Chapter 516: Cut Off the Water! Blow It Up! No Martial Virtue

One-tap audiobook.

Brother Guang has lost badly, but Brother Guang has no choice but to force a smile.

He even took Yelu Pode's hand, putting on an expression that said, "I regret it, but I am also quite satisfied."

"To seize the ruler of a nation amid ten thousand troops was never an easy matter. Today, that my Great Khitan warriors could send that bandit Zhang fleeing like a wolf and bolting like a boar, nearly losing his life, is already a great achievement. How could I punish anyone?

Issue the decree: richly reward all the armies that went on campaign. Once they have rested and reorganized, I shall personally lead the brave warriors to slay that bandit Zhang!"

Yelu Pode's eyes brimmed with tears as he spoke words of boundless gratitude, looking as though he were weeping with thankfulness — but only he himself knew that these were tears of genuine heartache.

And as for slaying that bandit Zhang — had Yelu Pode not run fast himself, he would nearly have been caught by Murong Baipao and stabbed to death with a lance.

In this battle, of the thirty-two thousand troops, apart from five thousand who were surrendered Jin army soldiers, the remaining twenty-seven thousand were all Khitan elite. The Pishi Army alone had dispatched four divisions: Dragon, Phoenix, Tiger, and Sparrowhawk.

But in the end, not only did all the surrendered Jin troops go over to Yongliang, but of the twenty-seven thousand Khitan main-force soldiers, only close to twenty thousand managed to withdraw into Mount Mang. And Yelu Deguang's own maternal uncle, Xiao Shilu, was killed in battle.

More than six thousand casualties, almost all from the Pishi Army and the Shushan Army, and most of them armored soldiers. At Baituanwei Village, Yelu Deguang had seemed to lose terribly, but it had not even been this bad.

One must understand that the entire heart of Khitan power, the most battle-worthy Pishi Army and Shushan Army, together amounted to only about forty thousand men. And when Yelu Deguang came south, he had brought only thirty thousand of them. In one stroke, more than a fifth were gone.

So catastrophic a defeat left Yelu Deguang with no choice but to keep boasting, trumpeting that this time he had nearly captured and killed Zhang Zhao and slain several thousand of Yongliang's elite — an unprecedented great victory.

However, there are many things that boasting alone cannot hold steady. After all, a fifth of the elite troops were simply gone.

The rank-and-file soldiers only knew that their side might have taken a beating, but they were not entirely sure. The middle and upper officers, however, were quite clear about it.

For a time, in the great Khitan camp still numbering sixty or seventy thousand men, undercurrents stirred and hearts wavered.

Yelu Deguang was even forced to abandon the defense west of Mount Mang, concentrating all his forces east of Yanshi City, relying on harsh discipline to keep the great army from collapsing.

Brother Guang, having lost the fight, was puffing himself up to look impressive. But on Zhang Zhao's side, the victor's, the scene was entirely different.

In Jinyong City, several hundred corpses were laid out before the city's busiest tower, the Tianyong Tower.

Zhang Zhao bent down to the ground and bowed deeply before a group of burly men who were weeping before him like tears made flesh.

Seeing Zhang Zhao do this, the burly men hurried over and knelt on one knee before him, refusing to let him bow.

"This time the fault is mine. I did not expect the Khitans to have been watching my every move. It is I who brought this upon them."

"Great King, do not reproach yourself. That our young ones could die fighting for the Great King is their good fortune. To ascend to heaven a day earlier and enjoy boundless celestial blessings — that is what we your servants have always sought."

In this battle, the Yongliang army's heaviest losses were among the auxiliary soldiers positioned at the outermost edge of the great formation: over sixteen hundred men, every one of them wounded, with the seriously wounded and the dead numbering more than seven hundred.

As for the armored soldiers of the Hanshan Du and the elite cavalry of the Right Yulin Guard, thanks to their own martial skill and experience, plus the thickness of their armor, many were wounded, but the seriously wounded and dead were not many.

Yet this was precisely why Zhang Zhao had come to console them. Had so many of the Hanshan Du armored soldiers died, there would have been no need for this.

Because these men, having followed him, Zhang Zhao, had long been prepared to die on the battlefield.

But the deaths of their brothers, sons, and nephews were surely harder to bear than their own deaths.

For example, Zhang Xiaobiao, weeping before Zhang Zhao's eyes right now — the young man who had died beside him was his own brother-in-law.

How he would face the expectant eyes of his father-in-law, mother-in-law, and his wife, Lady Wang, when he returned — this tormented Zhang Xiaobiao beyond endurance.

As a proper sovereign and commander, resolving such psychological problems and providing psychological counseling for his brave generals was his duty.

"Wang Xiaolang fought bravely and slew three Khitan bandit soldiers — a feat worthy of frontline merit.

I hear that his father, Wang Da, remained in Yinzhou. Then transfer Wang Xiaolang's merits to Wang Da, and double all the rewards.

If in the future any son or nephew is adopted to continue Wang Xiaolang's line, he shall be shielded by appointment as a Brocade Robe Knight."

On Zhang Zhao's side, military-rank officials could only obtain rank through battle merit. For hereditary shielding, all such appointments went to the Brocade Robe Envoys.

Moreover, Zhang Zhao planned that once he formally established his state, he would officially change the Brocade Robe Envoys into the Brocade Robe Guard, dedicated to housing grace-appointed officials and managing intelligence and secret police work.

"Let me personally write the letters for all those who fell in battle. You need not worry. Even if I myself go without food and drink, I will not let the brave warriors under my command suffer the slightest grievance."

Hearing this, the crowd, moved by Zhang Zhao's such benevolence and righteousness, again wept and prostrated themselves, endlessly grateful.

And Zhang Zhao was not putting on a show. He truly went from place to place offering comfort, wrote letter after letter, and also visited the wounded, not sleeping until dawn.

The next day, according to the original plan, Zhang Zhao dispatched three generals — Zhao Kuangzan, Zhao Yanjin, and Hou Renbao — with five thousand troops out of Goushi to cut off the Liao army's retreat.

The Liao army had also built a stockade at Xiaoyi Bridge, stockpiling large quantities of supplies, with three thousand Xi infantry guarding it.

Although the three generals could not take Xiaoyi Bridge and the nearby stockades, the Liao cavalry at Xiaoyi Bridge and even Yanshi City no longer dared to move out at will.

The Khitans' line of retreat could be considered half in the hands of the Yongliang army.

Zhang Zhao also ordered Li Jianchong to mobilize the residents of Luoyang to cut off the Yin River and the Luo River, digging channels to divert the water into the Yang Canal.

Incidentally, at this critical juncture of the war, he also dredged the Yang Canal, which had long since broken into several sections.

Zhang Zhao vaguely remembered that in later times, during the Northern Song period, Luoyang declined and Guanzhong was impoverished by the great war with Western Xia, precisely because the Yang Canal and the Yin and Luo rivers had completely failed, and grain could only be transported overland from Songzhou (Shangqiu) and Xuzhou all the way to Shaanxi.

The interruption of the Yang Canal meant that Shaanxi was completely cut off, and together with Luoyang, began its great decline.

Immediately after, Zhang Zhao led thirty thousand troops eastward, advancing all the way to the walls of Yanshi City, presenting the posture of a decisive frontal battle with the great Khitan army.

At the same time, he sent Zhao Hui, leading Zhao Hongyin and his son Zhao Kuangyin, to cover the catapults that Liu Di had built.

In addition to the original four catapults, Liu Di had built a giant catapult one zhang and two chi tall. The five catapults bombarded Zhongtan City in the Yellow River without pause.

In early August, after more than twenty days of digging, the water flowing from the Yin River and Luo River into the Yinluo River where Yanshi City lay was greatly reduced; in many places it only reached the knees.

Seizing the opportunity, Zhang Zhao led the great army in a fierce assault, taking one stockade after another, uprooting the Khitans' strongpoints outside Yanshi City.

The Khitan cavalry sallied out many times to raid and relieve them, but were all beaten back by the Yongliang cavalry.

Yelu Deguang had originally estimated that uprooting the stockades outside the city would cost the Yongliang army great effort and time.

But the Yongliang army had no martial virtue: they directly brought small coffins packed with gunpowder onto the field to carry out demolitions. How could these mostly wooden stockades withstand gunpowder explosions?

We all agreed to fight with real blades and spears — how can you use sorcery (gunpowder)?

The despairing Khitans could only watch as the Yongliang army pressed closer and closer.

On the seventeenth of the ninth month, the two sides, which had been locked in a standoff for nearly three months, were finally about to clash, because the Yongliang army had uprooted all the Liao army's stockades outside Yanshi City.

On the twentieth of the ninth month, Gao Song, who had been bombarded for nearly a full month, could hold out no longer. He led his troops back to the north bank.

Although he still held the Heyang Bridge on the north bank of the Yellow River and still had several dozen vessels of various sizes in hand, he could no longer threaten Zhang Zhao on the south bank of the Yellow River.

Zhang Zhao therefore ordered his men to dismantle the five catapults and began transporting them toward Yanshi. If Yelu Deguang still refused to come out, Great King Zhang would bombard Yanshi.

Hedong, Taiyuan Prefecture.

If one asked who hated Zhang Zhao most for this entry into the Central Plains, Liu Zhiyuan and Yelu Deguang were probably neck and neck.

When Yelu Deguang first entered the Eastern Capital, Liu Zhiyuan had still been somewhat watchful.

Because Yelu Deguang could be considered an enlightened ruler, and at the time no one knew that Yelu Deguang would want to become Son of Heaven of the Central Plains himself.

What Liu Zhiyuan thought then was that whether Yelu Deguang enthroned Zhao Yanshou or Du Chongwei, neither of them could hold the position securely.

Zhao Yanshou's foundations were unstable, and he was not even of Daibei military-aristocrat stock, so he simply could not command the allegiance of the troops.

As for Du Chongwei, he was a blood kinsman of the Shi clan and still rushed to sell out his country — who could respect him?

Besides, within the state of Jin, Du Chongwei was known for incompetence. Making a man like that Son of Heaven was plainly a joke.

When the time came and the Central Plains fell into turmoil, the Khitan would be too far away to reach, and if they wanted to ensure the annual tribute of gold, silver, silk, and brocade from the Central Plains, who else could Yelu Deguang count on but him, Liu Zhiyuan?

When that time came, he would be the hope of all under Heaven!

But then Yelu Deguang actually made himself Emperor, and one outrageous move followed another.

You think Liu Zhiyuan was disappointed?

No! He was even more excited!

Great King Liu was so excited he could hardly sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw himself outlasting the Khitan and ascending the throne as Son of Heaven in Chongyuan Hall in the Eastern Capital.

But right after that, Zhang Zhao entered Guanzhong. That Hexi brat, whom he had thought of as a mere performer fond of theatrics, had really come.

And he had pacified Guanzhong with astonishing speed. Zhao Kuangzan, Hou Renbao, Zhao Hui, and the rest had thrown themselves at him as if gone mad.

This dealt Liu Zhiyuan a crushing blow. Now, with every passing day, Liu Zhiyuan felt the throne of the Son of Heaven slipping further away from him.

And he had no road back, because he had been scheming since the days when Shi Jingtang was still alive.

After so many years of preparation, behind him stood thirty thousand Hedong soldiers and their families, along with the eager expectations of the Hedong tribal peoples, stirred by his promises.

It had long ceased to be Liu Zhiyuan's affair alone.

Everyone had prepared for so long — ha! If you, Liu Zhiyuan, dared say you were quitting, they would immediately tie you up and hand you over to the victor of the Yong-Liao war.

The outcome would be that they still kept their high offices and wealth, while Liu Zhiyuan's whole family would naturally be dragged to the banks of the Yellow River and hacked to death.

And Liu Zhiyuan himself was unwilling. After six or seven years of planning, how could he give up before victory and defeat had even been decided?

"Great King, Zhang Cong'en, Military Governor of Zhaoyi Circuit in Luzhou, has sent someone."

Liu Zhiyuan had been brooding uneasily, but the moment he heard Su Fengji outside the door say that Zhang Cong'en had sent someone, he immediately perked up.

Because Zezhou (Shanxi Jincheng), under the jurisdiction of the Military Governor of Zhaoyi Circuit in Luzhou, was only two hundred li from Luoyang — half a day at full gallop — and was Liu Zhiyuan's front-line observation post for watching the Yong-Liao war.

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