Chapter six hundred and twelfth: West out of Yangguan without friends
After leaving the city, Changsun Wuji ordered the carriage to stop.
Opening the curtain, Changsun Wuji looked back at Chang'an City and stared at it for a long time.
Once I go, in this life, I'm afraid I won't have the chance to come back again.
Unknowingly, Changsun Wuji's eyes suddenly became cloudy.
"What are you doing? Can you walk or not? Are you blocking the road? Can you have some quality?"
"So many people are waiting for you! If you don't want to leave, please park the carriage by the roadside!"
"Who is he? It's true!"
Because Changsun Wuji's carriage stopped in the middle of the road, a group of carriages were forced to stop behind him, which immediately attracted a lot of curses.
In the past, when Changsun Wuji traveled, he would naturally have guards to clear the way. Even if he stopped for a day, no one would dare to say anything.
But now, the fallen phoenix is really worse than a chicken!
Of course, he may not realize that he is actually blocking the middle of the road and hindering the passage of others.
"Let's go!"
"drive!"
The groom raised his whip and made a crisp sound in the air.
The two horses pulling the cart immediately hoofed forward.
After leaving Chang'an, we headed west and soon arrived at Weicheng.
It rained lightly all night yesterday. At this time, the sky was still overcast and there was no sunshine.
It seemed that God knew about his separation mood and was cooperating with him.
But the air was washed by the light rain, giving off a fresh smell.
After arriving in Weicheng, Changsun Wuji's motorcade paused again.
Weicheng is located in the west of Chang'an, facing the Wei River.
When leaving Chang'an in the west, you must pass through Weicheng.
And we all say farewell to people here in Weicheng.
Therefore, many popular farewell poems circulated in Weicheng.
The reason why Changsun Wuji stopped was because many colleagues came to see him off.
These people are all the connections Changsun Wuji has established over the years.
Of course, there were also many people who were afraid of something and did not come over.
The people who came to see Guo off were all labeled Changsun Wuji.
Even if they don't come, they can't get rid of the relationship.
So they were panicked and they didn't know what to do next.
In the past few days, they went to Changsun Mansion to ask for an audience with Changsun Wuji.
But Changsun Wuji and everyone else were nowhere to be seen.
In fact, he didn’t dare to see her either!
Being able to go to the Anxi Protector's Mansion to take care of his old age was already a great blessing from the emperor for Changsun Wuji. Who else would he dare to see?
This time, officials from Changsun Wuji's faction were also preparing to see him off in Weicheng and listen to his arrangements.
"The eldest grandson...well, this..."
After these officials met Changsun Wuji, when they opened their mouths, they didn't know what to call them for a while.
Call it an official position? There is no more!
Call it a title?
Already deprived!
Although after his death, the emperor will restore his title to a large extent, but it has not happened now!
For a moment, they didn't even know what to call Changsun Wuji.
Changsun Wuji himself didn't seem to care, but laughed and said: "You can just call me old man."
Laosou means old man.
Of course, Changsun Wuji could say this himself, but no one dared to call him that.
"Grandson...sir, please take care of yourself!"
"Mr. Changsun, have a nice trip!"
"Mr. Changsun, we can't bear to leave you. What will we do if you leave?"
"Mr. Changsun, please think of a way for us!"
Hey! Hey! Hey!
At this moment, on the official road, there was a dense sound of horse hooves.
Soon, a group of people rushed over from the official road.
The leader was none other than the King of Shu, Li Min.
Seeing the King of Shu, the officials who were seeing him off showed fear on their faces, and they couldn't help but hurriedly stay away from Changsun Wuji.
Some officials even covered their faces with their sleeves.
In an instant, Changsun Wuji was the only one left beside him.
Changsun Wuji couldn't help but laugh at himself.
Soon, King Li Min of Shu rode his horse to Changsun Wuji's side and jumped off his horse.
Seeing the officials seeing him off, Li Min couldn't help but smile and said, "My colleagues, are you all here to see me off?"
"No, no, please don't get me wrong, Your Majesty, it happened by chance, it just happened by chance!"
"Yes, yes, we are not here to see you off, really not!"
"I just came to the Wei River to fish, so I won't disturb you anymore, haha!"
Li Min couldn't help but shook his head, and then said to Changsun Wuji: "My uncle is about to travel far, and Li Min is here to see him off!"
This call of uncle made Changsun Wuji a little surprised.
Although the two have no blood relationship at all, Li Min really wants to call him uncle.
That's what Li Min was called before.
Now, Li Min is still called that.
However, the scenarios are completely different.
It's just a matter of victory and defeat.
"It's a long journey with high mountains and long rivers. Uncle, please be more careful along the way! When you say goodbye, I'll send you a poem to my uncle!"
"The morning rain and light dust in Weicheng City make the guesthouses green and green."
"I advise you to drink another glass of wine. There will be no old friends when you leave Yangguan in the west."
"What a poem, what a poem!"
"This poem will definitely be famous throughout the ages!"
"Yes, you and I are so lucky to be associated with this poem!"
"Your Majesty, no new work has been released for several years. I never thought that if you just come up with a new work, it could be passed down through the ages!"
This poem is certainly a good poem.
Even among the vast number of Tang poems, it can be ranked at the forefront.
However, Li Min is very contemptuous of these flatterers!
"Uncle, take care!"
Changsun Wuji took a deep look at Li Min, turned around and boarded the carriage without saying a word.
Soon, the carriage started and gradually disappeared from everyone's sight.
Li Min twisted his waist and mounted his horse, turned the horse's head, and drove towards Chang'an.
…
Cheng Chuliang, Qin Huaiyu and others are recruiting troops to form a navy.
Of course, now Changsun Chong has also been transferred here.
Now Changsun Chong is no longer the unscrupulous playboy he used to be.
Now his father has gone to the Anxi Protectorate to retire, and he has been transferred to the navy, and his fate is almost predictable.
Now Changsun Chong is an honest group and can do whatever they are told.
Cheng Chuliang and others directly handed over the shipbuilding work to him.
Isn’t your eldest grandson’s family extremely wealthy?
Isn't it related to the Long Group?
Well, just build the ship for me honestly.
If it's made well, everything is easy to say. If it's not made well, huh, you'll be the one to watch it when the time comes.
Now Changsun Chong feels extremely aggrieved and misses his time in Chang'an so much.
At this time, Goryeo invaded the border again.
Emperor Li Ke immediately summoned Li Min.
"Sixth brother, now that Goryeo is still dishonest, I am planning to attack Goryeo. If I let you lead the troops, what are your chances of winning?"
Li Min smiled slightly and said: "Brother Emperor, on the battlefield, the situation is changing rapidly. How can anyone dare to say that he will be victorious in every battle?"
Hearing Li Min's words, Li Ke nodded slightly.
Yes, there are few generals who are victorious on the battlefield.
However, Li Ke really wanted to destroy Goryeo.
Because my father had attacked Goryeo many times before, but he had never been able to destroy Goryeo.
Since he had just ascended the throne and was still relatively inexperienced, the officials were still a little unconvinced by him as the emperor.
If Goryeo can be destroyed now, it will definitely establish its prestige.
At this time, Li Min said again: "But if we attack Goryeo, I can only say that I have a 90% certainty of destroying Goryeo!"
Ninety percent?
That’s 100% sure!
Li Ke still knew his sixth brother very well, and rarely talked enough.
If he said he was 90% sure, he was basically 100% sure.
At that moment, Li Ke was overjoyed and said: "Sixth brother, I will order you to be the commander-in-chief and lead an army of 200,000 to attack Goryeo!"
Li Min smiled slightly and said: "Your Majesty, the soldiers are valuable and the soldiers are numerous. A hundred thousand troops are enough!"
Li Ke couldn't help but said: "Sixth brother, I think it's better to bring more soldiers and horses to avoid any mistakes."
Li Min laughed and said: "Brother, don't worry, one hundred thousand soldiers and horses, you have already overestimated Goryeo as much as possible!"
"Okay! When the sixth brother returns in triumph, I will personally ask for credit for you!"
…
This time, Li Min directly ordered Xue Rengui, Wang Fangyi and Xi Jun to buy three generals and lead 50,000 Yizhou troops to report.
At the same time, he also ordered the newly formed navy to mobilize 50,000 people to participate in the war.
The navy has really just been established, and it has only just gathered 50,000 soldiers.
However, after all, they were formed for a short time, and their combat effectiveness in naval battles is really average.
Now I am able to form a formation on the ship, but when it comes to naval battles, I am not proficient in it.
Well, in fact, even their commander-in-chief, Cheng Chuliang and the others, are not proficient.
However, the navy's equipment is the most sophisticated.
After this period of training, their combat effectiveness on land is still good.
For Li Min, their combat effectiveness on land was enough.
Now, Li Min has informed Cheng Chuliang and others to gather 50,000 navy troops and be ready to set off at any time.
Five days later, Xue Rengui and three others led 50,000 troops and stationed outside Chang'an City.
Xue Rengui, Wang Fangyi and Xi Junmai went into the city to the Prince of Shu's Mansion to report to Li Min.
After seeing Li Min, the three people's eyes turned red.
Li Min actually understood very well that not only did they miss him, but after he left, they felt that their future was bleak and very aggrieved.
Li Min couldn't help but smile and said: "Look at you, what do you look like? You think that I will not care about you in the future, right?"
"Don't worry, in the future there will be many battles and some achievements. By then, I'm afraid you won't be able to hold a sword or a gun!"
Hearing Li Min's words, Xue Rengui immediately said loudly: "Don't worry, my lord, the general will be able to draw a strong bow even at the age of eighty! He can also hold a sword!"
"good!"
"This time, I will lead you to destroy Goguryeo!"
As soon as he mentioned fighting, Xue Rengui immediately became energetic.
He immediately said to Li Min: "Your Highness, after discussing with Generals Fang Yi and Xi, I feel that we can actually divide our troops into two groups."
Hearing Xue Rengui's words, Li Min couldn't help but asked with slight surprise: "Oh, I wonder what your strategy is? Why don't you tell me?"
Xue Rengui immediately said: "We feel that Goryeo often bullies Baekje and Silla and often sends troops to attack them."
"We can definitely unite Baekje and Silla, divide our troops into two groups, and jointly attack Goryeo. In this way, Goryeo will definitely be destroyed!"
Li Min shook his head slightly and said, "But are you really sure that Baekje and Silla will join forces with us to jointly attack Goryeo?"
Xue Rengui was stunned for a moment, and then said: "Your Highness, you once taught us that the enemy of our enemy is our friend! Furthermore, when we attacked Goryeo before, Baekje and Silla sent troops.
Why won’t they join forces with us now?”
Li Min shook his head and said: "This is the same as the other! At that time, Goryeo controlled Liaodong and other places, with a vast territory and two to three hundred thousand soldiers and horses."
"At that time, Baekje and Silla were afraid of being destroyed by Goryeo, so of course they would join forces with the Tang Dynasty to attack Goryeo."
"But what about now? Goryeo has been attacked continuously by the Tang Dynasty and has lost Liaodong and other places. Now its territory has been greatly reduced, and its soldiers have also lost three or four."
"In this case, if we destroy Goryeo, do you think Baekje and Silla will feel like they are dying?"
After listening to Li Min's words, Xue Rengui couldn't help but suddenly realized: "I must be able to do it!"
Li Min laughed and said: "I guess that Baekje and Silla will not only not cooperate with us, but will also help Goryeo!"
In the original historical trajectory, when the Tang Dynasty destroyed Goryeo, it first destroyed Baekje and Silla.
After cutting off the left and right arms of Goryeo, Goryeo was finally destroyed by a two-sided attack.
But the situation then was slightly different from now.
At that time, Baekje and Silla, in order to protect themselves, had openly supported Goryeo.
But now, Baekje and Silla are actually the victims.
Xue Rengui couldn't help but ask: "Your Highness, should we destroy Baekje and Silla first, these two things that are working for us?"
Li Min shook his head slightly and said: "For now, these two countries are still vassal states of our Datang Dynasty, and they pay tribute to our Datang Dynasty every year."
"Before they make no mistakes, if we attack them, we will only give people an excuse."
Xue Rengui said reluctantly: "However, they are not of the same mind as us, and they will attack us sooner or later. Can we just wait and wait for them to attack us first before we can fight back?"
Li Min laughed and said, "Well! In fact, we can still change our thinking!"
"We can attack Goryeo first and advance step by step. What will he do when Goryeo can no longer sustain it?"
"He can only lead his army to flee to Baekje and Silla. By then, do you think one mountain can accommodate two tigers?"
After listening to Li Min's analysis, Xue Rengui's eyes couldn't help but light up!
"Wonderful! This is a plan to chase the tiger and devour the wolf! We can use the help of Goryeo to destroy Silla and Baekje, and then we can deal with them together!"
"Your Highness, you are so treacherous! You are full of evil!"
"Um?"
Li Min couldn't help but glare at Xue Rengui, and then said coldly: "General Xue? I will give you another chance to reorganize your language now!"
Hearing Li Min's words, Xue Rengui suddenly shivered.
He couldn't help but quickly changed his words: "Your Highness, you are still awesome! Planning a strategy and winning a decisive victory thousands of miles away, it is really Zhuge's rebirth and Wolong's rebirth!"
Li Min was so angry that he kicked the guy directly: "Zhuge Liang and Wolong are the same person! After you go back, read more books. It's terrible to be uneducated!"
In the end, Li Min's strategy was still to divide his troops into two groups.
Along the way, Xue Rengui led an army of 50,000, responsible for attacking Liaodong City from the front.
On the other hand, Li Min directly led a navy of 50,000 men and was responsible for attacking Wugu City.
The capital of Goryeo is in Pyongyang, and Li Min is not in a hurry.
He decided to gradually put pressure on Goryeo and let the King of Goryeo voluntarily abandon Pyongyang and then flee to Baekje and Silla.
Then sit back and wait for them to have civil unrest.
At this time, Goryeo's national strength was strong, despite the Tang Dynasty's repeated attacks, and many soldiers were killed by the Tang Dynasty.
But they still have at least 100,000 elite soldiers in the country.
This time, Li Min only brought 100,000 troops. In terms of numbers, he really did not have an advantage.
But Li Min believed that the more valuable a soldier is, the more skilled he is, not more.
One hundred thousand soldiers and horses, in his opinion, are definitely more than enough!
Fifty thousand navy, although the training time is not long.
But their equipment is even better than the 50,000 Yizhou Army.
Because the navy is the most expensive and most difficult military branch to train.
The so-called army is one year, the air force is ten years, and the navy is one hundred years.
After one year of training, the army can have strong combat effectiveness.
It may take ten years to train a well-trained air force.
And to cultivate a powerful navy, I am afraid it will take hundreds of years of accumulation.
Of course, Datang currently does not have any powerful naval enemies.
At least not for the time being.
Li Min's use of the navy was actually just to use warships to transport people there.
…
The 50,000-strong army led by Xue Rengui used 3,000 steam chariots to transport strategic materials.
Of course, these three thousand chariots are also sharp weapons.
At the same time, 20,000 cavalry were also prepared.
There may be many places on Goryeo's roads that steam chariots cannot enter at all.
At this time, you need to use war horses.
In the cold weapon age, cavalry was indispensable.
But Li Min's side is much simpler. He can just use warships to transport the soldiers there.
Of course, what Li Min needs is a large ship capable of long voyages, which is currently only being tested.
It certainly cannot be produced in a short period of time.
The ships used by Li Min now are all ships built by Li Shimin in the past.
Now Li Min can use it just right.
These ships, carrying 50,000 naval troops, began to march towards Wugu City.
And he and Xue Rengui can communicate via radio at any time.
This radio station is a military radio station specially researched by Yizhou Scientific Research Institute.
In this way, both of them can arrive at the battlefield almost simultaneously.
However, Li Min's speed is a bit slow now.
Because every day, Li Min would spend at least two hours commanding the warships to fish.
Of course, they didn't need to cast a net, they just used a trawl net.
"Come, come, hang up the trawl, quickly! Quick! Go southeast, yes, quickly!"
Soon, with more than a dozen warships operating at full speed, the fishing activity began.
"Fish! School of fish!"
“So many fish!”
"Oh my god! How many fish can be caught in one net?"
"I have never seen so many fish at once in my life!"
"When I was fishing in winter, I saw more fish than this. But now we are in the sea, and the fish are still alive."
Except for winter fishing, they really couldn't believe that one net could actually catch tens of thousands of catties of fish.
You know, the fishermen at the seaside at that time used fish hooks to catch fish and cast nets to cast fish.
If you can bring back hundreds of kilograms of fish from a trip to the sea, it will be a great harvest.
Where can I get tens of thousands of catties of fish just like I commanded His Highness?
This is really incredible!
Are the fish in the sea so easy to catch?
But if it is so easy to catch, why don’t fishermen catch so many fish?
Well, the reason for this is of course that Li Min used an ultrasonic detector to detect the fish school and then lowered the net.
Only in this way can we catch so many fish in one net.
The two to thirty thousand kilograms of fish were all brought onto the boat, and they were almost too heavy to hold.
The next meal will naturally be fish.
This seafood is really fresh. It is caught directly from the sea. How can it not be fresh?
All the soldiers ate so much that their mouths were full of oil.
With so many fish, it is natural not to continue fishing.
Now that they are eating fish every day, Li Min estimates that they will have enough in just a few days.
So, Li Min changed the method the next day and stopped hanging the trawl net.
Start letting the soldiers drop tuna and squid.
We even specifically look for those small islands to catch crabs, sea cucumbers and other seafood to eat, and of course the essential prawns.
In short, Li Min spends about two hours every day tinkering with seafood.
These soldiers really enjoyed themselves.
It's so cool to fight with the King of Shu!
If these warships were advancing at full speed, they should have arrived at Wugu City two days ago.
But now, it's two full days behind schedule.
And it seems that it will take another day or two.
Cheng Chuliang couldn't help but become anxious, and couldn't help but find Li Min and asked:
"Your Highness, why don't we move forward with all our strength? In this case, we can catch them off guard!"
Hearing Cheng Chuliang's words, Li Min couldn't help but laugh and said: "Not bad, now I know how to use my brain! But let me ask you, even if we can catch them off guard, can we break the city?"
"This... I'm afraid it's impossible!"
The terrain within Goguryeo is very complex, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack.
This is also the reason why Li Shimin sent troops and generals, and even went to the battlefield himself. Although he won many times, he was unable to destroy Goryeo.
Their city is really difficult to break.
The Tang Dynasty's transportation lines were too far away, so the supply of grain and grass was a big problem.
Once it reaches late autumn and is about to enter winter, we have to retreat.
Li Min came with only 100,000 troops for this purpose.
The more troops you lead, the more food and fodder you need.
Instead, it would be better to go directly with a small number of elite soldiers.
Moreover, these 50,000 sailors really didn't bring much food.
Because they have a trawl on the boat, they can take time to fish every day.
I’ve caught a lot of seafood recently, and I’ve been eating seafood these days.
Although these are all navy, because their leader is Cheng Chuliang, what he thinks about every day is how to train soldiers as quickly as possible.
I wouldn't send people to go fishing in the sea without doing anything so unprofessional.
Only the King of Shu could have such a leisurely mood.
But no matter how leisurely you are, you can't delay your business.
This is exactly why Cheng Chuliang came to see Li Min.