A team of cavalrymen drove their horses in the dark night, the wind whistled in their ears, and the scenery on both sides was constantly changing. The cavalry team rushed through the fields, flowed through rivers, and passed through forests. The horses were flying at lightning, and they were exhausted. Only a lonely full moon focused on them in the night sky and accompanied them all the way.

As the morning light first dewed, a rising sun burst out, sprinkling the gorgeous rays on the earth. The cavalry rushed up to a hill and stopped the galloping war horses. The purple-red rays reflected the faces of each of them.

Yang Yuanqing stared at the forests and cities in the distance. After four days and four nights of running, they had arrived in Lulong County.

"Walk!"

At the command of Yang Yuanqing, he rode his horse down the hill, and a thousand personal guards followed him and rushed down the hill.

...........

At noon the next day, Yang Yuanqing once again arrived at the Beiping Shipbuilding Station located at the mouth of Ruhekou. After half a year of development, the area has undergone tremendous changes.

The population is gathered, and a new city stands at the mouth of Ruhekou. This is a newly built county town called Rukou County. It includes two surrounding towns. It already has a population of nearly 3,000 households, most of which are the families of boatmen.

Yang Yuanqing led more than a thousand cavalry to arrive, which had already alarmed the officials of the county town and shipbuilding station, the young new county magistrate, county magistrate, and the chief of the shipbuilding station Zhao Guangcai, Yingyanglang general Yu Zhenwu, craftsman Zhang Long, Zhang Hu brothers, and more than a dozen officials came out one after another.

Yang Yuanqing smiled slightly, "Please exempt everyone, it's not the first time I've been here."

Everyone was extremely excited and asked Yang Yuanqing to go to the county town to rest. Yang Yuanqing saw the masts on the sea from afar, and large sea boats stood on the sea surface and the mouth of the Ruhe River like hills.

Yang Yuanqing's mood began to rise. He pointed to the distant coast with a horse whip, "Go and see the warship first!"

He rode his horse and ran into the boathouse. The boathouse was still empty, but it was much more lively than before. There were teams of shipmakers busy everywhere, and dozens of shipmakers walked past them with a huge keel.

In order to attack Goryeo, the Sui Dynasty built a large-scale shipbuilding system, countless shipbuilding materials were piled up in the shipyard, but most of these materials were not useful and piled up in the warehouse. At this time, they had been fully utilized.

This is just a shipbuilding station, and the Sui army's warships are concentrated at the estuary of the Lushui River at the junction of Hejian County and Zhuo County. They can be directly reached through the canal. That estuary is the location of Tianjin today.

After more than half a year of hard work, the craftsmen of the shipbuilding station have successively repaired hundreds of sea ships towed from various places, and transformed some large inland ships to enable them to withstand sea storms.

At this time, the Sui army's naval warships reached more than 800. But Yang Yuanqing's target was a thousand warships. He came here to inspect how many warships there were in the shipbuilding station that were about to be repaired.

"How many warships can be repaired in one month?" Yang Yuanqing turned around and asked Zhao Guangcai, the chief officer.

Zhao Guangcai hurriedly stepped forward and replied: "Since he received the order from His Highness, the boatmen have been divided into two shifts, repairing ships day and night. Within one month, we can guarantee that we will deliver another 200 large ships."

Yang Yuanqing nodded and said to Zhang Long and Zhang Hu brothers: "Let all shipmakers follow the big ship to Luhekou together after repairing the ship, just like last time. I need them to be crew members."

After pausing, Yang Yuanqing asked again: "How many experienced boatmen can be summoned?"

Zhang Long bowed and said, "Report to Your Highness, there are about 3,000 people."

Yang Yuanqing felt relieved, and he pointed to a big ship and said with a smile: "Go on the boat and take a look."

.........

In Taiyuan, Ziwei Pavilion passed the suggestion of King Yang Yuanqing of Chu to prepare for the battle in Qingzhou and annihilate Dou Jiande's troops in one fell swoop. The news came out, which shocked the court and many ministers expressed their opposition.

The Sui army's capture of Hebei and the Central Plains had already brought huge burdens to the Sui Dynasty. Seeing that the autumn grain harvest was a foregone conclusion, under such a situation, Ziweige decided to attack Qingzhou, which was tantamount to injury, and there was a lot of opposition from the court and the country.

But there were also voices of approval, mainly from the Hebei faction officials. The people of Qingzhou lived in a difficult situation and were eager to rescue the Sui army. If Qingzhou was recovered, refugees would not flock to Hebei and could provide relief on the spot.

The news soon flowed from the court to the people, and it also caused huge debate in Taiyuan City. People were talking about this battle everywhere, which was even more eye-catching than the Central Plains War.

Whether it was against or agreed, it could not change the decision of Ziwei Pavilion. The army began to assemble on a large scale. The grain from the Taiyuan granary was moved onto the ships, and large ships loaded with grain sailed towards Hebei, passing through the Fen River, the Yellow River and the Canal, and heading towards Hejian County.

At noon, there were guests in a tavern outside Taiyuan North City, and it was very lively. At the tables, the battle to attack Dou Jiande was hotly discussed, and the debate had spread from the court to the people.

"Has the disaster in Hebei been resolved? Have the hungry people in the Central Plains been relieved? I don't know how to solve the two major burdens. Now I have to bring Qingzhou in. This is just a small Hedong. Can I afford such a big burden?" An old man was heartbroken and scolded the court for this decision.

Another middle-aged man had a mild temper and persuaded the old man, "Mr. Qi, you can't say that. Will Qingzhou be free from taking it? Seeing that the autumn grain harvest is a foregone conclusion, a large number of hungry people in Qingzhou will inevitably pour into Hebei or the Central Plains. Instead of leaving their hometowns to beg for food, it is better to place them in their hometown. I think the Sui army attacked Qingzhou for this purpose."

Another drunkard sighed: "The key is how much food we have? The war begins and the army is mobilized, and the money and food are about to go out. If there is not much food and a war is exhausted, what else can we use to provide disaster relief?"

"The food should be high. I heard that the last time I negotiated with the Tang Dynasty, I slaughtered the Tang Dynasty. There should be enough food, otherwise His Highness the King of Chu would not make this decision."

...........

There were discussions everywhere, and one of the middle-aged drinkers slowly drank fruit wine, but their ears were straightened, listening to everyone's comments.

He settled the bill without saying a word and quickly left the restaurant. The man walked into Taipei City and came to a pharmacy. A friend came out and greeted him, "The shopkeeper is back!"

The middle-aged man nodded and walked into the medicine shop.

Just as the Sui Dynasty set up the Intelligence Hall in Pyongyang, the Goryeo people also extended their tentacles into Taiyuan. After the assassination of the princess half a year ago, the Goryeo was beaten up in one fell swoop. But two months ago, Gai Suwen sent a group of Goryeo members to continue collecting intelligence from the Sui Dynasty.

Unlike the last killer intelligence officer, this time it was changed to a businessman style. The middle-aged man named Gao Wenjing, who is a famous doctor in Pyongyang. He became the leader of this group of Goryeo Intelligence Officers.

He led more than a dozen subordinates to use this pharmacy in Taipei as a base, spending a high price to collect various information, then transfer it to Liaodong with the Eagle Letter, and finally sent it to the Goryeo Domestic City and to Gai Suwen.

Gao Wenjing was about forty years old and could speak fluent Chinese. From his appearance, he could not tell that he was a Korean.

Gao Wenjing hurried into the backyard and walked into a room. He sat down at the table, spread out silk paper, and wrote the latest information little by little with fine pens. "The Sui army will launch a battle with Qingzhou, which has attracted widespread dissatisfaction among the people."

Of course, he could not take such important information seriously by listening to a few comments in the wine shop. In fact, he had already obtained the exact news from the court that the Sui Dynasty was going to attack Dou Jiande in Qingzhou and complete the battle before the autumn harvest.

He went to the restaurant just to hear the public opinion.

After writing the information, when the ink was dry, they carefully rolled it up and put it in a thin bamboo tube. This was the communication method they learned from the Sui army. They trained the letter eagle to convey the message. Their eagle point was outside the city, and they were sent to Liaodong first, and then from Liaodong to Goryeo.

Gao Wenjing walked out of the room and handed the bamboo tube to a friend, "Send this letter quickly, don't delay!"

The guy took the message and left in a hurry. Gao Jingwen walked slowly towards the front hall of the medicine shop.

...........

The day after the resolution was made in the Ziwei Pavilion of the Sui Dynasty, Li Shimin of Chang'an also received emergency information from Tang Feng.

In the inner hall of the Qin King's Mansion, Li Shimin paced back and forth in the hall with his hands behind his back, and placed Tang Feng's emergency information on the table, while Li Shimin's military advisor Fang Xuanling sat on the other side.

"Your Highness, I think it's very strange that the military operations of the Sui Dynasty have never been related to Ziwei Pavilion. They were directly deployed by Yang Yuanqing. This is the principle of the division of military and political families in the Sui Dynasty. It has always been like this. Why did Ziwei Pavilion actually need to be approved this time?"

"Maybe this is the beginning of the reform of the Sui Dynasty." Changsun Wuji on the other side said.

"impossible!"

Fang Xuanling denied Changsun Wuji's idea without hesitation, "Even if Yang Yuanqing ascended the throne, he would never give military power to Ziwei Pavilion, let alone now he is the King of Chu. Wang Xu's previous lessons are not far away, so he will never give military power to Ziwei Pavilion."

Li Shimin stopped. Fang Xuanling's judgment was indeed reasonable. In fact, he felt it was unlikely that it was approved by Ziweige. Even if it was in a formal manner, Yang Yuanqing would not be ambiguous about military power.

"Why does that sir think it is?" Li Shimin asked as he looked at Fang Xuanling.

Fang Xuanling pondered for a while and said, "I think there is only one possibility to do this, that is, there is no such thing at all!"

Li Shimin was shocked, "How do you say this?"

Fang Xuanling sneered and said slowly: "To be honest, I don't believe that Yang Yuanqing will attack Qingzhou at this time. Qingzhou has a severe drought. At this time, his attack on Qingzhou will only cause public resentment. The people of the Sui Dynasty hated him for adding burdens. The people of Qingzhou hated him for defeating drought. If he was smarter and used Qingzhou to provide relief to the victims, then he would get the hearts of the people of Qingzhou and leave the bad reputation of ineffective disaster relief to Dou Jiande. I believe Yang Yuanqing also understands it in his heart."

Changsun Wuji next to him nodded in agreement and added: "If we really want to attack Qingzhou, we should end the battle silently and use thunder means. When we get the news, the war will be over. This is the plan that Yang Yuanqing should adopt, instead of making such a big fanfare and let us seize the opportunity."

"What's the purpose of Yang Yuanqing doing this?" Li Shimin asked in confusion.

.............(To be continued...)
Chapter completed!