The Great Arcanist Who Traveled Through the World of American Variety Shows.

Chapter 435: Destroy Liao and pacify Goryeo

The actions of the Great Zhou were soon discovered by the Khitans, and such large-scale transfer of materials could not be concealed at all. However, Guo Rong never thought of hiding it.

He was now confident that even if the Khitans were prepared, the Great Zhou could defeat them. In addition to the head-on battle, he also prepared a backup plan.

The art of war says: Use the normal to unite and the unusual to win.

Now the regular troops are the 200,000 troops gathered in Youzhou, and the special forces are the 30,000 elite naval infantry and cavalry from Dengzhou and Donglai.

Among these 30,000 people, 10,000 were elite naval forces drawn from various southern tribes, and the remaining 20,000 were government troops drawn from Luoyang, Henan, Hanoi, and Hedong.

As long as these 30,000 people land, they can immediately turn the heartland of the Liao Kingdom upside down.

However, this 30,000-strong army is also very dangerous. If you are not careful, the entire army may be wiped out. Therefore, you must have people who are bold and careful, have strong adaptability and are good at seizing opportunities.

There were not many generals of this caliber even in the Zhou Kingdom, so Guo Rong thought about it and decided to send Zhao Kuangyin. Zhao Kuangyin had always been by his side, and he was very methodical in deploying troops and formations, and he was thick-skinned and black-hearted.

During the last war in the northwest, this guy directly invited many tribal leaders in the name of a banquet, and then took the opportunity to kill all of them, making it much easier for the imperial court to wipe out the Dangxiang.

Now is the perfect time for him to lead the army.

After making preparations, Guo Rong led his army north again. The Liao Kingdom was facing a formidable enemy. The last battle in Youzhou had defeated hundreds of thousands of Khitans, which directly interrupted the Liao Kingdom's originally cohesive spirit.

As a nomadic nation, the Liao Dynasty had been held together by force by its prestige since the time of Yelü Abaoji, and its system of succession to the throne had always been problematic.

If the Liao Kingdom could continue to occupy Youzhou and defeat the Zhou Kingdom, its national strength and cohesion would continue to increase, and it would successfully transform from a tribal alliance into a national model. But unfortunately, the Khitan lost and this process was interrupted. The current Khitan is still a tribal alliance.

The Zhou army marched to Liaodong and headed north. The Liao did not directly fight a major battle with the Zhou near Youzhou, but instead kept retreating.

It was obvious that the Khitans wanted to stretch out the supply line of the Northern Expedition Army. If the Northern Expedition Army rushed forward recklessly, they would continue to retreat, and then rely on the mobility of the cavalry to go around to the rear to cut off the army's logistics.

If the army of hundreds of thousands were to march north to Liaodong and fight outside the Great Wall and their retreat was cut off, they would most likely collapse and suffer defeat.

As a commander, Guo Rong would naturally not make such a mistake. At the same time, when the Zhou Kingdom and the Khitans were fighting in Liaodong, the Dengzhou Navy was already ready.

The navy drawn from all over the country has been training in Dengzhou for half a year and is familiar with the climate here. Now the army is fighting in Liaodong, and the rear of the Liao Kingdom is very empty.

Attacking Liaodong or even Goryeo by water is feasible in this era. You should know that in the pre-Tang period, when conquering Goguryeo, the Tang army dispatched the navy.

The Khitans were a nation of horsemen and had no knowledge of naval forces. Therefore, the Khitans could not defend against the naval surprise attack.

Thirty thousand naval troops and thousands of warships set out from Dengzhou, carrying a large amount of food and supplies, as well as three thousand war horses. In order to make these war horses adapt to the environment on the ship, the Dengzhou navy spent a lot of effort.

This naval expedition was completely unexpected by the Liao Kingdom. The Khitans had not yet realized that the enemy would attack from the water.

The Zhou Kingdom had many spies in the Liao Kingdom. Most of these spies came here through caravans, and then used various means to win over many herdsmen and obtain information from these herdsmen.

Therefore, the Zhou Kingdom now knows that the Liao Kingdom’s capital is also empty.

Seeing this situation, Guo Rong knew that the opportunity had come. Now the Khitans relied on the muddy and difficult Liaoze to fight with the Zhou State, while on the other hand, the navy also quietly went to the Liao State.

The Liao Dynasty did not have one capital, but five capitals. However, Nanjing Youzhou and Xijing Datong were taken back by the Zhou Dynasty, leaving only Shangjing, Zhongjing and Dongjing.

Shangjing and Zhongjing are far away from here, in the Mobei grassland, while Dongjing is in Liaoyang. After this war, the Khitans have moved their capital from Shangjing and Zhongjing to Dongjing.

The Zhou army was powerful and reached the grassland directly. The defenses of Shangjing and Zhongjing were not good enough. Only Dongjing Liaoyang was a big city built by the former Tang Dynasty and was blocked by the Liaoze, so it was the safest.

But the Liao nobles never dreamed that the Zhou army would come from the sea.

At this time in Liaoyang Prefecture, Tokyo, in a magnificent mansion, an ordinary-looking middle-aged man was reporting intelligence to another person.

"Have you found out everything about Liaoyang City's defenses?"

The ordinary-looking servant whispered, "I have already found out that the defense of Liaoyang City is very lax. The general guarding the city is the uncle of the Khitan emperor. He likes Zhou Dynasty customs. During this period, I specially sent some rare things from the Zhou Dynasty."

"Now he holds banquets with the Liao nobles in his mansion every day, and he doesn't even bother to take care of the city defense."

Zhang Chong nodded. He was not surprised by this information. Although the Liao Kingdom was a nomadic people, the nobles of this country loved the Central Plains. Silk, porcelain, tea, sugar, books and various toys from the Central Plains were very popular among the upper class of the Liao Kingdom.

There were even many Liao nobles who read the Four Books and Five Classics, wore Han clothes, and were proud of it.

Over the years, the Zhou Kingdom sold a large amount of fine silk, porcelain, fine wine, etc. to the Liao Kingdom, and even brought chefs from Kaifeng Prefecture in Tokyo here to cook for the Khitans, allowing the Khitans to enjoy the life of Luoyang and Kaifeng here.

In fact, all this was planned by Richard and Guo Rong. It is human nature to seek pleasure, love leisure and hate work, and like good food and wine. Not many people have the willpower to control themselves.

Under the deliberate actions of Guo Rong and Richard, those grassland people who had never seen much of the world quickly fell. The top leaders of every country are often the easiest to fall.

The Khitans were no exception.

The nobles in Liaoyang were even more so. There had been no large-scale sea crossing battles in those days, and no one had thought that the enemy would come from the sea. Seeing that the people in Liaoyang were so lax and careless, Zhang Chong was relieved, but he still deployed a large number of people in various places.

In order to make the plan successful, what he had to do in the next few days was to make the nobles in Liaoyang City more relaxed.

So in the following days, Zhang Chong began to flatter these nobles even more, taking out all kinds of supplies for these people to enjoy, and many nobles even forgot that there was still a war on the front line.

The war was intense at the front, and the food was tight at home. Not everyone had a sense of crisis, and the nobles were the least aware of it. While the nobles in Shangjing were enjoying themselves, the Zhou army was quietly approaching.

At the seaside, dozens of strong men were patrolling on horseback. All of them were sent by Zhang Chong to pick them up. At this time, some black spots suddenly appeared on the sea in the distance, and then more and more black spots appeared.

Fishermen on the coast saw these black spots and were a little curious. After a while, the black spots quickly grew larger, and huge sailboats approached quickly. Hundreds of ships were lined up on the sea, with their raised sails blocking out the sun.

The fishermen who fished at sea all year round were stunned by this scene.

Soon the warships approached rapidly, and this remote seaport was soon filled with ships.

The army quickly rushed down from the ship, and Zhao Kuangying, who had vomited a lot, finally stood on the ground. This voyage was unexpectedly smooth, and the army crossed the ocean without any setbacks.

"Surround this fishing village and don't let anyone escape!" Zhao Kuangyin gave the order immediately.

"General, there are people here to pick us up!" The deputy general next to him came forward with a man and said.

"Who asked you to come?" Zhao Kuangyin asked.

"It's Lord Zhang Chong!" said the man.

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"What did he tell you to do?"

"Lord Zhang told me to follow the general's orders!"

"Okay!" Zhao Kuangyin nodded, and then said, "Tell me about the situation."

Next, the man told him about the situation in Liaoyang. Zhao Kuangyin looked at the sky and said, "Arrange the army, and the cavalry will set out with me immediately. We will reach Liaoyang before dark. The rest of you will disembark and set out later!"

After saying that, Zhao Kuangyin no longer hesitated and directly led three thousand cavalry and five thousand infantry to Liaoyang, while the rest of the people were quickly getting off the boat.

Time passed quickly. The army marched quickly all the way, starting from the morning and continuing until the evening when they finally arrived near Liaoyang. When they arrived here, the army did not attack the city immediately, but hid in the woods to rest.

After all, Liaoyang is the capital. Although the defense is lax, there are still 20,000 old and weak defenders. If we attack during the day, it will be easy to be discovered, so we have to wait until night to launch a surprise attack.

Fortunately, these soldiers were selected elites and supplies were well prepared. The sky quickly darkened, and by night, the city gates were closed, and there were not even a few soldiers guarding the city walls.

Seeing this situation, Zhao Kuangyin was overjoyed. The soldiers, who had rested for two or three hours, had now recovered their strength and were immediately ready to attack the city.

In Liaoyang City, the soldiers guarding the city gates had long since disappeared and were unaware that countless people had secretly climbed up to the top of the city walls in the dark.

Zhang Chong prepared a large number of simple ladders in advance, and Zhao Kuangyin simply had people carry them over for use.

Soon, shouts of killing rang out in the city. The battle went smoothly, and Zhao Kuangyin's army easily captured the city. Because it was night, the nobles in the city didn't even have a chance to escape, and were blocked by Zhao Kuangyin's army.

By the time it was daybreak, the entire Liaoyang city had been controlled by the Zhou army.

At this time, a steady stream of Zhou troops continued to arrive. All the Khitans were stunned to see so many troops. They had no idea where the Zhou troops came from. Many people even thought that the battle at the front had been lost.

Liaoyang Prefecture was captured, and the families of the front-line troops were all in the city. Zhao Kuangyin directly sent someone to report the news to Guo Rong. At the same time, some escaped soldiers also rushed to the front line.

Soon the news of the capture of Liaoyang City spread, and the front-line camp was in an uproar. The Liao emperor wanted to conceal the news and even killed the soldiers who came to report the news as spies from the Zhou Kingdom, but he still couldn't stop the rumors.

Guo Rong directly sent people to shoot the news of Liaoyang's capture with arrows. It was useless for the Khitan emperor to strictly block the news. In addition, there were fewer and fewer grain transport teams in the back, and food on the front line was becoming increasingly tight.

The soldiers soon guessed that the rumor might be true, and the army, which was already demoralized, was defeated across the board.

Guo Rong took the opportunity to send a large army to attack. With tens of thousands of troops attacking, the Khitans had no will to resist. The soldiers dropped their weapons and ran away. The battlefield was filled with fleeing Khitan soldiers.

The Zhou army was full of momentum, like a flood bursting through a dam, and the Khitans were defeated and helpless. Guo Rong even captured dozens of Khitan emperors, empress dowagers and other royal family members in one battle. The entire Khitan army of more than 100,000 suffered heavy casualties and was completely wiped out.

Only a small group of troops that saw the danger successfully escaped to the capital, and Guo Rong also sent troops to pursue them. As a result, more than 10,000 people did not dare to fight and fled all the way to Mobei.

The Zhou army tried their best to catch up but failed, and in the end they could only return by catching those who did not have time to escape.

Guo Rong destroyed the Khitan Kingdom in one battle and was in high spirits. Next, Guo Rong did not lead his troops away, but directly attacked Goryeo with Zhao Kuangyin as the vanguard and 10,000 naval forces as the support.

Goryeo had been suppressed by the Khitans in recent years and its strength had weakened. At this time, it was no match for the Zhou Kingdom. Moreover, the Zhou Kingdom once again used its navy this time, and the army landed in Incheon by boat. The 30,000-strong army went straight to Pyongyang.

Although Pyongyang was the capital of Goryeo, it was smaller than any prefecture city in the Central Plains. The city walls were low and the attack was sudden by a large army. There was no time to react before it was captured by Zhao Kuangyin in one fell swoop.

Tens of thousands of troops swept across the country, and Goryeo had no room to fight back. The Zhou army then pushed forward all the way, and in just one month, the whole of Goryeo was occupied by the Zhou army.

The King of Goryeo wanted to surrender several times and was willing to become a vassal state of Zhou, but he couldn't even see Guo Rong. Guo Rong had no good feelings towards Goryeo. This country took advantage of the withdrawal of Former Tang's troops and its inability to control Goguryeo's territory to seize large tracts of land and even changed the country's name to Goryeo.

The Tang Dynasty wanted to use this name to inherit the legacy of Goguryeo, which was a wolfish ambition. In the end, the Tang Dynasty destroyed Goguryeo, but did not gain much benefit, but Goguryeo made a lot of money.

Now that he has dealt with Goryeo, he naturally would not keep them anymore. Zhao Kuangyin knew that he would not allow others to sleep beside his bed, and Guo Rong naturally understood this truth. Next, Guo Rong began to divide Goryeo and Liao into the four Han counties of the Han Dynasty.

The Andong Protectorate was established to govern this area, and sixteen Zhechoufu were set up under the Andong Protectorate. Liaodong was vast and sparsely populated, so it was most appropriate to set up a military base.

(End of this chapter)