History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 579: The Battle of Yangcheng 2
Huangfu Yu and Murong Yanchao fought and retreated to Yulindian in the east. At this time, more Khitan troops came to chase them. It was very similar to the encounter in Qicheng in the first battle, where a small detachment of the Jin army encountered the main force of the Khitan.

The two generals remained calm in the face of danger and reached a consensus on the key issue. They believed that they could not retreat any further. If they just retreated, their entire army would be wiped out, so they might as well fight them!

Therefore, the Later Jin army, which was at an absolute disadvantage, stopped on the spot and built a camp on the spot, with horse ropes, trip wires, chevaux de frise, and stag fences...

The Khitan army arrived and the two sides engaged in a fierce battle. From noon to afternoon, the bloody battle lasted for more than 100 rounds, and both sides suffered heavy casualties. Huangfu Yu's horse was shot dead by an arrow. Huangfu Yu threw away his long weapon, pulled out his short weapon, and continued to fight the Khitans. The servant Du Zhimin gave him his horse, and Huangfu Yu sat on the carved saddle and charged into the enemy camp again.

After a while, the battlefield eased and both sides retreated slightly to rest before launching the next round of attack.

At this time, Huangfu Yu found that Du Zhimin had been captured by the Khitan. Huangfu Yu said to those around him: "Du Zhimin is a good comrade, a loyal man, and cannot be abandoned!" Then he and Murong Yanchao pulled up the reins and jumped into the enemy camp again, going in and out seven times to rescue Du Zhimin.

The Later Jin army was exhausted and was just waiting to rescue Du Zhimin so that they could take a breath. Unexpectedly, the Khitans did not follow the moral principles of war and, relying on their absolute advantage in numbers, played a round-robin battle. The Khitan cavalry that had not participated in the battle just now entered the battlefield and attacked the exhausted Later Jin army.

Huangfu Yu and Murong Yanchao were determined, their eyes full of pride, "I'm afraid we will all die here today, so let us die for our country!"

The generals were determined to die, and the soldiers had no desire to live. Encouraged by the two generals, thousands of Later Jin cavalrymen fought bloody battles with tens of thousands of Khitan cavalrymen for half a day, from noon to night, and they still maintained strong fighting power.

It was getting dark, but the scouts had not returned. The soldiers in Xiangzhou Camp began to worry about Huangfu Yu and Murong Yanchao. An Shenqi said, "They went north to investigate the enemy situation, but they have not returned for a long time. They must have been surrounded by the Khitan army!"

Before he could finish his words, a scout who risked his life to escape and report the news returned to the camp and reported that the two generals were surrounded by tens of thousands of Khitan cavalry!
When An Shenqi was about to lead his troops to rescue, the commander-in-chief Zhang Cong'en stopped him, saying that the scout's words might not be credible because he might be a spy instigated by the Khitans to lure us into an ambush and we should not fall into the trap easily. Besides, even if what he said was true, we really could do nothing to help him. Even if our entire army was mobilized, we might not be able to defeat tens of thousands of Khitan troops. We would just be committing suicide if we went. Why bother?

An Shenqi was furious, "Success or failure depends on God. Even if we cannot succeed, we should share the difficulties. If we sit back and watch Huangfu Yu being captured and taken north, how can you and I have the face to see the emperor?" He then led his troops to provide assistance.

In the darkness of night, the Khitan army did not know how many troops the Later Jin had sent, so for safety reasons, the Khitan army lifted the siege and left. An Shenqi successfully rescued Huangfu Yu and Murong Yanchao.

A very dramatic scene was staged again: the retreating Khitan soldiers were in panic and spread rumors to each other, saying that the Later Jin army was sending out a large army and was about to attack them.

This time, it was the turn of the Khitan army to retreat. The Khitan army fled northward overnight and fled all the way to Gucheng (southeast of Zhenzhou).

Zhang Cong'en called a meeting with all the generals and said that the Khitan army was large in number, while we were not only outnumbered but also short of food. The food we had now was only enough for ten days. If a spy leaked the secret to the Khitans, we would be dead. It would be better for us to withdraw to Liyang, where there was not only sufficient food and grass, but also the natural barrier of the Yellow River. That way we would be safe.

The generals were discussing fiercely, but before they could reach a final conclusion, a lieutenant came to report that Zhang Cong'en had already led his troops to withdraw first.

As soon as Zhang Cong'en left, other generals also led their troops to retreat. In an instant, morale collapsed, and the embarrassing retreat of Xingzhou was replayed. Before leaving, Zhang Cong'en only left 500 soldiers to guard Anyang Bridge. After the army withdrew, Fu Yanlun, the acting governor of Xiangzhou, said to his generals: "Everyone has seen the embarrassing scene tonight, right? Now people are panic-stricken and morale is low. How can these 500 frightened birds defend Anyang Bridge?" Then he ordered 500 soldiers to go into the city to rest.

The next morning, Fu Yanlun climbed up the city wall and looked out, and found that tens of thousands of Khitan troops appeared on the north bank of the Anyang River and had already deployed for battle.

Fu Yanlun ordered the defenders on the city wall to wave flags, beat drums and shout.

The "empty city plan" worked. The Khitan army did not know how many defenders there were in the city, so they did not dare to act rashly for the time being.

After a stalemate, the Khitans sent Zhao Yanshou as cannon fodder to step on the mines and ordered him to cross the Anyang River, but not to attack Xiangzhou City. Instead, he should go around the city and advance southward to see Xiangzhou's reaction.

This is one of the main functions of a lackey, to serve as cannon fodder for the master.

When Zhao Yanshou advanced to Tangyin County (between Xiangzhou and Liyang, on the Xiangzhou side), he received news that Shi Chonggui had sent Zhang Yanze to support Xiangzhou, so he turned back.

When Zhao Yanshou came to Xiangzhou City again, he ordered his troops to spread out in formation and make a gesture of attacking the city, showing off his might to Fu Yanlun.

Fu Yanlun predicted Zhao Yanshou's prediction and said that this guy was not going to attack the city, but to escape. He was afraid that we would attack him halfway across the city, so he bluffed to create time for himself to escape. So he sent 500 soldiers to ambush in the north of the city.

Zhao Yanshou's attack on the city was fake, but his escape across the river was real. He was ambushed by Fu Yanlun and suffered heavy losses, but he finally escaped to the other side.

When Shi Chonggui's condition eased slightly, he prepared to lead the army in person. His attendants advised him to take more rest as his health was the most important thing. Shi Chonggui flatly refused, saying that the Northern Di had not been pacified, so how could he rest? He reviewed the troops that day, deployed troops, and began to plan a counterattack.

The second battle was almost a copycat of the first. The Khitans made a strong start, then declined, and finally exhausted themselves. After gaining a huge advantage through blitzkrieg at the beginning, they immediately entered a stalemate phase due to a series of coincidences.

There are internal factors and external factors.

The external factors were the stubborn resistance of the main force of the Later Jin Dynasty and Zhe Congyuan of Fuzhou, who had surrounded Shengzhou (now Tokto County, Inner Mongolia) and was taking advantage of the victory to attack Shuozhou. If Zhe Congyuan had been scratching in the southwest before, the attack on Shuozhou would have hurt the surface. To the east of Shuozhou were Yingzhou and Yunzhou. If Zhe Congyuan had continued to advance, he would have helped Liu Zhiyuan complete the strategic encirclement of the Khitan and cut off the retreat of the Khitan army from the Daibei area.

(End of this chapter)