The matter of Goguryeo, for the Tang Dynasty, was very sudden, but it was very inevitable.

Historically, Yuangai Suwen was a person who sang against King Rongliu and sang until he was killed.

And the relationship between King Rongliu and the Tang Dynasty during this period was very bad, or rather, all the Goguryeo people in this period were more hostile to the Han people, because the two countries had fought for more than ten years in a row, and the Tang Dynasty had the trouble of Northern Jieli and internal weakness, so King Rongliu wanted to take the opportunity to capture the border of Hebei and Shandong in the Tang Dynasty and enter the Central Plains.

And Yuangai Suwen, who had ideas about the Goguryeo regime, naturally opposed him and insisted on a political attitude of friendship with the Tang Dynasty, so as to gain the support of some pro-Tang factions.

In the fourth year of Zhenguan, the Tang Dynasty destroyed the Turks, and King Rongliu became honest at once, he was afraid that Li Shimin would turn his head and attack Goguryeo, so he asked people to build a thousand miles of the Great Wall on the border to resist the Tang Dynasty, and cut off exchanges with the Tang Dynasty.

However, this move cost the people and money, and made the king of Rongliu lose the hearts of the people in Goguryeo, and at this time, the pro-Tang faction of Yuangai Suwen gained more political capital, so that he finally launched a coup d'état and killed the king of Rongliu.

However, after he came to power, he wanted to annex Silla, Baekje, Buyeo and other neighboring countries to strengthen himself, which made Li Shimin wary of him.

It was not in the interests of the Tang Dynasty to allow the birth of a large country capable of threatening the Tang regime to the east of the Tang Dynasty, so war inevitably broke out.

However, this period of history, due to Sun Xiangfu's foreign interference, has become a mess, Jieli was directly defeated in Guanzhong, Tuli was destroyed, and several feudal kings who rebelled within the Tang Dynasty were all destroyed in an instant, and soon, even Jieli Khan was destroyed.

Since Li Shimin's accession to the throne, all the rebellions and foreign wars have ended in quick and easy victories, which made King Rongliu dare not rise to the heart of the Tang Dynasty and behave very honestly.

Then, Yuangai Suwen, who was bent on seizing the power of Goguryeo, naturally went against him and won the support of a group of careerists who hated the Tang Dynasty, and then, with the support of Wang Hao's powerful external force, he quickly found an opportunity to kill King Rongliu and obtain the power of Goguryeo.

"Your Majesty, Goguryeo's dispatch of troops this time is very hasty, according to the minister's opinion, it is not that he really wants to start a war with my Tang Dynasty, but that Yuangai Suwen knows that His Majesty is not in the center, and wants to take the opportunity to show off his strength and integrate Goguryeo's interior.

After Li Jing arrived at the study, he did not shout and beat like Wei Chi congratulated Hou Junji and others, but after reading the information transmitted by the secret guard, he said to Li Shimin.

"What do you mean?"

With the current military strength of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin will definitely not be satisfied with passive defense, it should be that he goes to the borders of other countries to show off his strength, how can it be his turn to let others show off his strength from home!

"The soldiers and horses in the hands of the king of Jiangxia are mainly infantry, and it is enough to defend the city, but attacking Goguryeo with all the cavalry is tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg, if you want to really resist, I am afraid that the imperial court must send a large army to go, at present, the main cavalry of the Sixteenth Guard Army, as well as most of the commanders, are in Shanyang, if you want to send troops to Goguryeo, you can only start directly from Shanyang.

However, from Shanyang to Goguryeo, it was more than 3,000 miles, and when our army arrived, Yuangai Suwen was only afraid that he would have already returned to the army to defend, but let him use the name of defending the territory to integrate Goguryeo internally, and our army would not be prepared for follow-up war, and it would definitely return in vain. ”

"This doesn't work, that doesn't work, do you want to let that Goguryeo kid run rampant in front of us?"

When Wei Chigong heard that he couldn't fight, he immediately stopped doing it, interrupted Li Jing's words, and shouted.

At this time, it reminded Sun Xiangfu of the scene where he had invited the leaders of the tribes such as Murowei, Yao, and Fei to come to participate in the military parade, so that a suggestion rose in Sun Xiangfu's mind and said, "Your Majesty, if you prepare food, grass and clothes from Shanyang and go out to Goguryeo, I am afraid that it will take more than half a month at the earliest, but at the moment, we have several other armies that can be called." ”

When Sun Xiangfu said this, he looked at Su Dingfang, and suddenly, Su Dingyi reacted, and stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, the minister sent fast horses and light horses to send a message to the Murowei, Jianya, Xia, Khitan and other departments, inviting them to participate in the military parade, along the way in the fields developed by each family, or the herdsmen grazing along the way to change horses, six or seven hundred miles a day, three or four days, the news was conveyed to the past, now, the four departments have been submitted to my Tang Dynasty, we can just let the leaders of the four departments return quickly, mobilize their soldiers and horses, Attacking the back road of Goguryeo, I can't say, it can have a miraculous effect. ”

Hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up, this is a good idea, not only to resolve the crisis in Hebei Province, but also to tear off a piece of meat from Goguryeo, the key is that there is no need for Datang itself to break his muscles and bones.

"Quickly send the leaders of the four tribes, I want to discuss this matter with them."

Hearing that there were some fights, Wei Chi Gong came to the end, and personally ran out to find someone, Li Jing, who was fighting for this situation, started a strategic analysis and said, "The minister also thought about this, but was interrupted by Jingde's urgency, I didn't expect the development of the north to be so fast, if the leaders of the various departments can go back to mobilize the army and horses within three or four days, then, this time, thousands of miles north of Liaoyang, may belong to my Tang Dynasty." ”

Li Jing obviously made countless strategic analyses of Goguryeo in private, and the territory of Goguryeo at this time was large enough, almost the two northeastern provinces plus the Korean Peninsula in later generations, Liaoyang, that is, the location of more than 100 miles east of Shenyang in later generations.

And what Li Jing said, the location of hundreds of miles north of Liaoyang is almost the Changchun area of the later generations, and this area is also a prominent area surrounded by Goguryeo by the four parts of Xia, Khitan, Murowei, and Jianya, and take it down, so that the Tang Dynasty will attack Goguryeo after that, and it may not need to be hard in front of the heavily guarded fortifications of Goguryeo in the Liaoyang area.

When Li Shimin heard this, he quickly understood what Li Jing meant, this strategy is very much in line with the interests of Datang, and it almost uses the minimum cost to achieve the greatest effect, then, in order to promote this matter, Li Shimin will not hesitate to give the four departments some benefits.

"Your Majesty, the minister also suggested that Su Dingfang lead a small number of light cavalry of the Anbei Army to secretly return with the leaders of the four divisions, and coordinate and command the four troops and horses to march into the army, while Shanyang's army will continue to stay in Shanyang to complete the game in order to confuse Yuan Gai Suwen."

Li Jing recognized Su Dingfang's ability to lead the troops very much, and he expected that Dingyuan Gai Suwen would arrange spies to monitor every move of Shanyang's army, as long as Shanyang's soldiers and horses did not move, for the purpose of showing off his strength, he would continue to garrison the army on the border of Hebei Province, so as to give Su Dingfang a chance to sneak attack.

"But how do we deal with the counterattack after Goguryeo?" Li Shimin asked Li Jing again.

"Your Majesty, Liu Hongji and Zhang Liang's army, isn't it already stationed in Shandong, Your Majesty only needs to send a letter to Donglai, let Zhang Liang send a naval army, feint to attack Beisha City, Yuangai Suwen will not dare to move, at that time, Your Majesty only needs to send a small amount of Anbei Army to Su Dingfang, let it integrate four troops and horses in the Kaiyuan area, and stick to the defense line."

Hearing this, Li Shimin nodded, and then asked, "Then my army, don't make any moves?" ”

"Your Majesty, the time has not yet come! The Northeast is cold, and our army is here to come to Shanyang, all wearing summer and autumn clothes, and it is not suitable to go to war.

Second, the cities of Goguryeo occupy geographical advantages, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the number of troops is superior, and there are many supports, so with our current full cavalry in the north, it is not suitable to fight against them.

Moreover, if you don't have enough strength to destroy the country in one fell swoop, if you just take a few cities and take advantage of some small advantages, you will be vulnerable to its counterattack and suffer heavy losses.

Therefore, Cheng suggested that the four coalition forces should first occupy the area north of Kaiyuan, and then maintain the momentum of a feint attack on Goguryeo at sea, so that Yuangai Suwen could not unify the hearts and minds of the people, and wait until next year, when our Datang strategic reserves are sufficient, and then raise a large army to conquer it, we will be able to get twice the result with half the effort. ”

To put it bluntly, Li Jing believes that a war cannot be fought because it is a breath, and as an attacker, preparations must be sufficient, at least Shanyang's full cavalry cannot be used to attack Goguryeo! The four new subjugations were all nomads, taking advantage of the emptiness of Goguryeo's back roads, to fight sneak attacks or guerrilla warfare, just bargaining, and if they really wanted to attack the city and seize the land, and rule one side, they still needed a large infantry force to advance.

And Datang's infantry troops are now in Chang'an, and Yuangai Suwen only dared to send troops to provoke after seeing that Datang had no ability to counterattack in a big way. Because Li Shimin is not in the center, the fastest transfer of infantry to the northeast border to fight, it will be next year, at that time, he has already integrated and unified his internal thoughts, and it is a big deal to have another war like resisting the former Sui, which can help him stabilize his position.

Therefore, Li Jing believes that the political goal of dismantling Yuangai Suwen is the first priority, and as for sending troops to destroy Goguryeo, at least it will be after next year's summer grain harvest, the cold clothes for the soldiers, and the equipment for fighting the war are ready.

For these analyses, Li Shimin quickly understood it, so next, it was up to him to persuade the leaders of the four departments to send troops, and Sun Xiangfu pulled Su Dingfang outside the study and admonished, "General Su, if Your Majesty can persuade the four departments this time and let you lead the four departments to send troops, don't kill them when you get there, we lack population in the north, and you will snatch the population back, it will be wealth." ”

"The end will know. It's just that if the last general goes on an expedition, this is a big ······."

"Don't worry! I'll let Chu Suiliang and Guo ** sort it out······"

The two were chatting, and they saw Zhang Ke holding a note, and quickly ran over to this side and said, "Governor, urgent letter from the south." ”

Sun Xiangfu hurriedly took it, opened it and looked at it, revealing a hint of joy, and immediately knew the ultimate purpose of Yuangai Suwen's army to invade Hebei Province, it turned out that Zhao Long caught Gaode, the son of Gao Jianwu, the king of Rongliu, along the coast of Goguryeo, and wiped out the entire army sent by Yuangai Suwen to pursue Gaode, Yuangai Suwen sent troops to Hebei Province to put pressure on Li Shimin to return Gaode to him, and recognize his dominance over Goguryeo.

As for why Zhao Long met Gaode on the coast of Goryeo, Sun Xiangfu felt that it must have been operated by Wang Hao, who created so many favorable conditions for the Tang Dynasty and used various means to lure the Tang Dynasty to attack Goguryeo, just to realize his dream of the Zongheng family and eliminate all the hidden dangers of war.

At this moment, Sun Xiangfu even suspected that Wang Hao agreed to sell the grain grown in Jiangnan this year to himself at a low price, and also wanted to increase Shanyang's war reserves, if Sun Xiangfu was a person who was bent on attacking Goguryeo, in fact, he had the conditions to make all the preparations for attacking Goguryeo before.