Chapter 2177: Shizong Chronicles 45: Han-Jin Conflict

How to resolve the Mobei problem—from the winter of the eighth year of Jianlong to the spring of the ninth year—the court discussed many proposals, but almost everyone understood that given the rise of the Naiman and Liu Jin's arrogant heart, achieving substantive results in handling the issue would ultimately have to fall on military force. Other means might be useful, but their utility was limited.

However, at that time the Han Empire was distracted by the unrest in the southwestern provinces of Dian and Qian. Although it also felt the serious threat that the rising Naiman Jin state posed to the empire's northern frontier, it could not yet make up its mind to resort directly to force of arms.

A road must be walked step by step, a meal eaten bite by bite. Emperor Shizu's early teachings enabled Emperor Liu Wenji to restrain his impulse to immediately dispatch troops beyond the frontier to campaign north against the Naiman. Of course, given the situation at the time, the hostile posture between Han and Jin was already quite obvious—the Jin state and the Raole state were already on the verge of fighting each other's brains out.

The reason Liu Jin had not launched a large-scale advance southward was naturally due to misgivings, especially concerning the existence of the Raole state. It was a thorn in his back and belly; he had to remove this danger at his elbow before he could safely turn south.

As for the Jin army's southward march, it was only a matter of time. The fundamental reason was that the Naiman Jin state, "beaten" into existence by Liu Jin's own hands, could not long halt its pace of war. At the same time, the bitter cold living conditions of Mobei and the traditional nomadic production and livelihood methods could not support the needs of all the tribes and peoples under its rule.

In such a situation, the usual options were either to squeeze the ruled population to the limit—which was actually the governance model the Khitan in Mobei had followed for decades—or, as a hegemon who had just unified the great desert, Liu Jin naturally could not follow the old path of the Mobei Khitan, castrating himself, removing his own claws and fangs.

Exercising the traditional skill of nomadic peoples—expansion and plunder outward, or rather southward—became the only choice. Even though the Han Empire was at its zenith, when it came to fundamental questions of survival, under the constraints of the era's social conditions, there was basically no other solution.

That the Raole state became Liu Jin's first target was also inevitable. It was too close to Mobei, posing a huge threat to Jin rule, especially over the newly conquered "Hulunbuir Great Grassland." Liu Jin could not ignore it.

At the same time, the Raole state had the Great Han at its back, possessed the "Horqin Grassland" and the vast fertile lands and waters of the Na River basin, and after thirty years of development and accumulation under Liu Xin, had amassed enough population and wealth to make Liu Jin's mouth water.

If he could annex the Raole state, the benefits needed no elaboration—it would directly elevate Jin's national strength to another level. As for the drawbacks, it would merely mean falling out with the Han Empire. After annexing the Khitan, Liu Jin, at least spiritually, no longer feared the Han Empire to the south.

However, the campaign against the Raole state did not go smoothly. In terms of the bravery of officers and men, the Raole army was naturally inferior, but in equipment, they crushed the Jin soldiers by a full street. Especially, thanks to their close relationship with the empire, the Raole army had also been armed with gunpowder weapons such as fire arrows, fire cannons, and fire thunder. In this regard, even though Liu Jin had made preparations, he still suffered considerable losses after large-scale engagements.

Worth mentioning, the Jin soldiers under Liu Jin's command evolved quickly. Although they could not find a way to counter them, they at least gradually became familiar with the rhythm of battlefields where gunpowder weapons existed. The explosions and thunderous roars were certainly shocking, but given the limitations of accuracy and power, when they attacked and we defended, it was still difficult to pose a fatal threat to the Jin army's highly mobile cavalry. And when it came purely to mounted combat, relying on more abundant experience and the instinct of horse-borne slaughter, the Jin soldiers indeed surpassed the Raole army.

But the problem the Jin soldiers faced remained obvious: they were weak at besieging cities. Although the Raole army was also primarily cavalry, it had absorbed elements of Han army defensive doctrine. Especially in city defense, the cities scattered among the rivers and mountains within Raole territory were hard bones for the Jin soldiers—if they wanted to gnaw through them, they had to be mentally prepared to have their teeth shattered.

Therefore, over the several years of the "Raole-Jin War," Jin battle tactics kept changing, from the early "single decisive battle" approach to besieging cities to lure reinforcements, focusing on trapping cities and annihilating the Raole army's effective strength.

In the first few years, relying on their abundant accumulated resources, they could still wrestle with the Jin soldiers, but the further it went, the more exhausted they became. The Raole army even dared not engage the Jin soldiers in open-field battles outside the cities anymore, only desperately defending their fortifications, changing from "defending the territory" to "defending the cities." Even for city defense, only a few cities—Jinshan, Xingguo, Baicheng, and Lekang—could serve as reliance; ordinary small towns and forts likewise could not withstand the Jin soldiers' attacks.

Seeing that the strong cities were hard to take, Liu Jin was also unwilling to waste his precious troops beneath Han cities. So he abandoned the goal of directly annexing the Raole state and switched to plunder as the primary objective. Tens of thousands of Jin soldiers, like a swarm of locusts passing through, scoured and devoured everything within Raole territory—population, livestock, wealth...

By the eighth year of Jianlong, after several major plundering campaigns by Liu Jin, the family fortune that Liu Xin had painstakingly accumulated over half a lifetime had lost nearly half. While the Andong Jurchen rebellion was raging, some Jin soldiers even crossed the border southward, burning, killing, and looting within the Yan Mountains North Circuit. Although they were quickly annihilated and driven out by local garrison troops, the Yan Mountains North Circuit, after nearly half a century of peace, once again tasted what iron and blood truly meant.

And the Jin army's harassment and threat to the empire's northern frontier was hardly limited to the Yan Mountains North Circuit. While the flames of war raged in Raole, along the Han Empire's long northern border, among the deserts and grasslands north of the Great Wall and south of the Yin Mountains, harassment from Jin soldiers or Jin-subordinate tribes had already become routine.

By the eighth year of Jianlong, the existence of the Naiman Jin state had become a malignant tumor on the peace of the empire's northern border. Between Han and Jin, only a thin layer of window paper separated them from completely tearing off all pretense. The disturbances beyond the northern frontier even affected the matter of the capital's nobles and commoners eating mutton...

But in the resolutions reached by the empire's central government in early Jianlong's ninth year, directly dispatching troops for a northern expedition was still not included. "South first, north later" remained the empire's fundamental policy for suppressing rebellion and repelling invaders. However, knowing full well Liu Jin's ambitions and the threat the Jin state posed to the Great Han, they could no longer sit by and do nothing.

The destruction of the Khitan had already subjected Liu Wenji to much criticism. For this matter, gossip and slander were unavoidable both inside and outside the court, accusing Liu Wenji of only caring about consolidating power and reorganizing, dealing with imperial kinsmen and flesh and blood, while indulging foreign aggression...

In this regard, Liu Wenji truly had it hard. Had he back then advocated dispatching troops to rescue the Mobei Khitan, setting aside the political risks that military success or failure might bring Liu Wenji, once he acted, it would inevitably have been a different story altogether.

Rumors and slander, though they cannot wound the body, can indeed kill the spirit. And the Prince of Andong, Liu Wenyuan, had always enjoyed playing such petty tricks. This was an important reason for the deep-buried anger Liu Wenji held toward Liu Wenyuan and Andong, which triggered the "Feud of Imperial Clansmen" in the sixth year of Jianlong.

Therefore, after deliberations with the civil and military chancellors of the Hall of State Affairs, Liu Wenji formulated three measures against the Naiman Jin state. First, increase support to the Raole state—grain, weapons, and troops;

Second, issue edicts to all the empire's northern frontier defense forces, strengthening vigilance, patrols, and other control measures. Should Jin soldiers invade again, frontier garrison commanders could launch counterattacks at opportune moments, resolutely annihilating all invading enemies;

Third, and the point that struck the deepest blow against the Jin state—issue edicts to all northern border regions, especially the vital routes and passes bordering the Jin state, sealing off all trade routes leading to Mobei, prohibiting even a single grain of rice, a single leaf of tea, a single measure of salt, or a single piece of iron from flowing into Jin territory. Economic sanctions were directly employed.

That's right—during those years of intense confrontation between the Jin state and the Raole state, the Han Empire's economic ties with Mobei had not ceased. Many merchants still smuggled goods the Jin state urgently needed through overt and covert trade routes, including even some weapons and equipment. That period was also when northern border smugglers were most rampant—it was prime time for making money...

With the issuance of the court's three major decrees, although no large-scale military action was taken, the atmosphere across the empire's northern frontier immediately tensed up. The King of Raole, Liu Xin, finally breathed a sigh of relief, and his grievances toward the court eased somewhat.

And because of the economic sanctions, smuggling criminal activity on the northern border actually surged even higher. Even though the court had issued harsh decrees mandating execution for offenders, some merchants still risked breaking the law—especially some surrendered tribes living beyond the northern frontier and in Monan...

At the same time, the economic sanctions tactic did prove effective against the Jin state. The north-south trade routes were, to a certain extent, Mobei's lifeline. Once the Han Empire's prohibition was issued, many problems were quickly exposed. And relying solely on smuggling activities was clearly unable to make up for the Jin state's demand for various goods from the Great Han.

As could be imagined, the Han Empire's measures thoroughly enraged Liu Jin and intensified the hostility and conflict between Han and Jin. Starting from the autumn of the ninth year of Jianlong, along the Han Empire's northern frontier—from Yulin in the west to northern Yan in the east—alarms sounded everywhere, smoke signals rose continuously, and Jin soldiers frequently raided southward.

This time, compared to the so-called "tribal actions" of the past few years that were like covering one's ears while stealing a bell, it was far more direct. Although the scale was still not large, these were all fully organized Jin cavalry units, surging southward—avoiding the strong, attacking the weak, and plundering the populace...

Although these were minor skirmishes that could hardly harm the empire's foundations, the Jin soldiers' harassment still shattered decades of peace in places like Shanyang. Facing the Jin cavalry that came and went like the wind, the Han army primarily adopted defensive counterattacks. Although they achieved some victories, the various frontier forces were still run ragged. Some of the older generation of Monan commoners even began to miss Li Jilong—back when Li Jilong was stationed in Monan, one only saw Li Jilong leading troops north to raid and plunder the Khitan, never northern troops raiding south.

The falling-out between Han and Jin happened just that naturally. In fact, Liu Jin had also correctly judged that the Han Empire was powerless to look north. Although with the Great Han's strength, conducting both southern and northern campaigns simultaneously was hardly a difficult matter, Emperor Liu Wenji was clearly unwilling to take such risks.

After a round of blatant probing, the shrewd and cunning Liu Jin captured this point. Thus, upon entering the tenth year of Jianlong, he reduced his harassment of the Great Han's northern borders and instead concentrated his forces once more to campaign east against the Raole state.

With the Han army not personally entering the fray, relying solely on the Raole state's own strength and some "aid," they clearly could not repel the wolf-like, tiger-like Jin soldiers. From King Liu Xin on down, the Raole state ultimately was not as capable of fighting as the three Central Asian states—after all, their environment was different, and the trials they had undergone were different.

Furthermore, after multiple engagements between the Jin state and the Raole and Han armies, the Jin soldiers also began attempting to use gunpowder weapons. Some of their firearms came from battlefield captures, raids, and plunder; some came from imitation production. Even if what they produced were inferior goods, it was still a commendable progress.

Therefore, by the summer of the eleventh year of Jianlong, Liu Jin achieved his greatest breakthrough in the campaign against Raole: besieging Xingguo City. The siege lasted over a month—not just surrounding the city, but assaulting it.

The Jin soldiers drove tens of thousands of slave soldiers in ant-swarm attacks against the walls of Xingguo City, coordinated with long-range weapons like fire arrows, crossbows, and stone catapults, and they truly posed considerable threat to Xingguo. Had it not been for the King of Raole, Liu Xin, whose high virtue and prestige won people's hearts, with a host of loyal subjects and citizens fighting to the death to hold the city, Liu Xin would have nearly been captured by the Jin soldiers—becoming a humiliation for the empire and a shame for the imperial princes...

That Xingguo was preserved came not only from the Raole state's desperate resistance, but mainly from support on two fronts. Of course, it was not from the imperial court—learning of Xingguo's predicament took time, and decision-making, response, dispatch, and preparation took even more time.

The ones who rescued the King of Raole from danger were two other men: the Prince of Andong, Liu Jitan, and the Chief Commander of the Yan Mountains North Circuit, Dong Congyan.

Upon learning that Xingguo was besieged, Dong Congyan, who could be considered an old adversary of the Jin soldiers, immediately sensed something unusual this time. On one hand, he sent out scouts; on the other, he assembled twenty thousand frontier troops and militia, personally leading them northward to render aid.

The Yanbei Han army's proactive sortie to rescue was somewhat unexpected for Liu Jin, but upon receiving the news, he was instead overjoyed, feeling this was an excellent opportunity to severely wound the Han army—even a heaven-sent chance to swallow both Raole and Yanbei into the Jin state's territory in one stroke.

When Dong Congyan's army advanced to the west of Baicheng, by the banks of the Talu River, they were ambushed by forty thousand Jin soldiers personally led by Liu Jin. This time, Liu Jin got a bitter taste—Dong Congyan was fully prepared to deal with a Jin ambush.

Even though the Jin soldiers outnumbered the Han army several times over, failing to shatter the Han army's formation in the first few waves of charges meant they lost their chance to quickly break "Dong's Army." On the contrary, under Dong Congyan's unhurried command, the Han army formed ranks and held their ground, steady and advancing, even launching localized counterattacks.

In the military history of the Han Empire, countless battle examples could prove that when the Han army formed its battle formation, as long as the command system remained intact and morale did not flag, they were invincible within their "domain." Dong Congyan merely used a few years to help the Yanbei Han army recover some things that time had worn away.

Once drawn into close-quarters melee, Liu Jin also sensed something was wrong. By the time he adjusted his tactics and broke free from the slaughter against the Han army's formation, he had already suffered over three thousand casualties. For the next five days, the two sides faced off by the Talu River—the Jin soldiers closely watching the Han army, while the Han army, under Dong Congyan's command, showed no fear, unmoving as a mountain...

Until news arrived from Xingguo City that the Jin soldiers had been defeated. The Jin troops Liu Jin had left to watch the city were routed by the Andong state's great general Liu Shangyuan, who led ten thousand troops and, coordinating with the defenders inside the city, smashed the Jin soldiers in one stroke, beheading several thousand, with the rest fleeing in panic.

Upon receiving this news, Liu Jin was greatly alarmed and no longer cared to tangle with Dong Congyan's army—he rapidly withdrew his troops. Dong Congyan seized the opportunity and personally led the Yanbei iron cavalry in pursuit. At the eastern foot of Mantou Mountain, they encountered a Jin counterattack and lost over a thousand men.

From the Talu River to Xingguo City, Liu Jin suffered his first major defeat since destroying the Khitan and turning against Han, a heavy blow to his arrogant heart. And from this battle onward, the curtain was thoroughly lifted on the Han Empire's counteroffensive against the Naiman Jin state.

Dong Congyan's dispatch of troops subsequently triggered an episode: civil officials at court attacked him, saying he had moved troops without authorization, neglected his duties, and cast aside the safety of Yanbei. They declared that if he had been defeated and Yanbei lost, Dong Congyan's guilt would be inescapable. Some even accused him of losing troops in the final pursuit of Liu Jin...

Fortunately, Liu Wenji remained clear-headed and was not led into the ditch. Although Dong Congyan's decision was debatable, whether in intention or outcome, it was worthy of affirmation. Liu Wenji had not yet reached the point of being unable to tolerate his generals and marshals making some on-the-spot decisions. Therefore, he not only praised and rewarded Dong Congyan but also sent the several court officials who had submitted the memorials to serve under the Yanbei Military Command.

As for the Andong state dispatching troops to rescue, that was only to be expected—after all, if Raole were lost, they would directly face the Jin threat. For the sake of security and interests, they had to take action. This was also the consensus of the group of senior ministers Liu Wenyuan had left behind to assist governance, and they had Liu Shangyuan, one of the "troika," personally lead the army.

It should be noted that during Liu Wenyuan's era, relations between the Andong state and the Raole state had been rather strained, due to Liu Wenyuan's neglect and contempt for his fourteenth uncle. However, after this battle, starting with Liu Jitan, relations between the two states began to improve thoroughly...