A group of cavalry galloped in the dark night, the wind whistled in their ears, and the scenery on both sides was constantly changing. The cavalry rushed through the fields, across the rivers, and through the forests. The horses were galloping, tireless, and there was only one lonely round.
The full moon stared at them in the night sky and accompanied them as they ran.
At the beginning of the morning, a round of morning sun burst out, spreading its gorgeous rays of rays to the earth. The cavalry rushed up a hill and stopped their galloping horses. The purple-red rays of rays reflected each of their faces.
Yang Yuanqing stared at the forest and city in the distance. After four days and four nights of driving, they had arrived in Lulong County.
"Walk!"
Yang Yuanqing gave the order and rushed down the hill on horseback. A thousand personal guards followed him and rushed down the hill..."."...
At noon the next day, Yang Yuanqing once again arrived at the Peiping Shipyard at the mouth of Ruhe River. After half a year of development, this area has undergone tremendous changes.
The population gathered, and a new city stood at the mouth of Ruhe River. This was a newly built county town called Rukou County. Including the two surrounding towns, it already had a population of nearly 3,000 households, most of which were the family members of shipwrights.
Yang Yuanqing led more than a thousand cavalry to arrive, which had already alerted the county and shipyard officials, including the young new county magistrate, county magistrate, shipyard chief Zhao Guangcai, Ying Yanglang general Yu Zhenwu, craftsman Zhang Long, Zhang Hu brothers, and more than a dozen people
Officials came out one after another.
Yang Yuanqing smiled slightly and said, "Please excuse me. This is not my first time here."
Everyone was so excited that they invited Yang Yuanqing to the county town to rest. Yang Yuanqing saw from a distance a forest of masts on the sea, and large ships standing like hills on the sea and the mouth of the Ruhe River.
Yang Yuanqing's emotions began to rise. He pointed his riding whip at the distant coast, "Let's go see the warships first!"
He galloped towards the shipyard. The shipyard was still empty, but much livelier than before. Teams of shipwrights were busy everywhere, and dozens of shipwrights walked past them carrying a huge keel.
In order to attack Goryeo, the Sui Dynasty carried out large-scale shipbuilding and accumulated countless shipbuilding materials in the shipyard. However, most of these materials were not used and were piled in warehouses. At this time, they were fully utilized.
This was just a shipbuilding site, and the warships of the Sui army were concentrated at the mouth of the Lushui River at the junction of Hejian County and Zhuo County. They could be reached directly through the canal. The mouth of the river is where Tianjin is today.
After more than half a year of hard work, the craftsmen of the shipyard have successively repaired hundreds of large-scale ships towed from various places, and also renovated some large inland river ships so that they can withstand sea waves.
At this time, the Sui army had more than 800 warships at sea. But Yang Yuanqing's goal was a thousand warships, and he came here to inspect how many warships were about to be repaired in the shipyard.
"How many more warships can be repaired in one month?" Yang Yuanqing turned back and asked Zhao Guangcai, the Prime Minister.
Zhao Guangcai hurriedly stepped forward and replied: "Since receiving His Highness's order, the shipwrights have been divided into two shifts to repair the ships day and night. Within a month, we can guarantee the delivery of another two hundred large ships."
Yang Yuanqing nodded and said to brothers Zhang Long and Zhang Hu: "Ask all the shipwrights to follow the ship to Luhekou after repairing the ship, just like last time. I need them to be crew members."
After a pause, Yang Yuanqing asked again: "How many experienced shipwrights can be summoned?"
Zhang Long bowed and said: "Return to your Highness, there are about three thousand people."
Yang Yuanqing felt relieved. He pointed at a large ship and said with a smile: "Get on the ship and have a look."."."."
In Taiyuan, Ziwei Pavilion approved the suggestion of Chu King Yang Yuanqing to prepare for the war in Qingzhou and annihilate Dou Jiande's tribe in one fell swoop. When the news came out, it immediately shocked the court, and many ministers expressed their opposition.
The Sui army's seizure of Hebei and the Central Plains had already brought a huge burden to the Sui Dynasty. Seeing that the autumn grain harvest was a foregone conclusion, Ziweige actually decided to attack Qingzhou under this situation, which was tantamount to adding insult to injury, and there was a lot of opposition from both the government and the public.
But there are also voices of support, mainly officials from the Hebei faction. The people in Qingzhou are living in poverty and are eager for the Sui army to rescue them. If Qingzhou is recaptured, refugees will not flow into Hebei and relief can be provided on the spot.
The news quickly spread from the court to the people, triggering a huge debate in Taiyuan City. People were everywhere talking about this battle, which was even more eye-catching than the Central Plains War.
Regardless of opposition or approval, it could not change Ziweige's decision. The army began to gather on a large scale. The grain from the Taiyuan granary was loaded onto the ships. Large ships loaded with grain sailed towards the north of the river, passing through the Fenshui River, the Yellow River and
Canal, sailing to Hejian County.
At noon, a wine shop outside Taiyuan North City was crowded with customers and extremely lively. Table after table were all discussing the war against Dou Jiande. The debate had spread from the court to the people.
"Has the disaster in Hebei been resolved? Have the hungry people in the Central Plains been appeased? We still don't know how to solve the two major burdens. Now we have to bring Qingzhou in. Can this small Hedong afford such a big burden?
"An old man was heartbroken and reprimanded the court for this decision.
Another middle-aged man had a gentle temper and persuaded the old man, "Weng Qi, you can't say that. If you don't take Qingzhou, won't you have no burden? Seeing that the autumn grain harvest is a foregone conclusion, a large number of hungry people from Qingzhou will inevitably flow into Hebei or the Central Plains.
, instead of leaving their hometowns to beg for food, it is better to resettle them in their hometowns. I think this is the purpose of the Sui army's attack on Qingzhou."
Another drinker sighed: "The key is how much food do we have? When the war starts, the army is mobilized, money and food are about to go out. If there is not much food, it will be used up in a war. How can we provide disaster relief?"
"There should be plenty of food. I heard that the last time we negotiated with the Tang Dynasty, we severely killed the Tang Dynasty. There should be enough food, otherwise His Highness the King of Chu would not have made this decision."..."..."
There were discussions everywhere. One of the middle-aged drinkers was drinking fruit wine slowly, but his ears were straightened, listening to all the discussions.
He paid the bill quietly and quickly left the wine shop. This man walked into Beishi City and came to a drug store. A clerk came out to greet him, "The shopkeeper is back!"
The middle-aged man nodded and walked into the pharmacy.
Just as the Sui Dynasty set up its intelligence hall in Pyongyang, the Koryo people also extended their tentacles into Taiyuan. After the assassination of the princess half a year ago, all the Koryo halls were wiped out, but two months ago, Gesuwen sent another group of Koryo halls.
members, continue to collect intelligence on the Sui Dynasty.
Different from the last killer-type intelligence agent, this time it was replaced by a businessman style. A middle-aged man named Gao Wenjing, a famous doctor in Pyongyang, became the leader of this group of Koryotang intelligence agents.
He led more than a dozen of his subordinates and used this drug store in Beishi as a base to collect all kinds of information at a high price, and then transferred it to Liaodong via Eagle Letter, and finally sent it to Goryeo Domestic City and delivered it to Gesuwen.
Gao Wenjing is about forty years old and can speak fluent Chinese. Just from his appearance, there is no way to tell that he is a Korean.
Gao Wenjing hurriedly walked into the backyard and into a room. He sat down at the table, spread out the tissue paper, and wrote the latest information bit by bit with a fine pen, "The Sui army will launch a campaign against Qingzhou", which aroused widespread dissatisfaction among the people.
…
Of course, he could not take this kind of important information seriously after hearing a few discussions in a wine shop. In fact, he had already received definite information from the court that the Sui Dynasty was going to attack Dou Jiande in Qingzhou and complete the campaign before the autumn harvest.
He went to the wine shop just to listen to public opinion.
After writing the information and waiting for the ink to dry, they carefully rolled it up and put it into a thin bamboo tube. This was a communication method they learned from the Sui army. They trained letter eagles to deliver messages. Their eagles were set outside the city.
First send it to Liaodong, and then send it to Korea from Liaodong.
Gao Wenjing walked out of the room and handed the bamboo tube to a waiter, "Send this letter quickly without delay!"
The clerk took the mailbox and hurried away. Gao Jingwen then walked slowly to the front hall of the drug store..."."...
The day after the decision was made at Ziwei Pavilion in the Sui Dynasty, Li Shimin of Chang'an also received urgent information from Tang Feng.
In the inner hall of Prince Qin's palace, Li Shimin was pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back. On the table was Tang Feng's urgent information. Sitting on the other side was Li Shimin's military advisor Fang Xuanling.
"Your Highness, I find it very strange that the Sui Dynasty's military operations have never had anything to do with Ziwei Pavilion. They were directly deployed by Yang Yuanqing. This was the Sui Dynasty's principle of separation of military and political affairs. This has always been the case. Why does it require Ziwei Pavilion's approval this time?"
"Perhaps this is the beginning of the restructuring of the Sui Dynasty." Changsun Wuji on the other side said.
"impossible!"
Fang Xuanling rejected Changsun Wuji's idea without hesitation, "Even if Yang Yuanqing ascends the throne, he will never assign military power to Ziwei Pavilion. What's more, he is still the King of Chu. Wang Xu's lesson is not far away, he will never
It is impossible to hand over military power to Ziwei Pavilion."
Li Shimin stopped. Fang Xuanling's judgment was indeed reasonable. In fact, he thought it was unlikely that it was actually approved by Ziwei Pavilion. Even if it was just a formality, Yang Yuanqing would not be vague about military power.
"Then why do you think that is?" Li Shimin looked at Fang Xuanling and asked.
Fang Xuanling pondered for a long time and said: "I think there is only one possibility for this, and that is that there is no such thing!"
Li Shimin was shocked, "How do you say this?"
Fang Xuanling sneered and said slowly: "To be honest, I don't believe that Yang Yuanqing will attack Qingzhou at this time. There is a severe drought in Qingzhou. His attack on Qingzhou at this time will only arouse public resentment. The people of the Sui Dynasty will hate him and add to the burden.
The people of Qingzhou hated him for defeating the drought through military force. If he had been smarter and used the severe drought in Qingzhou to provide relief to the victims, he would have won the hearts of the people in Qingzhou and left Dou Jiande with the bad reputation for his ineffective disaster relief. I believe Yang Yuanqing also understood in his heart."
Next to him, Chang Sun Wuji nodded in agreement, and added: "If we really want to attack Qingzhou, we should end the battle silently and with thunder. When we get the news, the war will be over. This is the plan Yang Yuanqing should take.
Instead of making such a big fuss, let's seize the opportunity."
"Then what is Yang Yuanqing's intention for doing this?" Li Shimin asked in confusion.