson. They were all brothers or nephews, and their relationship was quite close. There was no need to kill them all.

Perhaps it was out of grief for the death of a rabbit, or perhaps because they were deeply dissatisfied with Huang Long, they chose to secretly disobey his orders. The Dongjiang Town Navy spared Kong Youde and others and did not kill them.

However, they did not allow Kong, Geng and other rebels to sail into the Yalu River and land to surrender to the Jiannu, but allowed them to go south and disappear into the vast ocean.

After escaping, the rebel army led by Kong Youde did not dare to go to the Shandong coast, so they went south along the Korean coast.

As they fled, they looted coastal villages and towns in North Korea to meet their own needs.

After more than a month of wandering, Kong Youde and other rebels bypassed the southern waters of North Korea and groped their way to the northwestern Hamgyong Province of North Korea. They finally landed in Rajin and took shelter and rest.

After getting a chance to catch his breath, Kong Youde took stock of the forces at his disposal. There were more than 460 soldiers, more than 50 craftsmen, and the rest were more than 80 family members, women and children who followed the army. Compared with the more than 100,000 people who had led the rebellion in Denglai before, the number was like heaven and earth.

However, when they fled Dengzhou, they took away a lot of property, including a large amount of gold, silver and jewelry. If they had found a safe place, they could have lived a wealthy life. But now, they were stranded in this extremely remote northwest region of Korea, with nothing. The gold and silver in their hands were like dead objects, unable to buy silk and satin, nor could they buy enough food to fill their stomachs.

Fortunately, the hundreds of soldiers they led were all veterans of many battles. Although it could not be said to be an absolute dimensionality reduction attack against the weak Koreans, they were able to crush any resistance easily as if they were in an empty space.

Rajin, where they landed, belongs to Gyeongseongfu, Hamgyong Province, North Korea. It is just a relatively small fishing village with a population of only more than 200 people and a garrison post with about 30 soldiers. After they took it down in one fell swoop, they quickly took control of the entire village and blocked two small paths leading to the outside world, occupying it openly.

The local residents of Luojin mainly rely on catching seafood for their livelihood. They have also reclaimed hundreds of acres of farmland around the village and planted some vegetables and wheat. Their lives are also hard.

However, the fishing port is close to the Tumen River, and the nearby "vassal states" would often come to exchange goods. The main commodities traded included furs, medicinal herbs and grains. Every ten days or so, Korean merchants from the provincial capital would come to purchase them.

Less than a month after Kong Youde and other rebels stayed in the area, word got out that bandits had occupied Luojin, looting and slaughtering merchants and "barbarians" traveling there, causing panic among the people.

It was not until late June that the slow-reacting officials of Jingcheng Prefecture sent a team of more than 30 officers and men to investigate the situation and expel the pirates who had occupied Rajin.

The Koreans believed that these pirates were mostly "vassals" who refused to submit to the king in the nearby mountainous areas. They might have been unable to make ends meet in their tribes, so they came by boat, landed on the shore and looted.

As long as the imperial officials arrived, they would be afraid and would simply flee by boat and hide back in their tribes.

In this way, successfully suppressing pirates and pacifying the local area is at least a military achievement, adding a glorious record of "knowing the military" and "suppressing bandits" to his official resume.

Unexpectedly, the team of officers and young men sent by Jingcheng Prefecture were like throwing meat buns at a dog. They all went in and never came back. Not a single one of them escaped.

After waiting for more than half a month and still receiving no response, the officials of Jingcheng Prefecture finally came to their senses and began to pay attention to the pirates occupying Rajin.

After another month of preparation, the Koreans mobilized and assembled more than 300 local garrison troops, and charged forward aggressively, vowing to wipe out these vicious pirates in one fell swoop.

It's so disrespectful. After stealing the things, instead of running away, he just stood there "stupidly". This is clearly a slap in the face.

These pirates must be taught a severe lesson. After being captured, they must be executed publicly by beheading them.

However, all the more than 300 garrison troops sent were defeated and no one survived.

When the officials of Jingcheng Prefecture learned about this, they were immediately furious.

What kind of pirates were those who captured Rajin?
They were able to swallow up more than 300 local garrison troops in one bite. Are they just a group of ordinary pirates or vassal states?

The Koreans began to take it seriously and sent numerous scouts to Rajin for on-site inspection in order to obtain more useful information and provide sufficient intelligence support for the subsequent expedition.

Well, I was indeed a bit careless!
By early September, after much investigation and verification, officials from Jingcheng Prefecture gradually learned the details of this group of pirates.

There were between five and six hundred pirates in this group.

They had swords, spears, and even bows, crossbows, and muskets.

They had armor, which was probably somewhat similar to the cotton armor, lamellar armor and scale armor equipped by the imperial army.

They are skilled in combat and have good coordination, making them elite soldiers.

They also had dozens of boats, several of which were equipped with artillery.

As more and more intelligence was collected, the expressions of the officials in Jingcheng Prefecture became increasingly grim.

With such powerful soldiers, such equipment and such combat capabilities, there was no way their local garrison could deal with them.

These are a group of "professional gangsters"!

Therefore, the prefect of Jingcheng Prefecture had no choice but to bite the bullet and report the situation to the governor of Hamgyong Province and the military governor, requesting his superiors to mobilize thousands of troops to help wipe out this group of powerful pirates.

After Kong Youde and other rebels repelled two consecutive Korean suppression operations, they dared not be careless. They scattered many spies around Rajin and kept a close eye on the movements of the Koreans to avoid being caught off guard.

Cao Shaozhong received a report from a spy in Jingcheng Prefecture at noon today, saying that many Korean troops were entering the city one after another, and almost more than 2,000 people had gathered. More soldiers and supplies were constantly gathering here, and it was obvious that a large-scale mopping-up operation was going to be launched against them.

He did not dare to delay for even a moment and came over immediately to report this important information to Kong Youde, waiting for his decision.

Whether to fight or to flee, I'm afraid we have to make a decision early.

"Where is the Deputy Marshal (Geng Zhongming) now?"

"The deputy marshal is training the captured Korean soldiers to serve as vanguards in wartime."

"Well, call him here immediately. I have something to tell you."

"Yes, Marshal!" Cao Shaozhong bowed, turned around and ran out of the village.

"Hehe..., if we kill these Koreans, we can settle down here and build a career. We may be able to accomplish great things in the future!" Kong Youde clenched the hilt of the knife tightly, and became ruthless.
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(End of this chapter)