Chastity Layman

"The Taiwei is really famous."

Tai Changqing Wei Ting, who accompanied the driver in charge of food and grass, said in amazement.

Li Shimin looked at him, but just snorted, Wei Ting lowered his head.

Cheng Yaojin personally led the troops to take over the city defense.

Although Baiyan City is not big, it is very dangerous. There are less than 20,000 soldiers and civilians in the city, and most of them are people who moved in from nearby villages.

At this time, they all surrendered with Sun Daiyin.

Sun Daiyin asked his subordinates to tie him up and leave the city to surrender. He knelt in front of the city gate, holding the city lord's seal, Guanfang, and Baiyan City's household registration, territory and other registers.

Lao Cheng received it on behalf of the emperor, and then asked someone to send Sun Daiyin to the emperor.

"Sanlang, a word from you is worth more than 200,000 soldiers."

Qin Lang just chuckled, "Baiyan City is just an isolated city. Before that, he had hoped for reinforcements from black bones. Now that the reinforcements have been defeated, what chance does he have? Surrender is a matter of course, and it has nothing to do with me. "

"The relationship is still very important." Lao Cheng stroked his beard, "Sanlang, do you think this Eastern Expedition is a little too smooth?"

"According to this situation, we will be able to encircle Anshi again within ten days, take Anshi City at most in half a month, and then return to court?"

"It should be like this if there are no accidents!" Qin Lang said.

The weather is getting colder and colder. Although the Tang army had already brought winter clothes when they set off, the cold winter in Liaodong cannot be resisted by a single winter clothes.

When it snows heavily, the glaciers will freeze, and thousands of miles will be covered in snow, making it impossible to fight.

Therefore, the best result is to leave some soldiers and horses to garrison the several big cities that have been captured, and then withdraw the rest of the troops to the Central Plains.

Fortunately, a lot of food and grass have been seized now, and they can stay there without worry. Otherwise, if they fail to capture Dacheng as a stronghold for the winter, or if the Goguryeo people burn all the food and grass before taking it, then Datang will have to train the whole army first and come back next year.

In this case, the city may have to be attacked again next year. Although Goguryeo's military strength has been greatly reduced after this battle, it is still very troublesome to attack these cities.

The battle this time was indeed unbelievably smooth. Lao Cheng, a 120,000-strong general, thought he would encounter fierce resistance, but he didn't expect that it would be the same as his previous campaign against Gaochang. Easily exceeded expectations.

Dayou concentrated all his strength and punched hard, but it felt like it hit the cotton.

Qin Lang thought it was normal.

This is what war is like a lot of the time.

Looking back on the analysis, we can find that there are many reasons for the current situation of the war. For example, Datang has been preparing for many years, and the emperor's personal conquest, and Datang took Beisha, an important military town, as a stronghold many years ago.

Another example is that the Goguryeo people carefully built the defense line of the Great Wall of Liaodong, thinking that it was strong, so they were somewhat careless.

Another example is the Goguryeo Kingdom, the power minister Mo Lizhi Yuangai Suwen and the king Gao Jianwu have an incompatible relationship, and the contradiction is fierce.

The infiltration of Datang for many years also played a lot of roles at critical moments. For example, although Gao Xinwen surrendered after being captured in a surprise attack, he really didn't have much desire to resist after being captured. Not much will to resist.

At the critical moment, a coach like Yuan Gai Su Wen escaped, otherwise Liaodong City would not have fallen so easily.

Jian'an, Liaodong, and Gaimu, several important towns on the Liaodong defense line, fell one after another, causing a chain reaction, and the entire defense line seemed to be in vain.

Especially in several wars, Goguryeo has lost more than 100,000 troops, and the Liaodong defense line has a total of only 300,000, so it has already become a sieve.

Compared with the situation during the Sui conquest of Liaodong, in general, Goguryeo itself was seriously injured after the Sui conquest and has not been able to recover.

And these years have been repairing the Liaodong Great Wall defense line, which has further depleted its national power. The internal struggle between the Yuan family and the royal family has intensified the internal friction in Goguryeo, and many Mohe tribes that were originally attached to Goguryeo have fallen to the Tang Dynasty in recent years, weakening it even more. their strength.

When Goguryeo was in its heyday, it couldn't defend against the Sui army's eastern expedition. The Sui army once captured Liaodong City, but because of Yang Guang's random command, after the city was broken, the defenders raised their flags and Yang Guang stopped the attack. As a result, they rested and continued to resist, which led to a fall short.

And the soldiers and horses from all walks of life still had to be commanded by Yang Guang, which also failed to play a role. It is true to divide the troops for 300,000 miles to attack Pyongyang, and to attack by floating in the sea. However, it is a great pity that they underestimated the enemy and were defeated due to the problem of the general.

In contrast, although the Tang army is also the emperor's personal army this time, who is Li Shimin? A real master of strategy is a first-class military expert, and Niu Jinda, Cheng Yaojin, Zhang Jian, Qin Lang and others are all good at it.

Zhang Jian feinted to attack Huaiyuan, diverting the tiger away from the mountain, and then Cheng Yaojin attacked Tongding again, and successfully mobilized the Goguryeo defenders and broke through its Great Wall defense line.

Not to mention that Qin Lang Niu Jinda raided Jian'an again at a critical moment and took down this important town in southern Liaoning without bloodshed. The city defended itself and could no longer reinforce Liaodong City.

The battle in Liaodong City was even more simple and crude.

The entire battle, from Li Shimin's choice of an abnormal time to dispatch troops by taking advantage of the opportunity of Fengchan Taishan, to the undeclared war, caught the Goguryeo people by surprise, and the subsequent steps were all classics that can be included in the teachings .

When Goguryeo resisted the attack of the Sui Dynasty, there was a famous general like Ulji Mundeok, but now there is only a coach like Yeon Gae Suwen who is fierce in internal fighting but cowardly in external battles. How can he be undefeated.

The battle has come to this point, but Yuan Gai Suwen has disappeared.

Although Li Shimin hated Sun Daiyin who came to surrender on his own knees, Li Shimin hated him for being capricious, but since he agreed to accept the surrender, the gentleman Jinkou said that he would not go back on his word.

So he gritted his teeth and awarded him the title of guerrilla general, and pardoned everyone in Baiyan City for the crime of resisting.

But although the death penalty is spared, the living penalty cannot be escaped.

Zhongshu Lingchang Sun Wuji stepped forward to announce the final disposal of Baiyan City. Baiyan City was changed to Baiyan County, which was under the jurisdiction of Liaozhou. Zhugang.

The voice of the grandson is as dead ashes.

"Your Majesty, the guilty minister has surrendered the city, please keep Baiyan City!"

Li Shimin snorted coldly and waved his hands impatiently. Someone came over and pulled Sun Daiyin away. Although he took the lead in surrendering and got an official rank, he was still on the list of forced relocation. The emperor didn't need this wavering guy to stay by his side.

The emperor left Yan Guogong Li Jinxing to stay in Baiyan City, and then ordered to rest for a night, and then left the camp for Anshi City the next day.

From Baiyan City to Anshi.

On November 11, the emperor led his army to Anshi City and arrived at Anshi City on the 20th.

It took more than ten days to walk on the road for more than 100 miles. The main reason was that it snowed.

At this time, the temperature in Liaodong dropped sharply, and the snow was fluttering, which made the Tang army a little troublesome. Although the soldiers had made preparations in advance, and the soldiers also changed into winter clothes and brought felt blankets, the heavy snow in Liaodong still slowed down the marching speed.

Even on the way, Ping Zhangshi, Shangshu Youpushe, and Li Daliang, Shangshu of the Ministry of Officials, died of illness in the army.

Li Daliang was only fifty-four years old at this time, he was still in his prime, but suddenly died of illness in the army, Li Shimin mourned extremely.

"Liang Guogong is both civil and military, his ambition is chaste, he is devoted to his integrity, and his reputation is far-reaching. Alas!"

Cen Wenwen, a scholar of the Hanlin Academy, died of illness halfway before, and now his right servant Li Daliang passed away suddenly, and the emperor's mood was extremely complicated.

Before Li Daliang died of illness, he persuaded the emperor to end the Eastern Expedition as soon as possible, saying that it was snowing in Liaodong, and the soldiers were bitterly cold.

Due to the death of Li Daliang and the sudden heavy snowfall, the Tang army stopped for three days on the way, and continued marching after the snow stopped.

Arriving at the city of Anshi, he joined forces with Niu Jinda's 50,000 troops.

Fortunately, Niu Jinda's army had set up a camp first, and there were many supplies for the winter brought in from Dengzhou and Beisha. At last, the Tang army who came here in the snowstorm could have hot meals.

"Is Anshicheng still unwilling to surrender?"

"Liang Wanchun, the lord of An City, refused to surrender and was very arrogant. He often sent troops to attack and harass him. Before that, he planned to send troops to reinforce Liaodong and Baiyan City. The minister led the troops to intercept him. After several battles, he was killed back."

After listening to Niu Jinda's report, Li Shimin couldn't help but frown. The situation in Anshi City is obviously different from that of Liaodong, Baiyan, and Gaimu City, and the defender is undoubtedly more stubborn.

"How about your casualties?"

"Our army has fought several battles with the Anshi army, with a total of more than 3,000 casualties, but it also killed and wounded no fewer than five or six thousand Anshi troops."

The one-for-two battle ratio was originally very good, but Li Shimin was not very happy when he heard it. Compared with the casualty ratio of several other battlefields, this is a huge difference.

Anshi's will to resist is indeed very tenacious.

Zheng Yuanxuan, who was with the army, asked to withdraw his troops. The reason was that it was snowing heavily today, the temperature in Liaodong dropped sharply, and the resistance in Anshi City was fierce, and the city was hard to overcome. It is better to withdraw the troops first.

Changsun Wuji believed that although the weather was cold, the Tang army had sufficient supplies and strong soldiers at this time, so they should take advantage of the still available troops to take Anshi in one go and completely destroy the Liaodong defense line of the Goguryeo people, so that they can fight again after the spring of next year. Send troops to recover the entire Liaodong in one fell swoop.

"Your Majesty, if Anshi City is not captured at this time, and if the Goguryeo people can reinforce Anshi, it will be very difficult to attack Anshi again next year."

"Qin Lang, what do you think?" Li Shimin asked Qin Lang.

The weather was falling, but the emperor was still very stubborn in wearing the brown robe, rubbing his hands with his back hooked in the cold, but he refused to change his clothes.

Niu Jinda had no choice but to ask someone to make a few more pots of charcoal fire in the emperor's imperial tent to heat up.

Qin Lang had already put on the sable fur, and heard the emperor's question, "I heard that Qingqi played a report on the military situation. Yuangai Suwen has assembled 150,000 reinforcements and is rushing to Anshi. This is the last army of Liaodong in Goguryeo. There is a new force."

"So?" Zheng Yuanxuan asked, "Shouldn't we withdraw our troops?"

"Your Majesty, I believe that if we can besiege the city and annihilate these 150,000 Liao soldiers, then the entire north of the Yalu River will have no resistance. If we seize this opportunity and annihilate these Liao soldiers, it will be better than next year when we attack again." Bazhai is much stronger, right?" Qin Lang said.

"How can we fight in such cold weather?" Zheng Yuanxuan still objected.

"If the Goguryeo army wins the battle, then my Tang army can also win the battle. Moreover, the Goguryeo army is rushing to the rescue, so the battle will not be delayed for too long. After we win this battle, we can finish the battle in Bohai Sea." Most of the soldiers were withdrawn to the Central Plains before the ice freeze."

"What if the Goguryeo soldiers deliberately delay not fighting?"

"How could it be the people of Goguryeo? Our army is besieging Anshi City normally. If the reinforcements cannot be delayed, we will take down Anshi City first. It is even more optional to leave or stay at that time.