Outlaws of the Marsh

Chapter 476 Song Army's Great Defeat (Please Subscribe!)
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Hearing that Li Yan was going to have a decisive battle with Emperor Tianzuo, Emperor Tianxi Yeluchun was shocked!
No wonder Yeluchun is like this.

Because this means that Li Yan and Emperor Tianzuo are about to decide the outcome.

And no matter who wins Li Yan or Emperor Tianzuo, the next step will definitely be to destroy his regime.

May I ask, how could Yeluchun not be worried?

In addition, the Jin army in the north swept around and hoarded a large army in Bei'an Prefecture, eyeing Gubeikou.

Yeluchun deliberated over and over again, and finally made a decision:

"I have been granted the throne, and I wanted to protect the ancestral temple with Qing and others, but now the Jurchen cavalry has reached Gubei, Li Yan has occupied Xijing and Yundi, and the Song Dynasty has approached the border. All three of them want to seize our Yanjing. There is even a possibility of teaming up to attack... When I look at the world of human affairs, I dare not sit on the throne alone, and I will definitely vote for one side. After thinking about it, I think that it is better to be called a vassal in the Song Dynasty than to vote for Jurchen and Li Yan. What do you think?"

After finishing speaking, Yeluchun lowered his head and covered his face sobbing.

Xiao Puxian, Li Chuwen and others also shed tears quietly, only Zuo Qigong did not shed tears, but shook his head and sighed endlessly.

On the same day, Xiao Ao and Zhang Jue came to Jinggou Temple to see Ma Kuo, and brought Ma Kuo gifts such as brocade clothes and silver silk.

Xiao Ao said: "We have received the imperial decree, please Ma Xuanzan to leave for home immediately, our court will send secretary Lang Wang Jieru and capital official Wang Zhongsun to go with you to Xiongzhou Xuanfu Division to discuss the matter of becoming a vassal."

Hearing that Yeluchun was going to proclaim himself a vassal, Ma Kuo was overjoyed!
This is equivalent to completing the middle policy formulated by Zhao Ji, and as the envoy who persuaded Yeluchun to become a vassal, Ma Kuo will definitely be rewarded generously.

However, Ma Kuo did not get carried away with complacency, but said very calmly: "I haven't seen the Nine Kings reply, so Ma dare not go back, let alone accept bribes."

Xiao Ao was taken aback!
Zhang Jue quickly walked up to Ma Kuo and whispered, "Why is Xuan Zan so stubborn? When is it now, do you still dare to stay in Yanjing? Are you afraid that His Majesty will kill you in anger?"

Ma Kuo said with a smile: "Since Kuo came here, he took it as his duty to complete the mission. To tell you the truth, when Kuo crossed the Baigou River from the north, he put life and death aside."

Ma Kuo's bravery made everyone admire him.

Xiao Ao and Zhang Jue returned to Yeluchun and invited Yeluchun's autographed letter for Ma Kuo.

It can be said that Ma Kuo's mission this time was extremely successful.

If there hadn't been the repeated defeats of the Song army, and the death of Yeluchun not long after, the desperate Northern Liao would probably soon claim vassalage and pay tribute to the Northern Song Dynasty.

At that time, the Northern Song Dynasty sent troops to help the Northern Liao to protect the land of Yan, so the Northern Liao and the Northern Song Dynasty would not perish one after another.

To be fair here, there is nothing wrong with Zhao Ji choosing this time to send troops to the north to recover Yanjing, especially Zhao Ji also gave multiple choices to accept Bei Liao as a vassal.

It's a pity that during these years of Zhao Ji's reign, he was too extravagant and lustful, severely overdrawn the national power of the Northern Song Dynasty, and did not cultivate his soldiers, so that even if there was such a golden opportunity, it did not belong to him, and he would even burn himself.

……

After being defeated by Yelu Dashi and protected by Tong Guan and Zhong Shi Dao, even though he was holding his breath in his heart, Yang Keshi still carried out the orders issued by the Xuanfu Secretary meticulously.

On the day he took office, Yang Keshi sent his general Zhao Ming to lead his troops to the bank of the Baigou River, and then planted the yellow list banner for surrender on the bank of the river.

The next day, the Liao army also confronted the Song army across the river.

The commander of the Liao army on the other side of the river was still Yelu Dashi. After he defeated Yang Keshi in Langoudian, Yelu Chun added [-] troops to him and ordered him to lead the army to garrison at Baigou River.

There is a bridge on the Baigou River, the southern end of the bridge is controlled by the Song army, and the northern end of the bridge is controlled by the Liao army.

The two sides just faced each other across the bridge.

On this day, Zhao Ming may have had a whim, and sent someone to plant the banner that had been planted on the river bank in the middle of the bridge.

The big flag fluttered in the wind and made a sound of hunting, which was very dazzling to the officers and men of the Liao Army.

Zhao Ming organized soldiers to shout to Qiaobei as in the past, asking the Liao army to come and surrender.

Suddenly, a Liao soldier ran to the middle of the bridge and took away the Huangbang flag, and then returned to hand it to Yelu Dashi.

Yelu Dashi took the yellow flag and looked at it, then tore it into pieces and threw it on the ground, cursing: "There is no more to say, there is only death!", and then ordered the Liao army to attack.

The generals of the Liao army also hated the Song army who took advantage of the fire, especially when they were repeatedly defeated by the Jurchens and defeated the Song army. Almost every Liao army soldier thought: "If we can't beat the Jurchens, can we still not beat the Song army? You despicable Song people?"

Therefore, after receiving the order from Yelu Dashi, the generals of the Liao army immediately shot at the Song army with all their strength, and the arrows rained like rain.

Song Jun was defenseless and suffered numerous injuries.

Because of the order from the Xuanfu Division, Zhao Ming did not dare to order to fight back.

Seeing that the Song army did not fight back, Yelu Dashi assembled his team and planned to attack the bridge.

Seeing this, Zhao Ming hurriedly sent someone to report to the teacher.

Zhong Shidao ordered decisively: "Since the weapon is received, An Neng will die with his arms tied? If the Liao army crosses the border, they will fight back. The victory will be meritorious."

He Shen hurriedly stopped: "No. Did General Zhong forget the official decree and Taishi Tong's instructions?"

The generals said angrily: "Can you take Yanjing without fighting back?", "If you can take back Yanjing without bloodshed, why bother to mobilize the army?" Shameless!"...

Among them, Yang Keshi was the most important. He had already had enough of this order that he could not fight back, so he got up angrily, and said, "If you don't fight, why did we come here?"

It turned out that during the period of confrontation, the Liao army could kill the soldiers of the Song army at will, but the Song army suffered from the military order and could not fight back, so that the whole army was simmering with anger.

As the commander-in-chief of the front line, Zhong Shidao deeply understands this kind of humiliation. Moreover, the Liao army is about to cross the river and cannot wait to die. Therefore, Zhong Shidao ignored He Shen's words and sent Yang Keshi to wait for the opportunity to fight .

Yang Keshi soon led his troops to the Baigou River.

As soon as he arrived, Yang Keshi distributed half of the soldiers and horses to Zhao Ming, and asked him to command the soldiers to guard the bridge to prevent the Liao army from rushing over.

Suddenly, Yang Keshi discovered that an officer of the Liao army on the north bank of the river was waving the flag to command, while the cavalry of the Liao army were heading west.

Yang Keshi said to his generals: "There must be places in the upper reaches of the river for wading, and we must divide our troops to fight against them."

Just at this time, Zhong Shidao sent Jingyuan veteran Zhao De to lead an army to reinforce.

When Yang Keshi saw it, he shouted to Zhao De: "Go west quickly! There may be Liao troops crossing the river in the west!"

Before Zhao De had time to go, the Liao army had already crossed the river from the upper reaches, and then came galloping.

Although the number of Liao troops crossing the river was small, they were aggressive.

When Zhao De saw this, he wanted to avoid his sharp edge.

Seeing this, Yang Keshi yelled: "Old man, An De ran away? Why did you repay the country's kindness!"

Yang Keshi left Heqiao on horseback, and personally faced the enemy from the west.

The Liao army took the opportunity to rush across the Baigou River Bridge, divided the left and right wings with the Liao army from the west, and surrounded the Song army.

Yang Keshi's troops were simmering with fire and fought desperately with the Liao army. Yang Keshi even rushed to the opposite bank at one point, and almost had a king-to-king confrontation with Yelu Dashi.

pity!

The Liao army also held back their strength, and they were equally brave and fearless. The key is that there are more troops than the Song army.

The two sides launched a bloody battle on both sides of the Baigou River.

After fighting for nearly an hour, Zhao Ming was hit by an arrow in his arm, and his troops were defeated and retreated. Yang Keshi was hit by a barbed arrow in his body, which hurt his bones and bled all over his boots. He fell into two teeth, shot arrows in his chest and abdomen, and killed dozens of people with his own hands." Yang Keshi's title of "enemy of ten thousand people" is indeed well-deserved.

Later, Zhong Shidao personally led an army to drive the Liao army to the north bank of the river.

That night, in order to prevent the Liao army from sneaking across the river, Zhong Shidao ordered "generals on all sides, sound the golden drum".

Yelu Dashi did have the intention of crossing the river at night to sneak attack, but he heard the sound of drums on the south bank all night, and suspected that the Song army might take advantage of the night to go north, so he ordered the whole army to remain on alert.

After daybreak, Yelu Dashi led his army to the river bank. He saw that the Song army on the opposite bank was holding on to the barrier and was heavily guarded, so he dared not cross the river rashly to fight.

On the same day, Xin Xingzong led the West Route Army to station in Fancun as planned.

There is a lonely mountain in the east of Fancun Village. To the surprise of the Song army, Xiao Qian, the king of the Fourth Army of the Northern Liao Dynasty and the envoy of the Northern Privy Council, dared to climb the lonely mountain quietly.

When Xiao Qian saw that the new Song army had arrived, he was unprepared, so he went back and raised a large army to attack.

(Actually, the reason why Yelu Dashi and Xiao Qian attacked the Song army at the same time was also related to Yelu Chun’s preparation to claim the vassal status of the Song State. They were full of anger at the Song State, thinking that the Great Song Dynasty broke the century-old alliance, and it was very dishonest. Playing small-minded is not reliable at all, so I would rather die in battle than surrender to Song State.)
Before long, Xiao Qian led his army to come, and then suddenly launched an attack on Fan Village.

Wang Yuan, the former general of the Song Army, and Song Jiang, Liu Guangyuan, Zhai Jin, Zhao Xu and other generals each led their troops to fight against the Liao Army.

However, the Liao army attacked so fiercely that they besieged the generals of the Song army under the isolated mountain. The chief general Wang Yuan was shot and almost fell off his horse.

When the victory or defeat was still pending, Xin Xing's family members went out to the army, and the above general Jie Yue supervised the battle, and only then did Xiao Qian be driven back.

Soon, Xuan Fusi issued a letter ordering Zhong Shidao to discuss with the generals whether to withdraw from the army?
Zhong Shidao immediately convened a meeting with He Shen, Yang Keshi and others.

After these two battles, all the generals agreed that the Liao army still had strength, and it would be difficult to win without mobilizing the main force of the Western army. It is better to return to Shixiong Prefecture first, and then discuss the next step.

He Shen believes that the two armies had no intention of fighting each other at the beginning, and it was because Yang Keshi crossed the border to kill the enemy without authorization, so that the two armies were at odds. Now the two armies are facing each other across the river. Taking the opportunity to pursue the attack, the result is unpredictable.

Zhong Shidao felt that what He Shen said was reasonable, so he asked him to write this opinion into a report and report it to the Xuanfu Division.

Tong Guan was very dissatisfied with the performance of the East and West Route Army.

At the beginning, when he sent troops, Tong Guanman thought that he could deter the Liao army, and even imagined that he could regain Yanjing in one fell swoop.

Unexpectedly, after fighting against the Liao army, not only did they not win, but they also lost a little bit.

Faced with this situation, Tong Guan decided to implement the worst strategy among Zhao Ji's three border patrol strategies, that is, "return all teachers".

Later, Tong Guan ordered Zhong Shidao to lead the East Route Army back to Xiongzhou, and Xin Xingzong led the West Route Army to retreat to Guangxin Army.

After receiving Tong Guan's order to withdraw troops, Zhong Shidao planned to organize the withdrawal immediately.

Yang Keshi said to Zhong Shidao: "Now the Liao army is very arrogant. If we know that our army intends to retreat, we will definitely attack afterward."

Zhong Shidao takes it for granted.

At dusk, Zhong Shidao ordered that a large number of luggage should be quietly withdrawn to the south.

In the middle of the night, the army began to withdraw from the camp and return to the south, and the elite army and horses were ordered to cover behind.

Although the Song army wanted to withdraw secretly, it was discovered by the Liao army.

After Yelu Dashi got the news, he immediately rode to the river bank and looked towards the south bank.

Seeing that the main force of the Song army really withdrew, leaving only a small number of soldiers and horses guarding the pass, Yelu Dashi immediately sent someone to report to Xiao Qian, and at the same time ordered the light cavalry to immediately gather across the river to pursue.

The Baigou River is only thirty miles away from Xiongzhou, and there is a place in the middle called the ancient city, where the Liao army overtook the Song army.

The two armies met and fought fiercely.

In real time, the north wind, the heavy rain, and the hailstorm were like fist bowls, and people could not look at each other.

But even though the situation is like this, Yelu Dashi and his Liao cavalry still hold on to the Song army.

The advantage of the horse army over the infantry was fully demonstrated in this battle.

The elite troops of the Song Army who were in charge of the rear of the palace were quickly defeated by the Liao Army cavalry, which was several times the number. Under the attack of the Liao army.

After Tong Guan got the news, he immediately ordered: no army can enter the city—Tong Guan was worried that when the Song army entered the city, the Liao soldiers would be drawn into the city. In that case, Xiongzhou might fall into the hands of the Liao army, so he ordered the city gate to be closed.

Seeing this, the soldiers of the Song Army shouted, "Don't close the city gate!"

But Tong Guan turned a deaf ear to it.

Not long after, Yang Keshi of the West Route Army, his son-in-law Ma Yanchuan and general Yang Weizhong also came to the city and fought fiercely with the Liao army.

(There is a question here. According to historical records, "Xingzong sent the central general Yang Keshi to help him", this should be impossible, because Yang Keshi was in the East Route Army at this time. Two Yang Keshi?)

Tong Guan stood on the tower to watch the battle.

Seeing the fierce fighting outside the city, Tong Guan sent Xin Qizong and Xin Yongzong to lead the Shengjie army out of the city for reinforcements.

Although the discipline of the Shengjie Army is not good, it is still very capable of fighting at critical moments.

After the Shengjie army joined the battle group, the Liao army's attack immediately slowed down.

Yelu Dashi saw that he could no longer produce greater results, so he led the Liao army back.

In this battle, from the south of Xiongzhou to the north of Mozhou, between Tangbo, and the Xibaozhou and Zhending areas of Xiongzhou, there are dead bodies lying on each other, it is invincible, and soldiers are packed in the wild.

In the evening, Zhong Shidao received an order from the Xuanfu Division to set up camp outside Xiongzhou City, gather his team, and stand by for orders.

Although the wind and rain have stopped, the sky is still gray and dull, and the ground is full of water and mud.

Zhong Shidao stared at the dark sky with extremely complicated emotions. He knew that he was doomed, although this failure was not his fault alone.

Tong Guan on the wall in the distance, his face sank like water, "Who should be responsible for this failure?"

Tong Guan and Zhong Shidao quickly looked at each other...

……

(End of this chapter)