Hua Lachi's 80,000 Khitan army disappeared into thin air, and the Han troops surrounding them returned to their respective stations after receiving Liu Ling's order. The troops from Luzhou, Jinzhou, and Qinzhou set off separately, while Liu Ling led the troops from Taiyuan back.
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This victory came too easily. Liu Ling only grasped a tiny bit of information and decisively sent troops to attack. He himself did not expect that the Khitan people had reached such a difficult situation. Hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep that had died of the plague were all killed.
They were abandoned by the Khitan people in the camp. Liu Ling ordered the army to wrap their mouths and noses with Gebu and burn the carcasses of the cattle and sheep. Then they dug a big pit and buried the remains deeply.
Although it seems from now on that this accidental plague will not cause any harm to people, Liu Ling knows that such a thing must not be taken lightly.
After finishing the matters at the rear, Liu Ling returned to Taiyuan and began to repair the city and rectify the defenses. Although the defeat of Yelu Deguang's 200,000 troops was a staged victory, there is no doubt that the real fierce battle has not yet begun. Yelu
Xiongji's 200,000 elite palace troops have rushed from Linhuang Mansion in Shangjing to Datong in Xijing, and will reach Daizhou in a few days.
The combat effectiveness of those elite palace troops is much higher than that of the new recruits under Yelu Deguang. They are even braver than the Han army as a whole. In fact, Yelu Deguang also has nearly 100,000 veterans under his command. These 100,000 troops
These are Yelu Deguang's most valued assets. But fate played a cruel joke on Yelu Deguang. The 80,000 troops led by Hua Lachi were all veterans with rich combat experience. Unfortunately, just because of a small but fatal attack
He made a mistake and was trapped in Daqingshan and starved to death.
The loss of these 80,000 veterans in the war was an unacceptable loss for the Khitan people.
It is conceivable that after Yelu Deguang returned to the north of Daizhou, he would bear the thunderous wrath of his father Yelv Xiongji. The two hundred thousand troops were almost wiped out in a month. As the prince, Yelu Deguang
He has an unshirkable responsibility. But Liu Ling has no intention of caring about how Ye Luxiongji teaches his son. He wants to repair Taiyuan's city defense before the heavy snow falls. Just demolishing the frozen Yuliang Avenue is not enough.
It's easy. Fortunately, the Han army already has certain urban management methods for demolition.
Push down two cannons on the city gate, then adjust the angle and start bombarding. However, the power of the cannonballs when they are exploded on the frozen mound is limited, and they can only blast a hole of about one meter at a time. I don't know what it is.
Either the soil soaked in blood is extra strong after being frozen, or the power of current artillery shells is limited after all, and due to location restrictions it is impossible to allow thousands of people to go out to dig the soil together, so this is just a project.
It would be difficult to complete in less than ten days and half a month.
When the Yuliang Avenue was built, tens of thousands of civilians ran back and forth to build it, but the avenue was only three feet wide and about fifty meters long. When it was demolished, it seemed crowded with even a thousand people, not to mention tens of thousands.
Later, the Han army found large gunpowder packets to explode. Although the effect was better than artillery, they did not dare to use it near the city wall.
Fortunately, the Khitan people will definitely not fight back within half a month. It will take at least five or six days to wait for Yelv Xiong's plane to arrive in Daizhou. It will join Yelu Deguang's troops and horses, and then replenish the food and grass, which will delay half a day.
It would take more than a month to pass Daizhou. Moreover, after this lesson, it is estimated that Yelu Xiongji will not bring hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep with him when he leads the army south. But they will have to prepare grain and grass from other places and then send them to Daizhou.
It takes a long time to come from the state.
Since the grassland people were forced not to eat cattle and sheep, this was considered another glorious victory.
There is no doubt that after Yelu Xiongji's army goes south, it will be the period of decisive battle. Originally, the Khitan people planned to launch a proactive and sudden attack on the Han Kingdom to break the Han army's Northern Expedition plan in the spring of the next year. The original intention was good
, it can be said that if Liu Ling did not have a strong intelligence network, the Khitans would be the one taking the initiative. But this is from the perspective of the Khitans. If you look at it from Liu Ling's perspective, it is actually simply chilling to the Khitans.
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The so-called counterattack planned by Ye Luxiongji and the so-called capture of Taiyuan were all ordered by Liu Ling. Taiyuan City was originally a bait, tempting the Khitans to attack. Liu Ling's purpose of tempting the Khitans to attack was
It is to maximize the killing of the Khitan people and destroy the Khitan army. In other words, it is to lure the enemy to the door and then kill as many enemies as possible.
Just as they achieved a complete victory on the battlefield in Taiyuan, the Han army in Youzhou also made considerable progress, but the process was extremely tragic.
On the tenth day of the twelfth month of the first year of Dazhi, the Han navy arrived at Yuyang and then sailed upstream from the Sanggan River. On the fourteenth day of the twelfth month, the navy arrived at the small town of Langfang and made contact with Yang Ye, the military governor of Cangzhou.
After discussing with Yang Ye first, they used warships to transport most of the Cangzhou Army from the south bank to the north bank, where they joined the 40,000 elite troops led by Yang Ye. On December 18, the navy continued to advance, and it took less than a day to defeat the Cangzhou Army.
After arriving in Gu'an, the huge fleet began to attack the Liao army that forcibly crossed the Sanggan River.
The artillery and heavy crossbows equipped on the battleships were powerful, destroying half of the pontoon bridge that the Khitan people had worked so hard to build. The fishing boats that the Khitan people had searched hard for were sunk one by one by the Han navy.
The naval soldiers used ballistae and artillery to launch a downpour of attacks on the Liao army crossing the river. The dense arrows even shot every Liao army boat into a layer of white-haired hedgehogs.
Bai Yu became the main theme on the river, blocking the Sanggan River, which was more than a mile wide.
After the Han navy cleared the pontoon, the warships continued to attack the Liao army on the north bank of the Sanggan River, forcibly clearing a one-mile-wide no-man's land on the north bank. No matter how sharp the Khitan cavalry was, no matter how powerful the archers were
It could not stop the Han army's condescending attack on the warship. The Liao army suffered a sudden attack and suffered heavy losses. Yelv Chucai had no choice but to order the army to retreat. The Han army, which had taken the initiative, began to cross the river in large numbers with the cooperation of the navy.
For seven consecutive days, the 120,000 troops under the command of Jizhou Jiedushi Luo Xu gradually crossed the Sanggan River and gradually established a foothold on the other side of the river.
Yelu Chucai ordered the cavalry to attack the Han army crossing the river, trying to attack halfway across the river. The two armies started a bloody battle on the river bank. With the support of the navy's long-range weapons, the Han army gradually stood firm on the river bank although it suffered heavy losses. The Khitan cavalry
Showing strong combat effectiveness, the Han army crossing the river suffered heavy losses at the beginning. Almost all the first batch of 5,000 Han troops crossing the river died in battle, and one general Ying Yanglang died in a bloody battle.
The Khitan cavalry galloped back and forth on the river bank, relying on their skillful cavalry and shooting to attack the Han troops who came ashore. The infantry of the Han army crossing the river had to withstand the impact of the Khitan troops before they had time to form formations. The first batch of Han troops ashore were
In order to cover the follow-up troops crossing the river, they took the initiative to fight with the Khitan cavalry. Five thousand infantrymen, fighting to the last man, still refused to retreat! Ying Yanglang, Meng Xian's enemy, was hit by more than sixty arrows, but he still refused to retreat in a bloody battle.
The two half-small flags he led were all stained with blood on the battlefield.
Although Meng Xiandi's entire army was killed in the battle, he bought time for the follow-up troops to cross the river. Luo Xu personally led the army across the river and formed an array along the bank, using a combination of long-armed men and archers to launch a counterattack against the Khitan cavalry. Both sides started on the north bank in the early morning.
The battle continued until sunset. More than 10,000 Han soldiers died in the battle, and the Sanggan River was dyed red with blood. The Khitan cavalry also lost about 7,000 people. In order to prevent the Han army from crossing the river, Yelu Chucai personally supervised the battle and ordered the Khitan
The army launched almost non-stop attacks on the Han army.
Although the artillery fire of the Han navy was powerful, its range was limited after all. Five thousand archers of the navy came ashore and formed an arrow formation to attack the Khitan cavalry in a covering manner. The dense arrows caused tragic damage to the Khitan cavalry, but the navy
However, the archers did not dare to leave the battleship's artillery support. At sunset, the fighting between the two sides was still not over.
After dark, Yelu Chucai thought that the Han army had almost no cavalry, and the powerful artillery and crossbows on the warships could not be aimed at in the dark. The Han army was not yet firmly established, which was the best time to attack. So he mobilized 50,000 cavalry to attack
More than 20,000 Han troops who had crossed the north bank launched a fierce attack, and the sound of fighting could be heard throughout the night. The Han infantry lined up to resist the attack of the Khitan cavalry, and the naval archers came ashore again to assist in the defense.
Dead bodies were scattered all over the north bank of the Sanggan River, and the Han army endured a storm of blows from the Khitan cavalry. The number of the Khitan cavalry was more than double that of the Han army, and the more than 20,000 Han troops crossing the river were all infantry. On the plains
In the field battle, the Khitan cavalry had an absolute advantage. The Han army's defense line gradually retreated. After more than 5,000 people were killed in the battle, the Khitan cavalry was suppressed within 500 meters of the river bank, while the Khitan cavalry braved the Han army.
The bombardments of military and naval artillery struck again and again at the remaining 15,000 exhausted Han troops.
By the time of Xu, the Han army had reached its limit and could not stop the Khitan attack. Luo Xu was hit by three arrows and led his soldiers to launch a sudden counterattack, pushing back the Khitan offensive. Luo Xu had no choice but to order the Han army
Board the ship and return to the south bank. Just when the Khitans were about to win, the Cangzhou Army led by Yang Ye finally arrived.
Tens of thousands of elite Cangzhou soldiers smashed into the Khitan army from the flanks. Yang Ye took the lead and led three thousand elite cavalry to attack behind the Khitan people. In the middle of the night, the Khitan people did not know how many reinforcements from the Han army came to kill them.
Suddenly encountering an ambush, they immediately fled in panic. Luo Xu took the opportunity to lead his troops to counterattack, and joined forces with Yang Ye to pursue the Khitan soldiers for 20 miles, killing more than 30,000 enemies.
Fearing that they would be ambushed by the Khitans in the dark, Yang Ye and Luo Xu led their troops back after pursuing them for twenty miles.
The Cangzhou Army set up defenses on the north bank to protect the Jizhou Army from crossing the river.
In this battle, more than 30,000 Jizhou troops died, most of whom were elite men. Especially the 5,000 Han troops who first landed were the strongest among the Jizhou troops. Although the Cangzhou army arrived at the last moment and defeated them in one fell swoop
The Khitan cavalry killed more than 30,000 enemies, but no one felt excited or happy.
More than 30,000 robes were covered with blood, and the Sanggan River was stained with blood.
By December 29, all Han armies had crossed the Sanggan River, switching from strategic defense to strategic counterattack.
When the news reached Taiyuan, Liu Lingjing sat in her study and remained silent for a long time.
With thirty thousand elites, how could he not feel distressed? (To be continued)
