Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 476 Old Enemy
Dugu Xin looked at Su Ze and said:

"Jinyang."

“Why Jinyang?”

Dugu Xin said: "In fact, after all, the Duke can only choose these few directions of attack."

"Leaving Hedong County to attack Luoyang, Henan, and Henei would be a head-on confrontation with Erzhu Rong's elite troops who had just defeated Chen Qingzhi. In addition, Bingzhou can support Luoyang through the Chenguan Pass and Taihang Pass."

"The same is true for Jizhou and Xiangzhou. Bingzhou can also easily support the Jizhou area through Fukouxing. Even Dingzhou is not safe. Bingzhou's troops can leave Jingxing at any time to harass Dingzhou."

Su Ze nodded slightly. In fact, he understood from the sand table that the land in Shanxi was extremely important.

The existence of the Eight Peaks of Taihang makes Shanxi a huge natural fortress.

If you want to attack Shanxi from the Eight Passes of Taihang, it will require huge manpower and material resources, not to mention the huge transportation costs. Bingzhou and Sizhou are the traditional territories of the Erzhu family, and fighting here will be too disadvantageous.

But Bingzhou is not without flaws.

The biggest flaw is in the north of Bingzhou, which is the direction of Yanmen Pass.

From Hengzhou in the north of Bingzhou, going south from Yanmen Pass all the way to Jinyang, the whole journey is very easy to fight.

The Battle of Yanmen Pass between Song and Liao in later generations was a battle launched by Liao to compete for Shanxi. However, the Northern Song Dynasty defended Taiyuan, established a defense line against the north, and was able to maintain the safety of Bianliang.

After the Jin replaced the Liao and took over Shanxi, the Song Dynasty completely lost the initiative in northern border defense and ended with the Jingkang Shame.

Dugu Xin continued:
"We can't occupy Bingzhou. Even if we occupy Heluo, Jizhou, and Dingzhou, our army will have to station troops in many places to guard against Erzhu Rong's attack, which will put us in a passive position."

It can be seen from this that if Shanxi cannot be controlled, the entire Henan and Hebei regions will be like flowers in the water or the moon in the mirror. Instead, because there are too many places to defend, they will fall into the embarrassing situation of dividing their troops for defense and being unable to defend anywhere.

In fact, after the Northern Song Dynasty lost Taiyuan Prefecture, it was exhausted to death when facing the attack of the Jin Dynasty.

Su Ze understood this truth. In the historical timeline before he traveled through time, the Northern Zhou Dynasty's attacks on the Northern Qi Dynasty had always been along two routes.

One is to attack the Luoyang area from Hedong County, and the other is to bypass the grassland to attack Yanmen Pass and directly attack the Jinyang area.

In history, the Northern Zhou Dynasty's war of annihilation of the Northern Qi Dynasty also ended with the capture of Jinyang. Jinyang was the foundation and Achilles' heel of the Erzhu Rong group.

However, it was not easy to attack Jinyang. Even the Song Dynasty, which had a weak military, had to rely on the Yanmen Pass to defend it for three years.

Erzhu Rong also understood the importance of Yanmen Pass, so he sent the most capable son of the Erzhu family, his cousin Erzhu Zhao, to guard Yanmen Pass.

Su Ze continued to send people to infiltrate Yanmen Pass, but without any results. At this time, Erzhu Zhao really followed Erzhu Rong's orders and managed Yanmen Pass like an iron barrel.

Su Ze looked at Dugu Xin. In fact, there was a letter from Yu Jin on his desk.

This is also Yu Jin’s thinking on strategic direction.

Yu Jin believed that they should first attack Luoyang, the capital with greater political significance.

Yu Jin said in his memorial that Erzhu Rong was aggressive and aggressive, and the people of Hebei and Shandong were actually not convinced by him.

However, because the Luoyang area was controlled by Erzhu Rong, he could use the advantage of Luoyang as the center of the world to quickly suppress the rebellions in these areas. As a result, although these areas were dissatisfied with Erzhu Rong, they did not dare to surrender to Guanzhong.

By taking Luoyang and controlling the Heluo area, they could control the states in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. As the situation changed, no matter how good Erzhu Rong was at fighting, he would be trapped to death by the current situation.

Yu Jin even considered the issue of Luoyang's defense line. He proposed to build two more cities near Beizhongcheng after conquering Luoyang and use the Yellow River to protect Luoyang's safety.

There was nothing wrong with Yu Jin's memorial. Luoyang was the political center of the Northern Wei Dynasty and also the old capital. Yuan Ziyou, who was controlled by Erzhu Rong, was still recognized by the world partly because Erzhu Rong controlled Luoyang.

Su Ze secretly sighed that in this world, everyone always has their own reasons. Dugu Xin and Yu Jin were both right, but they were also thinking about the problem from their own perspective.

Dugu Xin is the governor of Wuyuan County. Once Hengzhou becomes the main attack direction, Dugu Xin, who is familiar with northern affairs and comes from the Six Garrisons, will naturally be reused by Su Ze.

Yu Jin is an official guarding Hedong. Once the goal of capturing Heluo is determined, Hedong County will become a frontline area that Guanzhong will focus on, gaining more resources, and Yu Jin will also be able to gain more military merits.

Even Su Ze could not be sure whether Yu Jin and Dugu Xin were acting out of their own strategic considerations or out of selfish motives. Or even if it was not just their own selfish motives, but a group of civil and military officials behind them who were also influencing their suggestions.

However, the matter has not yet reached the point where the outcome needs to be debated immediately.

According to the intelligence from the Xuan Jingsi, Erzhu Rong was also seriously injured in the battle of Hulao Pass.

Chen Qianzhi's White Robe Army was no pushover either. In this battle, Erzhu Rong suffered heavy losses of his 7,000 elite cavalry, but the biggest loss was the loss of Erzhu Rong's war horses.

War horses that can carry heavily armored cavalry into battle are very valuable.

Even if a good warhorse was not injured on the battlefield, it could only be used for five years at most. An injured warhorse could be easily scrapped. Although some injuries were not fatal, they could no longer participate in high-intensity wars.

Erzhu Rong's cavalry unit relied on the pastures accumulated by several generations of the Erzhu family, and selected the best horses from them.

Some of these war horses were consumed in the attack on Ge Rong, some in the attack on Qi and Lu, and some in the two battles with Chen Qianzhi.

But now the entire north is controlled by Su Ze, and the grasslands and the Western Regions, where high-quality war horses can be obtained, are separated. Just replenishing these war horses will be enough to give Erzhu Rong a headache for a while.

Moreover, before determining the strategic direction, Su Ze also had to solve the Khitan problem.

According to intelligence, Gao Huan had successfully crossed the sea, landed in Yingzhou, and joined the Khitans.

This time, Erzhu Rong paid a considerable price to win over the Khitans.

The first step was to recognize the leadership of the Daha clan, which was now the most powerful among the eight Khitan tribes.

In the name of Yuan Ziyou, Erzhu Rong conferred the title of Governor of Yingzhou and Commander-in-Chief of Liaodong on the leader of the Daha clan - Daha Bhutan. Erzhu Rong was even "generously" enough to give the Daha clan the surname "Yuan".

Dahe Bhutan, now called Yuan Bhutan, happily accepted the edict of enthronement brought by Gao Huan, and quickly, in the name of the Liaodong Dao Grand Secretariat, appointed Gao Huan as the secretary of the Secretariat and the chief of the army, commanding the 1,000 troops brought by Gao Huan himself, as well as 2,000 Khitan cavalry.

From this we can see that the Khitans had actually accepted a great degree of sinicization. At least they were very familiar with the official system of the Northern Wei Dynasty and were able to use the Northern Wei Dynasty's decrees to unify their own tribes.

Su Ze could only sigh that Erzhu Rong was unscrupulous. This kind of enthronement was no less than a marriage alliance, as it helped the Khitan to integrate their power and improve their military and political levels.

In the history before Su Ze traveled through time, the root of the rise of Khitan in the Tang and Song dynasties was that the Tang Dynasty set up the Songmo Governor's Office in Liaodong, appointed the Khitan leader as the Songmo Governor, and gave him the surname Li, which enabled the Khitan leader to have the ability to unify the Khitan, and finally rise in the chaos at the end of the Tang Dynasty.

So in fact, the Liao Dynasty was a regime that was deeply influenced by Sinicization since its establishment.

However, we cannot blame the times for this. Whether it was marriage alliance or enthronement, these were all necessary solutions to border issues.

For the empire, if there were constant conflicts with the surrounding barbarian tribes, it would greatly consume the national strength. The constant foreign wars from the early Tang Dynasty to the Xuanzong period actually laid the groundwork for the Anshi Rebellion.

By the Song Dynasty, the border issues were even more difficult to handle. The entire country used a large amount of wealth to support the imperial guards, but was unable to guarantee their combat effectiveness.

In Su Ze's view, the most mature system for dealing with border issues was the vassal and tribute system of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Establish overwhelming cultural advantages, form cultural centripetal force, and make these vassal states willing to be dogs.

Then, through tribute trade, the demands of these small foreign countries for Central Plains goods were met, and the economic control over these small countries was completed through tribute trade.

Finally, by confirming the power of the heirs of the vassal states and supporting factions within these vassal states that are close to the Central Plains, at least the internal checks and balances of these countries can be maintained.

Only in this way can we achieve border stability at the lowest cost.

Dugu Xin saw that Su Ze was distracted and thought that his answer had accidentally angered Su Ze, so he could only stand there with his head down.

Su Ze raised his head, looked at his brother-in-law, and said:

"We will discuss this matter after the Liaodong issue is resolved. What do you think of the Liaodong issue?"

Dugu Xin said cautiously:

"I agree with Yuwen Tai on this point. Liaodong should be defended first and then attacked. But when attacking, we must make every effort in one battle and decide the outcome with one battle."

Su Ze was very satisfied with Dugu Xin's answer. After three months of construction, under the leadership of Yuwen Tai, the main part of Shanhaiguan City had been completed.

Sure enough, after Shanhai was established, the northern defense line immediately became quiet.

The Khitans who had once marched southward recklessly disappeared. Some Khitan peripheral tribes had already begun to attack Shanhaiguan, but they were all easily defeated by Yuwen Tai.

In addition, Yuwen Tai also wrote to Su Ze, in the name of Tian Khan, calling on the tribes on the grassland to suppress the Khitans, cut off the Khitans' attack route around the grasslands, and block the Khitans in Liaodong.

This is also why the Khitans quickly made peace with Erzhu Rong as soon as Gao Huan arrived in Yingzhou. It can only be said that Shanhaiguan did make the Khitans feel threatened, and they hoped that Gao Huan would lead his troops to capture the city.

Su Ze couldn't help but smile. Gao Huan and Yuwen Tai, the destined rivals, were not fighting in Yubi City, but in Shanhaiguan instead.

Su Ze said to Dugu Xin:

"You will hand over the government affairs to Wei Xiaokuan, and stay with me to reorganize the troops in Youzhou and Dingzhou."

Dugu Xin was overjoyed and said with his hands crossed:
"only!"

(End of this chapter)