Chapter 60: Blood Flowing Like a Flood
Liaodong City, the western city, was surrounded by 400,000 Sui troops below the city. What concept is 400,000 people? The slave soldiers on the city wall didn't know before, they only knew that all the military and civilians in Liaodong City added up to less than 200,000 people, not even half of the Sui army under the city wall.
Four hundred thousand people have not yet launched a full-scale attack, but just that wave of over 100,000 Sui soldiers surging forward has already made the Goguryeo people feel endless. As far as the eye can see, the entire city below, which had long been trampled flat, was pitch black with Sui army soldiers, their long spears like a forest and their knife blades shining like snow. The flags fluttering in the wind filled the sky.
Fortunately, from dawn till noon, the Sui army, despite their desperate and fierce attack, was repeatedly repelled from the city walls, although nearly half of the 40,000 soldiers and militiamen had fallen, and most of the remaining were wounded. Fortunately, they still had sufficient equipment, and Rong Zuo Wang had just mobilized more than 20,000 civilians to reinforce the city.
Although the recruits this time were all over fifty years old and under fifteen, in today's emergency situation, no one felt that it was inappropriate to do so. The commander of the Western City Defense, Gao Ming, now only had one arm left, with a scar on his face, but even with such a heavy injury, he still guarded the city head. The king has already passed down the order, General Yizhi Wende has led the army to support, as long as they hold on for two more days, then when General Yizhi Wende arrives, everyone will attack from inside and outside at the same time, and they will definitely defeat the Sui army again.
Last time, General Wen De led a few tens of thousands of soldiers and annihilated the Sui army's 300,000-strong force in one fell swoop. And last time in Pyongyang, Your Excellency also annihilated the Sui navy's 40,000 elite troops with just a few tens of thousands of soldiers. All the defending troops are filled with confidence, having the two most famous generals in the current dynasty join forces, and they will surely defeat the Sui army in one battle. Who knows, maybe even the Emperor of Sui can be captured at that time.
The king has already given the order, this time the Liaodong garrison soldiers will be promoted one level after the war is over, and each person will receive a reward of 10 guan of money, 10 slaves, and 100 heads of cattle. When these mostly slave soldiers heard this news, they undoubtedly suppressed their original fear of the Sui army and instead felt excited and expectant.
Gao Ming's left hand was cut off by the Sui army during the previous wave of attack, and now it was only casually wrapped up. He walked to Gao Jianwu's side with a large knife in his hand and said in a low voice, "Your Highness, I just sent someone to check the east, west, and north gates. Although the Sui army is mainly attacking our western city this time, there are also many Sui soldiers attacking the other three gates, and they are not pretending to attack, but rather launching a desperate assault like us. The three city heads on the other side have already been depleted of their troops. If the Sui army continues to attack at this intensity, we won't be able to hold out until tomorrow, and today will be our last day. Even if we manage to defend the western city, it's possible that the other cities will fall to the Sui army first."
Yeongnyu of Goguryeo is the younger brother of King Yeon Gaesomun, with a handsome appearance and a generous personality. He is also skilled in both literature and martial arts, and has a good reputation within the Goguryeo court. Last year, he defeated the Sui general Commissary Li Guang's army at Pyongyang, making him the second most powerful general in Goguryeo after Eulji Mundeok.
Gao Jianwu's body was no longer as elegant and refined as it used to be, his white battle armor was stained with blood all over. He sat casually on the corpse of a Sui army soldier who had been attacking the city wall, his hand resting on the hilt of his long sword, leaning against the parapet, his eyes somewhat dazed, lost in thought.
It wasn't until much later that he said, "I don't know the current situation, but Goguryeo has suffered two major defeats at the hands of the Sui army. This has caused those nobles in the court to become arrogant and look down on the situation, thinking that the Sui dynasty is really vulnerable. But they have forgotten that the Sui dynasty was established only a few decades ago, yet it has already used military force to conquer the entire Central Plains and beyond. If they were really so vulnerable, how could they have achieved such accomplishments?"
"In the past, we often clashed with the Turks, but how many times did our brave warriors gain the upper hand against them? Now look at the wolves of the grasslands, already divided and even the Western Turkic Khan has surrendered to the Sui Emperor. Although our Goguryeo soldiers are valiant, our population is only three million, far inferior to the great Sui. The Sui Emperor has made up his mind to invade us with all his might, we can hold them off for a while with these mountains and mountain passes of Liaodong, but not forever. We may defeat them once or twice, but at the cost of our own vitality, I fear this time we really cannot hold on." High General Gao's eyes were filled with resentment and hatred towards the nobles within the court.
Gao Ming had been following Gao Jianwu for many years and was also his trusted confidant. He knew more about many things than the other generals did. At this time, he stood beside Gao Jianwu with a worried look on his face and said, "Your Highness, since you saw all this earlier, why didn't you tell the king? If we could do it like before, every time taking a piece of flesh from the Central Plains Dynasty and then immediately submitting a memorial to the Central Plains Emperor to show our loyalty, wouldn't that be good?"
Gao Jianwu smiled wryly, "How could I not know these things? My ancestors of Goguryeo started with a small piece of land and eventually established a country, going through countless hardships. Our ancestors made this national strategy long ago, taking advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains dynasty to encroach on their land and population. After the Central Plains dynasty settled its internal conflicts, we would offer our allegiance. For 500 years, every king of Goguryeo has done so. Only by doing so could Goguryeo become the master of the Far East as it is today."
When it comes to these past events, Gao Jianwu's eyes are filled with pride. Ah, no matter how powerful the Central Plains dynasty was. Although they were located in the far east, they witnessed the rise and fall of one strong Central Plains dynasty after another. Think back to the great Han Dynasty, followed by the powerful Wei, then the Jin, and later the Northern and Southern Dynasties of the Central Plains. Which of these emperors wasn't the master of the world at first? But in the end, they all became fleeting clouds, while only Goguryeo has lasted for 500 years without falling. Not only did it not fall, but it became stronger and stronger, even having the power to rival the Central Plains.
At the beginning, when Emperor Yang of Sui first invaded Goguryeo, the whole country was terrified. However, no one expected that Heaven would also lend a hand, and they easily defeated the Sui army's 300,000-strong force, leaving only a few survivors to return home. After this experience, their mindset began to change, and the Central Plains dynasty wasn't as fearsome as before.
But last year's second war made all the Goguryeo people thoroughly confident. An army of 1.1 million, plus the strength of the civilians, the Sui army with more than 3 million troops arrived in Liaodong, and he was also the main general at that time. And it was also that time, they wiped out more than 400,000 Sui soldiers, and all the Goguryeo people's fear of the Central Plains dynasty for hundreds of years disappeared.
From King Gao Yuan to his son Gao Jianwu, and down to the nobles below, everyone felt that they no longer needed to show deference to the Central Plains Dynasty. The inferiority complex of several hundred years suddenly turned into arrogance. Everyone thought it was time to settle the score with the Central Plains Dynasty once and for all; if they could just win one more battle against the Sui army, they were even prepared to have King Gao Yuan change his title to Emperor, from then on being on an equal footing with the Son of Heaven of the Sui dynasty.
However, when Gao Jiong Wu arrived in Liaodong from Chang'an City of Pingyang, facing the Sui army which was much smaller than before, he felt something different. Yes, this time is different from last time. Last time, the Sui army wanted to subdue them with a large military force, but this time they didn't care about these people anymore.
Especially today's siege, last year's war, the city of Liaodong was breached several times, but as long as they pretended to surrender, the Sui army would stop attacking and let them repair the damaged city walls. However, when a part of the Sui army climbed up to the city head and occupied a section of the city head at the critical moment, the Goguryeo people immediately took out this trick, but the Sui army did not have any intention of accepting their surrender. In the end, if it weren't for Gao Ming's desperate fight with a group of dead soldiers to retake that section of the city head, Liaodong City might have been broken at that time.
Gao Jianwu finally understood that the Sui Emperor had made up his mind to take down Goguryeo this time. The Emperor's anger would result in blood flowing like a flooded river, and Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty was dead serious this time. The optimism he originally had in his heart had finally left him. Only then did he realize that Goguryeo and the Great Sui were still far apart.
Gao Jianwu and Gao Ming both remained silent for a long time, leaning against the city wall.
"Your Highness, I think Liaodong City can't be defended anymore. The notice shot into the city by the Liao army a few days ago claimed that Xin City and three other cities have already fallen into the hands of the Sui people. Now it seems that this is not entirely false. In this case, we are unlikely to get reinforcements. Your Highness, we have been holding out here for over a month and have relied on the Sui army for a long time. Why don't we break out of the city tonight? Even if Liaodong City falls, there are still many mountain cities behind us, and we still have opportunities."
Gao Jianwu's eyes stared blankly ahead, his voice filled with reluctance. "Liaodong is the gate of our Goguryeo kingdom, and this is the first natural barrier. Since we took this city from the Han dynasty, we have always considered it our first line of defense, and also the most important one. With this city, we can make the people of the Central Plains return empty-handed time and again, leaving us unscathed. Now that August is approaching, the rainy season in the Far East will soon arrive. If we can hold on until then, Liaodong during the rainy season will be a nightmare for the Sui people. At that time, their massive army of one million soldiers will not even be able to guarantee logistics and supplies, and they will have no choice but to retreat. Now if we abandon this place, it would undoubtedly give the Sui people a bridgehead to attack us in the future, which would lead to endless troubles."
