Water Margin: The opening scene involves assassinating Emperor Huizong of Song and forcibly taking L

Hold out my ass!

Xin Jia looked at the Ming cavalry outside the city and had absolutely no intention of defending it.

Chapter 3969 Still Won't Surrender?

After dark, Xin Jia led over a hundred personal guards, opened the city gates, and fled in a flash.

The reason he did not surrender the city was simply because he was worried that his relatives back home would be implicated and executed.

With their commander gone, morale plummeted.

Governor Bai Gongmei angrily rebuked him and then simply fled.

Born into a prominent family, he was not afraid of being executed and could continue fighting even after retreating to Haizhou.

With all the top civil and military officials fleeing, a wave of exodus quickly ensued.

Especially the militia members who were temporarily recruited, seeing that the officials had all fled, they also scattered in all directions.

Five hundred elite Ming cavalrymen outside the city took the opportunity to pursue, kill, and capture the enemy.

When Zhang Yi led the main force to arrive, Huangzhou City had already been captured by five hundred vanguard troops.

Huangfu Minzhong, along with his clansmen, knelt outside the city and shouted: "Huangfu Minzhong, a descendant of Yan and Huang, and his clansmen respectfully welcome the general into the city!"

Cavalry general Cui Shan stepped forward and reported in detail: "General, these Goryeo people are very strange."

"When we tried to persuade them to surrender, they wouldn't open the city gates. Then, inexplicably, they started to flee at night. I led my troops and captured more than three thousand prisoners."

"At daybreak, the city gates suddenly opened, and local powerful families led the officials who had not fled out to surrender."

Zhang Yi sighed, "I hope the enemy forces in the south can put up some resistance, otherwise it will be difficult to write a detailed battle report for the court."

Of course they will resist.

The Goryeo army has already departed from Kaiju.

The pretext for the Ming Dynasty's military campaign was the rebellion of Goryeo warriors who deposed the king appointed by the Ming Dynasty.

As a military leader, Zheng Zhongfu had no way out. Even if he surrendered, he would be executed by the Ming Dynasty!

……

Goryeo, Haeju, the seat of the Anxi Protectorate.

There were five such protectorates during the height of Goryeo's power.

Now there are only four left. In the territory that the Ming Dynasty has annexed, there is Anju between Pyongyang and Boju.

That place was the seat of the Anbei Protectorate of Goryeo, which was destroyed when the Jin army marched south. The Ming Dynasty then took control of Anzhou.

The administrative divisions of Goryeo were extremely complex. Since the abolition of the Transport Commissioner, the term "dao" (道) had gradually become a geographical concept.

The first level of administrative divisions consisted of: four capitals, five protectorates, and eight prefectures.

Yes, "a certain governor" is actually a place name.

When "Governor" is used as an official title, it is actually an informal title.

Just like in the Ming Dynasty, the prefect and the governor were called "prefect".

The top official of the Goryeo "Provincial Governor" was officially called "Provincial Governor's Chief Official".

This position was both permanent and non-permanent, often held concurrently by central ministers, or even by the prime minister himself, who usually resided in the capital and rarely performed his duties.

If they were sent to remote areas, they would often hold military positions, becoming powerful regional officials who controlled both military and political affairs.

The top official in Haizhou was a third-rank official, with the title "Commander-in-Chief of the Anxi Protectorate".

Some time ago, a coup d'état occurred among the military, and the Cui clan of Haizhou seized the opportunity to launch an attack, driving out the Protector-General appointed by Ren Yuanhou.

Then, they put forward a clansman named Cui Daoxiu, who volunteered to serve as the Protector-General of Anxi in Haizhou.

To put it bluntly, the Cui family of Haizhou seized control of the military and political power in Haizhou, and Zheng Zhongfu actually agreed to this separatist regime.

Since it was a separatist regime, the imperial court was not responsible for maintaining the army and officials.

The salaries of officials and the rations of soldiers in Haizhou were to be borne by the Cui family of Haizhou themselves.

Most of Goryeo has become this horrific state.

The military government effectively controlled the capital region, while powerful clans controlled the local areas. Local officials paid a token amount of tax to the central government, keeping the rest for themselves.

Chapter 3970 Landing of the Ship

The officials and soldiers who fled from Huangzhou were still dozens of miles away from Haizhou City when the Ming army crossed the sea and arrived!

The Ming army boarded ships at the mouth of the Datong River, and the first batch of two thousand soldiers, civilians, and supplies swaggered ashore at Haizhou Port.

Upon seeing this, Cui Daoxiu, the Protector-General of Anxi, was terrified.

His thinking was still stuck in the past, believing that even if the Ming army attacked, they would first capture Huangzhou and then march south to Haizhou.

Why would someone take a sea ship to bypass Huangzhou and come directly to attack Haizhou?

Most of the soldiers of the Anxi Protectorate were stationed around the city.

At this very moment, some are farming, some are working, and they are completely unprepared.

"Amitabha!"

Upon seeing this, Cui Daoxiu, the top official of Haizhou, couldn't help but chant Buddhist mantras.

Daoxiu is his Buddhist name!

This guy is the son of Vice Chancellor Choi Hong-jae. Because his father, brothers, uncles, and cousins ​​were all killed, he suffered a great loss.

The Cui family couldn't find anyone capable of taking charge, so they asked Cui Daoxiu to urgently return to secular life to control the area.

Cui Daoxiu ordered, "Before the enemy troops reach the shore, quickly gather the soldiers and enter the city to defend it!"

It's difficult to quickly gather troops because there's simply no one available.

The Goryeo defenders could only frantically ring the bells to warn the troops, hoping that the soldiers would hear the bells and gather inside the city.

Many Goryeo soldiers did not immediately enter the city to defend it after hearing the bell.

Instead, they grabbed their hoes and rushed home, either to hide at home or to flee for their lives with their wives and children.

A Ming lookout on the mast of a ship shouted through binoculars: "There are many Koreans outside the city, carrying weapons and running towards the city walls. They must be enemy troops stationed outside the city."

"Most of them didn't have time to put on armor, and they were in small, disorganized groups, mixed in with the civilians who were fleeing into the city!"

Zhe Yanzhi ordered, "Fire at all points outside the city walls to disperse the enemy troops and civilians!"

"The ships carrying cavalry should dock first. Once you can gather five cavalrymen, don't wait for your allies. Charge out of the city immediately."

"Boom boom boom!"

A series of cannon shots rang out, and the southern part of the city wall facing the sea became the main target of the bombardment.

Many Goryeo soldiers and civilians who fled to the outskirts of the city were terrified by the artillery fire and scattered in all directions.

Some of the residents living near the city walls hid in their homes, trembling with fear, while others rushed out of their homes to flee to more distant places for their lives.

The first group of Ming cavalrymen who landed did not wait for their allied troops to disembark, nor did they care whether their warhorses were adapted to the conditions. Once they had gathered five men, they immediately rode off.

They charged towards the crowds, specifically targeting those with weapons to kill.

Even wooden sticks were regarded as weapons by the Ming cavalry, who would rush up and kill them on sight, quickly dispersing a large number of Goryeo soldiers and civilians.

The Ming army's ships stopped firing their cannons, but the number of cavalrymen landing and charging increased.

"Close the city gates! Close the city gates! Don't let the Ming army rush in!" Cui Daoxiu shouted in terror.

The Ming army arrived too quickly by sea, and was only discovered by Goryeo fishermen when they were close to the bay.

As the most important military base in western Gaegyeong, Goryeo, at least half of the garrison troops could not enter the city in time.

Commander-in-Chief Sun Gui said, "Protector, we must open the east, west, and north gates of the city and send out troops to meet the soldiers who are entering the city."

"Otherwise, once the enemy has fully landed and most of our soldiers are outside the city, Haizhou will be impossible to defend!"

Chapter 3971 Useless Korean Soldiers

Cui Daoxiu questioned, "What if spies infiltrate the city among the common people?"

Sun Gui said, "The soldiers who go out of the city to provide support are also responsible for intercepting civilians and not allowing any civilians to approach the city gate!"

Cui Daoxiu thought for a moment and said, "Alright, send troops immediately."

The three city gates, which are not near the sea, were opened one after another, and people frantically rang bells and gongs on the city towers.

The Goryeo garrison went out in squads and built barricades on the inside of the moat bridge.

Only Koreans with weapons could pass through the gap in the barricades; civilians who approached would be shot away.

But then five Ming cavalrymen came chasing after the Goryeo soldiers who wanted to enter the city, and they rushed onto the bridge.

In a panic, the Goryeo soldiers jumped into the moat.

The Goryeo officer guarding the back of the barricades said to his soldiers, "Don't be afraid, don't run away. We have more than two hundred men, while they only have five."

"Shoot an arrow! Shoot an arrow!"

Then, the five Ming cavalrymen each shot an arrow from the bridge, then dismounted and charged towards the Goryeo army.

The arrows of the Goryeo soldiers, when shot at the cotton armor of the Ming cavalry and the light armor of the Ming warhorses, were almost unable to cause effective damage.

The five Ming cavalrymen, carrying four-meter-long spears, charged on foot to the barricades and engaged the enemy in close combat across the fortifications.

Five people deliberately attacked more than two hundred people!

Those two hundred-plus Goryeo soldiers didn't even dare to cross the barricades; they only dared to fight behind the fortifications.

The equipment gap between the two sides is too large.

The armor worn by top Goryeo generals was not much different from that of the Liao Dynasty, both having evolved from the Tang Dynasty.

It was not crude at all, but rather very sophisticated, but such armor was extremely rare.

Normal Goryeo armor consisted of leather and iron lamellar armor.

They made leather into the shape of armor plates, then strung them together to form lamellar armor, and also added iron plates to key areas.

This reduces production costs and makes routine maintenance easier.

Moreover, it makes you look good when you wear it out; at first glance, you might mistake it for armor.

This type of lamellar armor, made of iron plates interspersed with leather plates, was called "Jiezhou" in Goryeo.

Even the six generals of Goryeo were all dressed in armor.

The more iron plates a product has, the better it is; the more leather plates a product has, the worse it is.

As for the lower-ranking generals, officers, and elite soldiers of Goryeo, they were all wearing leather armor.

Ordinary soldiers don't even have leather armor!

Seeing the cotton armor worn by the Ming cavalry, they assumed it was all cloth armor.

Therefore, they were quite brave at the beginning of the battle—at least they did not desert their posts.

But as the fight went on, something felt off. The spear was hitting the cotton armor, and the force was definitely wrong!

On the side of the Ming Dynasty's elite cavalry, almost every shot that hit the enemy drew blood.

The Goryeo defenders couldn't break through the defenses no matter how hard they tried.

The Goryeo general in charge of leading the troops was surprisingly brave. He shouted, "There are only five enemies. Go over the barricades and surround them!"

This guy personally led the team and charged out through the gap in the barricade.

Five Ming Dynasty cavalrymen fought their way back to the center of the moat bridge.

The bridge wasn't wide, and the five of them lined up there to block the way. No matter how many Goryeo soldiers there were, it wouldn't matter; at most, they could only commit a dozen or so to fight at the same time.

After fighting on the bridge for a while, none of the five Ming cavalrymen were injured, and none of them even suffered any external wounds. They were just stabbed in the flesh by the enemy.

On the other hand, seven or eight Goryeo soldiers were killed or wounded.