Li Shimin, one emperor through the ages

Chapter 68 Rescue Silla (3)
Dahei Mountain is located in the northwest of the Liaodong Peninsula. Although it is not high, if you climb to the main peak and look out, you can see the Bohai Sea in the southwest clearly.Li Shimin led the army and quietly came to the foot of Daheishan from Chengde.Silla was surrounded by Goguryeo for more than a month, Beisha City, just at the waist of Daheishan.Li Shimin ordered his troops to set up camp outside Chaoyang City. He took Zhang Jian, the governor of Yingzhou, up a hill to observe the enemy's situation.But I saw a thick stone wall in the distance, following the ups and downs of the mountain, encircling Beisha City in the Dahei Mountain in a winding and winding manner.Outside the city wall, you can see the Goguryeo army with flags fluttering.

"The people of Silla built this city wall, I'm afraid they learned from Emperor Shihuang." Li Shimin said with a smile.

"Without this walled city, the people of Silla would certainly not be able to survive today." Zhang Jian said.

"That's right, it's time for the Goguryeo people to be unlucky." Li Shimin said: "Go back, organize troops immediately, and attack the Goguryeo people tonight!"

"Of order!" Tang Jian replied happily.

The Goguryeo people never dreamed that the Tang army would come so fast. When their general soldiers heard the shouts of killing in their sleep, they thought it was the Silla people who were hungry and desperate to break through, so they shouted loudly: "Stop them, stop them." Then lead the troops to rush to Beisha City.The general soldiers who have besieged Beisha City for more than a month are already full of choking, and they are dreaming about one day rushing into Beisha City and doing whatever they want, how exciting it would be!

Soon, the commander-in-chief realized that something was wrong, because the shouts of killing coming from the direction of Beisha City above were far less intense than those coming from the direction of Chaoyang City below.When the general soldier understood what was going on, the army of the Tang Dynasty appeared in front of him.The fierce battle took less than half a stick of incense, and the general soldier and the remaining [-] Goguryeo soldiers around him became prisoners of the Tang army.

The people of Silla opened the gates of Beisha City, and all the exhausted soldiers and hungry people came out, knelt along the road to welcome the Tang army who came to rescue them, and at the same time, they were eagerly waiting for the Tang army's gift.Because in Beisha City, they could no longer find a grain of grain.Li Shimin attacked countless cities, and he had expected such a situation and made full preparations.At the same time as he entered the city, Cen Wenwen just in time to transport hundreds of tannage of grain.

The siege was too long this time. In order to defend the city, many buildings in Beisha City suffered unprecedented damage. Only the Shigu Temple in the city remained intact.Silla's Beisha Order welcomed Li Shimin to the temple to rest.Li Shimin was so happy that he destroyed the siege of Goguryeo and broke the siege of Beisha City. The next day he took Tang Jian to climb the main peak of Daheishan.It really is "If you want to see a thousand miles away, go to a higher level." The scenery on this peak is so spectacular.The sky is high and the land is wide, and you can see it at a glance; the mountains and trees near you can have a panoramic view.The Mongolian Plateau in the north is endless; the Bohai Bay in the south is vast and deep...

"If I hadn't personally marched this time, how could I have seen such a magnificent river and mountain in the Tang Dynasty!" Li Shimin said with emotion: "I don't know if Zhang Liang has safely crossed the Liaodong Bay and captured Gaimu City at this time?"

Zhang Liang was originally Li Mi's subordinate, and he followed Li Ji to the Tang Dynasty, and was recommended by Fang Xuanling and Li Ji to enter the shogunate of Qin Wang Li Shimin.During this period, Tang Jian worked with Zhang Liang many times, and he knew that Zhang Liang was extremely intelligent, loyal and chivalrous, not only good at government affairs, but also deeply studied marching and fighting, which was superior to ordinary people.When the Li Shimin brothers were fighting for the crown prince, what?Zhang Liang was reported and imprisoned by Yuan Ji, and won the trust of Li Shimin because he refused to accept all the temptations and threats from Yuan Ji.In the process of being promoted all the way to the Minister of the Ministry of History, he has always been friendly with Tang Jian. When Li Shimin asked about the battle in Gaimu City, Tang Jian blurted out:

"I thought that Gaimu City must have been in Shangshu's hands at this time."

"Are you so confident in Zhang Liang?"

"I think His Majesty thinks so too."

"When will the good news come?"

"Just before this evening."

"Oh, it's so specific." Li Shimin looked at Tang Jian happily and said, "Since that's the case, we'll wait for the news on this mountain."

Tang Jian looked at Li Shimin in surprise and said, "It's windy on the mountain..."

"It's cool." Li Shimin interrupted Tang Jian's words, and ordered: "Go get some wild game, burn a big fire, roast, eat, and wait for Zhang Liang's good news. I haven't been so comfortable for some years." pass."

Tang Jian quickly fetched some hares, had them peeled and washed, and grilled.Although it was mid-spring and the weather was getting warmer, it was still very cool on the top of Xiaohei Mountain.Zhang Liang was worried about Li Shimin's health, and reminded Li Shimin to add some clothes several times. Li Shimin was always very happy, grilling the hare, looking at the picturesque and magnificent scenery in the distance, chewing slowly, ignoring Tang Jian's reminders at all.

Before evening, when the sun had not yet set, a fast horse climbed up the mountain panting to report Zhang Liang's good news:
"The city of Gaimu has been occupied, more than 2 Goguryeo people have been captured, and more than [-] shi of grain have been seized."

Li Shimin was very happy when he heard this, he threw away the hare he had chewed for a long time boldly, and said loudly:

"Pass the decree, go down the mountain and go back to Shigu Temple, and hold a banquet to congratulate Zhang Liang!"

18
The dinner was extraordinarily sumptuous, but Li Shimin couldn't swallow it. While he didn't want to eat, he felt sore in his limbs.After holding on for a while, Li Shimin had no choice but to leave and take a step first.Concubine Xu Xian followed him, step by step to the quiet room in the temple.Looking at Li Shimin's frown, Concubine Xu Xian said to Li Shimin:
"The concubine is going to call the imperial doctor?"

Li Shimin nodded.The imperial doctor Chen Liangfu arrived in a blink of an eye, looked at Li Shimin, checked his pulse very seriously, and asked:
"Does the emperor have sore limbs, wandering around indefinitely?"

"That's right." Li Shimin said.

Chen Liangfu was startled, but calmed down again in a blink of an eye.Concubine Xu Xian saw all this, but Li Shimin closed his eyes to rest his mind at this moment, but he didn't see it.After Chen Liangfu forced himself to calm down, he prescribed two kinds of medicine: five liang of ephedra removed from the root, and two liang of osmanthus heart.

"Grind these two medicines together into powder, add two liters of wine, boil over a slow fire to make syrup, and then take it. Take one spoonful each time, adjust it with hot wine, three times a day, sweating will be effective." Chen Liangfu said rubbing Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he added: "This disease is not suitable for catching cold, and you should take shelter from the wind."

Concubine Xu Xian nodded, followed Chen Liangfu to the rest room, looked at Chen Liangfu and said, "What is Li Shimin's illness?"

"This disease is called wind disease, also known as Xingbi. Once infected, it will take ten and a half months to recover. I beg the concubine Xian to persuade the emperor to return to Chang'an as soon as possible."

Concubine Xu Xian was startled when she heard this, she asked someone to boil the medicinal soup, brought it out and fed it to Li Shimin herself.In the afternoon of the second day, Li Shimin really sweated a lot, and the wandering soreness in his limbs was relieved for a while.At this time, another piece of good news came: Li Ji's army had quietly pushed into the east and west gates of Liaodong. Zhang Liang's army defeated the Korean soldiers who blocked them on the way, beheaded [-] soldiers, and was advancing towards the south of Liaodong City.Li Shimin was overjoyed when he heard this, he could no longer feel the soreness on his body, Xuan came to Tang Jian and said:

"Order the whole army to get ready. Tomorrow morning, march south and attack Liaodong City from the north."

When Tang Jian led the decree to go out, Concubine Xu Xian fell to the ground and said in a sobbing voice, "I implore Your Majesty to return to Chang'an immediately."

Li Shimin stepped forward, helped Concubine Xu up, looked at her face full of tears, and said with a smile: "Look at you, you are so sad, my illness..." At this point, Li Shimin suddenly felt sore all over again, so he changed the subject and asked : "How did the minister tell you?"

"The imperial physician must ask the concubine to persuade the emperor to return to Chang'an for recuperation."

"Doctor really say that?"

Concubine Xu Xian nodded, stepped forward to support Li Shimin and said: "It seems that this battle will surely win a big victory. Your Majesty's health is critical, so we should go back to Chang'an to recuperate."

"But?"

"Your Majesty has fought and won battles all his life, and his military honors are unmatched by anyone in ancient and modern times. I also ask Your Majesty to give this honor to generals Li Ji, Zhang Liang, and Tang Jian."

"Aifei really can talk." Li Shimin shook his head with a smile, and said, "In this way, if I insist on staying here, it seems that I will compete with the generals."

"Your Majesty agrees to go back to Chang'an?" Concubine Xu Xian became happy: "The concubine asked Tang Jian to come, and Your Majesty would like to say a few words."

Li Shimin nodded.Although he was smiling at this moment, his limbs were in great pain, and the wandering soreness made him feel more and more uncomfortable.After a while Tang Jian came in with an unusually ugly expression. He looked up at Li Shimin, unable to say a word for a long time.

"What happened, tell me!" Li Shimin urged loudly, already restless from the soreness.

"Cen Wenwen, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, died of a sudden illness in Youzhou." Tang Jian said sadly.

"Ah!" Li Shimin exclaimed, staring at Tang Jian solemnly, for a long time, a bean-sized teardrop filled his eye socket and dripped down from the corner of his eye.

"Cen Aiqing was exhausted, he was exhausted doing business for me, and he was exhausted for the Tang Dynasty to quell the border chaos." Li Shimin said sadly: "I posthumously gave him the posthumous title of servant and governor of Guangzhou, and the posthumous title Xian. I will also appoint his son Cen Changqian as the Minister of War."

After Li Shimin said this, he lowered his head and said nothing.Because Li Shimin summoned Tang Jian, he knew that Li Shimin must have something to explain. Seeing that Li Shimin was silent, he had to stand there and wait.After a long time, Li Shimin raised his head to meet him, waved his hand and said:
"Go!"

Seeing this, Concubine Xu Xian became anxious and blurted out: "Your Majesty, you haven't told General Tang about returning to Chang'an."

"No more!" Li Shimin said.

18
Liaodong City is square, with two walls inside and outside.There are two-story and three-story buildings in the inner city, which are the official offices of the Goguren; the outer city is the market area.There are three gates in the city: the north gate stands alone, and the east and west gates face each other, all with double-storey gates.The city walls have turrets, battlements, parapets and other buildings.There is a large-scale two-story high-rise building in the northwest of the city, which has been occupied by Li Ji at this time and is used as a temporary siege command post.

Gai Suwen, an arrogant and defiant Goguryeo official in the past, has had nightmares again and again in recent days: first, Gaimu City was occupied by Tang Jun Zhang Liang, and then Beisha City was captured by Li Shimin himself.Now, it is Li Ji, the great marshal of the Tang Dynasty, and Zhang Liang, the general of the Tang Dynasty, who forced Liaodong to fall.Gai Suwen was frightened a lot by these bad news, and he began to regret in his heart, regretting that he should not have listened to the persuasion of the envoy of Tang Dynasty.However, it is too late now, even if Kaesong surrenders, it is impossible to save his life.That being the case, it can only be desperate.Gai Suwen rolled his big bloody eyes, thinking hard.He thought of the defenders of Black Bone City and Baiyan City, and the bravest Gao Yanshou and General Huizhen of Goguryeo...promised to share the wealth with them and let them all come. With nearly 20 troops, they will definitely be able to conquer Liaodong City. Defeat the Tang army.Thinking of this, Gai Suwen's eyes lit up, and after a burst of wild laughter, he called four of his cronies, and after explaining to them, he asked them to quickly move in reinforcements.

Under the great profit, there must be a brave man.Hearing that they could share wealth with Gai Suwen, the troops of Gao Yanshou and Huizhen soon came to Liaodong City. Together with Gai Suwen's garrison troops, there were a total of 30 people, and they were all fighting each other for a long time. Elite soldiers trained in the military.At this time, Li Ji and Zhang Liang's troops assembled under the city of Liaodong had only 20 troops.Tian Renshan, a counselor in Li Ji's army, said:
"The Art of War says: 'Surround them with ten'. Now our army is still outnumbered by the enemy, so it's better to wait for the emperor's army to arrive before discussing it."

"In your opinion, how should our army deal with it?" Li Ji asked.

"Persevere." Tian Renshan said.

Li Ji didn't say a word, but showed Zhang Liang with his eyes, hoping to hear his opinion.

"Goguryeo's reinforcements have arrived, and now there are so many people, you must think that our army dare not attack the city. If you have already thought about it, you must not prepare. The art of war says: Attacking those who are not prepared can win a big victory. If our army takes advantage of this to attack, it will surely win a big victory. .”

"Heroes see the same thing." Li Ji said happily: "The current strategy is to take Liaodong City as soon as possible, or our army will be in danger. If we stick to it, Goguryeo will inevitably launch a counterattack until the emperor arrives. At that time, The morale of the enemy army has been greatly boosted, but the morale of our army has declined, how can we defeat the enemy?"

At dawn the next day, Gai Suwen, who just felt a little more secure, was having fun with a Goguryeo woman in the warm quilt, when he heard fierce shouts of killing outside, and when he got dressed and went out, Li Ji and Zhang Liang The army has gathered together and killed them through the south gate.It turned out that after Li Ji and Zhang Liang decided to attack Liaodong City with inferior troops, they went to reconnaissance outside Liaodong City. Take advantage of the fire.The Goguryeo army didn't expect the Tang army to dare to attack, and was confused by the fire. Although there were many people, they couldn't withstand the onslaught of the Tang army, and then quickly retreated.

Li Ji and Zhang Liang took advantage of the situation to chase and kill them all the way, beheading more than [-] people, and captured Liaodong City.

Gao Yanshou, the most valiant general in Goguryeo, was awed by the bravery of the Tang army, and led 15 Mohe and Goguryeo troops who came to the rescue to beg for surrender from the Tang army.Defeated.When Gao Yanshou came to Li Ji's barracks, he knelt down and moved his knees forward, begging for orders.

Li Shimin arrived on the second day after the Liaodong City was conquered. When he heard about it, he said to Gao Yanshou who was kneeling in front of him: "Youth from Dongyi, dance Liang Haiqu...do you dare to fight the Son of Heaven again?"

Gao Yanshou looked up at Li Shimin, speechless.Li Shimin captured more than [-] Goguryeo officers and chiefs in the surrendered army to the Central Plains, and released the rest of the Goguryeo people.After a few days of repairs in Liaodong City, Li Shimin ordered Li Ji and others to continue to capture the city in the northeast of Goguryeo. Due to the torment of the wind, he had to stay in Liaodong City temporarily.Two months later, Li Ji and others captured several cities. When attacking Anshi City, they were unable to attack for a long time because the city was dangerous and strong.At this time, Changsun Wuji also came to Liaodong City, and said to Li Shimin: "The emperor's personal conquest is different from the generals. You can't take advantage of the danger. There are still hundreds of thousands of captives in Jian'an and Xincheng. It is better to destroy An City first, take Jian'an, and then drive forward, this is a surefire strategy."

This is the method that Li Shimin has used for many years. If the fight continues, Anshi will undoubtedly be destroyed, but Li Shimin is sick, and the Silla Siege will be released early, so the north can be calm for the time being.With repeated kindness, Li Shimin decided to return to Chang'an.During this expedition to Goguryeo, the Tang army conquered Xuantu, Hengshan, Gaimu, Momi, Liaodong, Baiyan, Beisha, Maigu, Yinshan, and Houhuangshicheng; moved 7 people from the three prefectures of Liao, Gai, and Yan into China; More than 2000 enemy troops were beheaded, but only [-] Tang soldiers died in battle. Among them, the one that made Li Shimin most sad was Zhongshu Lingcen's text.On the day when the Tang army withdrew, feeling the power and grace of the Tang army, the generals and soldiers of Goguryeo bowed down on the high wall and sent the Tang army away respectfully.

Later, when commenting on this battle, Li Shimin thought:

"Although this battle hit Goryeo hard, it was protracted and costly, and if it didn't destroy Goryeo in the end, it should be a defeat." For this reason, Li Shimin even said with great nostalgia: "If Wei Zheng was still alive, he would definitely not let me go on this expedition. .”

Although Li Shimin thinks so, in fact, this war still has great significance. It is the first time that the Chinese army has truly defeated the Goguryeo people since Guan Qiujian broke through the Goguryeo King City during the Three Kingdoms period and hundreds of years ago.In this war, the Tang Dynasty not only regained the Chinese territory in the Liaodong Peninsula that was taken away by Goguryeo during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, but more importantly, it laid a solid foundation for the Tang Dynasty to completely conquer Goguryeo.

A few years later, Li Zhi finally conquered Goguryeo, moved Goguryeo nobles, rich households and hundreds of thousands of people to various parts of the Central Plains, and integrated into various ethnic groups in China. Turks and Silla, there will be no Goguryeo in the world.This is something.

(End of this chapter)