On September 28, the 11th year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty, a coup occurred in the city of Pyongyang, the capital of Goguryeo. Yuan clan invited King Rongliu and all the ministers in the name of inspecting the army. However, King Rongliu had already received information and knew that the Yuan clan was going to be unfavorable to him. Not only did he refuse to go, but he also reduced his troops to keep the palace secret.

Seeing that his plan failed, Genji immediately changed his strategy decisively, gathered a large army to enter Pyongyang City, and began to forcibly siege the palace. Fortunately, King Rongliu was prepared. When he saw that the other party was in a big way, he immediately fought out a bloody path with his guards loyal to him and escaped from Pyongyang City. However, among the chaos, his family was small and his civil servants around him were captured by the Yuan family, and then they were all beheaded at the Pyong city.

The escaped King Rongliu was not stopping, and while avoiding the pursuit of the Yuan clan army, he gathered his army loyal to him and was ready to counterattack at any time. Unfortunately, the army loyal to him was not comparable to the Yuan clan in terms of quantity or quality. Therefore, several counterattacks ended in failure. In the end, he had no choice but to escape to Anshi City, which was loyal to him, and at the same time issued a royal order to the whole country, calling on the knowledgeable people from all over the country to gather together to resist the tyranny of the Yuan clan.

In this case, the Yuan clan naturally would not allow King Rongliu to live in the world. Therefore, Yuan Gaisuwen personally led tens of thousands of troops to attack Anshicheng, but no one expected that Anshi city lord Yang Wanchun, with his dangerous terrain and an extremely elite city guarding force, actually blocked Yuan Gaisuwen's attack.

After the failure of the siege, Yuan Gaisuwen was very angry and was preparing to increase the siege troops, but the Tang army, who had been eyeing each other for a long time, could not help it. Regardless of the bitter cold in Liaodong, in the name of helping Goguryeo quell the civil strife, he finally sent troops in mid-October. However, the first one was not Niu Jinda and Li Ji who had prepared long ago. Instead, Zhang Jian, the governor of Yingzhou.

Speaking of Governor Zhang, he is still a relative of Li Yan. Zhang Jian's mother is Li Yuan's daughter, Li Yan's aunt. The two are cousins, but Zhang Jian is older and both are in his twenties this year. He is considered a younger generation among the generals of the Tang Dynasty.

In addition, Zhang Jian's leadership is second to the point. The key is that this guy is very insidious. Most of the Hu tribes around Yingzhou. During this conquest of Liaodong, Zhang Jian recruited soldiers of Khitan, Xi, and Mohe. Whether during the siege or field battle, he ordered these foreign soldiers to rush in front to be cannon fodder, and to take the soldiers from Yingzhou and Youzhou as military supervisors. As long as the front retreats slightly, the soldiers behind the back will immediately have a wave of bows and arrows. It can be said that they are extremely cruel.

However, this method is excellent. The Hu people were afraid of power but not be virtuous. The more they used such powerful and cruel methods, the more they could stimulate the combat effectiveness of foreign soldiers. Therefore, Zhang Jian, the vanguard unit that was originally just testing Goguryeo's reaction, sang all the way. From Yingzhou to the important town of Goguryeo, he defeated the tens of thousands of Jian'an City defenders who fought. He beheaded more than thousands of times. This time, Goguryeo was shocked, and the entire Tang Dynasty was also shocked by the fierce young governor.

However, it was precisely from this incident that the Tang Dynasty saw the weakness of Goguryeo and strengthened its confidence in winning. Therefore, General Niu Jinda, who was on the water, and Li Ji, who was on the land, almost chose to send troops at the end of October, with two armies one south and one west, clamping the sick beast Goguryeo like a pliers.

At the beginning of the war, a one-sided situation immediately appeared. Li Ji, an old man, used the strategy of fighting the east and west, and set off from Huaiyuan Town, but in fact he led his troops out of the city and crossed the Liao River. On November 10th, he took down Xuantu, who was occupied by Goguryeo in one fell swoop. Now the entire Goguryeo was even more panicked, and almost all towns were guarding themselves.

At the same time, Li Daozong, as Li Ji's deputy, also led his army to Xincheng. However, because of the few people, he had to yell and scold the enemy under the city and wanted to lead the other party out. However, the Xincheng garrison did not dare to fight and had no choice but to leave. On the 22nd of that month, he joined Li Ji's army at the city of Gaimu. This city is the second strong city in Goguryeo in Liaodong, second only to Liaodong City, which is known as the first strong city in Liaodong.

Just as Li Ji was advancing all the way, Niu Jinda's waterway army was not idle. After gathering the navy from several states, he crossed the sea in Laizhou and rushed straight to the opposite city of Beisha City. After landing from the weak defense west, facing Beisha City, which was covered with cliffs on all sides, the Tang army finally took out his secret weapon.

After landing, General Cheng Mingzhen led a large army to attack from the front, and Deputy General Manager Wang Dadu personally led a team of dead soldiers to rush under the city wall in the rain of archers. After digging a few holes, he stuffed three blasting tubes for siege. As a result, a large hole was blown up in the west. When the Goguryeo people thought it was a god furious, the Tang army rushed to the city in one fell swoop. However, the Goguryeo army in the city was also among the elite. Although the city was broken, it refused to surrender and launched a street battle with the Tang army. As a result, the Tang army took two days to clear the entire Beisha City.

The Tang army in the south used gunpowder first, and Li Ji's Western Army was naturally not to be outdone. When facing the strong city of Gaimu City, they almost completely copied the results of Beisha City, exploded the city wall and rushed into the city. The Goguryeo defenders in the city were intimidated by the power of the ** and did not dare to resist. More than 40,000 defenders in the entire city were almost completely captured by the Tang army, and more than 100,000 stones of food in the city were also obtained by the Tang army.

After taking Gaimu City effortlessly, Li Ji rushed to the city of Liaodong almost without stopping. Although Goguryeo already knew that the Tang army had a powerful weapon that could blow up the city wall, he was helpless and could only watch the first strong city in Liaodong fall into the hands of the Tang army. At the same time, the defenders in the city were killed more than 10,000, and tens of thousands were captured.

Niu Jinda's army also swept the Liaodong Peninsula and occupied all the places south of Anshi City and Wugu City. In early December, Li Ji and Niu Jinda's two armies successfully met under Anshi City, and the Tang army's early strategic goals were finally completed.

Now the entire Liaodong has almost completely fallen into the hands of the Tang army, except for Anshicheng and Wugucheng, a line that is also connected to Goguryeo. For Anshicheng, the Tang army cannot attack Anshicheng for the time being, because the Tang Dynasty launched an army in the name of helping King Rongliu to quell the civil strife, and now King Rongliu is in the city of Anshi. If the Tang Dynasty attacked the city without distinction at this time, it would undoubtedly be a slap in the face.

In addition, Anshi City is not that easy to attack. Not only is it a strong city, but the city lord is also a very difficult opponent. After hearing that the Tang army had weapons to break the city, he was extremely clever to think of a solution. With the help of the extremely cold weather in Liaodong, he ordered people to pour water down the city walls, and as a result, the entire Anshi City turned into a frozen city. Even if the Tang army did not care about the consumption of gunpowder, they would not know when they would blow it. Moreover, the weather is getting colder now. Even if most of the Tang army equipped with cotton jackets and quilts made of cotton, many soldiers were still frostbite and even frozen to death.

In such a harsh environment, after discussing with Li Ji, Niu Jinda decided to disperse the army to several nearby cities to station them. After this winter, only 10,000 elite cavalry were stationed in Anshi City to observe the movements in the city at any time. After this order was passed to Chang'an, Li Shimin also supported it very much.

So in early December of the eleventh year of Zhenguan, this war that lasted for more than a month finally stopped temporarily. The Tang army's morale was high. After arriving in a row, they would wait for the next spring to capture Anshi City and then attack Pyongyang. By then, Goguryeo, an ancient country that had been in chaos for hundreds of years, would no longer exist. Goguryeo, which was struck by the fierce attack of the Tang army, finally had a chance to breathe and began to rectify the remaining forces, strengthening the guards while waiting for an opportunity to counterattack.

The Tang army on the Liaodong front line fought very happily, but the various prefectures and counties in the rear complained. The early turmoil in Goguryeo not only disrupted its own position, but also disrupted the Tang Dynasty's army. The Tang army was ready. The 100,000 troops of the two armies were not a problem at all, but the county did not expect that the war would come so suddenly. Therefore, the preparations for various materials were seriously insufficient. In addition, it was a very rare winter military use, and the consumption of various materials in the army was even greater. Not to mention, the consumption of food alone was a big problem. In order to supply the front line, many local officials in the prefectures and counties even had the intention to be bandits.

Li Yan also had a deep understanding of this issue. Dengzhou was originally the closest place to the Liaodong Peninsula, so Niu Jinda's waterway supplies were almost loaded from Dengzhou and then transported to the opposite side. Among the supplies, most of them were grain and weapons, and half of these food and weapons were issued by Dengzhou. Li Yan couldn't even push them out, because this was a forced levy by Li Shimin for him. After all, after Li Yan's nearly a year of development, the tax revenue in Dengzhou has not only increased several times, but the people under his rule are also much richer than other states. Since Dengzhou is so rich, he naturally has to pay more.

If you are entrusted with other items, Li Yan is not worried, such as salt, canned food, etc. Dengzhou produces this thing, and it is as much as you want, but weapons and grain are a bit troublesome. Among them, weapons are better. There are also many local weapon workshops in Dengzhou. In addition, some of them can be bought from other places, so they can barely deal with them, but grain is troublesome.

Dengzhou was not a grain-producing area, and most of the local grain used must be transported from outside. Although canned food is good, Dengzhou's main seafood canned food can now be used as a complementary food, and it is impossible to make staple food. Moreover, as soon as the battle started, the grain urgency documents on the front line were sent one by one. Fortunately, Dengzhou had several large granaries before, which could be handled for a period of time. However, the stored grain inside could not be supplied unlimitedly and would have been used up for the most years ago. However, the war is still halfway through, and the New Year has to be fought. However, the grain prices in Dengzhou have tripled, and the people are suffering.

In order to solve this problem and to no longer worry about food in Dengzhou in the future, Li Yan thought of a good solution. After discussing with Zhao Fu, Yanbei and Liu Rengui, they all thought it was a good policy, so they sorted out a policy and promulgated it. (To be continued...)! ~!
Chapter completed!