Chapter 618: An Old Soldier in His Twilight Years, His Great Ambition Gone

Liu Zhiyuan actually very much needed the Khitan army to march south, and the main thing he needed was not even the Khitan men and horses, but the prestige of the Khitan.

This sounds a bit fantastical — the Khitan have been smashed twice by me, Sage Zhang, within three years, and two of their emperors killed. What prestige do they still have? The prestige of getting slapped in the face?

But in reality, they really do still have a bit of it.

Ever since Li Siyuan, Mingzong of the Later Tang, transferred most of the military men of Hebei and Hedong into the Eastern Capital, the Khitan had gradually turned from the oath-breaking wretches whom Li Cunxu used to beat bloody into a threat.

After Li Congke entered Luoyang, this situation grew worse and worse. By the time Shi Jingtang sold out the country, the Khitan threat to the land of Hebei had nearly reached its peak, and in the end Yelu Deguang entered the Eastern Capital.

One can see that the rise of the Khitan, and their psychological ascendancy over the land of Hebei, was built up bit by bit.

And this kind of subtle influence, built up over more than twenty years, cannot possibly fade away in an instant.

Looking at it from later generations, the Khitan as a people could never compare with the Xiongnu or Turks of old, because they had too many fishing, hunting, and farming attributes, and their control over the steppe was not all that firm.

Even the Liao dynasty of history, had it been born in the early Han or early Tang, would long since have been pounded into mincemeat.

But the people of this age cannot possibly possess that kind of time-traveling perspective. In their eyes, this moment was like the Qin's fall and the Chu-Han contention, like the Sui's collapse and the warlords' struggle for supremacy — and the Khitan were, of course, the Xiongnu of the Han, the Turks of the Tang.

Moreover, they did not yet know that Yelu Ruan had knelt as well, so they still regarded the Khitan as the representative of the steppe empires.

If Liu Zhiyuan did not pull in this steppe empire, then he would be using one corner of Hedong to contend against the Central Plains — the small against the great — and his chances of victory would certainly not be high.

If he did pull in the Khitan, it would very easily make people think the entire steppe was supporting Liu Zhiyuan, and even more easily make them think of the situation between Shi Jingtang and Li Congke.

So Liu Zhiyuan had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Khitan army. Only when the Khitan came, and showed themselves obedient to Liu Zhiyuan's command, could he demonstrate to the local magnates of Hebei — especially those of Beizhou and the Fu family — that he had the ability to contend with Zhang Zhao for the realm.

When a man gets old, it is like this: he wants everything to be done properly, step by step.

Liu Zhiyuan, at fifty-two, had long since lost the decisiveness and grand ambition of the man who years ago had risen from a junior officer to the high post of Military Governor within a few years. Now he was like a lion in its twilight years.

Wang Jun had earnestly advised Liu Zhiyuan that Fu Yanqing had only a little over three thousand men in Beizhou, and that inside the city there were members of the Fu family in secret contact with them. If Liu Zhiyuan made up his mind and let the Hedong army attack fiercely for fifteen days, under the threat of life and death, Beizhou would surely fall into chaos.

But Liu Zhiyuan had always hesitated, always fantasizing that Fu Yanqing, a man of Hedong and Daibei military-merit background, would open the gates and come over to him, setting a good example for everyone else under heaven — so he kept trying to persuade him to surrender.

Liu Zhiyuan stubbornly believed that although Fu Yanqing had married his daughter to Zhang Zhao, the foundation of the entire Fu family lay in the Hedong and Daibei military-merit bloc, and one daughter was not enough to make all of them board Zhang Zhao's ship.

This theory was actually correct, but it had a precondition: Liu Zhiyuan had to have at least military strength matching Zhang Zhao's, as well as ability and age matching Zhang Zhao's.

If Liu Zhiyuan could claim two of these three, the Fu family — whose entire clan had risen from the Hedong and Daibei military-merit bloc — would certainly have gone with Liu Zhiyuan.

It is only a pity that of these three, Liu Zhiyuan could claim not even one.

In terms of military strength, Fu Yanqing knew very well in his heart that Liu Zhiyuan had already mobilized Hedong to the point of scraping the earth three feet deep and taking one man from every three. But Zhang Zhao had mobilized at most thirty percent of his strength.

And that thirty percent alone was enough to hold Hedong down.

If pushed too far, and Zhang Zhao mobilized the way Liu Zhiyuan did, he could field at least three hundred thousand men — to say nothing of the quality of the troops, the armor, the weapons, and the rest, where Hedong could not even compare.

In Fu Yanqing's eyes, the Zhang Zhou of today had already approached, in strength, the Zhu Liang of old that had once held the entire Hedong and Daibei military-merit bloc down and beaten them — the Zhu Liang in Zhu Wen's own hands.

In the old days, when Zhu Wen was powerful, Li Keyong was trapped in one corner of Hedong and finally died in despair. So what does this budget-version Hedong of Liu Zhiyuan's have to contend with the Central Plains?

Secondly, in terms of ability — after spending some time with Zhang Zhao, Fu Yanqing was quite certain that Zhang Zhao had received a very systematic and very comprehensive education.

Whether in his understanding of the great trends of the realm, his designs for state-building, his grasp of governance, or his reflections on the thought of the Confucian, Buddhist, Daoist, Legalist, Mohist, and Huang-Lao schools, he had a vision that was singular and commanding.

Compared with him, Liu Zhiyuan — apart from fighting wars — had almost no understanding of these things at all.

He was still the typical military man of this age, whose understanding of the state and the court stopped at the level of collecting taxes and handing out offices.

To put it bluntly, in their eyes, the state and the court were nothing more than tools for dividing up the spoils internally.

Although from certain angles that is indeed the case, when the state and the court have only this one function, it becomes a disaster for the realm — a disaster for everyone.

Zhang Zhao had discussed with Fu Yanqing his vision for the state and the court.

What Zhang Zhao proposed was: at home, found the state on benevolence, establish the law on leniency, take loyalty and good faith as the root, use ritual as the guide, and teach the common people to turn toward goodness — so that military men would not dare bend the law by force, civil officials would not dare exploit their power for private gain, the four classes of people would each be at peace, and the realm would be in harmony.

Abroad, take ritual and law as armor, take culture and refinement as spear and shield, strengthen the Central Kingdom and hold the four quarters in check — as in the old story of the Zhou Son of Heaven: Xia rulers over Yi subjects, honoring the rites of Zhou while each remained different.

These visions of Zhang Zhao's made Fu Yanqing's heart surge as if a door to a new world had been thrown open, so much so that he was moved to tears on the spot, wishing only that he had been born twenty years later so he could follow such a sage lord.

This kind of spiritual shock, transcending material reality, was something Liu Zhiyuan's old routine of titles and promises could never shake.

So as for the sugar-coated shells Liu Zhiyuan fired at him, Fu Yanqing accepted every one — while feigning compliance, he quietly rooted out the unstable elements within the Fu family and Beizhou.

By the time Liu Zhiyuan realized what was happening, the people in Beizhou who had secret dealings with him had basically all been pulled up by the roots. Feng Hui and Luo Shande had also led eight thousand troops to camp a little over ten li southwest of Beizhou.

Only then did Liu Zhiyuan realize he had been tricked. In a fury, he immediately ordered the Hedong army to prepare to assault the city — but by this point, everything was already too late.

First came a report from Murong Yanchao, his half-brother by the same mother, who controlled the Tuyuhun cavalry for him: traces had been found of a large cavalry force passing through Beizhou and heading north.

Moreover, the scouts under Murong Yanchao could not get past the area from Wuyi to Wuqiang to continue north and investigate.

The entire Hedong army was shocked, all believing that the Zhou cavalry had already passed through Beizhou ahead of them to strike at the Khitan. Liu Zhiyuan had even prepared to abandon Beizhou and withdraw from Qinghe to the area around Julu County in Xingzhou, which he firmly controlled.

But immediately after, a second piece of news arrived: Guo Wei had suffered a great defeat at the mouth of Hezhang Valley, losing more than six thousand troops.

And the force that defeated him was none other than the main Zhou army, marching under yellow silk canopies and the silver-edged Three Stars banner — at least forty thousand strong. The famous Zhou generals Yan Jin, Zhang Zhaozhong, Zhang Zhaojiu, Zhang Zhaojun, and others were all present.

At this, the Hedong army, which had been on the verge of falling back to the Julu line, quieted down again.

Because according to their calculations of Zhang Zhou's military strength, the core elite force was around fifty thousand at most.

Now, with the yellow silk canopies appearing at the mouth of Hezhang Valley, a pile of famous Zhou generals present, and Guo Wei's twenty thousand-plus men easily defeated, then the force at the mouth of Hezhang Valley must certainly be the Zhou main army.

If the Zhou main army was at the mouth of Hezhang Valley, then the force that had passed through Beizhou could not be the main army. It should be a small force of elite cavalry sent to delay the Khitan's southward advance — at most no more than ten thousand horse.

The next day, more precise information arrived: after Guo Wei was defeated at the mouth of Hezhang Valley, he could not hold his ground along the banks of the Zhang River.

So he ordered Guo Jin to take three thousand elite troops and hurry into Fuyang to hold it firmly, while he himself led more than ten thousand soldiers up along the Zhang River, retreating all the way to Shexian in Hedong before stabilizing his position.

Shexian lies on the banks of the Qingzhang River, a branch of the Zhang. Guo Wei transferred the supplies from Hezhang to Shexian, and so this place became the great base where half of the Hedong army's military stores were stockpiled.

Fuyang, which the Hedong army had used to control the Zhang River, became an isolated city, and the Zhang waters from Shexian to Fuyang fell completely into Zhou hands.

This put Liu Zhiyuan in a terrible bind, forcing him to make a choice.

Because at this time, going north from the Yellow River to Youzhou, there were only two routes: the Zhang River and the Yongji Canal.

Fuyang was the key point by which the Hedong army blocked the Zhang River, while Qinghe County, the prefectural seat of Beizhou, was the vital hub controlling the Yongji Canal.

Now that Fuyang was besieged and Qinghe, the prefectural seat of Beizhou, had not been taken, with Liu Zhiyuan's military strength he could only hold one of the two.

Wang Jun and Su Fengji both strongly urged Liu Zhiyuan to make a prompt decision: leave Beizhou and Qinghe, withdraw west to the two prefectures of Xing and Ming, then turn south to lift the siege of Fuyang and do his utmost to keep the line from Shexian in Hedong to Fuyang in Xiangzhou secure.

Because the Zhang River originated in Hedong and was in fact the lifeline of the Hedong army, while Beizhou, though also important, was merely a place the Hedong army had to take in order to advance.

In other words, Fuyang and the Zhang River were the lifeline of the Hedong army, while Beizhou and the Yongji Canal were its line of opportunity.

If they failed to take Beizhou, they would be placed in an extremely passive position, but they would not immediately collapse and perish — perhaps there would still be a chance, still a turn of fortune.

But if they lost Fuyang and could not control the Zhang River, the supply of the entire Hedong army would at once become a grave problem.

At this time, Hebei had seen war year after year and simply could not supply the needs of an army of fifty or sixty thousand, unless Liu Zhiyuan came down hard on the local magnates of Hebei north of Xiangzhou and south of Hengzhou, using their money and grain to keep the great army supplied.

But if he truly did that, it would surely push those magnates who still supported the Hedong army over to the side of the Zhou state — and then it would truly be finished.

So at this moment, the best course was to hold Fuyang, adopt a defensive posture, and drag the Zhou army into a contest — if it succeeded, they could slowly plan a southward advance; if it failed, they could still withdraw to Hedong.

However, when this correct opinion reached Liu Zhiyuan, it stalled again. For two days straight he made no decision. Wang Jun grew frantic, and could only go alone under cover of night to see Liu Zhiyuan.

By the time Wang Jun saw Liu Zhiyuan, the hour was quite late, and Liu Zhiyuan was already preparing to retire for the night.

Wang Jun stepped forward, seized Liu Zhiyuan by the sleeve, and said in a low, urgent voice: "Does the Great King mean to send these forty thousand soldiers to their deaths?"

Liu Zhiyuan had lost his usual dignity. Letting Wang Jun tug at his sleeve, he sat down helplessly on the edge of the bed. He did not answer Wang Jun's question, but instead began speaking of other things, as if to himself.

"Since I first took up the soldier's trade, more than thirty years have passed. How could I not know the danger of this moment?

But I am already fifty-two. My legs are afflicted with pain and I cannot walk quickly. On days of thunder, rain, damp and cold, the old wounds all over my body ache as if stabbed by spears.

Now, for the sake of this campaign, Hedong has been scraped to the sky, and the people's grievances seethe. That we still hold this position at all is only because all under Heaven are watching and waiting, thinking that I have a chance of entering and mastering the Central Plains.

If I withdraw without fighting, I will surely lose the hopes of all under Heaven. Even if I fall back to places like Xingzhou and Mingzhou, could we truly hold out? Could I even return to Hedong?"

Wang Jun had come with a bellyful of arguments, but at this moment he could no longer speak, because Liu Zhiyuan's words had already laid out all the stakes.

To withdraw now would not be a catastrophe for the Hedong army, but for Liu Zhiyuan himself, it would be utter ruin.

For the Hedong army, presumably the Shaoming Son of Heaven would not press them to extermination; at worst, these men would be stripped of their honors and offices.

Their personal property, however, could probably be kept. They could retire to the Eastern Capital or Luoyang without trouble — they would simply live out their days less comfortably than they wished.

But Liu Zhiyuan could not. Over the years, he had refused Zhang and Zhou transfers three times alone, expelled envoys at least seven or eight times, and even detained An Shuqian when he was sent to persuade him. He had already blocked off every road of retreat.

Once signs of defeat appeared, not only would the present situation be impossible to maintain, but Liu Zhiyuan's family far away in Hedong would probably be sold off by others for a good price.

Wang Jun sighed inwardly. Back in Hedong, everyone had thought that marching south from Jinyang into the Eastern Capital was as easy as turning over one's hand, because that was how it had been done for the past several decades.

Moreover, Zhang Zhao was not of the Hedong or Daibei system, and Liu Zhiyuan had long enjoyed the esteem of the Hedong and Daibei men. Many believed that once the great banner was raised, the heroes of all under Heaven would surely follow the wind and flock to him.

But in reality, first the eastward advance into Hebei went extremely poorly. Of the worthies of the Hebei prefectures, those who sincerely submitted were few indeed — to say nothing of old Hedong men like Fu Yanqing, Gao Xingzhou, and An Shenqi, not one of whom came over.

Later, they had thought to move south while Zhang and Zhou were campaigning against the Tang state, but Zhang Zhao mobilized only Hexi troops, so the Hedong side obtained no accurate intelligence. High and low alike assumed Zhang Zhao had gone to suppress Du Chongwei in Songzhou.

They figured Du Chongwei had only a few thousand men in hand and would certainly be dealt with quickly.

To their surprise, Zhang Zhao had gone to attack the Southern Tang. By the time Hedong received word, Zhang Zhao's battle at Yizheng was nearly over, and they had wasted a fine opportunity for nothing.

Liu Zhiyuan could only order Guo Wei to press south through wind and snow, but in the end they were still a step too late. The Zhou general Yan Jin had already seized control of Yedu, blocking the Hedong army's road south.

After that, because of provisions and the Khitan problem, things had dragged on and on until today.

Their own side was ready, but the Zhou state was ready too. Before the two sides had even joined battle, the Hedong army from top to bottom already felt a terrifying pressure.

Wang Jun understood now that Liu Zhiyuan still held expectations of the Khitan horsemen, hoping the Khitan cavalry could defeat the Zhou cavalry that had slipped through and join them at Beizhou.

But Wang Jun understood that this was, in all likelihood, hopeless.

The Khitan had just had their emperor killed by Zhang Zhao at Yanshi, and the whole army was stricken with terror. They could only serve to swell the ranks and boost morale. If the Khitan horsemen truly met the Zhou state's Liangzhou great horses, even at forty thousand against ten thousand, victory would be hard to claim.

Having understood Liu Zhiyuan's difficulty, Wang Jun thought for a moment, then released Liu Zhiyuan's sleeve and said in a low voice: "If the Great King wishes to wait for the Khitan horsemen, then you cannot simply sit here waiting.

I ask the Great King to appoint Liu Chong, Defense Commissioner of Sizhou, as Acting Military Governor of the Hedong army, to guard the Taiyuan valley against any mishap.

Then order Murong Yanchao, Chief Commander of the cavalry, to lead picked horsemen out of Jizhou. He must break through the Zhou blockade and ascertain the reason the Khitan horsemen have not arrived."

Liu Chong was the founding ruler of the Northern Han in history, Liu Zhiyuan's half-brother by a different mother. At present he nominally held the post of Defense Commissioner of Sizhou, but in fact served as Inspector of the Three Wards of Taiyuan, remaining to guard Taiyuan.

Appointing him Acting Military Governor of the Hedong army was precisely to let Liu Chong grasp all authority, so that if the situation on the Hebei battlefield turned unfavorable, no one could plot against Liu Zhiyuan's family.

Murong Yanchao was Liu Zhiyuan's half-brother by the same mother. He currently served as Commander of the Hedong cavalry, holding Liu Zhiyuan's two thousand picked Hedong horsemen and five thousand Tuyuhun cavalry — also a man Liu Zhiyuan trusted.

This proposal suited Liu Zhiyuan's taste. He had in fact been mulling over this very matter, so he quickly nodded his assent.

Moreover, Liu Zhiyuan told Wang Jun that if within five days Murong Yanchao still could not break through the Zhou blockade, he would strike camp and withdraw to the Julu area.

Some things in this world truly carry a touch of the mystical. Those who recklessly raise flags often find themselves beaten bloody by reality.

Liu Zhiyuan had just declared that if there was no news in five days he would withdraw, when Murong Yanchao, on his side, immediately received word.

In fact, Murong Yanchao had led five thousand cavalry to encamp near Wuqiang County, and had been doing his utmost to probe for news of the Zhou army.

But he did not dare venture too far, because years ago, after Du Chongwei had coerced him into surrendering to the Khitan, he had been released by Zhang Zhao at Yanshi.

After his release, Murong Yanchao had spent some time in the Left Shenwei Army, composed of former Later Jin imperial guards, and later, upon receiving Liu Zhiyuan's summons, had abandoned his post and fled back to Hedong with his trusted men.

Therefore, compared with the Hedong generals, he understood far more deeply the fearsomeness of the Liangzhou great horses that the Zhou state had brought from Hexi.

Compared with them, the Tuyuhun light cavalry under his command were nothing at all.

Even the so-called Hedong picked cavalry, after losing Yunzhou and the horse pastures to its north, lagged considerably behind the Hexi cavalry.

So Murong Yanchao simply did not dare go far from Wuqiang. If he truly had the nerve to send out several thousand cavalry, he could not have failed to break through the blockade — it was only that he did not dare.

But after receiving the order written in Liu Zhiyuan's own hand, Murong Yanchao knew the matter was urgent. He could only hastily select two thousand picked cavalry and head north to reconnoiter. Yet before the force had even set out, a vast tide of routed soldiers came pouring in.

After the Khitan were shattered at Lutai in Cangzhou, a considerable number of them had not fled north, but in their panic had run south instead.

Murong Yanchao thus obtained fairly accurate news. Some of the routed soldiers said Lutai had been a great defeat, and that even the emperor was dead; but others said that only the outer perimeter had been scattered, and that the main army had already returned safely to Youzhou.

But in any case, Murong Yanchao obtained two pieces of intelligence: first, the Zhou iron cavalry that had struck the Khitan were few in number; second, the Khitan army was certainly not coming south.

At this moment, Murong Yanchao's decisiveness and experience saved his life. His subordinate, the valiant general Liu Ci, was still urging him to report to Liu Zhiyuan before making any decision, when Murong Yanchao shouted sharply.

"Those who can break the Khitan with ten thousand horsemen must be the finest warriors under Heaven — the Left and Right Yulin Guard, the Left and Right Jinwu Guard of the Zhou state. Even I fear them. Which of you can stand against Murong Baipao and Li Shouchang (Li Cunhui)?"

With that, without waiting for anyone to object, Murong Yanchao immediately ordered one rider to race off and inform Liu Zhiyuan, while the whole army moved south.

Murong Yanchao's decision was correct, and it saved the lives of these several thousand cavalry. Barely three hours after they had struck camp, Zhang Zhaojie (Qiong Re Duo Jin) arrived with a thousand picked horsemen.

Having galloped all the way but failed to achieve surprise, Zhang Zhaojie could only follow the hoofprints south in pursuit, and finally caught up with Murong Yanchao's force northeast of Hengshui County, by the banks of the Zhang River.

The two sides fought a great battle north of Hengshui County for a full hour. Although Zhang Zhaojie had ridden two hundred li at full gallop and both men and horses were exhausted, he still achieved an outstanding result.

With seven hundred horsemen he charged headlong into more than four thousand of the Hedong army's cavalry. A single shock shattered the left camp of the Hedong picked cavalry led by Liu Ci. Liu Ci, relying on his skill in the water, threw himself into the Zhang River and swam to the opposite bank, barely escaping with his life.

And once he broke, it quickly triggered the collapse of the Tuyuhun light cavalry from Hedong that had been harassing the two flanks.

In the end, it was Murong Yanchao who, seeing the danger, burned the pontoon bridge over the Zhang River, abandoned the two thousand cavalry north of the Zhang River, and fled with the remaining two thousand or so men.

Zhang Zhaojie did not have enough boats to cross the river, so he could only search for civilian laborers to repair the pontoon bridge while sending men to report the battle situation to Zhang Zhao.

When the news reached the Hedong army camp, Liu Zhiyuan was shocked. He had not expected the Khitan to have already weakened to such a degree, to be defeated so easily by a surprise attack.

But at the critical moment, Liu Zhiyuan still displayed sufficient military competence. He first dispatched troops to fiercely assault Qinghe, the seat of Beizhou, even committing the Hedong army's own yabing guards to the battlefield.

Feng Hui and Luo Shande, who had been playing whack-a-mole with Liu Zhiyuan south of Beizhou all along, hurriedly sent troops to the walls of Qinghe to pin down the Hedong army.

The two sides fought from sunrise until late at night, and the fighting was extremely fierce. The Hedong army even mounted the city walls several times.

On the second day, the Hedong army again sent troops to attack Qinghe, with war drums shaking the heavens as before, though the intensity was somewhat lower.

Moreover, it was fierce in the morning, slackened by noon, and by afternoon had almost reverted to the previous low-intensity state.

The attention of Feng Hui, Luo Shande, and Fu Yanqing was all drawn to the siege, and no one noticed anything unusual.

Then on the fourth day, several pontoon bridges on the Yongji Canal controlled by the Hedong army suddenly burst into flames.

Only then did the three realize something was wrong. They hurriedly sent troops to investigate and found only a thousand or so old and weak soldiers in the Hedong army camp. The main force had long since crossed the river and fled.

Feng, Luo, and Fu suddenly understood. Feng Hui and Luo Shande in particular knew that the Khitan forces must have been routed.

The three therefore sent messengers racing north while hastening to repair the pontoon bridges.

At the same time, Zhang Zhao had only just reached Hengshui with his main army. This was not because Zhang Zhao did not understand the principle that speed is the soldier's asset, but because after this long-distance raid on the Khitan army, the fodder and provisions they carried had run short.

The men did not matter much; they could endure this degree of hardship. But the warhorses could not.

Although there was no shortage of green fodder and dry hay, the high-protein soybeans, black beans, and oat-grass were all gone.

For top-tier warhorses like the Hexi horses of the Zhou army, capable of explosive speed and heavy loads, without these things they simply could not run.

If one forced their use recklessly, the cost would be too great. To ruin several thousand fine horses for the sake of a raid would be far too wasteful.

So Zhang Zhao could only concentrate the supply of concentrated feed to Zhang Zhaojie, letting him go ahead to carry out the raid, while he himself led the main army south at a speed slightly faster than infantry.

This matter also served as a reminder to Zhang Zhao: in the future, he should pay more attention to breeding the hardy, enduring Mongolian horse.

On the thirteenth day of the fifth month, the messengers jointly sent by Feng Hui, Luo Shande, and Fu Yanqing found Zhang Zhao. At the same time, the three had also sent elite cavalry to feel out the tail of the Hedong army, and they were now engaged with the Hedong cavalry covering the rear.

After receiving the news, Zhang Zhao was no longer in a hurry. Since the surprise attack had failed and it would now be a battle in the open, he only needed to know the Hedong army's whereabouts.

He simply stopped for a few days at Xindu County, the seat of Jizhou — the later Ji County of Hengshui in Hebei — to replenish the warhorses with concentrated feed. The main army rested and reorganized for two days before beginning the pursuit.

On the nineteenth day of the fifth month, Zhang Zhao joined forces at Nangong with the ten thousand men of Luo Shande, Fu Yanqing, and Feng Hui's three commands, making a total of twenty thousand troops, and pressed hard on the tail of the Hedong army.

At the same time, Liu Zhiyuan, who had already retreated to Pingxiang County in Xingzhou, found he could not shake off the Zhou cavalry tailing him. He therefore retreated to camp below the walls of Jize County, southwest of Pingxiang County. His forty thousand men took up position along the Zhang River, intending to wait at ease for the weary enemy and strike them mid-crossing.

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