Late Tang

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The first year of Guangming, May.

The four Northern Expeditionary armies have all been out of the customs for half a year, among them Zeng Yuanyu led [-] troops out of Andong Province, and finally entered the Bohai Kingdom Beijing Xiande Mansion.Zhou Dewei led [-] troops out of Liaodong Province and entered Fuyu Mansion of Bohai State.The Bohai court also withdrew to the Zhongjing Mansion, and mobilized troops and horses to station in the two mansions to cooperate with the Qin army, preparing for a decisive battle with the Khitan coalition forces under the city.

Among the two groups of troops, Zeng Yuanyu's army in the Zhongjing Mansion was the first to meet the main force of the coalition forces who had captured the Longquan Mansion in Shangjing and headed south.Zeng Yuanyu took Xianzhou, Xianfu, as his base camp, and divided his troops in Chongshan, Chongzhou, the border between Shangjing and Zhongjing. The soldiers and horses were stationed along the Huhan River, guarding the south bank of the Huhan Sea.

And Zhou Dewei's army was stationed in Fuyu Prefecture in the northwest of Bohai State, with its headquarters in Fuyu City, Fuzhou, and the forward stationed along Sumoshui from northwest to southeast.

Qin Jun's two Northern Expeditions, one east and one west, fortified along the river with Sumoshui and Huhan River, and formed a Y-shaped triangle with the logistics camp located in Xijingfu, the source of Yalu water.In addition, the Qin Army's navy generals Mei Gen and Zhu Li also led the joint fleet. After the Liaohai thawed, they set off from Pyongyang to replenish at Zhangyingying Qinghai Town in the south of Silla, and then bypassed the Sanhan Peninsula and arrived in Bohai State. On the eastern coast of China, landed in Nanjing and Tokyo on the Bohai Sea, and supported operations at sea.

For many vassals and towns in the Central Plains, this is just a battle outside the customs.

But for Li Jing and the soldiers of Qin Fan, this was a battle of great importance and great influence to Qin Fan.

Strategically, this will be a big battle to determine the overlord of the Northeast and the pattern of the next 30 years.In terms of scale, Khitan, Shiwei, and Heishui jointly dispatched 20 Huqi.The Bohai State also mobilized all the remaining 20 horse infantry soldiers, and Li Jing also mobilized a total of five armies of horse infantry, water and land to participate in the battle. 15, 35 for the joint fleet of Julie and Meghan.The five-way army of the Qin Army was 20, and with the addition of 55 from the Bohai State, the total strength reached [-].

The coalition forces of Bohai and Qin Fan were 55, and the coalition forces of Khitan, Shiwei, and Heishui were 20 cavalry. It was a super battle that brought together nearly 80 horses.If it is counted as the Khitan soldiers and horses on the Huangshui grassland, this battle may reach a scale of one million people.

This is also the battle with the most investment and the widest combat area for the Qin army so far. There are 35 troops, and the regular combat troops have reached 15 troops, a full [-] horses.

Zeng Yuanyu was the one under the greatest pressure in this battle.

This late bloomer, who had been in idle positions for half his life and was not able to be reused, was a former general of the Tang Dynasty. Since joining Li Jing's command, he has been performing extraordinary. It can be said that Zeng Yuanyu's experience is somewhat similar to that of Li Jing, the God of War in the late Sui and early Tang Dynasties.Although he has all kinds of strategies in mind, he never got the chance to prove himself at first.

A thousand-mile horse needs Bole.

Li Jing is Zeng Yuanyu's Bole, and Li Jing has always been giving Zeng Yuanyu a chance.Zeng Yuanyu's performance did not disappoint Li Jing, and he dominated many times.But now, as the most critical point in the entire battle, Zeng Yuanyu must use his [-] cavalry, [-] combat steps, [-] auxiliary troops, and [-] Bohai soldiers to stop the Khitan coalition forces at Xiande Mansion. One hundred thousand main cavalry troops.

In the strategic plan of the entire campaign, Zeng Yuanyu was the eye of the overall situation. He was the only one who supported the offensive of the coalition forces, blocked the footsteps of the coalition forces, and dragged their main force to Zhongjing.Then the other legions will have a chance.Especially to create opportunities for Guo Chongtao's army.

If Zeng Yuanyu can't hold on, then the entire strategic defense line of Sumoshui, Hushui, Yalushui, and the east coast may be completely broken through from point to point. At that time, not only the Bohai Kingdom will perish, but Qin Fan spent countless efforts to manage it. The rear of Liaodong may also be completely destroyed in one day.

Zeng Yuanyu, who entered Zhongjing, met the king of Bohai immediately, and forcefully forced the king of Bohai to hand over the command of the Bohai army in Zhongjing to him for unified command.Immediately afterwards, Zeng Yuanyu unified the 15 Qin Army in Zhongjing and the Bohai Allied Army into three levels: Zhan, Auxiliary, and Prepared. Most of the Bohai Army was classified as auxiliary army, and more were incorporated into the prepared army.Then one soldier, two auxiliary armies, and three reserve armies were re-mixed.Then, Zeng Yuanyu didn't even intend to stay in Zhongjing City and passively wait for the coalition forces to attack.

Instead, take the initiative to defend, play strategic defense, and there will be counterattacks in the defense.

Along the Huhan River from Zhongjing to Shangjing, Zeng Yuanyu leaned against the mountains along the river, set up gates and villages, and deployed multiple troops to defend in layers.

Chongshan, Baishan, and Dongmoushan each deployed heavy troops. His strategy was not to let the Khitan allied forces easily go all the way to the city of Xianzhou.Instead, we must rely on the advantages of mountains and rivers to block them step by step, using space and time to let Hu Qi bleed continuously, gather less and become more, and finally effectively attack them.When the offensive and defensive battle of the Zhongjing Prefecture was finally launched, the enemy army lost [-] to [-]% of its soldiers and horses.

In addition, Zeng Yuanyu also formulated a plan to fortify the walls and clear the fields.

Starting from the border where Shangjingfu entered Zhongjingfu, all the people in the states and counties along the way had to move to Zhongjingfu and further west to the south.In addition, all grain, fodder and livestock must be taken away, and no grain or fodder shall be left for the Khitan coalition forces.Even houses had to be burned and wells blocked.

Zeng Yuanyu even gave a very ruthless order that the water sources in the mountains, villages, rivers and other places in the counties and counties withdrew into the rivers, and all the sick and dead livestock were thrown into the rivers to actively create diseases and plagues, creating difficulties for the Khitan coalition forces.

It is best to have difficulties, no difficulties, and the creation of difficulties will not make it easy for the Khitan people to come over.

At the same time, while actively defending, he has not forgotten to send dozens of special forces to go deep into the Longquan Mansion in Shangjing, which has been occupied by the Khitan coalition forces, to lead Bin Mansion, Anbian Mansion, Anyuan Mansion, Huaiyuan Mansion, Dongping Mansion, Tie Li Mansion, etc. Wait for the enemy's rear to destroy.Assassinate their generals, burn their granaries, attack his logistics troops, poison water sources, instigate rebellion, spread rumors, and so on.Even Zeng Yuanyu sent several missions to Silla, Dongying, Heishui, Shiwei and other places to lobby Silla and Dongying to send troops to support the Qin army in combat, or to raise food and grass for the Qin army. Permissions for the purchase of grain and grass in both countries.But for Heishui and Shiwei, he promised them various benefits to persuade them to withdraw.

Zeng Yuanyu even sent a mission to the Khitan commander, proposing that as long as the Khitan coalition forces stop fighting, the Qin army will immediately retreat.Even Qin Bing was willing to persuade the royal family of Bohai to accept the actual control area of ​​the two sides as the new border, and Qin Jun and Bohai were willing to no longer ask for the return of the areas currently occupied by the Khitan coalition forces.

Originally, when Li Jing handed over the most important burden of the entire campaign to Zeng Yuanyu, Qin Fan still had some objections.But when Zeng Yuanyu passed these arrangements back to Yanjing, no matter who they were, they were very satisfied with Zeng Yuanyu's plan.

This plan can be described as watertight!

Judging from this plan, Zeng Yuanyu is absolutely worthy of Li Jing's trust.

"Is Zeng Shuai a plan to slow down the troops? Or is there another plan to be arrogant?" The 10,000+ Qin Fan and Bohai Sea coalition forces are already actively preparing for the battle, and the food and supplies in the rear are also continuously transported to the front through the Liaohai and Yalushui. The war is about to break out.At this time, Zeng Yuanyu sent an envoy to see the Khitan Commander, and offered to suspend the troops to strike. This was obviously a deliberate show of weakness, delaying time, making the Khitan Commander underestimate the enemy, and at the same time buying more time for the Qin Fan Bohai coalition forces to prepare.

After all, the opponent is defending and the opponent is attacking.The longer the time dragged on, the better it would be for Qin Jun.

"It must be." Li Jing chuckled.

Since ancient times, if the soldiers are strong and the horses are strong, there will be no point and talk about fair trade.If the Qin army claimed at this time that if the Khitan coalition forces did not immediately surrender and retreat, they would crush the three tribes, Hu Man would probably be a little worried.But now the Qin army is uncharacteristically, softly proposing to cease troops.Even Qin Jun didn't even make any move to counterattack Bohai, but blindly appeared to strengthen the city defense with Fuyu and prepared to defend to the death.Under such circumstances, Qin Jun's performance will only be regarded as weak by them, or Qin Jun is powerless or does not want to contribute too much to participate in the affairs of Bohai State.

It is not surprising that Hu Man has this kind of thinking, which is very in line with the thinking of this era.

After all, although Bohai State is an ally of Qin Fan, it is only an ally after all.Although the demise of the Bohai Sea has the worry of dying lips and teeth, but if half of the Bohai Sea can be preserved without the Qin army working hard to fight from afar, then in most cases, this will be the choice.

But this is not the same as Li Jing's way of thinking, because although Li Jing is an ally of Bohai and the son-in-law of the King of Bohai, as early as when the black water invaded, he had already planned to kill people with a knife and drive away tigers and wolves.Li Jing's battle plan is not to protect the Bohai State, but to annex the Bohai State.If it was just to protect Bohai, Li Jing would not work so hard.But if Li Jing wanted to use this to annex Bohai Kingdom, this battle must be fought.

Just like this, the Khitan coalition forces failed to detect Li Jing's real bottom line again and again, and made misjudgments one after another!

"If this battle can be won, we can take the opportunity to annex Bohai Kingdom in one fell swoop." Li Jing said domineeringly, "After this battle, there is no need for Bohai Kingdom to exist anymore, and after this battle, Bohai Kingdom must also be extremely weak. We happen to allow the troops stationed in Bohai to directly take over the states and counties of Bohai. However, for the sake of smoothness, we can consider letting the King of Bohai abdicate for the time being, and then let the current prince of Bohai succeed us, and we will control it. In this way, when the time is right for a few years, we will The Bohai Kingdom can be completely merged into our Qin Fan."

Although Li Jing is still Bohai's son-in-law, this is not the time to talk about affection.

Jing Xiang, envoy of the Staff Council, said: "I'm not too worried about the situation in the Northeast, let alone the situation in the Bohai Sea. What I'm more worried about is another thing. Now that the situation in Huangchao has taken a turn for the worse, the court's momentum has risen again, and the Son of Heaven It seems that he is a little uneasy about the status quo. This time, he suddenly gave officials and generals of the Qin Dynasty a lot of titles, and they were all high rewards. This is not a good sign. I thought it was not just the emperor who wanted to win over the soldiers of the Qin Dynasty Xin Xin, this is Xiang Zhuang's sword dance, and his intention is for Pei Gong, and he is completely directed at His Highness. For this, what can His Highness do to deal with it?"

Although this time the emperor's imperial edict directly granted Jing Xiang, Li Jing's dog-headed military adviser, the title of Prince of Feng Yi County, and added the post of inspector Zuo Pushe.But Jing Xiang is very clear who he is on the side with, and has no affection for the emperor at all.

"He is the emperor of the Tang Dynasty. He leads the king's guests. Could it be that he is a king's minister? How can I object if he wants to bestow favors and rewards?" Li Jing said, this is indeed a troublesome matter, but it can only be regarded as the emperor's conspiracy. When it came, Li Jing could only stand and pick it up, not hide.

Over the years, Li Jing has treated Li Xuan very well.

In the beginning, Li Jing had a low position and little power, and needed the protection and support of the emperor, so he was wholeheartedly trying to please him. He offered countless money and food every year, and never disobeyed the edict of the emperor.Later, as his power grew stronger, Li Jing gradually became able to say no, and he did not completely turn against the emperor.It was Li Jing's habitual attitude that made the emperor fear Li Jing, but he was not afraid.

"Since that's the case, it's better to think otherwise." Jing Xiang pondered for a long time and said.

"What do you mean?" Li Jing looked directly at him and asked knowingly.

"Establish another emperor, or the king directly ascends the throne in Yanjing, establishes a country and proclaims himself emperor!" Jing Xiang said in a solemn tone, with a solemn expression and slowly spit out those words! (To be continued.)