Li Xiang took a short rest for a day. After all, they had traveled a long distance on the road, and his men, even if they were all made of iron, had to have a good rest now. Otherwise, they would not be able to exert 100% combat effectiveness on the battlefield. A simple rest time can restore our combat effectiveness, and we will be able to resolve the battle faster during the battle. This is the saying that sharpening the knife does not delay the chopping of wood.
Of course, Li Xiang was very energetic. The next day, when other soldiers were still resting, Li Xiang and Su Dingfang had already taken their men to inspect the battlefield. Su Dingfang could introduce the area in front of him to Li Xiang with his eyes closed.
"General, since the Goguryeo people learned we were going to attack them, a large number of their troops have already withdrawn to the south of the Taedong River. If I am not mistaken, the Goguryeo people should be preparing to abandon the land north of the Taedong River."
Su Dingfang pointed to the large wasteland in front of him and said that two years ago, this was the most important grain producing area of Goguryeo, supplying food for millions of people in Goguryeo every year. However, because of our harassment, this place has been barren for more than a year.
"It's quite normal. If they hadn't lied, they might have continued to fight us, still fantasizing that they had the gods' blessing and could repel our army. They've probably woken up now. Please focus on introducing the city in Jiangbei."
To the north of the Taedong River, the people of Goguryeo did not form an effective defense line. Instead, they built small cities one after another. Relying on the mutual support between small cities, they resisted the repeated attacks of Emperor Yang of Sui and Li Shimin.
It has to be said that there was nothing wrong with Goguryeo's strategy. Emperor Yang of Sui and Li Shimin were both ambitious. When they attacked Goguryeo, they had to advance smoothly and not leave any city behind. However, in the era of cold weapons, as long as a city had walls, it was basically easy to defend and difficult to attack. After all, there were no large-scale siege equipment in this era, and they could only fill the gap with human lives.
At the beginning, all the soldiers were in high spirits and they didn't care about their own casualties. As long as they could capture a city, it would be a victory. But as the war progressed, the number of casualties became higher and higher, and some people might not be able to hold on. At this time, the Goguryeo people attacked from behind, and our army would be thrown into chaos.
Before Li Xiang set out from the capital, he had already studied the two historical battles thoroughly. Goguryeo relied on these cities to obstruct the advance of the Tang army, and then slowly wore down the Tang army's fighting spirit. When the morale of the Tang army dropped, they only needed a small counterattack, and then the morale of the Tang army would be even lower.
Although the war had not yet been fought, Li Shimin at that time understood that there was basically no hope of continuing to attack with such a demoralized army. Apart from causing more casualties to the Tang Dynasty, there would be no good effect. Therefore, Li Shimin had no choice but to make a prompt decision and return to the court.
Strictly speaking, it was not a defeat. It was just that the rulers on our side were more rational and thought that there was no benefit in continuing to fight. Of course, it was indeed a defeat during the reign of Emperor Yang of Sui.
"General, they originally had thirteen small cities in Jiangbei. According to our reconnaissance, they have already retreated half of them during the recent retreat, and now only six small cities remain. Even so, their defenses are insufficient. Originally, each small city had three thousand soldiers, but now it is estimated that there are less than two thousand. Moreover, food supplies are insufficient, and their combat effectiveness has dropped by more than half."
Although he could not launch a main attack, Su Dingfang was not idle during this period. His men were all keeping an eye on the Goryeo cities north of the Taedong River. These cities were built not long ago, only about 20 to 30 years ago at most, and there were not many people living in them, but the city walls were extremely strong. This was also one of the reasons why Li Shimin was unable to capture them last time.
The most important city is Anshi City, which is the second largest stronghold north of the Taedong River. The largest stronghold is Liaodong City. The last time Li Shimin attacked, he occupied Liaodong City at the fastest speed. At present, the entire Liaodong City has been burned down, so the largest stronghold is still the original Anshi City.
According to Su Dingfang's current investigation results, there are only three cities in the entire area north of the Taedong River that we need to pay attention to. One city is naturally the hard-hitting Anshi City, and the other two are Baiyan City and Wugut City.
The last time Li Shimin attacked, these three cities plus Liaodong City constituted the entire Goguryeo defense line in the north. The garrison in each city exceeded 15,000 people. Together with the large number of civilians in the city, their actual combat effectiveness must be more than 20,000 people. Therefore, Li Shimin had to press on step by step and take on each tough enemy one by one.
But now it is completely unnecessary. According to what Su Dingfang said, each city has at most two thousand soldiers. Of course, there will be a large number of soldiers in the city. These people are not trained in normal times. They can't play much of a role if they are casually pulled up to the city wall during wartime.
Li Xiang looked at the strongholds one by one on the map and a smile appeared on his face.
"Begin the attack in three days. Capture Baiyan City and Wugu City within five days, and then march directly towards Anshi City."
"As you command."
Without any detailed discussion, Li Xiang had already issued the battle order, and Su Dingfang and his generals did not refute it. These cities were really weak. If we had to think for a while before we could attack these cities, then we would have nothing to say, and it would be a disgrace to the Tang Dynasty.
There were more spies scattered by Goguryeo in this land. They thought that the Tang army would delay the attack for a while, but who knew that on a sunny morning, 25,000 Tang troops arrived at Baiyan City.
Many Goguryeo spies did not understand what was going on. They originally thought that the Tang army was coming to Goguryeo to cause trouble as before, but this army was somewhat different from the previous ones because it carried a large number of crossbows.
"General, could this be the crossbow used to force Tuyuhun to surrender?"
Su Dingfang and his men also saw these things. Although Goguryeo is relatively weak now, if they rely solely on human lives to attack the city, there will be 1,000 to 2,000 casualties in each city. But if we have these things, we don't have to sacrifice these 2,000 lives...
