kingnovel Chapter 659 Expanding again
Chapter 659 Expanding again
Ever since Lu Cheng demonstrated his attainments in music and calligraphy, Cai Yong often came to Lu Cheng to communicate and often invited Lu Cheng to his home.
In this era, the appeal of celebrities is still very strong. Moreover, celebrities like Cai Yong have their own network of relationships and disciples, which is still very beneficial to the cultural development of the territory.
Of course, Cai Zhaoji also asked Lu Cheng for advice on poetry, music, and calligraphy.
In the blink of an eye, it was already autumn, the harvest season, and the whole Liaodong land began to get busy. The people were full of joy, harvesting fields of corn, stringing the corns together, hanging them in the yard, or storing them in the granary.
It was at this time that the Liaodong Army sent troops to attack Goguryeo on the pretext that Goguryeo had stolen grain.
In this battle, Lu Cheng did not take action, but instead ordered several of his generals to lead a troop each and divide the troops into several groups to attack.
Generals including Zhou Cang, Zhao Yun, Taishi Ci, Huang Zhong, Zhang Liao, Liao Hua, Xu Hu and almost all of the troops were mobilized.
Normally, sending one or two great generals and twenty to thirty thousand soldiers would be enough to destroy the current Goguryeo.
However, this war to destroy Goguryeo was mainly for the purpose of training soldiers and generals, so that the soldiers under his command could have more experience in fighting and siege.
After conquering the Fuyu Kingdom and the Liaodong Xianbei last year, the Liaodong Army underwent a new round of expansion and absorbed many Xianbei and Fuyu people into the army, bringing the overall strength of Liaodong to 12, not including local militia, city guards, and intelligence personnel.
Moreover, among these 120,000 soldiers and horses, there are more than 20,000 cavalry.
The grain harvest this year is still good. The corn, sweet potatoes and other crops harvested in the entire Liaodong are more than enough to feed a population of one million plus more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, and there is still a certain degree of surplus.
To this end, Liaodong has established granaries in major cities and stored a certain amount of war grain to prepare for future conquests of the world.
At the beginning of September, the generals led 40,000 troops and entered Goguryeo in three routes, and then began a siege competition.
You take a city today, he takes a city tomorrow. All the generals are unwilling to be outdone. They lead their troops to advance rapidly, capturing cities and seizing territories along the way. They advance forward at a very fast speed, and good news comes in frequently from the front line.
Soon, Zhao Yun led two thousand cavalrymen to advance, and with the cooperation of Xu Hu's special forces "Flying Eagle Guard", they successfully attacked the Goguryeo royal city and captured the ninth monarch of Goguryeo, King Guguochuan. Goguryeo was thus declared destroyed.
In a manor near the Goguryeo royal city, the Liaodong Army found corn that had just been harvested and sweet potatoes that had not yet been harvested.
The process of destroying Goguryeo was quite smooth. While the soldiers in the front were attacking cities and seizing territories, special civil servants went to take over the occupied cities, count the population and materials, eliminate some powerful families, appease the people, and stabilize the nature.
The whole process seemed extremely smooth, with civil officials and military generals working in perfect harmony, making the conquest process very smooth.
After the fall of Goguryeo, the Liaodong generals, who had not yet fought enough, received the latest order from Lu Cheng, leading their troops south to destroy Silla and Baekje before winter came and completely unify the Korean Peninsula.
In this regard, the generals in Liaodong were naturally happy to hear about the war and were very excited.
When the Liaodong Xianbei and the Fuyu Kingdom were destroyed before, Lu Cheng personally took action and basically took most of the credit.
Now, the credit for destroying Goguryeo was snatched away by Zhao Yun again. Generals such as Huang Zhong and Taishi Ci were naturally dissatisfied. Everyone rushed to compete for the first place, wanting to take the credit for destroying a country.
There are only a few small countries around Liaodong. If one is destroyed, there will be one less. Whoever grabs it will own it.
No matter what happens in the future, the achievement of destroying a small country is definitely enough to leave a mark in the history books.
Regardless of whether you are a civil official or a military general, who doesn’t want to leave a name in history and be remembered forever?
War is indeed very expensive, but the benefits of winning are definitely not measurable in terms of money.
The Fuyu Kingdom and Liaodong Xianbei, which were destroyed last year, provided Liaodong with a large population, land, and suitable horse farms.
The land in the Sanjiang Plain of Goguryeo, which has just been destroyed, is very fertile and very suitable for farming.
Moreover, Goguryeo had a large population, which was the most precious resource in troubled times. As long as there were people, greater value could be created. Recruiting soldiers, cultivating land, and production all required population.
Before the first snow of winter came, Silla and Baekje were destroyed one after another.
This time, the credit for destroying Silla was taken by Zhou Cang, while the credit for destroying Baekje fell on Huang Zhong. Zhang Liao and Taishi Ci, who failed to take the credit for destroying the country, were naturally extremely regretful.
At this point, the land under Lu Cheng's rule included the entire Liaodong, the Korean Peninsula, and part of the northern desert. The ruled area exceeded one million square kilometers, and the total population under his rule reached more than 1.8 million.
Of course, such a population is not considered too large in today's Han Dynasty.
Yuzhou and Yizhou each have a population of more than 700 million, Jingzhou has more than 500 million, Yangzhou has a population of about 400 million, and Xuzhou has a population of about million. These are all densely populated large provinces.
Even today's Youzhou has a total population of more than 2.5 million.
In comparison, the territory under Lu Cheng's rule is really vast and sparsely populated.
However, Liaodong is mostly mountainous and hilly, with a smaller proportion of arable land. In addition, the climate is extremely cold, so basically only one season can be planted each year. Naturally, it cannot be compared with those major agricultural states.
Of course, it is quite rare to occupy such a large territory and have an army of hundreds of thousands in just three or four years.
After entering winter, Liaodong began to be busy with relocating the people, governing the area, and completely conquering the three kingdoms of Silla, Baekje, and Goguryeo.
First of all, let the people of these three countries be completely assimilated into the Han culture, and correct them from language and culture to living habits, let them forget their previous countries, and fully accept the Han culture.
In addition, Lu Cheng also encouraged the soldiers in Liaodong to marry women of marriageable age from these three countries, and encouraged the people to travel and trade and migrate to speed up the process of national integration.
After another long winter, it was the fifth year of Zhongping (188 AD).
In February of the fifth year of Zhongping, the remaining Yellow Turban Army in various parts of the Central Plains rose up in rebellion. The Yellow Turban Rebellion, which had gradually subsided, intensified again, shaking the foundation of the Han Dynasty.
In March, Liu Yan, the Minister of State Religion, wrote to Emperor Lingdi, saying that wars and invasions were rampant throughout the country, suggesting that the post of provincial governor be changed to provincial governor, thus strengthening the position. This marked the beginning of the situation in which the princes ruled their own territories...