Tibet.

Chapter 1363: Late Autumn Operation (Part )

Since the destruction of the Khitan in Liaodong, the Tang army carried out a series of adjustments and established the Liaoxi Military Governor's Office. Zhang Dian was appointed as the Liaoxi Military Governor, commanding an army of 30,000 and governing the lands of Yingzhou and the Khitan and Xi people.

At the same time, the Liaodong Governor's Office was established, with Nan Jiyun appointed as the Liaodong Governor, commanding an army of 20,000 and governing a vast area extending from the Liaodong Peninsula in the south to the former Bohai Kingdom in the north.

But the war was not over. The Shiwei and Heishui Mohe tribes were still hostile to the Tang Dynasty, and Silla did not send an envoy to Chang'an to apologize.

In addition, the war against Japan has not stopped.

After the Liaodong War ended, all warships with a capacity of more than 3,000 stones headed south to Jerumo Island, and an army of 50,000 was also stationed on Jerumo Island, led by Ma Lin.

At this time, twenty large ships with a capacity of 10,000 shi also arrived at Jeju Island from Quanzhou.

Ma Lin led a large army to station on Jeju Island, originally to deal with Silla, but he received a handwritten eagle letter from the emperor, ordering him to send troops to occupy Kyushu Island of Japan and establish Kyushu Governor-General's Office.

The battle against Silla was changed to next spring, and the operation against Japan was called the Late Autumn Operation.

The Whale Sea is today's Sea of ​​Japan. At the turn of spring and summer, there are often storms and huge waves on the sea, but it is relatively calm in autumn and winter.

On the vast deep blue sea, a fleet of more than 300 large ships is sailing through the waves.

Li Chengshi, the admiral of the Tang Dynasty navy, stood at the bow, looking at the vast deep sea with his clairvoyance. Beside him stood a middle-aged official, who was Yang Chengqing, the minister of Bohai State who had accompanied Prince Da Yingjun of Bohai State to Chang'an.

Because he opposed the Japanese army's support for Shangjing, he was demoted to Anbian Prefecture, the most remote place in Bohai Kingdom, by the ruling party and the King of Bohai. However, he escaped the brutal massacre.

Li Ye had a good impression of him and thought he was dead, so he specially appointed him as the Governor of Bohai. When he heard that he was not dead, he directly appointed him as the Chief Clerk of Bohai Prefecture.

This time he temporarily served as the Sima of the Tang army navy, and was also a guide and translator. He had accompanied the Bohai Kingdom's friendship delegation to Japan nine times and could speak fluent Japanese.

He was originally very friendly to Japan, but the Japanese army massacred Shangjing and destroyed the Bohai Kingdom, which made him the Tang Dynasty official who hated Japan the most. His old mother, son, daughter-in-law, grandson and married daughter all died tragically under the Japanese army's butcher knife. Only his wife wanted to take care of him and followed him to Anbian Prefecture, so she escaped.

He said to Li Chengshi: "During our nine diplomatic missions to Japan, we would sail south along the coast, cross the Kyushu Strait on the side of Tsushima Island, detour to the south of Japan Island, and head straight to Heian-kyo. About five of our missions were along this route. The other four times we set out in autumn, when the Whale Sea was relatively calm. Our fleet crossed the Whale Sea and landed at Matsubara Port in Echizen Province in the north of Japan, and then walked 200 miles along their official road to Heisei-kyo."

"Is it only two hundred miles away?"

Yang Chengqing nodded. "Japan is an island country, very long and narrow. Their capital city is located in a relatively narrow area."

"But you mentioned Echizen Province just now?" Li Chengshi was a little confused.

Yang Chengqing laughed. "Japan today is the equivalent of our Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Of course, it is only similar, not comparable. The local vassal states are called Reiji states. They nominally obey the emperor, but in reality they are independent. When the emperor wants to attack a certain vassal state, he raises his arm and calls for action, and other vassal states respond by sending troops, also to grab population and food and get a share of the pie."

"How many troops does the Japanese Communist Party have?"

Yang Chengqing shook his head. "I don't know about that. There are too many small countries. I estimate that there are at most 200,000 people. But the problem is not here. Japan's smelting and casting technology is too low, the temperature is not high, and the quality of the iron blades is very poor. Therefore, each of their samurai has several swords, which are easy to break. Their stature is too short, and they don't have any long weapons. Their combat effectiveness is very poor. The general should have experienced this."

Li Chengshi nodded. He had indeed seen the captured Japanese swords. They contained too many impurities and were too light and thin to be broken with one strike from the Tang army's horizontal sword.

"How many troops does their court have?"

"There were about 50,000 troops, but most of them died in Bohai. The navy that attacked Bohai was mainly from Kyushu Island, and the army should be the imperial army. I estimate that there were about 20,000 at most."

Yang Chengqing was just estimating. Li Chengshi didn't care how many troops the other side had. This time he brought 30,000 elite naval forces, including 2,000 heavily armored infantry, which was enough to sweep across the Japanese archipelago.

At this time, the lookout on the mast shouted: "Land is in sight ahead!" Li Chengshi quickly took out his telescope and looked to the south, and sure enough, he could vaguely see the black line of land.

At the same time that Li Chengshi's navy was heading for Songyuan Port in Echizen Province, another Tang army warship fleet also set out from Jeju Island. This fleet included 20 10,000-koku sea ships and 300 3,000-koku warships, with a total of 30,000 troops, 10,000 of whom were naval forces, and the other 20,000 were elite Tang troops, including 1,000 cavalry, which were inconvenient to carry because of the war horses.

The entire Tang army was led by Ma Lin, with Yang Qing as his deputy general and Li Shouyi as his chief secretary. After the war, Yang Qing would become the first governor of Kyushu, and Li Shouyi would become the chief secretary, leading 5,000 troops to be stationed in Kyushu.

Kyushu Road belongs to the Saikaido of Japan, and is composed of eleven Ritsuryo provinces, namely Hizen, Higo, Buzen, Bungo, Chikuzen, Chikugo, Hyuga, Osumi, Satsuma, Tsushima, and Iki.

In addition, in Chikuzen Province, there is a branch city of the Japanese capital called Dazaifu, known as the Western Capital of Japan. The target of the Tang army's expedition this time is Dazaifu.

The fleet first arrived at Tsushima Province, which was controlled by the largest local family, the So family. The head of the family, So Takeshige, was named the daimyo of Tsushima Province by the imperial court.

After the disastrous defeat of the Tang army in the Battle of Baekgang, Japan was extremely panicked and built a large number of fortifications on Tsushima Island, where two thousand troops were stationed for a long time.

However, the Tang army ignored Japan, allowing it to escape the disaster, but these fortifications are still there and have always been the main strategic location for Japan to defend against Silla.

In last year's surprise attack on Bohai State, the first batch of 20,000 Japanese naval forces were actually troops from various countries in Kyushu, including 2,000 troops on Tsushima Island. After the Japanese troops left, they never returned and there was no news of them.

Ma Lin sat on the leading warship, and the huge paddle wheels turned, pushing the warship forward.

This time, the Chief Secretary Li Shouyi brought several merchants from Quanzhou. These merchants had been doing business with Japan for a long time and had lived in Japan for several years. They were very familiar with the countries in Kyushu and could speak Japanese fluently.

A middle-aged businessman named Wang Zhan said to Ma Lin, "General, the country ahead is Tsushima, which is controlled by the three brothers of the Zong family. The eldest brother, Zong Wumao, is the daimyo, and the second brother, Zong Wangqi, is the leader of the samurai and also the pirate leader of this area. If you refuse to trade, refuse to supply, and refuse to pay protection fees to Tsushima, they will pretend to be pirates and hunt you down. Everyone knows that they are pretending to be pirates, but there is nothing we can do but let them exploit us."

"How many troops does this Tsushima country have?"

"I heard there are more than 2,000 people and hundreds of ships, led by Zong Wangqi."

At this time, the soldier in front shouted that an island had appeared in front of them and they had arrived at Tsushima Island.

The daimyo of Tsushima, Munetake Shigeki, had been anxious. One morning, he was drinking tea in the hall when suddenly the alarm bell rang.

Zong Wumao was startled and the tea in his hand spilled out. He didn't even bother to drink the tea. He put on his shoes and ran out. Just as he reached the gate, his third brother Zong Nagase came running over and said, "Brother, there are a lot of warships on the sea. They are not friendly."

Zong Wumao was very nervous and quickly ran to the northern harbor to check.

Tsushima Island is composed of two islands, so it is divided into Shangxian County and Xiaxian County. The Fanfu City is located in the south of Xiaxian County. It is also the largest natural harbor. Ships traveling between the Tang Dynasty, Bohai Kingdom and Silla traded and supplied here.

If you neither trade nor supply, you will have to pay protection fees. You must pluck the feathers of the passing geese, and you can choose how to pluck. You can either buy their inferior and high-priced goods, or accept high-priced supplies, or pay protection fees. Generally, merchant ships will choose supplies.

Hundreds of stone forts were built on the high ground of the harbor, with catapults installed on them. If the enemy arrived, they would throw huge stones to prevent the warships from docking.

In fact, the coastline of Tsushima Island is very complex, with dozens of natural harbors. If there are really enemy troops, there is no need to land in their castle. They can directly land at other ports and then march to the castle in a mighty manner.

Therefore, the defensive stone fortress of Fancheng Harbor was completely a case of covering up the truth.

However, the Tang army was coming for their vassal city, and hundreds of warships appeared on the sea outside the city.

(End of this chapter)