Chapter 1562: The Fall of the Shiwei

It cannot be denied that the outcome of the Third Battle of Tieli had a tremendous impact, and a negative one at that—equally so for the Prince of Qin, Liu Xu, and for the imperial court.

This was the first time Liu Xu had taken the initiative to strike on a large scale since arriving in Liaodong, having organized so many men and horses, yet the defeat was exceptionally clean-cut. Military failure brought political passivity.

Even though the dead and wounded were all local native barbarians, and the imperial army suffered no substantial losses—the operational supplies provided by Liaodong that were lost counting for little—the loss of face was immeasurable.

For those tribes that had originally harbored reverence and were gradually drawing closer to the imperial court, it seemed that the court's aura of invincibility in the northeast had been shattered, and the Shiwei had proven their qualifications as overlords of the northeast. This inevitably bred suspicion and divided loyalties, for the tribes of the northeast truly could not claim much closeness to the Great Han court.

Even the Wanyan tribe, which had always presented itself as the court's loyal hound and running dog, was filled with resentment after the bitter defeat suffered while marching north to Tieli Prefecture.

When it came to misery, no one was worse off than the Wanyan tribe—in two years and three battles, over half their tribesmen were dead or wounded, and most of those were the tribe's finest. Even Wanyan Bohai had lost two sons in battle, a tragedy so grievous that all who heard of it were moved to sorrow.

Under such circumstances, even if only to salvage the face that had been trampled into the dirt, the Great Han court had to take substantive measures. Moreover, the Shiwei had always been the court's number one target in its northeast campaign.

Thus, in the winter of the twelfth year of Kaibao, Liu Xu formally submitted a request to the court to attack the Shiwei. For this memorial, Emperor Liu personally approved it with a single character: "Granted."

Naturally, Ma Renyu was the one to take command of the expedition. The Bureau of Military Affairs issued orders to establish the Northeast Forward Camp at Huanglong Prefecture, with Ma Renyu serving as Commander-in-Chief, drawing from various parts of Liaodong—including rotating imperial army troops—a total of thirty thousand Han army infantry and cavalry.

Throughout the winter of the twelfth year of Kaibao, the Liaodong commanders led by Ma Renyu began their pre-war preparations for the campaign against the Shiwei, formulating battle plans. By the spring of the thirteenth year of Kaibao, even the details—the mobilization and stockpiling of grain and supplies, the advance routes, the attack objectives—had all been fully planned.

In military affairs, the Prince of Qin, Liu Xu, played only a supporting role, providing assistance in logistics and supply coordination without interfering in military decision-making or tactical execution—both because he knew his own limitations in military matters and to win the goodwill of Ma Renyu and the other officers.

After all, he was Emperor Liu's eldest son, the Prince of Qin of the Great Han. If he truly caused any trouble, there was no doubt it would create no small amount of difficulty and annoyance for the Liaodong commanders.

But Liu Xu was not idle either. The outcome of a war was not determined solely by iron horses and golden spears, by clashes on the battlefield. He gave up meddling in things he was not skilled at, but never relaxed his grip on what he was capable of doing.

Led by Liu Xu, a lengthy negotiation was opened with the Shiwei, feigning reluctance while showing a willingness to discuss peace, conveying to the Shiwei that the imperial court had begun to harbor some apprehension regarding Shiwei military might.

After winter set in during the twelfth year of Kaibao, Liu Xu further expressed that he highly approved of the friendship between the Great Han and the Shiwei, and that he also highly endorsed their peace conditions centered on "dividing the river as the boundary."

However, he said, he did not have the authority to make the final decision. The peace proposal had been reported to the Eastern Capital, but the specific outcome still required waiting. He also suggested that the Shiwei envoys travel to the Eastern Capital, and that he would send people to coordinate on their behalf.

As for Liu Xu's suggestion, the Shiwei perhaps genuinely thought it reasonable, or perhaps they were all somewhat smug after the Third Battle of Tieli. Thus, the Shiwei king prepared a generous gift and dispatched envoys south to the Eastern Capital. For this, Liu Xu even specially sent people to guide and protect them, full of sincerity, with hospitality that could be called meticulous.

The Shiwei had clearly been fooled straight into the ditch by Liu Xu.

While stringing the Shiwei along with false pleasantries, the secret war preparations on the Liaodong side proceeded at a rapid pace, without any relaxation.

On another front, Liu Xu also organized for Ma Renyu a contingent of over five thousand auxiliary troops, all selected from the routed soldiers of the Battle of Tieli, and secretly trained them at Tong Prefecture.

This was not an easy matter to accomplish, because those tribes that had been conscripted, after being severely mauled by the Shiwei, already harbored doubts about the court. To dispel their misgivings, Liu Xu spent a considerable sum.

All participating tribes were compensated with money, grain, salt, iron, and other supplies. Nothing moves and soothes people's hearts better than naked self-interest, and combined with His Highness the Prince of Qin's kind countenance and gentle words, it was truly heartwarming—enough to melt even the bitter cold of deep winter.

Even the Wanyan tribe's towering resentment dissipated considerably with the supplies of strong liquor, iron implements, cloth, salt, and tea. Facing the court's conscription call, the bedridden Wanyan Bohai gritted his teeth and dispatched seven hundred Wanyan tribesmen, led by his son Wanyan Suike, to participate in joint training and obey orders.

Just as the Shiwei envoys arrived at the Eastern Capital, confident and at ease, full of expectation for peace talks with the Great Han, they suffered a severe setback.

They were kept waiting for nearly a full month before finally being granted an audience with Chancellor Zhao Pu. Perhaps angered by the cold treatment they had received, the Shiwei envoy was extremely discourteous when meeting Zhao Pu, presenting their peace terms in a tone of notification, and demanding that Emperor Liu marry a princess to the Shiwei king before hostilities could cease.

Facing the arrogant and clueless Shiwei envoy, Zhao Pu merely said flatly: "The court has already decided to send troops against the Shiwei. The punitive army is about to cross the river to the north!"

With that said, he had the dumbfounded Shiwei envoy escorted out of Guangzheng Hall and sent back to the guest residence.

The Shiwei envoy was an interesting fellow. Upon realizing he had been duped, and reaching the conclusion that the Han Empire had never intended to coexist peacefully with the Shiwei, he remained unhurried.

His mission unfulfilled, and even knowing of the great crisis facing the Shiwei, he showed not a trace of anxiety. Instead of hurrying north back to the Shiwei, he brought his attendants to purchase a residence in the Eastern Capital, settled down comfortably, and leisurely toured the city, experiencing the prosperity of the Han capital that had previously existed only in hearsay.

This behavior aroused curiosity in some, and the Shiwei envoy's explanation was that he needed to wait for the outcome of the fighting in the northeast—if peace talks were needed afterward, he wouldn't have to travel back and forth.

The Han army crossed the river northward in the second month of spring in the thirteenth year of Kaibao. As for the Han army's movements, the Shiwei were not entirely without reaction, but compared to fighting the Jurchen and other native tribes, directly engaging the Han army was an entirely different matter.

Including the five thousand tribal auxiliary troops, the Han army numbered nearly forty thousand in total, advancing with overwhelming force across the Yazi River. Ma Renyu's target was not the Tieli region, which had been the center of Shiwei–Jurchen fighting over the past two years, but rather the Nielanagu tribe and the Tülübu Shiwei active in the western basin of the Yazi River—striking directly at their home bases.

Facing the powerful Han army, the Shiwei had no means of resistance whatsoever. Routed in the first battle, routed in the second, there was no third—those two great Shiwei tribes were annihilated beneath the Han army's blade.

The Han army's objective was to defeat all organized, large-scale Shiwei resistance, while the task of eliminating the Shiwei tribes was handed to the auxiliary forces. These men were adept at such work, showing no mercy whatsoever. Cruelty and slaughter, savagery and brutality were displayed to the fullest by these native auxiliary troops, with the Wanyan Jurchen being the most zealous of all.

After destroying the Nielanagu tribe and the Tülübu Shiwei, Ma Renyu continued leading his army north along the Na River, his target aimed directly at the Shiwei royal court in the upper reaches.

Facing the ferocious onslaught of the Han army, the Shiwei king panicked and made the most foolish choice possible—concentrating all the able-bodied warriors of every tribe to march south and meet the Han army in battle, hoping to fight a decisive engagement just as at the Battle of Tieli.

Upon learning of the Shiwei king's movements, Ma Renyu was overjoyed, feeling it hit the mark perfectly. Had the Shiwei chosen to flee or fight a guerrilla war, destroying them would have been no easy task.

Indeed, to give the Shiwei more time to mobilize their tribesmen, Ma Renyu deliberately slowed his northward advance. The two sides met in battle about a hundred li south of the Shiwei royal court, east of the Na River—just like the Third Battle of Tieli, except the result was reversed, and it was the Shiwei army that rapidly collapsed.

There was simply no way to fight. In weaponry and equipment, in soldier quality, in military bearing and discipline, in battlefield command, the gap between the two sides was like a chasm—yet the Shiwei still dared to meet them head-on. Every unfavorable factor had descended upon the Shiwei, and they had made the most erroneous choice besides. The result was predictable.

In barely two months, the Shiwei—who had dominated the northeast and thrashed the Jurchen and other tribes over the past few years—were easily defeated by the Han army. The Shiwei king fell on the battlefield, his corpse found by Hou Renju, who cut off his head and presented it to Ma Renyu. The Shiwei royal city was occupied by the Han army, and the territory of the Great Han expanded a thousand li northward from Huanglong Prefecture.