It was not until some Chinese businessmen arrived in North Korea by sea and brought detailed first-hand information that the North Korean monarchs and ministers roughly learned that China had changed dynasties, and that the soldiers of the new dynasty had severely damaged and annihilated more than half of the Qing army.
At this time, the people who occupied the key points of the Joseon Dynasty were the peace advocates and the pro-Qing faction. They believed that North Korea had suffered two random disasters due to diplomatic rashness in the past, so they all advocated keeping calm and observing the current situation.
development, do not blindly become enemies of the Qing army.
The King of North Korea, Li Zhu, listened to his words and not only continued to suppress the warring factions in the country, but also refused the credentials of the envoys from Shun Dynasty who came from afar in March of the first year of Tianfa.
In addition, the anti-Qing faction within North Korea also became divided because of this——
Some people believe that opposing the Qing Dynasty and being pro-Ming Dynasty are actually one. The Ming Dynasty was destroyed by the bandits, so of course they must oppose the Qing Dynasty and rebel against the Qing Dynasty. What's more, they even proposed "suppressing the bandits and cutting down the captives" and "restoring the Ming Dynasty".
The so-called "Theory of Zong Zhou's Northern Expedition".
In addition, there are some anti-Qing scholars, most of whom are ministers whose family members died in the two random uprisings. They hold a deep hatred for the Manchus, but because North Korea is weak, they really have no way to take revenge. Now I heard that China's new dynasty has already
After severely damaging the Qing army and preparing for the Liaodong expedition, they all advocated actively serving the new dynasty and jointly sending troops to exterminate the Qing captives.
But there is no doubt that within North Korea at this time, pro-Qing commentators still had the upper hand.
The North Korean King Li Jie himself, because of his experience of being conquered by Huang Taiji twice during his reign, did not dare to raise the banner of anti-Qing rashly again.
The remnant Qing regime that retreated to Liaodong also made full use of the opportunity of North Korea's diplomatic stance to swing back and forth. On the one hand, it proposed a soft plan to Dashun, which was to abandon the Qing Dynasty's country name, emperor name, and reign name, and rename it Jurchen Kingdom, Jurchen Kingdom Lord.
On the one hand, they used the name of Emperor Tongzhi of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Cixiang, to request the conscription of Korean troops to conquer the Heilongjiang Basin and recapture the Sauron barbarians, so as to increase the number of soldiers in the Eight Banners.
The strength of the Qing army at this time had fallen to the bottom due to the continuous defeats in the Guangnei battlefield in the second year of Guangzhong. The Eight Banners' strong force had less than 50,000 people, which was completely insufficient to face the Dashun army.
The various tribes in Eastern Mongolia that had been vassals of the Qing army in the past also regained their independence one after another. During Liu Fangliang's northern expedition in the second year of Guangzhong and the beginning of the first year of Tianfa, almost all of them either fled far away or surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and no longer became the Qing Dynasty.
The military power available to the army.
But even so, the military strength and combat power of the Qing Dynasty were still significantly higher than that of North Korea.
On the one hand, there is the Dashun Army stationed in Ningyuan and preparing to plow the court and clear the holes with aggressive momentum; on the other hand, there is North Korea, which is wavering from side to side, uncertain, and is being manipulated by Dai Shan's diplomatic words.
It was easy for the remnant Qing regime to make the right choice.
Dai Shan believed that with the current strength of the Eight Banners Army, it was absolutely impossible to compete with the Dashun Army, and it would be difficult to restore its strength by attacking and plundering the Guan area.
As for the various tribes in Eastern Mongolia, because of Liu Fangliang's northern expedition, they were out of control of the Qing army. Even if the remnant Qing regime forcibly sent troops to reconquer the various tribes in Eastern Mongolia, they would be easily interfered by the compliant troops of the towns along the border.
Only North Korea, far to the east of the sea, does not border the Shun Dynasty. Instead, it has a large number of borders with the areas ruled by the remnant Qing regime. Its military strength is weak, its domestic political situation is turbulent and chaotic, and it has close diplomatic relations with the Qing army.
The remnant Qing regime was also undefended.
There is no doubt that North Korea is the best tonic for the remnant Qing regime to regain its strength.
In the past, Huang Taiji defeated North Korea twice but did not annex it. The main reason was that North Korea had many mountainous areas and the area was very barren. Instead of spending a lot of troops to control North Korea, it was better to use the elite Eight Banners to conquer the Ming Dynasty.
Due to the powerful military power of the Shun Dynasty, it is no longer possible for the Qing army to get involved in the now prosperous Guannei area.
Daishan could only settle for the next best thing and choose to annex North Korea to restore the power of the remnant Qing regime.
In the winter of the first year of Tianfa, Daishan asked North Korea to jointly send troops in the name of conquering the Sauron tribe in the Heilongjiang River Basin. North Korea's monarchs and ministers were not deceitful, and they were convinced of this and sent 2,000 elite bird gun soldiers to accompany the Qing army.
As a result, they entered Qing territory and were ambushed and annihilated by the Eight Banners Army.
The Qing army immediately sent a vanguard force disguised as merchants, crossed the Yalu River, and invaded North Korea. The North Korean defenders were unprepared, so the Qing army succeeded in sneak attacks and easily occupied many mountain cities. Later, Dai Shanbian led the Eight Banners Army's 20,000 elite troops.
Entering North Korea.
Due to the limited number of soldiers in the Eight Banners, the Qing army was worried that if the war lasted for a long time, its front and rear would be attacked by the Shun army. Therefore, Daishan decided to imitate Huang Taiji's tactics during Bingzi's chaos and attack Seoul with elite troops.
All the monarchs and ministers of North Korea were captured in one fell swoop.
Along the way, in order to resist the fighting will of the Korean army, the Qing army also flew the banner of Zhu Cixiang, the Tongzhi Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Daishan invaded Korea this time, with the slogan of obeying the order of the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and the princes of Jiuhe to bring order to the world, claiming to be to
Combine the forces of Qing and Xian to eliminate the bandits and avenge the Ming Dynasty.
The total strength of the Qing army was only more than 20,000 people. However, since Li Zhu attached to the Qing Dynasty, the people of North Korea have been in chaos and the political situation has been turbulent. They have to pay tribute to the Qing Dynasty in large quantities. The national strength is weaker than when Bingzi was indiscriminate and unable to resist Dai Shan.
of invasion.
In just ten days, the Qing army had already passed through half of the Korean Peninsula, and its troops were approaching the gates of Seoul.
The King of Joseon, Lee Seok, learned the historical lesson of fleeing to Namhansanseong in panic when Bingzi was in chaos, only to be surrounded by the Qing army and had no way out. Although there was a heavy snowstorm at the time, he still insisted on escaping to Gyehwa Island for refuge.
However, due to the heavy wind and snow, the distance to Juehua Island was relatively long, and the Korean monarchs and ministers had many men, horses, and female dependents, so the journey was slow. The Qing army was determined to kill all the Korean monarchs and ministers in one fell swoop, and encountered heavy troops in fortified cities along the way.
, they all directly bypassed and did not fight with them, the purpose was to capture the Korean King Li Jing as soon as possible.
The Qing army did not aim at occupying the city or annihilating the main force of the Korean army. All its forces were used to capture the Korean monarchs and ministers.
After the few remaining Baja Lajia cavalry of the Eight Banners arrived at the outskirts of Seoul, they learned from the captured Korean soldiers that the Korean monarchs and ministers had moved to Juehua Island. Daishan immediately ordered all armies to abandon the mission of attacking Seoul and attack Juehua Island with all their strength.
In the direction of Hua Dao, we must try every means to intercept the Korean King Li Zhu before he goes to sea.
The swiftness of the Qing army was in stark contrast to the slowness of the North Korean army. The royal camp, guard, general army, and elite troops who protected the King of North Korea all fought hard and resisted, but only killed and wounded.
Only hundreds of Qing troops were killed.
In one battle, Dai Shan captured all the important ministers including the King of Joseon, Lee Joon, Prince Sohyun, the concubines of Joseon's harem, and his brothers.
The smoothness of the war really allowed the Eight Banners Army, which had been fighting hard since encountering the obedient army, to regain the confidence it had had in the past decades to win every battle.