On April 27, the eighth year of Qingli in the Song Dynasty and the seventeenth year of Chongxi in the Liao Dynasty, Emperor Xingzong of the Liao Dynasty Yelu Zongzhen personally was appointed as the general marshal of the world's military forces. Xiao Hui, the privy envoy of the Beiyuan, was the commander-in-chief of the right army. The emperor's brother Yelu Zhongyuan As the commander-in-chief of the Left Army, he mobilized a total of more than 700,000 palace troops, tribal troops, and retinue troops to launch a massive attack on Hedong Road and Hebei East-West Road on the border of Song and Liao Dynasties.
The Song Dynasty appointed Fan Zhongyan as the commander-in-chief, Han Qi, and Xia Song as deputy commanders. He mobilized 100,000 forbidden troops from the capital to march eastward, and gathered 300,000 troops from the border roads to meet the enemy, with a total of 400,000. This kicked off the life-and-death war between Song and Liao. , for a time, fighting was raging on the front line stretching for hundreds of miles from Qianning Bohaikou in the east to the northwest of Fengzhou in the west. The three northeastern roads of the Song Dynasty suddenly became a hell on earth, and the people were displaced and fled south one after another.
The Song Dynasty entered a state of full war readiness. Although the four national highways were not completed, they played a huge role. Food supplies were collected from various states along these four arteries and sent northward to the battlefield.
Prime Minister Yan Shu asked Zhao Zhen to agree to use the refugees from Hebei as civilians to strengthen the fortifications of the states north of Bianliang as the second line of defense, and implement the strategy of delaying the time and allowing Su Jin's army to penetrate directly into the Liao army.
At the same time, Su Jin, deputy prime minister and deputy envoy to the privy council, led 200,000 northwest troops into the Xia Kingdom in the name of General Zhenbei, and quickly moved north along the Xia-Liao border line to obtain the horses borrowed from the Xia Kingdom in Longzhou before delaying. , after more than ten days of rapid march, we arrived at Kedun City, an important town in the northeast of Xia Kingdom.[
After the army rested for a day, with Pan Jiang as the commander and Ma Han as the deputy commander, the vanguard army of 50,000 cavalry galloped out of the canyon in the north of the city and arrived at the Mobei wasteland.
Su Jin led the Chinese army with 40,000 cavalry to follow up, and the remaining 110,000 were infantry, escorting baggage, grain, grass and other supplies to follow.
On May 15th, the vanguard army arrived at the Helan Pass. After passing the Helan Pass, it was the border of the Liao Kingdom. Due to the southward transfer of the main force of the Liao Kingdom, there were only 5,000 soldiers guarding Dashan Pass at the mountain pass, except for 1,000 regular troops. , the other four thousand were all newly recruited retinue army rookies; that night, taking advantage of the cover of night, the Dynasty led a surprise attack with ten thousand cavalry, and only suffered more than a hundred casualties before annihilating the sleeping Dashanguan garrison. This opened up a smooth road to the interior of the Liao Kingdom.
At three o'clock that night, Su Jin led his army to Dashan Pass. Under the bright moonlight, he looked to the east of the mountain pass. He saw only a vast expanse of white land. It was the prairie as far as the eye could see under the moonlight, in the northwest of Liao Kingdom. Surrounded by the winding Helan Mountains, it forms a rich grassland.
Su Jin returned to the main hall and summoned the generals to discuss the direction of the attack. After preliminary preparation, he compiled the information in the Liao Kingdom into a map. There was a military sketch, but it was not very intuitive. Su Jin pinched the earth to form a mountain. A three-dimensional topographic map was copied on the ground of the Dashan Pass garrison hall. The generals stood around holding long branches to give guidance and discuss.
To the east of Dashanguan is the grassland, but if you follow the grassland to the east, you will enter the territory of Datong Prefecture on the Xijing Road of the Liao Kingdom, and the south of the Xijing Road is the battlefield between the Song and Liao Dynasties. If we attack the right army of the Liao Kingdom directly from the rear flank, There is a way. Xiao Hui's 250,000-strong army is facing Han Qi's 180,000-strong West Route Army. With his own 200,000-strong army, it should be able to defeat it; but the problem is that the Xijing Daozhou Prefecture has densely packed towns. If weaving, the whereabouts are likely to be exposed immediately. Maybe Xiao Hui will find out before reaching the battlefield hundreds of miles to the south, and then retreat into the city, or mobilize the left army to join forces for encirclement and suppression. Then it will be bad. .
After analyzing the pros and cons, Su Jin decided that a raid on Shangjing according to the original plan would be a desperate strategy. But the problem was that Shangjing was thousands of miles away. He only had 90,000 cavalry and the rest were infantry. The time to get to Shangjing was a problem. In addition, it was kept secret.
Sexuality is also an issue. If it takes too long, the pressure on the main battlefield in the south will inevitably be tight. Once the defense line is broken through to the Tokyo area, the Liao people will not be able to pull back even if they are nine oxen.
Su Jin's brows knitted into a knot. Naturally, he would have thought of these problems in advance, but there was not much time for him to prepare. The lack of war horses could not be solved in a short while.
The commander of the rear army was Jingtai, who was newly transferred to Qinfeng Road in the northwest. He proposed a method: "Commander, can you divide the troops and advance? The cavalry will advance and the infantry will coordinate behind. The destructive power of 90,000 cavalry is not small. The infantry should be treated as
It’s just a break.”
Su Jin shook his head and said: "It is a taboo for military strategists to divide their troops when going deep behind enemy lines. What we have to solve now is mobility, and then there is stealth. Two hundred thousand people seems to be a lot, but the Liao people are soldiers with swords and horseback.
Both men and women of the Khitan can fight. Once we enter the territory of Liao Kingdom, we will be surrounded by heavy enemies. If we divide our troops again, we will be dead."
Jingtai nodded, he had no choice. He didn't know the taboo of dividing his troops. After looking at the terrain map, Jingtai said again: "It's not difficult to keep it secret. Commander, please look, go down the Helan Pass and go north.
It is a long and narrow desert, with Jiashan Mountain and Tanshan Mountain on the south and north, surrounded by desert. Originally, there should be grassland under these two mountains. However, years of wind and sand invasion have trapped the two mountains in the desert. Starting from Yunnei, walk along this desert.
Going north along the desert is a large area of people. After passing Tanshan Mountain and going two hundred miles to the north is Huaizhou on the Shangjing Road. This road should make it difficult for Liao people to find traces."
Su Jin looked along the direction of his finger. Marching in the desert was not easy, but it was not impossible. Just walk along the edge of the desert and avoid densely populated areas.
"It's feasible. It's this road, heading north from Yunnei. If everything goes well, it can be reached in ten days. But before that, we have to do one thing."
"The commander-in-chief ordered." Everyone stood at attention and listened to the order.
"Look at this grassland, it's right under our noses. How can we return from Baoshan empty-handed? Tomorrow we will borrow some horses and livestock from the Liao people. Although they are not war horses, what we want is leg power." Su Jin smiled.
road.
"Yes, the grassland is right under your nose. If you don't grab tens of thousands of horses, how can you be worthy of an old man like Yelu Zongzhen?" Ma Han shouted.
"But Commander, if this happens, won't our whereabouts be exposed? Doesn't this tell the Liao people that we have detoured into their territory?" Pan Jiang said without worry.
"After taking Dashan Pass, we have already been exposed. The defenders of Dashan Pass told us that supplies will arrive every ten days. Today is only two days away from the day of supply at Dashang Pass. Even if we don't take action, the Liao people will know it two days later.
Send me an order: Tomorrow the forward troops will go down to Sanguan and seize horses to the east. They should not get close to the city and try not to harm the people. I will give you half a day and you must all come back at the afternoon, because we will set off in the evening."
In the Pan Jiang Dynasty, Mahan and other forward generals stood solemnly with their chests raised and their bellies folded to receive the order.[
In the early morning of the next day, horses hooves rumbled outside Dashan Pass. Pan Jiang led 50,000 forward troops like wolves and tigers, rushing down the mountain pass and galloping eastward into the grassland. Su Jin stood on the tower of Dashan Pass and watched the grassland rise.
One after another thick smoke, there was no sense of guilt in his heart. He was no longer as compassionate as before. Living in this era, killing or being killed were two inevitable choices. Although the people were guilty, Su Jinyi was sentimental.
All this is beyond what Su Jin can shake. He cannot throw away the lives of himself and his relatives because of his intolerance. This is the fact. Whether selfish or cruel, they are the best weight to survive in this era.
At the end of the day, the vanguard army returned like a violent wind with a large number of war horses. Everyone's face was filled with excitement. Su Jin observed that there was blood on the soldiers' armor, and he vaguely noticed what happened.
"Commander, I have acquired more than 30,000 horses, but I don't know if they can ride them since they don't have saddles." Pan Jiang reported excitedly.
Su Jin stared at his bleeding scabbard and asked calmly: "Did you kill someone?"
Pan Jiang whispered as if he had done something wrong: "Brothers, you can't control it as soon as you get there, and you can't control it when you see the blood. Besides, those Liao people are really tough. They come here on horseback with knives raised."
Try your best, if we don't kill them, they will kill us."
Su Jin sighed and said: "Well, it's good to see some blood. Maybe a few of these 200,000 people can go back alive. If you don't be fierce, it won't be a big deal. But you have to remember, you can kill but don't kill indiscriminately."
, otherwise you will be punished by God."
Pan Jiang breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I understand."
Su Jin waved his hand and said: "Distribute the horses and organize the army immediately. After an hour, the troops will be sent to the clouds."