Chapter 465

People do, after all, learn a little from failure.

This time Yelu Deguang had learned his lesson from the last rash advance. After placating Liu Zhiyuan, Yelu Deguang followed the advice of the veteran general Yelu Wuzhi and split the southward army into two parts.

The vanguard, with Yelu Pode, Xiao Shilu, and the Xi King Zhuaila each leading twenty thousand men, attacked along separate routes, aiming to churn the Later Jin's Hebei territory into a morass.

The rear army was led by Yelu Deguang himself, built around the Right Pishi Army and the Shushan Army, with infantry from the Xi, Han, Bohai, and Jurchen peoples, totaling sixty thousand.

The rear army would first rest and refit around Youzhou, waiting for the sixty thousand light cavalry of the vanguard to burn, kill, and plunder Hebei into a tangled mess, draw the Jin army into a slaughter-ground where neither side could obtain supplies, and then strike south to crush the Later Jin.

In mid-October, after Yelu Deguang learned that Yang Guangyuan had been taken by surprise by Li Shouzhen, his city broken and his entire family killed, he canceled the decision to send a twenty-thousand-man detached force to continue toward Qingzhou to link up with Yang Guangyuan.

At this point, the Khitan rear army had reached eighty thousand men, and with the sixty thousand in the vanguard, a full one hundred forty thousand troops — it could be said that the Liao state had committed all its elite forces and was determined to win.

At the end of October, the Liao vanguard began moving south, abandoning the line through Shenzhou, Zhaozhou, Jizhou, Beizhou, and Weizhou where they had suffered badly last time.

That is, the route later generations would take from Beijing straight south through Shen County, Ji County, Qinghe County, and Daming County in Hebei.

Instead they took the route closer to the Taihang Mountains: Dingzhou, Hengzhou, Zhaozhou, Xingzhou, Mingzhou, and Cizhou.

This route runs roughly from Ding County in Hebei south through Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, Handan, and Ci County — the same main route the later Republic would use to go south from Beijing.

The reason for this choice was, first, that these prefectures and counties had been hit harder by disaster, making them easier to attack, and the Jin army would find it harder to win local support and obtain supplies.

Second, after stabilizing Liu Zhiyuan, moving along the side closer to the Taihang Mountains would be safer.

However, in actual practice, the backward tribal habits of the Khitan troops began, as usual, to drag them down.

Yelu Deguang's original intention was for the vanguard to throw the five prefectures of Ding, Heng, Zhao, Xing, and Ming into complete chaos, then draw the Later Jin army north.

In this way the Khitans could use their large numbers of mules and horses, along with the captured inhabitants of the five prefectures, to handle transport and secure the grain supply.

The Jin army moving north, lacking mules and horses and unable to get local grain support, would fall into supply difficulties, and the Liao army could even cut off the Jin army's grain and slowly besiege it.

The plan was excellent, but it was wrecked outright by the Liao army's appallingly poor execution.

Because this year's floods and droughts had struck the entire northern realm, including the grasslands, hard — except that Hexi was somewhat less affected, and thanks to Zhang Zhao's extensive water-conservancy works and relatively honest officialdom, it had managed to hold out.

The entire northern realm, including the grasslands, had been hit hard.

The Khitans and other steppe peoples who had been called up had all come with the aim of plundering as much as possible so their families could survive the spring famine.

As a result, once they had passed Hengzhou — that is, the three places of Zhengding, Shijiazhuang, and Gaocheng — the army became almost impossible to restrain.

Moreover, Dingzhou and Hengzhou had suffered very severe damage, but the farther south one went, the lighter it was; the southern prefectures were all richer than Ding and Heng, so the sixty thousand Khitan troops instantly scattered like sheep.

The plundering mission was over-fulfilled, but Yelu Deguang's order to seize the prefectural cities of Ding, Heng, Zhao, and the other five prefectures was completely ignored — not even the larger county towns were taken.

The Khitans, after all, were terribly weak at siege warfare, and since even the countryside offered plenty of targets to plunder, they simply did not bother attacking fortified cities.

Sixty thousand men, like wild boars let into a vegetable garden, rooted their way all the way from Dingzhou to Xiangzhou — that is, near Anyang in Henan — only a hundred sixty li from the Yellow River.

This? How is this any different from last time?

There is a difference! The route is different!

Last time they rooted all the way to Weizhou, that is, Daming County in Hebei; although it is almost parallel with Xiangzhou and Anyang, at least the route was different.

In the Eastern Capital of Kaifeng Prefecture, within the Daning Palace, Shi Chonggui was not the least bit alarmed.

The last time the Khitans came south, he had been so frightened that he personally led the campaign, going to the front with the feeling that the state was in imminent danger — but when he got there and looked, the Khitans turned out to be nothing much.

And although there had been disasters this year, the state's resources were ample and the three armies served loyally — why fear a mere Khitan?

Still, he, Shi Chonggui, Son of Heaven of the Great Jin, remembered vividly the lack of music at Chanzhou last time, and so he did not intend to lead the campaign in person again.

Since his uncle Du Chongwei had already been appointed Supreme Commander, he might as well just let Du Chongwei go north directly to resist the enemy.

In early November, Shi Chonggui formally ordered Du Chongwei to march north and resist the Khitans.

But this Du, the Plague Lord, was expert at extorting the common people and being shameless, while his actual fighting ability was thoroughly mediocre; he was also timid, and just after crossing the Yellow River, when he reached Weizhou — that is, Xinxiang in Henan — he refused to go any farther.

Du Chongwei's deputy, the Chief Commander of the Left and Right Wings and Military Governor of the Taining Army at Yanzhou, An Shenqi, was at his wits' end.

He could only lead Zhang Cong'en, Ma Quanjie, Huangfu Yu, Murong Yanchao, and other generals with part of the army north, leaving Du Chongwei in Weizhou to "hold command from the rear."

At the end of November, the army crossed the Anyang River north of Xiangzhou and camped on the north bank, but encountered no Khitan troops.

An Shenqi then ordered the Honorary Grand Preceptor and Military Governor of Huazhou, Huangfu Yu, and the Prefect of Puzhou, Murong Yanchao, to lead four thousand elite cavalry ahead to scout for the main army.

Huangfu Yu and An Shenqi led the four thousand cavalry and continued north. After marching a little over twenty li, just as they were about to cross the Zhang River, they suddenly encountered tens of thousands of cavalry.

It was an utterly unexpected meeting!

For the Jin army, long deprived of good horses — there were plenty of horses in Henan and Hebei, but a severe shortage of good horses fit for battle — the cavalry's functions had gradually degenerated and become rather one-dimensional.

In their duties, the function of battlefield shock assault had been amplified as much as possible, while the cavalry's proper functions of reconnaissance and screening had been forcibly and greatly reduced.

If divided by function, the Jin cavalry could already be said to consist entirely of heavy cavalry.

For example, on this northward march, Huangfu Yu, following his usual practice, sent only fifty riders across the river first, and after crossing maintained only a warning line of two or three li to cover the main army.

In Zhang Zhao's Liang state army, this would have been completely unacceptable.

When the Liang state's main army moved out, light cavalry would normally be pushed out to about ten li, and in open-plain warfare, even to about fifteen li.

During that time, every quarter hour, relay riders with flags on their backs would come and go reporting the situation.

But the Jin army's shortage of warhorses forced them to conserve horse strength so as to ensure enough power for the coming battle, and so they simply could not send out scouts as lavishly as the Liang state cavalry did.

At the same time, the Khitan cavalry, with no shortage of warhorses, had become completely carried away — plunder-drunk.

Their force of nearly forty thousand, led by Xiao Shilu, had hurried south so eagerly because they had heard Xiangzhou was rich and feared others would get there first.

So they had sent out virtually no scouts at all, rushing frantically to sack every part of Xiangzhou.

Xiao Shilu reined in on high ground and looked across the Zhang River, whose current was not swift. The Jin army, though in strict formation, numbered only three or four thousand.

He immediately realized he had encountered the Jin army's vanguard, and at once summoned the officers around him.

"By Han army practice, the elite vanguard cavalry is generally thirty li ahead of the main force. Now that we have met them suddenly, if we can surround and annihilate this lot, the Han army will lose all its cavalry and be left with only infantry — then the outcome is settled.

Send men at once to notify the Left Pishi Xiangwen; we will go first and tie down the Jin army."

While the Khitan cavalry was immediately preparing to cross the river, Murong Yanchao in person galloped over to Huangfu Yu.

"Grand Preceptor, I have men under my command who are natives of Yedu. They say that three or four li up or downstream from here, the Zhang River is wide and shallow, and a large army can cross it easily."

Huangfu Yu heard this and glanced at the Khitan troops who were already lashing together hide rafts and about to cross the river. Somewhat resentfully, he said, "If we go further down from here, isn't that where Yedu lies?

This strong city happens to block the wide and shallow stretch of the Zhang River's left bank. It was once a vital town of the state, but the Son of Heaven listened to slander and neglected military preparations.

Now it's hard to say whether the Khitan still have their main force near Yedu. We're leaving—heading south to link up with the main army."

This Yedu by the Zhang River had been a rich and populous great city of the Central Plains both under the Later Tang and during Shi Jingtang's time, and it was also the northern gateway to Kaifeng, the eastern capital of the Later Jin—hence its name Yedu.

But after Shi Chonggui succeeded to the throne, since his accession was not entirely legitimate—he had even taken his own aunt as empress—he sought to placate his uncle Du Chongwei, who held military power, by transferring Du Chongwei from Military Governor of Chengde Army in Zhenzhou to serve as Defender of Yedu.

What sort of character was Du Chongwei?

This bastard had scraped the very earth in Zhenzhou, and Shi Jingtang sent an imperial envoy to reprimand him for driving the local people to misery and mass flight.

Du Chongwei then took the envoy who had reprimanded him out onto the main street of Zhenzhou, pointed at the sparse crowd, and said, "People say I have driven away all the common folk—then why are there so many people in the market?"

With such a shameless wretch, what do you think happened when he got to Yedu?

In barely a year, Du Chongwei had reduced Yedu, once teeming with households, to a place where merchants and commoners alike fled with their entire families.

Afterwards, although Shi Chonggui was pressured into driving Du Chongwei off to Hengzhou, he was unwilling to spend money or effort to restore Yedu.

Even the important post of Defender of Yedu was never filled again, except for being dangled once to string along Yang Guangyuan.

From then on, Yedu—which should have been a fortress on the Zhang River and the gateway to the eastern capital—was completely ruined by Shi Chonggui and Du Chongwei.

No wonder both their names contain the character "zhong"—they're both heavyweights.

Huangfu Yu and Murong Yanchao withdrew southeastward all the way, while Xiao Shilu pressed his troops hard in pursuit.

Of course, this retreat and pursuit was not simply running—it was constant moderate-scale fighting and tearing at each other.

Because the Khitan troops had lost time crossing the river, they could only send small groups of cavalry that had already crossed to keep harassing and tugging at the Jin army's rear guard.

At the same time, to keep the retreat from turning into a rout, the Jin army had to use its elite troops to block the rear and preserve the main force's formation and morale.

The vanguard and rearguard of both sides, in groups of roughly fifty to two hundred, fell into brutal dogfights on the plains along the Zhang River.

Huangfu Yu ordered Murong Yanchao to lead the vanguard while he personally brought up the rear. The Jin army's tactic was to dismount first and use crossbows to check the enemy, then remount and charge fiercely—repeatedly beating back the pursuing Khitan cavalry.

The Khitan cavalry, for their part, used the wolf-pack tactics common to steppe light cavalry, clinging tightly to the Jin army and harassing them with mounted archery. Whenever any part of the Jin army showed a gap, they called their comrades to swarm in.

But on the whole, because of the difference in troop quality, the Khitan cavalry's losses were far greater than the Jin army's.

Skirmishing riders facing strong bows, heavy crossbows, and charging cavalry who could wield cavalry lances took no small losses.

Yet after nearly a shichen of this dogfighting, with dozens of engagements large and small, the Jin army ran into a serious problem.

The Khitan skirmishers wore little armor and had far more horses than the Jin army. After a shichen of pursuit, they had pushed the Jin warhorses' stamina to its limit.

They had to stop and rest. If they kept running and exhausted all their horses' strength, they would be in real danger.

So Huangfu Yu led his troops in retreat to an elm grove south of Yedu, and then did not dare move any further.

First he used the cover of the elm grove to beat back the thousand-odd Khitan light cavalry that had followed them, then immediately sent men to seek help from An Shenqi. At the same time, he said to Murong Yanchao beside him:

"They are many and we are few. Flight offers no road to survival. Better to fight to the death—then we will not have failed the court!"

Murong Yanchao was originally a Tuyuhun, the younger half-brother of Liu Zhiyuan of Hedong by the same mother. In his early years he had falsely taken the surname Yan of Taiyuan. Because he was dark, ugly, and pockmarked, his appearance alone inspired dread, and he had the nickname Yan Kunlun.

Such a man was naturally no coward. Hearing this, he agreed at once, and he and Huangfu Yu formed up left and right.

On the other side, when Xiao Shilu heard the report, he feared letting the Jin army escape, so he led his main force in a frantic, anxious pursuit.

But just as they reached a point two or three li from the elm grove, drums thundered to heaven, and Huangfu Yu and Murong Yanchao burst out from the elm grove, left and right.

The Jin army's half-armored cavalry led the charge. They did not shoot from horseback at all—they went straight for the enemy formation.

Huangfu Yu galloped at the very front, cavalry lance in hand, charging out fiercely. The Khitan troops were caught off guard and could only shoot their horse bows at the Jin armored cavalry, with pitifully little effect.

In barely a dozen breaths, the Jin army had reached the front, and the several thousand vanguard troops led by Xiao Shilu were instantly shattered.

Fortunately, the old fox was quick-witted enough to wheel his horse and flee to the rear, or he would have been knocked from his horse on the spot.

With that, the battlefield situation reversed: the Jin army pressed the attack fiercely, while the Liao cavalry could not fight back and could only twist in the saddle to shoot behind them.

After several charges, their losses exceeded four hundred. Xiao Shilu was so desperate that he even threw away his own armor, terrified of being caught by the Jin troops.

The two sides had been locked together for a little over a quarter of an hour when the main Liao force that had crossed the river finally arrived—spread across the hills and fields, perhaps ten thousand strong.

Huangfu Yu had his men raise his own command banner as Military Governor of Huazhou, and shouted to the soldiers around him:

"The crisis is upon us! They are mostly light cavalry—we cannot escape. Better to keep charging and drive them back; only then can we return!"

The soldiers and officers around him answered with a roar. Huangfu Yu then continued to lead his troops in a swift charge, while the Khitan troops opposite also dispatched large numbers of cavalry to relieve Xiao Shilu.

Huangfu Yu made himself the spearhead. His troops fought with extraordinary ferocity, breaking through three Khitan defensive lines in succession, and were on the verge of reaching Xiao Shilu.

Unfortunately, he and Murong Yanchao had only four thousand troops in all, and had left several hundred men in the elm grove to watch the horses—while the Khitan cavalry kept growing, now numbering more than thirty thousand.

After Huangfu Yu broke through the Liao army's third defensive line, the Xi infantry archers of Xi King Zhuaila had already finished forming up. They held heavy bows and loosed heavy arrows in volleys at the Jin army.

Jin cavalry fell from their horses in droves, and the momentum of the pursuit faltered. Even Huangfu Yu's warhorse was shot dead beneath him.

At that moment, after two volleys of heavy arrows from the Xi archers, the Khitan cavalry donned simple armor and—without shooting arrows, just as the Jin army had done moments before—charged in.

Seeing the emergency, Du Zhimin, Huangfu Yu's personal guard officer who served in the army as discipline officer, resolutely gave his own warhorse to Huangfu Yu, crying out urgently: "My lord, mount quickly!"

Just then, Murong Yanchao, who had lagged slightly behind, also arrived. The two of them fought side by side, charging back and forth through the Khitan ranks.

Both were warriors who could stand against ten thousand. In such chaos, with the Khitan unable to form battle lines, they simply could not stop them.

Three thousand Jin cavalry charged left and right through twenty thousand Khitan horsemen and miraculously broke out of the encirclement. Not only did they suffer few losses themselves, they killed and wounded several hundred Khitan cavalry.

After breaking out of the encirclement, Huangfu Yu looked around—Du Zhimin was nowhere to be seen.

Huangfu Chong, a clansman beside him, knew who Huangfu Yu was looking for. He pointed behind them and shouted: "Du Zhimin and a dozen or so men are surrounded over there—they may already have been captured or killed!"

At that moment, Murong Yanchao, who had also broken out, came up beside Huangfu Yu. Huangfu Yu clasped his hands toward Murong Yanchao from horseback.

"Zhimin, in the chaos, gave me his horse—that was righteousness. How can I let him fall into the enemy's hands!"

Murong Yanchao wiped the blood from his face and clasped his hands in return.

"Grand Preceptor, you are truly a man of benevolence and honor! Humble as I am, I am willing to follow you to rescue Du Zhimin."

So the two of them left five hundred men behind as a reserve, and each led five hundred men back into the Khitan ranks.

Du Zhimin and his dozen or so men had by now been captured by the Khitan troops.

A Xi general was about to take them back to the commander to claim credit, but he did not expect Huangfu Yu and Murong Yanchao to turn and charge back in.

Caught utterly off guard, more than ten thousand Khitan cavalry still failed to stop one thousand Jin cavalry.

When Du Zhimin and the others saw Huangfu Yu coming to rescue them, they too began struggling fiercely. Only then did the Khitans realize that these Jin soldiers, who had long since broken free, had come back to rescue their comrades.

Under this all-conquering momentum, Huangfu Yu charged in as if to his death. The Khitan cavalry could not hold, and could only abandon Du Zhimin and the others and fall back in retreat.

Huangfu Yu seized the chance to recover Du Zhimin and more than ten others, and once again cut his way out of the encirclement.

Seeing the Jin commander so righteous and brave, the Khitan cavalry brandished their weapons and let out loud whooping cries — their praise for a warrior.

Xiao Shilu did not dare pursue further, and only trailed behind the Jin army.

At the beginning of the wei hour (1 p. m.), Huangfu Yu and Murong Yanchao led their troops back into the elm grove. Of the 3,500 cavalry who had set out, only a little over 2,700 returned.

The Khitan cavalry followed them to the elm grove. The two men could only rely on the trees within the grove, using bows and crossbows to fend off the Khitan cavalry charges while waiting for An Shenqi's relief force.

Twenty li away, south of the Anyang River, after An Shenqi had gone north, Du Chongwei feared An Shenqi had gone too far north, and sent Zhang Cong'en to divide An Shenqi's command.

Seeing Zhang Cong'en arrive, An Shenqi did not care whether his command was divided or not; instead he was delighted that someone who could take charge had finally come.

He said to Zhang Cong'en, "Grand Preceptor Huangfu led troops north to reconnoiter, and for two days no one has come back. I fear he has run into the main Khitan army and been surrounded by enemy cavalry. If we do not hurry north to search for them, they will be captured by the Khitans."

Before Zhang Cong'en could speak, shouts rose outside. It turned out that the messenger Huangfu Yu had sent had finally reached the main army's position. Huangfu Yu and Murong Yanchao had indeed encountered the main Khitan force.

Zhang Cong'en had just arrived when he heard that the main Khitan force was coming, and his heart immediately filled with fear. He said to An Shenqi:

"The main Khitan force is upon us. We have only twenty thousand troops, and the main army is still with the Campaign Commander (Du Chongwei). What good would going now do? Better to wait for the main army to arrive, then make plans."

An Shenqi had not expected Zhang Cong'en to be a coward too. He knew that Zhang Cong'en came from a Daibei military family, and that Emperor Mingzong, Li Siyuan, had once served under Zhang Cong'en's father.

And Zhang Cong'en's daughter had been Shi Chonggui's first wife. Although she had already passed away, Zhang Cong'en was still the legitimate imperial father-in-law, not someone the Feng family could compare with.

Seeing that Zhang Cong'en, a Daibei military nobleman and imperial father-in-law, was so afraid of death, An Shenqi said bluntly, without any courtesy:

"Success or failure is fate. If we cannot prevail, then we die together. If we lose these two generals, with what face shall we look upon the Son of Heaven!"

Hu Cile also jumped out at that moment, bringing his son Hu Guang with him. "Grand Preceptor Huangfu is a pillar general of the state. How can we watch him fall into the hands of the northern barbarians? That would be a supreme disgrace! What face would we have to sit here waiting?"

With that, Hu Cile clasped his hands toward An Shenqi. "My son and I are unwilling to cling to life south of the Anyang River. We are ready to obey the Grand Commandant's orders!"

With this declaration, Wang Zhou and Yao Yuanfu, whom he had long been secretly winning over, also came forward in agreement.

An Shenqi gave a cold snort and ignored Zhang Cong'en. He led Hu Cile and the others out of the command tent, gathered three thousand cavalry and four thousand infantry from the various generals, and crossed the Anyang River directly to rescue Huangfu Yu.

By this time, Huangfu Yu and Murong Yanchao had also reached their final extremity. Although the two had used the elm grove to hold off the Khitan cavalry charges, among the forty thousand Khitan troops there were also six or seven thousand Xi.

Although the Xi and the Khitan are often mentioned together, their methods of warfare are not the same.

The Xi are more similar to the Jurchen, a purely hunting and fishing people, only far more civilized.

Most of the Xi are not cavalry either; they are better at forming ranks for infantry combat and mountain warfare, and because hunting and fishing have made them familiar with the bow, they are extremely skilled with it.

Therefore in the Liao state, the Xi, as a second-class people, often appeared as infantry and archers.

And the large elm grove where Huangfu Yu and Murong Yanchao were happened to be perfectly suited for Xi warfare.

After two days of being surrounded, the Jin troops had long since eaten all their dry rations. More than thirty thousand Khitans had them completely encircled, while the Xi infantry kept infiltrating inward.

The Jin troops lacked clothing and food and could not rest. Even Huangfu Yu bore more than ten wounds, his battle robe soaked through with blood. Collapse was only a matter of hours.

That the enemy was so hard to crack only made Xiao Shilu and the Xi King Zhuaila more excited, because it showed that the "prey" they had surrounded was of great value.

The battle had begun at dawn. By the end of the ji hour — past eleven in the morning — the Xi infantry had basically occupied more than half of the elm grove, compressing and splitting the two thousand-odd Jin troops into several separate pockets.

At exactly this moment, An Shenqi finally arrived with his troops. He looked at the elm grove, judged that Huangfu Yu and Murong Yanchao had already reached their final extremity, and quickly said to Hu Cile:

"The seven hundred great Liangzhou horses under the Defense Commissioner are the finest cavalry in the realm. I ask that you charge the Khitan center with me.

Prefect Yao is braver than the whole army. I ask that he take five hundred armored men and break into the elm grove from the weak point on the east side, report to Grand Preceptor Huangfu, and ask him to join forces with you to drive the Xi troops out.

Prefect Wang may lead the infantry to form ranks west of the elm grove. When the Xi troops withdraw from the grove, cut them down at once."

The three men received their orders and departed.

The Khitan army had been fighting intermittently all morning and was already weary, men and horses alike. They were just preparing their meals when the Jin army arrived without warning.

After Xiao Shilu received the report from his roving scouts and saw the distant dust blotting out the sun, he thought the main Jin army had arrived, and great fear seized his heart.

At that very moment, Hu Cile, trusting to his fast horses, escorted An Shenqi with six hundred elite Liangzhou cavalry in a fierce charge into the Khitan rear.

Xiao Shilu hurriedly shifted troops to defend, and immediately after, An Shenqi's several hundred crack cavalry charged in as well.

Before these two points could be held, Yao Yuanfu and Wang Zhou attacked from left and right in a pincer. The Khitan army's morale collapsed into chaos.

With only seven thousand men, An Shenqi drove back more than twenty thousand Khitan troops on the outer perimeter, forcing them into repeated retreat.

After the two sides had fought fiercely for half a shichen, Yao Yuanfu's force finally entered the elm grove and found Huangfu Yu's Jin troops.

The Jin troops, receiving reinforcements, roared with joy, and with one surge of spirit drove the Xi troops out of the elm grove, while Wang Zhou cut them down outside.

Struck from both sides, the Xi troops collapsed first, and immediately their collapse spread to the main Khitan cavalry still locked in battle.

Xiao Shilu's heart and courage both failed him. Unable to tell how many Jin troops had come, he chose, in his terror, to retreat.

In an instant, the rout was total. More than thirty thousand Khitan troops fled in disarray. Those entangled and destroyed by the Jin army, plus those killed or wounded by Huangfu Yu and the others, amounted to fully six or seven thousand men.

In particular, the more than three thousand Xi infantry that the Xi King Zhuaila had sent into the elm grove were almost entirely wiped out.

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