The Villain's Counterattack

Yang Guang summoned Yang Xuyan overnight, and together with Pei Ju (Shi Zhixuan), they considered various possible emergency situations and wrote a response book, which included methods to deal with false surrender. It was handed over to the main generals the next day.

Yuwen Shu and his generals, fully prepared, divided their forces into three groups and marched forth in a mighty force, sweeping across their path. The Goguryeo army, invincible in field battles, was steadily defeated and forced to hold its cities. As the battle progressed, the problems Yang Xuyan had outlined in his chess game simulations surfaced one by one. Fortunately, Yuwen Shu and his generals were well prepared, making these challenges relatively straightforward. However, regarding the feigned surrender, they followed Yang Guang's strategy of playing hard to get, intentionally allowing the enemy an opportunity to seize the city.

At this time, Goguryeo had no intention of surrendering. For the Goguryeo officials who had the Grand Master Fu Cailin, they were proud and arrogant. They never thought that they would fail. If they really reached the point of desperation, they believed that as long as the Grand Master took action, he would be able to ensure the safety of the country.

They knew that the Sui Dynasty was powerful and that Goguryeo was far from being able to compete, but they still believed that they could win before the failure came. Goguryeo had many talented people at the top, who admired Han culture. After learning it, they turned around and used it to deal with the Han people. They thought that gentlemen could deceive others with their own tricks, and always wanted to use some despicable tricks to win.

For example, pretending to surrender, another pretending to surrender, and another pretending to surrender.

Yang Guang sent three envoys to each army to persuade them to surrender. If the enemy surrendered for the first time, there would be a one-day ceasefire without reporting. One day later, he would send more envoys to persuade them to surrender. If the enemy refused to surrender, he would continue to attack the city. If the enemy really surrendered, he would take the city, gather the surrendered soldiers as the vanguard to attack the next city, and leave his own soldiers and civilians to occupy the city walls and military camps. As for the Goguryeo officials, they would be sent to Yang Guang.

If the enemy pretends to surrender the first time and continues to use this trick the second time, the enemy will immediately control the surrendering officials and ask them to open one city gate to the Sui army as a sign of sincerity. If the sincerity is not enough, the person who pretends to surrender will be executed.

The Goguryeo city garrisons hadn't anticipated that their feigned surrender would only buy them one day's time. They were severely limited in rest time, and their ability to repair the walls and replenish equipment was far from perfect, putting them at a disadvantage. A second feigned surrender exposed them to the daunting demands of sincerity, forcing them to sacrifice many officials.

You mean to open the city wall?

Haha, they never thought about doing this, and they have no sincerity at all.

However, those who were able to be sent out to pretend to surrender were all wealthy families or high-ranking officials of Goguryeo. Otherwise, they were not very capable or were not capable enough to take on such a task and responsibility. The result of the second pretend surrender was that all the Goguryeo people were beheaded.

After various tactics failed, one city after another fell. The Goguryeo defenders used civilians as vanguards to attack the Sui army, while they led their own troops to break out of the encirclement. After all, they had already evacuated the civilians, and the remaining ones were abandoned. They did not feel bad even if they died. However, they soon realized that they had overestimated their own situation. The Sui army was not only surrounding the city, but also ambushed the main roads and the surrounding cities. Few could escape, and the Goguryeo army suffered heavy losses.

While the army was besieging the city, Yang Guang sent cavalry to penetrate the enemy's rear and catch the tail of the Goguryeo people who were migrating, trying his best to disrupt their plan to gather the country's strength in Pyongyang. However, Goguryeo was not a small country, and its people were large and scattered. After all, Yang Guang's cavalry could only capture a few of them, but there were still hundreds of thousands of them.

These civilians and a small number of Goguryeo soldiers had large amounts of food and supplies. It turned out that Goguryeo had originally planned to abandon the Liaodong area. The food in the city was only enough for half a year, and the rest would all be transferred to Pyongyang. The combined strength of the entire country was enough to support them for several years, but the Sui army obviously could not hold out for that long, and might not even survive the winter.

The idea of ​​the Goguryeo leaders was good, but there was a freak variable like Yang Xuyan. He was well-versed in history and had done business with Goguryeo through the Buzhou Trading Company, so he got a lot of intelligence about them. After all, in the last world, he had successfully taken over the entire Goguryeo, and used it as a springboard to attack Mobei and annex the Liao Kingdom.

Therefore, their plan was not a secret at all in front of Yang Xuyan. They were beaten badly by the Sui army, and some were either killed in battle or captured. Less than one-tenth of them escaped. Moreover, many high-ranking officials were beheaded because of the second false surrender, causing panic and uproar among the Goguryeo high-ranking officials.

Liaodong City was a rare strong city in Goguryeo. Yang Guang dispatched three masters and took advantage of the enemy's second false surrender and air raid to suddenly attack the city and finally took it down. After taking it down, it was handed over to Yang Xuyan. Yang Xuyan had received an advance payment of 3,000 soldiers and 8,000 civilians before that, and ordered them to attack everywhere to capture Goguryeo soldiers and civilians who might be lurking in the wild.

On the other hand, they purchased captured Goguryeo captives and civilians from Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty, and asked them to mine coal and iron ores, and build various equipment and supplies for the winter under the command of the craftsmen they brought with them, such as honeycomb coal and stoves.

He also sold the captured young and beautiful Goguryeo women to various places in the Sui Dynasty through the Buzhou Trading Company, making a lot of money. He hated the human trafficker Yang Xuyan in the Sui Dynasty, but he was not opposed to the foreign slaves he sold. Over the years, he had sold quite a few women from the Western Regions, which brought him a huge fortune. Although he did not care about the small amount of money, it made Anlong's mouth full of money and he was smiling every day.

Yang Guang was greedy for pleasure, and he had criminals like the Baling Gang under his command. He didn't care about human trafficking at all. When he found out that Yang Xuyan actually had such means, he couldn't help but like him even more. However, seeing that Yang Xuyan was very resistant to the trafficking of Han women, he did not develop him as his subordinate, but he did reserve a lot of women of other races from him.

Soon, Yang Xuyan had 100,000 Goguryeo slaves under his command. While mining, he was also building and renovating Liaodong City. How could a square city wall have the same strong defense as a bastion? Even the original square city wall, Yang Xuyan wanted to add a few more corners to it, and even installed large equipment such as crossbows.

In addition, he also borrowed the Sui cavalry to cast a wide net and gallop across the map to search for Goguryeo ambushes hidden in the wild. You won’t believe it, but he actually encountered them several times, which attracted Yang Guang’s high attention. He sent tens of thousands of troops to encircle and suppress them, forcing the enemy to flee to the north and disappear without a trace, indirectly ensuring the safety of the food route.

Yang Guang could not leave the Sui Dynasty too far away, as remote command would be inconvenient. After taking Liaodong City, Yuwen Shu, Yu Zhongwen, Jing Yuanheng and others divided their troops into nine groups and met west of the Yalu River. The army was unable to bear the heavy baggage, and if they wanted to advance quickly and complete the capture of Pyongyang before winter, they had to make some choices.

After the army crossed the Yalu River, food and fodder became somewhat insufficient. At this time, Goguryeo minister Yi Chi Wende pretended to surrender, observing the Sui army's strengths and weaknesses. Seeing the Sui army's predicament, he had a plan in mind. When Yu Zhongwen heard his name, his first reaction was to capture him. Yi Chi Wende was also a talented person. Upon observing the Sui army's attitude towards him, he immediately realized something was wrong and escaped at night without waiting for a response from the Sui army's high command.

Yu Zhongwen, Yuwen Shu and others hurriedly led their troops in pursuit. Yichi Wende saw that the Sui army soldiers were hungry, so he wanted to make them more tired. He pretended to be defeated and retreated every time he fought. Yuwen Shu even achieved a brilliant record of winning seven battles in one day.

However, Yizhi Wende still underestimated the strength of the Sui army. Yang Guang and others discovered this problem early after Yang Xuyan's military chess simulation. The logistical supply had never been interrupted. Although there were some difficulties, it was not enough to cause a fatal impact. What's more, Yang Xuyan also sent people to lead the way and found a lot of food hidden by Goguryeo as a supplement.

You have to know that it is not easy to fortify the city and clear the fields. They were reluctant to destroy so much grain, so part of it was transported to Pyongyang City, and the rest was buried on the spot. Yang Xuyan found these places through various means and dug out the grain again to use as military rations for the Sui army.

At this time, Lai Huer's navy came in a mighty force and quickly defeated the Goguryeo navy. However, this time, because of Yang Guang's clear order, Lai Huer did not rush ashore. Instead, he sent a fleet into the various water systems of Goguryeo to support the army and delivered various supplies. For a time, the morale of the Sui Dynasty was greatly boosted.

Seeing that the Sui army's land and sea forces were constantly approaching Pyongyang City, and most of the hidden troops in the rear who were preparing to cut off their food supplies were wiped out, the remaining hundreds and thousands were not enough to have an effective impact on the war situation. The King of Goguryeo sought help from the Grand Master Fu Cailin.