Chapter 365: Khitan or Western Xia

Under the moonlight, Feng'an Army was bathed in bright, clear light that spilled over the great river and the vast desert, making the scenery all the more intoxicating.

But Zhang Zhao, Zhang Xichong, and the others had no mind to admire the view. Instead, inside the military fort of Feng'an Army, they had hung up a topographic map and were studying it closely.

In fact, the previous year Zhang Liecheng had already brought back to Hexi word that Zhang Xichong wished to meet Zhang Zhao, but Zhang Zhao had never set out.

First, affairs in Hexi were so tangled and numerous that he truly could not get away.

Second, Zhang Zhao did not understand Zhang Xichong's character and did not dare risk coming to Feng'an Army the way he had now. Given Zhang Zhao's present status, it was better to be prudent.

If he mobilized a large army, secrecy would be impossible; if he did not, he might be taken advantage of.

Only now, after thoroughly figuring out what sort of man Zhang Xichong was, did Zhang Zhao choose to come to Feng'an Army to meet him.

"Great King, please look. In the Great Tang period, the Military Governor of Shuofang governed eleven prefectures, including Ling, Yan, Xia, Sui, Yin, and Feng.

But since the late Tang, the Yin and Xia prefectures and others were granted to the Tangut people, forming the Dingnan Army Military Governorship. At present, only the three prefectures of Ling, Yan, and Feng remain."

As he spoke, Zhang Xichong let out a long sigh. "In truth, only Lingzhou alone is left now.

In the sixth year of Zhenming of the Former Liang, the Khitan ruler Yelu Abaoji led thirty thousand Khitan troops to capture Fengzhou. Military Governor Song Yao was forced to surrender, rebelled the following year, but was immediately defeated and the city taken again by the Khitan.

The twenty thousand people of Fengzhou were moved by the Khitan to Daqing Mountain. Today Fengzhou has only a few thousand Khitan tribesmen nomadically herding there, and it is basically abandoned.

And although Yanzhou still belongs to the jurisdiction of Lingwu Army, in reality it has long been completely infiltrated by the Pingxia Tangut of the Dingnan Army.

The Defense Commissioner of Lingwu Army in Yanzhou has also been bought off. The officers and soldiers above and below are all Tangut, and through Yanzhou they are even constantly reaching their hands toward Lingzhou."

Zhang Zhao nodded to show he understood. In other words, the Shuofang Military Governorship, one of the ten military governorships of the Tianbao era with its originally broad territory, now consisted only of the Yinchuan and Wuzhong area on the Ningxia Plain.

Fengzhou in the front bend, that is, the place where the Yellow River forms the shape of the character ji, had already been occupied by the Khitan.

The Li family of the Dingnan Army, situated southeast of Lingzhou, had also been continuously nibbling away with Tangut tribes, attempting to control Lingzhou.

"Then how many Han people are there in Lingzhou now? How is the morale of the Lingwu Army?" Zhang Zhao asked next.

The bitterness on Zhang Xichong's face deepened. "The Han people of Lingzhou now number fewer than two thousand households, not even ten thousand people, while the Tangut, the the Shatuo, and Tuyuhun number more than a hundred thousand.

The Han soldiers and officers throughout the Lingwu Army are even more pitifully few. Those I have taken as my yabing guards number fewer than one thousand; the remaining seven thousand and more are all tribal soldiers."

Good heavens! Zhang Zhao finally understood why Zhang Xichong was so anxious.

So on the vast Ningxia Plain, the Han people already numbered fewer than ten thousand, the Han soldiers of the Lingwu Army were only one-eighth, and the rest were all tribal soldiers.

Moreover, there was probably one more thing Zhang Xichong had not said: the Khitan and the Tangut must already have begun infiltrating the Lingwu Army as well.

Even in the worst case, even if there were no infiltration, the Lingwu Army having only eight thousand men left was absolutely a disaster.

With so few men to guard all the cities under Lingzhou, such as Huaiyuan, Anjing, Lingwu, and Lanchi, they had long been stretched to the breaking point.

The Khitan had already occupied Fengzhou. If they came with just twenty or thirty thousand men, Lingzhou would be in danger.

"Now does the Great King understand why I said Lingzhou is already a dead place?

The current Khitan ruler Yelu Deguang merely wants to swallow Lingzhou at the smallest possible cost, so he has not acted directly.

If one day he loses patience, he need only send thirty thousand men to cut the links between the cities, and Lingzhou would be lucky to hold out for half a year."

Zhang Zhao stood up and studied the map of Lingzhou again and again. "I wonder how many of the Lingwu Army the Grand Commandant can now fully control?"

Zhang Xichong looked at Zhang Zhao with appreciation. This King of Han truly understood what mattered; he had not assumed that one word from Zhang Xichong could make the Lingwu Army submit to Hexi.

"At present I can mobilize about two thousand. The rest obey my orders, but when it truly comes to battle, I dare not say what they would do."

"Not enough! This is far from enough!" Zhang Zhao murmured to himself.

Lingzhou was a piece of fat meat hanging at the mouth of the Khitan, that hungry wolf. The Khitan were waiting to devour it at the smallest possible cost.

Right now it looked as though they had no intention of attacking Lingzhou, but that was only on the premise that the present situation did not change.

If Zhang Zhao dared to touch Lingzhou, or if Zhang Xichong revealed any intention of handing Lingzhou to Zhang Zhao, the Khitan army would surely strike at once.

Whether they came down the Yellow River from Fengzhou, or circled around the desert and broke in through the gap at Helan Mountain, the Lingwu Army's current strength simply could not withstand them.

Zhang Zhao thought it over. In the Khitan's previous great battles with the Central Plains, the scale of their deployments had always been above thirty thousand, and generally speaking, sending fifty to seventy thousand was no problem.

Especially after gaining the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan-Yun, their siege capability and heavy-armored infantry had been greatly supplemented, and now they could probably field a force of a hundred thousand.

Even though Lingzhou lay in the west and could not compare with Hebei and other places close to the Khitan heartland, sending thirty to fifty thousand men was still no problem.

As for the Khitan's fighting strength, it had already been tested in the Battle of Taiyuan, when they aided Shi Jingtang.

When Khitan cavalry numbered around ten thousand, they were evenly matched with Central Plains cavalry; above ten thousand, they were probably superior to the Central Plains.

In the Battle of Taiyuan, Gao Xingzhou, An Shenqi, Fu Yanqing, and others, all quite famous cavalry commanders, were defeated one after another by Yelu Deguang.

On the infantry side, Han Zhigu of Jizhou, the grandfather of the historically famous Han Derang, had already trained for the Khitan the Zhangwu Army of Bazhou, a Han heavy-infantry force of quite good fighting quality, making up the Khitan's other leg.

Add to that Yelu Deguang's capable command, and if fifty thousand Khitan came to Lingzhou, even just to wear them down and drive them off, an army of twenty thousand would be necessary.

No! It would require thirty thousand, because ten thousand elite cavalry would also be needed to guard the water route from Lanzhou to Lingzhou, protecting Xin quan Army and Feng'an Army, so that before the Khitan were worn down, one's own supplies would not be cut off first.

And this was still on the premise of merely wearing the Khitan down rather than truly resolving the problem. To defeat the Khitan and stabilize the situation in Lingzhou, at least fifty thousand men would be required.

At present, Zhang Zhao being able to send twenty thousand men was already very good. Sending fifty thousand was possible too, but that would be an all-or-nothing gamble; if defeated, his entire enterprise might well collapse.

"My lord, do not forget that it is not only the Khitan eyeing Lingzhou. The Li family of the Dingnan Army is watching too.

And from what this child knows of the Son of Heaven in the Eastern Capital, if we come into conflict with the Li family of the Dingnan Army, he will certainly support the Li family from behind."

Murong Xinzhang could not help speaking up to remind Zhang Zhao. He understood his brother-in-law well enough.

In his youth he might have been a brave, forthright, and gallant good fellow, but by now he had become a shameless wretch who would do anything for power.

"Right! Right!" Zhang Zhao nodded repeatedly. He must not forget the Li family of the Dingnan Army.

Since the fourth year of Changxing of the Later Tang, when Li Yichao defeated Yao Yanchou and An Congjin, leaving the Later Tang's Mingzong unable to do anything about them,

the surrounding Tangut had all begun gathering around the Li family of the Dingnan Army. The history books even called that battle the founding battle of the Western Xia.

At present the Military Governor of the Dingnan Army was Li Yiyin, also a ruthless character, and the Li family of the Dingnan Army now had the strength to mobilize forty to fifty thousand troops.

If they gained Shi Jingtang's support and stabbed Zhang Zhao in the back while he was taking over Lingzhou, that would truly be dangerous.

A trace of disappointment could not help showing on Zhang Xichong's face. He understood that with Zhang Zhao's strength, dealing with a detached Khitan force or the Li family of the Dingnan Army alone would not be difficult.

But facing both at once would surely be impossible. Yet the situation in Lingzhou had already reached an extremely dangerous point.

Zhang Xichong was frantic with worry, but Zhang Zhao, who knew the course of history, was not anxious at all.

Because historically the Khitan had been fighting in Hebei and the Central Plains the whole time, and had never paid any attention to Lingzhou. As long as he did not provoke them, the Khitan would not come charging over in a frenzy right away.

As for the Western Xia taking Lingzhou, that would not happen until the hands of Li Yiyin's fourth-generation descendant, the Dijinze War God Li Jiqian — at least sixty-seven years later.

So as long as Zhang Zhao did not disturb the course of history, the Li family of the Dingnan Army had no reason or nerve to take Lingzhou. After all, they were now only a military province of the Central Plains, not an independent state.

But thinking of this, Zhang Zhao suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. Historically, Yelu Deguang had made a mistake!

If he had not been in such a hurry to enter the Central Plains and become the Son of Heaven of the Han people, but instead had spent his strength taking Lingzhou and holding Shuofang and Yan-Yun,

then driven the Tuyuhun and Tangut people of Daibei to keep pressing down, pulling and buying them over again and again — with the Khitan's strength, it truly would have been possible to conquer the Central Plains.

Thank goodness! Thank goodness! Zhang Zhao secretly rejoiced. He absolutely must not draw Yelu Deguang's attention to Lingzhou while his own strength was still weak.

He still had to let him go straight south into the Central Plains, and then be made into an emperor-jerky. Once the Khitan lost such a heroic ruler, they would never again have the possibility of unifying the Central Plains.

With this thought, Zhang Zhao's vision broadened as well. Before he had dealt with either the Khitan or the Li family of the Dingnan Army, he absolutely must not plunge headlong into Lingzhou — that would surely get him attacked from both sides.

So in order to take Lingzhou, the best approach was to deal with one side first.

Uh... as for which side to deal with first? Zhang Zhao had no room to choose at all.

Because the Khitan now ruled at least seven or eight million people, and if they poured out the whole country, they could mobilize an army of over a hundred thousand.

Add to that a heroic ruler in his prime on the throne, and many warhorses coming and going like the wind — Zhang Zhao might be able to defeat a detached Khitan force, but against the Khitan state itself, he was utterly powerless.

Looking it over, only the Li family of the Dingnan Army was a soft persimmon.

At this time the Dingnan Army held only the four prefectures of Xia, Yin, Sui, and You, with a population of roughly four hundred thousand or so.

But because the entire population was under arms, fielding fifty thousand men was not difficult — they just could not sustain it for long. In ordinary circumstances, they could only put out around ten or twenty thousand men.

However, although the Dingnan Army's population was only one-fifth of Zhang Zhao's, their control and mobilization ability was stronger than his.

Their territory was also not large, so they did not need many troops garrisoned locally, and therefore their army was slightly larger than Zhang Zhao's.

But the Dingnan Army had one fatal weakness: their number of suits of armor was not as great as Zhang Zhao's.

Zhang Zhao had now taken over the entire assets of the Cao family's Guiyi Army, plus cotton armor and what he had captured and looted during the pacification of Guanzhong.

Cotton armor and iron lamellar armor alone numbered fully five or six thousand suits; counting leather armor and other assorted armor, there were seventeen or eighteen thousand suits.

The Li family of the Dingnan Army, by contrast, probably had no more than three thousand suits of iron armor. Even if Shi Jingtang sent support, a few hundred suits would be the absolute ceiling.

Moreover, Zhang Zhao's warhorses were better than the Dingnan Army's. The Dingnan Army was famed for its cavalry, but the Hengshan foot skirmishers among its infantry had not yet taken shape, and could not be said to have much fighting strength.

Well, wasn't that convenient! The Guiyi Army happened to be famed precisely for its Hexi iron cavalry. Their armor and horses were both stronger than the Dingnan Army's — just right for beating them down by the head.

Completely swallowing the Dingnan Army now would take time, but defeating the Li family and driving them back into Xiazhou to huddle up should not be hard.

Six thousand suits of iron armor against three thousand suits of iron armor — the advantage is mine!

Li family of the Dingnan Army, you're the one!

Zhang Zhao immediately laid out the plan to Zhang Xichong.

Although he did not remember that Zhang Xichong would historically die of depression this very year, he could feel the despair inside Zhang Xichong's heart.

Only by settling this Grand Commandant Zhang down and getting him to buy as much time for Zhang Zhao as possible could the plan possibly succeed.

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