The entire peninsula has a terrain that is high in the east and low in the west.
There are many mountains and hills in the east. The Taihuang Mountains in Liaodong region stretch for thousands of miles, all the way to the southern end of the peninsula, spanning several countries and forming countless basins and hills.
I don’t blame the Silla people for always wanting to take the Han River Basin into their arms. The main reason is that Silla is located in the hilly area at the southern end of the remaining mountains of Taehuang Mountain, and the geographical environment is really not good.
However, it is precisely because of the terrain that the Fuyu people conquered the Woju tribes and went south. Some Fuyu tribes took advantage of the situation and conquered the Baekje tribes, but there was nothing they could do against the Silla people. Mainly because the terrain there was complicated and they had no choice.
The only way is to continue heading eastward.
Several large rivers divide the peninsula into several parts, which is the culprit of the separatist situation of the peninsula.
This is still the case more than a thousand years later. In addition to the game between countries, terrain is also an indispensable influencing factor.
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The origin of the Zhushui River is Langlin Mountain in the remnants of Taihuang Mountain in the east. It pours down to the southwest of the peninsula and flows into the sea.
This large river on the peninsula is more famous than the Han River in the historical records of the Central Plains.
Because during the Qin and Han Dynasties, all areas north of the Zhu River were governed by Han family counties, ending at the Zhu River.
The plain area where Pyongyang City, the royal city of Goguryeo, is now located, belonged to Lelang County in the former Han Dynasty, and Pyongyang City was the county seat of Lelang County.
At the end of the Han Dynasty, during the Cao Wei Dynasty, the Wei army defeated the capital city of Fuyu Maru and thought that the Fuyu Kingdom was destroyed, so they returned to the Central Plains.
Soon the Fuyu people revived and rebuilt Wandu City. Taking advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains, they invaded Lelang and Xuantu counties in the south and gradually occupied Liaodong and the northern part of the peninsula.
At that time, the Central Plains was in the period of the Wuhu disaster, and the outside world was facing strong pressure from the Rouran and then the Turks. There was no time to take care of the land of Liaodong.
Until the former Sui Dynasty unified the world, the war with Goguryeo was put on the agenda again. However, several expeditions only resulted in the loss of troops and generals. This was a great shame for the Sui army, which had always been invincible.
Yang Guang raised an army of one million to conquer Liaodong. At that time, it could be said that the whole country responded. The nobles gritted their teeth and endured Yang Guang's taxation, and went to Liaodong to serve.
For example, the Mayi troops led by Li Xiuning were one of them.
But the result was shocking. Yang Guang treated the war as a personal show, and ended up in a complete defeat, with heavy casualties, even worse than Zhao Guo's in the damn Changping Battle.
This level of disastrous defeat in the Central Plains Dynasty's foreign wars, in terms of process and results, may only be compared to the later Battle of Sarhu.
When Yang Guang conquered Liaodong again, no one was willing to play with him. The emperor's credibility had collapsed. Who was still willing to follow him to Liaodong and die?
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In another time and space, Li Shimin was also very cautious in attacking Goguryeo.
At that time, he had defeated the Turkic royal court, the Tuyuhun Khanate, the Xueyantuo Khanate, and the Western Turkic royal tent. It could be said that he was a guest of all the barbarians and a common master in the country.
At this time, he launched an army to personally conquer Liaodong. At that time, Li Shimin fought for half his life and conquered every battle. He established the Tang Empire in a down-to-earth manner, but still put Goguryeo at the end.
It was probably also affected by the repeated defeats of the former Sui Dynasty. He did not dare to mention the conquest of Liaodong easily, for fear of getting into trouble and making it difficult to deal with it.
The scene at that time was that the soldiers of the government were asking for orders to join the army, bringing their own dry food and weapons, and just wanted to join the army. It can be said that the whole country was mobilized and worked together...
This is a bit similar to when Yang Guang first conquered Liaodong. Otherwise, Li Yuan always felt that Li Shimin was the second Yang Guang, because both of their personalities were extremely fanatical about the emperor's achievements.
It's just that they are completely different. Their talents, methods, vision, and understanding of the world are all very different. The result is that one is in the sky and the other is on the earth.
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Today, the external environment of the Tang Dynasty has improved, so it aims its guns at Goguryeo.
"Back then, General Laihu'er led the navy into the Xu River by sea and landed south of Pyongyang..."
As Li Jing spoke, he clicked on the location of Pyongyang City on the map.
Du Fuwei laughed and said, "Coming to protect our son will cause serious harm to our Shandong son-in-law."
Li Jing stroked his beard and smiled, "He also acted under orders. If you want to blame him, you can only blame Emperor Yang for not being considerate of the people.
When we conquered Liaodong, all the soldiers from Shandong who were requisitioned went to the city of Liaodong, and the generals who came to protect them were Jianghuai warriors, all brothers from his hometown."
Du Fuwei didn't know much about this, and he was very disapproving of what Li Jing said. He snorted in his heart. Those dog officials back then were not good people.
But he would not be serious about this with Li Jing, and said smoothly: "I heard that Lai Hu'er led the troops to attack Pyongyang City. We have many troops this time, so we can't be worse than him, right?"
Li Jing shook his head, "This is hard to say. On that day Emperor Yang raised millions of troops to conquer Liaodong, and the main force of Goguryeo's army was stationed in Liaodong.
General Laihu'er led a partial army with only tens of thousands of people, but he was able to catch him by surprise. The Goguryeo people did not have much precaution, allowing him to make great achievements. Unfortunately, the Goguryeo people were not destined to die, and their success failed in the end.
Nowadays, things are different from those in the past. The army has been deployed for so long, and the Goguryeo people are on guard, fearing that they will not be able to take advantage of them lightly."
Du Fuwei blinked and asked, "If the governor is leading the army, where will he cross the river? Like Lai Huer, go straight to Pyongyang, or cross the river from another place?"
Li Jing liked hearing this. He raised his head and looked at Du Fuwei, thinking to himself, is this a sign of goodwill to me, or does it have no other meaning? Just say it casually?
But when it comes to tactics, he is not shy, "The territory is so big. There are mountains in the east and the water is fast. There shouldn't be many places for the army to cross the river calmly, right?"
Du Fuwei nodded. He had led troops in battles for many years. Since he smelled the imminent war, he knew exactly what to do and had already sent people to investigate for a long time.
"What the Grand Governor said is that the area to the west is flatter and can be used for large armies to form arrays, and the river leading to the sea is also wide enough to allow ships to come over.
I think about it, when crossing the river, we must first let small boats transport troops and seize the beachhead, and then follow up with big boats and send the main force of the army across.
Previously, I had people sail a boat upstream along the river several times to test the Goguryeo navy and the depth of the river.
Goguryeo's naval forces ignored them. Hundreds of small boats, usually used for fishing, were entangled with us on the water. We could send them to see the Dragon King without any effort.
It's here, here, and here. The water is not deep enough for large ships to pass.
In this way, if we want the whole army to cross the river as soon as possible, we have to use the waterway where the Zhu River flows into the sea so that our naval forces can fully display their skills.
It won’t be a big deal if we build a pontoon to get out…”
Li Jing praised him, he really had to admire King Du's ability.
You must know that the current navy of the Tang Army is basically controlled by Du Fuwei's old troops. In other words, except for the troops of Wen Shihong and others, the skeleton of the Tang Army's navy is almost the same as that of King Du who was king and hegemon in Jiangdu.
Time to pull it up.
"Your Highness is meticulous in his work. With His Highness here, why should we worry about winning this battle?"
Du Fuwei laughed heartily and said: "Captain, don't praise me, my other abilities are ordinary, but this is the only thing that can't trouble me.
If a fight really breaks out, the commander-in-chief can just leave the matter of transporting troops across the river to me, and nothing will go wrong."
What he said was very clear. Li Jing was extremely satisfied and his smile became brighter.
"At that time, we will have to rely more on His Highness's might. But when we deploy our troops on the river, we still have to guard against the opponent's fire attack..."
Du Fuwei waved his hands indifferently after hearing this and said: "Don't worry, Governor, I'm not Cao Cao. I'm afraid that Goguryeo won't be able to get rid of Zhou Yu and Zhuge. Can they burn Red Cliff for us?"
Don't worry, don't worry, once the ship enters the river, there is no need to set up the sails and almost all relies on human oars. It is not easy to set the ship on fire."
Li Jing was in a good mood and also joked, "Well, what His Highness said is that as long as you don't imitate Cao Mengde and chain the ships together, then it will be fine."
After saying that, the two looked at each other and laughed.
The atmosphere was harmonious, and the two of them discussed the matter of food and grass again.
The Tang army has gathered more than 200,000 soldiers and horses on the peninsula, and is relatively tight on food and grass. If the tribes of Silla and Baekje do not try their best to support them, I am afraid that by the end of autumn, there will be problems with the food and grass support of the army.
The current situation is actually not very optimistic. The army's food and grass are still stored in Xiongjin City, Jincheng and other places south of the Han River. If you want to be ready to cross the Haishui River, you still need to work hard.
Speaking of this, Li Jing asked, "Has the imperial edict not arrived yet? Does Your Highness know when the imperial court plans to start the war?"
Du Fuwei couldn't help but say after hearing this, this is a stupid thing to ask. Your father-in-law has not heard anything about it, but you come to ask me? If I were from Guanxi, I would kick you away right now. Do you believe it?
"I think it's either this year or next year. Goguryeo sent envoys to Chang'an some time ago to negotiate peace with the Tang Dynasty, but there's no news yet. It's probably because His Majesty didn't pay attention to them.
In May, the King of Silla also brought people to meet His Majesty, but he has not returned yet, and I think that when the King of Silla comes back, the edict will probably arrive."
Li Jing nodded after hearing this, but in his mind he was wondering whether he should write to the Central Committee and ask for a fight.
The former Sui Dynasty suffered great losses in Goguryeo, and people in the court always kept it secret when talking about Goguryeo. In fact, they were just afraid that His Majesty would come to conquer Goguryeo personally again.
In view of this, will Your Majesty hesitate?
As the Commander-in-Chief of the Conquest of Japan, he has now returned to Baekje and everything is ready. If he writes a letter, his Majesty may finally make up his mind to go to war?
Well, he felt that there had been no news from the court because Li Po had no excuse and no one to blame him for once he was defeated, so he was hesitating.
If that's the case, he, Li Jing, might as well take up the responsibility and help the emperor solve his problems. It is his duty as a minister.