Chapter 116 Ambition
Yang Xuangan lowered his head, fearing that Li Jiancheng would notice his jubilant look, and whispered to himself: "If some dignitaries raise their arms and call for help, the country will be in danger."

Li Jiancheng said casually, "Your Majesty is indeed a bit harsh on us Guanlong nobles, always trying to promote Shandong and Jiangnan nobles."

Yes, yes, Guanlong has always been suppressed. Although the Shandong gentry have been promoted, they are generally inferior to Guanlong, which makes both sides dissatisfied.

Only the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River enjoyed the emperor's favor, and many of them held high positions, but they did not have much military power.

If His Majesty the Emperor really made the same mistakes as Jiancheng said, then not only would he have a chance of revenge, he could even go a step further and replace Yang with another.

Yang Xuangan raised his head and looked directly at Li Jiancheng, his voice rising with excitement: "Jiancheng..."

Li Jiancheng asked, "What's the matter, brother?"

"Nothing, I'm just worried that His Majesty might get angry."

Yang Xuangan still resisted the urge to directly express his wishes to win him over. It was still too early, and Li Jiancheng was too prominent, so he really had nothing to promise.

He can inherit the title of Duke of Tang without doing anything. If you want to win him over, you have to make promises to him. As a prince of a county, he is not stingy. But he is only a duke now, so how can he promise him the title of a prince without any evidence?

The next few days were the same as usual, and they didn't even try as hard to attack the city as before. The three main generals were worried. Although they felt that what Li Jiancheng said made sense, it was a matter of their lives after all, so they had to think more about it.

But after a few days, the emperor did not even ask any questions, let alone punish them. The meaning of this was obvious. It was obvious that they had made the right choice.

Led by Li Jiancheng, they submitted a petition to apologize. Two generals even got themselves wounded by arrows a few days later. When the news spread, they were commended by His Majesty. So the five of them began to be wounded in turn.

In a strange atmosphere, the army was blocked by a mere Liaodong city, while the emperor was still feasting and having fun with many envoys.

.........

Everyone was waiting for the victory news from the third army, but Yuwen Shu, the general of the Left Guard, who was about to approach the capital of Goguryeo, found that his army had a major problem: it had no food.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible! Before the expedition, each soldier was given enough food to last for a hundred days. It's only been less than two months, how could it be gone?

"Speak! Did someone embezzle the food? I will kill him immediately!"

The deputy general replied with a dark face: "General, the mountain road is difficult to walk on, and the things are too many and too heavy. The soldiers below secretly buried all the food in the ground while setting up camp."

Because the mountain roads on their front line were extremely rugged and there was no supply of food and fodder from the rear, the soldiers had to carry their own clothing, food, armor and weapons.

The mountain road was difficult to travel, and everyone was carrying such heavy loads, and the weak were dying. What's more, Yuwen Shu had ordered, "Anyone who abandons military supplies will be executed!"

Those who were strong and honest naturally obeyed the order, but those who were weak and cunning thought that there was so much food that if they ran out of their own, they could ask their brothers for some and they would be able to go back.

Moreover, there was a high probability that the Emperor would have conquered Pyongyang before they could reach it, and they would have to return directly to the capital, so they had to bury the food secretly.

As the saying goes, when everyone is opportunistic, disaster is slowly happening. Who could have expected that the emperor was stopped in Liaodong City, the navy had lost its combat effectiveness, and in the end they had to rely on this long-distance army to attack the capital of Goguryeo.

But those opportunists were not wrong. They got here easily, and the commander would not watch them starve to death, let alone execute them. The law does not hold everyone responsible.

He could only order the confiscation of everyone's food and start transporting it for distribution. Those who took advantage of the situation were smug, while those who abided by the law hated themselves for being useless.

After crossing the Yalu River, Yuwen Shu joined forces with several other armies. Although they were nominally of the same rank, Yuwen Shu was the de facto commander-in-chief in the absence of the emperor.

Just as they were preparing to advance, they heard that the new Prime Minister of Goguryeo, Yizhi Wende, who had defeated Lai Huer, came with a lot of gold, silver and treasures, saying that he hoped to negotiate.

Yuwen Shu was an extremely greedy person. Even though he had reached such a position, he still did things like adopting many merchants as his adopted sons for money. This shows what kind of person he was.

When he saw the gold and silver treasures, his eyes were dazzled, and the Right Guard General Yu Zhongwen hurriedly advised: "We should capture this man and escort him to the royal palace for your Majesty to decide his fate, which will also cut off the arm of the Goryeo King."

However, the governor and Shangshu Youcheng Liu Shilong objected, saying, "Your Majesty has issued an order. Since Goguryeo has shown its sincerity and wants to surrender, how can we capture it? Moreover, when two armies are fighting, envoys are not killed. How can our Celestial Empire lose its courtesy in front of barbarians?"

Yu Zhongwen said anxiously: "This person is not an ordinary envoy, he is a pillar of Goguryeo!"

Liu Shilong pointed his finger at Yu Zhongwen and said, "Do you want to disobey my order?"

No one had the courage to do so, including Yu Zhongwen. The emperor had spent so many years selecting his civil and military officials.

In addition, Yizhi Wende was submissive in front of Yuwen Shu, and he said that he would go back to persuade the king to submit to the Sui Dynasty and apologize to the emperor of the Sui Dynasty.

So after being detained for three days, Yizhi Wende successfully left Yuwen Shu's camp and rushed to the capital without stopping.

Yuwen Shu and Yu Zhongwen also began to regret their decision, so they sent people to chase Yiji Wende without telling Liu Shilong, trying to trick him back to the camp.

But it was too late. Yizhi Wende ignored him. He had already got the news he wanted. It was worth his risk to go deep into the tiger's den. The Sui army had gone on such a long expedition, not only was there internal discord, but they were also running out of food. God bless Goguryeo!

…………

Yang Xuangan and Li Jiancheng were like fish in water in the front army. In terms of archery, they were also among the best in the army, and only a few were more accurate than him in riding and shooting. Yang Xuangan was even more powerful, like a king in the world, dominating the three armies and having no rivals in a cavalry battle.

Now Liaodong City was just being attacked every day for show, and after a while the officers understood what was going on. Although they didn't quite understand why, it didn't stop them from relaxing.

Those were the only things that the army could relax about. Yang Xuangan deliberately lowered his status, and Li Jiancheng had always been like that. Plus, they had some old friends, so they got along very well.

Li Jiancheng also discovered that although there were occasional brave generals from poor families in the army, 95% of the officers were from high-ranking noble families, and the combat skills of ordinary soldiers were also very low, almost like farmers who had just put down their hoes. The defects of the military system were undoubtedly revealed.

.........

(End of this chapter)