Liaodong City was originally the most important important town in the west of Goguryeo. In recent years, the Sui Palace and the imperial court had no confidentiality at all. Yang Guang led a group of people to plan an expedition against Goguryeo. They were arrested as early as three years ago.
The spies sent by Yuan Taizuo to the Sui Dynasty found out.
Therefore, although Yang Guang prepared for five years to conquer Goguryeo, the Goguryeo people also made several years of defensive preparations.
The thickness of the city wall of Liaodong City was reinforced twice and the height was increased by five feet. This is only a small aspect among many preparations.
Nowadays, the outer wall of this Liaodong city is built with a layer of stone strips, and the inner wall is cast with three-component soil and rice slurry. Even if the most powerful ballista is shot at it, it can only hit first-class sparks outside the wall and cannot damage it at all.
The city wall is not even a hair.
In order to prevent the Sui army from climbing the city, many horse faces were built outside Liaodong City. Each protruding horse face had a watchtower made of bricks and stones. The defenders could seal any defensive blind spots in the watchtower with bows, arrows and stones.
In such a city, if the million-strong army led by Yang Guang wanted to defeat the will of the defenders in Liaodong City, the price they would have to pay would definitely be four to five times that of attacking an ordinary city under normal circumstances.
This was the first city that the Goguryeo people prepared for His Majesty the Sui Emperor to conquer.
In the second battle of the Liaohe River, Goguryeo was chased outside Liaodong City by the Sui army. In fact, this was something that Yuan Taizuo had planned, because he had long known that the Liaohe River alone would never be able to stop the Sui Dynasty.
Wan Dajun. In addition, the walls and wilderness within three hundred miles of Liaodong City had already been completely fortified and the Sui people could not find a grain of food.
Yuan Taizuo took advantage of the defensive side to the extreme. He knew very well that Yang Guang's millions of troops and millions of civilians traveled thousands of miles to come to their Goguryeo. Every day, people only ate the food and grass chewed by horses, which was an astronomical figure.
So every day they delay, they will have one more chance of winning.
Therefore, Yuan Taizuo retracted all his troops into the Liaodong City. No matter how the Sui army challenged them outside the city, the Goguryeo people just refused to respond, and the cost of attacking the city was too high.
After Yang Guang's victory in the Liaohe River a few days ago, he said in front of the envoys of the Ninety-nine Kingdoms that the Sui soldiers and horses came to relieve the people from hanging. Therefore, Yu Wenshu and other generals proposed to dig up the beams and pour water into Liaodong City, and
These two unkind tactics of driving the common people to serve as vanguards were stopped by Yang Guang without hesitation.
"I want Goguryeo, a small barbarian country, to experience the kindness of the Celestial Empire!" Yang Guang said to all civil and military officials, and he mentioned this sentence every time to the envoys of the Ninety-nine Kingdoms.
"I wonder if the Goguryeo people will be kind to us when we are defeated!" Looking at Liaodong City, which could not be captured for more than ten days, Tianbao General Yuwen Chengdu, who has always been loyal to Yang Guang, expressed his wishes to Yang Guang
, also had objections, and secretly cursed in his heart.
Except for Yang Guang, almost everyone in the Sui army had the same thoughts as Yuwen Chengdu. Judging from the combat effectiveness shown by the soldiers in the Liaohe battle more than ten days ago, it seems that it is not difficult to capture Goguryeo, not to mention that the sea has already
News came that the Grand Administrator of Fanyang County's expeditionary army, the maritime commander of Qin'an Duke Junlin, had led his men to capture three cities, and half of the Annan County of Goguryeo had been captured.
Everyone thinks that there should be no problem in defeating Goguryeo, but the premise is that His Majesty the Emperor is willing to let all the soldiers do their best, instead of always being held back in the name of benevolence and righteousness like now. The invisible combat effectiveness and morale are really weakened, especially
As time goes by, this weakening will inevitably become more obvious.
And a group of favorites around Yang Guang unambiguously agreed to please Yang Guang, and then did some things that convinced Yang Guang that he was right to do so.
Yu Shiji, a doctor of Jin Ziguanglu who was highly valued by Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty and who specialized in secrets and was involved in government affairs, tried his best to find a giant whale about 20 feet long and beached it on the beach. After killing it, he presented the whale bones to His Majesty the Emperor.
In front of him, Yang Guang was encouraged to build nine altars outside Liaodong City, which was a waste of time and money.
The Minister of the Ministry of Personnel heard that Pei Shiju, the Duke of Xi County, was not to be outdone. He found two more colorful giant birds on the seashore. Their wings were spread about one foot wide. They sang joyfully day and night, and the sound resounded ten miles away.
According to Yu Shiji's explanation, Goguryeo was surrounded by the sea on three sides, and the death of a giant whale stranded naturally meant that Goguryeo was about to perish.
According to what Pei Shiju said, the two giant birds should be the legendary phoenix and phoenix, which only appear when the saint is dying. For this auspicious sign, His Majesty the Emperor has already rushed to Wanghaidun with most of the civil servants.
And recite poems to remember them.
But the problem is that Yuan Taizuo led the Goguryeo army and refused to accept the Mandate of Heaven. Moreover, Yuan Taizuo had been preparing for several years. Dozens of spies had already become Sui people and became part of the Sui army. Among them were
With the operation of a large amount of money, there are many generals who have high official positions. Any decrees and tactics from Yang Guang will soon reach the ears of Yuan Taizuo in Liaodong City.
In response to the Sui Emperor Yang Guang's benevolent and generous approach, Yuan Taizuo was overjoyed and quickly led his people to discuss the most beneficial and correct approach for them.
They relied on their fortified city and face to resist stubbornly. Whenever the Sui soldiers gained the initiative and gained the upper hand in siege battles at great cost, the Goguryeo generals would immediately raise a white flag, announce their readiness to surrender, and ask the Sui army for a certain amount of time.
To restrain the disorderly people in the city.
When the Sui army withdrew from the city wall, Yuan Taizuo immediately ordered the gaps to be repaired and replenished with stones and crossbow arrows. When the agreed time for surrender came, they picked out the battle flag again.
Within half a month, the Goguryeo people had surrendered three times in different ways. Each time, they groveled and pretended to be repentant. After each success, after they had calmed down and prepared their defense, they immediately turned against each other and stood up.
On the watchtower, he cursed the Sui soldiers for being stupid.
And no one dared to resist Yang Guang's will. No matter how angry the generals were, they could not attack the city.
"It's been three times. If anyone still believes in the Goguryeo people, he must have been kicked in the head by a donkey!" In the commander's tent of the frontline army camp, the newly appointed Zuowuwei General Wang Rengong complained in a low voice.
"This matter must be decided by your majesty. Before your majesty went to watch the phoenix dancing in the sea, he gave an order that no matter what the situation, the Goguryeo people were not allowed to attack without permission as long as they asked for surrender." Yu Wenshu said expressionlessly.
"But it can't always be like this!" Wang Rengong gritted his teeth and whispered.
Yu Wenshu sighed and said, "I have already sent a messenger to report to His Majesty. The news will come back in three days!"
Three days later, a messenger from the rear brought back His Majesty's imperial edict, allowing the Goguryeo people to surrender for the fourth time. In the imperial edict, His Majesty taught the generals on the front line to be generous, and that the kings and ministers of the heaven should not behave like barbarian clowns. In the past,
Prime Minister Zhuge once captured Meng Huo seven times and pacified the Southern Barbarians forever. Today, Goguryeo has only repeated it four times. Sooner or later, they will be convinced one day.
After Yu Wenshu, Wang Rengong and more than a dozen frontline generals waited for the eunuch who had delivered the order to leave, their expressions suddenly became extremely ugly.
In this case, they can still listen to it, but when told to soldiers, to the ears of ordinary soldiers, it is simply fantasy, and it is not an exaggeration to say it is bullshit.
It is conceivable that after such a decree was spread to the army, not to mention attacking the Goguryeo people, it would first greatly weaken the morale of one's own side.