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

Chapter 1004: Jibei fights for Baozhong City, reinforcements head north to meet Wozhou
The fifteenth year of Xia Chengqian, the fourth year of Qingtai in the Later Tang Dynasty

February 6
Jibei Prefecture was originally expanded on the basis of Jicheng City and served as the military function of Daxia in the northern border.

The city walls are high and the moats are deep, and outside the city there are numerous military fortresses such as forts and towers, making Jibei City look daunting.

However, Yelu Deguang seized the opportunity that the Xia army was seduced by the Khitans, and stationed his army in Huairong City north of Juyongguan. Only Prince Bai Tao of Ji and 6,000 defenders were left in the city.

Although the Khitans were not good at attacking cities, it was too difficult for the huge Jibei City to be guarded by only 6,000 Xia troops.

Therefore, in just six days, Bai Tao sent people to seek help from Kaifeng, sent a letter to the outside of the Great Wall asking them not to send help, and then gave up the outer city and retreated to the inner city.

They relied on the houses between the inner and outer cities to delay time by engaging in street fighting with the Khitans to seize every inch of land.

A month later, there were too many Khitans, and the infantry sent by the Later Jin emperor to support the Khitans arrived in Jibei.

The casualties of Xia’s army in street fighting suddenly soared.

After much deliberation, Bai Tao decided to give up street fighting and retreat into the central city to defend it.

It has been another month since the Khitans attacked the central city of Jibei.

But nothing was achieved. Even after setting up a supervision team and forcing the Later Jin infantry to attack the city at the risk of their lives, they were unable to capture the central city.

The west tower of the outer city became a lookout tower for Yelu Deguang to observe the war in the city since the Xia army abandoned the outer city.

Looking at the enemy repelling another attack on the city in the distance, he looked very unhappy.

"Pass the order down, take one out of every five Jin troops that have retreated, and have the rest escort the Tang troops to attack the city."

As Yelu Deguang's order was issued, a bloody massacre began not far outside the central city.

The Khitans gathered the defeated Jin troops together, selected one person out of every five, made him kneel facing the center of the Xia army, and beheaded him with a single blow.

In just a few moments, a thousand Jin soldiers were killed and dismembered right under the eyes of the Xia army.

The Xia army on the central city looked at each other with frowns on their faces, but they did not feel anything. After all, those who died were all Jin people, traitors who defected to a foreign race.

But what happened next made the Xia army soldiers on the city furious.

I saw dense crowds of people being pushed out by the Khitans. These people were captured by the Khitans from all over Hebei and used as supplies to fill the trenches.

Under the orders of the Khitans, the remaining 4,000 Jin troops, who were originally trembling with fear at the thought of being conscripted out of five, raised their butcher knives and attacked the people of the same ethnic group as them.

Tens of thousands of unarmed civilians were chased by 4,000 Jin troops and had to run towards the central city of Jibei.

He ran while shouting for help from Xia Jun on the city wall.

However, the Jin army was right behind them, and behind them were the Khitans, who were riding on war horses and following slowly behind them.

"Your Majesty, what should we do?" On the city wall of Zhongcheng, Yan Shangping, the governor of Jibei Prefecture, asked Bai Tao with bloodshot eyes.

Bai Tao narrowed his eyes and said coldly, "Shoot."

"But."

"The king said, release the arrows."

Seeing this, Yan Shangping sighed, turned around and went down the city wall.

The commander who received the order hurried down to convey the order.

In a short while, the common people, who had already run hundreds of steps outside the city wall, encountered a dense rain of arrows from the city wall.

Among them are giant crossbow arrows as thick as arms.

"what!"

Outside the city, curses, screams, and pleas for mercy were heard everywhere.

The Jin army responsible for the pursuit was also shrouded in a hail of arrows.

There was no time to obey the Khitan's order to pursue and kill, so they turned around and ran, thus breaking up the Khitan cavalry formation.

It was the mission of the 4,000 Jin troops to drive the people to the inner city. Now that the mission was completed, although their formation was broken up, they were still useful, so the Khitans naturally would not kill them.

After just half an hour, only a few thousand of the thirty thousand people were left who were lucky enough to reach the city wall.

"Release the basket and pull the people up."

Since there is no threat from the enemy, Bai Tao will naturally not let the people fend for themselves under the city wall.

Baskets were thrown off the city wall, and the shivering people scrambled to sit on them. Then they were pulled onto the city wall by the Xia army soldiers and sent into the city.

Because the outer city was abandoned, tens of thousands of people crowded into the inner city.

Fortunately, Jibei is a military city with a small population, otherwise the civilians alone would consume all the food reserves in the city.

According to Yan Shangping's statistics, given the current situation, Zhongcheng can still hold out for three months.

Three months later, the city will be facing a food shortage crisis.

In the following days, the Khitans continued to arrest civilians in the surrounding areas and ordered their Jin troops to escort them to attack the central city.

After each attack, thousands of civilians would be left at the foot of the city for the Xia army to take over.

As a result, within just a few months, the population of Jibei Central City increased by 10,000 to 20,000.

Yan Shangping had no choice but to find Bai Tao and tell him about the crisis: "My lord, if this continues, we won't be able to survive for two months, let alone three months."

Bai Tao still had a cold expression and did not allow for rejection, saying, "I understand, King. Go down."

Yan Shangping hesitated for a moment, but ultimately said nothing more.

After Yan Shangping left, Bai Tao came to the city wall and looked at the sky, his look of determination becoming more and more intense.

March 23
There is less than one month's worth of food and fodder left in Jibei City.

Bai Tao ordered that except for the soldiers who were given two meals a day, the rest of the people would only have one meal a day, thus providing half a month's extra food.

The Khitans continued to arrest civilians and force them to join the siege.

In four months, the Khitans lost no more than a thousand people, the Jin people sent by Shi Jingtang lost several thousand, and the Hebei people who were forced into battle by them suffered more than 100,000 casualties.

In order to capture enough civilians to fill the city, the Khitans had to run further and even came to the Dizhou border of Jingdong North Road.

Jingdong North Road, Dizhou, Yanci
Li Cunqian stood at the bridgehead and watched the army continuously arriving at the north bank of the Yellow River via the pontoon bridge.

For this expedition, Baijian dispatched 50,000 imperial guards, including all the cavalry.

Together with the 30,000 troops led by Bai Lang earlier, there were a total of 80,000 elite troops.

"Report, Marshal, Khitans are pillaging villages in Yangxin."

"Let Chu Cai come to see me."

Upon hearing Li Cunqian's call, the cavalry commander Chu Cai did not dare to stay and immediately came to the commander-in-chief.

"I will order your troops to be the vanguard of the army and immediately go out to investigate the situation in Jibei. Remember, do not let the Khitans seize the opportunity and trap us."

"Order."

After accepting the order, Chu Cai led the first 5,000 cavalrymen who crossed the river and headed north to serve as the vanguard for the main army.

April 6
The Khitan emperor Yelu Deguang, who was watching the siege, learned that the Xia army was heading north and had passed Cangzhou.

He also learned that a part of the Xia army was moving northward along the coastline and had already arrived in Wozhou, southeast of Jibei City, only a few dozen miles away from Jibei.

In order to buy time for the capture of Jibei, Yelu Deguang made a prompt decision and left his younger brother Yelu Jindong to lead 10,000 Khitan cavalry, and continued to besiege Jibei with 5,000 infantry formed by the Tang military academy that had surrendered to him and 5,000 Jin troops, totaling 20,000 people.

He personally led 50,000 Khitan cavalry, 20,000 puppet troops, and 10,000 Jin troops south to fight against the Xia army in Wozhou.

As for the main force of Xia army in Cangzhou, isn’t it still far away?
(End of this chapter)