A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1300 North and South
The sun is rising.

Baiyan City was particularly beautiful under the golden light. The tall walls built of white rocks looked even brighter in the sun.

"In such a cold and bitter place like Liaodong, it's really amazing that these Goguryeo barbarians were able to build so many such magnificent mountain cities." Ma Zhou could imagine how much manpower and resources would have been consumed to build Baiyan City.

"Rome was not built in a day, and neither was Baekam City. Goguryeo was established for more than 700 years, and these cities were built over many years."

Wu Huaiyu was not surprised that the Goguryeo people were able to build these mountain cities. You have to know that in the Warring States Period, all the countries including Yan, Zhao, Qin and Qi built the Great Wall. Building the Great Wall is much more difficult than building Baiyan City, and the project is much larger.

"These mountain towns were certainly useful once, but they are no longer useful now."

Ma Zhou said, "But if our Tang Dynasty takes possession of it, it can still be used to deal with the Goguryeo people."

"Right, that is it."

The uncle and the groom strolled along the Taizi River. It was the second day of June and the river water was clear. "I used to think Liaodong was a wild and foreign land, but now I realize that there are so many of our things here. This Daliang River was actually the place where Prince Dan of Yan committed suicide.
And Liaodong City is also the Xiangping City of the Han Dynasty."

"Well, back then, King Zhou of Shang's uncle Jizi established Jizi Joseon on the Korean Peninsula, with the capital in Pyongyang. The country lasted until Emperor Gaozu of Han. After King Lu Wan of Yan rebelled and was defeated, his subordinate Wei Man led more than a thousand troops to cross the river to the east to seek refuge with Jizi Joseon. Later, Wei Man usurped the throne and established Wiman Joseon..."

Wi Man usurped the throne of Gojoseon, but it did not last long. After Wi Man's death, the throne was passed to his grandson Wei Youqu. Emperor Wu of Han sent troops to destroy Wi Man's Joseon. Later, the Han Dynasty established four counties in Liaodong.

"Sooner or later, the Tang Dynasty will recover the old territory of the Han Dynasty."

After all, it has been the territory of the Han Dynasty since ancient times. Today's Goguryeo was just a small vassal of the Han Dynasty, originating from the ancient country of Buyeo. It just took advantage of the Central Plains' inability to look east for hundreds of years to continuously swallow up and annex, thus occupying the four counties of Liaodong of the Han Dynasty.

"Emperor Wu of Han was indeed very powerful. Hundreds of years ago, he was able to destroy Wei's Korea, unify Liaodong, and establish four counties. It is hard to imagine how powerful the Han army was back then." Ma Zhou accompanied the emperor this time, and the emperor specially appointed him as the commander-in-chief of the Liaodong Road, just like Li Ji.

Both of them were the chief military commanders of Liaodong Road, but Ma Zhou was ranked ahead.

As he fought in various places, Ma Zhou lost a lot of weight, but he also gained a deeper understanding of war and the conquest of Liao.

"We are now following the footsteps of the Han army and gradually recovering the old territory. The Tang army today is no worse than the Han army. We have fought these battles with such great momentum."

Ma Zhou nodded.

He gained a lot from the army this time. Although he mainly obeyed Li Ji's orders in military affairs, he participated in the attack on Xuantu and the battle of Gaimu in Xincheng. He saw with his own eyes that the Tang army was advancing so rapidly and unstoppable.
The Goguryeo Kingdom, which had been established for more than 700 years, was indeed corrupt.

"The wheat is yellow,"

Wu Huaiyu looked at the wheat waves blown by the wind and felt a little emotional. It was the Goguryeo people who planted the wheat, and it was also the Goguryeo people who were about to harvest the wheat, but the harvested wheat belonged to the Tang army.

Those who harvested the wheat were either captured slaves or surrendered citizens.

You work hard, but the rewards are reaped by others.

Back to the camp,

The emperor ordered us to rest in Baiyan City for three days.

Baiyan City was captured without a fight and without losing a single soldier. The entire army was very happy because there were no casualties, and the emperor also fulfilled his promise. He allocated money from the treasury to reward the soldiers.

The emperor redeemed the city.

Saved Baiyan City from massacre,

However, Sun Daiyin and the others were not very happy at this time. They were all grief-stricken, and they hoped that everything would remain as it was.

But the Tang Dynasty did not agree to their unreasonable demands.

The winner has the final say.

"Sun Daiyin, I grant you the title of Silver and Green Guanglu Doctor."

The emperor gave the lord of Baiyan City a third-rank official position, and the King of Goguryeo, Go Hwan-gwon, recommended his grandson Daiyin to the emperor as the Great Duilu of Goguryeo.

This is the Prime Minister of Goguryeo.
There are now fourteen ranks of central government officials in Goguryeo, namely, Da Duilu, Da Taixiong, Yuzhe, Daifu Envoy, Zaoyitou Daxiong, Ambassador, Daxiongjia, Promotion Envoy, Upper Envoy, Younger Brother, All Brothers, Those Who Celebrate the Festival, Those Who Do Not Celebrate the Festival, and Ancestors.

Goguryeo was a slave state for a long time. In addition to the king, there were five chiefs who could appoint their own officials, which was equivalent to local princes. However, the king's power gradually increased and the system turned to feudalism.
The central government of Goguryeo gradually interfered with the appointment of retainers and officials in charge of the five tribes' territories, and slowly sidelined the five tribe leaders. Although the status of the five tribe leaders was still very high, they could no longer compete with the royal power as before.

At present, there were fourteen ranks of central officials in Goguryeo, including Daedulu, and fourteen ranks of local officials, including Rusa and city lords.

As the Lord of Baiyan City, Sun Daiyin's original central official title was Xiaoxiong, ranking the tenth of the fourteenth rank, which was not high.

Now Gao Huanquan, the exiled king, directly recommended him as the Da Dui Lu, promoting him to the first place.

But Sun Daiyin was not happy at all.

This King Gao Huanquan was just a puppet set up by the Tang people. Then what was the significance of his being the Great Duilu?

He just wanted to be the lord of Baiyan City, and be down-to-earth.

However, the Tang Emperor not only did not allow him to continue to be the city lord, but also required him and more than 10,000 soldiers and civilians in Baiyan City to leave the city and go down the mountain, and give Baiyan City to the Tang army to garrison.

It turned out that the 2,400 defenders of Baiyan City were all incorporated into Gao Huanquan's imperial guard.

Long before the war with Sui, Goguryeo had learned from the Central Plains and established a Goguryeo Royal Guard system under the king, and also set up twelve guards.

Now Li Shimin decided to incorporate the surrendered Goguryeo army into Gao Huanquan's imperial guards. Of course, the actual command of the Goguryeo imperial guards must be in the hands of the Tang Dynasty. Gao Huanquan's twelve imperial guards, each with 500 people, a total of 6,000 people.

Temporarily assist the Tang army in fighting.

"Use Baiyan City to establish Yanzhou,"

The emperor took in Sun Daiyin's expression, but paid no attention to it. "Wu Sigong, the General of the Left Guard."

"The minister is here."

"I will promote you to General Zhuangwu and appoint you as the Governor of Yanzhou."

Whether Gao Huanquan or Sun Daiyin were willing or not, they could not influence the emperor's plan.

Although Gao Huanquan still holds the title of King of Goguryeo, it is obvious that now that Baiyan City has been captured and the emperor has pardoned them, they also have to face the fact that they have to change their household registration.

They will still be under the jurisdiction of Baiyan City in the future, but they are citizens under the jurisdiction of Yanzhou, Liaodong Military Governor's Office of the Tang Dynasty, and will be citizens of the Tang Dynasty in the future.

This year, classes are specially waived.

But next year I will have to pay taxes and serve in the military according to the law.

However, although they were exempted from taxes, the imperial court would collect all the wheat from the fields this year, except for the food left for them. Of course, the Holy Emperor was kind and would not take it for free, so he gave them money.

As for the price of grain, it is definitely the imperial court that has the final say. According to previous market prices, for the Tang Dynasty, it would be much easier and more convenient to transport some money from the Central Plains than to transport grain.

A few cents can buy a dou of rice, and one string of copper coins weighing six pounds and four ounces can be exchanged for more than two thousand pounds of grain.

"Your Majesty, I think we should suspend the offensive and harvest the wheat first." Ma Zhou suggested that harvesting the grain first was more important than conquering cities and seizing land.

The Tang army was not short of food, and the food could even last until winter. But now the whole army believed that these captured cities could not be abandoned. If they wanted to send troops to garrison, they would have to make plans for long-term garrison, and food and grass were the top priority.

It is more important to get more food from Liaodong than to transport it from the Central Plains.

Moreover, seizing the Goguryeo people's grain was also a strategy to defeat the enemy.

They are now hiding in large and small mountain cities, waiting for the opportunity to counterattack. The future of Liaodong may be a long-term confrontation, offensive and defensive war. Everyone has castles, but it depends on who has more soldiers and food, especially food reserves.

Li Ji raised objections.
He believed that the opportunity for war was fleeting, and that the Tang army was now invincible wherever it went, but that did not mean that the Goguryeo people had completely collapsed.
It was just that the Tang army's offensive was too fierce, especially in the early stage, which made the Goguryeo people confused, so the Tang army successfully broke through their Liaoze and Liaohe defense lines, and even their Great Wall defense line.

After several battles, the main force of the front-line defenders was indeed defeated, but there were still a lot of troops that could be mobilized for reinforcement to the east of Jicui Mountain, in the Yalu River basin, and even in Pyongyang.

It's already June.

The Tang army does not have much time left, at most three months. Once the weather gets cold, it will be very disadvantageous for the Tang army.

So it’s best to get it over with quickly.

The Tang army has seized a lot of food and grass, and is not short of them for the time being. It is enough to support them until winter, so they must seize the time to continue the attack and completely pull out the few hard nails on the Liaodong Great Wall defense line before the enemy reinforcements arrive.

"I suggest that we immediately march north to capture the remaining tens of thousands of defeated soldiers in Xincheng. After we capture Xincheng, we can then take over Jinshan, Buyeo, and Nansu."

One said they wanted to rob food, and the other said they wanted to attack the city.

Li Shimin stroked his beard, looked at the map and did not rush to express his opinion.

Gao Huanquan and Sun Daiyin, who were sitting at the door, were the most embarrassed, and no one paid any attention to them.

"Duke Wei, what do you think?"

Li Shimin looked up at Li Jing, the Duke of Wei, who was resting with his eyes closed.

Li Jing opened his eyes and said, "I think it is better to attack from the south than from the north. The tens of thousands of defeated soldiers in Xincheng have been defeated twice by Lord Ying and his men. They are now like frightened birds and have no courage to leave the city to fight again. We can ignore them for now."

"Just stationing a few thousand soldiers in Gaimu City will be enough to intimidate them and make them dare not move."

Li Shimin looked at the map and asked, "Fight south?"

"Yes, our army has successively captured Gaimu, Liaodong, Baiyan City, Beisha, Jian'an and Jili City, but there is still one tough nut to crack, and that is Anshi City."

Anshi City is located between Liaodong City and Jian'an City, about 200 miles away from both Liaodong and Jian'an.

The Anshi City at that time was probably in the Haicheng area of ​​later generations.

The city is walled along the mountain, with a circumference of less than ten miles. It is high in the east and low in the west. It is surrounded by mountains and there is a river nearby.

Su Dingfang had attacked Anshi City before, but the defenders were very cautious and it was difficult to lure them out of the city. Seeing that there was no opportunity to take advantage of, Su Dingfang turned to capture Jian'an City.

Originally, Su Dingfang wanted to besiege the city and attack the reinforcements, but he surrounded Jian'an City and deliberately sent people to Anshi to report the news. However, the lord of Anshi City was not moved at all and allowed the Tang army to capture Jian'an.

"Your Majesty, if we fail to capture Anshi City, then the cities we have captured will be divided into two, and we will not be able to take care of each other. Especially if we need to defend the cities for a long time, in the winter and spring seasons, when the Central Plains will not be able to provide supplies and reinforcements will be difficult to arrive, Anshi will become a hidden danger. We must capture Anshi City first, so that we can open up the supply line and connect the cities from north to south."

(End of this chapter)