Chapter 918: No Winter Battles

Although the decision had been made to withdraw westward, even to the point of giving up some of the prefectures in the Shanxi region and setting the battlefield in the Yun-Shuo area, the Liao army made no major moves in the following days. Apart from sending troops to monitor the Han army at Ruzhou and sealing off the passes, they intensified their efforts to root out the Han spies who kept infiltrating Liao territory—since the war began, those Han agents had grown rather audacious.

Beyond that, the Liao army showed no unusual activity, simply resting and recuperating at Huailai, presenting an appearance of "if you don't move, I won't move." Faced with the Liao army's behavior, after one wave of raiding troops had been hunted down and more than half wiped out, Li Chongjin also became more cautious, merely conducting targeted surveillance and not daring to rashly send a few hundred men to harass Huailai again.

During this process, through the Deshengkou route, Liu Chengyou reinforced Jinshan with thirty thousand additional troops, simultaneously increasing the threat to the Liao army's flank while ensuring the strength of the Han army at Jinshan, maintaining a position where advance and retreat were both well-founded.

It was not until mid-October, while the Han army still maintained its strategy of holding position, that the Liao army, which had rested for over half a month, finally made a major move—over a hundred thousand Liao troops withdrew along the entire front, contracting toward Wende County to the northwest.

Juyong Pass and Huailai County were completely abandoned. Before withdrawing, the Liao army relocated all able-bodied men, and "requisitioned" all grain stores and livestock belonging to officials and civilians alike, leaving behind a large number of elderly, weak, women, and children. This could not be called a clever move, but at least it guaranteed that after the Han army took over, they would be saddled with a great burden.

At the same time, they burned Huailai City to the ground, intending not to leave the Han army a base they could rely on. How could the Han army fail to react to such Liao movements? Li Chongjin immediately reported the news to the imperial headquarters still at Changping, then promptly led his troops westward in pursuit.

However, constrained by the fact that the Liao army was numerically superior, Li Chongjin was very cautious, and with the harassment of Liao cavalry, by the time he arrived at Huailai, he saw only an earthen city still burning fiercely, thick smoke rolling above the city walls...

And directly outside the city, over ten thousand elderly and weak were gathered, though noisy with constant wailing, they seemed as if they were waiting for them. Seeing this scene, Li Chongjin was nearly furious. He summoned several elders to inquire about the situation, and only then learned that the Liao army's withdrawal had long been in preparation—it was only today that they had made a big show of it.

Facing the burning county town, Li Chongjin had no intention of dealing with it. Putting out the fire was impossible—large-scale water collection would require going to the Sanggan River to the west, and it was the Sanggan River in winter at that.

He simply led his troops to halt outside the city, warming themselves by the way, while the ten thousand or so elderly and weak were settled in another location. At this time, the people of Huailai sent representatives, saying their rations had all been confiscated, and hoping that the Great Han's royal army could distribute grain for relief.

Li Chongjin's attitude toward this was crude. He thought the petitioners didn't look like good people, and moreover, in his view, military grain was precious—how could it be spent on these "Liao people"? Thus, he flatly refused. Later, unable to bear their repeated entreaties, Li Chongjin simply ordered his soldiers to tie them up and give them a few lashes.

At this time, the scouts sent out also returned with reports. At Juyong Pass, the people were gone and the city empty, but the Liao army had blocked the road with quarried stone, obstructing the route, and Chief Inspector Shi Shouxin of the camp was arranging for its clearance. What interested Li Chongjin was the situation of the westward-withdrawing Liao army—because they were escorting conscripted laborers and carrying large quantities of wealth and supplies, the Liao army was not withdrawing quickly, and since they were pulling out in batches, one portion was lagging behind.

At this, Li Chongjin immediately developed an interest in pursuit. Together with Longjie Army cavalry commander Shi Yande, he led five thousand Han cavalry, tracking their trail in pursuit, wanting to take a big bite out of the Liao army.

The result, naturally, was not what Li Chongjin had expected—a smooth victory with captured gains. They did catch up to the Liao army's rear guard, but at Jiming Mountain, sixty li west of Huailai, they fell into a Liao ambush.

Over forty thousand Liao troops surrounded them completely. The Liao general in charge of the ambush was Yelu Xiezhen, newly promoted by the Liao emperor to be Commander of the Field Headquarters. Facing an eightfold Liao force closing in for annihilation, Li Chongjin and Shi Yande were completely unprepared. In the crisis, they naturally fought desperately and struggled to break out, and with casualties exceeding half, they barely hacked out a bloody path.

Then, under the Liao army's pursuit, casualties grew even heavier. Had it not been for Commander Murong Yanqing of the Husheng Army's Right Wing leading troops to their rescue, Li and Shi would likely have been completely annihilated.

Even so, the final result was little different from total annihilation—fewer than five hundred riders survived, nearly all of them wounded. After such a victory, the Liao army's withdrawal became even more leisurely, and their morale received no small boost.

Upon learning of the Liao army's unusual movements, Emperor Liu Chengyou of the Han showed no hesitation either, ordering advance—when the enemy retreats, we advance, pressing step by step without the slightest delay.

Those who arrived at Huailai first were only part of the forces from Jinshan and Nankou, totaling over sixty thousand men. Liu Chengyou himself only arrived with the army three days later.

On the day he arrived at Huailai, Liu Chengyou did not first inquire about military intelligence—what needed to be known was already known, and in these three or four days, nothing more had changed.

Liu Chengyou first received the representatives of the elderly, weak, women, and children abandoned by the Liao army, comforting them kindly, and in his capacity as emperor, personally welcomed them back to the Great Han, and ordered a portion of military grain to be allocated, sufficient to see them through the winter.

To be honest, the Liao army's act of abandoning the elderly and weak did add some burden and trouble to the Han army, but equally, it gave Liu Chengyou an opportunity to play the political card heavily.

Afterward, he received Li Chongjin and Shi Yande. The two had long been unable to sit still, urgently wishing to beg the emperor's forgiveness. Especially Li Chongjin—seeing the emperor's attitude toward those "Liao people," his heart grew even more uneasy.

Toward their defeat, Liu Chengyou did not display excessive reaction, merely saying that victory and defeat are common affairs for soldiers, and told the two to summarize their lessons well. Of course, since they had lost the battle and so many cavalry—one must know, the Longjie cavalry were elite imperial guard horsemen, hardly easy to train. He simply didn't show the anger in his heart.

As for how to deal with the two men, Liu Chengyou left it to Guo Rong. Guo Rong naturally had no reason to show favoritism, nor did he dare to. He summoned Li Chongjin, gave him a thorough scolding, then ordered his demotion to Commander of the First Command of the Husheng Right Wing—from Chief General of a major army to a mere commander, a drop of three ranks. At the same time, because of his crude treatment of the people, he was given an additional thirty lashes.

Speaking of it, Li Chongjin's military career had truly not been smooth. He had become a senior general of the imperial army quite early, but over the years he had never been able to rise further.

Back in the great Huainan campaign, he had earned many merits, and after returning to court, though he got into trouble with Wang Yansheng and was ultimately punished, he still advanced a step. In this northern expedition, he first achieved the merit of breaching Tanzhou, then led troops to break Deshengkou and recover Ruzhou—only to suffer defeat at Jiming Mountain and the crime of flogging civilians.

He truly seemed to be plagued by bad luck. If he didn't perform better in the coming battles, then after returning to court, he might find himself standing still again, or even demoted rather than promoted...

After the Han army took Huailai, in the following period, the two sides fell into a standoff once again. The Han army stationed a hundred thousand troops at Huailai, stockpiling grain and weapons, showing no intention of advancing further, appearing as if they meant to spend the winter there.

The Liao army, after withdrawing to Wende, did not continue retreating either, but firmly held all the passes. They would not take another step back, quietly waiting for the Han army's move.

In fact, regarding Yelu Wuzhi's proposal to completely abandon all the prefectures in the Shanxi region, Yelu Jing had not fully agreed. Withdrawing from Huailai was because of the loss of Jinshan, to avoid being caught in a pincer by the Han army.

However, while the Yun-Shuo region was indeed relatively convenient for Liao cavalry to maneuver, if they gave up the four prefectures of Ru, Gui, Wu, and Xin, then against Yunzhou, the Han army could also launch a pincer attack. If the Han army came out west from Huai'an, west of Wuzhou, it could even be called a backstab.

In such a situation, Yunzhou would also be indefensible—this was determined jointly by strength and terrain. Yelu Jing didn't understand why Yelu Wuzhi couldn't see this point...

And so, amid this "tacit understanding," for the first time since the great Han-Liao war began, things fell into calm—and that calm lasted an entire winter.