On the sixth day of the fourth month, Goguryeo Province, Pyongyang.

The recent news from the Liaoshui line confirmed that a third attack on Middle-earth was highly likely, which made Goguryeo King Gowon and his central ministers anxious and unable to sleep at night.

This war has entered the third year, although the Middle-earth army has stopped attacking since the early autumn of last year and withdrew to the west of Liaoshui, but the Emperor of Middle-earth has always been stranded in the frontier and has not returned to the eastern capital, and the army of Middle-earth has always been stranded in Huaiyuan Town, and there has been no sign of withdrawal, which is enough to show that Middle-earth has not given up the attack, so Goguryeo had to continue to mobilize all its forces to prepare for war.

However, Goguryeo could no longer support it. In the past two years, Goguryeo has exhausted its national strength to fight against Middle-earth, with huge consumption, very little output, and a sharp reduction in population and materials, although the first year was a great victory, and a lot of captures were captured, and in the second year, the Middle-earth army was successfully blocked in the Yalu River, so that half of the country was spared from being destroyed, but this could not save Goguryeo from fire and water, could not prevent the explosion of the food crisis, and could not curb the decline of national strength, especially after the ****** swept both sides of the Yalu River at the end of last year, the situation worsened, a large number of people fled their homes, the people's morale collapsed, and the military spirit was thus turbulent. The haze of defeat enveloped the whole of Goguryeo.

At the same time, the two old rivals of Silla and Baekje took advantage of the fire to rob, fell into the well, and frequently crossed the border to invade, posing a serious threat to Pyongyang, containing and dispersing a considerable part of Goguryeo's forces, and the long-time ally Su Mo Jin Ya saw the rapid decline of Goguryeo and was in danger, and his position and attitude also changed, not only increasing the intensity of "blackmail" against Goguryeo, but also began to covet Goguryeo's territory, exposing its greedy and bloody hideous face.

The exterior of Goguryeo was surrounded by enemies and embattled, while on the inside, the king of Goguryeo, Gowon was betrayed and his prestige was lost.

A kingdom has declined, coveting and encroaching on many people, and a strong man has declined, and can no longer bring practical benefits to allies and subordinates, of course, it is impossible to avoid the rebellion of the people, not to mention that in the process of Gao Tang and Gao Yuan's father and son dominating the Far East, in order to bite off a few more pieces of meat from the suzerain's Middle Earth, they frequently invaded Middle Earth, which was strongly opposed and strongly obstructed by the pro-China Turkish faction in Pyongyang. And now the bloody facts have proved that the nobles who supported Gao Tang, Gao Yuan's father and son, and supported them reaped the consequences, paid a heavy price for their unrealistic hegemony, and brought the disaster of extinction to Goguryeo.

Gao Yuan can die, and the nobles who support Gao Yuan can also die, but Goguryeo cannot die, this is the consensus of a large number of Goguryeo nobles who are struggling in despair, so they incite desperate civilians to rebel, lobby and encourage local officials and army generals to betray Gowon, try to overthrow Goyuan, save Goguryeo, and win the survival of the ethnic group by surrendering to Middle-earth, so as to rebuild a new Goguryeo.

At this time, not to mention concentrating the whole country's forces to meet the third attack on Middle-earth, it is difficult to stabilize the political situation in Pyongyang and stabilize the domestic situation.

On this day, Gao Yuan urgently summoned the generals Eulji Wende and Jiang Yiwei to tell them the bad news that although they had been expected but had always had a hint of luck, the Emperor of Middle-earth ordered a third attack on Goguryeo on February 20.

Yizhi Wende and Jiang Yiwei looked at Prime Minister Gao Jianwu in unison, showing dissatisfaction. Such important news has only now reached Pyongyang, which is a major event.

Prime Minister Gao Jianwu was born in a royal family, more than half a hundred years old, thin, haggard, and gray due to overwork, giving people a sense of old and weak. He couldn't help but shake his head helplessly when he saw that the two generals were questioning, "Since Hu Sizheng fled, the Emperor of Middle-earth has launched a major purge from within him, and the control of important secrets has become stricter, and it is difficult for us to obtain valuable information from his interior. As for this news, it has been semi-made public in Huaiyuan Town, so our eyeliner can find out. ”

"In that case, the Middle-earthites are about to attack." Eozhi Wende and Jiang Yiwei looked at each other, and they both saw a deep sadness in each other's eyes.

Eulzhi Wende and Jiang Yiwei are also veterans in their fifties, they are both important ministers in the Gaotang period, they both have the ambition to dominate the Far East, and they have been fighting for their dreams all their lives, but now not only their dreams have been shattered, but even the race is in danger of survival, so they grit their teeth and hate the culprit Middle-earth, they are unwilling to fail, they want to protect Goguryeo, and they want to rebuild the glory and glory of Goguryeo.

It's just that under the current situation, their means to turn the tide have been very limited, the economy has collapsed, the disparity in force is too great, and politically it is deeply divided and infighting, there is no food and grass inside, there is no rescue army outside, and the only thing that can be relied on now is the Goguryeo people's sky-high hatred for the invasion of Middle-earth and the strong desire to survive, but the war is fought with national strength, and the weak can no longer defeat the strong, when the war enters the third year, in the face of the powerful Middle-earth, Goguryeo is no longer able to fight, defeat is inevitable, unless God favors it, and then gives a miracle.

Gao Yuan was in his thirties, he was in the prime of life and ambitious, of course he wanted to do a big career and realize the ideal of Goguryeo dominating the Far East, but the ideal was very plump, the reality was very skinny, and Goguryeo in its heyday happened to meet the rising Middle Earth, and the Far Eastern Wolf King was not the opponent of the Middle-earth lion at all, and the victory and defeat had been determined before the battle was fought.

In the past two years, Goguryeo has indeed won the battle, but it has lost the war. The wolf king of the Far East used all his strength to wound the male lion and drive it away, but the price paid was very heavy, and now it was dying, and it could only watch the male lion swagger and slaughter it.

Gao Yuan couldn't stand still, he had to fight to the death in order to survive, so he invited two old marshals to ask for advice.

"The brilliant results of the first two years fully prove that our previous countermeasures are very correct and do not need to be changed." Jiang Yiwei said confidently without thinking, "To the west of Yalu Water, we will hold the two important towns of Liaodong and Wugu with heavy troops, and fight to the death with the enemy, so as to achieve the purpose of containing and dispersing the enemy's strength, delaying and delaying the enemy's attack; To the east of Yalu Shui, they held on to the two rivers of Yalu and Sasu with heavy troops, taking advantage of natural obstacles and taking advantage of the rainy season to stop and kill the enemy at any cost, and did everything possible to delay the enemy's encirclement of Pyongyang. As soon as winter comes, the enemy forces are passive, and victory is ours. ”

Gao Yuan's face was expressionless. Ezhi Wende's expression was grim.

Gao Jianwu glanced at Jiang Yiwei, shook his hand, and sighed, "The year before last, we broke the kettle and fought against the water. Last year, we gave everything we had to fight to the death. This year, we have nothing, the treasury is empty, and our human, material and financial resources are almost collapsing, how can we fight? What to fight? If morale and courage can defeat the enemy, hold the city, and win the battle, why would Goguryeo have the disaster of destroying the country? ”

Jiang Yi sneered slightly, "We really can't hold on, but how long can Middle Earth last?" From the enemy information we have gathered, it can be seen that the current situation in Middle-earth is very bad, and the internal and external troubles are exploding together, and the degree of danger far exceeds ours, so as long as we hold on to the end, no matter the cost, the victory will definitely belong to us. ”

"Yes, the situation in Middle-earth is indeed very bad, so we are lucky that Middle-earth may give up the attack, but now the facts tell us that Middle-earth is about to launch a third attack, so the truth is that Middle-earth can hold on, and we are going to fall." Gao Jianwu sighed helplessly, "The outcome of this battle has been decided, if we continue to fight, what if we defeat Middle-earth again on the battlefield?" What are we left with in the end? Can we rely on these three victories in the past three years to get Goguryeo back on its feet from the ruins? Let Goguryeo become the hegemon of the Far East again? ”

No one answered, and there was a dead silence.

"The answer is no." Gao Jianwu asked himself and continued, "We are fighting against Middle-earth, and every victory will cost us unbearable. The loss of 200,000 soldiers in Middle-earth will not hurt the muscles and bones, let alone the vitality, and as long as we lose 50,000 soldiers, our vitality will be greatly damaged, and if we lose 100,000 soldiers, we will be in danger of losing the country. In the fierce fighting of the past two years, we have suffered nearly 50,000 casualties, more than 100,000 people, and countless cities, houses, and farms destroyed, and the ****** at the end of last year has dealt us a fatal blow. ”

"In this predicament, imagine if we continue to fight against Middle-earth this year, fighting Middle-earth to the end in every city, every river, and every inch of land, and never stop fighting, what will be the final result? Obviously, even if we win the war and persevere, we will be dying. ”

"If Middle-earth were to attack for the fourth time next year, how would we resist it? If Silla and Baekje join forces to invade north at the end of the year, and Sumo is also treacherous, taking advantage of the fire to rob and fall into the well, what should we do? ”

"What's more serious is that the predicament we are currently facing is clear to Silla, Baekje, and Sumo, if this year they tacitly cooperate with Middle-earth, attack with Middle-earth on all sides, and do their best to encroach on our Goguryeo, what will we do?"

No one responded, and the atmosphere was depressing.

After a long time, Jiang Yiwei spoke, "This year, we are not without the opportunity to create miracles. ”

"You mean the Turks?" Gao Jianwu shook his head again and again, "The Turks can't be trusted. The reason why the Turkic envoys came all the way this spring with a huge caravan was obviously to use us to contain the Middle-earthers, so as to buy them more time to retake Anzhou. However, since the Middle-earths have decided to attack us for the third time, it is enough to show that the purpose of the Middle-earth invasion of Anzhou is precisely to use Anzhou to attract the attention of the Turks, firmly contain the Donghu species, and not give them any chance to come to our aid. How could the Turks not see such a clumsy trick? Now that they have seen it, the Turks still dare to risk provoking a great war between the North and the South, and go to war against Middle-earth for the destruction of one of their powerful tribes? ”

Jiang Yiwei couldn't help it, and said coldly, "According to the prime minister, we will simply not fight this battle this year, surrender, tie our hands, and wait to be slaughtered." ”

"The matter has come to this, and of course it is the best policy to seek peace." Gao Jianwu smiled bitterly, "But the problem is, in this battle, the Emperor of Middle-earth has lost face, so how can he easily make peace?" ”

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