History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 1020 Yongxi Northern Expedition 2
Before the army set out, Zhao Guangyi, as usual, "instructed the strategy in person": Pan Mei and others were responsible for the detour, so they had to move quickly to clear out the states behind the mountains such as Yun and Ying; while Cao Bin led more than 100,000 main forces to advance hesitantly, threatening with great fanfare to attack Youzhou, but they had to move slowly, slowly, to give the enemy time to deploy troops and draw the enemy's main force to Youzhou.

According to Zhao Guangyi's plan, after Pan Mei completed the detour, the main force of the Liao army attracted to Youzhou would become an isolated army, and then it would be slowly digested. If Cao Bin advanced too quickly and reached Youzhou before Pan Mei completed the detour and cut off Youzhou's retreat, the main force of the Liao army would have enough time to disperse to Pan Mei's side, and the Liao rear would continue to reinforce, which would repeat the mistakes of the previous Northern Expedition.

After the war broke out, Pan Mei quickly conquered Huanzhou, Shuozhou, Yunzhou, and Yingzhou, while Tian Chongjin took Feihu, Lingqiu, Weizhou and other places. Seeing his colleagues making achievements one after another, Cao Bin could not suppress his restless heart and conquered Xincheng, Gu'an, and Zhuozhou.

When Zhao Guangyi saw the victory report from Pan Mei and Tian Chongjin, he was overjoyed. However, when he saw Cao Bin’s victory report, his face turned worried, “How come we won again…” In addition to strategic considerations, Zhao Guangyi was more worried that Cao Bin’s food supply route would be cut off by the Liao army.

Cao Bin's main force went out of Hebei, which is the vast North China Plain, very conducive to the rapid mobility of cavalry. Cao Bin led an army of more than 100,000 and hundreds of thousands of mouths to feed. The daily consumption of food and grass was an astronomical figure. If the battle line was too long and the Liao army sent out several mobile cavalry to take a detour to cut off the food supply, Cao Bin would be in danger.

As Zhao Guangyi had expected, just over ten days after Cao Bin entered Zhuozhou, major problems arose in logistics supply. "When the food ran out, he retreated to Xiongzhou to seek support and supplies."

This report made Zhao Guangyi explode on the spot (greatly shocked), "How can we retreat and wait for food and grass when the enemy is right in front of us? Cao Bin's brain must have been crippled by a donkey (what a big mistake)!" He then sent someone to tell Cao Bin: stop marching towards Xiongzhou, immediately march along the Baigou River, meet up with Mi Xin, then raise the troops and accumulate strength, continue to create momentum, but actually keep the troops still and wait for the Western Route Army to complete the strategic detour.

Up to this point, Zhao Guangyi's strategy had not shown any signs of failure, and even played a certain role in adding points. The Liao army's early deployment had already stepped into Zhao Guangyi's trap. The Liao army transferred a large number of elite forces to Youzhou. Cao Bin's early offensive was sharp. If he suddenly joined forces with Mi Xin, it would surely attract more attention from the Liao army.

However, Cao Bin's generals saw that Pan Mei, Tian Chongjin and other troops had made meritorious deeds one after another, and they were unwilling to sit on the bench, and they all demanded to kill the enemy and gain merit. Faced with the surging public opinion, Cao Bin was unable to restrain himself, so he carried 50 days of military rations and went north again to fight to the death in Zhuozhou.

On the way to Zhuozhou, Cao Bin encountered many obstacles from the Liao army. He had to fight and advance at the same time, and it took him twenty days to slowly advance to a place a hundred miles away from Zhuozhou city.

The Liao general Yelu Xiuguo knew both the enemy and himself, played to his strengths and avoided his weaknesses, and made full use of his advantages, and grasped the weaknesses of the Song army. Because the Liao army had few soldiers, Yelu Xiuguo did not choose to fight head-on, but chose "guerrilla warfare", sending out cavalry at night to specifically kill the lone Song soldiers. The damage was not great, but it brought great psychological fear to the Song army; during the day, Yelu Xiuguo used the mobility of the cavalry to make a feint to the east and attack in the west, making the Song army exhausted; at the same time, he also focused on plundering the Song army's food routes.

According to Liao people's records, in order to deal with the harassment of the Liao army, Cao Bin ordered the formation of a square formation and dug trenches on both sides of the road... a trench-digging competition in World War I was staged in advance. Due to the lack of drinking water, the Song army had to filter muddy water from the mud to drink.

Under such predicament, Cao Bin had to abandon Zhuozhou again and retreat on his own initiative.

As for the reason why Cao Bin retreated, according to the records of the Song Dynasty, he retreated due to lack of food and grass and the epidemic. According to the records of the Liao people, Cao Bin was so scared when he heard that Empress Dowager Xiao had arrived that he fled in the rain overnight.

Cao Bin captured Zhuozhou for the second time, but it was all in vain.

Cao Bin was unwilling to give up Zhuozhou, which he had conquered at great cost. Before retreating, he planned to have his general Lu Bin lead 10,000 men to garrison there. Lu Bin said that Zhuozhou was deep in Liao territory, with no food or support, and could not be defended at all. It would be better to retreat in battle array and retain this part of the manpower.

Only then did Cao Bin completely give up on Zhuozhou, which was a useless piece of territory, and let the people of the city slowly retreat southward under the protection of the army.

"Do you think this is a public toilet? You can come and go as you please?" Empress Xiao was very angry. The consequences were serious. Empress Xiao allocated a large number of elite cavalry to Yelu Xiu'ge, "Destroy him!"

Yelu Xiuguo, who had been developing slowly, finally had the strength to start a team fight, so he rolled up his sleeves and chased. Cao Bin's team was a group of immigrants, including the elderly and children, with a disorganized formation and slow movements. When Cao Bin retreated to the vicinity of Qigou Pass, he was finally caught up by the Liao cavalry. The Khitan cavalry launched an attack, and Cao Bin could only order them to form a square formation around the baggage wagons and passively defend.

At night, Cao Bin and Mi Xin led part of the cavalry to break out and flee southward, and the Song army immediately collapsed.

Yelu Xiuguo killed many people all the way to Yizhou, where he got information that tens of thousands of Song soldiers had fled to Juma River and were cooking. Yelu Xiuguo then hurried to chase them.

Before the Liao cavalry arrived, the frightened Song army was so frightened by the sight of the dust that they panicked and lost their way. Countless people were trampled to death or fell into the river and drowned. It is said that the corpses in the river actually blocked the river, making it "stop flow."

Yelu Xiu'ge collected the corpses of the Song army and built a Jingguan.

When Zhao Guangyi heard the news of the defeat, he was heartbroken and had to change the battle deployment. He ordered the generals to station troops in dangerous places on the border, Tian Chong to Dingzhou and Pan Mei to Daizhou. He also summoned Cao Bin, Mi Xin and Cui Yanjin to return to the court for accountability.

Although people later put the blame for the defeat on Cao Bin, as if his violation of the imperial edict and march into Zhuozhou led to the failure of the entire "Yongxi Northern Expedition", in fact, this was somewhat unfair to him, because the advance of generals such as Pan Mei also encountered considerable resistance.

Zhao Guangyi naively thought that Pan Mei could advance all the way and complete the strategic encirclement of Youzhou, which was somewhat wishful thinking. We cannot deny that Pan Mei's soldiers on the western front fought bravely, but we cannot ignore some objective facts, such as the relatively low fighting spirit of the Liao army in the early stage and the corresponding inappropriate strategic deployment.

After the war officially broke out, the Liao Kingdom actively deployed its troops and generals. On the eastern front, there were Han Derang, Yelu Xiuge, Yelu Mazhi and other generals in Youzhou; on the western front, there were famous generals such as Yelu Xizhen and Xiao Dalin. However, as the Liao army continued to reinforce, Pan Mei's offensive momentum gradually weakened and he had difficulty moving forward.

After Cao Bin was defeated, Zhao Guangyi ordered the entire line to retreat. The Liao army took this opportunity to launch the "Spring Counterattack" and recovered most of the territory.

On the eastern front, Zhuozhou, Gu'an and Xincheng were recovered, while on the western front, Weizhou, Feihu and Lingqiu were taken back.

The "Yongxi Northern Expedition" had a profound impact on both the Song and Liao dynasties, marking a radical change in the power comparison between the two countries. From then on, the Song Dynasty switched from offense to defense, and until the demise of the Song Dynasty, it was unable to move north again. The Liao Dynasty accordingly switched to a strategic offensive phase. For example, after defeating Cao Bin, Yelu Xiuguo submitted a memorial to Empress Dowager Xiao, suggesting that they fight all the way south to the Yellow River and divide the Yellow River with the Song Dynasty. Although Empress Dowager Xiao did not agree with this radical suggestion, she also instructed Yelu Xiuguo to store food and grass in Youzhou in preparation for a large-scale invasion to the south in the fall.

In other words, the Liao Kingdom had shifted from "discussing abandoning You and Ji" to discussing dividing the Yellow River for governance.

Later generations would often feel regretful when talking about the "Yongxi Northern Expedition", not because Taizong's ideal of recovering his homeland was shattered, but because Yang Ye, a national hero deeply loved by the people and the prototype of the "Yang Family Generals", died for his country in this war.

Thanks to my old friend "Yang Kui" for the monthly ticket support!

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(End of this chapter)