Chapter 564 Logistics Base

Chapter 564 Logistics Base

Chapter 564 Logistics Base
Time passed quickly and it was March. The mid-spring season in Donglai County was particularly bright and sunny, with flowers blooming everywhere. Since the beginning of the year, the emperor transferred the administrative power of Donglai County to the Jiangnan Road General Administration Office, Lai Huer was ordered to lead 20,000 troops north to serve as the governor of Donglai County.

At the same time, Fang Xuanling also went north. He was appointed as the Chief of Donglai County. His task was to build docks and warehouses. After Fang Xuanling took office, he organized 30,000 laborers to build a two-mile-long dock and hundreds of warehouses in Longtou Bay, as well as nine one-mile-long piers.

The location of the dock is called Longtou Bay, which is today's Rongcheng Bay. Today's Rongcheng has relatively shallow water due to years of silt accumulation, but Longtou Bay in the Sui Dynasty was a natural deep-water port. When Qin Qiong introduced the Shandong Peninsula, he strongly recommended this place to Xiao Xia.

Across the Yellow Sea from here is Pyongyang, the capital of Goguryeo. However, before troops move, food and fodder must be sent first. Any war is fought based on national strength and logistics. It is impossible for 50,000 troops to defeat the Goguryeo army after landing.

For Xiao Xia, the first thing he had to do was to build a logistics base in Goguryeo, but where to build the logistics base was another big problem. He had to send scouts to explore and search, and finally find a safe and stable place to settle down.

But this would take time to go back and forth, and the emperor planned to send troops in May, so Xiao Xia actually only had two months to prepare.

The imperial court was the same. It began preparations two years ago. Last year, an order was issued to gather grain and supplies from all over the country in Luoyang and Liyang warehouses. At the same time, three assessments were made on the Battle of Liaodong: one was a warning battle, one was a battle of surrender, and one was a battle of annihilation. In the end, Yang Guang chose the battle of surrender.

That means that the Sui Dynasty would have to mobilize at least 500,000 troops. Based on the standard of two civilians supporting one soldier, at least one million civilians would have to be conscripted.

If we choose a war to annihilate the country, we will have to mobilize a million soldiers and more than two million civilians.

Xiao Xia suggested mobilizing 200,000 civilians, but in fact it was not enough. In the 17th year of Kaihuang, Emperor Wen of Sui sent an army of 300,000 to expedition to Goguryeo, but only mobilized 300,000 civilians. As a result, there was no supply of food and grass, and the army encountered a plague. In the end, they had to give up attacking Goguryeo halfway.

Although Xiao Xia suggested transporting food and supplies by water, after evaluation, the court found that it was not realistic to rely entirely on water transportation. It took too long and there was not enough transportation capacity. It must be coordinated with land transportation. The correct way was to advance both by land and water.

With the lessons learned from the past, and the fact that Yang Guang was a man who did not spare the people's efforts, he issued an edict in March to recruit 1.1 million laborers from Henan and Hebei provinces to assemble in Zhuo County.

But in history, three million civilian laborers were forcibly conscripted. Because of the sea transportation of the Jiangnan fleet, the number of civilian laborers has been reduced to 1.1 million. However, the forced conscription of 1.1 million civilian laborers also caused public resentment in the country.

War is so cruel that Emperor Wu of Han's attack on the Huns almost caused the entire country to collapse.

If they win, there will be war dividends, but if they fail, the entire dynasty will have to bear the consequences, and the consequences will be disastrous. This is a game of gambling on the country's destiny, and Emperor Yang Guang bet the entire Sui Dynasty on it.

Yang Guang also recruited all the old generals who were unemployed at home, including Yang Xiong, Yang Da, Yuanshou, Yuan Min, Xue Shixiong, Yu Juluo, Mai Tiezhang, Yu Zhongwen, Cui Hongsheng, Jing Yuanheng, Xin Shixiong, etc., and ordered them to lead their troops to assemble in Zhuo County.

At the same time, a large number of docks and warehouses were built where the canal flowed into the Zhang River to transport three million dan of grain, one million dan of fodder and countless war supplies to Zhangkou Town. This was the food and fodder for the water transportation part. In addition, a large amount of food and fodder was also transported to Zhuo County. This was the food and fodder for the land transportation part.

It can be said that this time Emperor Yang Guang mobilized the entire country's strength to attack Goguryeo. On the surface, he wanted to fight a war of submission, but in fact, he was preparing for a war of annihilation. If the attack was successful, he would continue to increase troops and food supplies.

The imperial court had already mobilized on all fronts, and Xiao Xia was also acting simultaneously. He dispatched two thousand ships of various types to Donglai County, half of which were used to transport supplies for the court and the country, and the other half were used to carry the Jiangnan Army across the sea.

The first person to set off was Shen Guang. As a scout, he led ten warships and eight hundred soldiers across the Yellow Sea and arrived at the outer sea of ​​Goguryeo after ten days of sailing on the sea.

Shen Guang went out to sea for exploration with He Man, the military officer of the navy. He Man had traveled between the Sui Dynasty and Goguryeo many times and was very familiar with the sea conditions.

Seeing He Man looking at the sea with his clairvoyance, Shen Guang said with a smile, "Doesn't He Canjun come here often? Why do you feel the same way as me now?"

He Man smiled bitterly and said, "Generally, the route goes along the coast, reaches Liaodong in the north, and then goes south along the coast. This is the first time for me to cross the sea like this." "Is this the route we will create?"

He Man shook his head. "Of course not. During the Three Kingdoms period, the Eastern Wu and Goguryeo traveled along our route, crossing the Yellow Sea. The Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties also traveled along our current route to Goguryeo. It's just that I have never taken this bowstring route. I always take the bowback route and go to Liaodong first because of business needs."

"I see, but there must be an island, right?"

"Yes! It's just off the coast of Pyongyang, fifty miles from the land. The island is not small, but it's an uninhabited island!"

"Let me see!"

Shen Guang took the clairvoyance and looked forward. After a moment, he suddenly said, "There is a small black dot in the northeast. Is it?"

He Man quickly grabbed the Clairvoyance and took a closer look, "It really is an island, let's get closer!"

All ten ships were chariot ships, with their wheels and oars rolling, they were rapidly approaching the island.

When the boat approached the island, He Man said excitedly: "It is this island, more than 50 miles away from the land of Goguryeo. When the weather is good, you can vaguely see the land from the island."

The island is actually not very big. It looks like a crab, with its two crab legs forming a large natural bay. The land area of ​​the island is about 5,000 acres, and the terrain is relatively flat.

Soon Shen Guang found out why this was an uninhabited island, because there was no fresh water on the island.

He Man smiled and said, "It doesn't matter if there is no fresh water. The land ahead is the mouth of a big river. We can go there to get fresh water."

"Will it be discovered?"

"Go at night and don't go ashore. The estuary is several miles wide and no one will notice you."

Shen Guang took out the simple map drawn by the King of Jin and looked at it, then asked, "Is the big river the Taedong River?"

"Goguryeo was called the Pae River, but since Your Highness calls it the Taedong River, then let's call it the Taedong River."

At night, Shen Guang led five ships and gradually approached the estuary. There would be merchant ships here during the day, but they were heading north. However, there would be no ships at night.

The ships sailed into Datong Water, which was already fresh water. The three ships were filled with fresh water and returned to the island.

Shen Guang personally led 500 troops to garrison on Crab Island and lit a bonfire at the foot of the western cliff at night so that the island could be seen from the sea but not from the land to the east.

He Man then led five warships back home, and then began to transport tents and food supplies to the island.

(End of this chapter)