A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 1002: Seeking help from Khitan, each with his own thoughts, and going to Chang'an with his own hidden agenda

"Your Majesty, please have mercy and send troops to rescue our Lord."

In Shangjing, the capital of the Khitan Kingdom, the sound of horse hooves could be heard everywhere outside the small earthen city. From time to time, tribal cavalry from afar arrived here, only to be led to the camp by Khitan officials, waiting for the future departure.

Moreover, once the cavalry arrived near Shangjing, they were not allowed to leave. If they left at will, they would be shot and killed by the patrolling Khitan cavalry.

This is to prevent spies from spreading information about the cavalry gathered here.

In a luxurious grassland tent in Tucheng, Sang Weihan cried with tears in his eyes, knelt on the ground and kowtowed, asking Yelu Deguang to send troops in advance to rescue Shi Jingtang who was trapped in Taiyuan.

Yelu Deguang was a little hesitant.

Because in his expectation, he would wait until most of the cavalry were gathered before heading south, so as to deal a fatal blow to the Xia Kingdom.

And now there are more than 160,000 cavalry gathered near Shangjing.

If he were to propose marriage by heading south, he might alert the enemy and make the Xia Kingdom prepared. The situation would definitely not be more favorable to him than if he had gathered all his troops.

Moreover, Shi Jingtang still had sufficient military forces, and if he went south at this time, he would not receive the highest courtesy.

After all, adding icing on the cake is nothing compared to providing timely help.

Only by making Shi Jingtang completely unable to hold on and forced to rely on himself can he gain the greatest benefit.

Just when Yelu Deguang was hesitating, Sang Weihan had to display his real talents and knowledge. After all, he was a graduate of the regular imperial examination system and had won the title of Jinshi.

He just explained the situation clearly and said, "Your Majesty, why are you still hesitating? Is it because the conditions my Lord has given you are not generous enough?"

"Throughout history, has there been another great ruler in the Central Plains who has been as close to the Khan of the grassland as my lord?"

"If your hesitation leads to our lord's defeat in Taiyuan, his death and the extinction of his clan, and the Later Tang regains control of Taiyuan, will you still be able to break the Xia Kingdom's defense?"

"When my master is defeated, it is foreseeable that the one who will succeed him will be Zhang Jingda. Doesn't Your Majesty know who he is?"

"He became famous when he was young. He followed Zhuangzong Cunxu very early. Later, he was highly valued by Mingzong Siyuan. He often stationed in Hedong and killed and injured many people of your country."

"Is it in the best interests of His Majesty to have him replace my Lord and become the governor of Hedong?"

"It can be predicted that when he comes to power, he will definitely make peace with the King of Ji of Xia State and build this Yanyun defense line into an airtight one. Your Majesty is a wise leader, how could he not see the disadvantages in this."

In the end, Yelu Deguang listened and promised to send troops to lift the siege of Taiyuan as soon as possible.

Sang Weihan was overjoyed and kept kowtowing to express his gratitude to Yelu Deguang for his great kindness, promising to serve him diligently in the future.

The third year of Qingtai in the Later Tang Dynasty and the fourteenth year of Chengqian in the Xia Dynasty

September 23
The Khitan Emperor Yelu Deguang personally led an army of 50,000, claiming to have 300,000 troops, to provide assistance from Yanmen Pass and successfully advanced to Taiyuan from Yangwu Valley.

After Yelu Deguang arrived in Jinyang, he deployed his troops at Hubeikou in the north of Fen River.

Later Tang cavalry generals Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing immediately led the Later Tang cavalry here to fight against them.

Upon learning that Yelu Deguang had arrived, Shi Jingtang hurriedly sent Liu Zhiyuan to send troops to help them.

September 25
Zhang Jingda, Yang Guangyuan, An Shenqi and other Tang generals lined up their infantry at the foot of the mountain northwest of the city, while the Khitan sent 3,000 light cavalrymen to charge without armor.

Seeing that the Khitan troops were outnumbered, the Tang soldiers scrambled to drive them away until they were driven to the bend of the Fen River.

However, the Khitan soldiers were light and waded away.

At this time, the Khitan troops lying in ambush here all rose up and rushed in from the northeast, breaking the Tang army formation into two.

Most of the Tang army infantry in the north were killed by the Khitan, while the Tang army cavalry in the south retreated back to the Jin'an camp.

Seeing that the Tang army was defeated on a large scale, the Khitan cavalry took advantage of the chaos to attack, and the Tang army was defeated, with more than 10,000 casualties.

However, although the Tang army was defeated in this battle, its cavalry was still intact.

Then Zhang Jingda gathered the remaining troops under the cover of the cavalry and built a city wall in Jinan.

The Khitans took the opportunity to cross the river to the south and surrounded Jin'an Village.

At this time, the Tang army still had 50,000 soldiers and 10,000 horses, and the outcome of a decisive battle with the Khitan was still uncertain.

However, Zhang Jingda stubbornly defended Jin'an Village and sent someone to inform Li Congke and request support, because Shi Jingtang was still lurking in Taiyuan City.

In November, the food in Jinan Village was about to run out, but there was no sign of reinforcements.

Every time someone fought desperately to break out of the siege, the reward they got was that they were still on the way.

Until recently, the Khitans had been very strict in their defenses, and Jin'an Village had been completely cut off from any news from the outside world.

Zhang Jingda ordered his generals Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing to lead the cavalry into battle several times, but they were outnumbered and unable to break out.

As the siege lasted longer, the generals in the village began to waver.

Among them, Deputy Recruiting Envoy Yang Guangyuan and Second General An Shenqi repeatedly persuaded Zhang Jingda to surrender to the Khitan, but he refused.

Seeing that Zhang Jingda remained unmoved, Yang Guangyuan frequently signaled to An Shenqi to kill Zhang Jingda.

But An Shenqi couldn't bear to do it and pretended not to see it.

Gao Xingzhou knew that Yang Guangyuan was planning to assassinate Zhang Jingda, so he often led elite cavalry to follow Zhang Jingda to protect him.

He only stopped after arousing Zhang Jingda's suspicion and being scolded.

On this day, Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing once again followed Zhang Jingda's orders to break out.

Yang Guangyuan took advantage of his unpreparedness, beheaded him, and led the generals in the camp to surrender to the Khitan.

November

After the various vassal states stopped advancing and watched Zhang Jingda's defeat, they surrendered to Shi Jingtang one after another.

November 26

Shi Jingtang arrived in the capital area with the help of Khitan cavalry.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Li Congke took the imperial seal with Empress Dowager Cao, Empress Liu, his son Li Chongmei and others to the Xuanwu Tower, where he burned himself to death. Thus, the Later Tang Dynasty came to an end.

November 30
Under Yelu Deguang's enthronement, Shi Jingtang ascended the throne, changed the era name to "Tianfu", the country's name to "Dajin", and established the capital in Chang'an.

The Khitan leader took off his clothes and gave it to him.

Shi Jingtang accepted Khitan clothing and, in accordance with the agreement, ceded the former Yunzhou of the Tang Dynasty and the Yanzhou area of ​​the Xia Dynasty to the Khitan Kingdom in the form of writing, and sent troops to assist the Khitan troops in leaving Yanzhou of the Xia Dynasty.

At the same time, Shi Jingtang always referred to Yelu Deguang, who was ten years younger than him, as his father the emperor, and promised to pay an annual tribute of 300,000 pieces of silk.

Back in time.

After the Khitan leader personally went to Taiyuan to lift the siege of Taiyuan, he left the general Yelu Anduan to continue cooperating with Shi Jingtang to besiege Jin'an.

He rode quickly back to the Yunzhou area which he had already taken control of, joined up with the 100,000 Khitan soldiers who had been waiting there, quickly crossed the Sanggan River to the east, and invaded Weizhou.

Zhao Yanshou, the governor of the Hengye Army guarding Weizhou, was shocked when he saw the endless stream of Khitan cavalry galloping past. "A real man should be like this."

"General Jie, are we just going to watch them pass by? Should we warn the Xia people in the east?"

Zhao Yanshou’s younger brother, Zhao Yanzhao asked with some reluctance.

Hearing this, Zhao Yanshou slapped him in the face and said unhappily, "What are you reminding me of? Do you think your life is too long? Don't you see the wolf-like and tiger-like cavalrymen below?"

"But, they are all Han Chinese, me."

"Humph, let me tell you, times have changed. Even Shi Shuai addresses the Khitan leader as his father. Who can we, who are so weak and incompetent, defeat?"

"And how can we stop it? You, me, or our thousand men? It's stupid."

Zhao Yanzhao was still a little unconvinced: "At worst, I can just die. At least I can leave behind a name of hero."

Zhao Yanshou sneered, "Hero? You? Or me? Ninety percent of the historians in this world are from the Bai family. General Shi has already divided Weizhou to the Khitan Kingdom."

"We were in Tang before, and our descendants will be in Khitan from now on. We have always been enemies of Xia. How can they waste words praising you? Forget it."

Zhao Yanzhao lowered his head after being told this. Although he did not agree with his brother's words in his heart, the situation was stronger than him and he was just a bastard's son.

As he was speaking, Zhao Yanshou saw a tall wolf flag flying towards him from a distance. His eyes lit up, and he quickly pulled Zhao Yanzhao down the city and said:

"Quick, follow me to meet the Khitan leader. Who knows, the wealth and glory of our Zhao family may lie in it."

(End of this chapter)