Chapter 1351: Grab First as a Respect

Chapter 1351: Grab First as a Respect

Chapter 1351: Grab First as a Respect
It rained last night, making the mountain path a bit slippery, making it very inconvenient for people to walk on it.

Murong Ren did not come here directly, but sent Murong You to lead 3,000 soldiers to the foot of Gaolu Mountain City to receive command.

The reason for not coming was anger. He had just gathered a few strong men, but was forced to use them up by the Liang people, and it was a brutal siege, so he must have been unhappy.

However, after being persuaded by everyone, he finally suppressed his anger and sent some people over to handle the task - even if he had a lot of dissatisfaction, it was not the right time to do it. He had to wait until the million-strong army of Liang left.

The Wuhuan official Xi also sent two thousand soldiers to gather here. Together with the captured young men from the Liang army's tribe and the people of Xuantu, a total of more than 10,000 people were assembled and launched an attack from the south, west and north.

Shao Shen was too lazy to watch the siege, as that was a chance for He Fen to exercise. He sat comfortably in the camp, reading through the military orders sent from Jicheng one by one.

It is a well-known fact that Murong Huang ran into Liaoze.

There are more than 300 miles of quagmire to the west of the Liao River. The east side is slightly better, with some towns, but these towns themselves are also in the Liaoze. Even not far from the city is a swamp, which is also a large area of ​​quagmire.

It is indeed difficult to find the place, hundreds of miles from east to west and more than a thousand miles from south to north, but the problem is that Liaoze has been surrounded. As long as you put in some effort, you can find it eventually.

As long as we determine Murong Huang's location and send out a large army of infantry and cavalry, it will be no problem to capture him in the end.

It is not a good idea for Murong Huang to contact other tribes too much now. Once he does, he will be at risk of being exposed.

However, Shao Shen guessed that he might be trying to escape to the north.

Never mind him. That’s Li Zhong’s business and has nothing to do with him.

The second piece of news was that Jiang Ke, the commander of the Silver Spear Left Camp, and Zhong Li Ke, the general of Shamen Town, attacked Murong Khan from both sides and defeated him.

Khan led several thousand remnants to escape and insisted on resisting. However, perhaps after hearing the news that Jicheng had been captured, Murong Khan sent envoys out again to discuss surrender.

In times of disaster, it is normal for people to think about themselves.

Murong Khan had previously transferred more than 30,000 people to Xiangping, but Murong Jun escaped. The 30,000-strong army was defeated by the Yellow-headed Army, and the chieftains were all killed. The remaining people were taken to Beifeng (now Wafangdian).

The emperor ordered the restoration of the old county of Hanbeifeng and placed it under the jurisdiction of Liaodong County.

The cattle and sheep of the remaining 20,000 people were all returned, and they were allowed to graze anywhere they chose in Beifeng County - they could just pick one, as there were too many wastelands - and they also allocated supplies and tools shipped by sea from Qingzhou, and began to build cities and houses.

So far, the number of Murong Xianbei captives concentrated in Lushun and Beifeng counties has exceeded 60,000, but there is only 5,000 people from the Yellow Head Army responsible for guarding them. Although the elderly, women and children of these Xianbei people were detained and most of their chiefs were killed, making it difficult to organize a rebellion in a short time, there will always be hidden dangers in the long run.

Li Chong sent a letter here, asking Shao Shen to allocate some troops to the south to help with the custody.

Shao Shen thought about it and ordered a total of 6,000 Pingcheng guards and crossbowmen to go south to assist in garrisoning. At the same time, they could also obtain food and grass from Qingzhou and reduce logistical pressure.

During this war, he also realized the huge potential of sea transportation.

Wow, one ship is worth a hundred horse-drawn carriages, it really saves a lot more money than land transportation.

Maybe the ship would sink, which is true, but an old warrior like Shao Shen doesn't care about human lives at all. If the ship sinks, so what? There is no such thing as no casualties in war.

Even if we take a step back, isn't land transportation hard? Many people died of exhaustion, illness, escaping, or even being killed by the enemy's raids on the food routes. If you count the number of lives, the number is greater than that of sea transportation.

Furthermore, the consumption on land was equally significant. Even if he did not have precise data at hand, a rough estimate would tell him that it was far greater than the food loss caused by shipwrecks and moisture during sea transportation.

Not to mention the huge gap in time.

He would still hesitate about shipping by sea to other places in the future, but between Penglai and Lushun, he didn't even blink an eye. With a favorable wind, it would only take a day and a night, so he shipped it by sea directly, saving money, time and worry.

After processing the documents, Shao Shen handed them all to his staff, then stood up and went to a high observation platform in the camp to overlook the surroundings.

The weather is a little cooler, not as hot as last month.

The cotton-padded clothes that the soldiers had stored in Youzhou began to be shipped one after another and would arrive around August.

We definitely won’t be able to leave in August, maybe we have to wait until September, but I don’t know what results we will have achieved by then.

If the Goguryeo people had not foolishly gone out of the city to fight in the wild, it would have been too late to destroy the country.

Well, if we can’t destroy them, let them feel the pain. Maybe they really can’t bear it and will come to fight us in large numbers?

******
After three days in the mountains, Houmo Chencan, who served as the vanguard, found the first village. He was overjoyed, but couldn't help cursing: "Didn't they say that Goguryeo used the 'city' as the government, and there were 'valleys' and 'villages' below? This Gaoer City is so poor that we only saw a village after three days of walking."

The soldiers burst into laughter after hearing this, and dismounted from their horses and prepared their equipment.

The Goguryeo people on the opposite side had obviously discovered them a long time ago. They were beating drums and gongs to call back the farmers who were working outside the village.

But the Liang people came too quickly. More than a hundred light cavalrymen who did not dismounted rushed forward and directly caught up with a group of villagers who had not had time to evacuate.

They seemed to want to capture slaves, so they gathered around them with a grin on their faces, in a very loose manner, with the aim of intimidating the enemy, making them exhaust their strength and spirits in panic, and then surrender.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, several arrows flew out from the crowd, killing two cavalrymen who were too close. Arrows kept flying, and in an instant another man was injured and fell off his horse, while another luckily dodged.

The cavalry dispersed immediately and looked at the Goguryeo people in surprise and suspicion.

They had never fought with the Goguryeo people before and didn't know their strengths. They were really surprised to see that they could draw their bows and fight back while fleeing.

Some of the villagers raised their arms and shouted something, as if telling everyone to run quickly, and that he would cover their retreat, and also seemed to be calling on the villagers in the village to come out and support them.

The cavalry was angry, and at the command of the officer, they rushed forward regardless of the enemy's arrows.

As they ran, horn bows were fired continuously. Everyone put away their contempt and used the methods they used to deal with regular troops, shooting from the front and flanking. There were also armored cavalry coming up from behind, charging forward with long spears and large halberds.

If they got serious, the Goguryeo people would have trouble resisting them. After all, there were only a few of them holding bows and crossbows.

After a round of shooting, all the Goguryeo archers who were left behind fell to the ground, screaming in pain, but they also took two people with them before they died, so it didn't seem too bad.

The cavalry became more angry. Dozens of riders who made a flanking move shot a volley of arrows horizontally. The fleeing Goguryeo men, women, and children fell to the ground like cut wheat, crying and shouting.

Everything was over when ten armored cavalrymen charged into the crowd with spears in hand.

After the war, an inventory was taken and more than seventy people were captured, along with some miscellaneous farm tools.

Damn, it seems like a bit of a loss.

Hou Mochencan organized people to rush into the houses outside the village and conduct a large-scale search. Surprisingly, they found something unexpected and arrested more than 20 people, mostly women and children, who were hiding and were all discovered by their eagle eyes.

The soldiers dismounted one by one, first loaded the carts, horses and pack animals abandoned by the Goguryeo people with food and took them away, and then looked for other valuables.

The entire search and suppression operation was very thorough.

The dried fish hanging under the eaves, the fermented black beans hidden in the cellar, the vegetables growing in the fields, the fruits on the trees, etc. were all taken away.

After finishing the job, he filled up the well and set fire to the house.

They deliberately slowed down their movements, as if waiting for people from the village to come out to rescue them, but unfortunately no one did.

Before leaving, Houmochen Can ordered the harvest of the crops in the fields that were almost ripe - there was still half a month or a month left before harvest.

These grains may not seem very suitable for human consumption, but they are perfect for feeding horses.

The unharvested grain was trampled by horses, which made the Goguryeo people in the village furious.

As the sun set, hundreds of riders shouted and marched away in a swagger, pulling the crying captives, as well as food, livestock, cloth, axes, adzes, sickles, shovels, plowshares and even fishing gear.

Admittedly, this surprise attack may not necessarily deal a fatal blow to this village (a "valley"-level administrative unit), but it will indeed cause them serious damage and also undermine their morale.

And such actions are not isolated.

After Shao Yu led more than 10,000 cavalry into the mountains, they fought for ten days and captured more than 1,600 people, seized more than 5,000 hu of grain and nearly 9,000 livestock. He also defeated a Goguryeo army that came to expel them and beheaded more than 800 people.

As for the burned houses and destroyed farmlands, this matter was kept secret and no one recorded it.

Judging from the entire battlefield, it is not just Shao Yu's group.

Xu Yu led 10,000 Yicong troops, 2,000 Liangcheng soldiers, 6,000 Youfeilong Guards, and more than 10,000 Yuwen Xianbei light cavalry, totaling nearly 30,000 cavalry, carrying ten days of food and fodder, and set out from Xiangping to the east to attack Liangmo City.

In other words, Shao Yu's route was the "Northern Road", which advanced all the way through the Xiaoliao River (Hunhe River) and ended at the Goguryeo capital Maru Mountain City.

Xu Yu's route was the "Southern Road", also known as the "Xiangping Road". It was not as easy to travel as the Northern Road, but it would eventually lead to Marundu City via Liangshui (also known as Liangmoe River, i.e. Taizi River). Even Goguryeo had built a branch of the Southern Road, which was the road leading to North Korea (Pyongyang), ten years ago.

Compared with the Northern Army, the Southern Army is larger in scale, because according to reliable information, Murong Jun and Murong Biao fled in this direction.

In addition to these two routes, Murong Ren was also assigned a temporary task: to send 5,000 elite cavalry to bypass Xi'anping County of Liaodong County (near Dandong) and harass Goguryeo in a roundabout way. Murong Ren was naturally unwilling to lead the army in person, so he sent Murong Zhi to lead the army eastward.

When the three armies attacked, they would naturally not miss the opportunity to fight a field battle. If there was no opportunity, they would plunder everywhere while ensuring supplies, and destroy Goguryeo's war potential as much as possible.

Of course, it would be better to fight a large-scale array field battle.

During the Zhengshi period of Cao Wei, Guanqiu Jian led 10,000 infantry and cavalry to attack Goguryeo. The King of Dongchuan (the king of Goguryeo) led 20,000 infantry and cavalry to meet him. The two sides fought a field battle at Liangkou. Goguryeo was defeated, with more than 18,000 deaths. The King of Dongchuan fled, and the capital was destroyed.

After that time when they gave away their lives, I wonder if they would dare to do it again.

But no matter what, I'll grab it first as a sign of respect.

(End of this chapter)