Chapter 59: The Great Fish Leaping Over the Dragon Gate

  This New Year's, the staff at Starting Point were also on holiday, so there was a bit of an issue with the book release. I'm really sorry about that. The editor-in-chief is back at work today and I've re-uploaded the chapters, but it'll take another day to delete the extra ones. Originally, the book was still on the new releases chart, but... *sigh*... anyway, thanks for the reward from Abu Xie!

  The battle between the attackers and defenders of Liaodong City was intense and difficult to resolve. Although the Sui army had many siege engines, the city walls were strong and well-defended with abundant supplies. Despite having fewer soldiers, the city was filled with people from Goguryeo who had been evacuated from the surrounding areas when the Sui army approached.

  At this time, facing the Sui army's large-scale attack on the city, King Gao Jiwon of the Goguryeo simply opened his mouth, and the people in the city enthusiastically signed up to join the militia. In a short period of time, Gao Jiwon recruited 30,000 militiamen.

  For all the Koguryo people, they knew that the Sui army had lost millions of soldiers in Liaodong, and everyone was worried that if the city was broken, the Sui army would not hesitate to kill them. Last year when the Sui army attacked Koguryo, many surrender envoys were set up in the army, and Liaodong City was also attacked by the Sui army several times last year, creating gaps in the city walls. However, every time they just said surrender, they could get a buffer time, and after repairing the city wall, they would fight against the Sui army again.

  However, it is now said that the Sui Emperor has also been enraged by this behavior of the Liaodong people, and he has withdrawn all his envoys to surrender. This makes all the Goguryeo people think that if they are defeated again, the Sui army will not use their delaying tactics again, and may even face a massacre by the Sui army. Under this thinking, especially after Gao Jianwu instructed people to spread this rumor continuously in the city, all the Goguryeo people were extremely enthusiastic about defending the city, and the military and civilians in Liaodong City were united as one.

  Gao Jianwu relied on the strong walls of Liaodong, and with the addition of nearly 20,000 civilian recruits who were temporarily transferred to Xicheng, the two sides suddenly became stuck in a stalemate. However, everyone understood that the Sui army had the upper hand, and as long as they continued this intensity of attack, the first to collapse would definitely be the Goguryeo people.

  Lu Shi-deep rode his horse behind Chen Ke-fu and others, looking at the battle that had been going on for half a day with some boredom. "These cowardly Liao dogs only know how to shrink in the city, those who have the guts come out and compete with you, the gentlemen of the broken army camp."

  Chen Kefu smiled and looked at his boring brother, "On the battlefield, there is no such thing as a heroic match. The attacking and defending sides use their own advantages to fight, that's the way of the general. If the Goguryeo general really came out to fight with us as you said, he would be a fool. How could such a person let us attack several times without falling? Do you think we are even more foolish than them?"

  Chen Kefu had always wanted to run an officer training program in the army, and in his spare time at night, he would give these high-ranking officers a good lesson. These people used to be low-ranking officers with limited vision, but now they have become generals commanding troops. If their vision is still as narrow as that of a lower-level officer who only knows how to charge forward, it will undoubtedly greatly reduce the combat effectiveness of the broken army camp. Moreover, Chen Kefu's heart already had a seed sprouting, making him even more eager to cultivate these trusted subordinates as soon as possible.

  As for the criticism from his elder, Lu Shide didn't care and smiled, "I heard that the city's guardian general is also a high-ranking prince of Goguryeo, how can it be that as princes, this person is so far apart from Gao Qi? Although he has some abilities, if I were to say it, he is far inferior to Gao Qi. Gao Qi may not have any abilities, but he knows how to read the situation and at least knows that those who know when to act are heroes."

  Li Benlei smiled and said, "You really overestimated Gao Qi. With that kind of quality, how could he be so clever? He just had no choice. The defender of Liaodong City is quite capable, and under the strong attack of our great army, he can still defend himself in an orderly manner, not an ordinary person."

  Although many people looked down on the Liao people, at this time they couldn't help but raise their opinion of the Liao Dong guardian general in their hearts. Under such a thunderous attack, he could still do so, it's really not easy.

  "Even if he's the reincarnation of Sun Wu, it's still useless." Li Jie, who was standing to Chen Kefu's right, smiled and said, "Does everyone think that this formation in front of us is all we have in terms of attacking strategies?"

  As soon as he spoke, the crowd of generals became curious, and Lu Shide's loud voice asked, "Is it possible that Your Majesty still has some hidden tricks up his sleeve?"

  Li Jie smiled and said in a low voice, "Have you gentlemen noticed what those civilians in the camp are doing?"

  Reminded by him, everyone couldn't help but start thinking back. Zhang He thought of what he had seen and said busily, "I saw many civilians these days busy in the big camp, but it seems they were all using cloth bags to pack soil, didn't discover anything special."

  "It's nothing special to fill sacks with soil. But do you know how many sacks they filled?"

  "How much?"

  Li Jie said mysteriously, "As far as I know, since Your Majesty has been besieging the city of Liaodong, many civilians have been mobilized to fill cloth bags. Coincidentally, the person in charge is a clansman of my Li family, and according to him, Your Majesty has ordered them to fill one million cloth bags."

  "One million?" Whenever the crowd mentioned this number, they would all take a deep breath. This number was truly too astonishing for them. One million burlap sacks! How much manpower would it take to produce such a quantity? Not to mention filling them with dirt afterwards, just piling up one million empty burlap sacks in an open space would be like building a mountain.

  Lu Shi-deep still had some unclear way, "fill so many cloth bags do what? Is it filling the moat? But isn't the moat already filled up?"

  Chen Kefu had already guessed the emperor's intention when Li Jieyi mentioned filling the cloth bags, and now hearing that Lu Shide was still so shameless, he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.

  "You, usually I let you read more books, but you don't want to. Now you're embarrassed? His Majesty's move is not without precedent, military books have had such methods before. When attacking a city, use cloth bags to fill with soil and then directly pile up a straight road leading to the city wall at the bottom of the city. The defenders can't destroy this passage even if they want to, it's an earth mountain, not afraid of arrows or fire attacks, as long as it can be piled up, the city will definitely fall."

  Chen Kefu couldn't help but admire Yang Guang's approach, which could be said to be the most untechnical tactic, yet it was also the most practical. Moreover, such a tactic was exactly what the Sui army needed, and it suited the current situation perfectly.

  One million burlap bags, the cost is too high. Just filling one million burlap bags would require a lot of manpower, material resources and time. And when the time comes to pile up such a mountain of earth, it will also take a lot of time and require many soldiers to cover it up.

  But for the Sui army, now that they have men, money and time, when facing a stronghold like Liaodong, this strategy is just right.

  Li Jie also smiled and said, "Today's fierce attack during the day, even if Goguryeo can hold on to the city without losing, they must be exhausted. So by nightfall, with a million soldiers and civilians working together, the wide 'Fish Scale' road will be right in front of us. At that time, can Goguryeo still withstand the onslaught of our mighty Sui army rushing up the city walls? Won't it be taken down in one fell swoop?"

  Everyone nodded in agreement. Without the protection of the city wall, the Goguryeo people would be unable to resist the Sui army.

  Moreover, apart from this 'Fish Scale' road, Your Majesty has also prepared another gift for the people of Goguryeo. You have already dispatched many laborers to dig tunnels under the city walls of Goguryeo. These tunnels are not only hidden but also very wide and can accommodate four teams walking side by side. After digging for so long, they are almost done. When the time comes, we will launch a strong attack with my 100,000 soldiers, as well as many siege engines, and at night, we will lay out this 'Fish Scale' road. Secretly, we also have tunnels, and when the time comes, we will use them to launch a surprise attack. The defending general of this city is not even worthy of being compared to Gao Qi, but unfortunately, in such a big battle, our army's tactics cannot be fully utilized. It's a pity that such a great opportunity for wealth and glory is about to slip away from us.

  Li Jie sat on his horse, constantly sighing. Every soldier facing the temptation of breaking through the city walls of Liaodong was undoubtedly filled with infinite longing.

  Chen Kefu's heart also couldn't help but add a few more points of expectation for the fall of Liaodong. He hadn't expected that Yang Guang's order to launch a full-scale attack on Goguryeo at this time wasn't just an impulsive decision. Previously, he actually didn't think that launching a full-scale attack on Goguryeo at this time was a good strategy. In his opinion, Liaodong City was a dead city, and slowly besieging it, or even withdrawing most of the troops back to the country would be better.

  For a stronghold like Liaodong, it would be enough to have 200,000 people. The current Liao people don't even dare to come out and fight in the open field. If other Liao people come to rescue, that's even better, they can also surround and attack the reinforcements.

  But now this strategy of having hundreds of thousands of people besieging a city is not very good, and if the siege continues like this, it will be too costly for the Sui Dynasty. The Sui Dynasty's regular army has only 600,000 soldiers, but now all of a sudden hundreds of thousands of people are gathering in Liaodong, which is not a good thing for the great Sui.

  But now it seems that Yang Guang has learned from his previous failure, he does not intend to play any intimidation or subjugation with the Goguryeo people, but instead intends to actually take down Liaodong City, and even take down Goguryeo.

  Moreover, Yang Guang, who had made up his mind to do so, was also formidable. He had planned today's attack on the city several months ago, with various large-scale siege engines, underground tunnels, and millions of cloth bags, which could not have been made in a short time. This shows that Yang Guang still has a very clear understanding of attacking Liaodong City.

  Given the current situation, with the powerful Tang army, he couldn't think of anything left to rely on for defense in Liaodong City. Was the Goguryeo dynasty, which had sucked too much blood from the Central Plains dynasties, finally going to fall?

  Chen Kefu couldn't help but look forward to this result even more, once Liaodong City was broken, what could Goguryeo use to resist the Sui Dynasty's great army?

  Please give me some recommendation votes, I've been really down lately, sorry everyone!