Chapter 598 Extreme joy leads to sorrow
Chapter 598 Extreme joy leads to sorrow
In the morning, Xiao Xia received a pigeon letter from Jingkou, saying that Yang Xuangan had started a rebellion in Liyang.
This was the news Xiao Xia had been waiting for for a long time, and he immediately ordered the army to march north to Liaodong.
In the afternoon, a thousand warships carrying 30,000 troops headed north. The fleet sailed along the west coast of the Liaodong Peninsula and arrived at an island south of Jian'an City two days later. This was Lianyun Island, very close to the land. A few miles away was the Qinghe River estuary. Thousands of large ships were anchored in the Qinghe River estuary.
Emperor Yang Guang had already arrived at the camp on the west bank of the Liaohe River at this time. He never had the courage to visit his hometown, Ningyuan Town, which was a hundred miles away.
In addition to the 300,000 troops coming to Liaodong this time, there are also 100,000 civilian laborers. The civilian laborers are responsible for loading and unloading food and supplies. The civilian laborers' camp is close to the military camp. The military provides food and medicine, and strictly manages it. They will not allow the tragedy of last year to happen again.
During the second eastern expedition, the Sui army learned a lot from the lesson and brought a large amount of medicinal materials, making medicinal soup for the soldiers and civilians every day.
They brought 1.5 million dan of grain, 1 million dan of fodder, 500,000 dan of black beans, 400,000 dan of various medicinal materials, countless weapons, armor and other supplies, as well as 1.2 million strings of copper coins and 600,000 pieces of cloth. The army this time was recruited, and each soldier received a monthly salary of two strings of copper coins, and during wartime, an additional piece of cloth would be added each month.
The imperial court specially prepared two months of military salaries. Without them, it would be impossible to motivate the soldiers to fight.
In addition, there are 50,000 large tents. In fact, large tents are very expensive. They are all made of double-layer cloth. Although it is coarse cloth, it also costs a lot. Adding the manpower, a large tent is worth at least dozens of strings of cash.
Yang Guang was extremely suspicious. Although there were almost no Goguryeo soldiers guarding the other side of the Liao River, he was still worried and sent several scouts to investigate deep into the enemy territory.
On the tenth day after Yang Guang arrived in Liaodong, several scout teams returned one after another, and they brought Yang Guang a true picture of the situation in northern Goguryeo.
After the scouts' intelligence was summarized, the Minister of War Fan Zigai reported to the emperor.
"Your Majesty, our scouts have penetrated all the way to the north bank of the Cheongcheon River and have traveled the three official roads of the east, middle and west, but we have not found a single Goguryeo person. All the Goguryeo villages and towns along the way have been abandoned, and the cities have become deserted. All the food and property have been taken away. It must be that the plague is too serious, and everyone has fled south."
"No army either?" Yang Guang asked.
"There were only three mountain cities with troops stationed, one was Liaodong City, one was Anshi City, and the other was Wugut City. It can be said that all of Goguryeo's resistance troops were deployed in these three cities."
Yang Guang nodded and asked again: "Is there still plague?"
"There shouldn't be any. Our hundreds of scouts have gone deep into villages, towns and cities and searched people's homes, but no one has been infected."
Yang Guang walked to the map, stared at it for a moment, and asked Fan Zigai, "Does the Ministry of War have any plans for deploying troops?"
"Your Majesty, the Ministry of War suggests taking Liaodong City and Anshi City. After all, these two cities are too close to the Liao River and it is easy for them to attack our rear camp. As for Wugu City, it is still far from the Liao River, so we can send troops to keep an eye on it, and then send troops to surround Wugu City. The rest of the army will go directly south along the west route. The ships will be resupplied from the sea, once at the Yalu River, once at the Cheongcheon River, and once at the Taedong River in Pyongyang City. That will be enough."
Yang Guang nodded repeatedly. The Ministry of War had the same idea as him. He immediately ordered, "Order Yu Juluo, Qu Tutong, and Wei Wentong to come see me!"
Soon, three generals came to the king's tent and knelt down to salute, "Your Majesty!"
Yang Guang said slowly: "General Qu Tu can lead 50,000 troops to seize Liaodong City, General Wei can lead 30,000 troops to seize Anshi City, and General Yu can lead 50,000 troops to cross the Liao River and seize the east bank of the Liao River. At the same time, troops will be sent to Wugu City to prevent the enemy from reinforcing. The troops will be dispatched early tomorrow morning!"
The three of them clasped their fists together and said, "As ordered!" Yang Guang added, "I will not interfere in this battle. You can make the decisions on your own!"
Yang Guang learned from his last lesson and no longer interfered with the generals' battles.
The next morning, more than 50 large ships carrying 12,000 soldiers crossed the Liao River. The soldiers disembarked and rushed to the east bank of the Liao River, quickly opening up two safe zones, and the pontoon bridge began to be launched.
In less than two hours, two pontoon bridges were built, and Qu Tutong and Wei Wentong each led two large armies to rush to the other side. This time the crossing of the river was particularly smooth and no resistance was encountered.
Yi Ji Wende had only 20,000 troops. He stationed 10,000 troops in Wugucheng, 5,000 troops in Liaodongcheng and Anshicheng respectively. He was completely unable to stop the Sui army from crossing the river.
The Sui army occupied the east bank of the Liao River with bloody battles, and began to attack Liaodong City and Anshi City with all their might according to the established deployment. With the experience of last year, the Sui army no longer attacked the city walls this time, as the casualties in the attack were too great, so they concentrated their forces on attacking the city gates.
The Sui army carried five giant siege hammers, which were carefully made by the Military Equipment Bureau and had handles on both sides. One hundred and twenty people held the handles on both sides. The front end of the siege hammer was equipped with a cast iron ram. Even the strongest city gate would be smashed to pieces under the impact of tens of thousands of pounds.
In addition, the Military Equipment Bureau also made a new type of large shield called the Hunyuan Shield, which was eight feet long and six feet wide, with arc-shaped sides and grab bars on both sides of the bottom. It weighed more than 100 kilograms and was held high by two people, just enough to cover the siege hammer and the soldier holding the siege hammer. Two soldiers on each side held up shields to fill in the gaps, blocking the backs of the soldiers holding the Hunyuan Shield.
From a distance, it looked like a carriage completely covering the battering ram, or like a fat, long worm crawling forward.
At Qu Tutong's command, 10,000 crossbowmen shot arrows at the top of the city wall in sections, suppressing the enemy archers on the top of the city wall. The siege ram was raised, and the Goguryeo soldiers became anxious. They shot arrows at the siege ram from the arrow holes above and threw rolling logs and stones down from the talc path.
But rolling logs and stones had almost no effect. The slide was fixed, and the direction of the rolled logs and stones was also fixed, so they were easily avoided by the besieging soldiers. But once they stood up, raised the stones and aimed, they would be shot down by arrows from below.
Only the arrows had some effect. They rained down on the Hunyuan Cover, a six-meter-long worm made up of thirty Hunyuan Covers. However, they could not stop the attack of the battering ram.
Hundreds of soldiers shouted in low voices, and the battering rams slammed into the city gate with a force of tens of thousands of pounds. "Bang!" With a loud bang, more than a dozen thigh-thick door bolts were broken at once, and the gate burst open. The battering ram rushed directly into the city. Qu Tutong was overjoyed and shouted, "Charge into the city!"
Tens of thousands of soldiers rushed in and a bloody battle broke out in Liaodong City. Five thousand Goguryeo soldiers were all killed in the battle, and Liaodong City was captured by the Sui army in less than half a day.
Anshi City was attacked by Wei Wentong. Although Wei Wentong was extremely greedy and caused great disaster in Qi County, he was still good at leading troops in battle.
He built a wooden tower four meters high, and hundreds of soldiers shot down at the soldiers defending the city from the tower, creating an undefended space on the top of the city. Three thousand soldiers took the opportunity to attack the top of the city with siege ladders.
Wei Wentong took a little longer, but still captured Anshi City in less than three days.
More than 3,000 Goguryeo soldiers were killed, and the remaining 1,700 soldiers were preparing to retreat eastward to Ugut City, but they were surrounded by the Yujuro army and all the soldiers were killed in the battle.
The Sui army's attack went smoothly. In just three days, with more than a thousand casualties, they wiped out 10,000 enemy troops and captured the east bank of the Liao River.
Emperor Yang Guang was full of confidence and was determined to march south to capture Pyongyang in one go. But at this moment, the news of Yang Xuangan's rebellion reached Liaodong.
(End of this chapter)