Late Tang

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"Khitan has already been in chaos, and the three major tribes of Sanyelu are in conflict. The three tribes of the Dahe clan and the three tribes of the Yaonian clan have united. The scale of the battle is not large, but the situation has become more and more tense. The Khan of Khende gathered his troops in the Yellow River, and the Yelu Pugu led his troops in the Tuhuzhen River. The other thirteen tribes were also more or less affected. Implications. The Diela tribe is recalling their tribal soldiers and horses on the front line of Liaoxi and Liaohe River to the area of ​​Tuhuzhen River."

"A large number of Khitan soldiers and horses originally stationed in Yingzhou in western Liaoning returned to their original places, and the Diela tribe on the Liaohe River also returned one after another, especially the Lianla tribe under the Diela tribe, which has completely retreated to the north of Jili Prefecture. Jian’an Prefecture. And the Lianshi Department sent a thousand riders back to Khitan.”

In the Changxing Island military camp, Gongsun Lan explained the latest situation to the generals by looking at the mountains and rivers on the sand table, "According to the information we have found, the Khitan people are currently busy with civil strife, and most of the troops in Liaoxi and Liaodong have withdrawn. Especially In front of us, there are no Khitan soldiers in Jili Prefecture, and they all retreated to Jian'an Prefecture. However, although the Khitans retreated to Jian'an Prefecture, Gao Dexin in Jili Prefecture originally had no more than 1000 troops, and he went to the east several times. The people of Goguryeo asked for help. Now Gao Dexin is re-garrisoning various mountain cities, but there are only [-] soldiers and horses left in the headquarters, of which there are only [-] cavalry.”

Jingxiang asked, "What about the other reinforcements in Goguryeo? The various ministries have helped several times before, and there are five to six thousand reinforcements before and after."

Gongsun Lan said with a smile: "There are no reinforcements. Most of the thousands of reinforcements before were eaten by the Khitans, and the rest returned to various ministries after the Khitans returned to Jian'an Prefecture. Gao Dexin in front of us, only 3000 people."

Li Jing smiled slightly, "There are fourteen mountain cities in southern Liaoning and Jili Prefecture. Now nine are in our hands, and only five are still in the hands of Gao Dexin. 3000 people guard five mountain cities, although the mountain cities are strong and dangerous. , but with these 3000 people, it is impossible to defend." Li Jing pointed to Jian'an Prefecture and Jili Prefecture, "This time we will not move, and we will move like thunder. We will win the empty Jili Prefecture and It's not difficult, the key is that I plan to take Jian'an Prefecture together, and even take Anshi Prefecture together. Directly use this attack to push our troops to the mouth of the Liaohe River and occupy Liaodong Bay and Liaoshui River As long as we occupy the estuary of the Liaohe River, we can transfer the navy to build a water city here. When necessary, our navy can go directly against the Liao River, intercept the Khitan reinforcements, and even attack the Khitan. back."

The Liaohe River is an important dividing line between Liaodong and Liaoxi. At the same time, it is nearly [-] miles long and the seventh largest river in China is an important passage from the sea to Fuyu, and even Khitan and Shiwei.It is very important to control the mouth of the Liaohe River!

All the officers nodded, and Gai Yu asked Li Jing: "Gao Dexin only has 3000 troops left, and this little army is no match for us at all. But if we can defeat others without fighting, the result will be better. We Are you considering surrendering to Gao Dexin?"

"You can try to surrender, but you can't stop the march. Send people to Jili City to surrender, and give Gao Dexin ten days to consider. During these ten days, our soldiers and horses can advance by land and water, and the Jinzhou Road will pass by land. Water and land can go up the Fuzhou River and Biliu River from the east to the west, and rush to Jili City from three sides. If he hasn't made up his mind within ten days, he will attack the city directly." Li Jing squeezed his chin, his tone Some icy way.In fact, because he snatched Gao Dexin's daughter-in-law to be his seventh wife, Li Jing was not confident that Gao Dexin would surrender.Therefore, it is simply too lazy to hold this hope.Although there may be some losses in the storm, he can use this to show the forces in the Liaodong land the force of Xiazhen[***].

"How are the soldiers and horses transferred?" Li Jing turned to look at Li Zhen. Li Zhen was appointed as the governor of Pingzhou, but he was still called for this battle.

Li Zhen stood up unhurriedly, took out the booklet in his hand, looked at it for a few moments and replied: "According to the commander's order, this time the Northern Expedition will mobilize ten soldiers with fifty thousand soldiers, and unite with auxiliary troops." Thirty battalions with 5000 people, and 10 township regiments with 18 auxiliary troops, and 5000 young and strong peasants from all states will be recruited to be responsible for grain transportation. The total mobilization is [-] soldiers, [-] auxiliary soldiers, and [-] civilian husbands people, a total of [-] people.”

"18 people were organized into the Northern Expedition Battalion, and all the soldiers were organized into the front, rear, left, center, and right armies."

Li Jing nodded. Last year, although a large road was built in southern Liaoning, the Fuzhou River and Biliu River were also dredged.But this time Li Jing's ambition is not small, and he plans to swallow Jili Prefecture, Jian'an Prefecture and even Anshi Prefecture at once.With an army of [-] plus [-] auxiliary troops, and a large number of horses, the food and grass that needs to be consumed every day is by no means a small number.What's more, in order to avoid the casualties of attacking the mountain city, Li Jing built a large number of siege equipment last year.This has greatly increased the difficulty of logistics and transportation. In order to ensure logistics, not only a large number of livestock, soldiers, and food were mobilized this time, but also [-] civilians were recruited at one time, and even these [-] auxiliary soldiers, their main tasks were also It will be the transportation of food and supplies for the guards.

18 people were mobilized to participate in the battle at one time, which was the first time for the town [***] to fight on such a scale.

Nearly 20 people and more than 20 war horses and horses and donkeys were consumed, and the demand for food and grass was huge.

"Considering the terrain of Liaodong, transportation is very difficult, so it is estimated that 50 shi of food and grass will be used every month. In addition, 18 people are expected to pay 5000 million guan in food and wages. In addition, the consumption of various ordnance is also very huge!" Jinzhou governor and head of the camp Secretary Guo Chengan added.

Li Jing looked at Li Rang, Li Rang nodded and said: "After a year of preparation, a large amount of food and grass has been stored in southern Liaoning. There are so many civilian husbands, please don't worry about the logistics, I will guarantee to follow Supply. As long as the general is not advancing at a speed of hundreds of miles a day, I don’t think we need to worry too much. We are also well prepared for the rewards of money and food for the soldiers and the civilian auxiliary army. Town [***] Fan Treasury, But I have prepared a large sum of money for this!"

To fight such a large-scale battle, the daily consumption of money, food and equipment is huge.However, Li Rang is not too worried. The prospect of sending troops this time is very bright.Although it consumes a lot, as long as the three prefectures of Jili, Jian'an, and Anshi can be captured as planned, the dividends of the war will be enough to earn back everything consumed.Even if it is only Jilizhou, it will not lose money.

Li Jing nodded with satisfaction, and said loudly: "The Chief of Staff immediately issued the marching organization of the Northern Expedition camp to each army, organized each army, and issued a letter of soldier seal. The army was divided into five groups, and the left and right armies came from Fuzhou River and Biliu Hebei. Above, the two generals Zeng Yuanyu and Zhao Ji lead the Shenjie Army and Feixiong Army as the vanguard of the front army, opening the way in front. The commander led the Chinese army and then followed from the main road, and Li Rang led the rear army auxiliary army and civilian husbands to guard the baggage Follow along."

"Xiaoqisi immediately sent flying cavalry to scout the post, and went out to inquire about the military situation."

All the generals took orders one after another. In this large-scale battle, Li Jing left 30 soldiers to garrison the counties of Denglai, Ziqing and Pingzhou.Regarding the terrain of Liaodong, Li Jing knew very well that the more soldiers dispatched, the better.The terrain of Liaodong has extremely high requirements for logistics and supply, and the pressure is extremely high.In the Sui and Tang dynasties, both Emperor Yang of Sui and Emperor Taizong of Tang personally conquered Liaodong, but in the end, the logistics supply could not be provided in several books, and they had to withdraw their troops.In particular, Emperor Sui Yang's three expeditions to Liaodong were defeated. When the scale was the largest, he sent millions of troops and recruited millions of civilians, but they were all defeated in the end.Especially in the battle of Sashui, the 30 soldiers of the Ninth Army crossed the Yalu River, and the Goguryeo people used the strategy of deceiving the enemy to advance lightly, which attracted 30 soldiers of the Sui Army to pursue them continuously, and finally when the Goguryeo people counterattacked However, the Sui army had no food and grass, so it was defeated in one blow, and the entire army of [-] people was wiped out.

After countless deduction, the final proposal from the Chief of Staff to Li Jing was to dispatch 5 troops.Li Jing originally wanted to pay only 2 people, but this plan was rejected by the Chief of Staff.Their reason was that when the clansmen of the Tang Dynasty conquered Liaodong, they also attracted the experience of Emperor Sui Yang's failure to conquer Liaodong, so they only brought a total of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses to conquer Liaodong, and they were divided into several divisions.As a result, although the battles were victorious, there were too few troops, and the final expedition to Liao failed. The biggest reason was that there were only tens of thousands of people around Tang Taizong at that time.

In the end, Li Jing agreed to the number of 5 soldiers from the Staff Department, but although it was finally decided to transfer only 13 soldiers, the number of auxiliary soldiers and civilians finally set by the Staff Department also reached 5000, and they also mobilized horses and guards. There are more than [-] donkeys on horses.

Li Jing really spent his money this time. Not only did he send all the mountain cavalry and mountain infantry that had been trained in southern Liaoning over the past year, but he also equipped all the cavalry with two horses and horses for the infantry.This luxurious arrangement was not aimed at the Goguryeo people who were no longer a threat, but was aimed at the Khitan people from the very beginning.

For Li Jing, when fighting the Khitan people, he did not want to hurt his ten fingers, but made up his mind from the very beginning that once he fought with them, he must encircle and annihilate them.Even if the number of encirclement and annihilation is small each time, this effect must be pursued.

With such a strong mobility, it is to compete with the Khitan people's light cavalry dashing who come and go like the wind.

For Li Jing, he was actually very afraid of Khitan.Because Li Jing knew that Khitan had taken the opportunity to rise.During the Five Dynasties, the Khitan people repeatedly led some of them southward to plunder the Hedong and Hebei provinces.The Khitans were not only fierce, but also numerous in number. Several times they led 30 troops to invade the South.

Khitan soldiers and horses are based on tribes, and each Khitan main soldier has two Khitan auxiliary soldiers, one is dedicated to raiding grass and valleys, and the other is dedicated to guarding the camp. 30 troops, at least [-] regular soldiers.[-] Khitan Qingqi, Li Jing was startled just thinking about this amount.

In fact, Li Jing was also a little bit at a loss, not knowing whether it was right or wrong to forcefully stroke the Khitan tiger's beard like this.

But as long as he remembered that after the rise of the Khitan in Tang Dynasty, the Khitan people oppressed the Han people for hundreds of years, Li Jing finally strengthened his determination to collide with the Khitan!

With him, Li Jing, there will never be another Khitan occupying Youyun Sixteen Prefectures! (To be continued.)