Chapter 1307: The Liao River Campaign, Triumphant Victory Songs

Inside the field headquarters at Wuqing County, the returned Emperor Liu sat directly in his command tent, receiving reports from his ministers with relaxed expressions.

"Is there a result? Has Liaoyang been taken?" Emperor Liu asked with a smile, his spirits soaring.

"Exactly so! The battle situation is decided!" Liu Xu gave an affirmative response.

Within the month of Emperor Liu's northern inspection tour, the war in Liaodong had been pushed to a new climax after the Han army's massive eastward advance. The two sides remained on the Liao River plain, launching a large-scale offensive and defensive confrontation centered around the cities of Liaoyang, Shenzhou, and Liaozhou.

Whether in scale or intensity, it far exceeded all previous battles. After nearly a month of fierce fighting, a result had finally emerged.

Initially, Yelu Xiezhen adopted the approach of concentrating his forces and contracting his defensive line, intending to stretch the front and shift the decisive battlefield in Liaodong northward to the Xianping and Tongyuan regions.

During the Han army's preparations to advance eastward, he did indeed manage to transfer a batch of troops, funds, and grain. However, war was ultimately a matter involving both sides, and it was hard to let things go his way alone.

The Han army's reaction speed greatly exceeded Yelu Xiezhen's expectations, and their ability and efficiency in gathering and transmitting intelligence also surpassed his imagination.

From the scouts of the two agencies—Military Intelligence and Martial Virtue—they obtained news of the Liao army's movements. Though somewhat startled by Yelu Xiezhen's boldness and decisiveness, and somewhat incredulous, they still basically discerned the Liao army's intentions.

On this basis, Zhao Kuangyin also changed his previously conservative and rigid tactics, instead seizing the initiative and choosing to strike out boldly. On the eastern front, Gao Huaide commanded, with the supplemented forces of Li Hanqiong's unit, a host of one hundred thousand, departing from Yanyuan City which the Liao army had abandoned, and driving straight for Liaoyang.

Zhao Kuangyin himself led the main force of the field headquarters, bypassing Liaoyang, turning northward, and advancing into the Shenzhou and Liaozhou regions. In this process, the Han cavalry, already reinforced to fifty thousand, launched an even more massive strike ahead, pursuing and annihilating the Liao army.

Previously, in city siege and defense, cavalry had limited utility, and Zhao Kuangyin had conserved their use, basically employing them only to protect the logistics supply lines of the Liaodong corridor.

But on the Liao River plain, the role of cavalry could be fully brought into play, and Zhao Kuangyin dared to use them boldly. The rivers on the plain also posed little restriction to the Han cavalry.

The Liao army in Liaodong was in fact also primarily infantry-based. Although the Han cavalry reinforced after the Jinzhou campaign included many conscripted barbarian horsemen, the strength of the Han army's cavalry had already surpassed that of the Liao army, which caused tremendous obstruction and a heavy blow to Yelu Xiezhen's plans.

When the Han cavalry's area of operations spread northward to Liaozhou, Yelu Xiezhen's northward withdrawal was completely declared a failure. When the battle situation was dire and the decline impossible to reverse, it was difficult even to withdraw the army safely and calmly, let alone with so much baggage, livestock, and people.

The Han army's reaction speed was astonishingly fast, their execution astonishingly efficient, and for the Liao army, the situation grew ever more dire. Facing such a critical situation, Yelu Xiezhen naturally refused to be bound, and also reacted actively, taking countermeasures.

Yelu Xiezhen's target was also chosen very clearly—he went straight for those Han cavalry who were showing their edge too sharply and acting without restraint. At that time, the Han cavalry operating in the Liaobin and Yanjin regions eighty li north of Shenzhou consisted only of the Han general Cao Han leading seven thousand Han horsemen. Although they caused tremendous obstruction to the Liao army's operations in the northern Liaodong region, they also appeared to be a lone force penetrating deep.

Thereupon, Yelu Xiezhen decisively dispatched all the nearly twenty thousand cavalry he had kept in reserve, splitting them into two routes for a pincer attack. The two sides clashed on the eastern bank of the Liao River. The Han army was few, the Liao army many, and the attack came as a sudden strike, putting the Han army at a disadvantage.

As a general, Cao Han might be ostentatious and cruel in personality, but on the battlefield his style was very tough. Facing the unfavorable situation, he performed with particular tenacity, leading his subordinate barbarian horsemen in fierce combat.

Of course, this was also because on the open plain, completely annihilating a cavalry force was extremely difficult. It took great effort before the Liao army finally cornered Cao Han's force at the banks of the Liao River.

However, Cao Han was not fighting alone. The Han cavalry operating in the Shenzhou region, upon hearing the news, all rushed to support, and the other Liao horsemen who had been skirmishing with them also received orders to join the battle.

Thus, a counterattack launched by Yelu Xiezhen gradually evolved into a great cavalry battle. Over eighty thousand horsemen from both the Han and Liao sides engaged in a series of skirmishes and battles of varying sizes across a hundred-li expanse in the Shenzhou and Liaozhou regions.

Moreover, this was only the beginning. To the south, Zhao Kuangyin's main army, then advancing toward Shenzhou, received the news and without hesitation dispatched Ma Renyu to lead fifty thousand infantry and cavalry northward along the Liao River, advancing by both water and land as reinforcement.

In response, Yelu Xiezhen was also determined, sending troops to harass and delay. However, relying on the advantage of water transport, the Liao army could not completely cut off the reinforcements.

Ma Renyu's force spent three days to reach the battlefield, and the Liao army's main force, under Yelu Xiezhen's deployment, had also assembled in position. On the banks of the Liao River fifty li southwest of Liaozhou, the Han and Liao sides engaged in a forced decisive battle.

On the main battlefield, the Liao army under Yelu Xiezhen's command concentrated nearly seventy thousand infantry and cavalry, while the Han army was somewhat fewer, at over sixty thousand. If the cavalry battles outside the main battlefield were added, the total infantry and cavalry forces committed by both sides came to nearly one hundred eighty thousand.

For this campaign, Yelu Xiezhen had exhausted every effort, throwing in all the combat-capable troops he had accumulated and conscripted since the Jinzhou campaign. He did not want to make such a gambling decision, but helplessly, the Han army's blade was already at his throat. If he did not actively seek battle, he would ultimately be trapped and crushed to death under Zhao Kuangyin's pressure and piecemeal encroachment.

However, for Zhao Kuangyin, you had already used all your strength, while he still had plenty in reserve. Under his deployment, the Han army of the field headquarters continuously streamed in reinforcements via the Liao River.

If there was one major mistake by Yelu Xiezhen, it was choosing the battlefield on the banks of the Liao River—but that was not something his personal will could decide.

Therefore, once the Han army on the main battlefield exceeded one hundred thousand men, the Liao army could no longer hold on. This campaign lasted a total of thirteen days from start to finish, ultimately forming a chaotic melee of intermingled forces, in which the Liao army was helplessly mired and unable to extricate itself.

In the end, it was the Han army, relying on more abundant troops and more ample supply support, that won the Liao River Campaign, while the Liao army ended in complete defeat.

By the twenty-eighth day of the seventh month, with the defeat impossible to reverse, the Liao army could no longer hold and retreated—and that retreat became a rout.

On the main and auxiliary battlefields, the Liao army suffered over thirty thousand dead and wounded, more than ten thousand captured, and the rest fled in uncountable numbers. Yelu Xiezhen ultimately did not return to Liaozhou, but fled directly east to Yinzhou (Tieling). Only slightly over twenty thousand troops followed him, and even adding the various Liao cavalry units gradually gathered along the way, it was still under thirty thousand.

On the Han side, after such a fierce great battle, casualties were unavoidable. However, thanks to sharper weapons, better protection, and the fact that they were the victorious side, casualties were well controlled. In the end, total losses were under twenty thousand, with Cao Han's force suffering the heaviest losses, losing over half.

In fact, the great Liao River battle completely settled the Liaodong war situation. This campaign was also the most powerful counterattack Yelu Xiezhen could launch against the Han army's encroachment, but under the Han army's superior strength and more forceful response, it ended in utter defeat.

The Liao River battle cost the Liao army dearly, and they lost the last capital to counterattack the Han army. After that, the Liao army in Liaodong and even the Bohai region had no more troops to deploy and no grain to levy. The vast region south of Yinzhou was left entirely to the Han army's conquest.

As for Yelu Xiezhen's plan to contract northward, hold Tongzhou for defense, and await a counterattack, it died outright, and instead suffered a disastrous defeat in the process of execution.

Especially Shenzhou, which served as the transfer point for the northward retreat—over half of its supplies failed to be transported out and were trapped in the city. In fact, while the Liao River battle was raging at its height, Yelu Xiezhen had already received an order from Yelu Xian at the Supreme Capital: do not abandon Liaoyang; defend it to the death.

But by that time, it was already impossible to reverse. Yelu Xiezhen paid the price for his bold and decisive decision, and the result was that the Liaodong war situation collapsed completely, like spilled water that could not be recovered.

Perhaps, as per Yelu Xian's order—concentrating forces to defend Liaoyang and not entertaining extra ideas—would have produced a different result, at least not losing so quickly and so miserably.

But the final outcome would not have been optimistic either. What Yelu Xiezhen could imagine was concentrating his forces, then being surrounded by the Han army, and fighting another "Jinzhou siege battle."

However, in warfare throughout history, choosing to hole up in defense was always an abandonment of initiative. Without external relief, it was only walking into a dead end, ultimately unable to escape defeat and destruction. And there was still that same concern: Liaoyang was harder to defend than Jinzhou.

Perhaps Yelu Xiezhen also saw that hopeless ending, which was why he adopted this risky approach, including launching the Liao River campaign—it was an attempt to break the deadlock. He simply failed.

In the final analysis, the gap in strength between the Han and Liao armies was simply too vast. The Han generals had too many playable cards in hand and too many options. As long as their heads stayed clear and they made no mistakes, no matter what schemes and plans Yelu Xiezhen devised, they were all futile struggles, all appearing so powerless.

The Liao River battle merely fast-forwarded the Liaodong war situation. Thereafter, the three most important Liao cities south and west of Yinzhou—Liaoyang, Shenzhou, and Liaozhou—all fell under Han army siege.

Liaozhou was empty and simply surrendered. Next, Shenzhou, under the siege of Zhao Kuangyin's main army, held out for only three days before falling. Only Liaoyang, as the capital of the Eastern Capital circuit, remained—the Liao general Yelu Hai had not managed to evacuate. It was a hard bone to crack, with the defenders vowing to resist to the death.

Yelu Hai commanded only slightly over fourteen thousand Liao troops, and he gathered all the men and women of the city to assist in the defense. Of course, this was destined to be the struggle of a cornered beast.

Facing the siege of Gao Huaide's hundred-thousand-strong army, it held out for only ten days before falling. What Emperor Liu had received this time was precisely the report of victory announcing the recovery of Liaoyang.

With Liaoyang taken, the most maturely developed region of Liao in the northeast fell into the hands of the Great Han, and it also signified that Liao's rule over the northeast had officially entered its countdown. The Han army could now use the Liao River plain as a base to continue advancing steadily into the northeast, pursuing and annihilating Yelu Xiezhen's remnants.