History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 578: The Battle of Yangcheng 1
[Battle of Yangcheng among the Three Major Battles]

After the first battle, Shi Chonggui sent envoy Zhang Hui to ask for peace, but was rejected by Yelu Deguang and Zhang Hui was detained.

Obviously, Yelu Deguang was unwilling to give up and would not stop until the Central Plains was destroyed. The main reason has been mentioned many times, which was the internal struggle of the Khitans. Yelu Deguang wanted to fight for power with his mother by going south to make achievements.

Secondly, although the Battle of Qicheng failed to achieve the strategic goal of overthrowing the Later Jin Dynasty, the Khitan did not gain nothing.

Strategic locations in the hinterland of Hebei, such as Beizhou, Dezhou, and Bozhou, were successively conquered by the Khitan, allowing the Khitan to take the initiative in the subsequent wars.

Beizhou was quickly recovered by the Later Jin, which illustrates another serious problem, that is, the Khitan's control over the newly occupied areas was very weak. If the pressure could not be continuously exerted, Dezhou, Bozhou, etc. would inevitably repeat the mistakes of Beizhou. These lands occupied in the first battle were the futures contracts in Yelu Deguang's hands, and additional margin (dispatching troops) was necessary to make a profit.

In order to consolidate his own vested interests, Yelu Deguang also needed to continue sending troops.

Third, through the Battle of Qicheng, Yelu Deguang also saw through Liu Zhiyuan's ambition to split Hedong. Just like Zhao Dejun during the Hedong War, Liu Zhiyuan watched the fire from the other side of the river, and also pinned down Ma Quanjie, Du Chongwei and others, so that they dared not leave their posts without permission, for fear of being annexed by Liu Zhiyuan. This was the fatal flaw of the Later Jin Dynasty, which had already been exposed.

These three reasons make the second war inevitable. So what are the triggering conditions? There are two triggering events:

First, according to the Liao History, in August, the Zhenzhou soldiers took the initiative to attack Feihu, a strategic location in Hebei, but were repelled by the Khitan Datong Jiedushi. However, this incident is not recorded in the Old Five Dynasties History. In the Zizhi Tongjian, Shi Chonggui had just listed the "Fifteen Generals to Defend against Liao", and the Liao History only mentioned it in one sentence, so it is estimated that the scale was not large and it should be a border friction.

Second, Yelu Deguang was going to celebrate his birthday in November, and "all other countries sent congratulations, except Jin." If this record is true, then Shi Chonggui was really not very wise. Although the two countries were still at war, envoys should still be sent to congratulate and express condolences for weddings, funerals, and birthdays. This is basic international etiquette. Moreover, Shi Chonggui was eager to end the hostility and restore peace, so he should take this opportunity to strengthen contacts and engage in "birthday diplomacy."

It is not known whether Shi Chonggui's court really did not send an envoy, or whether Yelu Deguang secretly instructed the Khitan Customs to deliberately obstruct it. In any case, at Yelu Deguang's birthday party, only the envoy of the Later Jin Dynasty was absent.

Therefore, Yelu Deguang immediately ordered a general mobilization of the entire country and planned to march south on December 12st of the leap year!
On the first day of the intercalary December, the Khitan army assembled at the designated location as agreed, and with a melodious horn, the Khitan army set off.

Yelu Deguang ordered Zhao Yanshou, the "vanguard of destroying Jin", to be the vanguard and attack Xingzhou at lightning speed, cutting off the connection between Ma Quanjie and Du Chongwei and the central government; the main force of the Khitan followed up and captured the nine counties under Zhenzhou in one breath.

The second battle broke out only about half a year after the end of the Qicheng Campaign. Yelu Deguang carefully summed up the lessons learned from the Qicheng Campaign and no longer paid attention to Liu Zhiyuan who was entrenched in Hedong. Instead, he concentrated his main forces and started the war in Hebei. Yelu Deguang set up the headquarters in Yuanshi County, south of Zhenzhou and north of Xingzhou.

Yelu Deguang's strategy was to first eat Ma Quanjie and Du Chongwei. As long as the Khitan controlled Xingzhou, they would have completed the strategic encirclement of Ma Quanjie and Du Chongwei, because Liu Zhiyuan to the west of Taihang Mountain would definitely not send troops to rescue them, let alone allow their armed forces to enter Hedong. Liu Zhiyuan was a stronger iron wall than Taihang Mountain.

The only thing that Shi Chonggui should be thankful for was that he very wisely got rid of Yang Guangyuan of Qingzhou and pacified the eastern part of the empire.

Faced with the aggressive Khitan army, Shi Chonggui was so angry that he fell ill. He was originally going to lead the army in person, but because of his "illness", he could only send Zhang Cong'en, An Shenqi and others to lead the army to Xingzhou to break the encirclement of the Khitan cavalry.

Shi Chonggui, who was commanding the front line remotely, made a small mistake. He ordered Zhang Cong'en and others to lead the army to retreat southward to avoid the enemy's attack before the battle started. How could he retreat when the bayonet was pointed at his nose? Li Yunlong should have taught him a lesson.

As expected, the army lost control as soon as it retreated, and the retreat turned into a rout. Soldiers scrambled to throw away their weapons and armor and fled in all directions. The unrestrained soldiers burned, killed, and looted along the way, retreating all the way to Xiangzhou. At this time, the army of the Later Jin Dynasty was in chaos, its organization was disrupted, and it became a disorganized and undisciplined guerrilla.

Before the Khitans took action, the Later Jin army had already been defeated.

Panic quickly spread to the rear, causing Shi Chonggui to cancel the New Year's greetings on the first day of the first lunar month (the second year of Kaiyun, 945), "because the emperor refused to accept the congratulations because he was unwell."

Shi Chonggui was indeed ill, but it was not enough to prevent him from receiving congratulations. At this time, he was busy with military deployment. Just like the first battle, the Khitans pushed down the high ground tower at the beginning.

Shi Chonggui ordered Zhang Cong'en to retreat to Xiangzhou, transferred Liu Zaiming, the defense envoy of Qizhou, to be the governor of Xiangzhou, Zhao Zaili to retreat to Chanzhou, Ma Quanjie to retreat to Weizhou, and sent Zhang Yanze to station in Liyang. He ordered Jing Yanguang to lead his troops to guard Huliangdu (northeast of Huazhou, south of Liyang).

From the military deployment of both sides, it can be seen that the main battlefield was in the areas of Xingzhou and Weizhou, and the Later Jin Dynasty lost its outer defense lines such as Dingzhou and Zhenzhou.

Soon, a report came from the front line of Huazhou: from the second day of the first lunar month to the fourth day of the first lunar month, there was no beacon fire from Xiangzhou.

Obviously, the initiative in Xiangzhou was also in the hands of the Khitan, and there was a danger of it falling at any time.

Shi Chonggui ordered the governor of Huazhou, Huangfu Yu, to lead his troops to station in Xingzhou, and ordered Ma Quanjie to go to Xiangzhou to support and push the battle line northward.

At the same time, the Khitans launched an attack on Xing, Ming, and Cizhou, killing and looting everyone in the bloody massacre. Dongzhaoyi became a thousand-mile no-man's land. Then, the Khitan army invaded Weizhou to the east, and Weizhou was in danger.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival, the decisive battle began.

Zhang Cong'en, Ma Quanjie and An Shenqi assembled all their troops, a total of tens of thousands of people, and lined up on the south bank of the Anyang River north of Xiangzhou, relying on the Anyang River as the first line of defense.

Huangfu Yu and Murong Yanchao led thousands of cavalrymen to roam northwards to scout the whereabouts of the Khitan army and illuminate the vision of the army. They came to Ye County. Ye County is located south of the Zhang River, and across the Zhang River is Cizhou. The two generals planned to cross the Zhang River and continue to scout the movements of the Khitan army to the north.

At this time, tens of thousands of Khitan troops suddenly appeared and launched a fierce attack without saying a word.

(End of this chapter)