Autumn of the fifteenth year of the summer calendar

The 60,000 Goguryeo army, which had been stranded on both sides of the lower reaches of the Yalu River to eat, finally crossed the Qianshan Mountains and came to Liaodong City under the leadership of Gao Wencan, a confidant of Goguryeo King Gao Yangcheng.

Then they stopped here, and in the next ten days, after gathering the troops sent by the cities from all over Liaodong, they continued to advance eastward, and attacked the territory of the Xia State in the Nanshui and Tongjiang valleys along the Nanshui.

At this time, the Mid-Autumn Festival had already passed in mid-to-late August, and everyone had completed the autumn harvest of spring wheat, millet, and other crops in Goguryeo and the counties of Xia in the more northern Poor Water Valley.

With the arrival of 60,000 Goguryeo troops in Liaodong City, the city lords of Goguryeo's Liaodong cities also led their own soldiers to gather in Liaodong City.

By the end of August, the Goguryeo army gathered in the entire Liaodong city had reached 120,000 people, and the prosperity of the troops was incomparable, which not only made Wang Ze, who was far away in Zhenhai, unexpectedly quite nervous, sent many soldiers from the Yan tribe to Xu Ning and Hu Bingchang's army, but even the Khitan, who was in the west of Goguryeo and did not participate in the war, was also nervous.

The Khitan himself knew that he was a little nervous, but after all, he had a lot of conflicts with Goguryeo in the past, although Goguryeo said to the outside world that it was going to start a war against the Xia Kingdom, but what if Goguryeo wanted to practice his hands before attacking the Xia Kingdom, and by the way, he would sweep away his worries?

Under this concern, the Khitan Alliance, which was not particularly strong, also suspended the war against the northern Didouyu tribe, and sent a large number of Khitan tribes close to Baicheng to the back of the upper reaches of Liaoshui for more than 200 miles.

The Khitan overreaction was apparently self-inflicted, and the 120,000-strong Goguryeo army, led by Gao Wencan, passed through the new city and headed straight to the city of Buyeo, which was closer to the difficult water, and less than 200 miles east of the city was the difficult water called the Sumo Water by the Yan people.

After more than half a year of efforts by Goguryeo to mobilize a large number of craftsmen of various ethnic groups, there are now thousands of ships that can carry more than dozens of people.

The actions of more than 100,000 troops in Goguryeo could not hide the many spies sent by the Xia State to various parts of Goguryeo, and at the same time that Gao Wencan led the army from Liaodong City to Buyeo City, taking this as a signal, the Xia troops who had been waiting for a long time at the end of August launched a full-scale attack on Goguryeo at the same time according to Wang Ze's arrangement.

The Nanshui Valley, the mouth of the Tongmen River, the hometown of Baekje, and the Beisha Fortress in Liaodong were all strategically important places in these directions were attacked by the Xia army on a large scale almost simultaneously, and the Goguryeo naval army, which was transporting military rations from the west coast through Beisha Port, was attacked by the two fleets of Qu Liulang and Sun Xingsuo, and suffered heavy losses.

For a time, the entire Goguryeo was full of beacon fires on land, and there were police everywhere along the coast.

The sudden change made Gao Yangcheng, who had been working hard for several years and was preparing to fight, be dumbfounded.

How could he have imagined that Goguryeo, which had been the overlord of the East China Sea for hundreds of years, suddenly became a weak country that was powerless to fight back against the Shangxia Kingdom? Hasn't the Xia Kingdom only been established for a few years? Although Gao Yangcheng also knew in the past that the Xia State suddenly eliminated the Wa State and replaced the position of the Wa State in the East China Sea, and the military strength was not weak, no matter how weak it was, it was just a newly established force!

Such a new country, at most, is already very good at the same level as Goguryeo itself, how can it have a much stronger military and national strength than Goguryeo?

At this moment, Gao Yangcheng was confused!

After annexing Baekje and opening up the territory of Nanshui, Goguryeo's strength was even stronger than ten years ago, but in such a situation, it was powerless to resist the attack of Xia.

Because of the large army led by Gao Wencan in Liaodong, the opponent's side was not very afraid of the north-south attack, so it was enough, but the Goguryeo heartland south of Yalushui was miserable.

Because most of the main army of Goguryeo has been mobilized to fight in Liaodong, the defense of Goguryeo's territory south of Yalushui is much weaker, and the remaining troops have to resist Zheng Kui, and in order to prevent the Xia naval army from landing on the western coast, Goguryeo will also disperse a large number of troops to defend along the coast, so that the overall deployment of Goguryeo's troops will be stretched into a long strip.

The dispersed forces will inevitably be unable to resist the attack of the Xia army, and defending everywhere is equivalent to being defenseless everywhere, but it gives the Xia army the opportunity to attack more unscrupulously, and a large number of counties and towns along the coast of Goguryeo have been broken by the Xia army, and the losses of people and property are not calculated.

In order to resist the wanton attack of the Xia army from all walks of life, Gao Yangcheng had to order the full mobilization of all the young men of all cities and departments to participate in the army after soliciting the advice of many ministers. Book 6 bar

Obviously, the young Gao Yangcheng has not studied the reasons for how the Eastern Han Dynasty perished, if it were not for the Yellow Turban Uprising, which led to the independent military power of the county guards and state pastors in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty would not have perished so quickly, but unfortunately Gao Yangcheng did not realize this.

Through this national mobilization order of Goguryeo, not only the eastern Sasa Yuan Dazuo, the northern Sasa Gao Yeonshou, and the southern Goguryeo Gyejin who were dissatisfied with the Goguryeo royal family, quickly took control of the strong forces on the grounds of resisting the Xia army, and began to pose a threat to the authority of the central government.

In addition to these Uza adults, Goyang became a full-fledged military force, and also fully relaxed the restrictions on the participation of Han civilians in Goguryeo, of course, these Han civilians refer to those Han civilians who have been enslaved since the founding of Goguryeo.

Other Han Chinese who entered Goguryeo in the later period, as well as Han slaves plundered by Goguryeo, were not included in this range, and the number of Han Chinese officers was still very scarce, except for a few children of Han families who could be promoted, most of the other Han soldiers were still led by Goguryeo.

Although there are many unstable factors secretly added to Goguryeo, no matter what kind of situation Gao Yangcheng will face in the future, he is happy at this moment after all.

After all, there are only more than 4 million people in the whole country of Xia, and it is already the limit of not affecting the degree of economic production to have these troops now, while the whole country of Goguryeo has at least six or seven million people, almost twice the population of Xia State.

Wang Ze undoubtedly attaches great importance to the Goguryeo war situation, although he pointed out the various weaknesses of Goguryeo before, but defeating Goguryeo and destroying Goguryeo are completely different things, even if the Xia army can easily defeat the Goguryeo army, but if you want to destroy the country, the price paid is not small.

For this reason, Wang Ze planned to divide the war against Goguryeo into two steps, the first step was to mobilize a large number of troops to weaken Goguryeo's elite troops, consume his ordnance, grain and grass, destroy agricultural production, and greatly deal a blow to Goguryeo's national strength.

When the first step of the strategy is completed, through the continuous attack on Goguryeo, the national strength of Goguryeo will be restored, so that the Xia State can carry out a comprehensive attack on Goguryeo after a short rest, and finally complete the strategic goal of destroying the country.

Now that the war is going on, Wang Ze finds that he still looks down on Goguryeo a little!

After discovering that Goguryeo still had such great war potential, Wang Ze had to strengthen the Xuning Division, and recruited 20,000 young men from the Heishui Division, the Horn Room Division, the Kuyi Division, and the Ezo Division.

Therefore, just one month later, the army of Xu Ning and Hu Bingchang has increased to more than 60,000 people, although they are weak in terms of overall military strength, but they are no worse than Gao Wencan's army in cavalry, navy and other aspects, and the two sides are also fighting well for a while.

For the all-out attack on Goguryeo, the troops mobilized by the Xia State were so large, the materials mobilized were so large, and the war plan was unprecedentedly long, which should have been Wang Ze's greatest concern at present, but not long after the war of the various armies against Goguryeo, a sudden message from the West had to distract Wang Ze temporarily.

In order to deliver the letter as quickly as possible, they only carried a certain amount of food supplies, and none of the other goods were loaded, and it took less than two months from the Zhiyuan Islands to the East China Sea.

The letter was written by He Liang!

After the Battle of the Pearl Islands, He Liang's expedition fleet occupied the Zhiyuan Islands (Socotra Islands) under the leadership of Wu Meng, and after He Liang learned of the strategic location of the islands, he immediately led the fleet to occupy the islands in order to prevent the islands from being snatched away by the Romans or the Axumes, the allies of the Romans.

The strategic position of the Zhiyuan Islands is so important that it can not only become the first bridgehead for Xia merchant ships to cross the Western Ocean from the Pearl Islands to the west, but also an important node for Xia to control the sea trade between the East and the West, and promote the trade between Xia and the Roman Empire.

In order to consolidate the Xia Kingdom's occupation of the Zhiyuan Islands, He Liang is facing great pressure!

In the past, this strong opposition pressure came from Roman merchants who were dissatisfied with the Xia occupation of the Zhiyuan Islands, the Axumes, or the merchants of many city-states on both sides of the Red Sea, such as the Hejaz (Mecca) and Yabrit (Medina).

Although they welcomed the Orientals, who produced silk, porcelain, and tea, to come here to do business in person, they were very worried about the Xia Kingdom's control of the Zhiyuan Islands, so Wang Ze also held a special meeting with Belsalika, the envoy of the Egyptian governor.

Now that the Roman Empire not only no longer opposes the Xia occupation of the Zhiyuan Islands, but has even persuaded his allies Axum, Hejaz, and Yabrit to support the Xia occupation, the attitude of these countries has suddenly changed!

It turned out that the change in the attitude of these countries was due to the fact that the Persian Empire, in order to prevent the Roman Empire from participating in maritime trade with the East, suddenly sent troops to capture Yemen, the most important strategic node of maritime trade in the Red Sea, this year.