Chapter 330: The Grainless Burned Fort: The Triple Gate of Liaodong Slaughter

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It is well known that the Jin state was founded by the Jurchens, and Liaodong was one of their ancestral homelands and the core region of their early activities. Wanyan Aguda laid the foundation of the Jin state only after seizing Liaodong.

Thus, it is not an exaggeration to call Liaodong the cradle of the Jin state.

If Liaodong is lost, it will weaken the Jurchen tribes' sense of allegiance to the Jin state and may even trigger internal fragmentation, undermining the regime's cohesion.

Liaodong's geographical position is strategic: it borders the Korean Peninsula to the east, the Mongolian steppe to the west, and the Central Plains to the south, serving as the Jin state's natural barrier against external threats. It blocks the southern advance of Mongol tribes and harassment from other Liaodong forces (such as Goryeo), ensuring the security of the Jin's core ruling region.

If the geographical barrier of Liaodong is lost, the Jin state may be directly exposed to threats from the Song, the remnants of Liao, Mongol steppe tribes, and Goryeo, plunging it into a passive situation of multi-front warfare.

Liaodong is also the Jin state's springboard for southern expansion. From Liaodong, the Jin can strike directly at the Liao heartland (the Yan-Yun region) and then advance southward against the Song, making it a strategic pivot for dominating northern territories.

The Jin has always advanced southward from Liaodong as its base, ultimately destroying Liao and forcing Song into submission. If Liaodong is lost, the Jin will lose its strategic rear and expansion springboard—unable to continue southward, it may even face counterattacks from Liao remnants, lose already-occupied territories, and become a regional minor power.

Liaodong's agriculture, animal husbandry, and hunting/fishing industries are highly developed, producing abundant resources such as grain, horses, furs, and minerals (like iron), providing vital material support for the Jin's military expansion and daily governance.

Especially horses and iron tools are critical to the Jin army, which relies primarily on cavalry; one could say Liaodong's resource supply directly determines the Jin army's combat effectiveness.

Losing this region would leave the Jin facing severe shortages, unable to sustain the operation of its ruling apparatus, and possibly triggering internal unrest due to economic collapse.

The area around Liaoyang Prefecture in Dongjing Road is a key settlement zone for the Jurchens, with the four counties of Liaoyang, Heye, Yifeng, and Shicheng, plus Changyi Town, totaling over forty thousand households; if each household averages five people, that's more than two hundred thousand people.

Including the Meng'an-Mouke households and Han, Khitan, Bohai, and other ethnic populations in Dongjing Road's prefectures and counties, the total reaches roughly one million four hundred thousand.

This is undoubtedly one of the Jin's core settlement areas; by controlling Liaodong, the Jin stabilizes its ethnic population base and ensures a steady supply of soldiers.

Without Liaodong, the Jin army will face a collapse of manpower, interrupted equipment, and disrupted logistics, making sustained warfare against Liao and Song impossible.

Thus, Liaodong is the very foundation of the Jin state—indispensable in terms of regime origin, military security, and economic support—and a vital guarantee for Jin rule. If Liaodong is lost, the Jin's rise will be utterly shattered, and it may rapidly decline in its struggle against Liao and Song, unable to become a powerful regime ruling the north.

In short, Liaodong is a region the Jin cannot afford to lose under any circumstances.

The Song and the Liao remnants jointly plotting to seize Liaodong is, for the Jin, nothing less than a war of survival.

Even in a desperate situation where manpower and equipment appear inferior, the Jin will fight to the death—Wanyan Aguda and others have no choice.

Guerrilla tactics are precisely the strategy to offset the Song army's artillery advantage and wear down the Song-Liao coalition.

The Jin army, having already suffered heavy losses, fully understands the power of Li Lin's artillery.

Wanyan Aguda and other outstanding Jin commanders, through these battles with the Song army, have concluded that these heavy firearms capable of breaching city walls, though dominant on open battlefields, suffer from two fatal flaws: first, they are extremely heavy, requiring dozens of men or even livestock to drag, making them immobile in Liaodong's mountainous, forested, and swampy terrain; the hundreds of miles from the Liaoxi Corridor to Liaoyang's interior, with its steep Goguryeo ruins and muddy lower Liao River wetlands, force artillery units to advance no more than ten li per day; second, their logistical consumption is enormous—each cannon consumes vast quantities of gunpowder and shells daily, and transport teams must also carry food, tools, and supplies; any delay leads to the predicament of "cannons in position, shells still en route."

In response to the weaknesses of Li Lin's artillery, the Jin army adopted a guerrilla strategy of "harassment as the priority, avoiding strength and striking weakness":

That is, Jurchen cavalry split into small units, leveraging their familiarity with mountainous forests, lying hidden by day and striking at night to target Song supply lines. They avoid direct confrontation with artillery units, instead focusing on the auxiliary troops transporting gunpowder and grain—setting traps in the woods, igniting supply carts with flaming arrows, or launching night raids on scattered escort squads, leaving the Song's Li Lin artillery perpetually in the awkward state of "cannons without shells, shells without cannons."

Once, when a Song artillery unit passed through the Sarhū Valley, the Jin first sent small forces to feign harassment, luring the escort troops to split and pursue, then launched a main force attack on the rear gunpowder carts—when the explosion roared, over ten cannons instantly became useless iron, deprived of ammunition.

Moreover, Liaodong is dotted with old Liao-era fortresses. Though less sturdy than prefectural cities, these hillside strongholds can choke key passes. The Jin hides its main forces inside these寨s, letting Song artillery bombard the outer earthen walls—after all, the寨s are well-stocked with grain, and soldiers know the tunnels and hidden bunkers; once the Song's Li Lin artillery runs out of ammunition or suffers logistical breakdown and withdraws, the Jin emerges from the寨s to reclaim lost ground.

Not long ago, in the battle for Shicheng寨 on the outskirts of Liaoyang, Song artillery breached half the寨wall, only to find a deep moat and sharpened stakes behind it; Jurchen archers on both hills suppressed the attackers, and when Song soldiers climbed ladders to scale the walls, the Jin emerged from underground tunnels to harass from behind, dragging out the battle until the Song ran out of ammunition and food and retreated—Shicheng寨 remained unconquered.

Meanwhile, the Jin used resources and women plundered from Goryeo to lure the Liao remnants into surrender.

The Liao remnants are now destitute, unable to pay soldiers' wages, relying entirely on Song-provided grain, and winning no battles, hence no plunder.

In the short term, soldiers cling to patriotic sentiment—for restoring their state, for revenge, for washing away humiliation—and endure hardship without reward.

But as time passes, the rumble of empty stomachs drowns out the slogans of restoration; frozen fingers can no longer grip weapons of vengeance; patriotic fervor, worn down by day after day of hunger and cold, thins to a mere paper-thin layer.

Meanwhile, they watch Song soldiers receive heavy monthly pay, wear thick cotton coats that withstand minus thirty or forty degrees, sleep in fine tents with cotton quilts, burn coal and charcoal for warmth inside their tents, and enjoy wine, meat cans, and festive meals after victories; wounded soldiers receive medical care, and fallen soldiers' families receive sufficient pensions to survive.

The Liao soldiers' inner scales gradually tilt.

Both sides fight for their country—why do Song soldiers eat well and stay warm, while they starve, forced to gnaw on frozen beans? And even these beans are provided by the Song to the Liao.

Both sides abandon homes and families—yet Song soldiers have the Song Chaoting to back them: the Song Chaoting handles their birth, aging, illness, and death, and even grants land, houses, and women to meritorious soldiers; but if they die, they become nothing but a handful of forgotten earth in the wilderness.

Those once thunderous cries of "restore the state, wash away humiliation" gradually, in nights of starvation-induced delirium, shrank to a simple longing for "one full meal."

Liao soldiers often secretly borrow food from Song troops.

The Song side responds generously: whoever comes to borrow is met by a supervisor, who kindly gives extra rations; when Liao soldiers need help—say, treating wounded—they are assisted without hesitation.

In casual chats, Song soldiers say: "War is fought with national strength, not just individual bravery. Look at us—our cannons lined up, blasting the Jin dogs into submission, then we charge and cut them down; battle merits are as easy to pick up as fallen fruit. Look at you—your armor and weapons are incomplete; you must trade your lives for every inch. And worse—you're hungry, you're cold—how can you win? You're just walking to your deaths."

Hearing this, Liao soldiers feel profound resentment, profound injustice.

One Liao soldier killed two Jin troops at the cost of his own life, and received as reward only half a sack of moldy grain—had he been in the Song army, such merit would have earned him two mu of good land, two guan in bounty, a wife, a victory feast with wine and meat cans to spare.

A Liao junior officer stared at his boots, worn thin to the point his toes stuck out, stuffed only with wula grass to keep his feet from freezing, then looked at the thick felt boots worn by Song privates; that bit of "Jurchen must die fighting" pride, like firewood soaked in snowmelt, could no longer spark a single flame.