Chapter 724 Asking for Help
Listening to He Ping's words, Yan Yu couldn't help but take a step back, then looked into the distance and smiled.
"Yes, I still have a place where I should be." "
Even if you can leave everything behind and find a quiet place to live your own life, I can't."
He Ping looked at Yan quietly . Yu: "Your Highness, we have come to this point, and there is no room for retreat." "
Yes, there is no room for retreat." Yan Yu nodded: "This is when I made an oath with him. That's all you should know."
"Then get ready to go." He Ping stood up.
Yan Yu stood up quietly: "Get ready to go." "
I hope we can meet in Seoul next time."
... The fall of Seoul was almost expected by everyone. Perhaps it was not what Li Song expected. In his opinion, he had left 20,000 defenders in Seoul with sufficient food and grass. Even if he could not hold on for a year and a half, he would still be able to hold on for at least a month. No problem. But in the end, the answer left by the Seoul defenders for him was three days. After the Japanese army was officially assembled, the Seoul defenders dared to go out of the city to try to compete with the Japanese army on the first day. However, they were defeated in a big way. The Seoul defenders, who had almost lost their courage, began to completely shut up. , only to find that the Japanese army began to slowly push out iron cannons from the camp. The iron cannons of this era were not as powerful as those of later generations, and the cannons were firing like crazy. Although the Hongyi cannons had begun to be equipped on warships, those kinds of iron cannons were inconvenient to transport, so the Japanese army sent What came ashore was still a small iron cannon, which was not capable of directly blasting through the city wall, but even so, it was enough to cause a dimensionality reduction blow to the defenders of Seoul. And even if those iron cannons cannot blast through the city wall, it is still easy for the Japanese army, which has gone through a long period of war, to use these iron cannons to directly kill the defenders on the city wall and attack the interior of Seoul through direct fire. Therefore, under the dual pressure of being unable to leave the city to meet the enemy, and having to continuously defend the city and being hit by artillery fire, in the end, the Seoul defenders finally announced their surrender cleanly. After all, even the king has run away, so what's the use of holding on? On the other hand, Li Song, who had just arrived in Rangping, quickly received news of the three-day fall of Seoul. While angry, Li Song also felt scared for a moment. He has already learned from the battle report that the total number of Japanese troops that almost surrounded the entire Seoul in darkness may not be less than 50,000. Although the number of 50,000 is much less than the 200,000 that Fang Bie had warned before, considering that this is just the number of vanguards attacking Seoul, this 50,000 becomes very scary. The entire Goryeo army really collapsed in the face of the Japanese army, and could hardly form a strong resistance. Although some subordinates reported that rebels had risen in time in some places in the south to resist the invading Japanese army. Their combat effectiveness was compared to The Goryeo army was actually slightly stronger, but the number was too small. "I heard that His Majesty has received the news?" Just when Li Song was feeling endless fear and anger, a voice suddenly came from behind him. Li Song turned around and found that it was Fang Bie standing behind him. This young man with extraordinary martial arts skills appears and disappears. Now that Li Song has left Seoul like a lost dog, he already regards Fang Bie as a life-saving straw. "What news?" Li Song retorted. At this time, he subconsciously still didn't want to tell Fang Bie the news. Fang Bie sighed: "The defeated troops from Seoul have already arrived in Pingcheng. They gestured with their hands and feet and turned the Japanese troops into green-faced and fanged monsters. I wish I could say that they can breathe fire from their mouths and fly into the sky with their stamps. After all, I have lost it." In Seoul, you can't say that you are incompetent. You have to have an extremely powerful enemy to be able to save some face." Li Song looked away and said it, and couldn't help but look at the young man: "So, what should you do? ." "I never thought that I, Li Song, who had worked diligently for the people all my life, would end up as a subjugated king." After learning that Seoul had fallen so quickly, Li Song's original enthusiasm turned into despair. Desperate and cold. The fortress of Seoul can only resist for three days, and Pingcheng is only three to five days away from Seoul. When the Japanese army comes, how many days can Pingcheng be able to defend it? If you give up and make peace, then you can only run to the border of Dazhou, and then you can only rely on it. As the king of Goryeo, you were still a virtuous king, but in the blink of an eye, you became a king of subjugation. Such a gap, How can Li Song accept it. "Your Majesty." Fang Bie looked at Li Song calmly and said, "Didn't we agree before?" " If Goryeo can defend the country and its people on its own, then of course everything will be fine." " But if Goryeo can't do it, we can only Please ask for help from outside and fight against the national crisis together." "Strong help?" Li Song murmured. "Yes, strong reinforcements." Fang Bie looked at Li Song: "No matter how powerful the Japanese country is, how does it compare to the Great Zhou Dynasty?" " But it is easy to ask the gods to send them away, but it is difficult to send them away. If the Great Zhou army really comes to march eastward, Not to mention that the people of Goryeo are small and weak, and it is difficult to provide food and materials for the army. Even if we can supply it, when Japan is repulsed, I am afraid that Zhou Dynasty will follow the trend and completely annex Goryeo. At that time, I will also be subjugated. King?" Li Song said in a deep voice. The reason why he has been reluctant to ask for help from Da Zhou is actually, to put it bluntly, such concerns. Fang Bie looked at Li Song: "I know that you have read poetry and books since you were a child, and you have memorized Confucian classics by heart, but have you read the Nanhua Sutra?" Li Song nodded: "As long as it is a classic written by the sages of the past generations of China. , I have been slightly involved." "Isn't that the end?" Fang Bian looked at Li Song: "There is a story in the Nanhua Sutra called "Huizi Xiangliang"." "The story says that Huizi became the king of Liang. In the country of Liang, he had a good friend Zhuangzi who wanted to visit him, but someone told Huizi that Zhuangzi was more worthy than you. He came to the country of Liang, probably because he wanted to replace you." "So Huizi was very scared after hearing this . , so he went around looking for Zhuangzi and wanted to catch him in advance." " But I never expected that instead of running away, Zhuangzi ran to see Huizi and told him that there was a bird in the south, and its name was the 铓鶵 . It originates from the South China Sea and flies over the North Sea. It will not stop unless it is a parasol tree, it will not eat unless it is made of solid food, and it will not drink unless it is a sweet spring." " But at this time, an owl found a dead mouse, and when he was about to enjoy it, he suddenly saw this An owl flew by his side." "Then the owl was very frightened. It looked at the owl and said, "Scare!" " So Zhuangzi looked at Huizi and said, "Are you planning to use your Liang Kingdom to scare me?" Fang Bie quietly told Li Song this story that he might have read but had forgotten. Li Song was silent for a while. Of course he understands what Fang Bi means.
The Kingdom of Goryeo, which he was obsessed with and refused to let go of, might seem to Zhou like a rotten rat that had no interest in it.
But even so, he still didn't want to take the risk of letting Da Zhou come in front of this rot rat, even if another bird came from the east and planned to snatch this rot rat from him.
"Goguryeo was a country that had not been conquered for generations by the Great Zhou Dynasty. When the Tang Dynasty destroyed Goguryeo, it did not really annex it. Instead, it allowed Silla and Baekje to inherit its territory and continue to thrive here. It has been nearly a thousand years since then. Fang Bie looked at Li Song and advised: "At the beginning of the founding of the country, Taizu of the Great Zhou Dynasty chased people to the north, and the military front swept the world, but in the end he never thought about the Goryeo Kingdom. Now that the Goryeo Kingdom is in danger and is in danger, he is worried. If Da Zhou wants to replace him, it would be too much to judge a gentleman with a villain's heart."
Li Song was gradually convinced by Fang Bie, and he looked at him: "So..." "
So, I am willing to do something for you. Your Majesty, please give me orders." Fang Bie looked at Li Song and said, "I know that Your Majesty has sent an urgent mission before." "
But just asking for help is not enough."
"If Your Majesty is willing to write a letter to ask for help, I am willing to star." It takes two months to deliver the Great Zhou Dynasty to Yanjing for the king."
"Bring the heavenly soldiers as soon as
possible." "I wonder what the king wants?"
Li Song looked at Fang Farewell for a long time, and finally lowered his head helplessly.
"No."
...
...
The matter has come to this, and it is useless to say more, so soon, Li Song wrote a sincere and humble letter asking for help and gave it to Fang Bie. Of course, he did not really put the egg in the In a basket, the same letter was transcribed five times and handed over to different missions to act separately. In this way, even if they were intercepted along the way, others could still rush to the Great Zhou Dynasty with letters of distress and send them to the Great Zhou court. Please help.
Fang Bie didn't take Li Song's little thoughts seriously at all, because from the beginning to the end, he hoped that Li Song would ask Da Zhou for help, so he ran to Seoul at all costs to ask Li Song to run away. Don't actually get caught.
Just like the three stages that Fang Bu and Yan Yu secretly discussed before, the first stage is to let the Japanese army attack Seoul, the capital of Goryeo, with overwhelming force. Only in this way can there be urgency to ask for help from the Great Zhou Dynasty.
At present, this stage is over, and Fang Bie has also successfully obtained Li Song's letter asking for help. As long as the letter is sent to Yanjing, Fang Bie's work will be considered complete.
Because even His Majesty could not have watched Goryeo fall and be conquered and occupied by Japan.
So next, the Great Zhou Dynasty had only one way to go, and that was to use all its resources to support Goryeo and send a large army to confront the Japanese expeditionary force head-on.
And there is another huge trap in this, that is, the current grassroots rule of Goryeo is on the verge of collapse. With the invasion of the Japanese army, Li Song has lost control of the country. When the Zhou army arrives, not only Li Song will Li Song had no way to supply the Zhou army through the Kingdom of Goryeo. Instead, Li Song himself needed to rely on the rewards from the Emperor of Zhou to be able to pay salaries to his civil and military officials and reward ministers.
Therefore, once the Battle of Goryeo begins, Zhou Dynasty will not only have to face the 200,000 Japanese army head-on, but also prepare and transport the grain and grass needed by the army from all over the country. Such consumption will be even higher than previously expected to pacify Wang Ding. The chaos of Zhi will be several times greater.
If there is really any benefit, then the benefit is that during the Wangzhi Rebellion, the war was in the southeast region. This was the land of plenty and plenty of money in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and it was also a tax-rich area. If these places were damaged by the war, then the Great Zhou Dynasty There will be no doubt that the vitality will be severely damaged.
But now if you are going beyond the country, although the transportation consumption will be much higher, if you use sea transportation, there may be unexpected benefits. The most important thing is that when fighting in other countries, you don’t need to worry about your own land being invaded. The war is destructive, which is also a huge benefit.
In short, everything is ready and must be launched.
Fang Bi said goodbye to Li Song, and then embarked on a slow journey back home. From Goryeo to Dazhou, there are two routes: sea route and land route, because if you take the land route, you will almost have to go around a big circle, while the sea route can All the way to Pingjin Port, and then to Yanjing, and handing the letter of request for help face-to-face into the hands of the Ministry of Rites, everything is done.
However, there is a risk of drifting at sea. This kind of drifting is really a kind of metaphysics. Why did the Zhou Dynasty finally give up sea transportation in the early years and choose water transportation to supply grain to northern cities such as Yanjing? It is because the drifting of sea transportation is a huge problem. The officials in charge of transportation can easily pocket the supplies from ship to ship with just a stroke of a pen. After all, as long as they are reported to have drifted, no one can go to the sea to ask for these supplies.
Therefore, Li Song's five original requests for reinforcements were all by land.
But Fangbie got on a fishing boat after leaving Pyongyang.
This fishing boat has also been arranged long ago, with the best sailors and the fastest boat.
They were not fishing, but sailing towards the west with Fang Bie. In only three days, with the help of the wind, they crossed the bay and finally arrived at Pingjin Port.
Looking at the familiar buildings in Pingjin Port, Fang Bie was filled with emotion.
Yes, after going round and round, I finally returned to this country, but after returning this time, everything may be different.
Then the young man bid farewell to the fishing boat and continued on his way to Yanjing City alone.
A few years ago, he and He Ping left this land of right and wrong in a carriage in the wind and snow, and went straight to Luocheng where they opened the Xiaohun Inn.
And now, he returns alone, carrying only a letter that can determine the fate of a country.
The young man took a deep breath and walked into Yanjing City.
Outside the yamen of the Ministry of Rites, there was a rumble of drums.
"This is not the place to complain. You've found the wrong place to complain."
"This is what I'm looking for." The young man raised his head and smiled.
"I came from Korea, and in my hand I have a request for help from King Li Song of Korea."
(End of this chapter)