Chapter 66: Sound the Golden Drum and Withdraw the Troops

  The moonlight in the sky is very bright, and it's a good time to appreciate the moon. At this moment, Emperor Yang of Sui and his ministers and guests are sitting on the palace building, lighting up lanterns, drinking wine and watching the battle, accompanied by beautiful women singing and dancing, it can be said that they are having a great time.

  Yuwen Shu had drunk a considerable amount of wine today, and with a flushed face, he said, "Your Majesty, now that the moon is above the treetops, should our army begin preparing for the 'Fish Scale' formation?"

  Yang Guang stood up and walked to the front of the palace balcony, holding a golden cup in one hand and slapping the railing with the other, looking at a piece of torches in the distance. At this time, the Sui army's attack on the city was at a critical juncture, let alone without the emperor's order, which general dared to retreat on his own initiative. All the generals ordered to light up the torches and ignite the bonfires for a night battle against Liaodong City.

  At this time, standing on the top of the high palace building, the bright moon is in the sky, and the torches on the ground are shining like stars. At this moment, Yang Guang really felt that he was above the nine heavens, and his heroic spirit burst out suddenly. "My brave warriors are so fierce, I will give them the opportunity to build their merits. I should be a magnificent teacher, and defeat the barbarian chiefs with one blow."

  All the ministers and sons naturally flattered excessively, even the guests like Heluo Kehan also flattered several times. Yang Guang was very pleased and turned to Gao Qi who sat at the last seat, "Gui Shun Hou, what do you think of the great Sui army?"

  The surrendered marquis was Gao Qi, the king of Goguryeo who was captured by Chen Kefu in Xin City. After arriving at the main camp in Liaodong, Chen Kefu also kept his promise and spoke highly of him to Yang Guang. Yang Guang treated this first surrendered king of Goguryeo fairly well, also considering that he had made significant contributions during the attack on Xin City. With a stroke of his brush, he granted him an empty title of Marquis of Surrender without any actual land or income. Although the name didn't sound very good, it did alleviate some of Gao Qi's concerns.

  Afterwards, Yang Guang would always invite him to banquets, and Gao Qi would flatter him every time, making Yang Guang feel very comfortable, and he would often reward him generously. When Yang Guang asked him, he quickly got up and knelt down on the ground, saying: "Goguryeo has been living in the far east for a long time, so it didn't know that the great Sui army is like a tiger or wolf. The people of Goguryeo are just frogs at the bottom of a well. Now, not submitting to the great Sui is like trying to stop a chariot with bare arms, and not knowing one's own strength. Your Majesty, I didn't realize until I entered the Sui camp in Liaodong that this great Sui is indeed the master of the world, and its army is also the strongest in the world. Pacifying Goguryeo is just a matter of time."

  "Good, you said it well. It seems that the people of Goguryeo have been living in seclusion for too long. This time, I will conquer Goguryeo and relocate its people to the Central Plains, so that they can also witness the prosperity of our great Sui dynasty's Central Plains! Guisun, after you arrive at the Central Plains, I will reward you with a manor, so that you can enjoy the rich and luxurious life of the Central Plains."

  "I thank Your Majesty for your great kindness, I am deeply moved and cannot express my gratitude. This humble body is at Your Majesty's disposal, wherever you command me to go, I will not fear even if it means going through mountains of knives or seas of fire!" Gao Qi kowtowed heavily on the ground, putting in a lot of effort, and by the time Yang Guang told him to get up, his head was already bleeding.

  "Your Majesty, the Tiger Guard Lang General Sima requests an audience! He says there is an urgent report from the Eastern Capital, 800 miles away!" A palace attendant rushed to the palace tower and knelt down to report.

  Yang Guang was surprised to hear that it was an urgent report from Dongdu Luoyang, although the capital of Great Sui was in Chang'an. Since he ascended to the throne, he had not been in Chang'an for a long time. Basically, after he took over, he made Luoyang a new capital. Now Luoyang is not only the political center of Great Sui but also the economic center. The families of the civil and military officials who followed him on this expedition were basically all in Luoyang, so if anything happened to Luoyang, it would be a disaster for the minister.

  However, Yang Guang thought for a moment, what could happen in Luoyang? This time he personally conquered Goguryeo and deliberately chose an elderly minister to stay behind. This person was Jinzi Guanglu Daifu, Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and Dongdu Lushou Fan Zigai, who was nearly seventy years old, handled matters with great care and caution, and had a good reputation for being honest and uncorrupted. Yang Guang couldn't think of anything that could have happened, yet this cautious minister suddenly sent an urgent report from 800 miles away.

  "Have Hu Bao bring Sima Dekan with a letter!" Yang Guang returned to the couch and ordered the inner attendant.

  Before long, Hu Bao brought Wang Gui over. After seeing Yang Guang, Wang Gui hastily took out the letter tube containing the urgent report from his bosom and handed it over.

  Yang Guang took the urgent report bamboo tube handed over by the inner attendant, carefully looked at the seal on it, and indeed it was intact and untouched. He hastily opened it and read only the first line, his face changed. He held the letter and quickly scanned down, and soon finished reading the entire urgent report.

  After finishing the letter, Yang Guang's whole body trembled, his face suddenly turned completely black, with a gloomy and frightening complexion, and his teeth were tightly clenched.

  "Bang", Yang Guang kicked over the small table in front of him, stood up and shouted angrily, "All the palace maids get out, the banquet is over, summon all officials above the third rank to my imperial account to see me. Also, pass on the order to sound the golden drum and withdraw the troops." After finishing, he turned around with a dark face, surrounded by his attendants, and went down from the palace building, leaving behind a hall full of civil and military officials and guests, all of whom were confused and didn't understand what important thing had happened, why the emperor would suddenly become so angry. What made them even more puzzled was that now that Liaodong City was about to be broken through, why did the emperor suddenly order the withdrawal of troops.

  Although I was puzzled in my heart, the emperor's words could not be disobeyed. At this time, we had no more mind to guess these things, and one by one stood up and rushed to the imperial account.

  The emperor gave the order, and the Sui army began to sound the retreat on the battlefield. The drums were beaten loudly, and the sound spread throughout the entire battlefield instantly. The Sui army was a seasoned force, although all the soldiers including the generals were somewhat perplexed as to why they were retreating at such a critical moment. However, military law is clear: advance upon hearing the drumbeat, retreat upon hearing the gong, and obey orders without question. Under the generals' loud commands, the Sui army began to withdraw in an orderly fashion.

  Fortunately, they retreated when they were winning, and they didn't worry about being pursued by the enemy. The retreating Sui army even calmly pushed back the intact siege engines under the city.

  It was really unacceptable for the Sui army on the city wall. At first, when they heard this sound, Qin Qiong and others thought that the Goguryeo people were not supporting them, preparing to retreat and defend the inner city, and even launched a wave of charge against the Goguryeo people, killing them and forcing them to retreat continuously.

  After a while, he finally heard clearly that the gong sound came from the front of the city wall. The sound of the gongs made Qin Qiong somewhat at a loss, why, why retreat? The Sui army officers and soldiers who had been fighting on the city wall for a day, these fallen Sui army comrades on the city wall, why was this happening?

  Before he could think it through, General Wang Da Niu loudly shouted, "Uncle Bao, retreat, recall the troops. Come back quickly, those who do not obey will be executed on the spot."

  Qin Qiong held a horizontal knife in one hand and an axe in the other, running to Wang Er Niu's side, somewhat dazedly saying: "But if we just wait a little longer, we can capture Liao Dong City. Now retreating, isn't everything back to yesterday? What is the reason for this?"

  King Da Niu shouted the name of his teammate, and soon all the teammates gathered together. The fifty people who came up earlier were now reduced to twenty-eight, each with injuries, and everyone was covered in blood after a day of fierce fighting. Everyone followed the retreating Sui army and retreated to the back, where rows of cloud ladders had already been set up, and all the soldiers on the city walls would retreat from there.

  Qin Qiong couldn't quite believe that the military was ordering them to retreat, and even the Goguryeo people on the city wall were somewhat disbelieving. The Goguryeo soldiers on the city wall had already been greatly reduced in number, and most of them were just ordinary Goguryeo civilians - old and young, men and women, and even some little boys who were only slightly taller than a horizontal sword and carrying bows followed behind.

  At this time, the Goguryeo people watched as the Sui army retreated without a single person going up to intercept and kill them. All of the Goguryeo people just stared blankly at their withdrawal, feeling like they were in a dream. Everyone had a sense of having narrowly escaped disaster and being left alive after a great calamity. On the west wall of the city, too many people died today, although they finally defended the western city, but there were corpses everywhere on the city head, even the ground on both sides of the city wall was piled high with bodies, these were all fallen in the chaos, some were cleared down by both sides. No way, there were too many dead, even on the city wall, there was no place for soldiers from either side to stand.

  In this short day, the city of Liaodong in Goguryeo had 50,000 troops and 150,000 civilians. At this time, there were less than 10,000 soldiers left, and countless civilians were killed or injured. Among the 150,000 people, 100,000 went to the top of the city wall to defend it, and more than 60,000 civilians were mobilized to the west city wall. At this time, there were less than 10,000 civilians left on the city wall. Except for those who were injured and sent down from the city, in less than a day, 40,000 civilians defending Goguryeo died.

  Apart from the Western City, the other three city walls were also besieged for a day, and nearly 10,000 of the 40,000 Goguryeo soldiers on the three city walls died, with several thousand more seriously injured.

  Two hundred thousand people in Liaodong City, at this time, less than half can still stand. And even the most elite Sui army, because it was a siege war, although the previous month's time had consumed a lot of Goguryeo's strength, today also fell nearly 10,000 people, and more than 10,000 were injured. It can be said that this is a battle where both sides have shed too much blood.

  However, at this time, except for the high-ranking Koguryo people who sat on the ground and silently rejoiced in their hearts that the Sui army had retreated, all the soldiers of the Sui army felt a little unwilling. Time and time again, they had been campaigning against Liaodong, with the goal of destroying its country. This was already the third campaign against Liaodong, and facing such a moment of breaking the city, they had to retreat, and all the generals and soldiers were unwilling in their hearts.

  A Xiongnu warrior who lost an eye in today's battle on the city wall said, "Last time we attacked Liaodong City was also like this. Several times we almost took Liaodong City, but when the Goguryeo people said they would surrender, Your Majesty ordered us to stop attacking. This time it may be that the king of Goguryeo has surrendered again, so the generals have ordered us to retreat." The Xiongnu warrior who had simply covered his injured eye with a coarse cloth said this with some helplessness.

  All the privates heard the disrespect in his words, but no one said anything to him.

  King Da Niu sighed and said, "Perhaps this time the Goguryeo people have really surrendered!"

  "Maybe so!" Everyone comforted themselves in their hearts.