Traveling through Tianlong: Starting from the Zhenlong chess game

Chapter 658: Great Victory of the East-West Advance

Zhao Mu's brilliant plan was approved by all the generals and advisers.

Although the idea was proposed by Zhao Mu, its implementation still requires the participation of everyone.

This time, Zhao Mu only wanted to tire out the soldiers and reduce the fighting capacity of the elite defenders in the city to the maximum extent. When the last attack came, it would not be too late for him to climb the city wall himself and help the others.

After the plan was agreed upon, the troops began to prepare.

Zhao Mu sat as steady as a rock in his own central military tent, waiting for good news from everyone.

Soon, Zhao Mu's army of more than 100,000 was divided into echelons of 30,000 people according to the previous plan, and attacked the east, south and west gates of Youzhou City respectively.

When the fight was almost over, they would retreat immediately and rotate, with the second echelon attacking, and then the third echelon would attack.

Zhao Mu's "three-shift" fighting style really made the Liao army exhausted.

Zhao Mu's army could take three shifts to rest, but the Khitan soldiers defending the city had to be on high alert.

Moreover, he recruited soldiers and commanded them well. Sometimes, they would take advantage of the rising smoke from the city and the time when the Yuan army was eating to launch an attack immediately, so that the Yuan army would rush to defend the city without even having time to eat.

At night, Zhao Mu would use the attack horn to keep them awake all night long.

Whenever Zhao Mu's attack horn sounded, the Khitan soldiers guarding the city would mobilize. But the final result was always a lot of noise but little action. Either Zhao Mu's side only blew the horn but did not attack, or the troops that attacked at night retreated halfway before approaching the city wall.

The Liao soldiers guarding the city spent the night in this state of illusion and reality. They didn't even dare to close their eyes, fearing that if they fell asleep, the Song army would really launch a massive attack and break into the city.

Although the defenders in the city also guessed that it was the Song army that deliberately launched a harassment and fatigue strategy, Zhao Mu's strategy was an open one, and even though it was discovered, they did not dare to take turns to rest.

The Liao army in the city had long been complaining about Zhao Mu's somewhat "shameless" tactics, and they all scolded Zhao Mu's shameless "hawk-watching" tactics.

Because the Liao army is now like the falcon caught by the falconer, and now it's a competition of who can outlast the other. But Zhao Mu's side has a large number of people and is attacking in three shifts. The elite Liao army in the city is outnumbered, so how can they outlast it?
Zhao Mu's "eagle-starving" tactic lasted for five days.

Although five days is not a short time, it is too short for a siege.

After all, it was common for a siege war to last more than ten days, and it was also normal for it to last one or two months. Even for a strong city like the capital, it was not uncommon for it to last for a year or two.

Therefore, no one from the Song Dynasty rushed the soldiers, and everyone seemed to be having a great time.

The vanguard general had asked Zhao Mu before when they would use this tactic, but Zhao Mu said, "No hurry, let's play with them first." Because as long as Zhao Mu can pin down the main force of the Liao army here, the troops advancing from the east and west lines can reduce the pressure to the maximum extent. When the three armies surround the city, it doesn't matter if he can't take it.

While Zhao Mu was slowly "training up his eagle", the war against the Liao Kingdom had already been declared on the eastern and western fronts.

On the western front, King Zhongxiao had also captured all the cities near Yunzhou.

Although the Song army paid a heavy price, in the eyes of the people of the Song Dynasty, as long as they could win, it was worth it no matter how much they paid. Moreover, King Zhongxiao also sent an official document to the capital, reporting his military exploits and victory, and asking the court to send another army to supplement his consumption.

However, the Xiliang Iron Cavalry under Zhao Mu did not join forces with King Zhongxiao to attack the remaining cities. Zhao Mu had previously written to Wang Xian and his men that their main battle target this time was the two capitals of the Liao Kingdom. As long as they defeated the main force of the Liao army, they would do everything they could to surround the two capitals of the Liao Kingdom as soon as possible and not let the Liao royal family escape.

Therefore, after opening up the supply lines between Yunzhou and Datong and eliminating the worries of being surrounded in the rear, Wang Xian and Wang Jin split their troops into two groups.

Wang Xian led his most elite Tangut cavalry and Iron Pagodas and attacked Shangdu, the main city of the Liao Kingdom.

Wang Jin led some infantry and light cavalry and headed straight for Zhongjing of the Liao Kingdom.

As for the battle on the eastern front, it had already begun. After receiving Zhao Mu's order to advance, General Yang immediately notified the Jurchens and Murong Fu. Then the three families rose up together and caught the Liao army off guard.

Although the Song army was blocked by the fortress built by the Liao army on the Yalu River, the Jurchens attacked directly from behind and easily annihilated the Liao army on the border of Goryeo, and then led the Song army to quickly cross the river to join them.

After the main force of the Song army crossed the river, they truly began their strategy to recover the territory of the Liao Kingdom.

Among them, the Jurchen tribe had the most brilliant performance. This time, Wanyan Zongbing also deployed the Iron Pagoda Army he had built to the battlefield against the Liao.

When they saw the Jurchens' Iron Pagoda appear, both General Yang and the Liao army were shocked.

However, this was not because the Jurchen tribe demonstrated their fighting power of "less than ten thousand Jurchens are invincible, but more than ten thousand are invincible", but because the Iron Pagoda cavalry were Zhao Mu's personal guards.

General Yang couldn't believe that the Jurchens had also started an uprising in this way, and even combined the tactics of the Iron Pagoda and the Crooked Horse.

It was almost the same as the combination of Zhao Mu's Iron Buddha and Iron Harrier. If they were not the only Song army on the eastern front, General Yang would even have suspected that the Qi army had come to reinforce them.

The reason why the Liao army was afraid was very simple, that is, they were frightened by the Iron Pagoda under Zhao Mu's command.

The Liao army stationed on the eastern front was considered the third line of the Liao army. This group of people was composed of the old, weak and sick who had been defeated in the previous battle of Lingzhou.

These people had low combat effectiveness to begin with, and they had a natural psychological trauma against the Iron Pagoda. Therefore, as soon as the Iron Pagoda appeared, the Liao army thought that Zhao Mu was coming to kill them, so their morale collapsed and they fled.

The battle on the Eastern Front was much easier than on both sides due to the absolute crushing of the Jurchens.

However, in this battle, General Yang also witnessed the brutality of the Jurchens.

Although it was a joint operation, due to the previous alliance between Zhao Mu and the Jurchens, the Song army did not divide the results of the battle in the areas under the jurisdiction of the Jurchens.

As soon as the Jurchens entered the city, they began to plunder, and the burning, killing, raping and looting that followed were naturally needless to say. Their methods were cruel and truly outrageous.

When the two armies jointly captured the first small town, the Jurchens immediately began looting, and they seemed to have no moral barriers.

They killed any man they saw, robbed any money or food they saw, and raped any woman they saw, no matter how old she was, as long as she was a little pretty, whether she was a young girl or an old woman.

And these people’s nightmares are not just one round.

(End of this chapter)