Chapter 617: The Khitan Are Finished

A fine book...

Zhang Zhao truly hadn't expected Yelu Ruan to have such character. When Yelu Ruan's full brother Yelu Louguo came out to mourn and report, Zhang Zhao still didn't quite believe it.

It was only after Yang Jiye personally led men inside and the Khitan Yelu Sixin confirmed it that Zhang Zhao believed it and entered the house.

Yelu Sixin had been one of the personal guards who followed Yelu Bei from the Eastern Dan Kingdom into the Later Tang. Not only was he familiar with Yelu Ruan from childhood, but when Yelu Ruan entered the Eastern Capital to collect Yelu Bei's remains, it was mainly Yelu Sixin who had helped him.

If he confirmed it, then there was basically no problem.

This was for the best, in a way. To pardon him would give no account to the people of Hebei and Henan. When the Khitan came south, who knows how many families were destroyed and perished. In those few years the population fell by more than a million. With sins so heavy, there was absolutely no reason for an easy pardon.

But to kill him — after all, he was Yelu Abuli's elder brother. Now that he had chosen to take his own life, Zhang Zhao had no blood on his hands, which was undoubtedly the best outcome.

It was a small room. On the rough yellow-earth floor lay several brightly colored wool rugs.

A dozen or so palace women and eunuchs knelt in the distance. Two guards wearing lamellar armor had been stabbed to death at the doorway.

On the carpet, dark red blood was still flowing. Yelu Ruan lay face-up, his pale face staring with wide-open eyes.

There was also a shaven-headed man curled on the ground, still twitching faintly.

The loudest weeping in the room came from two women. The older one not only retained her charms, but carried a bookish, melancholic air of a talented woman.

The younger one looked to be only in her teens, with a slightly rounded little face and a small cherry mouth. She had none of the wildness of a big Khitan girl, but rather resembled a modest beauty from the Jiangnan Circuit. Though she knelt, one could see her figure was extremely tall and slender.

"His Majesty has already died for the country. I beg Uncle to grant him some dignity!"

The young woman spoke. A clever little thing — she knew Zhang Zhao had just swept his eyes over her full, long-limbed figure, and immediately raised Zhang Zhao to the status of an uncle.

But this Khitan empress, only seventeen this year, clearly hadn't considered that sometimes the identity of an uncle, that kind of role-play, could arouse a man's interest even more.

"You are Xiao Sagezhi?" Zhang Zhao asked in a low voice.

"This slave is indeed Xiao Sagezhi! I pay my respects to the Uncle, Son of Heaven!" Xiao Sagezhi stopped her weeping and prostrated herself before Zhang Zhao, her eyes brimming and red.

This Khitan empress was truly beautiful! And the more one looked, the more pleasing she became.

Of course she was beautiful. In history, Yelu Ruan doted so much on Lady Zhen, yet Xiao Sagezhi, a queen acquired through political dealing, still bore Yelu Ruan one son and three daughters in six years — she was pregnant almost as soon as her month of confinement ended. Without considerable beauty and intelligence, that would certainly have been impossible.

"No need to call me Uncle. Is your paternal aunt not my uncle's wife?" Zhang Zhao smiled faintly, then dropped the subject.

"We have never harbored any intent to harm Wuyu. It was he himself who was far too restless — no one else can be blamed. Now that he has taken his own life, the debt dies with the man. The dignity that ought to be given will still be given."

Xiao Sagezhi's seniority was actually not low, because she was a niece from Shulu Ping's own family. So Yelu Ruan had in fact married his own little cousin-aunt, which was why Zhang Zhao said this.

At this moment, however, though Sage Zhang had some interest in this woman — of course, to destroy an enemy state and take its empress to writhe beneath him was naturally one of life's greatest pleasures.

But now was not the time to concern himself with these things. Zhang Zhao glanced once more at the unavenged Yelu Ruan on the ground, then immediately withdrew.

"Wang Tongxin, take a hundred men and seal off this place. Protect their safety, and have those Khitan eunuchs properly arrange Yelu Ruan's body.

Don't let the army surgeon wrap that leg wound of yours. Find two serving women to tend to it."

Wang Tongxin dragged his wounded leg and chuckled. Earlier, when killing the Yelu Han'erduo xiangwen, he had taken three or four arrows in the thigh, and the bleeding had only just stopped.

"Very well then. Your servant will bask in a little of the Sage's light and enjoy the attentions of Khitan palace women."

Zhang Zhao finished speaking and hurried out. Yelu Ruan was dead, but that did not mean the fighting was completely over, for he had only been an emperor pushed forward with little real control.

The Khitan force still capable of fighting now should be Gao Song's six thousand men.

The palace camp army this dog led was the only Khitan army that had not experienced the great battle at Yanshi and still retained its full organization, so its fear of the Zhang-Zhou army was not so deep.

Zhang Zhao had guessed correctly. Once he understood that the Zhou raiders were not many, Gao Song did feel like coming up to test them.

But Gao Song's force, separated by a shallow little river, was met with fierce resistance from Zhang Xibao's two hundred cavalry before they could even cross.

Zhang Xibao and his men used the stream to pull back and forth, constantly harassing Gao Song's force. When the enemy was numerous they withdrew; when few, they swarmed in. Gao Song sent several waves of light cavalry, but none could do anything to Zhang Xibao and his men.

So Gao Song, sensing that the Zhang-Zhou cavalry was hard to deal with, simply hardened his resolve. He left six or seven hundred cavalry behind specifically to tangle with Zhang Xibao's men, while he personally led the main army toward the Khitan main camp.

For he knew that although the great camp was already on the verge of collapse, the Emperor Yelu Ruan, the Grand Xiangwen Yelu Wuzhi, Xiao Han, and the others would certainly find a way to break out.

This was not because Gao Song was particularly loyal. He had simply been forced into a corner. After they had enthroned Yelu Ruan, they had already mortally offended Shulu Ping and Yelu Lihu.

Without the banner of Yelu Ruan, he — a Bohai man — could not possibly keep the Khitan officers and soldiers under him in check. It would probably take only one written order from Shulu Ping for his own men to bind him up.

The six thousand had marched less than three li toward the great camp when fleeing routed soldiers brought Gao Song the news of the deaths of Yelu Wuzhi and Xiao Han — though some also said the Emperor had died in battle.

Gao Song immediately summoned his two brothers and a group of Bohai and Jurchen officers to discuss matters. By now he did not even trust the Khitan officers under his command.

As soon as the matter was reported, the group of Bohai and Jurchen officers whom Gao Song had promoted clamored to advise Gao Song to flee at once and lead everyone back to Liaodong.

In truth, the Khitan had not yet completely secured the former territory of the Bohai Kingdom. One must remember that the last king of Bohai, Da Yinzhuan, had died only a few years before. The Bohai people, deeply oppressed by the Khitan, still cherished the Bohai Kingdom in their hearts.

And because of their rapid decline in status, with their means of production seized by the Khitan, many Bohai people had returned to the deep mountains of what would later be Liaodong and Jilin, where they began to live intermixed with the Jurchen. The two peoples faced Khitan oppression together and were therefore relatively united.

After Gao Song returned to the Liao state, he began deliberately absorbing Bohai and Jurchen people, pushing out the Khitan whom he could not control. Thus, of the six thousand men he currently commanded, more than three thousand were Bohai and Jurchen.

Before Zhang Zhao had marched north, these people had hoped Gao Song would lead them back to the old Bohai lands, welcome back the royal Da clan of Bohai, and restore the Bohai Kingdom.

"No!" Gao Song's cousin Gao Mouzhi loudly objected.

"The journey to Liaodong is a thousand li, and we would have to pass through Yelu Lihu's territory. We don't even know the situation in Liaodong now — we would be duckweed without roots. To rashly return east, the slightest misstep would bring the danger of total ruin!"

Gao Song had always valued this cousin's intelligence. Hearing this, he waved a hand. "Then in your view, what should we do?"

Gao Mouzhi cupped his hands. "Commander, leave five hundred men here to gather routed soldiers, paying special attention to gathering non-Khitan officers and men. Commander, you personally lead the troops to rescue the Emperor.

If the Emperor still lives, we take him and withdraw to the Central Capital Circuit and the Supreme Capital Circuit. Afterward, whether to protect ourselves or to sell him to the Shao Ming Son of Heaven, the decision will be ours."

Gao Song nodded. "And if the Emperor has truly met with misfortune, what then?"

"Then we quickly return to Youzhou, kill Zhao Yanshou, and seize the eldest prince. Take the wealth of the Han people of Youzhou, set up the eldest prince as our lord, and likewise withdraw to the Supreme Capital Circuit, holding this rare prize."

At this time, of the three sons Yelu Ruan had in history, neither Emperor Jingzong of Liao — Yelu Xian, born of Empress Zhen — nor the tormented Yelu Zhimo had yet been born.

Only Yelu Ruan's eldest son, whose name was not even recorded, still lived, left behind in Youzhou under the regency of Zhao Yanshou.

Likewise in the original history, after Yelu Ruan and Zhao Yanshou had gotten along for a time, they soon fell out.

That was because Yelu Ruan wanted to use the Khitan office of Southern Chancellery King to strip Zhao Yanshou of all his power in Yan-Yun and erase the Zhao family's influence in the Lulong Army and Youzhou.

But in this time and space, with the Khitan so catastrophically defeated in the Central Plains, neither Yelu Ruan nor Zhao Yanshou had any heart left for internal strife.

Indeed, the greatest secret to maintaining internal unity lay in powerful external pressure.

Precisely because a terrifying external enemy like Zhang Zhao existed, Yelu Ruan not only did not do away with Zhao Yanshou, but even dared to entrust his orphan to him.

At this, the assembled Bohai and Jurchen officers recalled the wealth of Youzhou — wealth by their standards, of course — and at once all wore satisfied expressions, one after another voicing their approval.

Gao Song also thought it a fine idea, and a satisfied smile spread across his face.

But before he could speak, the warning horns outside began to wail.

Gao Song and his officers hurried to high ground to look, and saw no fewer than six or seven hundred riders advancing toward them beneath a great silver-white banner.

Gao Song's nose nearly bent out of shape with fury. Had three thousand Zhou troops come, he might have felt some unease, but six or seven hundred riders — barely a tenth of his army — daring to charge him? That was too great an insult!

At once Gao Song swept his hand out. "Gao Mouquan, take two thousand riders at once and strike down this pack of Southern Dynasty bandit soldiers!"

Gao Mouquan, another younger cousin of Gao Song and ever fierce and valiant, at the order immediately led two thousand riders forward with loud war cries, surging over hill and dale toward the Zhou troops beneath the silver-white banner. Gao Song himself turned back, preparing to arrange for the collection of routed soldiers.

Regrettably, before he had finished assigning the task, heaven-shaking horn blasts and wails in the Bohai tongue rose again, mixed with shouts in Khitan of "Defeated! Defeated!"

A sudden cold sweat burst from Gao Song's brow as he saw the two thousand riders he had sent out come fleeing back like dogs who had lost their masters.

Gao Song rode out himself, seized a junior officer among the fugitives, and roared, "Where is Gao Mouquan? Two thousand of you could not hold off six or seven hundred riders?"

Gao Song used "hold off" rather than "defeat" — meaning, even if you couldn't beat them, you damn well shouldn't have collapsed this fast.

The junior officer, soul fled from his body, stared at Gao Song and answered in a trembling voice, "Before we had even formed ranks, a fierce general charged out from the enemy, hard bow in hand, racing through the mass of horses. One arrow, and he shot dead the deputy commander!"

"Nonsense!" Gao Song flew into a rage and flung the junior officer to the ground. "Shooting a commander dead amid ten thousand troops — do you think the enemy has a warrior to match ten thousand like Guan Yunchang?"

But no sooner had Gao Song roared "Guan Yunchang" than Guan Yunchang arrived!

Li Cunhui, riding the green-maned heavenly steed Yueying, with Murong Yanzhao and Wang Quanbin guarding him, had already cut his way through.

Li Cunhui's horse, true to its name Yueying — "Shadow-Fleet" — was extraordinarily fast, and in almost an instant he was upon Gao Song's force. His two hands spread like an eagle's wings, and one by one he shot down the skirmishing riders before Gao Song's lines.

Gao Song was just about to order his trusted cavalry into action when, in that instant, warning horns sounded again from every direction. In this dusk, with the sun already down, no fewer than ten thousand riders were closing in from all sides.

Gao Song could even feel the trembling of countless hoofbeats. The enemy was no more than a li or two from him. His face changed, and he mounted and fled to the rear, abandoning command of his several thousand troops.

Once Gao Song retreated, no one needed orders, no one needed arrangements — his subordinates at once fell back with the whole army toward the north, where the hoofbeats were fewest.

This was not yet a rout, of course, but an orderly withdrawal.

In such a large-scale, well-ordered retreat, many horses and men of poor riding skill would fall behind and then be surrounded.

Once the main force that retreated first had broken out of the encirclement, it could choose either to regroup and counter-encircle, or simply flee for good.

This was the most typical steppe light-cavalry tactic — they would not lightly choose a decisive battle. It was remarkable that Gao Song, a Bohai man, had studied this light-cavalry warfare so thoroughly.

But this time the tactic was useless, because before the battle Zhang Zhao had singled Gao Song out as a priority target.

Whether it was Li Cunhui, who had come with Zhang Zhao, or Bai Congxin, who had finally arrived with the main force, their target was him. They ignored the stragglers entirely and pursued Gao Song without letting up.

He could not escape!

In the second year of Shaoming of the Great Zhou, on the twenty-eighth day of the fourth month, Zhang Zhao led his army north in pursuit of Gao Song's force, and finally linked up with Murong Xinzhang, who had circled around to cut off the retreat, at Pingshu County in Yingzhou — the later Dacheng County of Langfang.

Gao Song's force of over six thousand riders was utterly smashed to pieces, but whether Gao Song himself had been captured or killed somewhere was still unknown.

Because the sun had already set when the surprise attack on Gao Song began. Although eight or nine thousand riders pursued from behind and Murong Xinzhang blocked the front, the night was too dark, and darkness gave them the best cover.

On the whole, however, Zhang Zhao's strategy of striking the Khitan with twenty-three thousand riders had achieved unprecedented success.

In the surprise attack at Lutai, Yelu Wuzhi, a pillar of the Khitan, was killed outright; Xiao Han, the fierce general and brother-in-law of Yelu Deguang, also died in battle; and Yelu Ruan, the third Khitan emperor, committed suicide in despair.

The Khitan army of forty thousand completely collapsed. More than four thousand were killed on the spot, and at least another six or seven thousand riders died in the pursuit. The surviving elite remnants who had escaped the great battle at Yanshi City were almost entirely wiped out.

The prisoners had not yet been counted, but there should be at least three or four thousand riders.

There was no helping it — cavalry battles were like this, especially on the great flat plains of Hebei. Catching a rider whose only thought was escape was no easy matter.

From this point on, the Khitan, at least west of the Liao lands, no longer possessed any military force capable of contending with the Zhou. Yelu Ruan had not even managed to save his consorts, and armor and weapons were discarded in heaps like mountains.

In three years, Zhang Zhao had slain two successive Khitan emperors in battle, forcibly driving the Khitan state, which had been on the rise, down into the mud.

The fifty or sixty thousand elite palace-camp troops and more than one hundred thousand tribal troops that three generations of Khitan had painstakingly cultivated since Yelu Abaoji had all been wiped out by Zhang Zhao.

And after Zhang Zhao pursued to Pingshu County and joined forces with Murong Xinzhang, he did not intend to advance further north.

For the Liao state was visibly on the verge of collapse, and now was the time to turn the army around and defeat Liu Zhiyuan.

But with the Liao now so badly defeated, Yan-Yun could not be ignored. If Zhang Zhao ignored it, who knew what havoc these Liao deserters would wreak upon Youzhou, Yingzhou, Mozhou, and the other prefectures.

Zhang Zhao at once summoned everyone together. He had originally intended simply to order Gao Xingzhou to take Youzhou, but after further thought, sending Gao Xingzhou alone seemed somewhat inappropriate.

The land of Yan-Yun had been under Khitan rule for eleven years, the bitterest grief of all Han people under heaven. To let Gao Xingzhou alone receive such glory seemed to lack solemnity.

Moreover, it would easily allow the Gao family's power in Youzhou to grow too great, for they were originally magnates from north and south of the Yan Mountains, entrenched in this region for four generations.

Although Gao Xingzhou was certainly loyal, the Gao family still needed to be kept in check.

So at Pingshu County, Zhang Zhao appointed Murong Xinzhang as Grand Commander for the Pacification of Yan, ordering him to bear the imperial staff and, representing Zhang Zhao, lead three thousand troops into Beiping.

Youzhou was formally renamed Beiping Prefecture, and Gao Xingzhou was appointed Military Governor of the Fanyang Army of Beiping Prefecture, ordered to follow Murong Xinzhang in pacifying the five prefectures of Yan, Yi, Mo, Ying, Tan, and Ji.

Ma Sizhong was appointed Surveillance and Disposal Commissioner of Ying and Mo Prefectures, leading his local troops to clear out the Khitan deserters scattered across the region.

Yang Jiye, who had rendered great service in this battle, was sent with three hundred riders to Yunzhou to report the outcome of the battle and urge Zhe Congyuan, his father Yang Hongxin, and Wu Luan to take Yunzhou as quickly as possible.

Then Zhe Congyuan was ordered to transfer elite troops from Datong Garrison and Fugu Garrison to help Murong Xinzhang control the region north and south of the Yan Mountains, guarding against the possibility of Yelu Lihu coming from Liaodong to cause trouble.

As for Cangzhou, Zhang Zhao left the two generals Zhao Yanjin and Wang Tongxin there with two thousand troops to guard the prisoners, treat the wounded, handle the battle dead, and pacify the various districts of Cangzhou.

Zhang Zhao himself led the remaining fifteen thousand troops, preparing to march south by night and launch a surprise attack on Liu Zhiyuan, who was encamped with his army at Xiangzhou.