Chastity Layman

As soon as these words came out, it surprised all the ministers. No one thought that the emperor would personally conscript.

Fang Xuanling was silent, but Wei Zheng immediately stood up to object.

The servant Ma Zhou also objected, thinking that there was no need for the emperor to personally conscript.

"The minister recommends the right servant to shoot Li Xiang as the commander." Ma Zhou said.

Li Daliang backed down modestly, "I think Li Situ is more suitable than my minister to lead the Eastern Expedition." He recommended Li Jing to lead the army.

"The pharmacist is old and has leg problems, how can I bother him to come out of the mountain?" The emperor retorted, and said that Li Daliang was now the chancellor in the court, and together with Fang Xuanling, he presided over the affairs of the Ministry of Finance, so he had no time to spare.

"The minister recommended Mr. Li Xianggong, the British prince, as his commander."

"Li Ji wants to guard Hedong and guard against Xue Yantuo in Mobei." Li Shimin retorted.

"Then Chai Shao, Xue Shixiong, Cheng Yaojin, Niu Jinda, Su Dingfang, Duan Zhixuan, Zhang Shigui, Li Daozong, etc. can all be handsome!"

But the emperor still shook his head, "Of course I also know that they are all great generals and good commanders, but I used to accompany Gaozu to Liaodong to escort military equipment and food, and personally saw that Emperor Yang had no way to conquer the poor people in Liao Dynasty. I interrupted my own hands and feet as a slave to Yao, and saw that there were starving people and those sleepy husbands everywhere along the way. In Liaodong, there were even dead and injured Chinese children everywhere..."

"At that time, I made a vow in my heart that one day, sooner or later, I would lead the army back to avenge the Chinese children. Now, I will personally raise the Sixth Army and send troops to crusade."

"You don't need to say much, I want to make a decision early."

"The crown prince inherited Qian and stayed in Luoyang to supervise the country. The left servant sent Fang Xuanling and Zhimen Wei Zheng to stay and assist. In addition, I will call Qin Lang back and give the school secretary to add Prince Zhan Shi to stay and assist."

"Zhongshuling Changsun Wuji, Shangshu Youpushe and Li Daliang, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, and Ma Zhou, Minister of Zhongshu, followed me to conquer."

"With Chang Shi of Zhendong Governor's Mansion and Jinzhou Governor Niu Jinda as the chief commander of the Pyongyang Road Marching, he led 40,000 troops from Jiang, Huai, Ling, and Kip, and recruited 10,000 troops from Chang'an, Luoyang, and Shandong. Warships headed for Pyongyang by sea."

"Call Hexi Jinglue envoy, Liangzhou Metropolitan Governor Shi Cheng Yaojin to be the general manager of the Liaodong Road March, leading the army of 60,000, and the Turkic and Dangxiang soldiers attached to Longyou Heshuo to march towards Liaodong."

It is not uncommon for the two armies of land and water to launch together. This is also the strategy of conquering Liaodong in the Sui Dynasty. After all, Goguryeo has been entrenched in Liaodong for hundreds of years. Even though the defense line of the Great Wall of Liaodong is broken, the frontal defense line of Liaodong is still quite strong.

But Datang and Goguryeo face each other across the sea, and their capital Pyongyang is by the sea, so sending an army to attack from the sea is in line with the law of war. Sending a partial army to attack from the sea will inevitably force the Goguryeo people to divide their troops to defend. It can weaken the strength of its Liaodong defense line.

Not to mention, with the current strength of the Tang Dynasty's sea power, which far surpassed that of the Sui Dynasty, there is still a strong chance of breakthrough when attacking from the sea.

As for the two generals chosen by the emperor, Niu Jinda was in charge of the navy and Cheng Yaojin was in charge of the main force of the land route. It is not surprising that Niu Jinda was here. After all, when he was the governor of Youzhou, Qin Lang attacked Goguryeo and took Beisha City. The one who sent troops for reinforcements was later impeached by the censor for sending troops without permission, so the emperor simply transferred him to guard Beisha, and was awarded the governor of Jinzhou, and later added the governor of the east of the town.

Lao Niu has been guarding southern Liaoning for many years and has never moved his nest. He is the best candidate to command the navy.

On the contrary, Cheng Yaojin was the main force of the land route. It was a little surprising that he had previously guarded Liangzhou in Hexi, so of course his rank was no problem, and he had military exploits in fighting Tuyuhun and Dangxiang.

Now he is also driving to participate in Fengchan, and he can go to Youzhou to take office at any time and gather people.

His qualifications and ability are not bad, although he is not as good as Li Jing, Qin Lang, Chai Shao, and Li Ji, but after all, he is not the coach of the Eastern Expedition, but it is more than enough for him to be the leader of the whole journey.

The number of soldiers and horses dispatched by the emperor was not many, Niu Jinda's was 50,000, Cheng Yaojin's was 60,000, not counting the Hu barbarians of the Xie Cong.

Compared with Yang Guang sending more than one million troops to conquer Liao, it is undoubtedly too little, but there are advantages to having less. First, the troops move quickly, and second, the logistical supply pressure is small.

It is already September, and it is not a good time to send troops, because Liaodong is cold, and winter will soon come, and the northern bays will freeze, the rivers will be frozen, let alone snow for thousands of miles, there is no time to fight too much.

But just as Li Shimin had deduced with the generals long ago, this timely dispatch of troops was able to catch the Goguryeo people by surprise. At this time, it was still nearly three months before Liaodong was frozen and unable to fight.

The autumn is tall and the horse is fat, which is suitable for soldiers.

The Goguryeo people would think that winter is coming, and it is impossible for Datang to use troops at this time, so they will inevitably underestimate the enemy somewhat carelessly.

So Datang used Feng Chan as a cover to mobilize troops, horses, money and food in secret, and then sent troops to make a surprise attack in one fell swoop, which happened to catch the Goguryeo people by surprise.

Excluding the time on the road, Li Shimin only had two months to use the army.

And the emperor only needs two months.

Of course, it is impossible to destroy a 700-year-old country in two months, and the emperor would not be so crazy. All he needs is to take advantage of the unpreparedness of the Goguryeo people and take one or two key cities by surprise, such as Liaodong, Anshi or Pyongyang.

After taking down several important cities in a surprise attack, they can defend themselves and spend the winter safely. After the spring of next year, the second round of offensive will be carried out.

In this plan, whether the emperor personally conscripted or not personally did not make much difference. After all, both water and land were dispatched. The emperor set off from Qizhou, first to Youzhou, and then to Yingzhou in western Liaoning.

In the end, it may only be stationed in the state battalion, and it is impossible to lead the army to charge in person.

The soldiers and horses have already been mobilized, the money and food have been transferred in place, and the emperor has also arrived in Qizhou at this time. As soon as the war order is issued, it can be guaranteed that all armies will cross the border before October.

This is a long-planned war.

The emperor has to personally command.

Although Wei Zheng and others firmly opposed it, the emperor was firm.

"I originally planned to let Qin Lang command the troops to march eastward on my behalf, but since he can't take command, then I will do it myself."

Then it turned to the discussion of the use of troops.

"Qin Lang offered a plan to exhaust the enemy at the beginning, but the Goguryeo people fell for it. Over the past few years, they have overhauled the Great Wall of Liaodong, and even frantically smuggled iron materials from the sea to make Uzi swords and Persian mail armor. The treasury was empty, the people's livelihood was withered, and the people were miserable. , and even a famine has begun. If it weren’t for this, Goguryeo would not have jumped the wall to unite with Baekje and Wa, sent troops to invade Silla and Gaya, and even continued to oppress the Northeast Mohe and Shiwei.”

Qin Lang presented the method of repairing the Great Wall to the Goguryeo people before, and the Goguryeo people were deeply amazed by the method of building a strong fortress for the Great Wall, so they built it with the strength of the whole country, recruiting hundreds of thousands of young and strong to build it in Liaodong every year. Great Wall.

Because the method of building the Great Wall presented is too advanced, the construction of Goguryeo, which is backward in technology, is slow and consumes too much labor. For a small country in Liaodong with only a few million people, hundreds of thousands of young and strong people build the Great Wall in Liaodong every year for a long time. , Although it is a rotation, it has seriously affected the domestic economy of Goguryeo.

In particular, it had a huge impact on their agriculture. In recent years, due to the lack of young and strong labor force, the Goguryeo people's agriculture has been severely hit, a large amount of land was abandoned, or due to lack of maintenance of hydraulic facilities, droughts and reduced production.

In any normal country, if this situation occurs, it is estimated that it will immediately adjust and reduce the manpower required to build the Great Wall to ensure food security.

But the problem is that the Goguryeo people were plotted against by the Tang people again.

Because Datang sent more smugglers to smuggle and sell grain to Goguryeo, the price was not very expensive, and a large number of smuggling ships continuously transported boatloads of grain to Goguryeo.

Therefore, although there has been a problem with grain production in Goguryeo in the past few years, and the grain output has been getting lower and lower, the price of grain in their country has been getting lower and lower. illusion.

In addition, in the past few years, many businessmen have purchased ores, paints, etc. at high prices in Goguryeo, making these operations very profitable. The nobles of Goguryeo are rushing to invest money in mining mines and so on.

Mining the ore and selling it to those sea merchants can earn high profits, and then resell it and buy a large amount of grain at a low price. Once it is imported and exported, it can make a lot of money, which is much more cost-effective than farming and grazing before.

The Goguryeo people fully enjoyed the benefits of trade.

The Goguryeo court, through taxation and so on, is also rich in income every year. With money in hand, of course, it can buy more iron materials, cowhide, etc. from sea smuggling merchants, and then create more weapons and armor.

Anyway, the most profitable industry in Goguryeo is now mining, and the country is fully developing the military industry, but the basic industries of the country, such as agriculture and livestock, have become more and more abandoned.

Many people at the bottom were conscripted to build the Great Wall or build military weapons because their young and strong family members were conscripted, resulting in barren fields or poor harvests. They finally got a little harvest, but the price of food in Goguryeo was suppressed by the price of smuggled food. The food produced cannot be sold for money, and many farmers have gone bankrupt.

In the end, they can only be reduced to miners or workshop workers of the nobles, or even slaves.

But the Goguryeo nobles didn't care, they just felt that the environment was getting better and better, the money was getting better and better, and the family business was getting bigger and bigger.

Without realizing it, they jumped into a big trap.

It was an economic war that Qin Lang set up against the Goguryeo people, trap after trap, they were complacent and complacent.

Now Goguryeo can no longer be self-sufficient in food, and even the country has no food reserves. Anyway, the Maritime Chamber of Commerce will continue to bring cheap food supplements from the sea.

"Order Niu Jinda to block the coast of Goguryeo, prohibit all ships from going to Goguryeo, and prohibit all supplies from entering Goguryeo!"

Once the sea is blocked and Koguryo is banned by the sea, their grain reserves will not be able to support the next season's harvest, let alone support a full-scale national war!