Infinite war begins with Cao thief.

Chapter 423 Lure the enemy deeper
Yang Guang had reason to be angry.

As an emperor, his noble body had never been injured over the years.

The most harmful thing to my health was that I was exhausted and my shoes got wet.

What's more, this time, what was hurt was not only his body, but also his dignity.

In fact, before Yang Guang decided to lead the army in person, some people advised him not to do so. The reason was simple: the income and output of a personal expedition would not be proportional.

Yang Guang was not the founding emperor, so there was no need for him to personally risk his life to conquer the world.

If this battle is won, even if he did not lead the army in person, the great military achievement will still be credited to him. Don’t you see, Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han never led the army in person?
If a general went to war, even if he failed, at most he would be killed. It was the subordinates' fault, not the emperor's fault, and everything could be made up. There was room for easing everything.

It can be said that as long as he stands still like a mountain, he will be invincible!
But if he fails in his expedition, it will be a disaster that will shake the foundation of the country.

The emperor's majesty is the majesty of the empire. When everyone thinks that the emperor is incompetent and the sacred color of the emperor fades, ambitious people will emerge.

As long as your health bar is exposed, even gods will kill you, let alone an emperor!
Even in Dayu where there was no worry of rebellion, Jia Xu and others were unwilling to let Dong Huang lead the army in person, because it was really unnecessary and not cost-effective.

Unless a flying dragon rides on your face, His Majesty the Emperor should just enjoy himself.

Just like during this war, Dong Huang was forced to give birth in the palace.

Yang Guang made a decision that was not very cost-effective, and the consequences have already become apparent. Now that he has suffered a great defeat, he has been injured and lost face, and he must regain this face.

Yang Guang had no choice but to continue attacking.

This time, Yang Guang asked He Chou to rebuild the pontoon bridge.

In history, He Chou was not only a general, but also a craftsman and architect. He was a famous craftsman in the Sui Dynasty. He was the Minister of Works in the eras of Yu Wenzhi and Dou Jiande, and was the Junior Craftsman of Li Tang.

This time, He Chou built five pontoon bridges in one go, and their quality was far superior to the pontoon bridges built before by Yuwen Shu.

Yang Guang immediately ordered He Chou to lead the crossbowmen to support the attack, and ordered Yuwen Shu to lead the army to attack personally.

Yuwen Shu: (☉д⊙)!

Yuwen Shu was helpless, knowing that Yang Guang held a grudge against him because of what happened last time, so he could only give it a try.

Otherwise, their whole family would probably have been buried together in Liaodong.

He wore four layers of armor, had his personal soldiers protect him closely, and crossed the river with the army.

When he was putting on armor, his eldest son Yuwen Shiji also wanted to go out to fight to protect his father, but was stopped by Yuwen Zhiji, the second son of Yuwen Shu.

"Father died for us. If anything happens to him, we can seek revenge on the tyrant king!"

Yuwen Zhiji said quietly.

Yuwen Zhiji's words were very cold. The fundamental reason was that he was not liked by Yuwen Shu. Yuwen Shu had wanted to kill him many times, but he was saved thanks to Yuwen Shiji's protection. Therefore, he had a good relationship with Yuwen Zhiji, but did not have much feelings for Yuwen Shu.

After his younger brother's persuasion, Yu Wenzhi also hesitated.

The previous deaths of Mai Tiezhang and others left all the Sui generals with lingering fears. Mai Tiezhang was one of the most powerful generals of the Sui Dynasty, but he was beheaded on the battlefield. Yu Wenzhi did not think that if he had been in his place, his death would have been more beautiful than Mai Tiezhang's.

What's more, the enemy's rain of arrows was really terrifying.

Yu Wenzhi hesitated.

Yuwen Shu actually didn't want him to come.

But Yu Wenzhi was his heir, and he loved his son deeply, while Yu Wenshu just wanted to fight on his own.

The contributions between a father and his son will never be equal.

In the end, under Yuwen Shu's stern gaze and his brother's persuasion, Yuwen Huaji's troops did not go into battle.

The Sui army quickly formed its battle formation.

This time the Sui Dynasty learned its lesson. Not only did they have crossbowmen for protection, but they also brought large shields for defense.

The powerful crossbows of the Sui Dynasty can basically penetrate or damage the armor of the Dayu army at close range; and the giant shield crossbow can also defend against Dayu's arrows very well.

The Sui Dynasty was established on the corpses of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and its war capabilities were already full. In history, if Yang Guang had not led the army in person, but instead sent people to fight a war of attrition, the Sui Dynasty would not have been destroyed.

While the Sui army was making reasonable equipment arrangements, it also once again deployed its secret weapon - the Imperial Observatory.

Officials from the Imperial Observatory cast spells to summon sandstorms to blow towards the Dayu army, and used magic to increase defense, reduce damage, and boost morale. They also made a number of armor-piercing arrows with armor-piercing runes.

But they are not armored and will not participate in front-line combat.

The Imperial Observatory of this era was not as powerful as those in the world of immortal cultivation. Its combat capability was probably similar to that of Dong Huang's Tianshi Mansion. Although it was not weak, it had no obvious advantages in military formations. On the contrary, because it learned a variety of things, it was sometimes not as fast as the crude warriors in advancing.

Even in a one-on-one fight, he might not be able to defeat a warrior of the same level.

However, in terms of comprehensive abilities and supporting role to the army, cultivators of the same level are undoubtedly far stronger than warriors.

Therefore, the main role of the monks of the Imperial Observatory is to assist. They do not wear armor because armor is not very conducive to casting spells, and they do not participate in front-line battles because they are too precious.

Just like the Heavenly Masters in the Heavenly Master Mansion of Dayu, except for those beautiful Heavenly Masters who often have combat missions worth hundreds of millions, most of the Heavenly Masters do not directly participate in battles. Many members of the Heavenly Master Mansion, due to their qualifications, no longer focus on cultivation, but instead focus on making talismans and refining equipment.

If Dayu had not been able to obtain so many ninjas, it would not have so many magical means now, although most of these means have been weakened by the world and are not powerful.

The Sui army crossed the pontoon bridge carefully.

However, what was unbelievable to them was that they had not encountered any attack and the rain of arrows that had previously filled the sky had disappeared.

The vanguard troops carefully maintained the tortoise shell formation and walked forward with large shields, but they found that the Yu army soldiers blocking their way were actually some lifelike paper and straw figures!
It was also filled with arrows that the Sui army's crossbowmen had just shot to cover the main army.

The Sui army was completely confused.

After more troops crossed the river and carefully checked the Yu army camp, they were sure that the Yu army had really escaped.

"Your Majesty is so powerful! The enemy army must be afraid of you, so they are fleeing without a fight!"

Yuwen Shu, who had saved his life for free, ran to Yang Guang happily, slid to his knees and kowtowed, shouting loudly that he had won a victory.

"Escape?"

Yang Guang did not comment.

Although he has various character weaknesses, he is not really a fool. He has already realized that Yu Jun must have set some trap.

Therefore, Yang Guang did not rush to cross the river himself, but ordered Tu Wanxu, Jing Yuanheng, Cui Hongsheng, Li Jing, Fan Zigai, Shi Xiang, Yang Yichen and others to command nine armies, including the Left Fourth Army, the Left Seventh Army, the Right Second Army, the Right Third Army, the Right Fifth Army, the Right Seventh Army, and the Right Eighth Army, with a total of 350,000 people, to attack Liaodong City.

"Yang Guang didn't come in person."

In Liaodong City, Huang Zhong said with regret.

The reason why Zhuge Liang abandoned the Liaohe River defense line when he had an advantageous position was to lure the enemy deeper into his territory.

But the previous great victory seemed to make this strategy of luring the enemy deep into our territory seem very deliberate.

"Just wait. Yang Guang won't be able to bear it. And after failing to capture Liaodong City, he will definitely divide his troops as happened in history!" Zhuge Liang was very confident.

Yang Guang’s character is very easy to grasp.

The last victory was not enough to cause serious damage to the Sui army. As long as there was no serious damage, Yang Guang would never give up the Eastern Expedition.

What's more, there was Huang Zhong's arrow.

The face that Yang Guang lost must be taken back.

As long as Yang Guang was willing to cross the river, it didn't really matter whether the troops were divided or not.

It's better to be cautious and wait for Yang Guang to divide his troops. If he doesn't, there is still hope of winning.

To put it bluntly, waiting for Yang Guang to cross the river was just to keep the Sui army in Hedong.

Before this, there had been considerable debate in the court of Dayu about how to destroy the Sui Dynasty.

The mainstream view is that it would be enough to fight in a more cautious manner like Goryeo did in history, destroy Yang Guang's navy, and then destroy all of Yang Guang's troops after he divides his forces.

By then, Yang Guang, who had suffered heavy losses but could still guarantee two-thirds to three-fifths of the troops, should have retreated.

At this time, the Sui Dynasty's military strength should still be relatively sufficient.

Given Yang Guang's character, he would definitely plan a second eastern expedition.

As a result, the national strength of the Sui Dynasty would be depleted even more seriously, and the country would surely be filled with war.

This not only gave the spies under Dong Huang an opportunity, but also allowed them to use the spies to let Yang Guang take action against Li Yuan and others in advance, further muddying the situation.

After getting almost a year to recuperate, the overall strength of the Dayu Army was significantly improved. In comparison, the Sui Dynasty was even more decadent. Regardless of whether Yang Guang continued his eastern expedition or not, the difficulty of destroying the Sui Dynasty would be greatly reduced.

However, due to force majeure, the process of destroying the Sui Dynasty had to be accelerated, which gave rise to Zhuge Liang's idea of ​​annihilating the main force of the Sui army and even Yang Guang east of the Liao River.

Even if this plan was completed, Dayu would most likely suffer heavy losses at any time, and the Sui Dynasty would fall into greater chaos due to the loss of its common leader and main force, which might even allow Li Yuan and other sons of destiny to lift the seal ahead of schedule.

But Dayu no longer cared about that.

In order to prevent the Sui army from completely losing confidence, Zhuge Liang did not even deploy the Eight Formations of Stone Soldiers, but personally led the army to guard Liaodong City.

Because of its foundation as the northern capital of Dayu, the scale of Liaodong City at that time was even larger than Luoyang of that era.

This really shocked the Sui army.

As usual, the Sui army launched an offensive that surrounded the enemy on three sides and left one side missing. The attack lasted from late April to early June, with heavy casualties and no progress.

On June 11, Yang Guang, who could no longer hold back, finally crossed the river and went to the south of Liaodong city in person.

After observing the situation in the city, Yang Guang summoned all the generals and questioned them murderously: "You all think you are high-ranking officials and rely on your family background. Do you want to treat me as a coward? When I was in the capital, you all didn't want me to come, fearing that I would be defeated. I came here now to see what you do and kill you. You are afraid of death and are unwilling to do your best. Do you think I can't kill you?"

All the generals were frightened and pale.

Yang Guang's words were heart-piercing, especially the four words "relying on family background", which made the generals realize that Yang Guang was very dissatisfied with these military families and really wanted to kill them.

The Five Surnames and Seven Families were very powerful, but the even more powerful people in the Sui Dynasty were the military nobles. Many of their families had been leading troops since the Jin Dynasty or were military leaders who came from foreign warlords. They had extremely strong influence in the army.

Some people in later generations speculated that Yang Guang's repeated expeditions to the east were intended to consume the aristocratic families and nobles with military merits, which is not unreasonable.

The Sui Dynasty, after all, was an era of restoring order from chaos, and many of the things Yang Guang did were also aimed at restoring order from chaos.

After Emperor Yang of Sui's Eastern Expedition, most of the foreign military nobles after the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China came to an end. Most of the foreign generals who rose in the Tang Dynasty had little to do with the foreign military nobles of the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China.

Of course, if it weren't for the wars from the Sui Dynasty's Eastern Expedition to the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, which consumed so many military nobles, the Five Surnames and Seven Families of the Tang Dynasty might not have been so arrogant.

After Yang Guang arrived at the front line, he stayed in Liuhe City.

Liuhe City is a movable wooden city invented by He Chou for use in marches.

The Liuhe City during this period was a fully functional mechanical city with a side length of three miles and a height of five meters. It was equipped with an automatic alarm device called "jitter", as well as a steerable crossbow that could automatically aim and fire.

Yang Guang was stationed in Liuhe City and personally supervised the siege.

This time, the Sui army really fought with all their might.

Zhuge Liang and others who were guarding the city also found it a little interesting.

After half a month of attack and defense, the Sui army still made no progress.

However, the Sui army was not completely without good news, because except for a handful of cities such as Liaodong City, there were almost no garrisons in other cities in Liaodong. Either they were empty or the Koreans had surrendered directly.

This gave the Sui army a wrong judgment: the enemy must have concentrated its main forces in Liaodong City.

This was not only Yang Guang's judgment, but also the judgment of most Sui Dynasty generals.

They felt that even if a small force in a remote corner destroyed Goryeo and achieved the previous victory, how many elite troops could it have?
They built Liaodong City so large, they must have withdrawn their main forces and focused on defense. Otherwise, how could they have enough elite guards to guard the long walls of Liaodong City?
With this preconceived prejudice, Yang Guang boldly divided his troops and ordered Yuwen Shu to lead nine armies, including Yu Zhongwen (the 12th Army on the Left), Jing Yuanheng (the 7th Army on the Left), Xue Shixiong (the 11th Army on the Left), Xin Shixiong (the 8th Army on the Left), Zhang Jin (the 12th Army on the Right), Zhao Cai (the 9th Army on the Right), Cui Hongsheng (similar to the 2nd Army on the Right), and Wei Xuan (similar to the 1st Army on the Right), with a total of 350,000 troops. They took 100 days' worth of food, clothing, and equipment from the grain storages in Luhe and Huaiyuan towns, crossed the Goryeo cities, and gathered to the west of the Yalu River to cooperate with the navy in attacking Wangxian City.

At this time, Yang Guang still did not know that his navy had been completely wiped out, but he was already impatient and wanted to capture the capital of Goryeo in one fell swoop.

Yuwen Shu's army had a very smooth journey and encountered no resistance along the way. Many cities either opened their doors and surrendered or were empty.

The Sui army successfully crossed the Yalu River.

But by this time, the problems of the Sui army also became apparent.

When Yuwen Shu and other nine armies advanced, in addition to carrying a hundred days' rations for their horses and men, they also had to carry armor, rifles, clothing, military equipment, fire curtains and other items. The burden was heavy and there were complaints everywhere.

The generals issued an order that any soldier who abandoned rice and millet would be executed, so the soldiers dug pits under the tent to bury the rice and millet while marching. As a result, the food supply was almost gone when they were halfway through the journey.

Yuwen Shu's army was short of food.

Whether to advance or withdraw has become the most pressing issue.

However, at this time, no one dared to take the responsibility of withdrawing troops privately, especially when they were making great progress all the way.

When Yuwen Shu and others were having difficulty making a decision, the Dayu army appeared.

When the Sui army fought against the Dayu army, these Goryeo soldiers disguised as Dayu soldiers were defeated in every battle. The Sui army won seven battles in one day.

Therefore, the Sui general, relying on his sudden victory and unwilling to take the responsibility of retreat, ordered the entire army to advance and cross the Sa River to the east, hoping to capture Wangxian City in one fell swoop.

However, before their army had completed the crossing, Yue Fei's troops, who were well-rested and waiting for their arrival, appeared.

Yue Fei took the lead, and the brave generals Yang Zaixing, Gao Chong, Yue Yun and Niu Gao were like tigers coming down the mountain. The powerful and well-equipped Beiwei Army rushed towards the panicked and hungry Sui army like a whirlwind.

In this battle, the Sui army suffered a crushing defeat.

When Yuwen Shu and his men retreated to Liaodong, there were only 2,700 men left in the entire army, and tens of thousands of supplies and weapons were all lost.

(End of this chapter)