On the map, every city, mountain, and river is marked with various colored lines and handwriting, 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 enfeoffed territory. In the fifth year of Zhenguan, His Majesty ordered Sun Shi, Sima Chang of the Guangzhou Governor's Office, to go to Goguryeo to collect the bones of soldiers who died in the Sui Dynasty, and destroyed several capitals built in Goguryeo. Gao Jianwu was frightened and summoned his ministers After discussion, it was decided to build the Great Wall to resist possible attacks by the Tang Dynasty. It started from Buyeo City in the northeast and ended at the mouth of the Liao River in the southwest, a total of more than a thousand miles. The construction of the Great Wall was overseen by the powerful Goguryeo official Yeon Gaesomun. Yeongaesomun felt that With the national power of Goguryeo, it would take at least thirty years to build such a Great Wall to resist the attack of the Tang Dynasty. So they suddenly had a whim and first built mountain cities at various strategic passes. , Liaodong, Shabei, Gaimou, Anshi, and Jian'an cities each built mountain fortresses, arranging them in a north-south line, relying on each other and supporting each other during war. Then when the national strength is sufficient, city walls will be built between the mountain cities 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 located in a mountain city, but we cannot know the details. When a large army is fighting, we should be careful and careful in planning."
Everyone listened with rapt attention.
Even though His Majesty Li Er has long been determined to destroy Goguryeo and made unprecedented achievements in history, his understanding of Goguryeo is still limited to documentary materials and the 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 this was because His Majesty Li Er favored Fang Jun, so they supported him vigorously to make a contribution, but they didn't expect that the business he planned had already exceeded everyone's expectations.
It is conceivable that such a detailed map of Goguryeo required a lot of investment in manpower and material resources to achieve 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, a copy of these maps should be made as soon as possible and sent to the Liaodong Army, so that Xue Wanche can have a better understanding of the terrain of Liaodong. With more knowledge, we 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 anytime and anywhere, command the army to attack the city and pull out the stronghold, 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 were like this, how much worry could 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 guy is not only smart and capable, and he also handles things properly, but he also knows people well and employs them. 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 of his family's backing. 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 swore to go to war! When Liaodong is pacified, our troops will return to the DPRK. On that day, I will have a celebratory drink with you all again, and issue 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 in creating 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 snowstorm 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 wealth, 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...
