At Naitou Mountain in Yongzhou, Su Jin's army swept through 30,000 Dadingfu tribal soldiers. Almost as soon as he saw the Song cavalry, the Liao general issued an order to retreat, but he was still chased all the way and cost more than 10,000 people.
Only after paying the price did he flee to the nearest city of Yongzhou.
One day later, Su Jin's army arrived outside Yongzhou City. The city defense of an inland city like Yongzhou could not withstand a decent attack. In addition, the Song army's military superiority was too great. The Yongzhou defenders pretended to defend for half a day before abandoning the city and fleeing to the south.
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After Yongzhou City was defeated, the army rested for half a day, made supplies, incorporated the 6,000 captured horses into the cavalry, and set fire to Yongzhou City. However, they did not detour to the north and approach Beijing as originally planned, because Su Jin had already
Realizing that it was not a good idea to forcefully attack Shangjing at this time, it was better to simply go east and penetrate and destroy the weak areas of the Liao Kingdom.
After this important strategy was determined, there was no longer any psychological pressure. By July 16, within nearly a month, Su Jin's army marched down Luzhou, Suizhou, and Yizhou. By the end of July, they broke into Liaoyang, the capital of Tokyo Road.
And three days later, they captured Liaoyang City, which was empty of troops.
For more than two months, the entire Liao Kingdom was in a smog, and the main battlefield in the south made little progress. The Song Army relied on the second line of defense to defend for more than a month. After the second line of defense was broken, they thought they could advance quickly, but unexpectedly
In Qingzhou, Damingfu, Xiangzhou, Luzhou and Jinzhou, the Song Army's third line of defense has also been formed. For the Song people, as time goes by, although the frontal battlefield is tight, their confidence is increasing.
Moreover, the latest good news has strengthened Zhao Zhen's confidence in holding the defense line, because general Di Qing has led his troops to a decisive battle with Nong Zhigao at the end of June and defeated Nong Zhigao; Nong Zhigao's rebels only had less than a thousand soldiers left.
The people fled to the southwestern barbarians, and the battle against the rebellion has achieved a decisive victory; Di Qing led an army of 80,000 to suppress the rebellion and went north at night to reinforce the three northern routes.[
Yelu Zong was really like an ant on a hot pot. News of the city's defeat in the rear came like snowflakes. Eleven cities were attacked consecutively from Zhongjing to Beijing and Tokyo. Even Liaoyang fell into the enemy's hands. Moreover, Su Jin was very cunning. He
Instead of killing the people, they just plundered materials and food, burned the city, and destroyed the city defenses. This directly caused a large number of people to wander south and north, causing great chaos. However, the frontal battle progressed slowly and gradually declined. Bianliang
It is three hundred miles away, but it is like the bright moon in the sky. It seems within reach, but it is so far away.
The only thing that makes Yelv Zong really happy is that Linhuang Mansion in Shangjing has not been lost. It is the capital of the Liao Kingdom. If Linhuang Mansion is lost, although it is just a city, it will bring greater panic. It will be a psychological blow, often
It's even more frustrating.
Yelu Zong really saw it clearly, so he refused to order the nearly 200,000 troops gathered in Shangjing Road to dispatch to pursue Su Jin's army. As a result, Su Jin became even more fearful, and the small Liao army did not dare to fight with it.
Su Jin was like wandering in his own backyard, causing trouble all over Tokyo Road in one breath.
Yelu Zong really had to consider whether this war could be fought. The Song State was more powerful than imagined. In the past, he always thought that the Song State was weak. After the army brutally attacked the people, the Song people would give in and seek peace. No.
Thinking that the Song Dynasty people were so brave after the bream trouble, the head-on battle with the Liao Dynasty Mu Huizhenqi relied on the bravery of the Liao people to gain the advantage, but the price of this small advantage was the complete mess in the country.
Seeing that it is autumn, Yelu Zong really understands what will happen once September arrives. In October, it will snow in the northern border of Liao Dynasty. It will be a terrible thing for so many refugees to return home.
; Although after the snowfall, Su Jin's army will lose its mobility and its destructive power will be weakened, but the same is true for his own army. It is not reliable to attack the Song Dynasty in the severe winter.
At the military meeting in the newly-occupied Taiyuan Prefecture, Yelu Zong truly proposed to stop here and return troops to save themselves; one part of the army defended the border, and the other team cooperated with the domestic army to strangle Su Jin; this time the opinions were surprisingly unified, even those who had been opposed
Yelu Chongyuan also realized that the frontal battlefield was like useless food, and it was a pity to abandon the taste of food. He had already paid the price of more than 60,000 troops, but only advanced 300 miles. The third line of defense of the Song Army was formed in front of him, and he was behind.
Relying on the rear area, the soldiers had a constant supply of food, grass and weapons, but at home, there was a fire in the backyard, and supplies gradually failed to keep up.
"Your Majesty, please lead your troops to come back and strangle Su Jin's son." Xiao Hui immediately asked for orders.
Yelu Zhongyuan rolled his eyes and said: "No, King Xiao will stay at the border to defend. I will go meet him. If I don't take this kid's head, it will be difficult to relieve the hatred in my heart."
Xiao Hui said: "It would be best for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to stay at the border. Su Jin is very cunning and will not be easy to deal with."
Yelu Zhongyuan sneered: "You mean, you are smarter than me? You were not defeated by him at the foot of Helan Mountain?"
Xiao Hui was about to argue, but Yelu Zongzhen shouted angrily: "What time has it been? You two are still bickering. I have decided. Chongyuan will lead an army of 100,000 people to return to the reinforcements. The army of 200,000 people in Beijing will be under your command. The army of 300,000 people will be under your command."
We should have a chance of winning against Su Jin's remaining 180,000 men; Xiao Aiqing, commander-in-chief, has over 400,000 troops garrisoned here, and the offensive can be slowed down a bit, but the Song army must not take this opportunity to counterattack."
The two of them did not dare to argue and accepted their orders one after another. They all agreed to storm the Song army's defense line before Yelu Zhongyuan led his troops to withdraw, so as to "confuse" the Song army and prevent the Song army from noticing that the Liao army wanted to withdraw.
In the Battle of Helan Mountain in Xia Liao, Su Jin took advantage of the retreat of the army to launch a pursuit, resulting in the entire army being annihilated.
This frontal attack was like the last act of madness. The Liao army launched an all-out attack on several of the cities they were guarding, regardless of the cost. The Song army resisted desperately, with both sides going back and forth. Many cities often changed hands within a day, with heavy casualties.
Three days later, both sides ceased fighting. The Liao people gained control of Daming Mansion with nearly 30,000 casualties, while the Song people suffered more than 20,000 casualties. Finally, they retreated fifty miles and relied on Tanshui to hold on; the Liao people did not attack again. That night, the left
The commander-in-chief of the Route Army, Yelu Chongyuan, quietly withdrew from the battlefield and returned to Liao Dynasty overnight with 100,000 cavalry. However, Xiao Hui, who took over the command of the entire line, actually imitated Han Qi and Fan Zhongyan, repaired the city walls, dug earth and built forts, and began to hold on.
…
Su Jin's army had wreaked havoc all over Tokyo Road. After occupying Liaoyang, the army attacked in all directions, annihilating all the defensive troops in Baozhou and Xianzhou on the border of Goryeo and Liao Kingdom, destroying all the fortifications, and then headed north to the main route.
Muzhou, the prefecture, is already the northern base of the Liao people. The largest pasture and cattle, sheep, livestock and horse breeding base of the Liao Kingdom are in the northeast. This is also the transition zone between the Liao Kingdom and the Jurchen people.
Here, Su Jin's remaining 180,000 troops became a pure cavalry force. Although the Song army was not good at riding horses, and some could not even ride horses, what Su Jin wanted was not to fight on horses, but to be able to ride horses.
, it is enough to be able to maneuver around. For this reason, Su Jin even stopped and let the soldiers practice riding horses for three days on the prairie east of Zhengzhou.
On this day, Su Jin was studying the terrain map carefully in his tent. He discovered that there was a place called Longzhou about two hundred miles north of Zhengzhou. Its name was the same as Longzhou in the south of Xia Kingdom, but Su Jin always felt that this Longzhou
There was something familiar about the state. When he asked about the general situation of Longzhou in the Liao Kingdom, Jingtai told him that this Longzhou was commonly known as Huanglong Mansion. Su Jin suddenly remembered that in more than a hundred years there would be a famous general named Yue Fei.
, he once said, "Go straight to Huanglong Mansion and drink with the kings." Although he did not do it in the end, going straight to Huanglong has become synonymous with defeating the enemy's key points. Now that he is so close, what can he do?
Why don't you go straight to Huanglong?
Thinking of this, Su Jin felt hot all over. He was about to do what Yue Fei failed to do. He immediately proposed to march north to attack Huanglong. As soon as he said this, Jingtai poured cold water on him.
"Commander, think twice. We have reached the limit of our attack on Zhengzhou. You need to know that the grassland next to the city is the common border between Liao Kingdom and Jurchen, and Huanglong Mansion is closer to the territory of the Jurchen tribe. We attack Huanglong
If the government causes a misunderstanding among the Jurchens, wouldn't it be a disaster? Regardless of our current comings and goings, I'm sure that the Liao people must have assembled a large army to pursue us. If we provoke the Jurchens again, wouldn't we be attacked from both sides?
?"[
Su Jin walked slowly, frowning and thinking carefully. Jingtai's worry was not unnecessary. The Jurchens were indeed not easy to mess with. The Liao people were also deploying heavy troops on the border with the Jurchens. Their intention was naturally to prevent the Jurchens from making any changes. If this was the case,
Maybe I can stir up the already chaotic Liao Kingdom again and make the water even muddier.