Chapter six hundred and eighteen: driving tigers and wolves
Taking Pyongyang, the treasure king of Goguryeo, this time the Tang army can be said to have won a complete victory.
Of course, there will definitely be many more tasks to come.
For example, in order to prevent Goguryeo from causing rebellion, some Goguryeo people must migrate to various parts of the Tang Dynasty.
Then a new group of people would come here to strengthen control over Goguryeo.
Of course, Li Min still has plans and arrangements for the next step.
Therefore, the 100,000 troops he brought did not evacuate and remained in Pyongyang.
Li Min himself went back to Chang'an to report on his duties.
Well, missing my family is part of it.
After returning to Chang'an, Li Min went back to his hometown first.
At the gate of the mansion, eight or nine of Li Min's children flew up to greet him.
"dad!"
"Dad, you're back!"
"Did you bring us some delicious duck?"
"Is there any fun duck?"
I saw a group of little guys surrounding me, chirping and calling for daddy, asking for things.
Li Min was extremely happy.
Then he reached out and picked up the two toddlers who had just arrived.
Li Min couldn't help but ask: "Which dad will ask you first, do you miss dad?"
"Think about it, duck!"
"Where did you think of that?"
"abdomen!"
After playing with the little ones for a long time, Li Min had some tender moments with the ladies.
Then I took a bath, changed my clothes, and went into the palace to meet the emperor.
Not long after, Li Min entered the imperial study room directly.
"Sixth brother, sit down quickly."
After Li Min finished his salute, he sat down.
Li Ke couldn't help but smile and said: "You, you, us brothers, do you still need to see other people? Didn't I tell you that we don't need luggage when we meet in private?"
Li Min chuckled and said, "Etiquette cannot be abolished!"
Li Ke couldn't help but ask: "Sixth brother, do you have any suggestions on how to deal with Goguryeo's affairs next?"
Li Min couldn't help but said: "Your Majesty, regarding the matter of Goguryeo, the ministers of the court have their own conclusions. I will not comment on this matter."
"But I think it is best for us to take down Silla, Baekje and the Japanese kingdom next."
Hearing Li Min's words, Li Ke couldn't help but frown and asked: "Sixth brother, why is this?"
"As far as I know, the land in Silla and Baekje is barren and the people are depressed and ignorant. The Japanese country is a foreign land and is far away. Why should we capture them?"
"What's more, Silla has always been loyal to the Tang Dynasty and paid tribute every year. It is a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty. If we take over Silla, wouldn't it just make people laugh?"
Li Min explained: "Your Majesty, just like Goguryeo, once they become strong, they want to expand outward. Therefore, it is better to keep this kind of place in your own hands."
"As for Silla, if we take the initiative to attack Silla, there is indeed no legitimate reason. However, now that Goguryeo Yeon Gaesumun has led an army of 100,000 to flee, I think it won't take long for Silla to be destroyed by them.
Drop it."
"As for the Japanese country, brother, please don't underestimate them. The Japanese country is rich in gold and silver, especially silver, and its minerals are very rich."
"As long as we capture Japan, we can mine large amounts of silver and then use silver as currency."
"So, Brother Chen feels that we must also capture the Japanese country."
In fact, between countries, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, only permanent interests.
The same goes for Silla.
Silla and Tang Dynasty have always been very close.
In the original historical trajectory, after the Tang Dynasty destroyed Goguryeo and Baekje.
Silla began to have bad relations with Tang Dynasty.
They had a dispute over how to distribute the territory between Goguryeo and Baekje.
Then a seven-year war broke out.
Therefore, although now Silla has always been very close to Datang.
But regarding the demise of Silla, Li Min would not feel the slightest guilt in his heart.
After hearing Li Min's explanation, Li Ke couldn't help but show a thoughtful look on his face, but there were still some things he couldn't understand.
Li Ke couldn't help but ask: "Sixth brother, why do we still use silver as currency? Is this necessary?"
"Now that we have money tickets, isn't it enough to just issue money tickets?"
"If silver is used as the main currency in circulation, the issuance price will be much higher than that of banknotes, right?"
Li Min couldn't help but explain: "Brother Emperor, it is true that the Datang Bank issued money notes, which greatly alleviated the problem of insufficient copper mining in the Tang Dynasty."
"If there were no money tickets, the copper we mined every year would not be enough to make so many copper coins. The development of our Datang City would definitely be affected."
"But the hidden danger has not been eliminated! Brother Huang, have you ever thought about it. Once someone causes trouble and uses the money to exchange a large amount of copper coins, and there is not enough copper coins, it will inevitably lead to turmoil."
"At that time, Qian Piao's credibility will collapse, and the entire Tang Dynasty will be plunged into turmoil."
Hearing Li Min's words, Li Ke couldn't help but take a deep breath.
It turns out that there are still such big hidden dangers in Datang.
Li Ke couldn't help but ask: "Has the matter reached such a serious stage?"
Li Min smiled slightly and said: "Brother Emperor, this kind of thing will only happen unless we are going to attack the Fourth Surname Liuwang. The Fourth Surname Liuwang will sink the boat and fight back."
"As long as the four surnames and the six prosperous people did not join forces, this kind of thing would never happen."
"However, the hidden danger will always be a hidden danger unless we can have sufficient monetary support."
"Therefore, it is very necessary to occupy the Japanese country, mine silver, and use silver as currency."
In fact, there is a simpler solution.
Just like later generations, printing banknotes.
But doing so now would be too risky, and Li Min did not dare to suggest it.
If you want to replace the current currency system with banknotes, you must eliminate the four surnames and the six prosperous people. Only after there are no internal problems can you do this kind of thing.
Otherwise, once any turmoil occurs, it will not be a blessing to the Tang Dynasty.
After listening to Li Min's words, Li Ke couldn't help but be completely convinced.
He couldn't help but said to Li Min: "Sixth brother, I leave all these matters to you."
This time, the King of Shu led one hundred thousand troops to attack Goguryeo.
In less than two months, Goguryeo was wiped out, and the whole of Chang'an was agitated.
And this incident is also a great good thing for the prestige of the new emperor Li Ke.
Taizong sent out troops many times during his lifetime, but each time they were massive, with the number of troops far exceeding one hundred thousand.
But they have never been able to destroy Goguryeo.
Now, less than a year after the new emperor ascended the throne, he directly destroyed Goguryeo.
This is enough to show that the new emperor is better than Taizong, and the young phoenix has a clearer voice than the old phoenix!
…
At this time, Yeon Gaesumun was uniting with Baekje to prepare to attack Silla.
At this time, Baekje was actually not very willing to send troops.
Because they discovered that Datang was really too powerful.
As powerful as Goguryeo, they were directly destroyed by them in less than two months.
So what if it's them?
I'm afraid it won't take more than a month to destroy their country!
When they attacked Silla before, they had already angered the Tang Dynasty.
If there was further provocation, how would they resist once the Tang Dynasty sent troops to attack their country?
Faced with Silla's concerns, Yeon Gaesumun couldn't help but sneered:
"Your concerns are so ridiculous. Silla has always been the lackey of the Tang Dynasty. If we cannot capture Silla now, Silla will definitely join forces with the Tang Dynasty to eliminate us all."
"If you help us now, you will definitely be attacked by the Tang Dynasty. But do you think that even if you don't help us now, the Tang Dynasty will not attack you?"
"The fact now is that the Tang Dynasty will not let you go no matter what! If that's the case, why don't you join us and quickly destroy Silla?"
Finally, the Baekje Kingdom was persuaded.
Then, Goguryeo's 100,000 troops, combined with Baekje, launched a fierce attack on Silla.
This time in attacking Silla, Goguryeo was really desperate.
Because now they have subjugated their country and don't even have a place to live.
If they cannot capture Silla quickly, their survival will be a problem.
Therefore, when they attacked Silla, they were really not afraid of death.
Facing the joint attack from the two countries, Silla was on the verge of collapse and quickly asked Datang for help.
The speed of message transmission in Datang is extremely fast now.
Soon the message of help from Silla Kingdom was passed to Chang'an.
Originally, Li Min had already negotiated with the emperor and decided not to assist Silla and let Silla fend for itself.
It would not be too late for them to attack Silla again after Silla fell.
But suddenly, Li Min thought of a brilliant idea and changed his mind.
Li Min entered the palace and found Li Ke.
"Brother Emperor, I think we should help Silla."
Hearing Li Min's words, Li Ke couldn't help but asked in surprise: "Sixth brother, didn't you say that before? Didn't you say that we watched Silla perish, and then the mantis stalked the cicada, and the oriole followed, and we took advantage of it again?
Destroy them?"
Li Min smiled slightly and said: "Your Majesty, I think that if Yeon Gaesumun is allowed to unite with Baekje and take Silla, then Yeongaesumun's strength will not weaken, but will even increase."
Silla's national strength was obviously not enough to face the coalition forces of the two countries.
If Yeon Gaesumun can capture Silla quickly, he will be able to get some reinforcements and his troops will even be stronger.
Of course, this is what Li Min doesn't want to see.
Li Min continued: "Brother Emperor, we can provide assistance to Silla in terms of materials. Especially in terms of defensive equipment, so that Silla can persist for a longer period of time."
"Let the three of them bite each other, constantly weakening their strength, and then when they are almost exhausted, we can take them all down!"
After listening to Li Min's explanation, Li Ke couldn't help but said excitedly: "Okay! Sixth brother, your strategy is really great! In this case, you will have full authority to handle this matter!"
Next, Li Min immediately ordered people to deliver supplies to Silla.
These supplies naturally reached Silla directly by sea.
And Li Min also sent an envoy to convey his goodwill to King Jinheung, the king of Silla.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Now that the Turks have invaded our borders, we are already fighting against the Turks."
"So, in a short period of time, our troops may not be able to rush over to support you! But we will assist you with materials. We will provide strong support for you no matter how much materials you need."
"You must be strong! You must hold on. After we defeat the Turks, we will rush over to help you!"
Silla's news was not as well-informed as that of the Tang Dynasty.
They have no information channels from the Turks at all.
Therefore, King Zhenheung believed the envoy's words to be true.
Although no reinforcements came to assist them, King Jinheung was quite regretful.
However, the aid supplies from the Tang Dynasty gave King Zhenxing a lot of confidence.
This time, Datang's aid included not only food, but also bows and crossbows.
In terms of arrows alone, a total of 300,000 arrows were transported this time.
This greatly relieved Silla's defensive pressure.
Now, the arrows in their treasury are obviously not enough.
But their production capacity is limited.
Even with full firepower, they can only make more than a thousand arrows in one day.
The indispensable weapon for defending the city is arrows.
Once the arrows run out, their city will be in great danger.
Now with these 300,000 arrows, they can be used for a long time.
Soon, King Zhenheung ordered people to distribute all these arrows to various cities on the front line.
One day later, some front-line cities reported good news.
It turned out that the crossbow arrows sent by the Tang Dynasty were more powerful and had a longer range.
And their arrows were terrifyingly sharp.
Originally, the arrows they made themselves could not penetrate the armor of Goguryeo soldiers.
But now, after using the crossbows and arrows provided by the Tang Dynasty, the armor of the Goguryeo soldiers was almost as fragile as paper.
As a result, during yesterday's city defense battle, they easily killed thousands of Goguryeo soldiers with bows and arrows.
Goguryeo's crazy offensive forced them to retreat temporarily.
On the Baekje side, they realized that the situation was not good and immediately ordered the army to retreat.
Baekje was originally here to assist Goguryeo.
Their siege was originally ineffective.
If it's easy to attack, they will take it down quickly.
If it is difficult to attack, they will surround the city and stand still.
Now that Silla has arrows with such strong penetrating power, they will no longer attack the city violently.
Because after Silla had the arrow, Yeon Gaesumun suddenly fell into a dilemma.
But for Silla, Yeon Gaesumun was bound to win.
Because if Silla is not captured, he will have no place to stay.
Yeon Gaesumun had to look for ways to break the city in other ways.
The battle situation suddenly came to a standstill.
After getting the news, Li Min couldn't help but frown.
This is not possible.
If what he wants is for both of them to suffer losses, how can this be done if there is a stalemate?
Therefore, after carefully studying the game, Li Min came up with a brilliant idea to King Jinheung, the king of Silla.
After King Zhenxing got the battle plan assigned to him by Li Min, he couldn't help but be overjoyed.
Wonderful!
It's so wonderful!
The King of Shu in the Tang Dynasty was indeed very resourceful, strategizing and winning from thousands of miles away!
No wonder he was able to lead an army of 100,000 and destroyed Goguryeo.
As long as you use a series of strategies given by the King of Shu, you will definitely be able to defeat Yuan Gaisuwen's army until they can't find the north.
There is even a high possibility of wiping them all out.
Next, as the two sides continued to be in a stalemate, Yeon Gae Suwen hesitated and was already considering a retreat.
What retreat are you considering?
At this time, Yeon Gaesooun had already set his sights on Baekje.
He needs a place to stay now!
Now that Silla is so difficult, it has been impossible to defeat it.
So, what if we attack Baekje?
Baekje is still their ally now.
If he suddenly attacks Baekje, Baekje will definitely not be able to react.
Kill the Baekje team supporting them.
Then you can pretend to be Baekje's army and sneak into Baekje's city.
Yeon Gaesumun felt that attacking Baekje might be less difficult than taking down Silla.
However, just when Yeon Gaesumun was preparing to take action.
Silla suddenly led its troops to attack the camp at night.
At this time, Yeon Gaesumun never expected that Silla would be so bold and dare to attack them.
I was caught off guard and suffered a big loss.
Next, Silla took the initiative.
Then he set up a trap and severely injured Yeon Gaesumun again.
King Zhenxing couldn't help but be overjoyed when he saw that the plan given to him by the King of Shu actually worked.
In the following battles, Xinluowang continued to follow the arrangements given to him by King Shu of the Tang Dynasty, and actually won every victory.
In the end, almost all of the large area that Yeon Gaesumun attacked first was captured back.
The successive victories greatly increased King Jinheung's confidence.
And the last part of these strategies is to use poisonous tactics to lure Yeon Gaesumun's army into a trap.
In the end, Yeon Gaesumun was able to annihilate them all.
As long as Yeon Gaesumun can be eliminated, Silla will no longer be a threat to them.
Then, you can unite with the Tang Dynasty to eliminate Baekje and occupy the land of Baekje.
Moreover, they can also secretly unite with the remaining territory of Goguryeo to drive the Tang army out of Goguryeo.
In this way, he can fully inform the entire Korean Peninsula.
The future is so bright!
King Zhenxing began to deploy the final offensive in accordance with King Shu's plan.
And things turned out just as the King of Shu had expected. They ambushed five soldiers and horses, and finally led Yuan Gaisuwen into their encirclement.
When the final battle began, King Jinheung led 90% of the Silla Kingdom's troops and decided to succeed in one battle.
But when the battle started, King Zhenxing discovered that he seemed to have missed something.
The strategy was indeed very good, and their ambush was also ingenious.
But in the end, it turned out that he was so cute that he seemed to be a bit unable to beat Yeon Gae So-moon...
In fact, Yeon Gaesumun was also very angry at this time.
Except for the night attack and the second ambush, they really suffered heavy losses.
The successive defeats that followed were all intentional by Yeon Gae So-moon.
Because Yeon Gaesumun discovered that King Jinheung, the king of Silla, was a little over the top.
It's so ridiculous that he wants to eliminate them all.
Therefore, Yeon Gaesumun kept pretending to retreat, and even gave up the several cities they had occupied in embarrassment.
Then, he set up an ambush in a wonderful terrain, and his preparations were all accomplished in one battle.
But in the end, Yeon Gaesumun was surprised to find that King Jinheung opposite him actually thought the same way.
Therefore, the final battle was actually a battlefield where both sides gathered all their forces and fought to the death.
What made Yeon Gaesumun even more angry was that the other party's ambush was actually more sophisticated than theirs, which made him suffer a big loss.
If their soldiers were not more brave and skilled in fighting, they would have no way out after being defeated.
Therefore, if his soldiers can fight to the death without retreating, they may be defeated.
But in the end, the elite Goguryeo soldiers he led withstood the pressure and finally defeated the Silla army.
The king of Silla, King Jinheung, was also hacked to death in the chaos of the battle.
On his deathbed, this king was still thanking the King of Shu in the Tang Dynasty.
I believe that the King of Shu in the Tang Dynasty was really a human being.
This failure was not due to a flaw in King Shu's plan, but because they themselves really failed to live up to expectations.
…
After this battle, there were only about 40,000 Goguryeo troops left in the original 100,000-strong Goguryeo army.
Of course, the 60,000 troops lost were not lost in this battle.
But the number of soldiers lost this time was at least about 40,000.
Such a loss made Yeon Gaesumun so heartbroken that he almost vomited blood.
Then, Yeon Gaesumun launched a fierce attack on Silla.
When the Silla army was completely defeated and the Silla king was dead, how could Silla resist the wolf-like and tiger-like Goguryeo soldiers?
On the other side, Baekje's army found that Silla's defensive power suddenly weakened.
Although for a while, they didn't understand what happened.
But this is a golden opportunity for them.
Therefore, Baekje also stepped up its siege efforts and occupied several cities in Silla.
Of course, their soldiers who attacked the city, as well as their determination and intensity in attacking the city were far inferior to Yeon Gaesumun.
Therefore, the city they occupied was far from comparable to Yeon Gaesumun.
In the end, when the two sides were competing for a city, they actually had a dispute and even fought.
The dispute ended with Baekje's soldiers being driven out of the city.
Next, Baekje came to accuse Yeon Gaesumun aggressively and gathered troops to prepare for war with Yeon Gaesumun.
Therefore, between countries, there are no eternal enemies or eternal friends, only eternal interests.
Yeon Gae So Moon was very tired.
If his army hadn't suffered serious losses, or if the Tang army hadn't been watching eagerly, Yeon Gaesumun would have been ready to fight Baekje directly.
But now, I really can’t!
As a result, Yeon Gaesomun began to make peace with Baekje.
He even voluntarily gave up the city in dispute and decided to marry his daughter to the prince of Baekje.
In the end, in this way, peace with Baekje was achieved.
Now that they have occupied Silla, they have finally gained a foothold despite paying a heavy price.
As long as he can withstand this wave, Yeon Gaesomun is confident that he will annex Baekje and drive out the Tang army within ten years.
What he didn't know was that Li Min, who was far away in Chang'an, couldn't help but be overjoyed after learning about this incident.
Yeon Gaesumun actually destroyed Silla. It's really great. This time, he can finally take action!
