Chapter 477: Conquering
Pyongyang After Li Li led his army to conquer Daxingcheng, other troops rushed to join him and advanced to Yaluzha.
Goguryeo sent troops to resist, and the Tang army attacked bravely, defeated the Goguryeo army, and chased them for more than 200 miles.
The Tang army conquered Goguryeo's Ruyicheng. When the other cities heard that the Tang army was coming, they were all terrified. They either abandoned the city and fled, or surrendered one after another.
Qibi Heli's troops arrived at Pyongyang first, and Li Li and other troops arrived at Pyongyang one after another, surrounding Pyongyang.
This siege lasted for more than a month, and the Goguryeo army in Pyongyang went out of the city many times to fight with the Tang army but was defeated.
Out of fear of the Tang army and hatred for Quan Gai Su Wen and his son, Go Zang, the King of Goguryeo, persuaded Quan Nanchan to bring 98 ministers and surrender to the Tang army with white banners.
Li Yun treated these people with courtesy and asked them to persuade the people of Pyongyang City not to make meaningless sacrifices and to quickly open the city and surrender. The Tang army treated the captives well.
Quan Nanjian still resisted behind closed doors and sent a large army to attack the Tang army many times, but was defeated by the Tang army. Quan Nanjian planned to defend Pyongyang City to the death.
Pyongyang City had strong walls and stored enough food and grass for three years. Quan Nanjian was not afraid of a war of attrition.
On the contrary, the Tang army had to consume a huge amount of food and grass every day during its expedition to Goguryeo, and they really couldn't afford to waste time with Quan Nanjian.
"Now our army has besieged Pyongyang for a month, but we still can't take Pyongyang. If we continue to waste time like this, Pyongyang will not be taken, and our army will be dragged down."
"Besieging a city is not a long-term solution after all! How much food and grass will be consumed by an army of hundreds of thousands every day? After a long time, the court can't afford it." Dou Yiji said.
Guo Daifeng, Dugu Qingyun, Feng Shiben and others all knew that it was not a solution to waste time like this. The key is that there is no way to break through Pyongyang!
Can't we let hundreds of thousands of soldiers attack Pyongyang by force, and fill Pyongyang with human lives? Even if Pyongyang can be broken, how many people will be left by then?
"I don't need to say much about the current situation. Everyone knows it. Tell me, do you have any good ideas to defeat the enemy?" Li Yan said.
Everyone remained silent. In fact, no one had any good ideas. Even Dou Yiji, who just shouted the most fiercely, kept silent.
"General Manager, maybe I can give it a try. Maybe I can take Pyongyang City." Quan Nansheng said.
"I don't know what the ambassador of comfort has in mind. Please tell me in detail." Li Yan's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he was a little overjoyed.
"I grew up in Pyongyang and know the officials there very well. We can send people to sneak into the city and alienate the soldiers and generals of Goguryeo."
"Let them have internal strife, and then we will send troops to attack Pyongyang, and cooperate with the internal supporters in the city, and take down Pyongyang in one fell swoop." Quan Nansheng said.
If we talk about the familiarity of Pyongyang, it must be Quan Nansheng, the former Grand Tai Molizhi.
"How confident are you in sneaking into the city? Can you alienate Quan Nanjian and his subordinates?" Li Yan asked.
"Please rest assured, General Manager, it is impossible to sneak a troop into the city, but it is no problem to sneak a few people into the city."
"My brother Quan Nanjian is not in harmony with his subordinates, and my Tang Dynasty soldiers are brave. As long as they know the pros and cons, they will definitely turn against us." Quan Nansheng said confidently.
"Okay! I'll leave the matter of sneaking into the city to you. If you can take down Pyongyang, I, Li Xian, will report to the emperor and ask for credit for you, Quan Nansheng." Li Xian said.
"Yes!" Quan Nansheng saluted and said, "However, we need to wait until after dark to take action, and it will be easiest to sneak into Pyongyang."
"Just do as you say, we will wait for your good news." Li Xian said.
Quan Nansheng saluted and left. He was going to select the right person to sneak into Pyongyang.
At night, Quan Nansheng sent his confidant to sneak into the city, persuade Quan Nanjian's subordinates to defect, and successfully persuaded a general under Quan Nanjian, Monk Xincheng, to be the insider.
Monk Xincheng said that when the time comes, he will definitely find a way to get Quan Nanjian to fight outside the city, and he, Monk Xincheng, will take the opportunity to control Pyongyang, agree on the signal, and then surrender.
Quan Nanjian's confidant passed the news back to the Tang army camp, and everyone was very excited.
In order to cooperate with the inner supporter monk Xincheng in the city, the Tang army first pretended to be torn open by the Goguryeo army, so that Quan Nanjian mistakenly believed that it was the weakest point of the Tang army.
If you want to defeat the Tang army, you need to start from this gap.
Under the persuasion of monk Xincheng, Quan Nanjian really thought that this was a great opportunity to defeat the Tang army, so he decided to hand over the defense of Pyongyang City to monk Xincheng, and he himself led the army out of the city to fight the Tang army.
"I will hand over Pyongyang City to you. When I return victorious, I will definitely reward you well. The most important thing is to keep an eye on Gao Zang." Quan Nanjian told monk Xincheng before leaving.
"Don't worry, Molizhi! As long as I am here, Gao Zang can't fly out of my palm even if he has wings." Monk Xincheng said.
"Go!" Quan Nanjian nodded, rode his horse and led his troops out of the city to fight.
"Farewell, Molizhi, may Molizhi return victoriously!" Monk Xincheng and others bowed their heads and shouted.
After Quan Nanjian led his troops out of Pyongyang City, the moment the city gate was closed, Monk Xincheng raised his head and said to his confidant beside him: "Are you ready?"
"Don't worry, general! Everything is ready." The confidant said.
"Then let's get started!" Monk Xincheng said.
"Yes! General!" The confidant took the order and turned to leave.
Soon Monk Xincheng completely controlled the entire Pyongyang City and sent people to send signals to the Tang army.
After receiving the signal from Pyongyang, Li Yun immediately ordered a full-scale attack. Monk Xincheng led his men to open the city to welcome the Tang army.
With the help of the insider, Pyongyang, which had been under siege for more than a month, was captured by the Tang army. Li Yun sent troops to climb the top of Pyongyang, beat drums and shouted, and ordered the four corners of the city to be burned.
The royal flag representing Goguryeo on Pyongyang was pulled out by the Tang army, thrown down from the top of the city, and replaced with the flag representing the Tang Dynasty.
When Quan Nanjian learned that Pyongyang was captured by the Tang army, he was so angry that he vomited blood. In the end, when he could not break out, Quan Nanjian chose to commit suicide instead of surrendering to the Tang army.
Quan Nanjian did not die after committing suicide, but was captured by the Tang army who rushed over and rescued.
The Tang army captured Pyongyang and captured the Goguryeo king Gao Zang and the Goguryeo leader Quan Nanjian alive. Goguryeo was destroyed.
Li Yan and others left 20,000 soldiers to defend Goguryeo, and took Gao Zang, Quan Nanjian, An Shun, Jian Moucen and others with them to return to the court.
An Shun and Jian Mou Cen were the people that Li Chengqian sent his envoy Jia Yanzhong to capture.
These two people would cause trouble in Goguryeo in the future. In order to keep Goguryeo peaceful, Li Chengqian had to capture these two unstable factors and bring them to Chang'an.