Chaos of the Three Kingdoms Summons

Chapter 2652 Xue Li Attacks Liaodong, Southern Expedition Comes to an End

The thirteenth day of the sixth month of the first year of the Qianyuan era.

Following the previous naval battle, Qi Jiguang took a half-month break before setting sail again from Qingzhou Ferry with hundreds of warships, heading towards the homeland of the Tang Dynasty.

Moreover, this time, the warships carried not only Qi Jiguang's 50,000 naval troops, but also Han Xin's 30,000 infantrymen.

Although Xue Rengui had transferred a total of 100,000 infantry and cavalry to Han Xin, such a large force could not be transported by sea in one go.

Furthermore, this army of 100,000 infantry and cavalry was nominally still under Qi Jiguang's command.

Now, the Li Tang navy has suffered heavy losses, with only 10,000 sailors remaining. Qi Jiguang and Han Xin no longer fear them and have begun transporting troops, preparing to launch a beach landing on Li Tang territory.

In the direction of Youzhou, Xue Rengui and Li Mu joined forces and had already taken control of Liaoxi. Now they have advanced into the territory of Liaodong.

Or to be more precise, Liaoxi was actually ceded to them by the Li Tang dynasty.

During the process of recovering western Liaoning, they did not even fight a large-scale battle, but only had a few scattered skirmishes between a few hundred people.

On the battlefield of Youzhou, Li Guangbi was in charge of the army and Li Longji was in charge of the administration on the Li Tang side.

From the very beginning, the Li Tang side had already prepared to abandon Youzhou, only using the eastern part of Youzhou to wear down the Jin army's forces, and when necessary, to make full use of the mountainous terrain of the Li Tang region to hold out.

After all, as early as last winter and this spring, they had relocated as many people as possible from this area, regardless of the casualties among the people. They even sold some of the population to the Manchus at low prices when the Li Tang dynasty couldn't accommodate them all.

If they're going to implement a scorched-earth policy, they'll naturally do it thoroughly and decisively, at any cost.

This battle, a matter of life and death for the Li Tang dynasty, naturally required them to make a decisive choice.

Furthermore, starting this spring, after the Jin army actually mobilized its troops, Li Guangbi, for defensive reasons, chose the fortified Liaodong as their first line of defense, and directly abandoned Liaoxi.

As for Li Longji, he had already relocated almost all the people here. Those who failed to relocate mostly died on the way. Now, only one in ten people remains in this area.

However, when Li Guangbi decided to make Liaodong the first line of defense and abandon Liaoxi, Li Longji decisively set fire to the most important county towns in Liaoxi one by one before the Jin army arrived.

Li Longji intended to completely turn western Liaoning into a no-man's land, implementing a scorched-earth policy to the extreme.

Meanwhile, on July 7th of the first year of the Qianyuan era, Yu Ji surrendered to Jin, the Southeast Asian coalition was defeated again, and news that 80% of Southeast Asia's land had fallen into the hands of Jin reached Luoyang. Chang Yuchun and Yang Su had clearly expressed their confidence that the Southeast Asian war would be completely ended by the end of this year.

Therefore, a discussion began within the Great Jin Dynasty regarding the matter of Southeast Asia.

Inside the Linde Hall, a bamboo scroll bearing the victory report delivered by fast horse from Southeast Asia had been presented to the emperor. The ink was still fresh, yet the atmosphere in the hall was as heavy as lead.

Li Xiang sat alone on his throne, the jade beads hanging from his crown obscuring the deep pools in his eyes, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the lacquered table.

In Southeast Asia, they had already taken control of 80% of the land. The remnants of Zhu Yuanzhang's forces in Yizhou had fled, while the part of Southeast Asia occupied by the Kushan Empire was facing attacks from Bai Qi.

At this point, the Southeast Asian coalition had no allies left.

Even Chang Yuchun and Bai Qi have explicitly stated that the Southeast Asian war can be concluded before the end of the year. Therefore, it's time to put the issue of Southeast Asian rule on the agenda. In fact, if Chang Yuchun and his forces can end the fighting before the end of the year, this Southeast Asian war will have lasted a total of three years.

Fortunately, after finally acquiring this land, it became an important granary for their Great Jin Dynasty.

Although Southeast Asia has few terrains suitable for agriculture, its climate is so favorable that it yields three harvests a year, which is truly a blessing from nature.

Therefore, now that this region has been captured, it is necessary to ensure that it falls under the rule of the Han Dynasty, establish a stable rule, and make full use of the region's ability to provide resources.

Wang Meng, the Minister of Personnel, laid out the memorials submitted from Southeast Asia over the past two years on the lacquered table one by one. Although most of the memorials concerning Southeast Asia in the past two years were related to military affairs, some of them introduced the situation in Southeast Asia.

"The Southeast Asian regions are newly incorporated. Their lands are low-lying and damp, with deep forests, poisonous miasma, and rampant snakes and insects."

"Of the officials of our Great Jin, five out of ten have either died of illness or other causes. The local people are unruly and fickle, constantly rebelling, killing officials and burning down government offices. The treasury is empty, the roads are impassable, and government orders stop a hundred miles away. Forcibly establishing prefectures and counties is like making fish swim in dry land, only wasting the country's resources and yielding no real results."

Wang Meng read aloud the contents of Yang Su's memorial, which described Yang Su's ideas on the governance of Southeast Asia.

Undeniably, among the important generals of the two armies in the Southeast Asian theater, compared to Bai Qi and Chang Yuchun, Yang Su was not only a military strategist, but also a politician.

Therefore, from the very beginning, he considered things more thoroughly than Bai Qi and Chang Yuchun.

Bai Qi and Chang Yuchun caused numerous massacres during the war. Chang Yuchun, in particular, almost fought his way through the war. In just over two years, he massacred more than twenty cities. Although there were no large cities in Southeast Asia at that time, the total number of people affected reached two to three hundred thousand.

Especially in the southernmost archipelago regions of Southeast Asia, which were not only backward but also sparsely populated, Chang Yuchun almost slaughtered them all.

In contrast, Yang Su was also a ruthless and vicious person.

However, during his campaigns, although he used bloody methods of rule such as collective punishment, he remained extremely cautious about massacring entire cities and carrying out large-scale massacres.

The root cause is simply the population density problem in Southeast Asia.

In this day and age, the population density in this area is not high, and killing too many people will affect future farming.

If the population declines too much, it will not only affect future rule, but more importantly, if a war were to break out with the Kushan Empire in the future, the impact would be immeasurable.

If a certain degree of control can be established over Southeast Asia, and enough population can be retained for farming, Southeast Asia can be the best direction for attacking the Kushan Empire, and can also provide conscripted horses to solve a large part of the logistical problems.

Conversely, if it were the Kushan Empire, Yang Su's methods of killing would be no less ruthless than Bai Qi's or Chang Yuchun's. Yang Su's cunning and cruelty even surpassed that of Bai Qi and Chang Yuchun.

The reason is simple: given the population density of the Kushan Empire, even if they unleashed their killing spree, it would be difficult to reduce the population to the point where it wouldn't affect farming.

Therefore, different national conditions require different methods.

Yang Su also offered his insights on how to ultimately govern.

Like Wu Qi, Yang Su did not want to be just a simple general, but wanted to become both a general and a prime minister.