The first time Li Hong saw his father Long's face, two words popped into his head involuntarily: bottom of the pot.
That's right, Li Zhi's face was as black as the bottom of a pot now. He hurriedly hurried along slowly, fearing that his schedule would delay the military event. This was good, as soon as he entered the city, he only saw the prince's relatives. The guards were leading troops to defend the city, but he had already gone out to enjoy the mountains and rivers.
As the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty, is he here to fight or have fun? Could it be that this is how his great achievements were achieved in Anxi? Li Zhi expressed doubts.
In Li Hong's eyes, when Father Long and Mother Long were angry, he would rather face Mother Long Wu Mei than Father Long, who was more petty.
Long Ma was so coaxing that she came up to her with a face and rubbed her shoulders and beat her back, and her anger was basically gone.
But Father Long is different. When he gets angry, he can make himself half angry to death. In addition, if the person who is angry with him dares to refuse to admit his mistake, Li Zhi can even hold in his sulk for three days.
And this is also related to his vertigo. If he had been relatively open-minded and peaceful, I am afraid that historically, Li Zhi might not have been able to live for a few more years, and Li Hong's Dragon Mother might not have been able to become the emperor.
Fortunately, Li Hong didn't really go sightseeing, so after listening to Li Hong's explanation, Li Zhi's face, which was as dark as the bottom of a pot, slowly became calmer. When Hong said about gold, he immediately smiled and praised the prince repeatedly for being smart and sensible.
But when someone finished comforting his father Long, he turned to look at the civil servants below, and found that Ge Xiyuan was still among them. At that moment, his expression darkened, but after thinking about it, he decided to forget it, since Father Long agreed, and I'm afraid it would be useless to say anything else.
Moreover, the relationship between Ge Xiyuan and Li Xian is relatively close. At this time, things in Chang'an are still a mess. It is better not to punish Ge Xiyuan too much. But if he dares to dictate military affairs again, then don't I blame myself for being rude.
The night was already very late, so after seeing Li Hong, Li Zhi waved his hand impatiently, telling him to get out quickly and cross the river to Liujing with him tomorrow.
Li Hong's strict habit of getting up early allowed him to get up early in the morning without being urged by his father. His men took over Liu Renyuan's place and took on the responsibility of protecting His Majesty the Emperor.
The Taedong River in the previous life has become a river in Pyongyang City. Because the river bed is very deep and the water flow is not turbulent, it is very suitable for boat navigation.
In this era, except for bridges made of ropes, there was no way to cross the river. Therefore, if you wanted to transport a large army across the river, it was best to use navy ships.
At the same time, Li Hong also wanted to have close contact with the Tang Dynasty's naval forces to see their actual combat capabilities, and also to show off the Tang Dynasty's military power in front of Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje.
In fact, in this era, the types of warships in the Tang Dynasty were quite complete. It was commendable to be able to use the limited space without a power device to drive them.
Compared with the small boats of the Japanese country that Cui Zhibian looked down upon, the Tang navy could indeed be regarded as the leader of this era.
The Ming Dynasty's military work "Wu Bei Zhi" once mentioned the power of the navy in the early Tang Dynasty: All water battles are based on the size of the ships... Golden drums and flags are used as the joints of advance and retreat, and the battles include buildings, ships, and fighting. Ships, walking boats, and sea falcons are used for sneak attacks, such as mengchong and yachts, and their weapons are shooting poles, which they use to attack them along the current.
The wide variety of warships will greatly consider a general's ability to coordinate and command various types of ships. Clear responsibilities, strict discipline, and coordination and division of labor are all tests for a general, and the Tang Dynasty was able to emerge such a navy The general naturally made Li Hong very happy.
This time, in addition to fighting ships, walking boats, and sea falcons, there is also an attack-type ship that uses rawhide to wrap itself for defense. Generally speaking, it is used for impact.
This shows how powerful and majestic the Tang Dynasty's military was during this period.
Among all the various types of ships, the building ship is the representative work that best reflects the strong national power and military might of the Tang Dynasty. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it was called the Five-Tooth Battleship.
The reason why it is called the Five-Tooth Battleship is because it is a five-story building structure. There are six shooting poles on the left and right, and there are huge stones on the top of each wooden mast, and there are windlass below as auxiliary. In the close combat of the battleship At this time, you can quickly use the wheel to help lower the boulders, so as to achieve the purpose of using the boulders to destroy enemy ships.
As for the trebuchets and bed crossbows that Datang had always been proud of on land, and were used in invincible siege battles, they were naturally found ways to install them on the five-tooth battleship. These two long-range attack weapons The weapon can be said to be a real trump card, thus arming the Five-Tooth Battleship into a powerful battleship that can fight at both distance and near.
Standing on the sailless front deck facing the wind, Li Hong and Cui Zhibian chatted warmly in a low voice. The content was not about the five-tooth battleship, but about the larger one built by Li Chunfeng in Quanzhou on Lingnan Road. on the matter of warships.
When Cui Zhibian heard from Li Hong that the warship was half longer than the warship at their feet that was more than fifty or sixty steps long, he immediately looked at the smiling Li Hong with an expression of doubt and shock. Hong.
"Don't believe it. If your five-tooth battleship sees that big ship, it will be like a little cat at most, with no power to fight back." Li Hong looked at Cui Zhibian's unbelievable expression with confidence and said calmly.
"Your Highness, it's not that I don't believe it, but you have to know that if the warship is so big, it will lose its agility. It will be even more difficult to retreat when faced with many enemy ships." Cui Zhibian is only about thirty years old, and he can reach the level of a fourth-grade naval general, which is enough to meet him and show his naval warfare ability.
Li Hong glanced at him and continued: "Who told you that I was going to retreat? Besides, whether the enemy ship can approach the ship is still one thing. When this matter is over, you go over and take a look, take this I passed the jade pendant and compared the two."
Li Hong handed a piece of jade pendant to Cui Zhibian, put his hands behind his back, and said again: "The Five-Tooth Battleship is indeed good, but it is only suitable for offshore combat. Can you try to go out hundreds of nautical miles? A strong wind will come, and your ship will not be used." When the enemy attacks, he will sink into the sea to feed the bastard.”
Cui Zhibian smiled bitterly, His Highness was telling the truth. Although the Five-Tooth Battleship was large, it was indeed not suitable for long-distance voyages. Those suitable for long-distance voyages were not as powerful as this kind of ship.
In fact, this cannot be blamed on Cui Zhibian, or even on anyone, because even a thousand years later, the Chinese have not had the courage to step out of the land and step onto the sea to go far away. For a country that lives on land, they Their own personalities constrained them from going out.
The reason why Li Hong always built the big ship secretly was because he was afraid that the officials in the court would obstruct him in various ways after knowing about it.
Hundreds of years later, the Ming Dynasty was able to move freely on the sea and was very majestic for a while. But in the end, wasn't it because of the prevalence of maritime bans that China was finally trapped on land for hundreds of years
As a result, European warships ran rampant on the sea, plundered wealth, and finally left a deep scar on the Chinese nation with their passion for the sea
This is still the case in the Tang Dynasty today. They have never dared to actively embrace the sea, including the fishermen and people along the coast. Their understanding of the sea is still at the stage of making a living. No one has ever thought about overcoming their fear of the sea. In the end, what kind of courage and wealth will it bring to this nation.
Li Hong has now made up his mind. After following Father Long to resolve the affairs in Liaodong, he will go to Quanzhou to meet Cui Zhibian to see what Li Chunfeng has done with his millions of taels of silver. Don't wait until then. It was really a waste of money, and I could only watch the white money sinking into the sea.
By land route and water route, in less than half a day, 30,000 soldiers and horses were quickly assembled on the other side of the Datong River. At this time, the distance from Ryugyong, the royal city of Goguryeo, was only more than 20 miles.
As soon as they stepped onto the official road, the banner of the Tang Dynasty appeared in front of them. A puff of smoke and dust rose behind the banner, and nearly a thousand cavalry were seen running towards this side quickly.
"I'm going... Liu Rengui won't miss it, right?" Li Hong looked around and saw that the menacing posture did not look like he was here to pick up the driver.
Li Zhi didn't speak, and there was a white horse without any mottled colors on his crotch. At this moment, looking at the flying hooves of the same kind in front of him, he felt a little unbearable and eager to try.
But as soon as he lifted his hoof, the white horse was lightly kicked on the neck by someone: "Why are you so anxious? Just wait and see, I didn't ask you to come here for a fight."
As soon as Li Hong finished speaking, he saw a golden whip shadow flashing in front of his eyes: "You can kick my mount too! Are there any rules? It's really against the royal style."
Li Hong leaned back, dodging the riding whip which was extremely weak when coming and going, and curled his lips and said: "I'm afraid it will go crazy. What if it really takes you out? This is my filial piety."
Liu Rengui suddenly appeared in front of Li Zhi and Li Hong, with an excited smile on his face. He quickly dismounted and ran to Li Zhi, dressed in armor and saluted: "Your Majesty, Liu Rengui, respectfully welcomes you to the royal city of Goguryeo."
"What? Have you captured the royal city of Goguryeo?" Li Zhi couldn't hold back the joy in his heart and motioned Liu Rengui to get up and answer, his tone full of incredible excitement.
"Yes, Your Majesty, less than half a day after I arrived at the royal city of Goguryeo, King Gaozang of Goguryeo led all his officials out of the city and surrendered, but..."
"But what? Now that you have surrendered, what else can't be said! Speak quickly, there is no need to hesitate."
"Yes, Your Majesty. The condition for the surrender of the King of Goguryeo is that you can stop Silla and Baekje from plundering Goguryeo's land and immediately return the plundered Goguryeo people." Liu Rengui said solemnly.
(End of chapter)