Tibet.

Chapter 1325 Bohai Landing
The tactics of the Japanese navy are exactly the same as those of the army, which is the samurai cluster combat method. In simple terms, it is to rush forward in a swarm and then fight on their own.

The difference in the number of warships between the two navies was not big. The Tang army had 314 warships and 20,000 naval soldiers, while the Japanese army had 200 warships and 12,000 troops.

But the quality was completely different. The Tang army had twenty-four ten thousand shi warships, two hundred three thousand shi warships and ninety five thousand shi warships, while the enemy's turtle ships were all two thousand shi. There was a huge gap in the quality of the warships of the two armies.

It was the first time that Li Chengshi saw this kind of turtle ship with his own eyes, but Gao Hongyuan had already described it to him in detail and even drew a blueprint for him. The generals had also discussed how to deal with this kind of ship.

The collision was not appropriate because the opponent's chassis was stable and not easy to capsize. However, some generals also pointed out that the opponent's ship might not be strong, so it was necessary to test it in actual combat.

Secondly, the shape of the turtle ship was not suitable for being sunk directly by explosive arrows. It was like two large bowls put upside down, with a circle exposed in the middle and an arc-shaped bottom, making it difficult to hit with explosive arrows.

But the general still thought of a way to deal with it, which was to shoot gunpowder arrows into it, which filled the air with thick smoke.

Someone suggested using an explosive arrow to blow a hole in the top and throwing a kerosene can in. That would solve the problem. Everyone agreed with the last plan, which was indeed the simplest and most effective way.

The plan has been proposed, and the next step is to put it into practice.

Among the twenty-four large ships with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes, five were equipped with cast iron rams, so that they could hit the enemy ships hard when they were already in a tilted state, giving them a fatal blow.

On the sea, a large ship with a capacity of ten thousand shi accelerated and rammed a turtle ship with a force of ten thousand jin. At this time, the turtle ship was already stationary. The soldiers shot arrows at another warship with a capacity of five thousand shi, but they did not notice that the danger was coming from behind.

"Boom!" With a loud bang, the turtle ship was instantly broken into pieces, and the Japanese soldiers on the ship fell into the water one after another.

On the other side, a 5,000-koku warship was sandwiched between two turtle ships on the left and right. More than a dozen Japanese sailors jumped into the sea, trying to pierce the big ship. At this time, three explosive arrows were shot at the top of the turtle ship at the same time. "Boom! Boom! Boom!" There was a loud explosion, and a six-foot wide hole was blown on the top of the turtle ship.

Several thin-skinned pottery jars filled with kerosene were thrown into the big hole on the top, and torches were also thrown in. The interior of the turtle ship burned rapidly, with flames billowing and thick smoke filling the air. The Japanese soldiers were so frightened that they jumped off the ship to escape, but jumping off the ship meant death, and they were shot one by one by the Tang army on the ship with crossbows.

The turtle ship on the other side was even more swift. It shot out three explosive arrows at the same time, but the third arrow was a little slow and went straight into the big hole and exploded at the bottom.

The Japanese ships were not double-walled like the Tang Dynasty ships. They did not have that kind of shipbuilding technology and all of them were single-layer ships. Not only could they not withstand the impact of the Wanshi warships, they could also not withstand the explosive impact of the explosive arrows, which blew a big hole in the ship from the inside. The sea water rushed in and soon it was like a big bowl full of water, floating on the water. The soldiers were forced to climb to the top, but were mercilessly shot to death one by one by the Tang army's random arrows.

The Japanese army's turtle ships were very lethal to the ships of Bohai or Silla, because they were all two or three thousand stones in size. The turtle ships only needed to hook the enemy ships with ropes, and the navy soldiers holding swords would jump onto the enemy ships and kill them all.

This is how the Japanese warships defeated the Silla fleet in the Battle of Baekgang, forcing Silla to urgently ask the Tang Dynasty for help.

However, the Japanese turtle ships failed to work when facing the tall and sturdy warships of the Tang army. The sea was littered with burning turtle ships and turtle ship parts that had been smashed into pieces.

Instinctively, the Tang Dynasty navy was more than one level stronger than the Japanese navy. Plus, the Tang army was now equipped with the most powerful firearms in the world. It was simply a contest between a warlike tabby cat and a little mouse.

This dimensionality reduction attack was almost a one-sided crushing. The turtle ships could not escape even if they wanted to. The fifty warships that were originally supposed to carry out the tail-cutting tactics were waiting in vain in front of the mouth of Longwan, and not a single turtle ship was able to escape back.

An hour later, all the Japanese turtle ships disappeared on the sea, and the sea was filled with broken wood and floating corpses. All the Japanese soldiers were shot and no prisoners were taken.

This army also participated in the massacre of Shangjing of Bohai Kingdom, and they deserved this fate.

The Tang army fleet sailed into Longwan in a mighty manner. Almost all the people in Longyuan County were killed. Japan needed manpower to move the seaborne materials, so it concentrated all the people from all over Longyuan Prefecture to live in Longhe County near the harbor. There were more than 10,000 people.
Hearing that the Tang army had arrived, the people in the city rushed to the dock, carrying the elderly and children. When Gao Hongyuan got ashore, many people recognized him and shouted, "Governor Gao is back! Governor Gao is back!"

Thousands of people knelt on the ground and cried loudly. Gao Hongyuan also shed tears. He wiped away his tears and said loudly to the people: "The brutal Japanese army will never succeed. Although they destroyed the Bohai Kingdom, there is still the Tang Dynasty to uphold justice. The Tang Dynasty will accept everyone, protect everyone, and let everyone live and work in peace. We will no longer be massacred by brutal foreigners. We will all become the subjects of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty."

Someone shouted, "Long live the Tang Dynasty!"

Thousands of people raised their arms and shouted, "Long live the Tang Dynasty! Long live the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty!" The Tang army soldiers immediately set up large sheds on the dock to distribute relief porridge. There were long queues in front of several sheds. The people of Longyuan Prefecture, who had suffered from hunger and cold for several months, finally had a full meal.

The Japanese army did not build warehouses. They directly used the hundreds of merchant ships in the bay as warehouses, which were filled with looted food, cloth, oil, salt, wine, frozen meat and various daily necessities.

Li Chengshi immediately ordered the distribution of food to the people, with each family receiving one stone of wheat, a piece of cloth, a barrel of oil, and two kilograms of salt. Tens of thousands of people cheered.

Li Ye and the imperial court both attached great importance to the population of Bohai Kingdom, mainly because Bohai Kingdom fully imitated the Tang Dynasty, learning the Tang Dynasty's lifestyle, clothing, language, etc. After decades of study, most of the people of Bohai Kingdom became very close to the Han people.

They became the easiest people to reform in Liaodong. As long as they were allowed to live and work in peace and were treated kindly, in a dozen years at most, these people would forget about the Bohai Kingdom and identify themselves as the subjects of the Tang Dynasty from the bottom of their hearts.

The same was true for the Goguryeo people. It was just that the Tang Dynasty retained the Goguryeo nobles and gentry and allowed them to live together. Of course, they would not feel a sense of identity with the Tang Dynasty.

The method adopted by Li Ye was to eliminate all nobles, leaving only common people, and then "register all common people and return them to their original abode in ten years."

Now that the Japanese army had killed all the nobles of the Bohai Kingdom in advance, it greatly facilitated the Tang Dynasty.

This means that the Tang Dynasty gained hundreds of thousands of people for nothing, which will play a key role in the Tang Dynasty's strategy in Liaodong.

On the ship, Gao Hongyuan brought a man in his thirties and introduced him to Li Chengshi: "This is my old subordinate, Longyuan County Chief Clerk Wang Yuan, also a Han Chinese."

Wang Yuan quickly bowed to Li Chengshi. Li Chengshi saw that he was quite stout and dark-skinned, and couldn't help but laugh and asked, "Is Wang Zhubo really a scholar?"

Wang Yuan smiled bitterly and said, "I am from Hejian County. I have been strong since I was a child. After finishing the county school, I worked as a farmer. Two years ago, a relative who was an official in Bohai State wrote to me and asked me to join him. I went there and passed the Bohai State's examination. I was appointed as the chief clerk of Longyuan County. Fortunately, I was strong and dark, so the Japanese army did not kill me. I was drafted into the army to transport goods."

Li Chengshi asked Wang Yuan to sit down and asked the soldiers to serve tea. He asked, "I found that there were basically no old people. Did they kill them?"

Wang Yuan's eyes were filled with resentment. "This is the Japanese army's absolute lack of conscience. They killed all the elderly over fifty because they thought they were taking up food. It is said that it is the same in their own country. When parents get old, they carry them to the mountains to starve to death or feed them to wild beasts. Calling them wild beasts is an insult to wild beasts. At least wild beasts will not kill their own parents."

Li Chengshi nodded, "The emperor has issued a killing order to all our generals. All Japanese who invaded Bohai must be killed. No prisoners of war will be left. Let them go to the underworld to reincarnate!"

"They should all be killed. Their crimes are too numerous to list. None of them is innocent."

Li Chengshi added: "The emperor attaches great importance to the people of Bohai and hopes that they can be safely transformed into citizens of the Tang Dynasty. I wonder how many people are left in Bohai now. Can you give an estimate?"

Wang Yuan thought for a while and said, "Bohai originally had a population of one million, but now it is estimated to have been halved. I personally think there are still 500,000 or 600,000 people. Fortunately, the Tang army arrived in time. If they had arrived half a year later, they would have killed all the Bohai people and transferred their people here, and Bohai would have really become part of Japan."

At this time, Gao Hongyuan said: "Wang Zhubo gave me a suggestion, suggesting that more than 10,000 people be transferred to Shubinfu, 300 miles away. He was afraid that the Japanese army would retreat and massacre more than 10,000 people again."

Li Chengshi nodded and said, "This plan is fine. From now on, Wang Zhubo will be promoted to county magistrate. He will spread the word to the people, and then we will slowly transfer the people there."

Wang Yuan clasped his fists and said, "Thank you General Li for your trust. I suggest using boats to relocate the people. Huazhou County in Lubin Prefecture is also on the coast. Although it is frozen over in winter, it can be moored in the spring."

"Sure! Promote it well and we will transfer all the ships and people there."

Huazhou County is today's Vladivostok.

(End of this chapter)