In the battle against Northern Liao, there is no objection to the fact that Hebei Province is the absolute battlefield.
Due to the success of the strategy of peacefully annihilating Xixia in the Hedong Campaign, the entire imperial court also considered strategic tendencies when planning the war against the Northern Liao Dynasty.
There is nothing wrong with this, but different wars require different strategies.
The North China Plain, from the south of the Yanshan Mountains to the east of the Taihang Mountains, is entirely plain land. As for the sixteen lost Yanyun prefectures, except for the four prefectures on the Hedong Road, the twelve prefectures still belong to the Northern Liao Dynasty.
It was destined that the battle with Beiliao would take place on the North China Plain.
Hedong, Yinshan, Taihang, Luliang and Sanshan divide Hedong Road into many basins, and the four states of Yunying are also basin topography.
Such terrain makes it possible to plan an encirclement and suppression strategy.
The same is true for Xixia. The Yellow River, Luliang Mountains, deserts, and channels are both numerous and limited.
Going east from the sandbank and blocking the northwest passage do not require too many troops. Then we can form several lines of encirclement and suppression from Linfu, Qinzhou, Lanzhou, Huanqing and other places...
Xixia's strategic depth is limited, so there is a basis for strategic success.
Even so, Zhao Xi originally put 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers from Gao Zunyu's army as bait. In the end, the annihilation of Xixia was achieved.
But for the Northern Liao, first of all, the Northern Liao system has been running for a hundred years and can be regarded as a stable dynasty.
Secondly, the strategic depth of Bei Liao was not comparable to that of Xixia. To the north and west, the country simply did not have enough troops to carry out an encirclement and suppression strategy.
Thinking about future generations, the unification war a thousand years from now will be a matter of millions of troops, and it will still be a war with incomplete territory.
Thinking of encircling and suppressing such a vast territory of Northern Liao with millions of soldiers from the state and dynasty in this era... Zhao Xi knew it was impossible.
Moreover, the mobility of the Northern Liao cavalry is still not something that the imperial court can resist.
This is also the reason why Zhao Xi has not started a full-scale war and has been waiting for Beiliao to suffer its own losses.
What Zhao Xi wants is not just to regain Yanyun...~
The Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun is a natural defensive barrier, and it has also been the defense line of the Central Plains dynasties against foreigners in past dynasties.
Zhao Xi believes that recovering the Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun is only the most basic strategic goal. Only when the country has a considerable amount of cavalry loyal to the court can it be possible to realize his idea...～
With the wool and cotton industry, Zhao Xi felt that it was not impossible to use both kindness and power, as well as suppression and suppression, to bring the tribes on the grassland back home.
The first obstacle to achieving this goal is the increasingly decaying but still surviving dynasty of the Northern Liao Dynasty.
Now, after all, it is still just a little bit short, and it is not enough to make the tribes attached to the Northern Liao Dynasty completely give up...
Yelu Yixin rebelled, causing civil strife throughout Northern Liao... Zhao Xi has always used this incident as a catalyst.
To send troops at this time... Zhao Xi really doesn't think it's a good time.
…
The country and the DPRK did not fight with all their strength, and the battle was really not going well.
Not only Wang Shunchen, Zhou Dong and Zhe Keke thought this way, but even Zhong Jianzhong also felt that the battle was not going smoothly.
If you save the land and lose the people, you will lose both the people and the land; if you save the people and lose the land, you will save the people and the land. This is the core of the war theory left in the military lecture hall by the officials.
Zhong Jianzhong understood it deeply.
But in the current war, it is impossible to bring the official war guidance theory into play.
The earliest Battle of Haoshuichuan, later Hedong, and then the annihilation of Xixia, the official's grand strategy and the final results all realized the official's war thinking.
But this time, Zhong Jianzhong felt that it didn't seem to have any effect.
Nearly 200,000 troops marched north to fight, and the battle line advanced fifty miles to the north. It seemed to be very effective, but in fact, since the war, there has not been a decent battle on the entire battlefield.
In previous battles, both sides basically gathered their forces at a certain point or city, and the outcome of one or more battles would determine the outcome of the entire battle.
However, this time, Beiliao obviously changed their tactics...~
The Northern Liao Dynasty gave full play to the mobility of their cavalry and did not encounter the imperial troops at all.
Advancing northward, one must always be on guard against attacks by the Northern Liao cavalry. However, when the imperial court arrayed its chariots, the Northern Liao cavalry immediately fled...
However, the pursuit of chariots from Guochao was incomparable to that of Northern Liao cavalry, and they were always unable to catch up.
At the same time, during the pursuit, the Bei Liao cavalry was attacked by a small number of cavalry from time to time.
The war is not going well, even extremely badly.
The number of Northern Liao cavalry eliminated was not even worth the loss of gunpowder shells consumed by the imperial court.
This is not a fight, but more like a hide-and-seek...
"Report... to the commander-in-chief, we are thirty miles away from Yizhou. According to the scout investigation, there are no troops from the Northern Liao Dynasty stationed in Yizhou City, and even the Yamen have been evacuated..."
This is the current situation. They have already reached Yizhou, but they have not experienced any major battles so far.
"The camp was set up ten miles outside the city, and the scouts were sent out fifty miles away..."
There is no point in entering Yizhou, at least that's what Zhong Jianzhong thinks.
It sounds like he has conquered Yizhou, but has he really conquered it?
The original Northern Liao garrison in Yizhou was 30,000, but not even 3,000 were wiped out. The entire Yizhou garrison was still fully organized.
Stationed in Yizhou, there is no other benefit except that the vigilance needs to be better than camping in the wild and the need to prevent rough work.
This feeling makes Zhong Jianzhong feel like he is going deep into the enemy's hinterland.
"What's the situation like on the other routes?"
"Come back to the commander, it's the same. During the entire advance, several armies did not encounter a major battle, but the scouts' investigation showed that there were no less than 200,000 Bei Liao cavalry on the battle line."
That's it...it's a war without a fight.
Did Bei Liao shrink? Zhong Jianzhong knew it was impossible. According to the reports from the scouts, the Bei Liao cavalry had just been reduced to pieces on the vast plains of Hebei Province.
"Report to...Commander, there are thousands of cavalry approaching from the north, fifty miles away from the camp..."
The lieutenants were all gearing up, thinking that there should be a big war.
But Jianzhong felt that this should be the support force heading south from Zhongjing Road and Nanjing Road... They still wouldn't fight against the army.
"Get ready to fight!"
Whether it is really coming, we still have to follow the rules.
Chariot combat has a fixed process in the country. Every deputy general knows it, and even every soldier in different positions knows it.
This is a defensive war, there are no special arrangements.
"Report...~ Thirty miles away, the Northern Liao cavalry dispersed and did not advance towards us..."
All the generals in the handsome tent who had just been excited were instantly discouraged.
"How will this battle be fought?"
"The imperial court should increase its troops, advance step by step, and surround the entire Hebei Road into a copper mountain and an iron wall. See how the thieves from the Northern Liao Dynasty escape?"
"There are millions of soldiers and 50,000 chariots in the whole country. Even if they are all placed on Hebei Road, they will not be able to surround them with water. They will still be unable to prevent the Northern Liao cavalry from escaping."
"The linkage between cavalry and chariots is the key to victory!"
"The cooperative combat between cavalry and chariot infantry still needs time to adjust. The Jiangwu Hall is revising the operation manual..."
This is probably the reason why the imperial court has not yet decided on a decisive battle, right?