Han Shizu

Chapter 1279

It was the middle of summer, and half of the eight years of Kaibao had passed. The Great Han's Northern Expedition was in full swing, and the two sides fought desperately on the tens of thousands of miles of border.

By the end of May, the battle situation gradually entered a stalemate stage. On the whole, the big man still took the initiative.After all, the great Han's advantage in national strength is too obvious, and the Liao Kingdom has just undergone the shock of the alternation of the old and the new. Everything can hardly be called stable, and the entire country has to be forced to turn the country onto the track of war.

The reason why the Liao Kingdom was able to wrestle with the great Han to the present level is not only due to its strong military strength, but also because it has a young but wise emperor and a large number of heroes with civil and military talents. Reluctantly managed to unite as one and share the same hatred.

However, no matter how hard the Liao Kingdom fights, the gap in national strength between the two sides cannot be changed, and the disparity in hard power is difficult to make up.

The war may have a certain degree of chance, and there is the possibility of miracles, but still the same sentence, the big man can lose once, twice or even three times with his strong manpower, financial resources, and material resources. As long as it does not hurt the overall situation, he has a chance to come back .

This is not the case for the Liao Kingdom. If it suffers a serious injury, it may be out of control, and it may cause irreparable losses.Therefore, as the war progressed, the pressure shifted exponentially to Liao.

You must know that the spring expedition of the Han Dynasty has had a major impact on domestic production, let alone the Liao Kingdom.With the unfolding of the wars on various fronts, various battle reports were collected to the Privy Council one after another, and Emperor Liu even had the determination to consume the Liao Kingdom with national strength.

If you can't fight in one year, you can fight for one year. If you can't fight in two years, you can fight for two years or three years. In this kind of war mode, the Liao Kingdom can't survive for three years, or even open the treasure for eight years. If you want to go smoothly It will be very difficult to survive smoothly, and this has to be on the premise that the Han army has not made a major breakthrough.

In terms of military talent, after so many years, Emperor Liu has not made much progress, but in terms of vision, he is absolutely unparalleled. He is also most familiar with and likes this kind of bullying tactics.In the field he is good at, Emperor Liu is often as steady as an old dog.

Throughout the entire battle situation, from west to east, the Han army is in a state of full-scale attack.On the west side of the river, Bowang Hou Guojin led a [-]-step rider to the west and marched into the Western Regions.

If you make a ranking list of the Han army, the Hexi army is definitely at the top, even comparable to the elites of the Forbidden Army. The aggressive folk customs, high-quality soldiers, and years of actual combat training have all created the prestige of the Hexi army.

And Guo Jin's westward expedition this time, although not strong in terms of military strength, has a huge impact. It has brought great pressure to the Liao army in the Western Regions. Since the Han army's western expedition, it has shaken its weak rule. up.

Numerous victories have created the prestige of the Han Empire, and its influence has long since penetrated into the Western Regions, and the situation of the people in the Western Regions can be described in one sentence, suffering for a long time!

With the backing of the Han army, the people of all ethnic groups in the Western Regions, who had suffered from the brutal rule of the Liao army, became more courageous. After the Han army entered Yizhou, they raised various banners to revolt against the Khitan people. Rule, from Yizhou in the east to Yanqi in the west, there is no exception.

Among them, the most powerful one is naturally the rebel army led by Pu Le, an old Uighur nobleman.In the vicissitudes of the Western Regions in the past ten years, Pu Le is an unavoidable figure. The most important reason is that he has a particularly close relationship with the big man.

Emperor Liu personally met him several times, and highly appreciated his loyalty, wisdom and righteousness.In the past year and a half, Pu Le sneaked back to the Western Regions several times and organized several resistances against the rule of the Khitan people. Although in the end due to lack of strength, they were all wiped out, and failed to achieve their goals and caused a big storm.

However, being backed by a big man and having the support of a big man also gave him sufficient confidence, the confidence to become more and more courageous after setbacks, and opportunities to start over again.

After Guo Jin's expedition to the west, Pu Le was the first to respond. At that time, he was leading hundreds of Uighurs who hated the Khitan rule to fight guerrillas near Yizhou.Thanks to his close ties with the Han, he was well prepared for the Han army's westward advance. After Guo Jin came to the west, he quickly sent people to spread the news of the Han's western expedition and the rescue of the people of the Western Regions. fire.

In the past year and a half, although Pu Le's uprising has suffered repeated setbacks, it has also accumulated a lot of reputation. With his efforts, his influence naturally spread rapidly.

Moreover, this time with the strong backbone of the Han army, the resistance enthusiasm of the people of all ethnic groups in the Western Regions is naturally particularly high.Only Pu Le's troops recruited troops within half a month and expanded to more than 3000.

And this more than 3000 people played a big role in cooperating with the Han army to attack Yizhou.The imperial court did not have a rigid goal requirement for the Hexi Army, but as the leading general, Guo Jin naturally did not want to be a supporting role, just a spectator.

If you want to make achievements in the Western Regions, Nayi Prefecture is a must. Guo Jin led the army and went north from Guazhou to the city of Zhou.As for how to capture Yizhou, Guo Jin had a long-term plan. It was very simple, and the inside should be combined with the outside.

With the cooperation of Pu Le, as well as the internal support in the city, and the residents who had long been dissatisfied with Khitan's rule, it only took three days to deal a fatal blow to the Liao army in Yizhou.

The city of Yizhou was destroyed, and the 30,000 Liao army guards in the city were all killed, and none of them escaped. Of course, those from the Western Regions were the ones who did it.After reduction, in recent years, the troops deployed by the Liao Kingdom in the Western Regions are less than [-] people.

The annihilation of [-] soldiers was undoubtedly a severe blow to the defense of the Liao Kingdom in the Western Regions. With limited troops, the situation for the Liao Army to defend the huge Western Regions was severe.

Moreover, the defeat of Yizhou opened the door for the Han army to march westward, and the troops under Guo Jin's command were greatly improved.Pu Le's troops were directly incorporated, and even the rebels and tribesmen near Yizhou actively joined the army and gathered together under the banner of the Han Dynasty.

It can be said that the westward advance of the Han army completely ignited the enthusiasm of the people of all ethnic groups who had been oppressed and exploited all the year round. They were particularly active in revenge against the Liao Kingdom and against the Khitan people.

At that time, the Uyghurs in Xizhou had millions of people. After the conquest of the Liao army, the population dropped sharply to less than [-]%. Coupled with the social turmoil in recent years, the Khitan people continued to squeeze and continued to decrease.

Even so, the few remaining 100,000 people rioted would be enough for the Liao army to drink a pot.And this is also Guo Jin's biggest support for daring to fight the Western Regions with a mere [-] steps. The easy capture of Yizhou is proof, and the capture of Yizhou has also successfully leveraged the overall situation of the entire Western Regions.

After following Guo Jin, a large number of Xizhou adherents who fled to Hexi back then asked the Hexi government to prepare their own weapons, horses, and rations, and return to the Western Regions to fight for revenge.

Faced with the enthusiasm of these Xizhou adherents, the Hexi government naturally welcomed them, but they could not make the decision. It was still Ludoxun who was very courageous, and agreed to these people's request first.

Therefore, Guo Jin was sent to the west, adding more than 3000 fighters with a strong will to fight. By the end of May, Guo Jin's west expedition had grown to more than 30,000 people and was approaching Gaochang City.

However, under the ups and downs, the situation of the Liao army in the Western Regions became worse and worse. Not only did they have to face the main force of the Han army led by Guo Jin, but the whole people rebelled internally, and it was boiling.

In the vast territory of the Western Regions, except for several major cities, the remaining towns and villages are either occupied by the people of the Western Regions or under the control of the Han army.In particular, the revenge of the people in the Western Regions was cruel and bloody, almost repaying ten times and a hundred times the suffering they suffered back then, forcing the Liao army not to disperse.

The Liao army in the Western Regions, unknowingly, fell into the predicament of the Uighur country when Yelu Xiezhen went west.

Under this crisis, contradictions also arose within the Liao army.There are three main people in charge of the military and administration of the Western Regions in the Liao Kingdom, Yelu Yilaiha, the appeasement envoy, Yelusha, the recruit envoy, and Yelu Dilie, king of Wei who was excluded from the power center of the Liao State.

Yelu Yilaiha is the confidant of Yelujing, the first emperor of the Liao Dynasty, and Yelusha is a battle-tested general. The opinions of the three are very different.Yelu Dilie advocated concentrating forces, taking the initiative to attack, and destroying the main force of the Han army led by Guo Jin. In Dilie's view, as long as the Han army was defeated, the other Western Region rebels would be just a mob and not a serious problem.

Yelu Yilaiha and Yelusha held clear objections, and Yelu Yilaiha insisted that they should stick to it until the situation changed.Yelusha, on the other hand, has to be more decisive. He believes that the Western Regions are no longer defendable, and there should be a choice. The specific measures are to give up Qiuci and Gaochang, preserve their strength, shrink to Luntai and Beiting in the north, and move the land south of Tianshan Mountains. The territory was given over to the Han army.

Compared with the north and the south, due to geographical advantages, the Liao army has stronger control over the northern cities.However, his opinion was met with opposition.

During the past few years when Yelu Yilaiha ruled the Western Regions, he felt that the Western Regions were in decline, people's feelings were greatly disturbed, and people's hearts were in turmoil. The people of all ethnic groups had a backlog of hatred for Daliao. They were already starting to restore the economy and develop people's livelihood, and made some progress.

However, the sky failed to fulfill his wishes, the battle between Han and Liao, and the westward expedition of the Han army completely broke his plan.In addition, the historical problems caused by the Western Expedition of the Liao Kingdom and the long-standing ethnic hatred are difficult to resolve.

Amid such contradictory opinions, the situation of the Liao Kingdom in the Western Regions inevitably declined.And Guo Jin, in this situation, after being fully prepared, also planned to launch a decisive battle, the Battle of Gaochang.

In the latest Western Region Battle Report received by the Privy Council, Guo Jin stated that within a month, all the land in Xizhou south of the Tianshan Mountains will be under the control of the big man.

In the Western Expedition to the Western Regions, including Emperor Liu, they didn't have too much expectation, they just took a side. However, unexpectedly, it was Guo Jinjun who made the first breakthrough in the Liao War.

As long as you take advantage of the time and people, there will be no disadvantages!

(End of this chapter)