Traveling the Heavens in Thunderbolt

Chapter 486: Ruthless War
The Liao Kingdom would naturally not refuse the goodwill shown by Zhao Kuangyin.

After all, as a country established by a foreign race and occupying the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, which were vital to the Central Plains dynasty, the Liao Kingdom was definitely the last country that wanted to see the reunification of China.

(The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun are: Youzhou (now urban Beijing), Shunzhou (now Shunyi District, Beijing), Ruzhou (now Yanqing District, Beijing), Tanzhou (now MY District, Beijing), Jizhou (now JZ District, Tianjin), Zhuozhou (now Zhuozhou, Hebei), Yingzhou (now Hejian City, Hebei Province), Ouzhou (now north of Renqiu City, Hebei Province), Xinzhou (now Zhuolu County, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province), Guizhou (now Huailai County, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province), Wuzhou (now Xuanhua District, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province), Weizhou (now Wei County, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province), Yingzhou (now Ying County, Shanxi Province), Huanzhou (now east of Shuozhou City, Shanxi Province), Shuozhou (now urban Shuozhou City, Shanxi Province), Yunzhou (now Yunzhou District, Datong City, Shanxi Province).

The geographical location of the Yanyun area is very important. It has been a battleground for military strategists throughout the ages. It is also a natural barrier for the Central Plains dynasties to protect agricultural areas and resist invasions by nomadic peoples. It is also the base for the Central Plains dynasties to govern the Northeast during their heyday.

For the northern nomadic peoples, the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were equally important in terms of strategy. After occupying the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, they completely changed their passive situation in the military struggle with the Central Plains dynasty. Although the northern nomadic regimes were relatively strong militarily, they did not have advanced cultural systems, let alone fixed financial income. Due to the limitations of their own political system, in the process of struggling with the powerful Central Plains dynasty, they either achieved temporary military victory or were completely defeated by the powerful Central Plains dynasty (such as the Han and Tang dynasties). But after occupying the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, this situation completely changed. Through the window of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, they began to understand the Central Plains, gradually came into contact with the Central Plains civilization, and learned the advanced production methods of the Central Plains.)
As a result, the two sides hit it off and secretly reached an alliance with the Northern Han as the middleman.

If the New Tang attacked the Song, the Liao would send troops disguised as Northern Han soldiers to help the Song. If the New Tang attacked the Northern Han, the Song would also send troops to help.

This alliance did work in the beginning, as the powerful New Tang Dynasty achieved little success in its attacks on Song or Han in the next two years, and only captured Luoyang in Henan and other places.

But all this was completely reversed as the policies of the New Tang Dynasty were gradually implemented and enforced under its rule.

In just five short years, the implementation of the new policy won back the people of the Southern Tang and other previously conquered areas.

In addition, while encouraging industry and commerce, the country did not give up investment in agriculture. Even after three years of war, the New Tang Dynasty still had a full treasury, a growing population in the country, and lived and worked in peace and contentment.

In contrast, the Liao and Song dynasties tried their best to stop the attacks of the New Tang, and their national strength declined.

The people in both countries have reached their limit due to military service and the decline of their livelihood.
The reason why no progress had been made before was, on the one hand, because the time was not right. Yin Ling and Wang Pu both said that Li Chenzhou pacified the world too quickly, resulting in the loss of people's hearts in the newly conquered areas such as Jingxiang and Jiangnan. It would take time and one should not rush things.

Otherwise, the incident of Fu Jian of the Qin Dynasty will be repeated.

(During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, he was the leader of the Di tribe and the third emperor of the Former Qin Dynasty. During his reign, he vigorously promoted Chinese studies, employed Wang Meng, Deng Qiang, Fu Ya, Yang An, Zhu Rong, Fu Rong and others, implemented Sinicization reforms, centralized power, and made the country prosperous. It is recorded in history that "Guanlong was peaceful and the people were prosperous and happy." He promoted the development of culture and education and the integration of ethnic groups.

He devoted his life to eliminating ethnic conflicts, and people of all ethnic groups loved Fu Jian very much. As the country became stronger, he used military force to eliminate the northern countries, subdue the barbarians, and restore the war-torn North China to life. He captured Sichuan, Shu, Xiangyang and other places in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, forming a situation of confrontation between the north and the south. He also sent Lu Guang to conquer the countries in the Western Regions, opening up the most extensive territory of the Five Barbarians. During the process of fighting north and south, Fu Jian never committed a single massacre.

However, because he did not listen to Wang Meng's dying advice and did not wait until the north was completely stabilized, he attacked the Eastern Jin Dynasty too early, and the information was leaked by a traitor, which led to the defeat at the Battle of Feishui.

Fu Jian himself was killed by Yao Chang, and his power was divided up by the countries he had conquered before, and the north returned to chaos.
On the other hand, it was also to train the newly recruited troops and improve the coordination between the various arms. It was not to seek a big victory, but to use small victories to continuously erode the strength of Liao and Song.

After three years of fierce fighting, the New Tang army took turns going to the front lines to fight against the Liao and Song countries, and an invincible army was born.

Coupled with the rapid development of industry, the Tang army was enough to crush the Liao and Song dynasties in terms of equipment alone.

The time has come. Li Chenzhou, who has been crawling for a long time, once again shows his sharp claws to the world.

In March of that year, the New Tang launched a campaign to destroy the Northern Han.

In less than three months, the Northern Han Dynasty was destroyed and Liu Chong was defeated and killed.

Even if Liao and Song sent troops to help, they were powerless to save the situation. Instead, their strength was greatly weakened. After annexing Northern Han, the New Tang Dynasty, which had taken over the former territory of the Three Jins, did not stop and sent troops out of Yanmen Pass to attack Liao.

Four of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, namely Yingzhou, Huanzhou, Shuozhou and Yunzhou, which were ceded by Shi Jingtang in the past, were recovered and invaded into the heartland of the Liao Kingdom.

After the death of Yelu Deguang, there was a political reshuffle within the Liao Dynasty, and Yelu Deguang's eldest son, Yelu Jing, ascended the throne.

He was addicted to alcohol and had a habit of killing. If his servants made the slightest mistake, he would kill them with his own hands, making the servants live in fear all day long.

But he was able to do things that were neither as good as his ministers nor as good as the common people. He also issued edicts many times to reduce taxes and show respect to his subjects, and he barely stabilized the situation in the Liao Kingdom.

Facing the attack from the New Tang, Yelu Jing understood that this battle was related to the survival of the Liao Kingdom, so he did not dare to be negligent in the slightest and assembled an army of 300,000 to fight back.

The two sides fought a decisive battle in Zhuolu (in Xinzhou, one of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, which the Liao Dynasty called Fengsheng Prefecture).

In this battle, Li Chenzhou's apprentice, Yang Ye, stood out. He led only a few thousand cavalrymen to break through the enemy formation and killed the Liao commander Yelusha.

Because the commander was killed, the Liao army was in chaos, and the Tang army, which already had the upper hand, took the opportunity to attack.

Suddenly, the army was defeated and trampled on each other. Countless people died and as many as 50,000 were captured.

After this battle, the Liao Kingdom no longer had room for resistance.

The New Tang Dynasty took over the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun and marched its troops directly to Linhuang Prefecture, the capital of the Liao Dynasty.

Zhao Kuangyin's Song Dynasty did not want to help the Liao Dynasty, but was powerless to do so.

After the battle with Northern Han, the Song Dynasty also suffered heavy losses.

After that, they had to face attacks from the Tang army from all directions.

Li Chenzhou personally led the army to confront Zhao Kuangyin in front of Hulao Pass.

Cao Bin led the Jingxiang Army of the New Tang Dynasty from Nanyang to attack the heartland of the Central Plains.

Gao Huaide led the Jiangnan Corps across the Huai River and attacked Shandong.

The three corps forced Zhao Kuangyin to rely on the geographical advantage to defend himself. It was already very difficult for him to counterattack, let alone send troops to support the Liao Kingdom.

Thanks to Wu Mengsheng for the reward.

(End of this chapter)