Han officials

Chapter 63: Teaching a Son on the Battlefield
In the evening, on the banks of the Peishui River.

I saw many Goguryeo people busy setting up camp, which seemed to be quite orderly.

At the same time, Gao Nanwu, the commander-in-chief, brought a group of people to the shore to look out.

A moment later, a young man dressed in a sleeved shirt, wide-legged trousers, a white leather belt, and yellow leather shoes finally lost his patience and asked with a puzzled look on his face, "Father, why are we going to Zengdi County? Why don't we just take the Korean city?"

This person was Go Yeon-woo, the second son of Goguryeo King Go Nam-mu.

Although Gao Yanyou was only the second son, his status in the Goguryeo royal family was extraordinary.

Because he was the only son of Queen Yu and the grandson of Yu Su, the leader of the Tinar tribe in Goguryeo.

All these reasons combined have led to Gao Yanyou naturally having many supporters in the country.

It is precisely because of this that Gao Yanyou was so casual in front of the King of Goguryeo.

However, although Gao Nanwu likes his second son, he is more optimistic about his eldest son Gao Faqi in his heart.

Even though this eldest son was born out of wedlock, he had no support from his maternal family.

So instead of answering, he looked to his left at another young man who was wearing gorgeous clothes and adorned with gold and silver.

"Tell me what you think."

Compared to his lively younger brother, Gao Faqi is much more gloomy.

He had obviously thought about this question long ago, so as soon as his father finished speaking, Gao Faqi spoke up, "Korea City is the seat of Lelang County. It's fortified and heavily fortified. Attacking it will only result in heavy casualties and be futile."

As he spoke, Gao Faqi was secretly paying attention to his father's expression.

When he saw a hint of satisfaction in Gao Nanwu's eyes, he continued, "Instead of wasting our warriors on attacking the city, it would be better to capture more Han people's wealth and goods to weaken the foundation of Lelang County."

Having said that, he showed some of the rare youthful confidence.

"Day after day, year after year, one day our country will surely be able to annex Lelang County."

Seeing Gao Faqi's commanding look, Gao Nanwu's smile suddenly became a little more prominent.

He is the eldest son and is good in every way except that he is a little too gloomy.

Seeing that Gao Faqi finally showed some youthful vigor, Gao Nanwu felt somewhat relieved.

But Gao Yanyou, who was standing by, felt very uncomfortable seeing the fatherly and son-loving behavior of the two.

Although Gao Yanyou is just a teenager, the look he gave Gao Faqi was full of resentment.

But when Gao Nanwu turned around, he immediately smiled brightly and praised like a cheerful boy:

"Brother is really amazing. He even guesses what father is thinking!"

Upon hearing this, Gao Faqi's face, which had just been sunny, instantly turned gloomy again.

But having suffered so much, he did not refute but remained silent.

Gao Nanwu didn't care at all. Instead, he tapped Gao Yanyou on the head with his whip and laughed, "Although your brother has some vision, he's still a little behind me!"

After saying this, Gao Nanwu stopped testing his two sons.

The smile on his face gradually faded, and he looked south along the Pei River, as if he saw someone.

"I didn't go south to plunder this time!"

Gao Nanwu was still the King of Goguryeo after all. At this moment, he stopped his horse with a complicated look in his eyes and sighed, "No matter how strong the Joseon City is, if that fellow Wei Gongwei holds out, I will definitely break into the city!" "I won't be able to sleep or eat in peace until I get rid of this man!"

Upon hearing this, both Gao Yanyou and Gao Faqi were shocked.

Although the two had heard of Wei Zhe's name, they only knew that he was the prefect of Lelang and did not take him too seriously.

Seeing their father speak so seriously, the two of them became very curious about Wei Zhe.

But at this moment Gao Nanwu suddenly sighed and fell silent.

In fact, the people in Goguryeo also did not understand Gao Nanwu's decision.

After all, Goguryeo originally originated from the Xuanchu Commandery of the Former Han Dynasty, and thus its later development focus was primarily on the west. Whether it was raiding Youbeiping, Shanggu, and other counties, or raiding Liaodong Commandery, it was all centered around this national policy. It can be said that from the very beginning, the Han Liaodong Commandery was their main target.

For example, when Gao Nanwu's great-grandfather Gao Gong was in power, he invaded Liaodong and plundered six counties.

However, Geng Kui, the then governor of Liaodong, was one of the "Twenty-Eight Generals of Yuntai" and the nephew of General Jianwei Geng Yan. He had been familiar with the family's military tactics since childhood, so he defeated the enemy with one strike and beheaded the leader of the army.

After the defeat of the Goguryeo army, it suddenly came to its senses. The following year, it sent envoys to the Han Dynasty to offer tributes and ask for annexation by Xuantu.

To be honest, it was not because the then King Goguryeo, Go Gong, was too weak.

You should know that he is one of the most outstanding monarchs in the history of Goguryeo.

It was under Gao Gong's leadership that he unified the various Goguryeo tribes and consolidated the territories he had annexed.

This is also the reason why Goguryeo's population was smaller than that of the Three Kingdoms of Han, with only more than 800,000 people, but was far stronger than the latter.

To put it bluntly, Goguryeo had already begun to develop feudal characteristics.

When Goguryeo was first established, the King of Goguryeo might have been no different from the King of Mahan, both being just leaders of a tribal alliance. However, during his reign, Goguryeo imitated the Han Dynasty and implemented feudalism.

Therefore, when the King of Mahan was unable to deal with the State of Boji, the King of Goguryeo could easily mobilize tens of thousands of brave warriors in the country to invade the south.

From this perspective, Gao Gong is somewhat similar to Huang Taiji.

Unfortunately, the Han Dynasty at that time was not as weak as the Ming Dynasty, and was even too full of martial virtues.

Even though the combat effectiveness of the Goguryeo army under Gao Gong's command had far exceeded that of the past, and could even be said to be the strongest since their founding, they were still badly defeated by the Han army.

The Han Dynasty did not even dispatch the Southern and Northern Armies stationed in Luoyang. Geng Kui, the governor of Liaodong, only led the local county troops to defeat the Goguryeo people, who were sober-minded.

So the Goguryeo people lived in peace for a few years, and only dared to make trouble after Geng Kui left office.

It can be said that the time when Gao Gong was in power was the time when Goguryeo was at its most rampant.

Facing the coalition forces of Feng Huan, the governor of Youzhou, Yao Guang, the prefect of Xuantu, and Cai Feng, the prefect of Liaodong, Gao Gong sent his adopted son Suicheng to lead more than 2,000 people to attack, and at the same time sent 3,000 people to attack Xuantu and Liaodong counties, burning the city walls and killing and injuring more than 2,000 Han people.

Even though the court quickly sent more than 3,000 cavalry from Guangyang, Yuyang, Youbeiping and Zhuojun to rescue him, Gao Gong still had evil intentions and instead colluded with more than 8,000 Xianbei people in Liaodong to attack Liao Dui County.

Finally, after several plots by King Gao Gong of Goguryeo, Liaodong Governor Cai Feng was killed in battle, and Gongcao Geng Hao, Bingcao Yuan Long Duan, and Bingma Yuan Gongsun Po all died in the battle.

It can be said that the time when Gao Gong was in power was the most dangerous time for the Han people in Liaodong.

After Liaodong Prefect Cai Feng died in battle, Gao Gong led thousands of cavalry from Ma Han and Hui Mo to besiege Xuantu a few months later.

Although Wei Zhe had no memory of this experience, his father Wei Xuan once talked about it.

(End of this chapter)