Chapter 2906: High morale
On the map, every city, mountain, and river is marked with various colored lines and writings, giving a panoramic view of the vast Liaodong land as if looking down from the sky.
After that, Cui Dunli took out some small maps from the book box and unfolded them one by one. There were detailed maps of various places in Goguryeo, including a region, a city, even a valley, a village, a road... everything was detailed.
Finally, Cui Dunli pointed to a dotted line formed by several red dots on the map from the northeast to the mouth of the Liao River, and explained: "In the second year of Zhenguan, Duke Wei defeated the Turk Jieli Khan, and King Gao Jian of Goguryeo sent military envoys to serve. Congratulations, and a map of the territory. In the fifth year of Zhenguan, His Majesty once issued an order to send the governor of Guangzhou. The governor of the Prefecture, Ma Changsun, went to Goguryeo to collect the remains of the soldiers killed in the Sui Dynasty, and destroyed several imperial palaces built in Goguryeo. Gao Jianwu was frightened, and after convening a discussion with his ministers, he decided to build the Great Wall to resist possible attacks from the Northeast by the Tang Dynasty. Starting from Fuyu City, southwest to the mouth of Liaohe River, It was more than a thousand miles in total and was overseen by Goguryeo's powerful minister Yeon Gaesomun. Yeongaesomun felt that with Goguryeo's national power, it would take at least thirty years to build such a great wall to resist the attack of the Tang Dynasty. With a whim, he first built mountain cities at strategic passes, and then They built mountain fortresses in Fuyu, Xincheng, Xuanyuan, Liaodong, Sabei, Gaimou, Anshi, and Jian'an, and arranged them in a north-south line. They relied on and supported each other during war. Then, when the country had sufficient strength, they built mountain fortresses. Build city walls to connect them one by one..."
Speaking of this, he said with some regret: "It's a pity that Goguryeo has adopted military trusteeship for all mountain cities. The army is stationed, and there are no civilians. Entrances and exits are also subject to strict inspections. We can't sneak in with our detailed work, so we can only know the details of each city." We are in a mountain city, but we don’t know the details. When the army is fighting, we should be careful and plan carefully. ”
Everyone listened with rapt attention.
Even though His Majesty Li Er has long been determined to destroy Goguryeo and made unprecedented achievements in history, all understanding of Goguryeo is still limited to documentary materials and clues collected by the Liaodong army on the front line. There has never been such detailed information. ?
It can be seen that the Ministry of War, under the leadership of Fang Jun, has indeed made great efforts.
In the past two years, the expenditure of the Ministry of War has been at the top of the six ministries. Even the Ministry of Works, which is responsible for the construction of water conservancy facilities in the Guanzhong area, has been resigned to the defeat. Yushitai has repeatedly impeached the Ministry of War for wasting money, and there have been many criticisms from the top and bottom of the court. be blamed.
Fang Jun ignored him.
Everyone thought that His Majesty Li Er favored Fang Jun, so they supported him in order to make a contribution, but they didn't expect that the business he planned had already exceeded everyone's expectations.
It is conceivable how much manpower and material resources were needed to create such a detailed map of Goguryeo to reach such a scale. Even if the Ministry of War spent twice as much, it would still be blameless.
His Majesty Li Er nodded appreciatively and said happily: "I will remember the great contribution of the Ministry of War in my heart, and there will be a reward. In addition, make a copy of these maps as soon as possible and send them to the Liaodong Army, so that Xue Wanche can have a better understanding of the terrain of Liaodong. With more, you can better formulate a raid strategy.”
Cui Dunli said respectfully: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of War is already working on this matter. In three to five days, three copies of the map will be completed. One will be handed over to the Military Aircraft Department, one will be kept at the Ministry of War, and one will be sent to Liaodong. In front of the army, your Majesty will take this part with you, understand the situation in Liaodong at any time, command the army to attack the city, and be invincible!"
"Okay! Okay! Okay!"
His Majesty Li Er is very happy. Not only did the Ministry of War complete the task beautifully, but it also put all the effort into doing it. If everyone in the government and in the government is like this, how much worry can I save?
Why worry about the great cause of the Eastern Expedition?
The unhappiness towards Fang Jun also disappeared, and he was extremely satisfied.
This man is not only smart and capable, and can do things properly, but he is also knowledgeable and capable of employing people. Cui Dunli was not a prominent figure in the Ministry of War before. Although he occupied the position of Minister of the Ministry of War at a young age, it was mostly because his family was behind it. However, after Fang Jun went to the Ministry of War and took office, he suddenly became radiant and everything was handled in an orderly manner.
Now in the Ministry of War, Fang Jun is the nominal minister and controls everything, but Cui Dunli does most of the work.
His Majesty Li Er doesn't think there is anything wrong with this. No matter how energetic a person is, how much can he do? As a high-ranking person, the most important ability is whether he can employ people and whether he can employ them. In this regard, Fang Jun has done very well whether he is in the Ministry of War or the Navy. Not only does he have outstanding political achievements, but also The empire discovered and trained a large number of talents.
It's just that the more outstanding Fang Jun is, the harder life becomes for Prince Jin in the Ministry of War. Everyone looks up to Fang Jun as their leader. These officials don't care whether Prince Jin is a prince or not. They have no control over his career. In your hands, I will naturally not obey your words and go against someone like Fang Jun...
Life may always be full of contradictions, and you can't have it both ways.
Feeling deep in his heart, His Majesty Li Er cheered up and said with a heroic expression: "Everyone in the empire is united as one. I and all my dear friends will remain determined and overcome all difficulties. On the third day of March, we will take the oath to go to war! When Liaodong is pacified, our troops will return to the DPRK. On the same day, I will drink wine to celebrate my victory with you all, and send an edict to heaven and earth to strengthen our Tang Dynasty.”
"Long live your Majesty, long live the Tang Dynasty!"
"I will definitely assist Your Majesty and create a great cause that will last forever!"
"Dedicate yourself to the best of your ability and die for yourself!"
All the ministers bent over and saluted, swore allegiance and were impassioned.
His Majesty Li Er was so proud that he laughed and said: "Goguryeo is a small country, but the two emperors of the Sui Dynasty could not conquer it even with the whole country. Now I am personally conquering Goguryeo and vowing to level it and let these people be conquered." Unparalleled achievements will befall me and all my dear friends, and they will shine through history and be passed down for generations to come.”
"Your Majesty is mighty!"
The ministers all agreed.
Although everyone has their own little calculations in their hearts, no one thinks that the power of the entire country of the Tang Dynasty is not enough to defeat Goguryeo.
There is no doubt about victory, but in the process of victory, it depends on who can grab more benefits...
*****
The harsh winter has come to an end in Guanzhong and the new year has arrived. In the south of the Yangtze River, the grass is growing and orioles are flying and catkins are floating. However, in the Western Regions, the wind is still blowing and the snow is heavy.
However, just on the Silk Road covered by ice and snow, there are still countless caravans trekking hard in the ice and snow. Even if a blizzard occurs at any time, they will get lost, or even be covered in heavy snow and freeze to death on the road, but it cannot stop them. People's desire for wealth.
Behind this most dangerous journey, there are also huge business opportunities. The profit of a business trip will be five times or even ten times that in the summer. As long as you can get to the end of the journey and complete the trade, it will be a vehicle-mounted bucket truck. amount of wealth.
As the saying goes, "Man perishes for money, and birds perish for food", it's probably like this...
The Silk Road in winter is full of dangers, not only the severe cold climate and heavy snowfall, but also the elusive thieves and bandits who are the nemesis of the caravans.
These bandits, composed of people, soldiers and even Turkic wolf riders from various countries in the Western Regions, are best at intercepting and killing caravans in winter to steal a lot of property. The cold wind was blowing and the snow was all over the sky. After the attack, they quickly fled far away with their belongings. Neither the Tang army nor the armies from various countries in the Western Regions could trace them. It was really the best season to kill people and steal goods.
In this way, the caravan, which was still thinking of luck, had to hire Tang people to protect its safety.
Some of these Tang people are retired soldiers, some are rangers from Guanzhong, and some are even bandits themselves. They are well-equipped and brave and good at fighting. They will even contact several caravans to travel together to minimize the chance of being intercepted by bandits. risk.
……
Changsun Jun, along with more than fifty of his elite generals, acted as the escort escorting the caravan to the Western Regions, mingling among the caravans and heading towards the Western Regions.
Because this trip to Damascus was a top-secret mission assigned by his father, eldest Sun Jun did not dare to neglect it even though he was extremely conflicted in his heart. If he couldn't bring enough escorts, he was afraid of being intercepted by bandits along the way, but he brought more people, and he was afraid of being discovered by the Tang army along the way. Of course, he simply dressed up as a team of "mercenaries" who specially escorted caravans to and from the Western Regions. Use forged identification to hit the road in secret.
This method really worked. It was difficult to tell whether the Changsun family’s forged identity certificate was genuine or not. It was actually filed in a certain government office in Guanzhong, so it went through several security guards without being discovered.
It wasn't until he got out of Yumen Pass all the way and saw the vast desert of ice and snow in front of him that Changsun Jun breathed a sigh of relief.
But the real difficult journey has just begun...(End of Chapter)