The new city is a strong city located in the northern part of the Liaohe River, which is today Fushun, Liaoning. Goguryeo also called it Gaimu City. The new city is tall and sturdy, easy to defend and difficult to attack. The city is not large and has a small population. In fact, this is a military city.

Whether it was Liaodong City to the south or the new city to the north, they had brought huge trouble to the Sui army that attacked Goguryeo, and they had spent tens of thousands of elite soldiers to capture them.

But even if you capture several strong cities in eastern Liaoning, you still have to march hundreds of miles, cross mountains and pass through vast forests to reach Pyongyang, which poses a huge challenge to the army's logistics support. The failure of the First Goguryeo War was largely due to the inability to keep up with the logistics, and the soldiers were defeated among the mountains and ridges.

Until today, if Goguryeo wants to conquer Liaodong, it will also have to spend a lot of manpower and material resources to transport the food to the Liaohe River first to carry out logistical preparations for the war.

To this end, Goguryeo made preparations for nearly five months, first transporting grain and food supplies from water to Wugucheng and domestic cities on the banks of the Yalu River, and then transporting them from the domestic cities to Liaodongcheng and Xincheng by land.

It is precisely for this reason that when Goguryeo obtained the nine Hengyang boats from the Sui Dynasty, it was like a treasure and became their important weapon to transport grain directly from the sea to Liaodong and Liaodong Peninsula. Unfortunately, in order to redeem the Liaodong Peninsula and 10,000 troops, the last five Hengyang boats were also forced to be handed over to the Qingzhou Army.

At this time, Liaodong City had already concentrated 30,000 Goguryeo's army, commanded by General Yizhi Wende, and Xincheng City also concentrated 40,000 troops, commanded by Yuan Gaisuwen, but attacking Liaodong was a very risky deal. If you were not careful, you would lose all the money. Both Goguryeo's monarchs and ministers knew very well, but once successful, Goguryeo's forces would advance to the gate of Hebei.

The huge interests tempted the monarch and ministers of Goguryeo. Although they were dirty with each other, they still got together for the interests of Goguryeo. Gao Yuan finally chose to compromise and ordered Yizhi Wende to obey Yuan Taizuo's unified order and cooperate with Yuan Gaisuwen.

On the top of the new city city, Yuan Gaisuwen was reading a letter written by his father, which explained his and Yizhi Wende's next action plan. Once the time is ripe, Yizhi Wende will go to Yanjun to capture Yancheng, while Yeyuan Gaisuwen is responsible for capturing Liucheng. As long as these two important cities are occupied, Liaodong will be under their control. The next step is to concentrate troops to capture Linyu Pass, which is through the gate of Hebei.

After reading his father's letter, Yuan Gai Suwen turned around and asked his aide Zhao Wansheng who followed him to the war and said, "My father said that the time is ripe for crossing the Liaohe River to march into Liaodong. I want to know what the time is ripe for this time is?"

Zhao Wansheng was about forty years old. He was from Youzhou. He was a Han native. He was well-read but his family was poor. He wrote a good handwriting. Twenty years ago, he followed a businessman to Pyongyang to find a living opportunity. When he was selling his calligraphy on the street, he was attracted by Yuan Taizuo's clerk. From then on, he became Yuan Taizuo's clerk, gradually gained Yuan Taizuo's trust and became Yuan Taizuo's clerk's clerk. This time he was commissioned by Yuan Taizuo to assist Yuan Gaisuwen.

Zhao Wansheng smiled and said, "I think the time that Lord Mo Lizhi is referring to is ripe for Khitan to withdraw his troops from Liucheng."

"Retreat?"

Yuan Gaisuwen asked in confusion: "Does sir think the Khitan cannot capture Liucheng?"

"I'm not referring to whether the Khitans can take Liucheng, but the Khitans will not want Liucheng. The Khitans are nomadic people. What are they doing with Liucheng? They just plunder them and then leave. However, I think it's not easy for the Khitans to capture Liucheng. After all, they are not good at siegeing the city. After several failures, they lose confidence. It is inevitable to withdraw their troops."

Yuan Gaisuwen nodded, "Sir, it makes sense."

After pausing, Yuan Gai Suwen smiled and said, "I heard that the gentleman does not agree with attacking Liaodong. Is it because he was once a Sui man?"

Zhao Wansheng was silent for a moment and said, "I have been working for Lord Mo Lizhi for twenty years. My wife and children are in Pyongyang, but the young master said that because I am a Sui Talent, I have nothing to say."

"Yes! Maybe I misunderstood the sir, why did the sir object?"

Zhao Wansheng sighed, "After dealing with Zhang Xuan for so long, does the young master think he will hand over Liaodong to Goguryeo?"

"Of course Zhang Xuan won't, but he will be restrained by Li Yuan, making him have no time to take care of Liaodong. Maybe he will fight back in the future, but what we want is the opportunity now, which is a consensus!"

Zhao Wansheng shook his head, "Just just deceive yourself. If Zhang Xuan was restrained by Li Yuan, what's the point of his attack on the Liaodong Peninsula?"

Yuan Gai Suwen was speechless. After a moment, he said with a serious expression: "In any case, seizing Liaodong is our dream for decades. We have finally waited for the chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty. If we don't seize this opportunity, we may not forgive us."

"The problem is here. Goguryeo only sees the interests and ignores the price. This strategy is misled by the empire dream with the wrong direction. It contains huge risks and is not desirable at any time. Frankly speaking, I think Zhang Xuan's attack on the Liaodong Peninsula is preparing to fight back against Goguryeo."

Yuan Gaisuwen's face immediately sank, "Are you ridiculing us for being overestimated?"

"No, I just said the direction is wrong. Goguryeo should destroy Silla and Baekje first, unify the peninsula first, and then consider developing into the Central Plains. Otherwise, once Goguryeo suffers a lot, Silla and Baekje will start from behind us."

Yuan Gaisuwen pondered for a long time and finally nodded, "Maybe sir is right, but I can't do anything about it. This is a rare decision made by the above unanimously, and I can only implement it."

"But the young master can write a letter to remind Lord Mo Lizhi, asking him to be careful of Zhang Xuan sending an attack from the Liaodong Peninsula to Pyongyang. This is the consistent route of the Sui army. I suspect that Zhang Xuan's purpose of seizing the Liaodong Peninsula is to prepare to attack Pyongyang."

This is also something that Yuan Gai Suwen is very worried about. In fact, there is no need to remind Zhao Wansheng. He had written a letter to remind his father before. Zhang Xuan's naval army is very powerful and has a strong carrying capacity. It is indeed very likely that the Sui army will attack Pyongyang. However, both his father and King Yingyang believed that Zhang Xuan would be restrained by Li Yuan's army and had no time to clone and fight Goguryeo. They thought that this was an opportunity to conquer Liaodong.

At this moment, a soldier shouted in the distance: "General, General Yizhi has sent someone to deliver the letter!"

Yuan Gaisuwen temporarily put down his worries and walked forward quickly. He saw that several cavalry had entered the city. He walked down the city and happened to meet the sending soldiers. The sending soldiers presented a message tube to Yuan Gaisuwen, "Report to General, it is urgent information!"

Yuan Gai Suwen hurriedly took out the letter and read it. It was the latest battle situation in Liucheng. The Khitan besieged Liucheng was unfavorable and was forced to retreat north to Songmo. Both sides suffered heavy casualties. Yizhi Wende believed that the time was ripe and suggested that both sides send troops to Liaodong immediately.

Yuan Gai Suwen handed the letter to Zhao Wansheng, "What do you think sir?"

Although Zhao Wansheng was dissatisfied with it, he had no right to make decisions in the battle situation. He could only make suggestions on specific operations. In the overall situation, he must implement the strategic plan formulated by the senior executives of Goguryeo without fail.

Zhao Wansheng read the letter and nodded, "The time that Lord Mo Lizhi has been ripe has come!"

Yuan Gaisuwen immediately ordered: "The entire army gathers immediately and prepares to send troops!"

In the second year of Xingning in the Sui Dynasty, on March 15, the first year of Wude of the Tang Dynasty, Goguryeo sent 50,000 troops from Liaodong City and Xincheng to cross the Liao River. Yizhi Wende and Yuangasuwen each left 10,000 troops to defend the city. They immediately divided the troops. Yizhi Wende led 20,000 troops to Yancheng, and Yuangasuwen led 30,000 troops to advance to Liucheng. The Liaodong battle finally broke out, and Zhang Xuan's 120,000 troops were ready to fight against Goguryeo.
Chapter completed!