"Xiangrui, I have good news for you, Xue Rengui has led his troops to attack Mujin Prefecture in Baekje, killing 3,000 enemies and capturing more than 5,000."

Taifu Li Ji sat in Li Xiao's office, drinking honeysuckle tea and slowly saying a good news.

"Ying Gong, where is this Wuzhen Prefecture?" Yi Xiao didn't know anything about Baekje, except that it was a small feudal state that occupied the southwestern part of the Samhan Peninsula, and was formerly called Mahan. Later, the Buyeo people went south and established the Baekje kingdom here, and the monarch was also surnamed Buyeo.

Because both Baekje and Goguryeo were founded by the princes of Buyeo, although Baekje fought and made peace with Goguryeo for hundreds of years in the past, today, Baekje still colludes with Goguryeo to fight against the Tang Dynasty.

Originally, Baekje also paid tribute to the Tang Dynasty, but when the Tang Dynasty asked Baekje to send troops to cooperate with the Tang Dynasty to attack Goguryeo, they did not listen to the king's orders.

So, the Tang Emperor, who had adopted Li Xiaoping's Liao strategy to prepare to destroy Baekje first and then attack Goguryeo, happened to find a reason to send troops, and Emperor Li Zhi's number one henchman, Xue Rengui's eldest brother, immediately took tens of thousands of horses and horses to Baekje in a boat.

Before arriving in Baekje, he also destroyed the Tamna Kingdom in the southwest sea of Baekje. The Tamna Kingdom was innocently lying on the gun, and no one was provoked without recruiting anyone, but as a result, he was implicated by Baekje, which led to the destruction of the country.

"This Wuzhen Prefecture is a big coastal city in the southwest of Baekje."

Li Xiao crossed Erlang's legs and said disdainfully, "Baekje is only as big as a state in my Datang, and the state below him is at most the size of a county in my Datang, and how big a city can it be." ”

Li Ji couldn't help laughing when he heard it.

"Don't look down on other people's Baekje, although the place of Baekje is not big, I think that when I was in Mahan, there were also fifty-four countries."

"Fifty-four countries? Fifty-four villages, right? Li Xiao spoke venomously again. The little Baekje actually had fifty-four countries before, which made Li Xiao even more disdainful, and even reminded him of Japan's Warring States. If you don't move, the national war is actually an armed brawl between villages.

Li Ji is still quite fair, saying that if you think of our Huaxia, in the Xia, Shang and Zhou times of the pre-Qin Dynasty, there were also many states. Especially before the week, there were many alliances of states, and there were countless large and small countries. It's just that later the Western Zhou Dynasty divided the princes, and then the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and the world was unified.

This is actually a social process, both in the East and in the West.

It can only be said that the development of Baekje is relatively backward. Our Central Plains have long entered the era of centralization, but they are still in our pre-Qin era.

Later, Mahan was influenced by the Buyeo people who went south, and it can be regarded as a unification, and the 54 kingdoms of 5 Han at that time have now become 147 counties of Baekje.

Woojinju is located on the southwest coast of Baekje, which was later the Gwangju region. At this time, it governed three counties: Weidongfuli County, Fulong County, and Quzhi County.

Xue Rengui and the others did not encounter resistance, and the Baekje people actually discovered this army from the sea not long after the Tang army occupied Tamna.

Xue Rengui's 40,000 navy took the coastal route, starting from Dengzhou, along the temple island of Jundao in Bohai Bay, first to the south of the Liaodong Peninsula, then along the coast to the east, and finally to the mouth of the Yalu River, and then turned south, sailed along the west coast of Goguryeo, and finally entered the coast of Baekje.

The people along the coast of Goguryeo and Baekje were frightened to death three times a day, always thinking that the Tang army's naval division was going to land at any time, but Xue Rengui's army floated on the sea for several months, and finally went all the way to Tamna.

At that time, the Baekje people thought that the Tang army had gone to Japan, and they heard that the Japanese emperor had disrespected the Tang envoys, which made the Tang emperor dissatisfied.

Just as they breathed a sigh of relief, it turned out that the Tang army had conquered the Tamna Kingdom. This frightened the king of Baekje, Buyeo Yici, and hurriedly summoned the nobles to gather troops and horses, but the nobles had not yet completed the assembly, but Xue Rengui had already led the army to land in Baekje, and the army directly attacked Wuzhenju.

In only three days, Xue Rengui captured the city.

"Xue Gong is brave!" Li Xiao admired.

Li Jidao, "Now the king of Baekje is the eldest son of the previous king Buyeo Zhang, Fuyu Yici, this kid is very smart, he once came to my Tang Dynasty with the embassy when he was young, but at that time he hid his identity and pretended to be an ordinary official. This kid has stolen a lot of things from my Tang Dynasty, and after succeeding to the throne, he imitated my Tang Dynasty to carry out reforms, strengthen royal power, strengthen centralization, and establish his own royal army, especially after he succeeded to the throne, he no longer fought with Goguryeo, but united with Goguryeo, which was weakened by my Tang Dynasty, to turn around and deal with Silla. ”

Buyeo Yoshiki's strategy cannot be said to be wrong, Goguryeo fought with the Sui and Tang dynasties for decades, and the strength of the powerful Siberian Tiger was greatly weakened, so Buyeo Yoshici joined forces with Goguryeo to fight Silla.

He even personally led the royal city army he formed, united with the aristocratic army, invaded Silla, and looted more than a dozen cities in a row, greatly increasing his prestige in the country.

"Although Xue Rengui unexpectedly captured Tamna and Wuzhenzhou, but now Fuyu Yici's reaction is also very fast, he did not come to seize Wuzhenzhou immediately, but immediately sent a large army to block several key passes in Wuzhenzhou's northward and eastward advances."

The place where Wuzhen Prefecture is located is mountainous. Although Wuzhenzhou is located on a plain, it is at most a small hilly plain, surrounded by mountains, leading to the north and east of the great plain, are dangerous mountain passes, and now these main roads are blocked by Buyeo Yizhang by soldiers.

So, can't the Silla people join forces with General Xue right away? ’

Li Ji shook his head, "You can only come from the sea, but it is inconvenient at sea, especially the supply and transportation of grain, grass and equipment will be more troublesome." ”

According to the original plan, Xue Rengui's naval division landed in Baijinan, caught Goguryeo and Baekje off guard, and after landing there, it fought steadily and encroached step by step. At the same time, it is necessary to rely on the cooperation of the Silla people to provide some food and grass equipment.

And now Buyeo Yici has blocked the road in advance.

"General Xue has an army of 40,000, I'm afraid that the Baekje people won't be able to stop it, right?"

Li Ji said with a smile, "We can't stop it, but we can't easily damage the soldiers and horses." After all, these 40,000 soldiers and horses finally passed by sea, and it was not easy to replenish the losses of one. Besides, our real opponent is the Goguryeo people, and the goal is Pyongyang, and we don't want to waste too much power in Baekje. ”

"Then Ying Gong is not here to just tell me this, is he? I'm a corn grower, and I'm not an official of the military department. Li Xiao said.

Li Ji didn't go around the bend again, "I want to borrow some corn seeds from you, and then borrow some corn farmers from the corn supervisor who know how to grow corn, and send them to Wuzhen Prefecture." ”

"Is Ying Gong planning to let General Xue be in Baekje Tuntian?"

40,000 sailors of the Eastern Expedition, even if one person consumes one stone of grain in a month, he will get twelve stone a year, not counting the rations of war horses and mules, and one war horse is at least five times the ration consumption of soldiers. The sailors also had at least a few thousand horses and thousands of mules.

In this way, these 40,000 soldiers and horses can get 780,000 stone of military rations a year. It is indeed quite difficult to sail from the Central Plains, after all, it will take two or three months to make a trip, not to mention how many ships it takes to transport so much grain.

If we can camp the army on the spot, we will be able to solve the problem of food.

"There are many fields in the mountains of Wuzhenzhou, if you can plant rice in the tuntian, and then plant corn in the mountains, then you can greatly increase the harvest of Juntun." Li Ji said.

"No problem, I can transfer manpower and corn seeds, some quyuan ploughs and craftsmen, and let them go to Baekje with the ship to support General Xue's tuntian." Li Xiao is not stingy.

Li Ji smiled and said, "Haven't you thought about going there in person?" ”

"It's still someone else, I'm a human being, what I don't love the most is adventure, I like a comfortable life. It's not easy to go to Baekje, just on the sea you have to float for two or three months, I can't stand the wind and waves, not to mention the storm in this summer, in case the dragon king of the Liao Sea makes waves, I don't want to feed the fish, let alone go to the dragon king's crystal palace to be a guest. ”

"How good it is to stay in Chang'an, the world is so big, but there is no place as prosperous as Chang'an. Chang'an has a population of 480,000, and there are not many more people in Baekje. ”

Li Ji shook his head helplessly, Li Xiao is a good person, but he is too lazy.

Li Xiao said twice, "But Yinggong, although I don't want to go, I want to arrange some people to take your ride and go with you." ”

"Your slave catcher?" Li Ji snorted.

"You know that, too?"

"You think no one knows anything about you? Although Chang'an has 480,000 soldiers and civilians, where is it not under the surveillance of the imperial court. You asked Zhao Zhiman to recruit idlers and villains all day long, and you recruited captains and sailors who knew how to sail, which had already attracted the attention of the imperial court, but fortunately you also wanted to go to Baekje to fish in the mixed waters, if you had other ideas, you would have been thrown into the Dali Temple prison. ”

"How could I have any other ideas, but in response to the imperial court, I organized people to go to Baekje to capture slaves, which is also to contribute to the imperial court. If you think about it, when my fleet sets out, it must be loaded with cloth and grain, and when you arrive in Baekje, the money and grain must be sent to the military camp first, and then exchanged for the soldiers' spoils, fair trade, and by the way, some military rations and cloth are provided for the soldiers, how good is it? ”

"Didn't you go to hunt slaves, why did you become a business again?"

"I don't know how to catch slaves and do business." Li Xiao spread his hands, "Anyway, it's all by the way, you can't go empty." ”

"You kid is really bold, you dare to make any money."

"Making money is small, but worrying about the country is big." Li Xiao said hehehe. Doing business with the army will never lose money, after all, the Eastern Expeditionary Army is outside, and the loot will not be less, but the loot they have in their hands is not so easy to realize, so far away from the Central Plains, Li Xiao sent people to exchange money and grain for their booty, that is, there is no middleman to make his difference, this is a first-hand transaction, which can maximize profits.