Li Shiji took Liaodong City for twenty days. As the latest messengers entered Liaodong City, Jian'an City, the last city in the entire Liaohe River line, surrendered after its gates were blown down. This meant that the entire Liaohe River line was in the hands of the Tang Dynasty.
As these cities continued to be captured, the people around these cities were quickly arranged to return to the villages to cultivate the fields. The national reserve granary from Youzhou is constantly transporting grain and other materials to the entire Liaodong region through the Yellow River → Bohai Sea → Liaohe River.
For Tangshan City, which was built in Youzhou and faced the Goryeo front line, the materials delivered here were nothing at all. Because the entire Tangshan City is now regarded as the industrial center of the entire Youzhou and even the north, the steel plants and related processing industries built here will supply the entire northern region for quite some time in the future.
However, according to the information given by His Highness, there are also a large amount of coal, iron ore and other resources near Gaimou City (Fushun). Now Li Shiji no longer cares about farmland. In Li Shiji's view, these mineral resources are the key.
It's just that no one noticed it.
It only took a total of more than 20 days to capture more than 20 cities of different sizes in the Liaodong front line. Although this was different from most cities, especially some small cities such as county towns, it was even more difficult after the arrival of the Tang army. Sun Daiyin They surrendered immediately upon arrival without any resistance.
But this speed is also fast enough.
In addition to conveying the latest news to His Majesty in Chang'an and His Highness the King of Qin, Li Shiji had to admit that His Highness the Crown Prince's opinion had a decisive influence.
Twenty thousand cavalry were scattered between the Yalu River and the Liaodong front line, almost cutting off all information transmission to Goguryeo, so that they may not know the true situation of the Liaodong front so far.
According to the intelligence received by Li Shiji, in the past twenty days, Goguryeo had sent 10,000 cavalry to try to clear it up, or to launch a tentative attack.
But after the 20,000 heavy cavalry quickly dispersed into dozens of small groups and did not engage in contact with the opponent, the opponent pursued them for a distance and then retreated.
When the opponent retreated, the cavalry troops who had been fishing at a distance quickly caught up with the opponent again and continued to harass the opponent with bows and arrows.
The strong bows and arrows of the Tang Dynasty played a decisive role in such harassment. Goguryeo's armor was originally made of iron sheets, and although their war horses also had increased armor, the armor sheets of the war horses were thinner.
As a result, the arrows fired by the Tang Dynasty caused certain casualties to Goguryeo's heavy cavalry troops.
When the opponent turned around and pursued again, Datang's cavalry troops were shooting and running at the same time.
Anyway, for Datang, these arrows are not worth the wear and tear, even if they are iron arrows.
Although the war horses of the Tang Dynasty carried a heavy burden, Goguryeo also sent heavy cavalry. The heavy cavalry of Goguryeo was even heavier than the burden of the Tang Dynasty.
I can't run fast anymore, and you can't run fast either, then we are all the same, there is no difference.
As for the light cavalry that came out with the opponent's heavy cavalry, the opponent's commander obviously used these light cavalry as scouts for reconnaissance and to transmit information. During this tug-of-war, the opponent did not dare to send out.
Even the heavy cavalry can't withstand the opponent's armor-piercing arrows. You let the light cavalry in leather armor go?
What's more, they have not forgotten that the Tang Dynasty has nearly 20,000 heavy cavalry active here! The total number of them was only ten thousand. Although only a few thousand appeared in front of them, who knew whether the rest were outflanked.
So after two back and forths, the Goguryeo cavalry generals decisively retreated. Even if the Tang cavalry chased and harassed them from behind, they retreated regardless.
In fact, they did expect some of it. Qi Bi, He Li and the others were originally going to try to see if they could devour these 10,000 cavalry by gathering 20,000 cavalry.
But it is easy to disperse, but it takes time to gather. The other party did not give them much time, but let the other party slip away.
But it didn't matter if they ran away, because even if they ran away, they had left nearly 700 casualties in their journey back and forth.
More than 400 of them died, and the remaining 300 or so injured were sent to Liaodong City by Qibi Heli directly for simple rescue.
They ran so fast that they didn't even collect the iron arrows shot by Datang.
After this battle, the various scouts that the other side tried to send out were all stopped by the cavalry here.
Especially when Qibi Heli was fighting this group of Goguryeo cavalry, Li Shiji had actually completely captured Liaodong City and launched governance operations. After a large number of army vacancies were created, most of the Tang army had already Passing through Liaodong City and crossing the Liaodong line, they arrived at the rear of Qibi Heli and the other cavalry.
After giving this side support, Li Shiji directly added 3,000 light cavalry to Qibi Heli. They only wore key protective armor and the horses were not armored. They were specially used to hunt down and blockade the opponent's scouts.
Then Li Shiji brought out 10,000 cavalry to join in. Zhang Liang led these 10,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry to Beisha City (later Dalian). After Beisha City was captured, this meant that the entire Liaodong Peninsula was already in a great state. under Tang's control.
By that time, more than half of Goguryeo's territory had been lost.
…
In Pyongyang, Yeon Gaesumun was a little anxious. He never expected that the Tang Dynasty would be so difficult to deal with, especially the 20,000 cavalry. He simply didn't know how they managed to persist for so long.
Although horses do not need logistical supplies and can be found in the mountains and forests, what about people? Where did they get so much food?
Those villages? The food needed by 20,000 cavalry is not a small amount. How much food can be found in those villages? You must know that he has already ordered various cities to gather nearby people as much as possible.
It has been twenty days, and all the scouts he sent out have not brought back any news, or in other words, there is no news at all.
Those who had no news either went but could not come back, or were directly captured by the Tang Dynasty's cavalry.
In fact, even the several ships he sent out to try to reach Bisha City from the sea did not receive any news.
Of course, what Yeon Gaesumun didn't know was that the Tang Dynasty's fleet was cruising in the Bohai Bay, especially the waters off Pyongyang. There were many ships of the Tang Dynasty, large and small, cruising in this bay.
Qibi Heli's cavalry did only have dry food at the beginning, but Yuan Gaisuwen did not expect that Li Shiji and the others would solve the front line of Liaodong City so quickly and be able to quickly replenish food and grass for Qibi Heli and the others. Secondly, even he did not expect that, Datang's ships could use small boats to provide logistical supplies to these cavalry from the seaside.
