Chapter 478: Blood and Fire: The Three Kingdoms Kill (Beginning)

At the end of the seventh month of the first year of Kaiyun in the Later Jin, Liu Yanzuo, the Khitan Military Governor of Yingzhou, once again sent a secret letter into Du Chongwei's hands.

It said that Yingzhou had seen continuous heavy rain of late, that everything north of Waqiao Pass had become a vast marshland, and that even Youzhou had suffered severe flooding.

The Khitan Emperor Yelu Deguang could not endure such flooding, and with the need to stabilize the steppe after his crushing defeat, he had already returned to the Supreme Capital at Linhuang Prefecture.

Any normal emperor or commander would have sensed something wrong from Liu Yanzuo's letter alone.

For Liu Yanzuo was nothing more than a rough soldier, and he had been secretly corresponding with Du Chongwei for six or seven months already. Even if Yelu Deguang were a muddle-headed ruler, would he not at least have noticed something?

How could a plot of rebellion be discussed back and forth for six or seven months and still remain so tightly concealed?

Moreover, every letter from Liu Yanzuo arrived at just the right moment, each time presenting a situation more favorable to the Jin than the last, as if the stakes were being raised layer by layer.

But unfortunately, Shi Chonggui was no normal emperor, and Du Chongwei was even less a normal commander.

The two of them never suspected Liu Yanzuo in the slightest. Instead, they believed Liu Yanzuo truly had been driven to desperation and sincerely wished to come over to their side.

Yet in truth, never mind that Liu Yanzuo himself was unreliable — Zhao Yanshou's reply alone was unreliable beyond all measure.

For Zhao Yanshou's standing in the Liao state was that of Yelu Deguang's favored minister. The two were nearly on terms of father and son. Zhao Yanshou had already risen to Military Governor of Fanyang and been enfeoffed as Prince of Yan.

Fanyang was simply another name for Youzhou. At this time the Liao had not yet established a Southern Viceroy in Youzhou, but in terms of actual power, Zhao Yanshou was practically a smaller-scale Khitan Southern Viceroy.

Why would such a man want to return south? What greater benefit could you, Shi Chonggui, possibly offer him?

Righteousness? The land of his fathers?

Don't make me laugh. The son of the arch-traitor Zhao Dejun — would he speak to you of righteousness? Does he even possess the concept of a fatherland?

Even this time, the reason Yelu Deguang had Zhao Yanshou refrain from writing and had Liu Yanzuo write instead was precisely his fear of being too obvious and arousing the suspicion of the Jin sovereign and his ministers.

It was just that, as events proved, he had been overthinking it.

And so, when that muddle-headed general Du Chongwei relayed this "good news" to that muddle-headed Son of Heaven Shi Chonggui, the two of them were instantly wild with joy.

For once Yelu Deguang left Youzhou and Tanzhou and withdrew to the Supreme Capital at Linhuang Prefecture, that meant Youzhou would be at its most vulnerable for at least three or four months.

The Supreme Capital at Linhuang Prefecture was the later Bairin Left Banner, only a few hundred li from Tongliao, but a full one thousand three hundred li from Youzhou, where Beijing stands.

If Yelu Deguang was at Linhuang Prefecture, then by the time word of an attack on Youzhou reached him, and by the time he learned of it and led a great army south from Linhuang Prefecture, he could not possibly pose a serious threat to the Jin army in under three months or so.

Shi Chonggui paced excitedly about the hall. He felt so vividly the great achievement of recovering Yan-Yun and sweeping the lands north of the frontier beckoning to him.

If only they seized the moment while Yelu Deguang was away, retook the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan-Yun, and then marched into Liaoxi, the great enterprise would be accomplished.

"How goes the gathering of provisions? Have the conscripted laborers and the allocation of mules and horses been put in place?"

Shi Chonggui's face was flushed. For the first time he spoke in a tone of authority, addressing Feng Yu beside him.

Cold sweat streamed down Feng Yu's back. He could only grit his teeth in secret.

"In just one month, everything needed for the great army's northern campaign will certainly be ready."

Hearing Feng Yu say this, the three clay-statue Chief Ministers exchanged glances, and looks of horror appeared on their faces.

To gather within a single month enough provisions for an army of seventy or eighty thousand, along with the great mass of accompanying laborers, there was absolutely no way to do it except outright plunder.

Although since the end of the Tang, armies plundering had become a commonplace matter, for the court itself to descend to robbing the people was still somewhat shocking to hear.

Shi Chonggui had not thought of any of this. After hearing Feng Yu's assurance, he turned to look at Du Chongwei.

Du Chongwei had cast off his hesitant, fearful mood of the previous days. As long as the Khitan Emperor was not in Youzhou, the Khitan great army surely would not be there either. And with Zhao Yanshou and Liu Yanzuo, two generals, to receive them, why worry that the great enterprise would fail?

As for the matter of provisions, that was Feng Yu's affair, not his. If provisions were gathered, he would march; if not, he simply would not march.

"I beg Your Majesty to give the order. So long as provisions are ready, the officers and men will surely strike straight at Youzhou and recover our former lands."

In the middle of the ninth month of the first year of Kaiyun, Feng Yu forcibly ordered Li Song and others to cooperate, and stripped bare all the prefectures and counties in Henan and Hebei that had no Military Governor in garrison.

At last they gathered enough provisions for an army of eighty thousand to march north, along with more than a hundred thousand laborers to handle transport.

At the end of the month, Shi Chonggui offered sacrifice to Heaven in the northern suburbs of Kaifeng Prefecture, and issued an edict to all his ministers, vowing to sweep the northern deserts clean and demanding that all his generals unite their efforts and achieve the deeds of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing. Reading between the lines, he very much wished to be the Emperor Wu of Han who made the Xiongnu weep and wail.

The day after the sacrifice to Heaven, Shi Chonggui built a platform and appointed his generals, naming Du Chongwei Chief Deployment Officer of the Northern March and commander-in-chief of the northern campaign.

Du Chongwei's close friend Li Shouzhen was made Supervisor of Troops and Horses of the Northern Front, serving as deputy commander.

An Shenqi, Military Governor of Taining Command in Yanzhou, was made Chief Commander of the Left and Right Wings.

Gao Xingzhou, Military Governor of Tianping Command in Yunzhou, was made Chief Commander of the Left Wing.

Fu Yanqing, Military Governor of Zhongwu Command in Xuzhou, was made Chief Commander of the Right Wing.

Hu Cile, Military Governor of Wuning Command in Xuzhou, was made Commander of the Left Wing Cavalry.

Huangfu Yu, Military Governor of Yicheng Command in Weizhou, was made Commander of the Left Wing Infantry.

Liang Hanzhang, Military Governor of Yongqing Command in Beizhou, was made Commander of the Right Wing Cavalry.

Song Yanjun, Military Governor of Weisheng Command in Dengzhou, was made Chief Commander of the Right Wing Infantry.

Yao Yuanfu, Prefect of Yuanzhou, was made Array Commander of the Northern Front Cavalry, and Xue Huairang, Prefect of Huazhou, was made Array Commander of the Northern Front Infantry.

The remaining fifteen generals, including Wang Qing, Wang Rao, Pan Huan, and Wang Zhou, led an army of eighty thousand and more than a hundred thousand laborers on the northern expedition.

He also ordered Zhang Yanze, Military Governor of Yiwu Command in Dingzhou, who had repeatedly defeated the Khitan on the northern border, to provide support.

This Later Jin campaign, proclaimed to number three hundred thousand, was vast in scale, with banners stretching on without end. The vanguard had barely left the Eastern Capital at Kaifeng Prefecture when the whole realm was shaken.

It is unclear how Shi Chonggui and Du Chongwei imagined they could achieve the effect of a surprise attack.

And when Yelu Deguang learned that the Later Jin had already marched and that the scale was enormous, he too summoned the various Khitan tribes, as well as the chieftains and clan heads of the Xi, Bohai, Han, and other peoples, to assemble a great army at Tanzhou, north of Youzhou.

Yelu Deguang, a gambler who had already lost numb, had gone completely red-eyed, for if he failed again this time, then truly all would be over.

Therefore Yelu Deguang stripped away all the masks and halos he had always cultivated, and declared that so long as they defeated the Jin army and entered the Central Plains, he would not forbid his officers and men from plundering.

And in fact, the Khitan truly had no habit of carrying provisions; without plundering, they could not even produce basic supplies.

After receiving Yelu Deguang's firm promise, the morale of the Liao army finally recovered considerably, and they roared with delight.

Many tribal cavalrymen not only went to war themselves, but also brought along an extra brother or nephew to help with "beating the grass for grain."

At once, Yelu Deguang's force, originally only fifty or sixty thousand strong, swelled in an instant to more than eighty thousand.

In the middle of the tenth month, the Later Jin army force-marched the whole way, taking less than a month to reach Anfeng in Dingzhou (modern Anguo County, Baoding).

The reason for such speed was simply that the Jin army, from top to bottom, regarded the Khitan as no more than weeds.

After the previous two great battles, the Jin army, from top to bottom, had come to believe that the Khitans were only fast runners and utterly useless in a fight.

Now, with Zhao Yanshou and Liu Yanzuo ready to receive them, of course they had to hurry north to "take over" the Khitans' property.

Thus, after reaching Anfeng County in Dingzhou, Du Chongwei simply arranged for a small force to garrison the place, and then, following the advice given by Liu Yanzuo, led more than sixty thousand soldiers, over thirty thousand laborers, a host of one hundred thousand, straight into Yingzhou, preparing to go and take it over.

The road-weary Jin army in Yingzhou soon received word from local residents that a Liao force had circled around and was cutting in behind the Jin army, though its numbers were not large, only a few hundred riders.

Du Chongwei assumed it was some Liao troops from somewhere trying to flee, and never imagined that this Liao force was going to cut off his rear.

But in the spirit of "since we're already here," Du Chongwei ordered Liang Hanzhang, Military Governor of the Yongqing Army of Beizhou, to lead two thousand cavalry in pursuit.

Liang Hanzhang was a native of Ying County in Shanxi, and could barely be counted as one of the Daibei martial elite. As a commander he was indeed brave, and upon receiving the order he did not hesitate, immediately leading two thousand cavalry in pursuit.

Only, neither Du Chongwei nor he ever imagined that this intelligence was, from the start, false information deliberately released by the Khitans.

The Khitan troops circling behind were not a few hundred riders either, but five thousand riders of the Left and Right Iron Sparrowhawk Armies and the Tiger Army, led by Gao Song, Khitan Acting Grand Tutor, Deputy Commander of the Unified Army, and in practice the army's vanguard commander.

And this Gao Song, known in history also as Gao Mohan, was a Balhae man, with arms long as an ape's and the strength of a thousand jun, extremely skilled in mounted archery, and a famed brave general of the Khitan.

In the year the Khitan destroyed Balhae, the young Gao Song fled to Goryeo, where he quickly distinguished himself, and soon won the appreciation of Goryeo's King Wang Geon, who specially adopted a daughter from the royal clan and married her to him.

Later, however, Gao Song became entangled in Goryeo's internal political struggles and could only flee back to Khitan to save his life, and not long after, within Khitan territory, he was convicted of killing a man while drunk.

But by this time, Yelu Abaoji had learned of Gao Song's martial talent, and not only pardoned him, but brought Gao Song into the Pishi Army.

From then on, Gao Song strictly disciplined himself and began serving Khitan wholeheartedly.

Back beneath the walls of Jinyang, it was Gao Song who led troops to defeat Zhang Jingda, and the battle that severed the link between the cavalry of Gao Xingzhou, Fu Yanqing, and the main infantry force was Gao Song's masterpiece.

In recent years, although Gao Song had won no small amount of merit, because of his Balhae and Goryeo origins, he had never been given much responsibility.

But Yelu Deguang had been beaten so badly by the Later Jin that he could no longer afford to be particular, and so he recalled Gao Song, who had been clearing out the Jurchens deep in the forests.

The Left and Right Iron Sparrowhawk Armies and the Tiger Army that Gao Song commanded were all forces composed mainly of Balhae men. Though their reputation was not as imposing as the other Pishi Armies, their fighting strength was by no means low.

On the third day, Liang Hanzhang finally caught up with Gao Song's force of several thousand men.

By this time, Gao Song had long been waiting at ease for the exhausted enemy. He first sent the Tiger Army and the Right Iron Sparrowhawk Army, four thousand riders, to tangle with Liang Hanzhang.

The two sides fought fiercely for four hours. Liang Hanzhang's troops were utterly exhausted, and though they repelled the Khitan cavalry's attacks several times, they simply could not break free of the entanglement.

By around noon, Liang Hanzhang's men and horses were worn out to the extreme, and the heavy casualties had caused morale to sink steadily.

Seeing this, Gao Song personally led three hundred armored riders of the Left Iron Sparrowhawk Army, and under cover of light cavalry, suddenly appeared before the eyes of the Jin cavalry.

Liang Hanzhang and his personal guards were caught completely off guard. In the melee, Liang Hanzhang was struck in the left eye by a stray arrow.

Gao Song seized the chance to attack fiercely. Liang Hanzhang, wounded in the eye, fought desperately but could not break out. He could only send out those officers and men who could still break through to escape and carry word back, while he himself was trapped in the formation and cut down by the Khitan cavalry.

By this time, Du Chongwei had already reached the walls of Yingzhou. But he did not see Liu Yanzuo come over to him, and only then realized that what Liu Yanzuo had said was false.

Then he heard that the Khitan Emperor was personally leading a great army and had already reached Mozhou, north of Yingzhou, and Du Chongwei was filled with terror.

At that very moment, officers from the Yongqing Army of Beizhou who had escaped brought word that Liang Hanzhang had died in battle, and that several thousand Khitan cavalry had already circled around behind the main army.

The momentum Du Chongwei had carried for taking Youzhou drained away at once in his panic. He hurriedly led the great army in retreat from Yingzhou, falling back all the way to Wuqiang County in Shenzhou to the south to take shelter.

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