Chapter 3: The Battle of Goguryeo At this point, Anshi and Liaodong, the two major fortresses of Goguryeo, completely fell into the hands of the Tang Dynasty, and Goguryeo opened its mind to the Tang Dynasty.
However, after attacking these two cities, Li Shimin did not rush forward, but stopped and ordered the troops to move the people in these two cities to the territory of Datang.
Li Shimin did this, of course, for his reasons, because he knew too well how Yang Guang failed back then.
It is said that when Yang Guang conquered Goguryeo for the first time, it was also smooth sailing in the early stage, and wherever the army went, the Goguryeo people almost fell in despair.
However, as the Sui army entered Goguryeo, the supply lines were stretched too long, and the supply began to become more and more difficult.
At this time, Goguryeo, which had surrendered before, immediately turned its face, not only attacked the Sui army's supply line from behind, but also regained control of the city, completely blocking the return route of the Sui army.
The back road was cut off, the supplies were exhausted, and the Sui army completely lost its fighting spirit, although Yang Guang escaped with his life, but the army under his command suffered heavy casualties, and there was not one out of ten.
This time, Li Shimin absorbed the lessons of Yang Guang, and no longer rushed forward, but advanced step by step, steadily and steadily, and moved the people in the city back to the territory of the Tang Dynasty every time he hit a place, so as to ensure that even if the war against Goguryeo was lost this time, Goguryeo would be greatly damaged - so many cities have no people, even if they are returned to them, what can they do?
The Tang Dynasty ravaged Goguryeo on land, and at sea, the navy also beat Goguryeo as a grandson.
Although Goguryeo also has a coastline, because the coastline is too short (the part of South Korea does not belong to Goguryeo, but Silla and Baekje occupy it), so it has not developed any navy, only three or two big fish and small fish, and the entire coastal defense navy has only dozens of large and small ships, but nearly a thousand people - how can a navy of this size be the opponent of the Dengju fleet in the face of the Dengju fleet?
So, on that day, all the Goguryeo people saw the fear of being dominated by hot weapons.
In order to avoid the war of the Central Plains Dynasty, Goguryeo has moved the capital from the domestic city to Pyongyang, which is closer to Silla, since the time of King Haotae, and the name of the neighboring city of Pyongyang is Chiseong (that is, the current Haeju of Chaoyuyang), which is a coastal city, from here you can go to any place in Northeast Asia, it is the most important maritime cargo distribution center in Goguryeo, and it is also the only line of defense on the sea surface of the capital city of Goguryeo, and its status is similar to the relationship between Beijing and Tianjin, as long as Chiseong is broken, Pyongyang will become a girl with a red fruit and be exposed in front of the strong man Datang.
At the same time, it was also the naval base of Goguryeo, storing more than 70% of the warships of the Goguryeo state (the other 20% were in Hamhung in the north).
It's a pity that these warships, which still use trebuchets and crossbow arrows as their main combat weapons, where will they be the opponents of battleships loaded with artillery?
On that day, the Goguryeo coastal city of Chiseong was sacked by the Tang Dynasty, and the Dengzhou fleet ranged from three or four class battleships to small-caliber armed merchant ships, each of which had at least one or twenty guns, and even seventy or eighty guns - and such warships, the Dengzhou fleet dispatched a total of 200 ships.
Two hundred warships, according to each ship's twenty guns, a salvo is at least 4,000 shells.
The entire Chicheng was beaten into a sieve, and the defenders had already run out after the second round of shelling, and when the five rounds of 2 salvos went down, the entire Chicheng had been beaten into ruins, and then it was easily occupied by the Tang Dynasty.
This time, Datang's navy not only dispatched 200 warships of all kinds, but also dispatched hundreds of troop carriers, each of which could carry 200 people, a total of 60,000 troops, plus 20,000 marines belonging to the navy, adding up to a total of 80,000 people, rushing into Chicheng in a swarm.
At this time, Chicheng had been blinded by the bombardment of the Tang Dynasty, the defenders had all run away, and the city lord and the nobles in the city had already fled as early as the arrival of the Tang fleet, so when the Tang army entered the city, except for the people who were full of devastation and basically blown up, as well as the gangsters and hooligans who took advantage of the fire to rob, they didn't even see a single person in charge.
As a last resort, Datang had no choice but to post a notice to calm the people, and at the same time set Chicheng as a military district, temporarily controlling the situation in the city by military means, and then making plans after the imperial court sent people.
However, the Tang Dynasty was not without gains, the nobles and wealthy merchants in Chicheng were in too much of a hurry, and they only took away some gold and silver before leaving, and a large amount of property fell here.
Especially the gold and silver, the moment he opened the treasury of Chicheng Mansion, Yu Chi Baoqing cried at that time - he had never seen so much money in his life, and he had lived in vain in this life.
I saw that the entire treasury was full of silver ingots full of white flowers, and at first glance, there were at least three million taels.
After careful counting, it was found that in this treasury alone, the silver deposit was as high as 3.5 million guan, and if you added the silver money looted in the mansions of the major nobles in Chicheng, it was even more than 5 million guan.
You must know that the Tang Dynasty sent troops to Goguryeo this time, from the soldiers' salaries to the food supply, the sum of the silver used did not exceed two million taels, even if you count the later consumption, it will not exceed two and a half million taels.
In other words, the capture of Chicheng alone is enough to more than twice the consumption of Datang in this war, in other words, before Datang has started this war, they have already earned back the investment with interest.
Speaking of luck, this batch of money is actually not the money of the Chiseong Prefecture, but the completion of a deal between Goguryeo and the Wa Kingdom some time ago.
This amount of money was paid to Goguryeo by the Wa state, and it was only temporarily stored in Chiseong, and after a few days, the money would be changed to a carriage in Chiseong and transported to Pyongyang.
But unfortunately, the silver was delivered on the front foot, and Datang on the back foot came, and this money became Datang's spoils.
And this is just the spoils of Chiseong, if the Tang Dynasty can successfully capture Pyongyang......
As the capital of Goguryeo, Pyongyang's prosperity is definitely the first in Goguryeo, there are countless nobles in the city, and the money is probably much more than that of Chicheng, and even two or three times more is probably not impossible.
If Datang can really attack here, it will not only be able to destroy the country and expand its territory.
If Datang fights this war, it will also make a lot of money, not only will it not bring losses to the country, but it will also be able to make up for it ruthlessly, so that Datang can make a lot of money.