July is coming soon, and Liaoze is still green with green grass and rippling water.
With the hasty retreat of the main Khitan army, the Khitan Yazhang, Yaonan Khan City, South Tower, East Tower, Longhua Prefecture, Zimeng County, Miyun County and other cities fell one by one.
These Khitan towns were easily captured without any major battles.
The only one that persisted for a longer period of time was probably Miyun County. Gao Youqing led the Hengye Army cavalry here, but the Khitan did not surrender until the first part of the Golden Sword Army arrived and took them out in two days.
The city of Yaonan Khan even only lasted for one day, and was captured by Wang's division under the attack of the Hei Shao Army and the Bohai and Han soldiers who defected in the city.
Before that, Yikun Prefecture, West Tower, Yuewang City, and North Tower were also captured. The Khitan people continued their efforts for three generations to transform from nomadic to semi-sedentary, and were completely wiped out in one fell swoop.
And if it cannot move towards settlement, the strength of Khitan will be just an empty talk.
On the third day of July, Abaoji arrived near the Hun River with less than 100,000 defeated soldiers. The further north he went, the more his heart sank.
He had already expected that Xilou and Yuewang City were gone. After arriving, the Xia people rushed out of the city, and more than 3,000 flying dragon troops dared to show off their power.
The enemy stabbed in the distant chariot and led his troops forward, repelling him and letting out a fierce sigh of relief.
Abaoji did not dare to quarrel with them any longer. So what if they recaptured the Yuewang City and the West Tower? The Khitan could no longer defend the city. There were only some abandoned cultivated lands. Once they settled down for farming, the Xia people would only be able to attack them again.
Can be captured without hesitation.
After leaving the West Tower, the army continued to move north.
Along the way, people escaped every day without knowing their whereabouts. Some even launched rebellions. After being suppressed, the morale of the army became even more disorganized.
Abaoji doubts whether the eight strong men can still fight? He doesn't believe anyone now. He only clings to the Khan's personal army, the Big Falcon and the Little Falcon, with more than 10,000 people. These are the elites he has at hand.
It is also a weapon used to suppress all parties.
The road to the North Tower was not smooth either. There were more and more Xia people, and the fighting became more and more intense day by day. If the Feilong and Golden Sword armies could not pose a huge threat to them, then the cavalry army was very annoying.
Abaoji once mobilized elites to fight with them. After beating the cavalry army badly, they did not dare to fight head-on, but they still did not retreat and followed them like flies.
All this made him lose his patience.
"Huo Lu, you sent someone to report that the Xia people surrounded the Bei Tower, but they just tortured the prisoners, and the Bei Tower was obviously destroyed in a day. Why didn't you tell them this?"
"Where are the cattle and sheep? Where are the people? We don't have many cattle and sheep with the army, and we don't have women yet. How will we live in the future?"
"Huo Lu, it's really your fault this time. You judged that the Xia people were going to Tongnan City and wanted to ambush them. In the end, besides a mouth full of sand, what did you eat?"
"I don't care how the Xia people know about the Bei Tower, but now the Bei Tower is gone, the cattle and sheep are gone, and the people are gone, where have they all gone?" "Let's go, don't wait any longer. There is nothing here, and the Xia people are still here.
I’m chasing you from behind.”
The leaders of various tribes were very angry and accused Huo Lu one after another.
Huolu could not argue at all, and his followers and subordinates also blushed and were ashamed.
"If the Xia people come, I will take my Uluse to fight against them. Even if they all die in battle, I will never run away. I keep my word, is that enough?" Houlu raised his head, looked at everyone calmly, and asked.
"What's the use of your death? If you die, can the cattle, sheep, and Dingkou come back?"
"Stop arguing with him. The Xia people must have moved their people, cattle and sheep. I sent people to look around, but there was nothing."
"We arrived too late. We shouldn't have fought in the first place and retreated directly to the north. How far can the Xia people pursue them? If they have that time, they might as well go and rob the Bohai Kingdom." "In fact, we have already pursued them quite far. These people are really
Cruel, ugh."
Everyone was noisy and arguing.
Abaoji, however, seemed as if he hadn't heard anything. He stared at the north tower intently.
The top of the city was filled with nervous Xia soldiers. They must be the Feilong Army, right? No wonder the North Tower was quickly breached.
The Xia people's large-scale formation of mounted infantry was indeed a pioneering work. Although it was not possible to fight on horseback, after running for hundreds of miles, they could dismount and fight on foot.
, attack the city and destroy the stronghold, conquering everything.
With these people here, it will be difficult for the Khitan to build a city from now on. Even if it is built, it will be conquered by their mounted infantry.
This realization made Abaoji feel even more helpless. He had always believed that if they could not settle down, the eight Khitan tribes would have no future. Just like the tribes that swirled and fell on the grassland, they dominated for a while and eventually disappeared.
An empire as powerful as the Uighurs, with an area of thousands of miles and no less than a million people to control the strings, ended up being attacked by tens of thousands of Xiagasi people and directly destroyed the country. This is the tragedy of the nomadic empire. It has no resilience at all and can win many times.
But sometimes a failure leads to death.
We need to build cities, farm, and combine farming and animal husbandry, so that we can become rich and resilient.
He also wanted to create Khitan writing, establish institutions, and legal codes, all of which he could only do if he settled down. Now, where can he find such a place?
"Great sweat." Haili approached quietly.
Abaoji came to his senses and asked, "What's the matter?"
"Dieci ran away with his subordinates," Haili whispered. "Dieci" is Yelu Diela, Abaoji's younger brother.
Abaoji nodded numbly, indicating that he understood.
There are too many people escaping now, every day. As for the purpose of their escape, he can tell with his toes: surrender to the Xia people. In fact, he can understand that there is no hope of victory at all, and the future is gloomy.
It is very likely that his family was caught by the Xia people. Why not surrender? Even himself...
Just now he personally interrogated the prisoners and got a piece of news that made him despair: Yue Liduo and the three children had been moved away by the Xia people and their whereabouts were unknown.
Okay, actually I know, I can guess it, and Dragon Palace. But so what? Fight further south, fight back to Yingzhou, rescue his wife and children? For a moment, Abaoji himself wanted to surrender.
.
He loved Yue Liduo so much. Every smile and smile of this elf on the grassland left him with endless aftertaste. It was a rare bright spot in the boring and lengthy military career.
He was worried that Yue Liduo would be unhappy and did not dare to take a concubine. He built Yikun Prefecture where Yue Liduo was born.
He provided weapons and equipment for the Shushan Army formed by Yue Liduo, and assigned the best slaves to her. He did too many things for Yue Liduo...
"Let's go." He sighed.
Yue Liduo disappeared, and Shan's army surrendered to the Xia people. Everything made him extremely uncomfortable and wanted to go crazy. But he couldn't do this.
He is the Great Khan of the Eight Khitan tribes and has a great responsibility. There are so many people who follow him to the death and will never leave them even if they fail repeatedly. How can he bear to let them down?
"Where to go?" Haili asked.
"Contact Sara and Xima Ge, let's go north." Abaoji only gave a vague answer. In fact, he didn't know where to go, but subconsciously felt that he should join the other two groups.
In total, they have 50,000 horsemen, 200,000 old, weak, women and children, as well as the cattle, sheep, horses and camels they urgently need. Moreover, Xama Ge recently raided the Bohai Sea and harvested a lot, which just solved their urgent need.
Haili nodded silently.
Actually, those two roads combined are not as important as the Beilou Road. There are more than 200,000 old, weak, women and children, and millions of livestock, which can be called the essence of the Khitan. However, due to such a surprise attack by the Xia people, most of the tribe fell into the enemy's hands.
After making inquiries in the past two days, I learned that some of the clans whose grazing lands were far away had secretly escaped to the pastures of the Wugu tribe, and some of them were heading to Ba Ren's hometown. But these people totaled only more than 50,000 people.
I heard that the Xia people had captured more than 100,000 people, but there were still about 50,000 people scattered in various places. They were terrified and didn't know where to turn.
After seeing the Great Khan arriving in person, some people came to vote with their cattle and sheep, but in the end they were only a few. More people may not have received the news yet, so it would be a pity if these people did not gather up.
"Leave a few hundred people here and gather the clan members quietly." As if he knew Haili's thoughts, Abaoji ordered: "It's not a good place to stay here for a long time. Let's leave before the Ruoxia people's pursuers arrive."
"Great Khan, Fuyu Yin Liu Rengong neither descends to summer nor comes back, you see..." Haili said again.
"I can't control that much anymore." Abao
Ji shook his head and said: "I think he will die, just wait and see." After that, he rode off. Before leaving, he glanced at Yelu Helu.
Huo Lu's eyes were red and he nodded heavily.
****
On the fourth day of July in the seventh year of Jianji, Shao Shude, escorted by Yin'anzhi and Feixiong troops, left Helong Palace and headed north to the South Tower. A mighty army appeared on the grassland, wearing silver helmets and silver armor, with great power.
Boasting the prowess of the new conquerors.
The Northern Expedition to Khitan lasted about fifty days. According to the data reported by various ministries, after squeezing out the water, nearly 40,000 people were beheaded and more than 30,000 people were captured - the number of prisoners is still increasing rapidly.
The above are all Khitan warriors, also commonly known as "soldiers".
As for the old, weak, women and children, the number has exceeded 200,000, and the number of cattle, sheep, horses and camels has reached nearly 3 million.
It is conservatively estimated that this battle destroyed half of the Khitan's strength - not enough in a military sense, but more than half of it was destroyed economically.
It is helpless that the remaining heroes of the Eight Divisions of Khitan, Fen III, ended up with such a dismal end. This is a gap in hard power. There is no way and no one can blame them.
After a war is won, what follows is often more important.
War on the grasslands is different from that in the mainland of the Central Plains. They are slippery and can run and hide. It is difficult for you to eliminate their effective strength, so the aftermath is very important.
In the second year of Zhenguan of the Tang Dynasty (628), Emperor Taizong sent troops to attack the Turks. Many Turkic tribes came to surrender one after another to serve as the leading party. Tang and Tibet combined more than 100,000 troops to jointly conquer Jieli Khan. Two years later, the battle of Yinshan was won and the Turks were destroyed.
, more than 100,000 people surrendered.
But are all the Turks dead? No. In fact, the Turks have perished, and more than 90% of the Turks are still there, fighting in the grasslands. It is difficult to eliminate many people, because they will migrate and run away.
Later, the post-Turks appeared, with hundreds of thousands of supporters, and they surrendered and rebelled repeatedly.
Shao Shude took history as a guide and felt that he had to deal with it properly. Otherwise, how could he know that there would not be a "post-Khitan"? What's more, Yeluyi, the Khan of the Eight Khitan tribes, is not dead yet.
On July 20th, he arrived at Longhua Prefecture and stayed here for several days to meet with the chiefs of various tribes who had surrendered.