Chapter Twenty: Reporting Back to the Emperor

  Thanks Fx for the generous reward! Thank you!

  The Sui army has been besieging the city of Liaodong for over 20 days, employing various siege engines and methods such as cloud ladders, battering rams, flying towers, and tunnels to attack the city from all sides day and night. The Goguryeo people also tried every means to counter the attacking army, with both sides holding out for over 20 days, suffering casualties on both sides, but Liaodong City still has not been breached.

  Today, Yang Guang convened all the ministers in the grand account to discuss the city's attack again. Yang Guang was very unhappy with the current situation, with hundreds of thousands of troops trapped under the city walls, attacking every day without success, while various supplies and grains were being consumed continuously. He thought he was comparable to Qin Huang and Han Wu, with unparalleled military achievements in the world, forcing the Turks to the north, destroying Tuyuhun to the west, taking Linyi to the south, and destroying the flow to the east, and no one dared to resist his army's edge.

  But now a small Korea dares to refuse to surrender, and even a small Liaodong city has made the Sui dynasty's army of 100,000 unable to take it for more than 20 days.

  "General Yuwen, do you have a good strategy to break through the city of Liaodong?" Yang Guang asked, sitting on his throne and facing down at Yuwen Shu, the Left Guard General.

  Yuwen Shu and General Yang Yichen led 100,000 troops to conquer Pingguo, but were ambushed at the Duck Green River. Although they managed to regroup their forces, they lost over a thousand men. Faced with the strong defense of the Goguryeo people along the river, Yuwen Shu and Yang Yichen had no choice but to return without achieving anything.

  At this time, listening to Yang Guang's questioning, he couldn't help but sweat on his forehead. If it weren't for the fact that he was related to Yang Guang by marriage and had rendered meritorious service, he would have been punished by the emperor long ago. Now, facing the city of Liaodong, which had left tens of thousands of people helpless, what good strategy could he possibly come up with? All he could do was stammer out a reply: "Your Majesty, although the Goguryeo people are holed up and won't come out, our great army numbers in the hundreds of thousands, and our siege engines are swift and fierce. If we launch another fierce attack for several more days, we will surely be able to take the city by storm."

  For such a result, Yang Guang was dissatisfied and hummed. At this time, the eunuch Wang Gonggong beside him walked to his side and said softly, "Your Majesty, Eagle General Chen Poyuan defeated Goguryeo people in Xincheng a few days ago and has taken down Xincheng. Now he sends a military officer to report the victory."

  "What? The Goguryeo people have been defeated and we've taken over the new city?" Yang Guang loudly asked Wang Gonggong.

  The many generals in the big account heard that they were all stunned for a moment, took down Xincheng? For a while, they were all surprised and curious.

  Upon seeing Wang Gonggong approaching, Yang Guang immediately waved his hand and said, "Since it's such good news, of course we must share it with all the beloved consorts. Quickly bring him up, I want to see him personally."

  Before long, Wang Lin was led into the grand tent. He was just a soldier and advisor in the Eagle Winged Pavilion, although his rank had entered the mainstream, he was only an 18th-grade minor official. When had he ever had the opportunity to meet the emperor? For a moment, he walked with his head bowed, not daring to lift it once. After finishing the kneeling and bowing, he didn't dare get up from the ground.

  "Compose yourself, quickly tell me what Chen Poyuan sent you to inform me about. I just heard that a great victory was won over the Goguryeo people and that a new city was captured? Speak quickly, what is the situation?" Yang Guang said somewhat urgently. Not only him, but all the ministers in the grand tent were looking at the man with some disbelief.

  "Your Majesty, a great victory! This time I broke the army camp and followed General Chen to support the Fu Yu Dao. In just two days, we encountered the Goguryeo general, Go Hye-ji, who was guarding the new city, more than 20 miles away from the new city. He is still a king. On that day, Go Hye-ji led 10,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry to fight against me in a field battle. The army camp above and below, under General Chen's leadership, fought to the death with the enemy. In just one day, our army camp completely defeated the Goguryeo army, killing over 1,000 enemies, wounding over 2,000 enemies, capturing nearly 9,000 people, and capturing General Go Hye-ji."

  Minister Pei Shijie shouted, "How dare you speak nonsense! Chen Poyu led only 3,000 cavalrymen. Even if he defeated the Goguryeo people, it would be difficult to annihilate 1,000 enemies, injure 2,000 enemies and capture nearly 9,000 enemies. Do you know that false reporting of military achievements is a capital offense? Don't think that killing some Goguryeo civilians will deceive you into getting military merit?"

  Wang Lin hastily replied, "What I said is true, the Goguryeo people have already retreated to their strongholds. Now all the Goguryeo people are being relocated to various mountain cities. How can we cut off civilians' heads and take credit for it? Moreover, the new city is now under our general's occupation. This time, the general has brought me along with Gao Qi to present him to Your Majesty. If Your Majesty summons him, everything will be clear."

  Yang Guang waved his hand, "This matter is not urgent, after defeating the large army of Goguryeo, how many casualties were there in the broken military camp? And how did you capture Xincheng?"

  Before that, Chen Kefu had already instructed Wang Lin to exaggerate the number of casualties a bit, so as to make this achievement seem more laborious and meritorious. After all, now that they have taken New City with such ease and defeated the Goguryeo people, no one would think that their achievement was hard-won.

  "I report to Your Majesty, this time I broke the enemy's camp with General's leadership, and we fought a bloody battle to the death. The narrow road met the brave ones who won. The general first divided into two teams to attack the enemy's wings, then attacked the enemy's front with the main force. First, they broke through the enemy's formation with bows and arrows, then led the cavalry to continuously roam and impact outside the enemy's formation until it was broken. Finally, he led the army to continuously cut off the enemy's infantry until the end when the Goguryeo people were in chaos and fled. After a day of bloody battle, I broke through the camp with courage and determination, although we won the victory, but more than 100 people died in battle, more than 100 people were seriously injured, nearly a thousand people were lightly injured, and almost everyone else had minor injuries."

  "After General Chen Pojun captured Gao Qi, he learned that there were still 5,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry in the city. He ordered us to change into the uniforms and flags of the Goguryeo army, and then under the cover of night, had Gao Qi pretend to open the city gate. Next, General Chen sent someone with Gao Qi's subordinates to lure all the high-ranking officers of the Goguryeo army in the main camp to our camp. After that, he ordered us to distribute good wine and meat to the Goguryeo soldiers in the main camp, and when everyone was drunk, we took advantage of the opportunity to capture all 9,000 Goguryeo soldiers at once. When I arrived, General Chen had already taken full control of the new city, and it's likely that the remaining Goguryeo people in other cities have not yet received the news. On my way here, General Chen also sighed that if our army hadn't suffered heavy casualties and were not exhausted, we could have captured the three cities of Nansu, Mudi, and Cangyan with just a few thousand soldiers in one day."

  Yang Guang laughed heartily and said, "Chen Broken Army is indeed my Huo Qubing. With 3,000 men, he defeated 20,000 and captured a heavily fortified city. This is the greatest achievement of our campaign against Liao. Summon someone to reward this brave warrior with 10 taels of gold, 100 bolts of silk, a high-quality warhorse, and a promotion in rank."

  The various ministers under the account also secretly shocked after listening, this is not the last time, last time Chen Broken Army was brave, but that was just a husband. Such people have no more than three or five in each army, and yesterday, Shen Guang climbed to the top of the ladder, fought with Goguryeo on the city wall, and killed more than ten people. The Goguryeo soldiers knocked him down, before he fell to the ground, Shen Guang grabbed the rope hanging from the ladder and climbed up again to fight with the enemy, it can be said that he was completely braver than Chen Kefu that day.

  But being able to be brave and fierce on the battlefield, yet also having the strategy of commanding troops, being good at both fighting and strategizing, this is a different story. For these high-ranking officials in the account, they are all from noble families, always pulling those who can be used by me, and suppressing those who cannot be used by me. Now that Chen Kefu has climbed too fast, this is not a good thing for them either.

  Wang Lin looked at Yang Guang with a big smile, his heart was also excited. He came to report the victory and unexpectedly received so many rewards. As an eighth-rank official, he was even promoted one level, which meant that he suddenly rose to seventh-rank. Thinking of the large amount of supplies captured by General's new city, he couldn't help but think that if he told the Emperor this good news, the Emperor would surely reward him with something.

  "Your Majesty, I have more good news to report. This time, after breaking into the military camp and capturing Xincheng, we also found a large amount of supplies in Xincheng. We captured nearly 10,000 war horses, over 3,000 heads of cattle, over 100,000 sets of armor, over 2 million stones of grain, and countless other military equipment."

  When they heard that the Broken Army Camp had captured so many supplies, all the officials took a deep breath. Capturing some war horses and armor was precious, but it couldn't move them. What really made them gasp was the more than 2 million stones of grain, at this time an adult male consumed about 7 stones of grain per year. These more than 2 million stones of grain were basically enough for a large army of 400,000 to eat for a month, how much grain would be saved from being transported from the Central Plains? It can be said that with these grains, the logistics problem of the Sui army was greatly alleviated.

  Yang Guang had already stood up excitedly from his throne and walked in front of Wang Lin, saying "Are your words true?"

  "Your Majesty, the humble servant's words are all true. Those grains and forages were indeed checked and stored in the warehouse by Zhou Gong and others, totaling over 200,000 dan, and they are all last year's new grains."

  Thirty-third place, seems like I didn't make it, everyone please vote, kids...