A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

Liaodong, as a major ginseng-producing area, was extremely important to the high-ranking officials and nobles of the Tang Dynasty, so naturally there was a railway that could connect Luoyang directly to Liaodong.

Su Dingfang and Liu Rengui led their army to Yingzhou City, making it the front line for attacking Liaodong.

In this city, Su Dingfang discovered a young general with exceptional martial arts skills named Xue Li, courtesy name Rengui.

When Li Yuanxiang rebelled, Xue Rengui led his troops to defend Yingzhou City to the death.

In order to defend the city, he led his personal guards to charge the enemy army many times, taking the initiative with inferior forces, and even killing generals and capturing flags, which once brought the morale of Li Yuanxiang's army in Liaodong to a freezing point.

It was precisely because of his bravery and talent that he managed to hold Yingzhou City and wait for the imperial court's reinforcements.

Su Dingfang was overjoyed when he heard about his achievements.

Unexpectedly, there was such a fierce general in Liaodong. He met with Xue Rengui and prepared to appoint Xue Rengui as his vanguard general.

After taking over the defense of the entire Liaodong Peninsula, Su Dingfang began preparing for an offensive, entering Fushun, the first major town on the peninsula.

The rebels were ultimately just rebels; when the Tang army arrived, they immediately lost their composure.

The Tang Dynasty now occupies two prefectures, with a population of tens of millions and an army of millions. It has a constant stream of skilled warriors. Just in the conquest of Liaodong, Xue Rengui emerged, preventing them from making any further progress.

Not to mention, the old ministers who fought alongside Emperor Taizong to conquer the country are still alive. Duke Li Ji of Yingguo, Duke Cheng Yaojin of Luguo, and the veteran general Zhang Jian are all still alive. Moreover, there are rising generals in the court. One of them killed Wang Xuance, and Xue Rengui, who was invincible in Liaodong, emerged from an unknown place.

This only includes the generals in the imperial court; you must know that there is another behemoth in the imperial court.

The Wei family has never lacked famous generals, and each generation produces ruthless individuals who achieve a precipitous lead.

Think of those freaks who can single-handedly form an army, who can smash city gates and attack cities with the strength of human flesh. If it weren't for King Li Yuanxiang of Liaodong repeatedly emphasizing to them that the Wei family would never participate in the internal strife of the Li family, they would never have had the courage to rebel.

Su Dingfang truly lived up to his reputation as an overlooked general. Under his command, and with a fierce general like Xue Rengui under his command, he quickly devised a plan to lure out the large army in Fushun City, and together with Xue Rengui, they launched a double attack from the left and right.

They easily captured the fortified city of Fushun.

After capturing Fushun, Su Dingfang dispatched troops to march rapidly by railway, advancing swiftly and capturing a city in three days and ten cities in a month.

In just one month, Su Dingfang attacked and reached the banks of the Liao River, stopping outside Shicheng City.

Looking at the fortified city before him, even Su Dingfang found it difficult to bring himself to eat it.

The cities in this area are built against the mountains, making them easy to defend and difficult to attack. It would be extremely difficult to conquer them.

The enemy is holding the city, and a strong attack would require a large number of troops.

The peninsula is mountainous, and many of the fortified cities behind it are built on the mountains. If every fortified city were to be attacked by force, a mere 50 troops would not be enough to sustain the attack.

This is why, during the unification of dynasties throughout history, this region and Shu (Sichuan) were always considered the final target.

The area here is so easily defended and difficult to attack that it rivals the Shu region in its defensive strength.

"General, why don't we feint to the east while attacking in the west?"

Before the battle, Liu Rengui offered some advice.

"Oh? I'd like to hear more about it?"

Su Dingfang asked in surprise.

"here!"

Liu Rengui pointed to a place that surprised Su Dingfang: Donglai County.

After the development of the Haichao, this place has always been the richest place in the world, without exception.

Because this place connects to the island of Wa, which is rich in gold and silver, large ships carrying large amounts of gold and silver return from Wa every day. Successive dynasties have regarded this place as their heart and soul and attached great importance to it.

The fact that the prefectural governor and the state governor were of equal rank here is a testament to this.

"You mean by sea?"

Su Dingfang checked the distance from Donglai County to the peninsula. At the current speed of Tang Dynasty ships, it wouldn't be long before they could reach the peninsula's coast.

As long as he can hold back the army of Liaodong King Li Yuanxiang here, Liu Rengui can directly launch a surprise attack on the Liaodong King's rear.

The northern part of the peninsula is dominated by towering mountains, while the southern part is mainly hilly, with a gentler terrain that is more suitable for military conquest.

Su Dingfang is now winning battle after battle, putting immense pressure on the Korean Peninsula.

Most of the troops on the peninsula are now concentrated in the north, hoping to use fortified cities to resist Su Dingfang's attack.

He has created the best conditions for Liu Rengui; now it's up to Liu Rengui to decide.

On the other side of the battlefield, Liu Rengui's warships had already approached the coast of the peninsula, and Li Yuanxiang had long since deployed his navy along the coastline.

The peninsula is located by the sea and has a long coastline. His navy accounts for almost half of his personnel.

However, Su Dingfang put too much pressure on him, so he transferred a lot of troops to be converted into archers to defend the city in the north.

Even so, he still had hundreds of warships and over 100,000 soldiers stationed on the coastline.

He felt that with so many troops remaining, even if they were outnumbered, they could hold out until he led reinforcements to arrive.

Even if the Tang army had hundreds of thousands of soldiers, they would still take a long time to kill them.

Moreover, these were his elite naval forces, enjoying the best treatment under his command, well-trained and well-equipped, and in his view, they were comparable to the hundreds of thousands of troops of the imperial court.

On the sea, both Liu Rengui and the rebels spotted each other's ships.

Naval warfare is more straightforward and unpretentious compared to land warfare.

When ships collide, whoever loses is defeated.

If neither side's ships can damage the other, then another method is to engage in close combat.

The two sides slowly approached each other on the sea. They first shot arrows and threw oil at each other from a distance. When the ships crossed paths, they used iron hooks to lock the enemy ship tightly together.

There were no elaborate strategies or ambushes; all the fighting took place on the swaying deck. Long spears clashed and swords swung, soldiers fought one another.

Holes in the hull were hastily plugged with planks, and broken sails were repaired by hand; everything was straightforward and brutal.

When two armies meet on a narrow path, the brave will prevail; there's not much room for scheming.

Whoever is stronger will win!

Moreover, unlike on land, where you can run away if you can't win a fight on the sea.

On the sea, if you can't win, you either die or surrender; you have no other choice.

How about we run it and see?

No matter how good you are, how many minutes can you swim underwater?

This is the vast ocean; you won't be able to see the shore unless you swim for days and nights.

That's why naval warfare is so simple and unadorned.

Although Li Yuanxiang's ships were also quite good, they were far inferior to those of the imperial court.

The imperial court would never send its best warships abroad, not even to those who were granted the title of king.

Only ships of the second-highest class were permitted to be owned by a king.

However, even for a second-rate ship, it would be extremely difficult for Liu Rengui to ram it.

Liu Rengui had never imagined that the enemy's navy could be destroyed so easily.

His true military strategy was to bully the weak by relying on the strength of the enemy. He believed that his ships were bigger and more numerous than the enemy's, and that he had more and braver soldiers than the enemy.

Come on, let's not say anything more, let's do it!