After resting for a few days, Guo Ziyi divided his troops into two groups and ordered Ma Lin to lead 40,000 troops to guard Liucheng and strive to transfer all the grain and grass supplies from Juehua Island to Liucheng.
Guo Ziyi personally led an army of 120,000 men to attack the hinterland of the Khitan and the Songmo Governor's Mansion, the home base of the Khitan people.
The Khitan at this time was far from being compared with the Khitan Kingdom a hundred years later. In the later period, the Yelu tribe rose. With the efforts of several generations such as Yelu Abaoji and Yelu Deguang, the Khitan completely annexed all the tribes in Liaodong, including the Bohai Kingdom, and conquered
He conquered various nomadic peoples in the north and established a powerful Khitan Kingdom.
Later, he obtained Youzhou, which he had dreamed of for hundreds of years, from Shi Jingtang, obtained advanced military technology from the Han people, further expanded his strength, and established the Liao Dynasty, while also forming a strategic advantage over the entire northern Song Dynasty.
But this is the Khitan more than a hundred years later. The current Khitan is still led by the relatively conservative Yaonan tribe and the Xinxing Diela tribe. It is just a large Liaodong tribe with a population of hundreds of thousands and an army of more than 100,000.
His only advantage was that he annexed the Bailin tribe in the north during the Tianbao period, giving Khitan strategic depth to the north, and last year he accepted the surrender of 60,000 Bohai troops.
In addition, the Khitan also had a traditional ally, the Xi tribe. The Xi tribe sent 20,000 troops to cut off the Tang army's retreat, precisely at the request of the Khitan.
The reason why Li Ye valued the Khitans and asked Guo Ziyi to exterminate the clan was not only because the Khitans killed his brother Li Huai, but more importantly, because Li Ye knew the subsequent history of the Khitans and he would never allow the Khitans to have another chance to rise.
The fall of Yingzhou and the total destruction of the 50,000-strong army shocked the entire Khitan. Su Khan Yaochanbo became frightened and hurriedly discussed with Yili Jinyelu Salade.
Yili Jin means the general of the alliance, and also refers to the military leaders of various Khitan tribes. It is currently held by the leader of the emerging Diela tribe, who later became the Yelu tribe. The leader of the Diela tribe, Yelu Salade, is Yelu Abaoji.
's great-grandfather.
Of course Yelvsarad wanted to rescue Liucheng. Diecifeng was not only his nephew, but his 30,000 troops were also the elite of the Dieci tribe.
However, under the unanimous opposition of Su Khan and the leaders of various tribes, Yelu Salad finally gave up the rescue of Liucheng and allowed Diecifeng to break out, resulting in the almost complete destruction of the 30,000-strong army.
Yelu Salad was extremely angry, but he also knew that if he went to the rescue, more troops would indeed die.
It was just the attitude of Su Khan and other ministries that made him very angry. Their opposition to sending troops obviously had selfish motives.
Although he was annoyed, Yelu Salade still focused on the overall situation. Now that the Khitan tribe was in a life-or-death situation, they could no longer be selfish and willful.
Yelu Salade pondered for a moment and said: "The Tang army is coming fiercely and its combat power is extremely powerful. I suggest you abandon Songmo and go north to Feidi to temporarily avoid its edge."
Su Khan was shocked, "Songmo is our ancestral land for generations, how can we give up so easily? Didn't we agree that only women, children and the elderly will be withdrawn, and the main army will not be withdrawn?"
Xiao Naigu, another noble next to him, said worriedly: "This time the Tang army went northward, which is unusual. They may have to restore the Andong Protectorate and rebuild the prefectures and counties. I'm worried that once they abandon Songmo, they will never come back."
Yelu Salade shook his head, "The target of the Tang Army's attack on Liaodong this time is not just the Khitan. If we withdraw north, the Tang Army will temporarily let us go and turn around to attack the Japanese army entrenched in the Bohai Kingdom and the Silla Army." , there are even Xi tribes, especially the Xi tribe. If they are destroyed, a large number of scattered Xi people will definitely come to us, and our strength will increase. If we can persuade the Shiwei tribe to join forces with us, then we may have An army of more than 200,000 can fight against the Tang army. Once the Tang army is defeated, Songmo Prefecture can still be recovered. Then the two sides can negotiate a peace, and the Khitan will be saved, and we will be stronger."
Yelu Salade's words made Su Khan tempted, and he was a little worried: "The Tang army is all cavalry, and they came very quickly. I'm afraid that the Tang army will come to kill us before we have time to retreat."
Yelu Salade nodded. This was indeed a big problem. He thought for a while and said: "You can send Yelu Shula and Die Cifeng to lead 60,000 Bohai troops to intercept the Tang army. Since these guys are not sincere, they can just kill them." Consume it and buy us time to retreat!"
This plan was approved by Su Khan, and Xiao Naigu was silent next to him. Yelu Shula was the eldest son of Yelu Salade, and Yelu Salade actually sent his eldest son out to intercept. Xiao Naigu had nothing to say.
Moreover, 60,000 Bohai troops surrendered to the Khitan, but they refused to change their flags. They wanted to fight back and regain their homeland, and they also demanded high treatment. This made the Khitan very angry and asked them to intercept the Tang army, Su Khan and Xiao Naigu. Not opposed at all.
The Khitan tribes began to fully mobilize to retreat northward. Although some Khitan tribes did not want to leave their ancestral land, they had no choice but to reluctantly follow them when they saw other tribes leaving.
At the same time, generals Yelu Shuci and Die Cifeng led 60,000 Bohai surrender troops southward to intercept the 120,000 Tang troops heading north.
The main force of the Tang army entered the Songmo area, which covers a large area. To the west is hilly and mountainous land, which is today's Chifeng, and to the east is today's Horqin Grassland.
Therefore, the Khitan people are relatively complex, with both fishing and hunting tribes in the west and nomadic tribes living in the grasslands in the east.
The Tang army did not move north quickly. After all, the Songmo area was unfamiliar to them, but this was the home base of the Khitan people. Going north in a hurry would easily lead to passiveness on the terrain, which was not in line with Guo Ziyi's style.
Early that morning, when the army was assembled and about to rise, suddenly a scout came to report that an army appeared thirty miles away to the north, numbering about 50,000 to 60,000 people. Judging from the attire, it did not look like the Khitan army.
Guo Ziyi was stunned. Are there other armies in the Songmofu area?
"Commander, is this a joke?"
"impossible?"
Guo Ziyi shook his head and said: "The Xi people are in the south and cannot come from the north."
At this time, General Zhang Dian suddenly said: "Commander, the opponent is not the Bohai Navy! Didn't it say that the main force of the Bohai Navy surrendered to the Khitan?"
This is very possible. If it is really the Bohai Navy, it would be interesting. The Khitans did not come by themselves, but sent the Bohai Navy to intercept them. This is obviously wasting this army.
Guo Ziyi suddenly thought, "Oh no, the Khitans must have started to retreat north, so they sent the Bohai Navy to stop them."
But soon, Guo Ziyi calmed down again. Regardless of whether the Khitans retreated or not, he could not be impatient, let alone underestimate the enemy, otherwise he would suffer heavy losses.
At this time, Zhang Dian suggested again: "Commander, the Khitan people seem to want the Bohai Navy to work hard, but the Bohai Navy may not be willing to really work hard. I feel that if I use some hard measures to show them, maybe they will have other ideas."
Got an idea!”
He was worthy of being the number one scout of the Tang Army. His insights were bold and innovative. Guo Ziyi was convinced. He turned around and ordered: "Order the Third Firearms Battalion to come up!"
The Third Firearms Battalion has a thousand men and is equipped with the latest firearms, which have just been sent from Chang'an to Liaodong, called Jian Lei, which are fired with large yellow crossbows. A total of 1,500 were sent, although most of them were given away.
For the army to conquer Nanzhao, 1,500 coins are enough.
One thousand people are divided into five hundred groups, each group has two people, equipped with a large yellow crossbow and three thunder arrows, as well as normal heavy crossbow arrows and explosive arrows.
There were too many 120,000 troops, so Guo Ziyi decided to send only 20,000 troops northward, and Guo Ziyi personally led an army of 100,000 to support them from behind.
The 20,000-strong army was led by Zhang Dian. In more than ten years, Zhang Dian grew up step by step from a scout brigade commander to a general commander, from a third-grade champion general to a Jincheng County Duke.
In history, only Li Chenghua, the commander of the internal defense, could rival him.
After marching twenty miles, a black line appeared in front, and the 60,000-strong Bohai Navy force appeared.
The Bohai Army has nine generals, the main general is Yelu Shuci, the deputy general is Die Cifeng, and the other deputy general is Ren Tianling.
Ren Tianling was the commander-in-chief of the Bohai Army. After the Bohai Kingdom was destroyed by the Japanese army, Ren Tianling was frightened and angry. At this time, their logistics was interrupted and their food and grass were about to be cut off. In desperation, he had no choice but to lead his army to surrender to the Khitan.
One of the conditions for surrender at that time was that the Khitan would help them regain their country, and the Khitan fully agreed.
Therefore, the Bohai Navy did not change its flag, and even its military uniforms did not change. It still maintained the battle flag of the Bohai Kingdom, which made the Khitan very dissatisfied.
And Ren Tianling kept urging the Khitan to fulfill its promise and send troops to help the Bohai Kingdom recover. However, at this time, the Khitan had just signed an alliance agreement with the Japanese army to resist the Tang Army. How could it be possible for them to send troops to restore the country? So they just postponed it later and dealt with the Bohai Kingdom.
military.
How could Ren Tianling and other generals fail to see that the Khitan was perfunctory with them? They were resentful in their hearts, but they were helpless. They needed the Khitan to supply their military rations. Once the food was cut off, their army would fall apart.
This time Yelu Salad still used logistical supplies as a threat to force the 60,000 Bohai navy to go south to stop the Tang army.
Even though Ren Tianling was extremely reluctant and short-tongued, he had to agree to send troops.
Behind Ren Tianling are six generals from the Bohai Kingdom, each commanding an army of 10,000 people.
At this time, spies came to report that 20,000 Tang army vanguards were found ten miles ahead.
Die Ci Feng was startled and hurriedly whispered: "The Tang army is extremely cunning, we must not underestimate the enemy!"
Yelu Shuci glared at him. The original purpose was to consume the Bohai Navy. If he didn't underestimate the enemy and didn't force them to fight, would he still lead them to retreat?
Yelu Shuci immediately said to Ren Tianling: "General Ren, now is your chance to repay the Khitan!"
Ren Tianling nodded, turned around and shouted: "The First Army, the Second Army, and the Third Army are ready to attack!"
