Vol 2 Chapter 2555: Chen Qingzhi brought peace to Korea, Wang Mang killed Li Chenggui

Chapter 2555 Chen Qingzhi pacified North Korea, Wang Mang executed Li Chenggui

Chapter 2551: Chen Qingzhi pacified North Korea, Wang Mang executed Li Chenggui

The reason why Wang Mang chose the Sanhan Peninsula is that the Sanhan Peninsula is far away from the Central Plains. Da Qin's hands will not be able to reach here in the short term, and he can develop here with peace of mind.

In addition, the three Korean countries are extremely backward. With the ability of him and his men, he can unify the three Koreas in a short period of time, and then unite with the Yuan and Qing Dynasties to jointly deal with the Qin in the north.

 But Wang Mang guessed the beginning, but not the end.

 The three Korean countries were indeed lagging behind, and Goguryeo was also lagging behind, but they were not left behind and were very resilient.

Wang Mang's road to unify the three Koreas started from the southern part of the Samhan Peninsula. He successively destroyed more than a dozen countries such as Chenhan, Mahan, Baekje, Buyeo, and Silla. He was always invincible until he faced Goguryeo. Met a real opponent.

 During the Li Yuanhao period, Goguryeo was able to fend off the invasion of the Manchu Qing Dynasty many times during its heyday, which shows that Goguryeo is still very capable of fighting.

However, it was precisely because of the many wars with the Manchus that completely destroyed Goguryeo's foundation, so Wang Mang was able to destroy Goguryeo as a foreigner.

 The Goguryeo that Wang Mang encountered had been weakened to the extreme by the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

But the centipede insect is dead but not stiff. Although Goguryeo cannot develop externally, it still has the ability to protect itself internally.

If Wang Mang were to take it by force, he would definitely pay a huge price. Moreover, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had always regarded the three Koreas as taboos, and there was no way they could just sit back and watch Wang Mang occupy the three Koreas.

It is precisely because of this that Wang Mang wasted several years in a stalemate with Goguryeo.

It wasn't until the last civil strife in the Qing Dynasty that Dorgon transferred back all the Qing garrisons in the three Koreas in order to repel Aguda. Only then did Wang Mang find the opportunity to completely annex Goguryeo.

With the threat of Aguda in front of him, Dorgon was too busy to take care of himself and naturally could not take care of the three Koreas. But even without the constraints of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it was still not easy for Wang Mang to annex Goguryeo.

 First of all, Goguryeo is mountainous, and most of its cities are mountain cities, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack. This is the main reason why the Manchus did not return home many times.

Secondly, the people of Goguryeo are all devoted to the Li family. If they face the danger of national subjugation, they may even join the army.

 Finally, and the most important point is that if the civil war between the Manchu and Qing Dynasties ends and Wang Mang intervenes in the situation of the Three Koreas again, and Wang Mang fails to destroy the Three Koreas, wouldn't he just be a wedding dress for the Manchus?

 Because of these three points, Wang Mang began to hesitate whether he should risk everything and forcibly destroy the country of Goguryeo, but the arrow on the string did not allow him to think about it for too long.

Wang Mang thought about it for a long time and had difficulty making a decision. It was his father-in-law Huo Guang who woke him up and strengthened his determination to annex Goguryeo at all costs.

In order to destroy Goguryeo in one battle, Wang Mang expanded his army to the maximum extent across the country, recruiting a total of 100,000 troops and 150,000 civilians. Chen Qingzhi and Xue Gang each led an army. They were divided into two groups, east and west, and launched an offensive against Goguryeo at the same time. .

At that time, Goguryeo's total military strength was only 80,000, and wars were fought every year. The people in the country were very war-weary.

With the lineup of Chen Qingzhi and Xue Gang, and the intense war-weariness within Goguryeo, it stands to reason that this battle should go smoothly, but the reality is exactly the opposite.

Despite Chen Qingzhi and Xue Gang's clever plans, Goguryeo, which has a mountainous city and a favorable location, could only rely on one move to hold on, leaving them with nothing to do.

This trick is also applicable to all famous generals, so even if the two famous generals Chen Qingzhi and Xue Gang are dispatched, Wang Mang's army's attack on Goguryeo is relatively slow.

 It was not until half a year later that Chen Qingzhi and Xue Gang finally completed their rendezvous in Seoul, the capital of Goguryeo, at the cost of an army of 30,000 to 40,000 troops.

Although Wang Mang was extremely distressed about the sacrifices made in this battle, he could not back down at this time. He relied on reorganizing prisoners of war and recruiting new soldiers, and raised another 50,000 yuan for the two of them to send to the front line.

 But the real tug-of-war has just begun.

Goguryeo King Li Chengyu died in a duel with Chen Qingzhi long before Wang and Mang's armies joined forces in Seoul, and died at the hands of the former Northern Han general Qian Zhao.

After Wang Mang defeated Huo Guang as his adopted father and married Huo Guang's daughter Huo Shuixian, he used Huo Guanghe's name to avenge Liu Che and recruited those remnants of the Northern Han Dynasty who were still loyal to Liu Che.

When they learned that Prime Minister Huo Guang, Governor Xue Gang and others were now in Sanhan, and that Wang Mang and Da Qin were mortal enemies, many remnants of the Northern Han Dynasty chose to defect.

 Among them are: Qian Zhao, Xu Miao, Tian Shou, Liu Fang, Sun Li, and Wei Xiang, a hero of Qilin Pavilion.

  Wei Xiang, Zhao Chongguo and Han Zeng all pretended to surrender to the Qin Dynasty. They looked forward to the day when the Han power would be restored and they could also help.

But Da Qin seemed to have been aware of their intentions a long time ago. After finding evidence that Zhao Chongguo had faked his surrender, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

  Wei Xiang and Han Zeng were spared due to lack of evidence. However, because they could not be cleared of suspicion and were politically stained, they were destined to not be promoted or reused in their lives.

Han Zeng was unwilling to do this and was eager to express himself on the battlefield. As a result, the sneak attack failed and he was killed by him.

The Prime Minister of Wei was a civil servant. Without Han Zeng's strong will, he saw no hope of promotion and was unable to prevent Qin from replacing Han. In despair, he resigned and went into seclusion. He did not come out again until he received Huo Guang's invitation.

Even if Wang Mang subdued Huo Guang, Xue Gang and others, he was still extremely short of talents. It was not until Qian Zhao, Xu Miao, Wei Xiang and other remnants of the Northern Han Dynasty took refuge that the situation was completely resolved.

I have to say that Wang Mang's decision to risk falling out with Zhang Liang and forcefully rescue Huo Guang, Xue Gang and others was obviously the right one.

These few people alone recruited a group of remnants of the Northern Han Dynasty, completely solving the problem of insufficient talents under Wang Mang.

Qian Zhao even killed the Goguryeo King Li Chengyu in one battle, but the real trouble was yet to come.

After Li Chengyu died in battle, Li Chenggui, the founding monarch of the Joseon Dynasty who was born from the alien Baizhaoka, was implanted as Li Chengyu's younger brother, and he inherited his elder brother Li Chengyu's position and became the successor to Li Yuanhao and Li Chengyu. The next king of Goguryeo. As the founding monarch of North Korea, Li Chenggui was much more capable than Li Chengyu, and his ability was even more highlighted when facing the danger of national subjugation.

Faced with the fierce offensive of Chen Qingzhi and Xue Gang, Li Chenggui decisively chose to mobilize all the people, and adopted the slogan "Fight to the last soldier" and implemented various defensive measures, which caused great damage to Wang Mang's army. Trouble.

It is precisely because of this that Wang Mang's army's attack speed was so slow. They did not meet up in Seoul until half a year later, and they also paid a heavy price.

Seeing that he could not prevent Wang Mang's army from approaching Seoul, Li Chenggui stockpiled a large amount of grain and grass in Seoul in advance, gathered half of his troops in a fight, and was prepared to defend Seoul for a long time. At the same time, he also sent envoys to seek help from the Manchus.

Li Chenggui made a promise to both Aguda and Dorgon that as long as the Manchu Qing sent troops to help, he would become a client state of the Manchu Qing.

At that time, the Manchu and Qing civil wars were still going on.

Dorgon was defeated by Aguda in a row. He had too much time to take care of himself and how could he still have the energy to support Goguryeo? Naturally, he decisively refused.

Aguda defeated Dorgon in a row and was about to conquer the Qing Dynasty together. Naturally, he didn't care about Sanhan, a place where birds didn't shit.

Seeing that both Dorgon and Aguda refused to support, Li Chenggui did not despair. He sent envoys to Daqin to ask for help, while commanding the entire city's soldiers and civilians to defend Seoul.

The people of Goguryeo were united and resisted to the death. Even if the two famous generals Chen Qingzhi and Xue Gang joined forces and attacked Seoul for three full months, they still failed to capture the city. Instead, they lost more than 30,000 troops.

Seeing that the casualties were too great, Wang Mang could no longer hold on if he continued to fight like this, so he decisively stopped the frontline offensive and instead asked Xue Gang to lead an army to siege the city, and Chen Qingzhi to lead a partial division to attack other places. .

 Two months later, Chen Qingzhi successively conquered eight cities at a very small cost, but the civil war in the Qing Dynasty was also over.

Wang Mang was worried that the Qing Dynasty would send troops, so he made plans to retreat, but was persuaded by Huo Guang.

Huo Guang bluntly said that Goguryeo could not be destroyed this time, and it would be even more difficult next time, and the internal conflicts between the Manchu and Qing Dynasties were fierce. The war was stopped this time because of the intervention of Qin. Dorgon and Aguda may not dare to divide their forces to intervene in the three Koreas before they can completely solve each other. situation.

As Huo Guang expected, even if the civil war in the Qing Dynasty ended, Dorgon and Aguda were wary of each other, so they still did not send troops to intervene in the three Koreas. Instead, they both wanted to use Wang Mang's help to weaken Goguryeo and wait until their own families were unified. After cleaning, I picked up ready-made ones.

Wang Mang was naturally overjoyed when he saw this and urged Chen Qingzhi on the front line to speed up the attack. It took him another three months to finally capture all the cities in Goguryeo except Seoul.

 Chen Qingzhi only had an army of 8,000 when he went out to conquer Goguryeo. However, after capturing the northern part of Goguryeo, when he returned with the victorious army, he had an army of 30,000. The number of troops increased as he fought.

 With Chen Qingzhi's return, the offensive and defensive battle in Seoul began again.

 Chen Qingzhi wanted to capture Seoul at the minimum cost, so he adopted a heart-attack strategy and spread leaflets into Seoul, saying that Seoul was the only city left in Goguryeo. The soldiers and civilians in the city should stop resisting and quickly leave the city and surrender.

 However, Goguryeo's citizens had a low level of education, and few people were literate. They did not know the contents of the leaflets at all. In addition, Li Chenggui had too strong control over Seoul, so the soldiers and civilians spontaneously handed over the leaflets.

 Chen Qingzhi's strategy of attacking the enemy's heart failed, so he had no choice but to launch a forceful attack. The attack lasted for another month and destroyed nearly 20,000 troops, but he failed to break through Seoul.

Looking at the defenders in Seoul, their will to resist became even stronger. Even ordinary civilians, as well as the elderly and women, participated in the defense of the city.

Chen Qingzhi saw that the soldiers and civilians of Seoul were so united and knew that the Goguryeo soldiers and civilians did not want to subjugate the country. Continuing to attack the city would only cause greater casualties, so he gave up the idea of ​​​​attacking the city and instead launched a siege. As long as the food reserves in the city were exhausted, Seoul would not attack itself. break.

 Six months later, the civilian grain reserves in Seoul were exhausted, and the people began to exchange their children for food, but Kaesong still did not surrender.

 Fifteen days later, the military supplies were also exhausted, and the soldiers and civilians in Seoul were completely out of ammunition and food.

But Li Chenggui was still unwilling to surrender. He used the corpses of people who had died of starvation to make dried meat, and managed to hold on for another half month.

In the seventh month, a mutiny broke out among the Seoul defenders. The famous Goguryeo general Yang Wanchun opened the city gate and surrendered to Wang Mang, while Li Chenggui committed suicide in the palace in despair.

Wang Mang led his army into Seoul and soon after accepting the surrender, he broke his promise to enter the city and wielded a butcher knife against the Goguryeo royal family.

Li Chenggui’s son, Li Shuo, the Dingzong of the Joseon Dynasty, and Li Bangyu, the Taizong of the Joseon Dynasty…

Li Yuanhao’s sons, Xia Yizong Li Liangzuo, Xia Huizong Li Bingchang…

 As well as Li Chengwei, Li Ningming and other royal family members, they all died under Wang Mang's butcher's knife.

The two major royal lineages, the Xixia Li surname and the Korean surname Li, were all exterminated by Wang Mang except for the female relatives.

As for the fate of the female family members, it was also extremely miserable. They were all reduced to official prostitutes for the military lieutenant generals to vent their sexual desires.

Shortly after the destruction of Goguryeo, Wang Mang took Seoul as his capital, established the Kingdom of Korea, and took the throne of Korea himself.

 After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Wang Mang issued two orders:

 First, North Korea was renamed Hanzhou and divided into counties according to region;

  The second is to liquidate household registration nationwide and count the total population.

When Nurhachi established the three states of Manchuria, Jin and Liao in the northeast, he ignored the opposition of the three Korean countries and designated the Three Korean Peninsula as Hanzhou. However, he failed to completely conquer the Three Koreans.

What Nurhaci failed to do, Wang Mang, who fled to Sanhan, did it a few years after his death.

Wang Mang unified Korea and became the first king of Korea.

 (End of this chapter)