"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, General Zhao led his army to a great victory. He defeated tens of thousands of enemies, advanced for more than ten miles, and captured more than ten strongholds."
In the evening, news of the victory reached the Chinese army in the rear.
Because the war was over, Zhao Shixun's troops were unable to clean the battlefield and tally the results, so the information was not very accurate.
But this was enough. Li Jing felt at ease and just asked, "How are the casualties?"
The visitor reported, "We have just roughly counted the casualties. More than 3,000 people were injured and more than 500 were killed in this battle. General Zhao said that the details will be reported to the governor tomorrow evening."
Li Jing nodded, secretly admiring in his heart, these ministers from the Dragon are indeed very good...
But having said that, Governor Li also deeply felt that these bastards were self-reliant on their own merits, and each one of them had very strong ideas, and their daring actions... would test the endurance of the heart of the person in charge of military power.
That is to say, he, Li Jing, and Li Yaoshi are very generous. Otherwise, if someone else were to take on such a big worry and be a little narrow-minded, I am afraid that even if you, Zhao Shixun, achieve success in one battle, you would still be miserable.
Li Jing thought quite proudly, as for who could take on a general who was full of military merit and favored by the emperor, that was not among his considerations.
…………
At this time, Li Jing was already on the north bank of the Xishui River, which also meant that almost the entire army of more than 200,000 people had crossed the river, and there were still more than 100,000 people busy with logistics and other matters for the army.
The army was divided into several parts. Li Nian led his army to wander to the east to guard against the flanks of the army. Due to the terrain, Li Nian's troops could not penetrate deep in a short time. However, in the mountains and forests, they played hide and seek with the Goguryeo people.
The game is not among Tang Jun’s options.
Therefore, the battle situation in the east is not clear, and it may take some time for Li Nian and others to find an opportunity to fight the enemy decisively.
In the plain area to the west, nearly 200,000 troops are now divided into three parts within a range of nearly 70 to 80 miles. The former army is led by Zhao Shixun.
Behind them were Chen Yuan and others as backup, building a camp while preparing to join Zhao Shixun's troops to attack Pyongyang City together.
The central army of the main army has just crossed the river, but the Chinese army will not stay by the river for too long and will soon march into Pyongyang, because there is not much time left for the main army to fight.
The other is the navy. After the army crossed the river, the navy also took on the task of transporting food, grass and baggage. The burden was not much lighter than that of the other departments of the army, or even more.
This is a standard group army combat mode. Each department is well prepared and has clear responsibilities. It perfectly reflects Li Jing's strategic and tactical arrangements.
It's just that this obviously goes against the strategy of quick victory formulated by the Ministry of War.
Of course, this sounds serious, but in fact it is nothing.
The situation at that time was different from that later. Due to limited communication conditions, the strategies formulated by the central government could only serve the former military generals, and did not have much binding force on Li Jing and others.
Since ancient times, there has been a saying that generals will not accept orders from foreign kings. This is actually the case. It does not specifically refer to the situation where former military generals disobey orders and conduct military operations alone.
Even if the king or the important ministers in the court give instructions to the soldiers ahead due to various considerations, the communication conditions will restrict their operations.
As a result, it gradually evolved into a supervisory army system. Whenever a large army went on an expedition, the imperial court would set up supervisory troops in the army to implement the imperial decrees as much as possible and supervise the former generals of the army.
The extent of its power mostly depends on factors such as the political environment at the time and the court's ability to control the army.
It’s hard to say the pros and cons of this. It depends on the final result. It’s easy to say whether you win or not. If you lose, you will inevitably blame each other and leave a lot of feathers.
…………
Today's Tang Army is not worried about this. The imperial court's trust in Li Jing is obvious. Even though there are institutions such as the Military Justice Department and the Military Intelligence Department, they have given Li Jing and others a lot of free space in terms of strategy and tactics.
After all, this was the beginning of the founding of the country. As a horse emperor, the king of the Tang Dynasty had extraordinary control over the army. Bad things like supporting the army with self-respect or having great achievements were not among Li Po's considerations.
What's more, it was his father-in-law who led the troops.
So the king and his ministers felt at ease.
Taking this battle as an example, Li Jing's strategy was implemented to the greatest extent. Even though the generals complained about it, it was not to the extent of disobeying military orders.
Zhao Shixun's leader won the battle. No matter how many ideas he had, Li Jing was still filled with joy after hearing the battle report.
This battle not only destroyed Goguryeo's effective forces, but also greatly boosted the morale of the Tang army, laying a very good foundation for the subsequent siege.
The regret is that if Li Jing were to lead the troops by himself, he would never do what Zhao Shixun did, show weakness, lure the Goguryeo people out, and cooperate with Chen Yuan and others in an encirclement and annihilation battle. Wouldn't it be much better than now?
It's just that there are no ifs in the war. After the Goguryeo people experienced this battle and were hit head-on by the Tang army, they should be able to clearly understand the gap between them and the Tang army.
If nothing unexpected happens in the future, the Goguryeo people will simply choose not to leave.
Therefore, in Li Jing's view, the Goguryeo army gathered inside and outside Pyongyang was like a turtle in a urn, and it just depended on how the Tang army would strike.
By the way, their threat to the Tang army was also reduced to a minimum. The enemy trapped in a corner was not worthy of any more attention.
On the contrary, it was Li Nian who Li Jing felt would be the key to this battle.
…………
The next night, Zhao Shixun sent another message to the army, and the results of the battle were much more detailed.
In the first battle, more than 3,800 Goguryeo cavalry and more than 8,000 infantry were killed and wounded, more than 14,000 people were captured, and several...
A great victory for sure.
Li Jing was very satisfied, and when he wrote back to Zhao Shixun, he was full of praise, and then ordered him to hold the camp firmly and not to advance rashly, waiting for the arrival of the follow-up army.
The captured Goguryeo people were handed over to Chen Yuan, so that they could be surrendered to the Tang army to build a camp.
…………
At this time, the Tang army was like a group of hard-working ants, busy building camps one after another, and the general, the founding father Chen Yuan, was the foreman.
If the Goguryeo people saw it, they would definitely scold them all the time. Is this what the hell an invader should do?
The various departments of the Tang army were also a little hard to understand, but that was the military order they received, so they cooperated with the craftsmen who came from all over the Central Plains to fully demonstrate the engineering skills of the Tang Dynasty in this strange land.
Again, the Tang Dynasty, which inherited some of the legacy of the former Sui Dynasty, had reached a certain height in civil engineering. Even the subsequent dynasties were probably much inferior to the Tang Dynasty.
Building a large military camp was not a complicated and time-consuming task for the craftsmen of the Tang Dynasty.
If they have enough manpower, they can do any trick, and building another square city under Pyongyang City is not an impossible task.
…………
"It's almost done. If we move forward, we can build six camps..."
Liu Qingze, a young craftsman who had only been in front of the army for more than half a month, and his face was dark and thin, covered with dust, and had no trace of his spirit, was mumbling feebly.
Standing next to him was General Chen Yuan of the Right Xiaowei. After hearing this, Chen Yuan slapped the wall a few times with his rough hands, shook his head in dissatisfaction and said: "It's too slow. The Governor sent the order. Three
It must be completed within days.
The Chinese army will catch up in the near future, and if you still get no results from this hard work, then please ask Mr. Liu to go and talk to the Chief Superintendent in person."
Liu Qing gritted his teeth and said, "There are too few manpower. If General Chen can send more people to me..."
Chen Yuan, who was still extremely strong, stared. If it had been more than ten years ago, he would have picked up the chicken in front of him and hammered it.
It's just that now that he is a general, he can no longer be so rude. At most, he will be dissatisfied and have people who don't do things well be killed.
"You still have few manpower? Do you know where the fucking front is? If you ask me to send elites to help you build a camp, how can you still have the strength to attack the city later?"
Seeing that the general was angry, Liu Qing immediately trembled with both arms and lowered his head and said: "Please calm down the general, the governor is urging me urgently, but there are not enough manpower, and there is nothing the lower officials can do. It is difficult for a clever woman to make a meal without rice."
Chen Yuan snorted. He was also very angry. After crossing the river, he led his people to build a camp. He was the first to go ashore, but now it was Zhao Shixun who took the lead. It was really unpleasant.
If only His Majesty were here, Zhao Shixun would definitely lie down next to His Majesty like before. How could he come to compete with these people for credit?
"Don't plead with me here...General Zhao has captured more than 10,000 people in front of him. He will deliver them to you tomorrow. The camp must be repaired within three days, otherwise...you have to know that this place can be
Not Chang'an.
If it can't be completed on time, I'm afraid military law enforcement will be required, so don't blame me for being ruthless."
Liu Qingze's feelings at this time were probably similar to those of Yu Wenkai back then. He was full of resentment, but he did not dare to say anything else.
There is no way, the generals in front of the army are like this, they only know the military orders, but they don't understand the truth.
With no choice but to agree, Chen Yuan waved her hand and chased the person away like a fly.
After working with Li Po for so many years, he has never learned to respect the talents of craftsmen. Officials from Chang'an, as long as they are not the chief officials of various yamen, are of no importance in his eyes.
Liu Qingze walked away in a hurry, and Su Dingfang appeared out of nowhere, came behind Chen Yuan and beat his chest, "General, do you have any instructions for summoning the last general?"
Hearing the local accent, Chen Yuan's face softened slightly. He and Su Dingfang were both from Hebei, and their hometowns were quite close to each other, so after getting along with each other, it was more pleasant to look at this energetic young man.
He was not polite and forced a smile and said: "We have built so many camps, do you see anything?"
Su Dingfang supported the wall of the village, looked at the dark wilderness in front of him, and said quietly: "To be honest with the general, I feel that the governor is worried about the army's retreat.
At this time, who can threaten the army's retreat? The general feels that the general has speculations in his mind, so why should he embarrass the general?"
This chapter has been completed!