Infinite War Begins with Cao Thief

Yang Guang had reason to be angry.

As an emperor, his noble body had not been injured in these years.

The most damaging thing was that his shoes were wet due to exhaustion.

What's more, this time, it was not only his body that was injured, but also his dignity.

In fact, before Yang Guang decided to lead the army in person, some people advised him not to lead the army in person. The reason was very simple. The income and output of the expedition were not proportional.

Yang Guang was not the founding emperor, so there was no need for him to fight for the world in person.

If this battle was won, even if he did not lead the expedition in person, his military achievements would still be attributed to him. Don't you see, when did Qin Shihuang and Emperor Wu of Han lead the expedition in person?

If a general went to war, even if he failed, the worst thing would be to kill him. It was the fault of his subordinates, not the emperor's fault, and everything could be rounded up. Everything had room for easing.

It can be said that as long as he was as still as a mountain, he would be invincible!

But if he failed in the expedition in person, it would be a disaster that would shake the foundation of the country.

The majesty of the emperor is the majesty of the empire. When everyone thinks that the emperor is not good enough and the sacred color of the emperor fades, the ambitious people will emerge.

As long as the blood bar is exposed, the gods will kill you, not to mention the emperor!

Even if it is Dayu without the worry of rebellion, Jia Xu and others are unwilling to let Dong Huang lead the expedition in person, because it is really unnecessary and not cost-effective.

Unless the flying dragon rides on the face, His Majesty the Emperor should enjoy himself.

Just like this war, Dong Huang was pressed in the palace to give birth to a child.

Yang Guang made a decision that was not very cost-effective, and the consequences have already appeared. Now he has been defeated and he has been injured and lost face. This face must be recovered.

Yang Guang can only choose to continue the attack.

This time, Yang Guang asked He Chou to rebuild the floating bridge.

In history, He Chou was not only a general, but also a craftsman and architect. He was a famous craftsman in the Sui Dynasty. He was the Minister of Works in the era of Yu Wenzhi and Dou Jiande, and Li Tang was the Junior Craftsman of the Ministry of Works.

This time, He Chou built five floating bridges in one go, and the quality was far better than the floating bridges made by Yuwen Shu before.

Yang Guang immediately ordered He Chou to lead the crossbowmen to hold the line, and ordered Yuwen Shu to lead the army to attack.

Yuwen Shu: (☉д⊙)!

Yuwen Shu was helpless, knowing that Yang Guang had a grudge against him because of the last incident, so he could only give it a try.

Otherwise, their family would probably be buried neatly in Liaodong.

He wore four layers of armor, and asked his personal soldiers to protect him tightly, and followed the army across the river.

When he was wearing armor, his eldest son Yuwen Shiji also wanted to go out to fight to protect his father, but was stopped by Yuwen Shu's second son Yuwen Zhiji.

"Father went for us. If something happens to father, we can seek revenge on the tyrant!"

Yuwen Zhiji whispered.

Yuwen Zhiji's words were very cold. The fundamental reason was that he was not liked by Yuwen Shu. Yuwen Shu had tried to kill him many times. Thanks to Yuwen Shiji's protection, he was spared. Therefore, he had a good relationship with Yuwen Zhiji, but he did not have much affection for Yuwen Shu.

After his brother's persuasion, Yuwen Zhiji hesitated.

The death of Mai Tiezhang and others in the previous battle made all the Sui generals feel lingering fear. Mai Tiezhang was one of the most powerful generals in the Sui Dynasty. He was beheaded on the battlefield. Yuwen Zhiji did not think that if he had been replaced at that time, he would have died more beautifully than Mai Tiezhang.

What's more, the enemy's rain of arrows was really scary.

Yuwen Zhiji hesitated.

Yuwen Shu didn't want him to come.

Yuwen Zhiji was his heir, and he loved his son deeply. Yuwen Shu just wanted to fight for himself.

The efforts between father and son will never be equal.

In the end, under Yuwen Shu's stern eyes and his brother's persuasion, Yuwen Zhiji's soldiers did not go to war.

The Sui army quickly set up their battle formation.

This time, the Sui Dynasty learned their lesson. Not only did they have crossbowmen to cover them, but they also brought large shields for defense.

The strong crossbows of the Sui Dynasty could basically break or damage the armor of the Dayu army at close range; and the large crossbows with giant shields could also defend against Dayu's arrows.

The Sui Dynasty was built on the corpses of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and its war capabilities were already full. If Yang Guang had not led the expedition in person, but had sent people to fight a war of attrition, the Sui Dynasty would not have been destroyed.

While the Sui army had made reasonable equipment configurations, it also deployed a secret weapon - the Imperial Observatory.

The officials of the Imperial Observatory cast spells to summon wind and sand to blow in the direction of the Dayu army, and cast spells to increase defense, reduce injuries, and boost morale. They also made a lot of armor-piercing arrows with armor-piercing runes.

But they were not wearing armor and would not participate in front-line battles.

The Imperial Observatory of this era is not as powerful as the world of immortal cultivation. Its combat power is about the same as that of Dong Huang's Tianshi Mansion. Although it is not weak, it has no obvious advantage in military formations. On the contrary, because of its miscellaneous learning, it is sometimes not as fast as the crude warriors in advancement.

It may not be able to beat the warriors of the same level in a one-on-one fight.

However, in terms of comprehensive ability and auxiliary role for the army, the cultivators of the same level are undoubtedly far stronger than the warriors.

Therefore, the main role of the monks of the Imperial Observatory is to assist. They do not wear armor because armor is not very conducive to casting spells, and they do not participate in front-line battles because they are too precious.

Just like the Tianshi in Dayu Tianshi Mansion, except for those beautiful Tianshi who often have hundreds of millions of combat missions, most Tianshi will not directly participate in the battle. Many members of the Tianshi Mansion no longer focus on cultivation due to their qualifications, but instead focus on making talismans and refining tools.

If Dayu hadn't been able to get so many ninjas, there wouldn't be so many magic methods now, although most of these methods were weakened by the world and were not powerful.

The Sui army crossed the floating bridge carefully.

However, what they found unbelievable was that they had never been attacked, and the rain of arrows that had filled the sky before had disappeared.

The vanguard troops carefully maintained the state of the tortoise shell formation and walked over with large shields, but found that the Yu army soldiers blocking them were actually some lifelike paper and straw people!

They were also full of arrows that the Sui army's crossbowmen had just shot to cover the army.

The Sui army was completely confused.

After more troops crossed the river and carefully checked the Yu army camp, they confirmed that the Yu army had really run away.

"Your Majesty is so powerful, the enemy army must be afraid of your majesty, so they fled without fighting!"

Yuwen Shu, who had picked up a life for nothing, ran to Yang Guang happily, slid to his knees and kowtowed, shouting victory.

"Escaped?"

Yang Guang did not comment.

Although he had such and such character weaknesses, he was not really a fool. He had already realized that the Yu army must have some traps.

So, Yang Guang did not rush to cross the river in person, but ordered Tu Wanxu, Jing Yuanheng, Cui Hongsheng, Li Jing, Fan Zigai, Shi Xiang, Yang Yichen and others to command the Left Fourth Army, the Left Seventh Army, the Right Second Army, the Right Third Army, the Right Fifth Army, the Right Seventh Army, the Right Eighth Army and other nine armies, a total of 350,000 people, to attack Liaodong City.

"Yang Guang did not come in person."

In Liaodong City, Huang Zhong said with regret.

The reason why Zhuge Liang gave up the Liaohe defense line when he had an advantage was to lure the enemy deep into the city.

But the previous great victory seemed to make this plan of luring the enemy deep into the city seem very deliberate.

"Just wait, Yang Guang will not be able to bear it, and he will definitely divide his troops like in history after failing to take Liaodong City!"

Zhuge Liang was very confident.

Yang Guang's character was too easy to grasp.

The last victory was not enough to hurt the Sui army. As long as there was no serious injury, Yang Guang would not give up the Eastern Expedition.

Moreover, there was Huang Zhong's arrow.

Yang Guang must get back the face he lost.

As long as Yang Guang is willing to cross the river, it doesn't really matter whether he divides his troops or not.

Be cautious and wait for Yang Guang to divide his troops. If he doesn't divide his troops, it's not that there is no fight.

To put it bluntly, waiting for Yang Guang to cross the river is just to keep the Sui army in Hedong.

Before, there was a lot of debate in the court of Dayu about how to destroy the Sui Dynasty.

The mainstream view is that it is enough to fight like Goryeo in history, destroy Yang Guang's navy, and wait for Yang Guang to divide his troops before destroying his troops.

At that time, Yang Guang, who suffered heavy losses but could still guarantee two-thirds to three-fifths of the army, should retreat.

At this time, the Sui Dynasty should still have a relatively calm military force.

And with Yang Guang's character, he will definitely plan a second Eastern Expedition.

In this way, the national power of the Sui Dynasty was even more severely depleted, and the country must have been full of war.

This not only gave Dong Huang's spies an opportunity, but also allowed Yang Guang to take action against Li Yuan and others in advance through spies, further muddying the situation.

The overall strength of the Dayu Army, which had almost a year of recuperation time again, had also been significantly improved; in comparison, the Sui Dynasty was also more declining, and whether Yang Guang continued to march east at that time, the difficulty of destroying the Sui Dynasty would be much lower.

However, due to force majeure, the process of destroying the Sui Dynasty must be accelerated, which gave rise to Zhuge Liang's idea of ​​annihilating the main force of the Sui Army and even Yang Guang east of the Liaohe River.

Although this plan was completed, Dayu was likely to suffer heavy losses at any time, and the territory of the Sui Dynasty would fall into greater chaos due to the loss of the common leader and the main force, and it might even allow Li Yuan and other sons of destiny to lift the seal in advance.

But Dayu could no longer care about so much.

In order to prevent the Sui Army from completely losing confidence, Zhuge Liang did not even arrange the Eight Formations of Stone Soldiers, but personally led the army to guard Liaodong City.

Because of the foundation of Dayu's northern capital, the scale of Liaodong City at this time was even greater than that of Luoyang at this time.

This really shocked the Sui army.

As usual, the Sui army launched an offensive with three sides missing one. From late April to early June, they suffered heavy casualties and made no progress.

On June 11, Yang Guang, who could no longer hold back, finally crossed the river and went to the south of Liaodong City in person.

After observing the situation in the city, Yang Guang summoned all the generals and questioned them murderously: "You think you are high-ranking officials and rely on your family background. Do you want to treat me as a coward? When I was in the capital, you all didn't want me to come, fearing that you would be defeated by illness. I came here now to see what you do and kill you. You are afraid of death now and are unwilling to do your best. Do you think I can't kill you?"

All the generals were terrified.

Yang Guang's words were heartbreaking, especially the four words "relying on family background", which made the generals realize that Yang Guang was very dissatisfied with these military families and really wanted to kill them.

The Five Surnames and Seven Families were very powerful, but the more powerful ones in the Sui Dynasty were the military nobles. Many of their families had led troops since the Jin Dynasty or were military leaders from foreign warlords, and they had extremely powerful forces in the army.

Some people in later generations speculated that Yang Guang's many expeditions to the east were to consume the aristocratic families and military nobles, which was not unreasonable.

The Sui Dynasty, after all, was an era of rectifying chaos, and many of the things Yang Guang did were also rectifying chaos.

After Emperor Yang of Sui's Eastern Expedition, most of the foreign military nobles after the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China came to an end. Most of the foreign generals who rose in the Tang Dynasty had little to do with the foreign military nobles during the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China.

Of course, if it weren't for the wars from the Sui Dynasty's Eastern Expedition to the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, which consumed too many military nobles, the Five Surnames and Seven Families of the Tang Dynasty might not have been so arrogant.

After Yang Guang arrived at the front line, he stayed in Liuhe City.

Liuhe City was a movable wooden city created by He Chou for marching.

Liuhe City at this time was a fully functional mechanical city with a side length of three miles and a height of five feet. It was equipped with an automatic alarm device called "Ji Jing" and a crossbow that could be turned and automatically aimed and fired.

Yang Guang sat in Liuhe City and personally supervised the siege.

This time, the Sui army really fought hard.

Zhuge Liang and others who were guarding the city also felt a little interesting.

After half a month of attack and defense, the Sui army still made no progress.

However, the Sui army was not completely without good news, because except for a few cities such as Liaodong City, there were almost no garrisons in other cities in Liaodong, either empty or the Koreans surrendered directly.

This gave the Sui army a wrong judgment: the enemy must have concentrated its main forces in Liaodong City.

This was not only Yang Guang's judgment, but also the judgment of most Sui Dynasty generals.

They felt that even if a small force in a remote corner destroyed Korea and achieved the previous victory, how many elite troops could it have?

They built Liaodong City so large, they must have retreated their main forces and focused on defense. Otherwise, with such a long wall of Liaodong City, how could they have enough elite guards?

With this preconceived prejudice, Yang Guang boldly divided his troops and ordered Yuwen Shu to lead Yu Zhongwen (the 12th army on the left), Jing Yuanheng (the 7th army on the left), Xue Shixiong (the 11th army on the left), Xin Shixiong (the 8th army on the left), Zhang Jin (the 12th army on the right), Zhao Cai (the 9th army on the right), Cui Hongsheng (similar to the 2nd army on the right), Wei Xuan (similar to the 1st army on the right), and other nine armies, totaling 350,000 people. The troops and horses from the grain storages in Luhe and Huaiyuan Towns each brought 100 days of food and clothing and equipment, crossed the cities of Goryeo, and concentrated to the west of the Yalu River to assist the navy in attacking Wangxian City.

At this time, Yang Guang still did not know that the navy had been completely annihilated, but he was impatient and wanted to take down the capital of Goryeo in one go.

Yuwen Shu's army had a very smooth journey and encountered no resistance along the way. Many cities either opened their cities to surrender or were empty.

The Sui army successfully crossed the Yalu River.

But at this time, the problems of the Sui army also emerged.

When Yuwen Shu and the other nine armies advanced, in addition to carrying 100 days of food, they also had to carry armor, guns, clothing, military equipment, fire curtains and other items. The burden was heavy and complaints were everywhere.

The generals ordered the soldiers in the army to behead those who abandoned rice and millet, so the soldiers dug pits under the tents to bury them during the march. As a result, the food was almost gone when they were halfway through.

Yuwen Shu's army was short of food.

Whether to advance or withdraw became the most urgent issue.

However, at this time, no one dared to take the responsibility of withdrawing the army privately, especially when they were advancing all the way.

When Yuwen Shu and others were unable to make a decision, the Dayu Army appeared.

The Sui army fought against the Dayu Army, and these Goryeo soldiers disguised as the Dayu Army were defeated in every battle. The Sui army won seven battles in one day.

Therefore, the Sui general relied on the sudden victory and was unwilling to take the responsibility of retreating, so he ordered the whole army to advance and cross the Sa River to the east, hoping to capture Wangxian City in one fell swoop.

However, before their army had finished crossing, Yue Fei's troops, who were waiting for the opportunity, appeared.

Yue Fei led the way, and the brave generals Yang Zaixing, Gao Chong, Yue Yun, and Niu Gao were like tigers coming down the mountain. The powerful and well-equipped Beiwei Army swept through the panicked and hungry Sui army like a whirlwind.

In this battle, the Sui army was defeated miserably.

When Yuwen Shu and others retreated to Liaodong, only 2,700 people remained in the army, and tens of thousands of resources and equipment were lost.