The sun was shining brightly on the Liaodong Plain in the afternoon, and the battlefield where the two armies fought had already become the Shura slaughterhouse. There were countless broken internal organs, mutilated corpses, broken limbs, overturned flags, broken weapons, and injured horses. At a glance, I saw corpses everywhere on the grassland.
The color of the grass is no longer green and red, but replaced by purple. It was the color of a large amount of blood mixed with mud, and the air was filled with a strong smell of blood that made people vomit.
South of the Xiaokou River, Songzun whipped his horse with all his strength, tears rolling in his eyes and humiliation in his heart. However, the shouts of death behind him made him dare not even look back.
Overnight, Goguryeo suffered a huge defeat and almost the entire army was wiped out. This made Song Zun feel a deep sense of frustration. All his ambitions and aspirations were turned into nothingness following this battle, and all his extravagant hopes and longings were dissipated on this land.
Looking back at this time, he suddenly discovered that Goguryeo's tragic defeat was actually expected. Just because the Sui Dynasty was in a very passive defensive position from the beginning of the confrontation to yesterday, and the so-called defense line of the Sui Dynasty was in vain under the constant harassment of the Goguryeo army. It is precisely because the Sui Dynasty's defense line has been full of flaws for many years, which not only encouraged the arrogance and arrogance of the Northern Army led by Li Yong, but also made them careless and subconsciously underestimated the enemy.
Everything that happened last night and today was actually the concentrated outburst of the Goguryeo army's accumulated feelings of underestimating the enemy and being arrogant for many years. I even subconsciously believed that the Sui army regarded Li Yong as the first enemy to be eliminated. However, everyone They didn't expect that the Sui army's appetite would be so big, and they would include all the 100,000 troops from the Xifeng Camp.
The loss of 85,000 elites, including the Peking Camp, not only ruined Gao Yuan and Yuan Ziyou's plans to march into Mozhou and Liaodong, but also the northern defense line had lost its absolute advantage in strength. If nothing else, Yang Ji, who was known for his cunning and ferocity, had already divided his troops to deal with Changtu City in the west, Momi City and Maigu City in the east.
Once those two horns are lost, the northern defense line will no longer be able to stop the Sui army from moving south, and the morale of the weak troops guarding various cities will be greatly shaken by the disastrous defeat of the three horns. If they heard that the main force of the ferocious Sui army was coming, they would definitely abandon the city and flee, eventually causing the enemy to push their troops outside Liaodong City without any bloodshed.
"Da da da" suddenly there was a rush of horse hoofbeats in the originally quiet northwest. Song Zun was startled and quickly looked towards the sound. It was Li Yong and Li Cheng who ran over with a broken army, and his own Behind them, a broken army also gathered, and everyone's face was full of panic.
The total number of these sparse soldiers is probably less than 5,000.
He thought that more than 200,000 of Goguryeo's most elite warriors, under his leadership, had reached Mozhou County and Liaodong County. However, it turned out that the main force with the largest force not only failed to achieve the goal of the king's attempt to put pressure on the Sui Dynasty to promote peace talks, but also failed to achieve the goal. In order to achieve the goal of opening up new territories, they abandoned their armor and suffered a complete defeat.
How should he explain this to the king? How to face the soldiers' home rolls?
Even these surviving soldiers were frightened by the Sui army and became panic-stricken. If they encountered a more fierce Sui army at this time, they could easily overwhelm the most elite army.
Thinking of this, Songzun's eyes went dark, and he tightly grasped the reins with both hands, otherwise he almost fell off the horse.
Li Yong came to Song Zun and saluted silently: "The guilty general Li Yong, please see General Song."
"Guilty general? You are indeed a guilty general, but you are not guilty of me." Song Zun glanced at Li Yong and sighed quietly: "The discord between you and me is just a matter of political disagreement. You are the main attacker, and I am the main defender." , there is no right or wrong. It’s just the consequences of this disastrous defeat. Have you ever thought about the Sui army’s next plan? Have you ever thought about the overall situation of Goguryeo?"
Li Yong didn't say anything after hearing this. He silently drew out the sword from his waist and held it across his neck amidst the sharp shouts of the generals around him.
"At this point in the situation, the right and wrong and the conflicts between you and me are not important at all. Both you and I deserve to be punished for our crimes, but we can't die now." Song Zun said in a stern voice, and Li Yong looked at him in confusion. After coming over, he continued: "The top priority is to work together to deal with the sudden change of the situation, rather than to investigate the responsibility; if we die here, the north will fall into chaos without a leader. Once the Sui army goes south, we, Goguryeo, will Liaodong will surely devastate all life and destroy thousands of miles of bare fields.”
Li Yong paused for a moment, then returned the sword to its sheath. He took a deep breath, cupped his hands and said, "General Song, where should we go now?"
Songzun looked at the haggard and miserable soldiers around him, and his heart ached again. He tried to steady his mind and said: "I have ordered Eulji Takeok to abandon the main camp and retreat to the south camp; where is his place?" There are still five thousand soldiers and horses. If we include the soldiers of the southern camp, we still have about 20,000 troops available."
After pausing for a while, he said resolutely: "After this battle, the northern defense line has been broken. There is no need to defend it. Even if it is to defend, it cannot be defended. In order to prevent our army from being defeated one by one by the Sui army, I decided to abandon the northern defense line. , retreat to the defense line of Changchun, and then rely on Guiduanshui and Longgang Mountain to hold the Sui army in the north."
"When we arrived at Nanying, we sent a message to Quan Ming and Yi Bao, ordering them to abandon Changtu City, Momi City and Maigu City, and join Changchun Tun. At the same time, order the defenders of Goguryeo City, Xuantu and other large and small cities and fortresses. We are also gathering towards Changchun Tun. If we can bring the defenders safely, then we can still have 100,000 elite troops, and at least more than 100,000 auxiliary troops and young men."
At the end of the sentence, Song Zun seemed to have been drained of all his strength. Although he knew very well that this retreat would seriously reduce Goguryeo's strategic depth in the Liaodong Plain, but if he stubbornly stayed, he mentioned that more than twenty All the power of life will be handed over to the north, and the situation will become even more unfavorable in the future.
"I will obey your orders!" Li Yong also knew that this was not the only solution, and the "Guiduanshui-Changchuntun-Longgang Mountain" mentioned by Songzun was actually their second line of defense on land.
Their retreat to the south will certainly cause a large area of Goguryeo to fall into the Sui Dynasty, but it also means that the range of defense lines that need to be defended in the future will be much smaller. The important thing is that it can be connected with Xincheng, Liaodong, Nansu, Mudi, Cangyan and other cities. . At that time, no matter which direction there is enemy situation, armies from other places can rush to help as soon as possible.
Of course, both Li Yong and Song Zun, as well as the many generals present, they all know that the road south will be more difficult and difficult than now. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are fighting for their lives; and the so-called Under the successive attacks of the Sui army, half of the more than 200,000 living forces retreated to Changchun Tun. It was a blessing.
