Tibet.

Chapter 1384 Silla Surrenders
Thirty thousand Tang troops appeared about forty miles away from the Silla capital of Geumseong. The capital was in chaos. Princes and nobles packed up their treasures and tried to flee outside the city, but the city gates were closed. Prime Minister Kim Yang-sang was worried that the morale of the army would be affected, so he ordered that the city gates should not be opened and no one should be allowed to leave the city.

There were huge crowds of people at the city gate, and everyone was cursing, but the gate still wouldn't open. Helplessly, the nobles had to go home and wait for news.

At this time, there was a fierce debate in the Silla court about how to deal with the Tang army. Some demanded to defend the city to the death and wait for reinforcements, while others believed that the city could not be defended and it would be best to fight outside the city.

Finally, Silla's three most powerful ministers, Kim Yang-sang, Park Na-ju, and Seok Man-sang, reached an agreement to send troops out of the city to fight. They were all very pragmatic. If the army was defeated, they would still have a chance to surrender and save their family's lives. But if the city was breached by the Tang army and the Tang army broke into the city, their families would suffer a devastating disaster and they would have no chance to surrender.

Thirty thousand Silla troops left the city from the south gate and went to fight against the Tang army which was already twenty miles away.

The 30,000 Tang troops were quickly deployed to the peninsula through cross-sea transportation from Jeju Island. This was not a long-distance deployment like Li Chengshi's army, which was just a matter of crossing a strait. The Tang army not only deployed 30,000 troops, but also 20,000 war horses.

Ma Lin personally led an army of 30,000 and marched rapidly along the way. When they were less than 20 miles away from Jincheng, the capital of Silla, Ma Lin suddenly received a report that the main force of the enemy, about 30,000 people, was discovered ahead.

Ma Lin really didn't expect that the Silla army would actually come out of the city to fight. He was also prepared to use firearms to show their power and fight a beautiful siege battle.

But it was better to deliver it to the door. Ma Lin pondered for a moment, sent someone to find his deputy general Hao Tingyu, and said to him: "General, you can lead 10,000 cavalrymen to go around behind the enemy. When my signal arrow rises, you can attack the enemy from behind. This battle will surely win."

"I humbly obey my orders!"

Hao Tingyu clasped his fists and saluted, then immediately led 10,000 cavalrymen to take a detour to the south.

Ma Lin ordered 20,000 troops to rest where they were, and raised the flag of 30,000 troops to confuse the enemy.

An hour later, 30,000 Silla troops appeared seven miles away. The main general of the Silla army was Park Jeong-sun, who was born in the Seonggu Park family and was also the son-in-law of Prime Minister Kim Yang-sang. With these two top relationships, he replaced Kim Jeong-ji who was sent to the Tang Dynasty and became the commander-in-chief of the Silla army.

Park Jeong-sun was about thirty-five or thirty-six years old and had always served as a general in the palace guards. He only participated in the bloody massacre to suppress the Baekje uprising last year and had no actual combat experience.

However, Silla's clan system was comparable to the Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties in the Central Plains. The aristocratic hierarchy was strict. The commander-in-chief of the army could only be from the highest-level Shenggu family, and the selected commander had to represent the interests of the three major Shenggu families at the same time. Therefore, Park Jung-sun, who was both the legitimate son of the Park family and the son-in-law of the eldest Kim family and had served in the army for a long time, became the only candidate for commander-in-chief. His brother married the daughter of the Xi family, so the Xi family, one of the three major Shenggu families, also supported Park Jung-sun to be the commander-in-chief.

"Woo--" The Silla horn sounded, and the main force of the Tang army was discovered ahead.

A spy came back to report, "Commander-in-chief, many Tang soldiers are holding double flags, so it looks like there are 30,000 troops, but in fact the enemy only has 20,000 troops, 10,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry."

Park Jung-sun laughed and said to everyone, "I said that the Tang army's attack from Jeonra Island was a complete sneak attack. How could they have 30,000 troops to attack Jincheng? 20,000 troops is already the limit."

He immediately gave the order: "Order the troops to assemble and prepare for battle!"

The 30,000 Silla troops also assembled quickly, forming a "品"-shaped structure. Park Jeong-san led 10,000 infantry as the central army, and the other two armies of 10,000 people were the two wings.

The Silla army was composed entirely of infantry. Compared with the Japanese army, the Silla army was obviously more like the Central Plains army. The soldiers were mainly spearmen and sword and shield soldiers, with no cavalry. The reason was that Silla was too small to support cavalry.

Of course, compared with the equipment of the Tang army, Silla was still far behind. The 30,000 troops led by Ma Lin were the elite of the Tang army. Each of them was tall and strong. The soldiers were generally over 1.8 meters tall, wearing iron armor, iron helmets, holding spears and swords in their hands, and carrying bows and arrows on their backs.

Not only are they well-equipped and strong, but the soldiers are also battle-hardened and have strong combat experience and formation coordination.

The two sides were three miles apart. The Silla army took the lead in launching an attack. Thirty thousand Silla soldiers marched forward in a line, and the sound of a horn blew towards the mine.

Ma Lin also gave the order: "Infantry in front, cavalry in the back, march towards the enemy!"

The Tang army also marched forward in formation. The two sides were getting closer and closer. When they were about 300 steps apart, Ma Lin gave the order: "Infantry, shoot with bows and arrows!"

This was a traditional tactic of the Tang Army, where infantrymen would temporarily switch to archers during a march. This required repeated training so that all soldiers knew how to execute military orders.

The red and yellow flags were waving, which was the tactical order to use bows and arrows during the march. Ten thousand Tang army infantrymen stopped, half-crouched, put their spears on the ground, took off the longbows on their backs, and carefully pulled out the explosive arrows. All the soldiers had been strictly trained and were able to control the explosive arrows.

Park Jung-sun immediately shouted, "Sword and Shield Army, run and attack!"

There were 3,000 sword and shield soldiers in each of the three armies of 10,000 people, and they started running. A total of 9,000 sword and shield soldiers were running, using their shields to block the bows and arrows of the Tang army, and then they killed their way into the Tang army's archer team.

Ma Lin sneered, turned around and shouted, "Cavalry, prepare to attack!"

Ten thousand cavalrymen were divided into two teams, standing on both sides of the Tang army's archers, ready to attack.

The Silla army was getting closer and closer, only eighty steps away from the Tang army. Suddenly, the Tang army fired a volley of arrows, and ten thousand exploding arrows were shot at the enemy.

Looking at the arrows raining down from the sky, the Sword and Shield Army raised their shields to meet the arrows, but they never dreamed that the arrows used by the other side were no longer traditional arrows.

The explosive arrow exploded immediately after hitting the shield, not only blowing the shield into pieces, but also breaking off the hands at the back. If the shield was too close to the face, even the head would be blown to pieces. Even if the explosive arrow hit the ground and exploded, it would also break the enemy's legs. In an instant, there were explosions and screams everywhere, and the Silla soldiers behind were so frightened that they stopped in their tracks.

Before the smoke cleared, the second round of tens of thousands of explosive arrows were shot. These were the old version of explosive arrows that exploded as they hit the ground. Amid the explosions, more than half of the nine thousand sword and shield soldiers were wiped out. The remaining less than three thousand were so scared that they turned around and fled.

Ma Lin was waiting for the enemy to flee, so he immediately shouted, "Blow the horn, cavalry attack!"

"Woo——"

The Tang army blew a low horn, and ten thousand cavalrymen divided into two groups and charged out, like two unstoppable spears, rushing towards the running enemy army.

Usually only two rounds of explosive arrows were fired, and ten thousand infantrymen also carried bows and arrows, picked up spears, and shouted as they charged towards the enemy.

The Silla soldiers were terrified, their legs trembling, and they fought fearfully under the threat of the generals behind them.

The two sides were fighting each other. Ma Lin saw that the other side's morale was low, so he immediately ordered: "Fire nine gunpowder arrows!"

Nine gunpowder arrows flew into the sky, and ten thousand Tang cavalry soon appeared. "Woo--" a horn sounded behind them, and the earth began to shake.

Ten thousand Tang cavalrymen came charging from behind. Park Jeong-sun, who was supervising the battle at the rear of the army, looked back and saw the Tang cavalrymen charging at him a mile away. He was so frightened that his heart almost stopped beating.

The 20,000 Tang troops in front of them were already no match for them, and if another 10,000 Tang troops came, they would be completely defeated.

More than 20,000 Silla soldiers were attacked from both sides by the Tang army. There was a great chaos. They could not withstand the pain of being attacked from both sides. The army finally collapsed. The 20,000 soldiers threw away their weapons and armor and fled in all directions.

Ma Lin issued an order to kill all the Silla soldiers. Twenty thousand cavalrymen chased the fleeing Silla soldiers, and ten thousand infantrymen followed up from behind to kill them, leaving no one behind.

The Tang cavalry's horses were much faster than the Silla soldiers' legs. Once they caught up with them, they would be knocked to the ground with a single blow of their swords, or pierced through the back with a spear, and then they would continue to chase. If they were lucky enough not to die, they would be hunted down by the Tang infantry behind them.

After the Tang army chased for more than ten miles, there were no more fleeing Silla soldiers. Even the main general Park Jeong-sun was stabbed off his horse by a young Tang army general, and then killed by another shot.

An hour later, 30,000 Tang troops arrived at the city. Although there were still thousands of soldiers in the city, the Silla court completely collapsed and collectively decided to surrender.

The city gates opened, and King Hyegong, Kim Gwan-yun, with a golden seal hanging around his neck, followed closely by dozens of his concubines, followed by Prime Minister Kim Yang-sang, and then hundreds of court officials and nobles who left the city to surrender.

(End of this chapter)