In early February, the envoy from Chang'an City finally arrived in Dongou City.
This time the messenger was an acquaintance of Li Danghu, his second brother Li Jiao.
Li Jiao, who served as a Langguan next to Li Yunze, brought the emperor's request to annex Dongou and changed the place to Minzhong County.
Minzhong County was established during the Pre-Qin Dynasty. When the world was in chaos at the end of the Qin Dynasty, the East Ou Kingdom and the Minyue Kingdom divided this county between the south and the north.
Li Yunze appointed Li Danghu to concurrently serve as the governor of Minzhong County. After the Minyue Kingdom was recovered, the two places were merged into one and reunited.
Ou Wang was granted the title of Marquis of Guannei and led a group of nobles from the Dongou Kingdom back to Chang'an City along with Li Jiao.
All the remaining matters here will be left to Gongsun Ao and the others.
Gongsun Ao was not interested in local affairs. He wanted to go south to the Minyue Kingdom as soon as possible.
However, Li Danghu, who was appointed as the governor of Minzhong County, was busy transporting people and supplies on sea ships and building harbor roads, which delayed the matter.
After urging several times, all he got was evasion. Gongsun Ao also became angry and went directly to Li Danghu, who was supervising the construction of the harbor.
"Governor Li."
Gongsun Ao looked unhappy, and his tone was very direct: "Today, you can give me an accurate answer as to when the fleet will be able to go south to Dongye (Huzhou)!"
Li Danghu was not angry either. He smiled and asked Gongsun Ao to sit down, then poured him a drink affectionately, and then said, "To let the general know, it's not a certain person who doesn't want to transport troops south, but someone from the shipyard."
There is a batch of new boats being launched nearby and they will be able to enter soon.
When the time comes to join the fleet, it can transport nearly 20,000 troops at a time, which will definitely increase our confidence in capturing Dongye."
After drinking a glass of wine, Gongsun Ao's anger subsided slightly. He asked again, "When can we set off?"
"Next month." Li Danghu explained, "After the new ship is launched, it must be tested in many ways before it can be put into use. However, I assured the general that it will definitely arrive at the port by the end of next month at the latest."
After a pause, he continued, "And the seaport here will begin to take shape by then, making it easy to board ships. We have also stocked up a lot of grain and military supplies. Once Dongye is captured, it will be convenient to transport military supplies there."
After drinking another glass of wine, Gongsun Ao simply stood up and walked out.
Before leaving, he left a message: "If I can't get to Dongye by the end of next month, I will definitely be the emperor!"
Li Danghu sent Gongsun Ao away without being too angry.
After all, in the final analysis, Gongsun Ao was helping him by attacking the Minyue Kingdom.
After all, as the governor of Minzhong County, half of the land is still in the hands of the Minyue Kingdom.
Li Danghu was also a man of his word. At the end of March, the expanded fleet finally gathered outside the harbor dozens of miles away from Dongou City.
Nearly 20,000 soldiers and horses boarded ships of various sizes through several plank roads that were urgently built deep into the sea.
After several days of boarding, the fleet headed south, heading straight for Dongye.
From Dongou City to Dongye City, the straight-line distance on land is about seven to eight hundred miles.
It doesn't seem too far, but in fact this journey is covered with dense forests, numerous rivers, lakes and swamps.
From the land, even if the Minyue Kingdom opened up to let the Han army go, they would not be able to reach it within a few months.
The reason is very simple. Under such complex and difficult terrain conditions, the greater the number of troops and horses, the greater the logistical support required, and the number of personnel and materials has increased to a certain level. In such complex and difficult terrain, there is almost no road.
Where words are spoken, it is naturally difficult to act.
But walking from the sea is different.
The fleet set off from Dongou. Although the wind direction was not very good, it only took four or five days to reach the outer sea of Dongye.
Looking at the faintly visible land in the distance, Gongsun Ao, who was in a good mood, immediately ordered "Go ashore!"
Landing on the beach is not something you can just find a place on the shore.
Needless to say, the cliffs on the coast are impossible to pass.
Areas with dense reefs are also not suitable for amphibious landings.
You can't go to places where there are mangroves and swamps along the shore.
The most suitable one is actually the beach.
And it has to be on a beach far away from the city, otherwise once detected, the suddenness of the attack will be lost.
If you encounter a head-on attack when logging in, it will cause great losses or even fail.
Although they had little experience, Li Danghu and Gongsun Ao made the right choice.
I chose a good place when I was in Dongou City before. Now when I arrived in Dongye, I also chose a beach dozens of miles away from Dongye City.
It is very deserted here, not even a fishing village.
In fact, the soldiers and horses of the Minyue Kingdom who were defeated before Dongou City still didn't understand how those Han troops appeared behind them.
Naturally, people here in Dongye City would not have thought that the Han army came from the sea.
After all, in this era, there has never been a large-scale amphibious landing.
Moreover, the Minyue Kingdom, which is vast and sparsely populated and densely covered with mountains and forests, is no exception to the Han dynasty.
Even the fishermen did not appear nearby, which naturally gave the Han army an opportunity to land calmly.
In fact, there are many small islands in the sea outside Dongye City, and these small islands are quite suitable for landing.
However, this time the target is Dongye City, and we have to cross the strait again to get to the island, so we simply go ashore.
After several days of effort and repeated transportation by barge, more than 10,000 Han troops and corresponding military supplies were finally delivered to the beach.
Gongsun Ao, who landed on the shore, immediately ordered his troops to go to the shore with supplies and set up a camp several miles away from the shore.
The reason is very simple. When we landed outside Dongou City before, due to lack of experience, when the sea tide rose at night, a lot of supplies on the coast were submerged, and a group of people were also taken away.
Once you have suffered a loss, you cannot fall into the same pit twice.
After a brief repair, when the mental state of the soldiers who came ashore had recovered a little, Gongsun Ao hurriedly led his troops and horses straight to Dongye City.
At this time, here in the Minyue Kingdom, after learning that the Han army had joined the battlefield, corresponding preparations had been made.
They mobilized troops and set up defenses on the border to block the Han army's attack.
The Minyue Kingdom is bounded by the sea to the east and Yuzhang County of the Han Dynasty to the west. Soldiers and horses are deployed at important intersections along the border.
Especially in the north bordering Dongou Kingdom, there are heavy troops stationed.
As for the south, it is the country of South Vietnam.
The Minyue Kingdom has already sent an envoy to Panyu, requesting the South Vietnamese Kingdom to send troops to help, citing the death of their lips and cold teeth.
It can be said that the Minyue Kingdom has done everything it can do.
However, they never thought that although the Han army deployed a lot of troops in Yuzhang County and other places in the periphery, they were only used for containment, and the real attack came from the sea.
At this time, Dongye City, which was in the hinterland, felt that the sea acted as a barrier and not many defenders were left.
Therefore, when Gongsun Ao personally appeared outside Dongye City with his army, there was no doubt that the city fell into a huge panic.
In the palace, King Zuoying of Minyue was incompetent and furious, "Where did these Han troops come from?!"
It was only then that the wise man finally realized: "Your Majesty, the Han army must have come from the sea."
"maritime?"
Zou Ying's face was full of disbelief: "How did an army of more than ten thousand come from the sea?"
"I don't know this."
Considering the backward production conditions of this era, being able to send more than ten thousand soldiers and horses thousands of miles across the sea to land is already beyond the imagination of most people.
What seemed very simple to people in the industrial age of later generations, in the eyes of people in this era, was a divine weapon descending from heaven.
After some panic, the Minyue ministers proposed to send people to the border as soon as possible and mobilize the soldiers and horses stationed at the border to come back for rescue.
But the problem is that these messengers who were sent out of the city were intercepted and killed by the Yulin Army knights arranged by Gongsun Ao.
Although the number of Yulin Army knights who followed was not large, and many horses died on the ship, there were also many Yulin Army soldiers from the North who were seasick and did not follow.
But just the hundreds of Yulin troops following Gongsun Ao were enough to block the road and intercept the messenger.
When Gongsun Ao led his infantry to directly besiege Dongye City, there would be no chance to send envoys.
Considering that communication in this era basically relied on roaring, it would take at least more than a month for the troops and horses of the Minyue Kingdom deployed on the border to get the news that Dongye, the capital of the country, had been besieged.
This still has to wait until they get no news from Dongye City for a period of time, and they have to wait until they send an envoy to investigate out of doubt before they have a chance.
Such a long time was enough for Gongsun Ao to conquer Dongye City.
Even though Dongye City is the capital of the Minyue Kingdom, considering the national strength of the Minyue Kingdom, no solid city wall can be built.
The cities and defenses left over from the Pre-Qin Dynasty are used here.
Moreover, the city was empty and there were not many defenders stationed there.
Once the capital city of Dongye is captured, and its lord and noble ministers are captured, the rest of the Minyue Kingdom will basically be determined by propaganda.
After all, the king of the country has fallen into the hands of others, so what if the people outside have cut off the logistical supplies and reinforcements?
The siege was lackluster. The Han army was a master of formal warfare. They filled in the moat step by step, pulled out strongholds and defensive facilities outside the city, and built siege equipment.
During this period, the fleet made two trips. One trip brought a large amount of grain, grass and military supplies, and the other trip brought more than 10,000 militiamen in accordance with Gongsun Ao's request.
The common name for siege warfare is city filling. As the name suggests, it means filling up the city wall in the name of the soldiers.
Gongsun Ao was reluctant to use the elite troops from the Northern and Southern armies to fill the city, so he encouraged the militiamen who spontaneously followed the army to consume the city's defenders.
Moreover, he also offered a reward. Anyone who can achieve great military exploits will be directly recruited as a regular soldier.
Stimulated by such rewards, the militiamen risked their lives to attack the city. Although they failed to break through Dongye City, they also greatly consumed the strength of the defenders.
Its defensive equipment, bows, arrows, crossbows, and even the defenders were all severely depleted.
When the defenders had no strength left, Gongsun Ao sent regular soldiers to fight.
Three walls are used to lure the enemy into a feint attack, while one wall is used for the main attack.
When the elite Han soldiers wearing armor and holding shields bravely jumped onto the top of the city through the ladder, the resistance of Dongye City also collapsed.
After losing thousands of men and horses, mostly militiamen, the Han army captured Dongye City and arrested the entire clan of Minyue King Zuoying, down to the noble ministers of the country.
The war has reached this point, and the overall situation has basically been decided.
After a warm greeting, King Zuoying of Minyue agreed to surrender and sent envoys to accompany the Han army to various places to recruit various parts of the Minyue Kingdom to surrender.
Within a few months, they won two countries one after another.
The high-spirited Gongsun Ao stood on the top of Dongye City and looked south involuntarily.
Over there is the last of the Three Knots and the most powerful South Vietnam.