History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 1011: Becoming a God in One Battle

【One Battle to Become a God】

In the fourth year of the Taiping Xingguo era, 979 AD, this was a year that would go down in history. The great, glorious and correct Emperor Taizong of Song, Zhao Guangyi, wiped out the separatist forces of the Northern Han Dynasty entrenched in Hedong in one fell swoop, ending the chaos of separatist forces of the "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms" since the end of the Tang Dynasty. However, the story did not end there.

In May 979, Zhao Guangyi, who had just conquered the Northern Han, ordered the army to move camp and set off for Zhenzhou. The Song army officers and soldiers cheered and waited to be rewarded, promoted and made rich after returning to Bianzhou. However, they heard a rather unexpected news: "The general will attack the Khitan."

Zhao Guangyi had been a professional guarding the house and the tower for thirty years. It was his first time to lead an expedition to the Northern Han. After achieving impressive results, Zhao Guangyi inevitably became a little inflated, so he planned to take advantage of the victory to march north and take back the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun that he had been longing for.

After the "Battle of Gaoping", Chai Rong took advantage of the victory to attack Northern Han, which eventually led to a great defeat. The reason for this was that the temporary change of strategic goals was a very important factor, which obviously did not attract enough attention from Zhao Guangyi. Zhao Guangyi's Northern Expedition plan was doomed to failure from the beginning.

First of all, we lost the right time.

Although the Liao Kingdom was not in a good position to rescue the Northern Han, the Liao Kingdom had been gathering heavy troops in the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun since the Song army set out in the first month of the year, and was ready to resist the Song army. The commander-in-chief in Youzhou was a very famous Liao general, Han Derang, whose deeds will be detailed later. In short, the Liao Kingdom had been on alert for nearly half a year, and even though the Song army was powerful, the Liao Kingdom could be said to be insufficient in attack but sufficient in defense.

The second is the loss of geographical advantage.

The Song army had traveled a long distance, across half of China, while the Liao army relied on strong cities to wait for the enemy to tire themselves out. Taiyuan City was impregnable, and Youzhou City was even more impregnable. Moreover, the vast and flat North China Plain was the home of the Liao cavalry, and the Song army, which was mainly composed of infantry, was naturally restrained.

In the end, he lost the support of the people.

After destroying the Northern Han, the Song army soldiers were waiting for rewards. However, Zhao Guangyi did not reward them according to their merits, but asked them to continue to attack the Liao Kingdom, meaning that he would settle all the old and new accounts together after the recovery of the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun. This led to low morale and a sharp decline in fighting will. Historical records say that "all the generals were unwilling to go."

When Zhao Guangyi held a meeting to discuss the crusade against Youzhou, all the generals bowed their heads and remained silent, expressing their opposition with silence. At this time, Cui Han, the chief military officer in front of the palace, stepped out of the class and said that the opportunity could not be missed. We are unstoppable and it will be easy to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun!
Zhao Guangyi was delighted and asked, "What do you think, my dear ministers?"

The generals still bowed their heads and remained silent.

"Since everyone agrees, it's settled!"

In early June, an imperial edict was issued to mobilize civilians from Henan, Hebei, Shandong and other places to transport food and fodder, and Zhao Guangyi personally led the expedition to Youzhou. As soon as the army set out from Zhenzhou, the escort troops were late, and it was obvious that the soldiers were unwilling to march north.

Zhao Guangyi was furious. "If you miss the deadline, you will be beheaded," this is the rule of our ancestors. Zhao Guangyi planned to behead the soldiers who were late, but was dissuaded by his subordinates, who said that the army had just set out, and if they killed the soldiers before defeating the powerful enemy, who would be willing to fight for them in the future? Zhao Guangyi gave up with resentment, "Okay, after we recover Youzhou, we will settle the old and new accounts together!"

The Song army's advance was very smooth. When they reached Dongyizhou (Qigou Pass), the governor opened the city and surrendered; when they reached Zhuozhou, they opened the city and surrendered; when they reached Yangoudun, the local people welcomed the royal army with food and drink, and presented stolen Khitan war horses...

Zhao Guangyi was in a very good mood. Before coming, he had already composed a poem titled "The Sorrow of the Trapped Barbarians", which he asked his ministers to collect, forward and like. Along the way, there were touching scenes of the old people from the Central Plains welcoming the royal army and weeping about the bloody history of Khitan enslavement.

In just ten days, the main force of the Song army advanced to the city of Youzhou. Zhao Guangyi stationed the main force in the south of the city and sent the vanguard troops to patrol the north of the city.

At that time, the Liao general Han Derang was stationed in Youzhou, while the Northern Courtyard King Yelu Xidi, the commander Xiao Taogu, and Yishi King Sahe, who were ordered to come to the rescue, were stationed in the north of Youzhou with more than 10,000 troops, forming a pincer attack with the Youzhou defenders. The Song army's vanguard encountered this reinforcement army at Shahe, and a fierce group battle broke out.

The Song army had the BUFF of the emperor personally leading the army, and everyone was eager to be the first and fought bravely. They won a great victory, captured more than 500 people alive, and the Liao army retreated. At that time, Yelu Xizhen, the King of the Southern Court of the Liao Kingdom, was stationed at Deshengkou (now north of Changping, Beijing), which was a strategic location that controlled the throat of entering and leaving Youzhou.

The Song army followed the defeated Liao army all the way. Seeing that the Song army was in high spirits, Yelu Xizhen adopted the strategy of avoiding the enemy's edge and luring the enemy deep into the territory. Yelu Xizhen collected the flags of the defeated army and disguised his own troops as defeated troops, hiding in Deshengkou. Yelu Xizhen succeeded. The Song army was eager for quick success and was dazzled by the victory in front of them. They thought that the legendary Khitan cavalry was nothing more than that, and continued to pursue the defeated Liao army, intending to expand the victory. The Song army killed more than a thousand people in the pursuit. Zhao Guangyi was very pleased and ordered to continue to pursue northward. This "defeated army" in Deshengkou did not arouse the interest of the Song army, and the Song army ignored it and headed northward.

Yelu Xizhen was calm and composed, his sharp and iron-like face made him look particularly mature and steady. He was silently calculating the time in his heart.

"Well, it's almost done. Listen to my command - attack with all your forces!"

At Yelu Xizhen's order, the Liao army, like a tiger out of a cage, launched an attack from behind the Song army.

This wave of attacks was very effective. The Song army was caught off guard and immediately gathered its troops and retreated urgently. Although the Liao army seized the initiative and achieved surprise, it was unable to turn the tables immediately due to its numerical disadvantage. After a brief panic, the Song army gradually stabilized its position with its numerical advantage, and the two armies confronted each other along the Qingsha River.

Although the damage was not great, Yelu Xizhen's surprise attack not only disrupted the pace of the Song army's pursuit and blocked the Song army's fierce offensive momentum, but also gave great encouragement to the defenders of Youzhou City, making them more confident in holding on and waiting for help.

The passionate Zhao Guangyi was poured a bucket of cold water on his head and was extremely angry. Seeing that Yelu Xizhen had a small number of troops, he changed his strategy, reserving a part of his troops to continue to confront and contain him, while using the main force to attack Youzhou City.

Zhao Guangyi was determined to capture Youzhou, so he attacked the city from all sides and personally went to the front line to command the assault (he rode in a chariot to supervise the siege).

Zhao Guangyi ordered the relevant departments to build 800 siege guns within half a month. Comrade Zhao Yanjin, the siege trench envoy, completed the task in just eight days and was specially praised by Zhao Guangyi.

Under the powerful offensive of the Song army, the defenders in the city surrendered one after another, such as Liu Yansu, the governor of the Liao Jianxiong Army, Daluan (also known as "Dalanhan", which I have misread as "Hanlanda" for a long time), the officers of the "Eight Armies Behind the Mountains" in Youzhou, and the people of Ji County...

The mountains and rivers are only in my dreams. I haven't been close to my motherland for many years, but no matter what, I can't change my Chinese heart. The Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun were ceded to the Liao Kingdom for more than 60 years. Today, a large part of the people in Youzhou have Liao passports since the day they were born. They have never witnessed the prosperity of the motherland. However, their ancestors have already branded everything they have with the Chinese mark. The voice of China surges in their bodies. No matter when and where, they are still close to it in their hearts.

In the words of the Liao people, most of the residents in the city were disloyal. They had an indelible sense of national identity with the Central Plains. Those who were not of our race must have different hearts! Seeing the might of the Song army, they defected one after another, and the situation in Youzhou was precarious.

As the ancients said, "The first attack is the best, the second is weaker, and the third is the worst." The Song army besieged Youzhou for more than ten days. Although the army was powerful, it still failed to capture the outer city. The soldiers' war-weariness began to spread, and the transportation of supplies became difficult. The balance of war began to tilt towards the defending Liao Kingdom, and Zhao Guangyi was worried about this.

Zhao Guangyi analyzed and summarized the experience of recovering Taiyuan, and believed that blocking the reinforcements was an important part of the siege. Eliminating the reinforcements would shake the defenders' will, and combined with a strong offensive, they could defeat the enemy without fighting. Therefore, Zhao Guangyi ordered an attack on Yelu Xizhen's troops in Shahe, intending to force them back to the heartland of the Liao Kingdom and turn Youzhou into an isolated city.

After a day of fierce fighting, the Song army won again with its numerical advantage, and the Liao army retreated slightly. As the saying goes, great minds think alike, and Yelu Xizhen also knew the importance of reinforcements. Victory or defeat is not important, what is important is to have a sense of presence, even if there is only one person left. Although the Liao army was at a disadvantage, it still held on to the dangerous position and faced off with the Song army.

Yelu Xizhen was like an indestructible cockroach, who could neither be completely annihilated nor defeated. Zhao Guangyi focused on siege. In addition to conventional ladders, cave houses, and 800 newly made Italian cannons, the Song army also played underground warfare (entering through tunnels). The defenders used soldiers to block the enemy and earth to block the enemy's attacks.

The Song army carefully selected 300 death squads and attempted to secretly climb the city wall under the cover of night. However, they were discovered and captured by the Liao general Yelu Xue Gu.

The battle of Youzhou fell into a complete stalemate. At this time, the second wave of Liao reinforcements arrived, led by the famous Liao general Yelu Sha, and Yelu Xiu Ge was sent to replace the defeated general Yelu Xidi.

Upon hearing that the Liao Kingdom had sent reinforcements, Zhao Guangyi once again focused on blocking the reinforcements and commanded his army to stop them. The two sides met at Gaoliang River, and the famous Battle of Gaoliang River broke out. Zhao Guangyi was deified because of this battle - the Gaoliang River Chariot God.

(End of this chapter)