West bank of the Liao River, Xiangping.

The emperor's Liuhe Wheel Palace has been moved here, standing in the huge wheel palace tower, Yang Guang's eyes are full of loneliness. He didn't want to withdraw, but he had to withdraw, and he didn't want to lose, but he was defeated.

In the eighteenth year of the emperor's reign, 300,000 troops marched east to Goguryeo, and before they crossed the Liao River, they had already stopped because of floods, epidemics, and food shortages instead of not retreating, and finally 300,000 people stopped and stopped nine times.

Now, after 12 years, he spent millions of troops to conquer, but unexpectedly ended up in a bigger defeat.

Recalling this Eastern Crusade, before the war, after several years of preparation, he opened the canal to Zhuo County, built a naval base in Donglai, and manufactured and stored countless ordnance in Zhuo County.

He ordered the wealthy households in the Kanto region to raise horses, recruited countless Jianghuai sailors, and built countless warships.

In the end, he was defeated.

At the beginning of the Eastern Crusade, Luo Yi and Luo Cheng's father and son fought successively, making Yang Guangdu think that before the autumn, he would be able to destroy Goguryeo in one fell swoop, but who knew that sweetness would be followed by endless bitterness.

The autumn wind and autumn rain are sad.

The autumn rain is continuous, cold and wet.

Xiangping gathered a large number of soldiers, horses and people, enough to hundreds of thousands of people. But compared to the huge army that crossed the river at the beginning, there were still too few retreats at this time.

The loss of this failed Eastern Crusade was greater than the loss of the Eastern Crusade in the eighteenth year of the Emperor's reign.

"There are 300,000 troops in the Ninth Army in the south, and there are only more than 40,000 people who come back, and there are about 50,000 in Daxing City, and the 300,000 army has lost more than 200,000."

Pei Shiju, the secretary of the Ministry of War, bowed his head and whispered to the emperor.

"In addition, there were 300,000 troops in the Eighth Army of the Naval Division, and only three armies crossed the sea, and 30,000 soldiers were lost under the city of Pyongyang."

"The Seventh Army of Liaodong has 200,000 troops, and 100,000 soldiers and horses have been lost in Liaodong."

"The six armies of the imperial camp are 200,000, and they have lost a total of 70,000 soldiers."

Simple OnePlus, this time it actually dispatched 800,000 troops, but it lost 400,000 before and after, and what shocked Pei Shiju the most was that the losses were basically soldiers. Although the Ninth Army went south and the auxiliary troops were all folded, the Seventh Army of Liaodong, the Sixth Army of the Imperial Camp and the Sailor Division were all folded combat troops.

This means that in fact, although there are still nearly 300,000 people in Xiangyang, there are only more than 100,000 real soldiers.

This is also the reason why the emperor had to retreat from the division, not that the emperor didn't want to hold on, but he really couldn't hold on, and when the autumn rainy season came, if he didn't withdraw, the Goguryeo people would launch a full-scale counteroffensive, and maybe the hundreds of thousands of people left in the Liao River of the Great Sui might be defeated and annihilated by others.

"Your Majesty, all the armies east of the Liaohe River have been withdrawn one after another, and now only the soldiers and horses on the front line of the new city have not been withdrawn, do they withdraw?"

After fighting for so long, the Sui army that crossed the river also made achievements in the direction of Xincheng, breaking through more than ten walled cities, especially capturing Xincheng, Xuansu, Gaimu, Nansu, Cangyan and other cities, which can be regarded as opening up the line of Xiaoliaohe.

In other directions, only a few small towns and small forts were built, and it was difficult to defend alone, so Yang Guang directly withdrew his troops across the Liao River, but on the side of the new city, Yang Guang was really reluctant to withdraw.

"If you are stationed, how sure are you that you can defend it?"

Pei Shiju thought for a while, "It depends on who Your Majesty uses to guard it, if you let Xuanwu County guard Li Yuan to guard it, I'm afraid that I won't be able to keep it." ”

Now the city that has been breached in Xincheng has been divided into Xuanwu County, and the county has also moved to Xincheng, and Li Yuan is the Taishou.

Yang Guang thought about it, and this is also the truth, although Xincheng was captured by Li Yuan, he thought that it was more of Luo Yi's work. "I don't want to abandon the new city, this expedition to the east, cost countless money and food, lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, and captured the cities of the new city, if you give up, it would be a pity. I want to hold on, and when I go on another expedition to the east in the next year, I can also use it as a bridgehead and a base camp for attack. ”

Pei Shiju is frightened, and will go east again in the coming year? Does the emperor still want to conquer Goguryeo again? However, this defeat, the Great Sui has also suffered a great injury, not to mention, the flood of the Yellow River caused by famines, and anti-thieves are everywhere.

Where is the remaining strength to conquer Goguryeo?

The emperor was still talking to himself.

"Li Yuan can't defend Xuansu, I thought that Xuansu County and Liaodong County could be merged into one, and Liaodong County would be set up, and Luo Yi, the former Yan County Taishou, would move to Liaodong Taishou and know the military of Liaodong, and guard Liaodong, and the right Sixth Army of his department would stay behind."

"The original Yan County and Liaoxi County were merged into Liaoxi County, with Li Jing as the Taishou of Liaoxi County and the military of Liaoxi, and the Left Sixth Army of his department remained behind."

"Li Yuan was reappointed as the Taishou of Liucheng County, and he was given 10,000 troops."

"Give the left and right six armies each a replenishment of soldiers, horses, equipment, grain and grass, and the two armies each replenish 35,000 soldiers and 12,000 war horses."

The emperor did not give up at this time, and still thought about counterattacking Liaodong in the coming year, so he would not give up Xincheng, and specially sent Luo Yi, who could fight, to guard the cities of Xincheng, and sent Li Jinglai to guard the west of the Liaohe River, so that the general could take on the task of defending against Goguryeo's westward invasion.

As for Li Yuan, the emperor did not believe in his military talents, but he was unwilling to bring him back to the court, so he transferred him to Liucheng County, which was close to the original camp prefecture in Guannai, as a taishou.

After making these arrangements, the emperor sighed.

"Except for the 80,000 soldiers and horses left behind in the three counties, the rest of the soldiers and horses were ordered to return to the original military government and return to the field."

The soldiers returned to the government, and the people returned to their hometowns.

This crusade is over. As for the countless equipment, money, and food that had been transported to the front line in Liaodong, they were drawn to the defenders of the three counties.

"Isn't there any news of the Na Sung's department heading south to Pyongyang?"

The emperor asked suddenly.

"Not yet."

"Did Laihu'er and his sailor find it?"

"It hasn't paid off yet."

Yang Guang said angrily, "Lai Hu'er has always been valued by me, but this time he is deeply disappointed by me, if it weren't for the incompetence of the sailors, I'm afraid that Pyongyang has already been captured, and this Eastern Expedition will not be defeated." ”

The emperor was still faintly looking forward to Luo Cheng, who had repeatedly performed miraculous feats, to take one of his soldiers and horses to create another miracle in Pyongyang. It's just that the emperor just thought about it in his heart, when the Eighth Army was defeated and the sailors were also defeated, the emperor really didn't dare to do anything but expect Luo Cheng to make big waves with 20,000 people.

He was even worried that if Luo Cheng couldn't find Lai'er, he was afraid that it would be difficult to come back.

"Your Majesty, there is an urgent military situation."

"Biography."

An attendant brought a shocking news, according to the news brought back by a defeated army who had just fled from the east of the Liao River, that Luo Cheng, the general of the Fifth Army of the Left, took his 20,000 horses south to attack Pyongyang, but he could not attack for a long time, and was surrounded by an army of 80,000 led by Eulji Wendek under the city of Pyongyang, Luo Cheng led his troops to fight a bloody battle for thirteen days, and finally the whole army was annihilated, and Luo Cheng was also defeated and killed himself.

"The total annihilation of the Fifth Left Army? Luo Cheng killed himself? ”

Yang Guang was stunned.

"Your Majesty." Pei Shiju hurriedly went to help the emperor who was about to faint.