"Actually, what General Hou Junji said is not unreasonable." Li Shiji thought for a while and said.
After everyone turned their attention, Li Shiji continued, "If you were to lead these 60,000 troops, think about it. Under the acknowledgment that the Liaodong front line still exists, although there are 20,000 Tang Dynasty cavalry in this area, Are they afraid of being ambushed?"
Everyone was stunned for a moment, and then Xue Wanjun hesitated and asked: "General Li, do you mean that because the opponent's army is large enough, they are not afraid of any ambush at all, and the opponent will quickly advance through almost all terrains?"
"That's the truth. You should all have seen Yeon Gaesumun's order, asking them to support the front line as quickly as possible. At this time, if a cavalry unit harasses their front line, what do you think they will think? Or should I say it differently? What do you think?" Li Shiji looked at them and asked.
"I feel that the siege of the Tang Dynasty has reached a critical juncture, so we must try our best to prevent us from going to the Liaodong front line." Hou Junji pondered for a while and said.
"Yes, that's the truth. In such a situation, it is necessary to send the scouts out, but according to Yeon Gaesumun's order, if there is cavalry harassment, drive the opponent away and then hurry on."
"In other words, if we divide some of the cavalry into enough groups and specifically intercept and kill their scouts on both sides of them, this will make their army think that we are actually harassing them, so that they will rush on their way quickly, otherwise Ignore it."
"Because in their view, or in the view of many generals, there is actually no possibility of an ambush for a 60,000-strong army. Because this is not a few thousand or ten thousand, this amount of troops may be spread out in front and back. Twenty or thirty miles away, if there is an ambush, wouldn’t it take hundreds of thousands of troops to ambush?”
"Normally speaking, an army of more than 100,000 people cannot hide its whereabouts at all. In fact, it is almost the same. But there is a premise for both sides, that is, both sides are in the field area, and both sides have the opportunity to send scouts in."
"But in fact, when our cavalry was galloping in this area, the Goguryeo scouts had no chance to come in. During these more than 20 days, they knew nothing about this area."
"Under such circumstances, there is a natural possibility that we can completely surround and eat this army." Li Shiji said seriously.
"But it's not easy to block these 60,000 people. How do we do it? In addition to the 20,000 cavalry active here, we can also dedicate up to 10,000 heavy cavalry and 5,000 light cavalry. If we want to surround the enemy, these 10,000 Five thousand cavalry must block their retreat." Hou Junji frowned.
"Why do we let the cavalry block the road?" Li Shiji smiled.
Everyone was stunned for a moment. Isn't the high mobility of the cavalry used to block roads? Your infantry wants to bypass other people's large troops blocking the road? The infantry can't get around it, they can't keep up with the speed.
"No need to go around, let's wait. The mountains and forests nearby are densely covered with vegetation. I have already asked Qibi Heli and the others. If you really want to hide in these mountains and forests, let alone two hundred thousand, even one million troops can hide there. You can’t even tell.”
"The only problem is time."
"But what the Goguryeo people didn't expect was that we could get the information so quickly. This gave us enough time to select the ambush site first, and then the infantry hid on the peaks on both sides a few days in advance."
"When the enemy takes the initiative to get into our pocket, and the cavalry has been harassing them in front of them, they will think that Datang only has these troops in this area. If necessary, they can even dispatch the entire cavalry army to let the enemy see it."
"In this way, the enemy will relax to the extreme on both sides."
"Once the enemy enters our encirclement, they will directly block the road and completely encircle the 60,000 soldiers. Under the firepower of our arrows, it will only take a matter of minutes to eat these 60,000 soldiers."
"So, my opinion is to go against the routine and directly let the cavalry block the road, because in most people's impression, the cavalry is used to go around the back, or to attack from the side, if there is an encirclement."
"Because the infantry is stronger when it is waiting for work. The cavalry only needs to hold back when it goes around, and the infantry can pursue it from the rear."
"Now we are doing the opposite. The cavalry is blocking the road and harassing them. They will never think that there will be infantry ambushing them later." Li Shiji pointed at the map and said.
"So General Li has a suitable ambush location?" Hou Junji and others came over and asked curiously.
"This place." Li Shiji directly clicked on a place on the map.
Everyone looked over and saw a name on the map, Tongyang Fort pU (Tongyuan Fort).
"This is a small town, which can also be regarded as a city. The city area is not large, and the city wall is also very narrow. It is only about one meter wide and three meters high. The population is less than a thousand."
"Qibi Heli and the others have not harassed them in this town. Although they have appeared near this town, they have not harassed them. Moreover, the terrain around this town is relatively open, and there are four mountain passes leading to other places. area, this kind of terrain is not the best terrain for establishing an encirclement."
"More importantly, when people see a city, they never think that someone will ambush around the city. Even if the city is small, they will subconsciously think that it is safe."
"Also, before arriving at the Copper Sheep Castle, there are actually several terrains that are more suitable for ambush operations, but we did not choose them. They will subconsciously think that there are only 20,000 cavalry here, and there is no way to ambush them. ."
"Secondly, the mountains around Tongyang Castle are high, densely forested, criss-crossed with deep valleys, and inaccessible. Our army can be hidden here casually. It is just heavy siege equipment, and heavy bed crossbows are not easy to carry. But these can arrange the front of the opponent's march, anyway. There are cavalry blocking the road ahead, so it’s impossible for them to notice anything unusual.”
"In addition, I think that this city-breaking mine may not only be used for siege. If we find someone in advance and bury it secretly in the open space, I remember that these fuses can burn even if they are buried in the soil. As long as the wires are left If it's longer, I can give them a surprise when the time comes." Li Shiji said.
Everyone looked carefully at the terrain pointed by Li Shiji, and after thinking about it, it was indeed the case. There is a city here, even if it is a small city, no one would choose to ambush here.
But given the size of this small town, 20,000 troops can be squeezed into it, which is the most, not to mention they have so much supplies, so most of the troops are still outside the city.
If some city-breaking mines were planted outside the city...taking these 60,000 Goguryeo elites would mean that the countdown to Goguryeo's demise had begun.
