Yongxi three years, the first month.
Another major battle between Song and Liao began.
At this time in the Liao State, the powerful minister Han Derang and the empress dowager Xiao Yanyan controlled Chao Gang, arbitrarily abused the government, and wantonly killed the ministers, and the whole court was panicked because of the two of them.
The internal political power at the top of the Liao state has created great contradictions.
Many of the generals who guarded the song-Liao border advocated that Emperor Taizong Zhao Guangyi lead an army to the Northern Expedition and retake the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun in one fell swoop and unify the world.
When Zhao Guangyi heard the news and pondered for a while, he quickly ordered the Four-Way Army to attack the Liao State in the Northern Expedition:
The main army of the Eastern Road: Cao Bin and Cui Yanjin led a large army to march from Heyang
East Road Right Wing Army: Mi Xin and Du Yangui led a large army to march from Xiongzhou
Middle Road Army: Tian Chongjin and Yuan Jizhong led a large army to march west from Feihukou
Western Road Army: Pan Mei and Yang Ye led a large army to attack Yunzhou from Yanmen
The total strength of the four-way army reached 300,000, and the Northern Expedition campaign can be described as a strong force and a huge momentum.
Among these four large armies, the western road army led by the crucial Pan Mei and Yang Jiye, although this road army directly attacked Yunzhou, the real intention of this army was to go north first, and then move east, cutting off the retreat route of the Liao army in the direction of Youzhou, and forming a comprehensive encirclement of Youzhou with other three-way armies.
In addition to these four land armies, Zhao Guangyi also sent a team of sailors to assemble in Bohai Bay.
Zhao Guangyi once lost 100,000 troops under Youzhou City, and this time he suddenly gathered 300,000 troops directly at Youzhou, will he repeat the same mistakes?
He thought about it for a long time, ready to abandon the previous plan to directly attack Youzhou, but wanted to adopt a roundabout combat method to contain the Liao army dead in Youzhou City, so that they could not rush to help everywhere.
Although Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures are a unified whole under the rule of the Liao State, they are not very different in geographical location, with the Taihang Mountains as the dividing line, which can be roughly divided into two major strategic blocks:
Seven prefectures before the mountain: Jizhou, Tanzhou, Shunzhou, Youzhou, Zhuozhou, Mozhou, Yingzhou
Shanhou Jiuzhou: Shuozhou, Huanzhou, Yingzhou, Yunzhou, Weizhou, Xinzhou, Wuzhou, Feizhou, Ruzhou
(Note: The two prefectures of Mo and Ying had been recovered by Later Zhou Chai Rong and belonged to the territory of the Song Dynasty)
When the Song army invaded this time, the Liao state must think that the Song army wanted to drive straight into Youzhou, so the focus of their defense must be in Youzhou.
Zhao Guangyi wanted to use the middle road army to slowly march to attract the Liao army to defend Youzhou, while the west road army and the middle road army marched to attack the weak defensive land of Shanhou Jiuzhou, and then went north to cut off the liao army's rear road and carry out a reverse encirclement.
Once the Western Road Army and the Middle Road Right Wing Army forcibly capture Kyushu, even if the Liao Army wants to rescue these Nine Prefectures, it will be pinned down in Youzhou by the East Road Army and unable to rescue them in time.
At the beginning of the war, Cao Bin, the commander of the Song Army's East Road Army, cut through thorns and thorns all the way, and even broke through Gu'an and Zhuozhou.
Cao Bin's army successfully took Zhuozhou, directly threatening the safety of Youzhou, and the Liao army smoothly focused all its attention on Youzhou City.
When the Liao Emperor Yelü Longxu heard this news, he not only ordered the defense of Youzhou to be strengthened, but also went south from Zhongjing with his mother Empress Xiao to supervise the division:
Yelü Longxu and Empress Xiao were overseers in Luokou
Yelü Mo only reinforced Youzhou from Tokyo
A part of the Liao army was recruited to garrison Pingzhou to prevent the Song army from carrying out water divisions
At this time, the Liao army had already deployed all its troops in Youzhou, and Zhao Guangyi's goal had been achieved.
Tian Chongjin, the commander of the Middle Road Army, took the Flying Fox Pass with his troops, and Lingqiu and Weizhou were destroyed one after another.
Pan Mei and Yang Ye, the army of the Western Road, took advantage of the opportunity to be in the four prefectures of Huanzhou, Shuozhou, Yingzhou and Yunzhou.
These large armies of the Song army can be said to be in a good situation, and the land of Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures under the rule of the Liao State has already occupied the land of its six states.
However, at this critical moment, the large army on the Eastern Road, which was responsible for containing the Liao army, was actually short of food, and Cao Bin could only order part of the army to stay in Zhuozhou, and he led the main army to retreat and return to Xiongzhou.
Zhao Guangyi, who was far away in Beijing, saw that the situation on the battlefield had been reversed in an instant, and hurriedly ordered Cao Bin, the commander of the Eastern Road Army, to lead the large army and the right wing of the Eastern Road Army, Mi Xin.
Zhao Guangyi's order was instantaneous, and the army was instantly in an uproar.
Why?
Because the right wing army of the East Road is almost a chicken rib army, it has not really played a role on the battlefield at all. Cao Bin's middle road army was the main army attacking Youzhou City, and at this time, he would join them.
Not only those soldiers under Cao Bin's tent, but even the many soldiers outside the camp tent were reluctant, they wanted to attack Youzhou to seize the immortal merits.
Now that you are joining forces with the right wing army of the East Road, is it difficult to fight soy sauce?
For a time, many soldiers were full of anger and resolutely disagreed with the joint army. Cao Bin had no choice but to order him to carry fifty days of military food and march north to re-attack Zhuozhou.
When the commander of the Liao army, Yelü Hugo, heard this great news, he hurriedly ordered the recruitment of a part of the army into the territory of Weizhou to prevent the Song army in the middle of the road under the command of Tian Chongjin from continuing to attack.
At this time, Cao Bin dispatched troops to rescue Jiuzhou after the mountain, because he knew that at this time, Cao Bin's hasty march north was very different from cao Bin's mentality that had been stationed in Zhuozhou before.
Before Cao Bin, he wanted to confront, and Yelü Hugo was eager to fight and save the situation in Kyushu after the mountain.
This time, Cao Bin wanted to attack, and Yelü Hugo wanted to confront and buy time for the Liao army to stabilize Kyushu after the mountain.
At this time, Brother Yelü Hugo firmly grasped the initiative of the battlefield, and the entire strategic plan of the Song army began to be broken by him step by step.
Cao Bin's army tossed back and forth between Xiongzhou and Zhuozhou, and it took more than twenty days to re-introduce troops north into Zhuozhou, and Pan Mei and Tian Chongjin were suddenly under great pressure from the Liao army, and the Liao army in the entire battlefield began to rapidly exert pressure on Kyushu behind the mountain.
In particular, Tian Chongjin, who was blocked by the Liao army to death in Weizhou, had no chance to attack north. Pan Mei was equally difficult, and his army was also blocked in Yunzhou, unable to continue the attack north.
And when Cao Bin led 200,000 troops to Zhuozhou, the people were sleepy and lacking, only fifty days of military food, the march was wasted for twenty days, how to guard Zhuozhou with only one month of military food left?
After entering Zhuozhou City, Cao Bin heard a terrible news:
Brother Yelü and Empress Xiao led a large army to Zhuozhou!!!
At that time, after Yelü Hugo stabilized the former Kyushu of the mountain, he hurriedly ordered the garrison of Luokou, and then stationed his army on the southern flank of Zhuozhou City. Cao Bin, fearing that the Liao army would be trapped in Zhuozhou City, hurriedly ordered soldiers to escort the old and young people in the city to evacuate Zhuozhou City first, while Cao Bin led a large army to follow him.
When the soldiers under Cao Bin heard the news that the Liao army was coming to besiege the city, they still wanted to escort the old and young out of the city first, but they rushed to flee everywhere.
The point is, it was raining heavily at this time.
Seeing that the Song army was in chaos, Yelü Hugo hurriedly led his troops in pursuit and defeated the Song army at Qigou Pass. Cao Bin continued to lead his troops to retreat, and when he was about to cross the YiShui, he was again severely damaged.
When fleeing to the J Juma River, the Song army was once again severely damaged.
The Song army repeatedly inflicted heavy damage on Yelü Hugo, and the 200,000 troops had completely collapsed, and Cao Bin only led tens of thousands of remnants to gaoyang in Song prefecture.
In this battle, Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures were originally within reach, but heaven seemed to have once again made a big joke with Zhao Guangyi.
The Liao State has become a nightmare in the hearts of the Song Dynasty.