Tibet.

Chapter 1337: Northern Expedition to Songmo

Chapter 1337: Northern Expedition to Songmo
After resting for several days, Guo Ziyi divided his troops into two groups and ordered Ma Lin to lead 40,000 troops to garrison Liucheng and try to transfer all kinds of food and fodder supplies from Juehua Island to Liucheng.

Guo Ziyi personally led an army of 120,000 and marched towards the heartland of the Khitan, the Khitan's old nest, Songmo Military Governor's Mansion.

The Khitan at this time was far from being comparable to the Khitan Kingdom a hundred years later. Later, the Yelu tribe rose. With the efforts of several generations including Yelu Abaoji and Yelu Deguang, the Khitan completely annexed the Liaodong tribes, including the Bohai Kingdom, and conquered the various nomadic peoples in the north, establishing a powerful Khitan Kingdom.

Later, he seized Youzhou, which he had dreamed of for a hundred years, from Shi Jingtang, obtained advanced military technology from the Han people, further expanded his strength, and established the Liao Dynasty, while forming a strategic advantage over the entire northern Song Dynasty.

But this is the Khitan more than a hundred years later. The current Khitan is still led by the relatively conservative Yaonian tribe and the emerging Diela tribe. It is just a large tribe in Liaodong with a population of hundreds of thousands and an army of more than 100,000.

His only advantage was that he annexed the Baixue tribe in the north during the Tianbao period, giving the Khitan a strategic depth to the north, and he also accepted 60,000 surrendered troops from the Bohai Kingdom last year.

In addition, the Khitan also had a traditional ally, the Xi tribe. It was at the request of the Khitan that the Xi tribe sent 20,000 troops to cut off the retreat of the Tang army.

The reason why Li Ye valued the Khitan and asked Guo Ziyi to exterminate the Khitan clan was not only because the Khitan killed his brother Li Huai, but more importantly, Li Ye knew the later history of the Khitan and he would never allow the Khitan to have another chance to rise.

The fall of Yingzhou and the annihilation of the 50,000-strong army shocked the entire Khitan. Su Khan Yaoyanbo was frightened and hurriedly discussed with Yilijin Yelu Salad.

Yilijin means the general of the alliance, and also the military leader of the Khitan tribes. Currently, the position is held by the leader of the emerging Diela tribe, which was later the Yelu tribe. The leader of the Diela tribe, Yelu Salad, was the great-grandfather of Yelu Abaoji.

Yelu Salad certainly wanted to rescue Liucheng. Dieci Feng was not only his nephew, but the 30,000 troops under his command were also the elite of the Dieci tribe.

However, under the unanimous opposition of Su Khan and the leaders of various tribes, Yelu Salad finally gave up the rescue of Liucheng and let Diecifeng break out, resulting in the almost complete annihilation of the 30,000-strong army.

Yelu Salad was extremely angry, but he also knew that if he went to rescue, more soldiers would die.

However, he was very annoyed by the attitude of Su Khan and the various tribes. It was obvious that they had selfish motives in opposing the dispatch of troops.

Although he was annoyed, Yelu Salad still put the overall situation first. The Khitan tribe was now at a critical moment of life and death, and he could no longer be selfish and willful.

Yelu Salad pondered for a moment and said, "The Tang army is coming with great momentum and is extremely powerful. I suggest abandoning Songmo and heading north to Xundi to avoid their attack for the time being."

Su Khan was shocked. "Songmo is our ancestral land for generations. How can we give it up so easily? Didn't we agree to only evacuate women, children and the elderly, and not the main force?"

Another nobleman, Xiao Naigu, said worriedly, "This time the Tang army's march north is unusual. They may want to restore the Andong Protectorate and rebuild the prefectures and counties. I'm worried that once they give up Songmo, they will never be able to come back."

Yelu Salad shook his head. "The Tang army's target of attacking Liaodong this time is not just Khitan. If we retreat north, the Tang army will temporarily let us go and turn around to attack the Japanese army entrenched in Bohai, as well as the Silla army and even the Xi tribe. Especially the Xi tribe, if they are destroyed, there will definitely be a large number of scattered Xi people coming to us, and our strength will increase. If we can persuade the Shiwei tribe to join forces with us, then we may have more than 200,000 troops and can fight the Tang army. Once the Tang army is defeated, Songmo Prefecture can still be recaptured. At that time, the two sides will negotiate peace, Khitan will be saved, and we will be even stronger."

Yelu Salad's words moved Su Khan, and he said with some worry: "The Tang army is all cavalry, and they are coming very quickly. I am afraid that we will not have time to retreat before the Tang army attacks us."

Yelu Salad nodded. This was indeed a big problem. He thought for a moment and said, "We can send Yelu Shula and Diecifeng to lead 60,000 Bohai troops to intercept the Tang army. Since these guys have no sincerity, we can just use them up and buy time for us to retreat!"

This plan was approved by Su Khan, and Xiao Naigu beside him remained silent. Yelu Shula was the eldest son of Yelu Salad, and Yelu Salad actually sent his eldest son out to intercept. Xiao Naigu didn't know what to say.

Moreover, the 60,000 Bohai troops surrendered to the Khitan, but refused to change their flags and banners. They were determined to fight back to recover their homeland and demanded high treatment, which made the Khitan people very angry. When they were asked to intercept the Tang army, Su Khan and Xiao Naigu had no objection at all.

The Khitan tribes began to mobilize and retreat northward. Although some Khitan tribes did not want to leave their ancestral land, they had to reluctantly leave after seeing other tribes leaving.

At the same time, generals Yelu Shuci and Dieci Feng led 60,000 surrendered Bohai troops south to intercept the 120,000 Tang troops heading north.

The main force of the Tang army entered the Songmo area, which covers a large area. To the west is hilly and mountainous land, which is today's Chifeng, and to the east is today's Khorchin grassland.

Therefore, the Khitan people were quite complex, with both fishing and hunting tribes in the west and nomadic tribes living on the eastern grasslands.

The Tang army did not move north quickly. After all, the Songmo area was unfamiliar to them, and this was the Khitan's old nest. Moving north hastily would easily put them in a passive position due to the terrain, which was not in line with Guo Ziyi's style.

Early that morning, the army was gathering and preparing to set out when a scout came to report that an army of about 50,000 to 60,000 people had appeared thirty miles to the north. Judging from their attire, they did not look like Khitan troops.

Guo Ziyi was stunned. Could there be other troops in the Songmo Prefecture area?
"Marshal, could it be a Xiren?" "Impossible?"

Guo Ziyi shook his head and said, "The Xi people are in the south, it is impossible for them to come from the north."

At this time, General Zhang Dian suddenly said, "Marshal, the enemy is not the Bohai Navy! Didn't they say that the main force of the Bohai Navy surrendered to the Khitan?"

This is very possible. If it is really the Bohai Navy, then it would be interesting. The Khitans did not come themselves, but sent the Bohai Navy to intercept them, which is obviously consuming this army.

Guo Ziyi suddenly had an idea. Oh no! The Khitans must have started to retreat northward, so they sent the Bohai Army to stop him.

But soon, Guo Ziyi calmed down. No matter whether the Khitans retreated or not, he must not be impatient, let alone underestimate the enemy, otherwise he would suffer a great loss.

At this time, Zhang Dian suggested: "Marshal, the Khitans seem to want the Bohai army to fight for their lives, but the Bohai army may not really work hard. I think if we use some hard tactics to show them, maybe they will have other ideas!"

As expected of the Tang army's top scout, his views were bold and innovative. Guo Ziyi agreed with him. He turned around and ordered, "Order the Third Firearms Battalion to come up!"

The Third Firearms Battalion had a thousand men, equipped with the latest kind of firearm, which had just been sent from Chang'an to Liaodong. It was called arrow thunder, and was fired with a large crossbow. A total of fifteen hundred arrow thunders were sent. Although most of them were given to the army that was conquering Nanzhao, fifteen hundred arrow thunders were still enough.

The one thousand people were divided into five hundred groups, with two people in each group, equipped with a large yellow crossbow and three arrow mines, and of course normal heavy crossbow arrows and explosive arrows.

The 120,000-strong army was too many, so Guo Ziyi decided to send only 20,000 troops north, and he personally led an army of 100,000 to support them from behind.

The 20,000-strong army was led by Zhang Dian. Over the past decade, Zhang Dian grew step by step from a scout brigade commander to a general commander, a third-rank champion general, and the Duke of Jincheng County. He made numerous contributions. On the merit list of the Guanlong Army and even the Tang Army, only the inner guard commander Li Chenghua could compare with him.

After marching for twenty miles, a black line appeared in front of them, and 60,000 Bohai troops appeared.

The Bohai army had nine generals: the chief general Yelu Shuci, the deputy general Diecifeng, and another deputy general Ren Tianling.

Ren Tianling was the main general of the Bohai Kingdom's army. After the Bohai Kingdom was destroyed by the Japanese army, Ren Tianling was shocked and angry. At this time, their logistics were interrupted and their food supplies were about to run out. In desperation, he had to lead his army to surrender to the Khitan.

One of the surrender conditions at that time was that the Khitans help them restore their country, and the Khitans readily agreed.

Therefore, the Bohai Army did not change its flag or even its uniform, and still maintained the battle flag of the Bohai Kingdom, which made the Khitan very dissatisfied.

Ren Tianling kept urging Khitan to fulfill their promise and send troops to help Bohai recover its country, but at that time Khitan had just signed an alliance agreement with the Japanese army to fight against the Tang army, so how could they send troops to help them recover their country? So he kept postponing it and perfunctorily appeasing the Bohai army.

How could generals like Ren Tianling not see that the Khitan were just trying to fool them? They were angry but helpless because their army needed the Khitan to supply them with rations. Once the food was cut off, their army would fall apart.

This time, Yelu Salad once again used logistical supplies as a threat to force 60,000 Bohai Navy troops to move south to block the Tang army.

Although Ren Tianling was extremely reluctant, he had to agree to send troops out of gratitude.

Behind Ren Tianling were six generals of the Bohai Kingdom, each commanding an army of 10,000 men.

At this time, a spy came to report that 20,000 Tang army vanguards were spotted ten miles ahead.

Die Cifeng was startled and quickly whispered: "The Tang army is extremely cunning, we must not underestimate the enemy!"

Yelu Shuci glared at him. The original purpose was to consume the Bohai navy. If he did not underestimate the enemy and force them to fight, would he still lead them to retreat?
Yelu Shuci immediately said to Ren Tianling: "General Ren, now is your chance to repay the Khitan!"

Ren Tianling nodded, turned around and shouted: "First Army, Second Army, Third Army, prepare to attack!"

(End of this chapter)

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