Tibet.

Chapter 1351: The Massacre in Beijing

Xi Wanli, who was in the woods ten miles away, could see clearly. He waved his hand and said, "The Third Army, attack!"

A cavalry of 5,000 men emerged silently from the woods. They took the low-lying ground, and the undulating terrain blocked them. They appeared several miles behind the Japanese army, cutting off their retreat route back to Shangjing.

Ten thousand Japanese cavalrymen rushed into the formation of heavy armored infantry like dense locusts. The tall and strong heavy armored infantrymen began to strangle them. They waved their Mo Dao and split the short cavalrymen in two.

Xu Zongran was even more powerful. He roared and swung his sharp Mo Dao, chopping off more than a dozen heads.

Blood splattered everywhere in the formation, and the air was quickly filled with a pungent smell of blood.

The heavily armored Modao Army can be said to be the pinnacle of the cold weapon era, with extremely sharp weapons, extremely powerful individuals, and well-coordinated formations. The Japanese army had never encountered such a powerful army. They were like entering a huge meat grinder, with five heavily armored infantrymen forming a blade, and a thousand blade heads twisting at the same time. Ten thousand cavalrymen didn't even scream, and in just a quarter of an hour, they were twisted into a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood.

The heavy-armored infantry array advanced forward, and the open space they left behind was littered with broken limbs and piles of human organs, human heads and horse heads, human and horse corpses mixed together, blood flowing like a river, brain matter spilt everywhere, it was simply bloody and horrifying.

The 20,000 warriors at the back had already collapsed, but they could not escape. After more than 7,000 of them were also killed, the remaining warriors were so frightened that they turned around and ran away. The heavy armored infantry stopped advancing.
Fifteen thousand cavalrymen attacked from both sides and instantly broke into the enemy group. They hacked and killed mercilessly. There was no resistance at all. The Japanese warriors fought on their own and could not get close to the Tang army at all. They were mercilessly pierced through the bodies by the Tang army's spears and died wailing, but at least their bodies were intact.

They killed and raped the people of Bohai like a group of demons, but when they met the powerful Tang army, they became a group of weaklings and had no way to fight. It was a completely one-sided massacre.

At this time, Ren Tianling led 50,000 troops into Shangjing City. Their opponents were only 3,000 Japanese troops. The two sides fought like crazy in the streets and alleys. In less than an hour, the 3,000 Japanese troops were killed. However, they resisted stubbornly and fought desperately with the Bohai Army. The Bohai Army also paid the price of 5,000 deaths.

The Tang cavalry suffered dozens of casualties and less than a hundred injuries, and the heavy armored infantry did not suffer any casualties at all.

In just half a day, the Tang army wiped out 38,000 Japanese troops. Even Guo Ziyi was shocked by the speed. However, after learning about the height, equipment and combat level of the Japanese soldiers in detail, Guo Ziyi understood: how could a skinny soldier who was only five feet tall be defeated by the Tang army soldiers who were an average of six feet tall on the cruel battlefield?

In his second battle report to Emperor Li Ye, Guo Ziyi wrote: "This is an army without long weapons, composite bows, armor, strong horses, formations, or overall combat capabilities. It is a useless army.

But it is incredible that this army, which could only be slaughtered unilaterally by the Tang army on the battlefield, destroyed the Bohai Kingdom, according to my investigation.

This army was treacherous, despicable and shameless. After pretending to gain the trust of King Bohai, they launched a sneak attack on Shangjing at night. All the soldiers in this army had a devil's heart. They were fierce and brutal, and killed all the unarmed civilians.

Cunning, meanness, cruelty, sneak attacks, coupled with the stupidity and confusion of the King of Bohai and the attacks of the Khitan army on the periphery, these were the main reasons for the demise of the Bohai Kingdom.

The next step for me will be to attack Khitan with all my strength and make sure to destroy it. The detailed plan is as follows."

Guo Ziyi had already received the Flying Eagle Message forwarded by the Emperor, which required him to disband the Bohai Army after the Japanese army was destroyed, and send its main generals to the Chang'an Martial Arts Hall for further training and other appointments.

That night, Ren Tianling handed over the military power to Guo Ziyi, who then sent hundreds of troops to escort Ren Tianling and his thirteen men to Chang'an.

On the third day after Ren Tianling left, Guo Ziyi ordered that part of the seized money and grain be distributed to more than 50,000 Bohai navy soldiers, and each of them be given 100 acres of land, officially disbanding them all and sending them back to their hometowns. As a large number of Bohai people who had fled to other places returned, these soldiers would remarry and have children and become subjects of the Tang emperor.

In the eagle letter, Li Ye changed Bohai Kingdom into Bohai Prefecture and Binhai Prefecture at the same time, appointed military Sima Pang Huimin as the first governor of Bohai Prefecture, appointed Gao Hongwei as the first governor of Binhai Prefecture, and led a team led by Zhang Hao, the Minister of State Affairs and Yellow Gate, with Pei Shiyan, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and Gao Shi, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, as their left and right deputies, leading hundreds of officials to follow them to Liaodong, to redivide the border and arrange officials.

Li Ye also ordered Guo Ziyi in the eagle letter to reward the property seized from the Japanese soldiers to the three armies to boost morale. Most of the wealth accumulated by Bohai was sent back to the country by the Japanese army, but was intercepted by the Tang army on the way. At least 30% of the wealth was looted by the Japanese soldiers, mainly copper coins. Gold, silver and jewelry had to be presented to the emperor. The Japanese soldiers only had copper coins and cloth, 1.5 million copper coins and 600,000 pieces of cloth. Except for a small part used to accommodate the soldiers of Bohai, Guo Ziyi rewarded the remaining more than 1 million copper coins and cloth to all soldiers who participated in the Liaodong Campaign.

For a moment, the morale of the three armies was high and there was thunderous cheers.

Guo Ziyi also ordered the closure of all government warehouses in Shangjing City and waited for Zhang Hao to return to deal with the situation.

The first batch of property shipped back to Japan was mainly gold, silver, jewelry, silks and satins. In fact, there were second and third batches of supplies to be shipped. These were things that the Japanese soldiers could not get and had to be shipped back to their country.

It mainly includes precious medicinal materials and precious animal skins. There are hundreds of ginsengs that are over 100 years old, and even more than a dozen ginsengs that are 1,000 years old. There are also hundreds of kilograms of precious ambergris. The precious animal skins are mainly tiger, leopard and bear skins. In addition, there are a large number of sheepskins, pig iron, copper ingots, etc. in the warehouse.

Guo Ziyi ordered Li Chengshi to temporarily lead the navy to garrison Bohai Prefecture and Binhai Prefecture.

He also ordered a part of the navy to block the Yalu River, temporarily suppressing Silla south of the Yalu River.

Guo Ziyi immediately divided his troops into three routes. Nan Jiyun led 50,000 troops to take the eastern route, Ma Lin led 50,000 troops to take the western route, and Guo Ziyi personally led 60,000 troops to take the central route. Each army was equipped with 30,000 camels for logistics and food supplies. The 160,000 troops crossed the Songmo area and marched towards the Xidi where the Khitans were currently living.

Xidi is the area around Ulanhot City in Inner Mongolia today. It has always been the activity area of ​​Xi tribe. Xi tribe was a branch of Xiongnu and lived here for more than a hundred years, but was eventually annexed by Khitan.

At this time, the supreme commander of the Khitan army, Yelu Salad, had been paying close attention. When he learned that the Tang army had wiped out more than 30,000 Japanese troops with a crushing momentum, and that the Xi tribe was also finished, he knew that the next target of the Tang army's attack must be himself.

But they had no way to retreat. To the north was the territory of the Shiwei and Heishui Mohe peoples, and to the west was the territory of the Bayegu tribe.

However, the Khitan and the Shiwei tribe had a good relationship. If the Khitan tribe really wanted to enter the Shiwei tribe's territory to seek refuge, it was not impossible.

So Yelu Salad proposed a temporary retreat. Unexpectedly, this idea immediately caused an uproar. First of all, the Khitan tribes firmly opposed continuing to retreat to the north. They would fight to the death in Ningyuan and the Tang army and would never retreat another step.

But what really made Yelu Salad despair was the attitude of the Shiwei tribe. First of all, the Shiwei tribe flatly rejected the Khitan's request to borrow troops, and said that once a Khitan entered the Shiwei territory, he would be a Shiwei person.

What this meant was that once the Khitans crossed the border, they would have no choice but to join the Shiwei tribe and become Shiwei people.

Helpless, Yelu Salad had to muster up his strength to discuss with Su Khan how to deal with the Tang army.

"Khan, the Tang army is heading north in three groups. This has its pros and cons, of course. The biggest disadvantage is that the troops are dispersed, which gives us an opportunity.

We currently have more than 90,000 troops gathered from various tribes. If we concentrate our forces to defeat the three Tang armies one by one, we will have a chance to counterattack. Not only can we recover Songmo Prefecture, but we can also seize the territory of Xidi and Bohai State."

Su Khan also agreed with Yelu Salad's plan to concentrate his forces and defeat them one by one. He thought for a moment and said, "General, which route do you think we should take the initiative to attack?"

Yelu Salad said calmly: "The strength of the three Tang armies is about the same, so why don't we concentrate our forces to defeat the Tang army in the middle, which is where their commander is. As long as we defeat it, the other two Tang armies will surely be defeated!"

(End of this chapter)