Late Tang

(Thank you for listening to books every day, Lai Pu, Qi Zhen, Decadent Fog, Mengmengmengmengmeng, Confidante Hero Tears, and Dreams in the World for your support and rewards, thank you all, thank you very much!)

On the fifth day of the first month of the fifth year of Qianfu in the Tang Dynasty, under Lulongsai, there was heavy snow and the cold wind was like a knife.

A large army is advancing quietly on the muddy road, the flying snowflakes are caught in the cold rain, covering the heavy footsteps of the soldiers, the horseshoes, the sound of the wheels, the sky is gloomy like dusk, dull but chilling!

In a chariot among the army, Li Jing frowned tightly and said nothing, his face was gloomy and terrifying.

In this expedition to western Liaoning, Li Jing was determined, and it can be said that he fought against the city.An army of one hundred thousand, and a long time of preparation, plus a lot of food and grass for civilians, and almost all the elites of civil and military under his command.Advisors Li Zhen, Li Liang, Gai Yu, Jing Xiang, Li Meng, Li Chun, Li Rang, Cui Zhiyuan, Du Zhongwu, Guo Chengan, Xiao Dingbang, Han Anguo, etc.They also mobilized the generals of the Guo family of Guizhou, such as Lin Wei, Lin Wu, Wang Zhong, Li Juyi, Zhou Dewei, Guo Shunli, Guo Zhenshan, Guo Zhenhai and other Guo family brothers, and Zhao Ji and other Chenzhou Guo family generals.In addition, there are eleven generals among Li Jing's twelve disciples.In addition, there are Liu Shouqian, Zhang Chengshou, Pei You and so on.

In addition, more than a dozen eunuchs of the Supervisory Academy, including Zhang Chengye and Zhang Wanrong, were added.

Almost all the elite Li Jing were mobilized in the [***] Jiaping Lu Army.

In the battle of Liaodong last year, Li Jing defeated Goguryeo and Balhae.Forcing Bohai to withdraw from the war in Liaodong for indemnity, Koguryo also suffered heavy losses and shrank in Liaodong, Xincheng, Gaizhou, Baiyan and other cities.

The Khitan people were in turmoil, and the Khan of Khende was in full swing with the Yelu family of the Diela tribe who controlled the Khitan military power.

At this time, it is the best time to recover western Liaoning.Otherwise, when the Diela tribe has cleaned up Khan Hende and regained control of the [-] military powers, the generals of western and eastern Liaoning will have long nights and dreams.Li Jing's decision was approved by all the generals. Before Wang Jingwu made chaos and Gao Pian provoked, Zhen [***] also strongly fought back.Even because of this, half of Ziqing Town was controlled in one fell swoop.

Although Gao Pian had a lot of trouble in agreeing to Zhen[***], in the end, because of Li Jing's strong insistence and after heeded Gai Yu's suggestion to split up the southeastern generals, he first reached an agreement with Zhen Haijun Zhou Bao , and eventually disintegrated Gao Pian's alliance.Forcing Gao Pian to finally bow his head to Li Jing, he asked Lanling Xiao to come forward and ask for reconciliation.

In this confrontation, Zhen [***] completely gained the upper hand, slapped Gao Pian hard, and won a beautiful victory.

However, the victory with Gao Pian does not make Li Jing happy now.

Li Juyi led the Crane Cavalry Army out of Shanhaiguan and marched along the Xuanshui River to the west of Liaoning.The operation did not go smoothly at the beginning. In Dushan, the upper reaches of Xuanshui in the northeast of Shanhaiguan, [-] Khitan soldiers and horses were stationed on the mountain, blocking the way of the crane-controlling army.The two armies fought more than ten times in the valley below the mountain, and the extremely elite crane control army was blocked by the Khitan cavalry who had only twice the number of them.

After receiving Li Juyi's report, Li Jing immediately sent Liu Xun to lead [-] forward troops to reinforce.

But three days later, Liu Xun sent someone to send back an urgent report. After Liu Xun arrived, he failed to defeat the Khitan.While Zhen [***] was supporting Liu Xun, the Khitan Diela Department contacted Xi Ren, dispatched Xi Ren's cavalry to reinforce the White Wolf Water to Xuanshui, completely blocking Zhen [***]'s way into western Liaoning .The Xi people and the Khitan cavalry were sturdy, and the land in western Liaoning had long been occupied by the Khitan, so they had local combat advantages.Between the mountains and the valley, [-] crane-controlling cavalry and [-] frontier troops fought together, but it was difficult to advance before the [-] Khitan and Xi allied troops.

Facing the geographical advantage occupied by the enemy, Li Jing decided to give up the refueling tactics.Dushan guarded the Xuanshui River Valley, the terrain was narrow, and large troops could not be deployed at all. Even if Zhen [***] sent troops forward, it would be difficult to gain the upper hand after losing the advantage of the terrain.

Continue to advance to Dushan according to the original plan. The final result is that the two sides will fight an offensive and defensive battle around Dushan.For Li Jing, this is not a result he would like to see.

Since ancient times, there have been three famous passages from Youzhou to the fortress.

Pinggang Road, Lulong Road and Endless Road.

Among them, Pinggang Road starts from Miyun in Huairou, exits the Gubeikou Pass, reaches Luanping, crosses the Luan River to Pingde, then goes east to Pingquan, and goes north to Pinggang, the source of the Laoha River.But because this road is to enter the mountain pass from Gubeikou, and Gubeikou is not in the territory of Pingzhou, Zhen [***] did not plan to take this road from the beginning.

Lulongdao and Wuzhongdao are both within the territory of Pingzhou controlled by Zhen [***].

Lulong Road is to leave the customs from Lulongsai, go north along the Lushui River, cross the Yanshan Mountains to Pingquan, go north to Pinggang, and go north from Pinggang to the Laoha River, entering the territory of Khitan.And to the east, it enters Lingyuan, which is the midpoint of the route without end.Here, to the south is Xuanshui, you can follow the valley to the south and go down to Shanhaiguan, and Dushan is in the middle.To the northeast is Bailangshui, and to the northeast along the Bailangshui is Bailang Mountain, and two hundred miles away is Liucheng, the central camp state in western Liaoning.

The previous offensive route for the west camp was to go out of Shanhaiguan, go east along the Xuanshui River, pass through the Dushan Mountain, and then enter the Bailangshui River Valley, and take this most important passage into Liao Dynasty since the Warring States Period to Liucheng in Yingzhou.But now, the Khitan people's control over western Liaoning exceeded Li Jing's expectations. Instead of retreating to defend Liucheng, they directly led their troops to fight in Dushan, not far from Shanhaiguan.

Historically, when Wu Zetian rebelled against the Tang Dynasty, the Khitan people defeated the Tang army in Dushan and wiped out the entire army of five thousand Tang cavalry.Now, the Khitans obviously want to repeat the glorious victory of the year.

Now the access to Liaoxi is blocked, and the soldiers and horses of Zhenxi Road are blocked to the west of Bailangshui. This is an extremely bad situation.If the army in the west of Zhen [***] cannot enter the west of Liaoning as planned, then the soldiers and horses of the East Road in Anshi in the east will have to face the Khitan soldiers and horses alone.

Now that the Liaohai Sea has been frozen, many generals proposed to temporarily suspend the use of troops, and let the troops in the east battalion return to An City, Jian'an.Wait until Zhen [***] takes down Dushan, and then send troops again.

However, Li Jing directly rejected this proposal. In the current situation, even if Zhen [***] took down Dushan, there was still a more dangerous White Wolf Mountain behind.The marching route of Zhen [***] has been completely exposed, and it will undoubtedly be very disadvantageous to march according to the original plan.If the plan is exposed, the secret and surprise will be lost, and the Khitan soldiers will control the narrow terrain of the White Wolf River Valley Passage, which will make it even more difficult for Zhen [***] to advance.

An even more important reason why Li Jing was about to give up his original plan was that the Khitan people pulled Xi Ren into the chariot.For a long time, although Xi was a large tribe of reading power, it came from the same origin as Khitan.For many years, it has always been under the control of Khitan, advancing and retreating with them.Whether it was against the Turkic people, or against the Goguryeo people, or even against the Tang Dynasty, the Khitans were always coercing Xi Tong to advance and retreat.Now, the Diela Department tied Xi to the chariot, and together they faced Zhen [***].

This is by no means good news. In this way, the Khitan people will have enough soldiers to fight against Zhen [***] while dealing with Khan Khan.

At this time, Li Jing proposed a new plan.

When sending troops out of Lulongsai, they did not go directly to Lulong Road, but went north along the Luan River, going straight to the most difficult [-]-mile valley road, and then arrived at Chengde in later generations.This also entered Xi Ren's rear area.Xi Ren has already responded to the order of the Khitan Diela to go to western Liaoning to participate.The front line of Xuanshui must be guarded by Xi Ren, but if it is Hiraoka Road in the rear, they must defend the emptiness.

Take this dangerous road, detour to the back of Xiren, and after reaching Pinggang, directly enter the Laoha River, which is the Tuoqichen River, and go down the river to reach Xiwang Yazhang, which is located in Ningcheng in the later generation, and copy Xiren. lair.

This is a dangerous move, because the road is very difficult and dangerous.Especially from Lulongsai to the customs, along the Luanhe River for five hundred miles, the road is very difficult.Especially at this time is the cold winter season, it is even more difficult.Only after crossing these five hundred miles to reach Chengde and taking Pinggang Road will the road be smoother.

Li Jing believes that although this new plan is a bit more difficult and dangerous, it was for this reason that he gave up this route of dispatching troops.However, compared to the current situation, Li Jing thinks it is worth it.By following this path, he could avoid the guards of the Xi people and the Khitan people, get into King Xi's tooth tent in one fell swoop, and even directly kill this ally of the Khitan people.Then Kexin inserted directly behind the Khitan people at Dushan, and went straight to Bailangshan.After taking White Wolf Mountain, they will be able to carry out a perfect anti-encirclement against the Khitans in Dushan.

Gather the main forces of Annihilation Dan on both sides of Dushan, and then directly capture Liucheng in Yingzhou and recover western Liaoning.

It's just that many people are worried about this proposal, because the five hundred miles along the Luan River are too difficult and dangerous.Such a difficult road means that logistics, transportation and supplies are difficult.In such a long area, it may not even be inhabited.After the army entered, once the food was cut off, the consequences would be unpredictable.In particular, when Li Jing proposed that the general lead the troops himself, all the generals objected.

In the end, Li Jing proposed a supplementary plan, that is, to send an elite army out of Luan River, but not many.At most 1 or [-] people, they will go north with light clothes to implement this roundabout plan.

At the same time, Li Jing pointed out a new channel.

That is to send another large army out of Shanhaiguan and take the Liaoxi Corridor.

The Liaoxi Corridor is a road that was submerged in the sea during the Warring States Period.

It was not until the Tang and Song Dynasties that this passage, which borders Liaodong Bay on the east, Songling Mountain on the west, and runs from southwest to northeast, is about [-] miles long and [-] miles wide.

From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties, the main route from the Central Plains to the Northeast was to go out of Yuguan and then follow the Daling River Valley, pass through Jianchang, Chaoyang and turn east, cross Yiwulu Mountain to Liaoyang, an important town in the Northeast.The Liaoxi Corridor along the coast has not been opened up, why?

The coastal hills in the west of Liaoning are undulating, rock masses are widely distributed, and there are few people. Although there are grasses and hairy roads, it is still in a closed state of desert. There are neither important towns nor fortresses. The local government and local officials are nothing more than national leaders who submit to the Central Plains court, and the court and the people have no request to open up the Liaoxi Corridor.The Daling River is densely populated, and Liucheng was an important town in Liaoxi County in the Western Han Dynasty.

Therefore, although a more convenient road can be built along the coast, there has never been a road.

What Li Jing meant was to camp in the west and build a road directly from the coast of Shanhaiguan to the mouth of the Liaohe River.

The main force of the West Route Army will build the Liaoxi Corridor, and then suppress [***] an elite division secretly out of the Luan River Valley, directly attacking King Xi's Yazhang, and inserting it behind Dushan! (To be continued.)