Chapter 1561: The Third Battle of Tieli

The northeast problem, summed up in one point, was still an ethnic problem—those tribes large and small scattered across the White Mountains and Black Waters, the forests and highlands. Put simply, once those tribal powers of every size were conquered, the vast northeast would achieve civilization.

From the near-term goal, the court had only one target: the Shiwei. Among the many tribes of the northeast, in terms of territory and military strength, the Shiwei were second to none. More importantly, from start to finish, the Shiwei had never expressed submission to the court—they didn't even offer tribute. If not against them, then against whom?

Therefore, after Prince of Qin Liu Xu headed north bearing his mission, the focus of his work was how to dismantle and conquer the unruly Shiwei.

Liu Xu even submitted to the court a plan and timetable for the northeastern campaign. The Shiwei were unquestionably ranked first, while the Jurchen, Yueliji, Pennuli and other tribal states in other regions were placed later. In the view of the civil and military officials of the northeast, compared to the organized, politically structured Shiwei, the scattered independent tribal forces would be far easier to deal with.

Under this tone, the Shiwei's days soon became difficult. Previously, the court was certainly displeased with the Shiwei's insubordination, but had taken no substantive measures—even supporting the Wanyan Jurchen was merely placing a casual piece on the board, without much investment.

But when the vast empire standing in the east bared its fangs once more, even the Shiwei, dwelling far away in barren lands, relying on harsh mountains and treacherous waters, could hardly escape the blow.

After Prince of Qin Liu Xu arrived at Liaoyang at Mid-Autumn Festival in the eleventh year of Kaibao, he quickly threw himself into his work. Having come bearing his mission, he genuinely harbored ambitions of establishing merit and achievement.

However, Liu Xu did not seek quick success or imagine he could accomplish everything in one stroke. In the remaining months of the eleventh year of Kaibao, he spent all his time investigating and understanding the geographical environment, tribal powers, and garrison conditions of the northeast region.

On this basis, he extended appeasement to those tribal chieftains and leaders who nominally submitted to the Great Han, propagating the court's "civilization." The real planning of the northeastern campaign only began after entering the twelfth year of Kaibao.

Even so, Liu Xu still did not rashly recommend the Han army to personally enter the fray and take the initiative. The Wanyan Jurchen piece once again became the tool to be used.

From the eleventh to the thirteenth year of Kaibao, within less than three years, three conflicts erupted between the Shiwei and the Wanyan Jurchen. The first needs no elaboration—Wanyan Bohai mobilized his entire tribe northward, plucking a tooth from the tiger's mouth, successfully seizing the Tieli region from the Shiwei.

The second came in the spring of the twelfth year of Kaibao. The Shiwei, having suffered losses, refused to accept it and again gathered nearly twenty thousand tribesmen to march east, attacking Tieli City once more. This time the Shiwei came fully prepared; the Wanyan Jurchen resisted with great difficulty. After over a month of fighting, it ended with the Shiwei's retreat.

Though the Shiwei's eastern advance failed this time, the blow to the Wanyan Jurchen was enormous. In the fierce fighting, not only did the tribal soldiers suffer heavy casualties, but the Tieli region that Wanyan Bohai had painstakingly seized was ravaged clean, nearly reduced to scorched earth.

The Tieli people whom Wanyan Bohai had recruited and subjugated were also plundered away entirely by the Shiwei, all relocated westward, leaving the Wanyan tribe an empty territory.

Without population, without livestock, land and rivers alone held no value. After this second battle, the Wanyan tribe was left with only a solitary Tieli City in the Tieli region, with fewer than six thousand tribesmen.

At this point, the Wanyan Jurchen were already in turmoil. Under such heavy losses, many woke from the excitement of occupying the Tieli region.

Even the old chieftain Wanyan Bohai began to be filled with regret. The reason was that he had underestimated the Shiwei's difficulty in fighting and overestimated his own strength.

On the chessboard of the entire northeast, the Wanyan Jurchen were at most a single piece. With their strength, attempting the transformation from piece to player had inherent flaws.

At the same time, the Wanyan Jurchen also developed dissatisfaction toward the Great Han court, because they had gone north with the court's support—but the court's support was far too half-hearted.

Of course, the shrewd old chieftain Wanyan Bohai could see the court's intention to use them. He was simply willing to gamble for the tribe's growth and development—only the result was utterly despairing.

If it was territory, it had indeed expanded more than twofold. But strength had likewise been reduced by more than half. From the start of the Han-Liao great war, the Wanyan Jurchen had participated, seeking opportunities to grow their tribe amid the chaos, to feast on the fruits of the Khitan's collapsed rule over the northeast.

In that process, they had indeed grown considerably—raised the banner of the Wanyan tribe, swallowed many smaller tribes. Even though they suffered setbacks in attacking the Liao army at Huanglong Prefecture and were ultimately forced to retreat to their old lair, they still gained no small harvest.

The most correct choice among these was being the earliest to submit to the Great Han court, using the court's name and prestige to develop the tribe. But judging from the Wanyan Jurchen's development in the following years, it only proved one fact: cooperating with the Great Han was like asking a tiger for its hide. Under such hidden agendas, the results were even more disappointing.

The originally promised Huanglong Prefecture was occupied by the Han army without ceremony. Instead they were granted a Tieli Prefecture that they had to conquer themselves. Gritting their teeth and holding their noses, they accepted it, led their forces out—and ended up with a mess.

After two great battles with the Shiwei, the Wanyan tribe suffered severe damage, wounded to the very root. Therefore, after the second battle, the regret in Wanyan Bohai's heart could hardly be washed away even by all the waters of the Yazi River.

But the more this was the case, the more Wanyan Bohai dared not turn against the court—he didn't even dare voice a single complaint, and even actively suppressed discordant voices within the tribe against the court.

After all, they had already become mortal enemies with the Shiwei. If they offended the Great Han court as well—not to mention that vast, powerful empire that was despair-inducing—even just the Han army garrisons in Liaodong were beyond any northeastern tribal power's ability to contend with.

Still, Wanyan Bohai couldn't help but express his attitude to the court. He personally traveled south to Liaoyang to meet Prince of Qin Liu Xu, pouring out his grievances and difficulties, begging for aid—weapons, grain, tools, all kinds of supplies.

At the same time, he directly stated that the Wanyan tribe was isolated at Tieli City, unable to hold on alone, and had thoughts of abandoning the city and crossing south back to their tribal lands. To this, Liu Xu naturally expressed sympathy in gentle words, and as appeasement, gave a fair amount of discounted aid, finally stabilizing the Wanyan tribe whose mentality was about to explode.

The third battle between the Shiwei and the Wanyan Jurchen occurred in the autumn of the twelfth year of Kaibao. Half a year later, the Shiwei again assembled their tribal soldiers. This time, not only the southern Shiwei tribes like Tülübu and Nielanagu, but even the Shiwei royal court located upstream of the Na River sent troops south to join the fight.

The Shiwei tribal coalition again exceeded thirty thousand men, mostly able-bodied elites. Compared to the first time, their momentum was even greater—nearly a full mobilization, determined to slaughter and exterminate the Jurchen entrenched in the Tieli region.

This time, facing the ferocious Shiwei onslaught, Wanyan Bohai completely gave up. In such a situation, even if he wanted to tough it out, he couldn't hold on any longer.

On one hand he deployed defensive preparations, on the other he made plans to retreat and preserve strength. At the same time, he sent word to the Han army—the meaning was clear: he was done; the court could figure it out itself...

Faced with this situation, Liu Xu was annoyed that the Wanyan tribe was disobedient and even dared to threaten the court, but he also understood that facing the Shiwei's full-force southern advance, this nail of the Wanyan tribe could no longer hold.

Therefore, after discussing with Ma Renyu, he decided that the Great Han could no longer sit by and watch. Liu Xu sent word to Wanyan Bohai, delivering a sternly worded directive, ordering him to hold firm at all costs, and stating that the court would dispatch reinforcements.

This time Liu Xu was not being perfunctory—he genuinely prepared reinforcements for the Wanyan tribe. But there was still a bottom line: he did not directly mobilize the Liaodong garrison. Instead, he personally stepped forward to conscript warriors from the surrounding tribes.

After nearly a year of outreach and appeasement, the name of the Prince of Qin and the court still carried weight. Within half a month, he recruited over ten thousand tribal soldiers from various peoples, gave them simple arming, and had them led by Hou Renju, Chief Commander of the Huanglong Prefecture troops, crossing north over the Yazi River to support the Wanyan Jurchen—first relieving their immediate crisis, lest Wanyan Bohai truly abandon the city and flee south.

At the same time, Liu Xu began mobilizing combat supplies at Huanglong Prefecture and continued conscripting tribal soldiers, preparing to sustain the campaign against the Shiwei. This time also marked the court's first deep involvement in the war with the Shiwei.

And this so-called third battle between the Shiwei and Jurchen was in fact conducted under the court's manipulation—only, it still used those cheap, expendable tribal armies.

A war of nearly sixty thousand men on both sides—in the northeast, after the Han-Liao great war, this could already be called large in scale. The war did not last very long. The tribal coalition assembled by the Great Han side lacked both the will and the foundation for prolonged fighting.

The fighting likewise revolved around Tieli City. One battle decided everything—the actual clash lasted less than two hours, ending in a Shiwei victory.

The coalition assembled by the Great Han side proved fragile under the Shiwei's assault, collapsing completely with heavy casualties. Hou Renju, the coalition's main commander, was even wounded—had it not been for the five hundred Han cavalry accompanying the campaign protecting him, he might have been trapped deep in the enemy ranks.

Of course, the most tragic were the Wanyan Jurchen, who fled with the routed army back to the southern bank of the Yazi River. Fortunately, Wanyan Bohai had made thorough retreat preparations.

But even so, of the over ten thousand tribesmen who had crossed north that year, only a little over two thousand survived to return south—they had basically lost their very shirts.

And after this third Battle of Tieli, the Shiwei finally succeeded in reoccupying the Tieli region, achieving their basic goal of ruling separately from the Han army across the river.

In fact, the Shiwei were not without brains. Facing the mighty Great Han, they had no real intention of fighting to the end. Judging from their expansion directions and combat processes, the Shiwei had never once crossed south of the river—they feared touching the Great Han's bottom line.

As for attacking the Wanyan Jurchen, that dog's leg manipulated by the court, they also harbored the idea of using war to promote peace. And indeed, after the third Battle of Tieli concluded, the Shiwei king sent envoys south to contact Prince of Qin Liu Xu, hoping to reach a reconciliation with the Great Han court, and pledging not to expand southward again, ruling separately with the court along the Yazi River from then on.

As for the Shiwei's proposal, the court could only describe it as wishful thinking. In fact, from the end of the third Battle of Tieli, it was already not long before the Han army would dispatch troops northward.