Late Tang

Jilizhou is one of the states established after the Tang Dynasty destroyed Goguryeo.After Tang Ping Goguryeo, the territory was divided into nine Dudufu, 42 prefectures, and [-] counties, under the jurisdiction of Andong Duhufu.Jili Prefecture is the southernmost state of the Liaodong Peninsula.

Since Goguryeo's first (Ren Sovereign Treasure King was captured by the Tang Dynasty, Goguryeo was subjugated in 700 years. Its territory was divided into nine capitals, 42 prefectures and one hundred counties by the Tang Dynasty. Soldiers and horses guarded Liaodong. After Goguryeo was destroyed, in order to prevent Goguryeo from making a comeback, the Tang Dynasty forced a large number of Goguryeo nobles and common people to move to western Liaoning and Hebei, with more than [-] people.

During Gaozong's reign, Tubo invaded, and the Tang Dynasty sent troops to the northwest, but Silla took this opportunity to invade the former Baekje land under the jurisdiction of the Xiongjin Governor's Mansion of the Tang Dynasty, and the war between Tang and Silla broke out.The Silla people secretly instigated the rebellion of the Goguryeo survivors. Because Xue Rengui led an army of [-] troops to assist Tuyuhun in the west, the defense of Liaodong was temporarily empty.Silla also took the opportunity to seize the entire territory of the original Baekje in the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang army fell into the dilemma of fighting on two fronts, and finally it took four years to quell the rebellion of the Goguryeo survivors.Then he sent troops to conquer Silla and forced King Jin Famin of Silla to send envoys to Tang to apologize.However, due to the rise of Tubo in the southwest, the imperial court was unable to take care of Liaodong. In the end, Silla still occupied the old land of Baekje.

Tang Qingli fought against Tubo and took a defensive position in the east, unwilling to confront Silla for a long time on the peninsula, which would waste manpower and material resources.Therefore, under the favorable conditions of Silla's confession and apology, the Duhufu was moved away from Pyongyang, and the captured Goguryeo king Gaozang was named the king of Joseon, and he was appointed as the governor of Liaodong Prefecture with the post of minister of the Ministry of Industry.In order to deal with the rise of Silla, the Tang Dynasty finally had to send the King of Goguryeo back to Liaodong, and use the Goguryeo people to rule the Goguryeo people.And repatriated the Goguryeo people who had previously moved to the mainland to Liaodong, and used the Goguryeo people to deal with the Silla people.

This trick can be described as a failure. As a result, Gao Zang plotted rebellion as soon as he returned to Liaodong.However, before the rebellion came, they were discovered, and finally Gao Zang and his people were sent back to the mainland.The Tang Dynasty then reassigned Gai Suwen's eldest son, Quan Nannan, to serve as the governor of Liaodong. After Quan Nannan took office, he "pacified Liaodong, merged prefectures and counties, recruited redundant people, flattened taxes, stopped labor, and the people were lenient."He took measures such as streamlining the organization, recruiting refugees, and rectifying taxes and labor, and stabilized the rule of the Tang Dynasty in Liaodong in just a few years.

During the time of Wu Zetian, the Khitan people rebelled against the Tang Dynasty. They first fell into the west of Liaoxi, and then aggressively attacked Liaodong.

The situation in Liaodong was at stake. Gao Dewu, the third son of Gaozang who was the governor of Liaodong at the time, stepped forward and "made 1000 bandits with hundreds of soldiers", "destroyed the rebel Sun Wan for more than ten battles, and captured [-] barbarian bandits." Gao Dewu thwarted Khitan's attempt to occupy Liaodong, and when he strategically cut off Khitan East, he boosted the morale of the Tang army, "making the country no worries about the east".Regarding the military exploits of Gao Dewu's army, the Tang court praised "every bounty will bring a scarlet robe, answering sincerely and acting, and recording a performance to be added to the honored official".

After the Khitan rebellion was put down, the Tang Dynasty basically withdrew from Liaodong and retreated into Liaoxi.In the land of Liaodong, Khitan was beaten by the Tang Dynasty and fell into a century-old downturn, and the Goguryeo nobles began to regain control of Liaodong.

However, at this time, the establishment of the Balhae State shattered the dream of the Goguryeo nobles to rebuild the Goguryeo Kingdom.With the strong rise of Balhae, Goguryeo finally became a vassal of Balhae.

At this time, the Tang Dynasty had basically given up on Liaodong and tried its best to compete with Tubo in the southwest.Therefore, in order to win the Bohai State to suppress Khitan, he made many concessions to Khitan, and once moved the Andong Governor's Mansion westward.

The center of gravity of the Bohai Kingdom is not in Liaodong. With the lessons learned from the war between the Khitan and the Tang Dynasty, the Bohai Kingdom chose from the very beginning to "go east, cross the Liao River, protect the northeast of Taibai Mountain, block the Olou River, and the tree wall will be self-reinforcing." Such a strategy of going far away to Haidong did not show any importance to Liaodong from the beginning, and then focused on the border of the Yalu River and the Wusuli River Basin.

The fertile land in Liaodong is far better than the bitter cold area of ​​Bohai, but Bohai did not choose to build a country here, because the full occupation of Liaodong means bordering with the Tang Dynasty.

Da Zuorong's son Damen Yi, the founding emperor of Bohai, once said to the new emperor Da Wuyi: "Tang, a great country, has tens of thousands of soldiers, and if I have a grudge against it, I will perish. In the past, when Goryeo was prosperous, there were 30 soldiers who resisted the Tang Dynasty as an enemy. It can be said to be powerful, and once the Tang soldiers came, they would be wiped out. Now I am one of the three outnumbered in Korea, and the king will disobey it, no way." At this time, Bohai's own strength determined that it could not fully occupy Liaodong.The development of Liaodong requires a lot of manpower and material resources, which the Tang Dynasty could not do, let alone Bohai Sea?Therefore, Bohai wisely chose to develop eastward from the very beginning, ceding the land of Liaodong, which was destined to be full of disputes.Let the Goguryeo people occupy it, but secretly control it.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the last army of the Tang Dynasty in Liaodong and Liaoxi, Ma Pinglu Army, crossed the sea and moved to Qingzhou. After abandoning Liaodong, he gave up Liaoxi.The Tang Dynasty fell into a long-term rebellion. The son of Gao Zang, the nephew of Tang Anwang Wu Youyi, the nephew of Wu Zetian, and the governor of Liaodong Prefecture, Gao Jianwu took the opportunity to rebel against the Tang Dynasty. With the support of Bohai State, Gao Jianwu established a small Goguryeo. The Bohai State, after stabilizing Haidong, completely controlled the small Goguryeo State and indirectly controlled most of Liaodong.

Since then, for more than [-] years, apart from southern Liaoning which has been controlled by many Han forces, Liaodong and the northern part of the Sanhan Peninsula and Buyeo have been controlled by Goguryeo.However, after the Bohai Kingdom gradually weakened, the Khitan people rose again.Over the years, the Khitans have been competing with the Lulong army for Yingzhou in western Liaoning, and tribes have continued to infiltrate the area east of the Liao River, gradually invading eastern Liaozhong.

Since Day Yizhen, the No.30 monarch of Balhae Kingdom, completely annexed Little Goguryeo 11 years ago, Goguryeo in Liaodong has become a courtier of Balhae Kingdom in name.However, due to the reign of the tenth monarch Daxuanxi, the Balhae Kingdom has fallen into a period of weakness. These Goguryeo nobles in Liaodong gradually regained power and gradually separated from the control of the Balhae Kingdom.

The current lord of Jili City, Gao Dexin, is the descendant of Gao Jianwu after the Goguryeo royal family.Gao Dexin is in his fifties, and has always held important official positions in the Goguryeo royal family in the Balhae Kingdom, holding great power.At this time, in addition to serving as the governor of Jili Prefecture in Eastern Liaodong, Gao Dexin also served as the political affairs of Zuo Pingzhang in Xuanzhao Province of Bohai State, and also served as the minister of the Ministry of Education and Intelligence.The Xuanzhao of the Bohai Kingdom is equivalent to the Menxia Province of the Tang Dynasty, and Zuo Pingzhang is the second official of the Menxia Province.The Ministry of Intelligence is equivalent to the Ministry of War in the Tang Dynasty.

In addition to serving as the political affairs of Zuo Pingzhang of the Xuanzhao Province and the minister of the Ministry of Education and Intelligence, Gao Dexin also served as the general of Zuo Meng Benwei, one of the ten guards of the Bohai Kingdom.

The military system of the Bohai Kingdom is almost the same as that of the Tang Dynasty. It imitated the sixteen guards of the Tang Dynasty, and established ten guards, including the left and right meng guards, the left and right bear guards, the left and right guards, the south left and right guards, and the north left and right guards.In addition, there are left and right shence army, left and right three armies and other establishments, with a strength of hundreds of thousands.Each guard has one general and one general.Zhechong mansions are set up all over the country, under the ten guards.Each Zhechong mansion has one Zhechong Captain, one left and right Captain Guoyi, one each of Biejiang, Bingcao, and Joining the Army, and five school lieutenants.The military system and official system were almost equivalent to those of the Tang Dynasty. Although the Bohai Kingdom at this time began to weaken after more than 200 years, it still had a population of more than 500 million and 10 troops.

Gao Dexin served as a high-ranking official in the Bohai Kingdom, but in fact he was the same as the commander-in-chief of the Three Towns of Hebei in the Tang Dynasty.Most of the other Goguryeo generals in Liaodong were like this, no different from those self-reliant Jieshuai in the Tang Dynasty.

In Jili City, in the Governor's Mansion.

"What?" Gao Dexin stood up vigorously, grabbed Chang Shi Gaobing's lapel and asked.Although Gao Dexin is over fifty years old, he doesn't have a single white hair, and he has been in command of the army for a long time. He is tall and strong, and he lifts Gao Bing up immediately.

Gao Bing was just a civilian scholar, and when Gao Dexin mentioned it like this, his chest turned blue from being strangled, and he couldn't breathe.The staff next to him quickly stepped forward and pulled Gao Dexin's arm away. Gao Bing finally coughed a few times, his face recovered some blood, and he touched his neck and said: "Weiba Mountain City is lost, the eldest son died in battle, Weiba The entire army of three thousand soldiers and horses in the mountain city was wiped out!"

"Zhaokang died in battle? Weiba Mountain City lost?" Gao Dexin took a few steps back weakly, his face full of shock and sadness.Gao Zhaokang is his eldest son. He is just 30 years old, but he has his style. Not only is he good at martial arts, he is also proficient in the art of war. Governor of Lizhou.

"How is it possible? The Weiba mountain city has a circumference of five miles and is built on a cliff. There is only one narrow road leading to the mountain city. The mountain city is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It is the largest among the 58 mountain cities built by Goguryeo in Liaodong. Why did one of the five cities and mountains suddenly fall, and Dekang and the three thousand soldiers were wiped out?" Gao Dexin couldn't believe it, and asked again.

There was silence below, and no one could answer him.In fact, up to now, Chang Shi has only received the news that Weiba Mountain City has fallen and the entire army has been wiped out.As for the situation of the battle and how it fell, he didn't know at all.

Gao Dexin gritted his teeth and said angrily: "What are you still doing standing here? Hurry up and find out the news. Who attacked the city, how did it break down the mountain city, and how Dezhao and the others were wiped out? I want to know the news immediately."

Everyone nodded slightly, and walked out of the Governor's Mansion with their heads down.In fact, not only was Gao Dexin unable to accept this result, but all the generals were equally unbelievable. In the past, the eldest son Gao Zhaokang, who had always been at the forefront in battles, and Gao Dexin had always praised for his strategy, died like this.With his ability, even if there are many intruders, at least he can stand by the towering mountain city and wait for reinforcements. How could the entire army be wiped out?

(To be continued)