Chapter 56: The Entire Army Charges Out

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  The dawn light had just driven away the darkness of night, and the sun had not yet come out. The Sui Dynasty army, which had been reborn after yesterday's plain review, had already gathered in the sound of drums and horns.

  A group of soldiers gathered into a team, and the teams of soldiers eventually all gathered into the various military formations divided during wartime. Today, His Majesty the Emperor has decreed that all troops under Liaodong City will be mobilized, and it is necessary to take Liaodong City by storm with the momentum of a great victory.

  The massive army gathered under the city of Liao Dong like ants, and at this time, the summer sun in Liao Dong finally jumped out from the east. The morning sunlight shone through the clouds onto both banks of the Liao River, and the bright light reflected off the shining armor of the over 400,000-strong army below the city of Liao Dong made the entire area under the city a dazzling spectacle. The defending troops on the walls of Liao Dong closely monitored the movements of the Sui army, who had been tense for a day yesterday but did not attack the city all day.

  It wasn't until almost dawn that the troops guarding the city were finally relieved and got to rest, but as soon as the new batch of guards came on duty, they were dazzled by the glare from the armor of the more than 400,000-strong army of Sui.

  The general guarding the west gate looked pale as he stared at the Sui army in front of him. In this Liaodong city, which had been besieged for several years, he could see that today's Sui army was different from before. Although the Sui army had also attacked Liaodong City every day, they would take turns sending troops to attack the four gates, but it was rare for them to suddenly deploy such a large-scale military formation like today. It is worth noting that although Liaodong City is large, when attacking the city, the Sui army can only send around 10 million people at most, and more people may not be useful. Now, the Sui army suddenly changed its usual practice and deployed such a formation, making him feel that things were getting urgent.

  "Hurry and inform Rongliu Wang that the Sui army is mobilizing, and ask His Highness to take charge of the situation." Ximen's general Li Gui said to a soldier beside him.

  Chen Kefu's Broken Army Camp was a cavalry, and even half of them were heavy armored cavalry. However, today, with Yang Guang's order, all the troops marched to the city of Liaodong and formed an array, not a single civilian or foot soldier was left behind. Even the logistics personnel in the army put on their armor and stood at the back of the main formation, armed with weapons. In July, when the sun had just risen, although it was still early morning, the Tang army felt the scorching heat of this summer day, as if they were being steamed in a large pot, each person began to sweat profusely and felt extremely uncomfortable.

  The military band played in full force, hundreds of war drums beating out a majestic sound under the drummers' blows. The flags fluttered in the wind, and unlike the previous attacks on the city, today all the troops were high-spirited, most of the generals believing the emperor's words that they would take Liaodong City in one battle, and tonight they would hold a victory banquet in Liaodong City.

  Chen Pojun and others, although they were a cavalry army, had arrived at the city gate, but it was not just to be spectators. Soon, an officer came over with the emperor's order: Chen Pojun's 10,000-strong cavalry would form up outside the west gate, ready to charge in as soon as the Sui army's siege troops opened a breach. Especially his 5,000 heavy armored cavalry, if they could open a gap, they would be unstoppable when they charged in.

  From this, it can also be seen that the emperor indeed favored Chen Kefu and the Broken Army Camp. This first batch of troops entering the city not only had honor but also represented a great achievement. Many people couldn't get it, but the emperor gave this credit to Chen Kefu.

  The west side of Liaodong City was originally a small forest, but after the war with the Sui army began, Goguryeo people cut down all the trees around Liaodong City to improve visibility on the city wall and prevent the Sui army from using them as siege engines.

  Not only that, the Liaodong City, which had been besieged three times, had long since developed a set of skills for holding out. In this attack by the Sui army, they once again surrounded Liaodong City and reopened the original moat, making it an extremely deep trench - to call it a trench is not quite suitable, it would be more accurate to say it was a river.

  Outside the moat, the Goguryeo people dug several trenches and planted all the empty land within 500 steps in front of the city wall with chevaux-de-frise. The so-called chevaux-de-frise is divided into two types to prevent infantry and cavalry. The first type is to tie many sharp and sturdy branches or tree trunks together, named after its shape like deer horns, also known as anti-deer horn. The second type is to sharpen the logs, intersect and fix them together to block the cavalry attack, can be moved, also known as anti-horse.

  However, the deer horns under the walls of Liaodong City are even more vicious. They are made by sharpening both ends of a wooden stake as thick as an arm, with one end driven into the ground 40-50 cm deep and the other end also sharpened and exposed above the ground about 40 cm high. These sharp stakes are densely buried on all open spaces under the city walls, disorderly but with a purpose, not only effectively hindering infantry attacks on the city, but also greatly limiting the impact of cavalry charges.

  The Sui army could only slowly clear away the abatis, while the Goguryeo defenders could use the city wall to employ bows and arrows, as well as defensive ballistae, to inflict heavy casualties on the Sui army. After a month of siege at the foot of the Liao Dong Cheng, all the abatis below the city walls had been cleared away by the Sui army at the cost of many lives.

  Not only the deer horn, but also the artificial river that cost Goguryeo countless manpower was filled with earth by batches of Sui soldiers in this month, from initially filling out a few attack passages in the moat to now basically turning the moat into flat land.

  Looking at the remaining short stakes on the ground, the corpses in the moat, even the damaged city wall, and the land underfoot still seeping with dark red blood. Every inch of this land is filled with the fresh blood of the Central Plains warriors. This city is like a bottomless pit, constantly draining the lifeblood of the Great Sui, causing it to lose too much vitality.

  Yesterday, the rewards were given out, and Chen Kefu was still the commander of the Broken Army Camp. The other generals of the Broken Army Camp had also been promoted and enriched, and with the several generals brought by Li Jie, there were dozens of generals surrounding Chen Kefu at this time. As the commander-in-chief, Chen Kefu sat in the middle, with Li Benlei, who had just been enfeoffed as the Marquis of South Su, on his left. The old master was also promoted to the position of Zhēn Hù Láng Jiàng of the Left Bodyguard Office. The Left Bodyguard Office was divided into four Zhēn Hù Láng Jiàng, and now the Broken Army Camp had three of them, including Chen Kefu, Li Benlei, and even the newly arrived Li Jie, who was also a Zhēn Hù Láng Jiàng of the Left Bodyguard Office. The Left Bodyguard Office was one of the twelve guards and four offices, and the Broken Army Camp occupied three of its four major generals, showing how important this army was in Yang Guang's eyes.

  However, although Li Benlei and Li Jie were both deputy commanders of the Zhenchonglang army, they were also Chen Kecheng's deputies. At this time, Li Jie was riding a horse with a smile on his face, standing to the right of Chen Kecheng, which seemed to indicate that Li Benlei was the second-in-command and Li Jie was only third. However, Li Jie didn't mind at all, and instead showed great respect to the original commanders of the Broken Army Camp, especially to Chen Kecheng and Li Benlei.

  Behind them were the generals of the fifth rank, and the five products. Ten thousand cavalrymen were divided into 5,000 heavy armored cavalrymen and 5,000 light cavalrymen. Chen Kefu formed two hundred men into a team and four hundred men into a battalion. The broken army camp was divided into twelve light cavalry battalions and twelve heavy cavalry battalions.

  The remaining 200 light cavalry were formed into a vanguard camp, and the 200 heavy armored cavalry was divided into 100 for Chen Kefu's personal guard cavalry, with the remaining 100 as personal guards for other generals. The Broken Army Camp originally had fifteen captains, except for Li Benlei who was promoted to Zhēn Chōng Láng Jiàng this time, the remaining fourteen have been promoted to regular fifth-grade Xióng Wǔ Láng Jiàng, plus seven people brought by Li Jie, and adding those selected from the army as fifth-grade officials, a total of twenty-four people, each leading one camp.

  "General, do you think we can break through Liaodong City today?" Luo Lin asked from the side. This time when rewards were given for military achievements, most of the generals in the army were promoted one rank, but Luo Lin was promoted to Wu Yong Lang Jiang, a fifth-grade military officer, directly skipping the rank of Xiao Wei, due to his family being nobility and his father likely dying in Liaodong after going missing. Now he has been promoted to Lang Jiang, but still serves as the commander of Chen Kefu's hundred-man guard team.

  Chen Kefu turned his head and looked at Li Jie with a smile on his face, "General Li, do you think our army can take down Liaodong City today?"

  Regarding Chen Kefu's question, Li Jiedao replied very quickly, "General, I think it's a bit difficult, but it's not impossible. It depends on how determined the emperor is. Although this Liaodong city is strong and has withstood numerous sieges, in fact, our army of hundreds of thousands has been besieging Liaodong for nearly a month now. The Goguryeo people are still defending the city, but they are also exhausted. The best way to deal with them is to continue the siege. As long as we persist for another month, we can definitely take down Liaodong city easily. However, our great Sui army has come here, and if we get bogged down for too long, we won't be able to afford it either. Launching a strong attack now will have a high cost, but overall, it's still worth it. After all, apart from this Liaodong city, there are many other Goguryeo cities. If we can't take them down one by one, we'll really be exhausted."

  Chen Kefu nodded, taking lives to fill the gap was a way out. However, this method was too extreme, basically injuring ten thousand people, with eight thousand casualties, or even more. But from a strategic perspective, the longer the Sui army stayed in Liaodong, the greater the damage would be to the Great Sui. As for Li Jie, Chen Kefu couldn't help but reevaluate him in his mind - not only was he a member of a noble family, but also a talented young man from a noble family, especially with Li Jie's attitude, which made Chen Kefu raise his guard several notches in his heart. A dog that bites doesn't bark; if Li Jie had come with a haughty and arrogant attitude, Chen Kefu wouldn't have taken him seriously, but now, this demeanor of his made Chen Kefu realize he was up against a formidable opponent.

  I hope it can be captured. Chen Kefu also prayed silently in his heart.

  "General, our attack has begun!" Rolin's voice broke into his thoughts.