Chapter 820: Goryeo, Here I Come, Murong Xinzhang

The sixth year of Shaoming of the Great Zhou, 951 CE, the third day of the third month, when the ice and snow had just begun to melt.

Yan Jin set out from Taiyuan, leading the Right Leopard Taowei of the personal army and ten thousand infantry and cavalry from the imperial guard garrisons of Hanhai, Changguo, and other towns, and arrived at Liaoyang Prefecture.

He had come to take over from Murong Xinzhang as Governor of the Andong Province, and at the same time the court had established the Anbei Protectorate to administer the various Jurchen, Shiwei, and forest wild-man tribes north of Huanglong Prefecture (modern Nong'an in Jilin, near Changchun).

At the same time, among the twelve myriarchies of the steppe, the Shiwei myriarchy on both the east and west sides of the Great Xianbei Mountains would also come under the administration of the Anbei Grand Protectorate.

Zhang Zhao appointed Yan Jin as Governor of Andong Province, Defense Commissioner of Andong, and Grand Protector-General of Anbei, stationed at Liaoyang, taking over all of Murong Xinzhang's duties in Andong.

Murong Xinzhang, with Zhang Zhao's permission, continued to govern the people and soldiers under his control according to the institutions of the Liaoyang Commandery Prince's Overlord Manor.

He was immediately to establish the Goryeo Punitive Expedition Grand Field Headquarters, and as its Commander-in-Chief, take full charge of all affairs relating to the campaign against Goryeo.

At the same time, to guard against an extreme situation — that is, in case Yan Jin should be deceived by his subordinates, or for some purpose of his own, place obstacles in the logistics of the Goryeo expeditionary army — Zhang Zhao did not remove Cao Liulang Cao Yanlu from his posts as Administration Commissioner and Surveillance Commissioner of Andong Province.

In this way, if any discord should arise between Yan Jin and Murong Xinzhang, Cao Yanlu — the Empress's full elder brother and Murong Xinzhang's own maternal uncle — could mediate between them, or even decide certain matters on his own to protect Murong Xinzhang.

Of course, the probability of such a thing happening should be infinitely close to zero; Zhang Zhao was merely making preparations against the one-in-ten-thousand chance.

As for Yan Jin's original pile of posts in Hedong, they had become basically unnecessary because of the establishment of the twelve steppe myriarchies.

But Zhang Zhao, again for the sake of safety, still transferred Fu Yanqing from the post of Governor of Hebei Province to Hedong, to carry out some basic defense.

The governorship of Hebei Province was then taken up by Zhe Congyuan. After resting for several months, An Shenqi was dispatched by Zhang Zhao to Shuofang.

On the fifth day of the third month, the great Hedong general Guo Jin, in the capacity of Deputy Protector-General of Anbei and Commissioner for the Pacification of the Various Prefectures of the Eastern Sea, led five thousand infantry and cavalry to Liaoyang Prefecture.

His main purpose in coming to the northeast was, given that Yan Jin had to hold Liaoyang in order to support Murong Xinzhang's main army, to shoulder the work of establishing the Anbei Protectorate.

The five thousand men led by Guo Jin would be dispersed and garrisoned at Longquan Prefecture (modern Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang), Yueliji (modern Yilan in Heilongjiang), and other places.

On the one hand, they would suppress the resistance of the local Balhae people, while at the same time doing their utmost to win over the Jurchen and other tribes in the mountain forests, so that once Murong Xinzhang's main army advanced smoothly, fresh cannon fodder could be continuously delivered over.

If Murong Xinzhang's campaign went badly, Guo Jin could also return to Liaoyang Prefecture to hold it, and bring his troops back with him.

Then Yan Jin could lead these ten thousand-plus elite infantry and cavalry into Goryeo as well, to assist Murong Xinzhang's campaign.

On the eighth day of the third month, the Zhang Emperor's fourth adopted son Zhe Deyuan arrived at Liaoyang Prefecture, leading twenty-three thousand steppe light cavalry conscripted from the five myriarchies of the Zubu, Shiwei, Merkit, Menggu Chazhala, and Wugu Dilie, along with two thousand heavy-armored infantry.

With this, Murong Xinzhang's Goryeo punitive expedition army was fully assembled, and the Good Elder Son held a grand troop-departure ceremony at Liaoyang Prefecture.

Zhang Zhao also sent palace officials and officials from the Ministry of Rites to deliver to Murong Xinzhang the battle-axe of authority and the great banner, symbols of the power over life and death.

Afterward the great army set out, and after twenty days of joint training at Huanzhou, it would begin the southern campaign.

Huanzhou, which in later times is Ji'an in Jilin — do not think that in later times this is some nameless little city, for in the entire history of the northeast, this was a major town of resounding fame, the capital of the renowned Goguryeo.

In later times, the shameless bandit Li Wanzhi of the South Korean Ancient Arts Association bribed shameless scum among the Chinese — such as Cui Zhen, director of the Ji'an Korean Culture Center — and stole the murals from the Goguryeo ancient tombs at Ji'an.

And these murals later became the "evidence" for the South Korean claim that everything originated from them — whatever it was, it was on their ancestors' murals.

Ancestors his ass — those were more like the people who beat their ancestors black and blue.

So at this moment, when Murong Xinzhang's entire army was assembled at Huanzhou, there was a strange sort of black humor to it.

Asige panted heavily as he swung the mace in his hands on the great drill ground outside Huanzhou. Although it was just the same two or three moves over and over, this was a mace of seven or eight jin, and one had to swing it a hundred times in one go to pass. Even for a stout man like him, it felt somewhat exhausting.

But Asige still did not dare give up, because this was not training — it was selection. Only those chosen could serve as the first batch of armored soldiers to go into battle.

The benefits of being in this first batch to go into battle were of course many: great piles of gold and silver, beautiful women, fat livestock — all would be enjoyed by them first.

As for the problem of dying in battle, Asige did not give it much thought at all.

Because if he died in battle, then he would go to the Pure Land to serve the Supreme Heaven!

Anyway, being a warrior in the human world, dying early in battle and going to the Pure Land to become a golden-armored god of the Supreme Heaven with endless fine food and fine wine — was that not better? One step to the final destination, so to speak.

Murong Yanchao looked with satisfaction at these brawny steppe men, his head nodding again and again.

These fellows were not only physically powerful, but most of them had a look that mixed a thuggish face with simple honesty — a fierce yet foolish air — the classic shock-troop berserker.

For elite heavy-armored infantry like this, what you wanted was exactly that combination of simple-mindedness and ferocity. The clever ones were actually less useful, because they were not so easily stirred up, and probably did not really believe in the Pure Land.

"Pick out all those with shrewd faces. This old man has no use for clever people here — send them all to that fellow Xiang Xun."

Murong Yanchao was a man of long standing, and moreover he not only bore the surname Murong but had also saved the life of Murong Xinzhang's maternal grandfather Cao Yuanzhong, and had known the Good Elder Son as far back as the Shi Jingtang period. Therefore, after arriving at the Liaoyang Commandery Prince's Overlord Manor, he was still quite favored and trusted.

Originally Murong Yanchao had hung around with Zhao Siwan and the others, with whom he got along even better, but ever since Murong Yanchao discovered that Zhao Siwan and his lot really did eat people, he immediately decided to keep his distance from them.

As for eating people — well, for yabing guards, that was no big deal at all.

But that was only when there was truly no other choice. Who the hell, after capturing prisoners, would immediately cut them open on the spot, take out the gall bladder, and steep it in wine to drink? Even a brute like him, Yan Kunlun, had been startled by Zhao Siwan and his lot.

Asige was quickly selected by Murong Yanchao, because he was not only brawny and had good stamina, but also had exactly that fierce-yet-foolish look.

He bore an extreme resemblance to a later actor called Sang Ping — the fat man "King Kong" eating instant noodles in the trio with Xiao Shenyang in Detective Chinatown.

Just ask yourself: if a stout man with this kind of face and build charged at you wearing three layers of heavy armor and wielding a mace, would you panic or not? Never mind fighting — the fright alone could make an ordinary person piss himself.

Asige clutched an iron lamellar armor coat and a close-fitting ring-mail hauberk, his face nearly splitting with laughter. Before this, their two thousand steppe heavy-armored soldiers had been a title and nothing more.

Because what they supplied was their bodies; the armor and maces were equipped by the court. If the steppe could really produce several thousand heavy-armored infantry at any time, how could Zhang Zhou have subdued them so quickly?

The steppe braves selected together with Asige were likewise overjoyed. Now they could fully believe that the coming battle was one they were certain to win.

In their eyes, once they put on this lamellar armor and ring-mail hauberk and took up a seven- or eight-jin mace, one man could easily kill a bear. With such terrifying martial power, going to fight a few *** — was that not a matter of reaching out and taking it?

Under the Buddha Son Great King, with ten thousand such bear-tigers clad in two layers of heavy armor, they were already invincible.

At the Huanzhou government office, Murong Xinzhang was beating the war drums to assemble his generals.

Among them, his trusted great general Wang Jing led the main force of the Liaoyang Commandery Prince's Manor — ten thousand infantry and cavalry of the main imperial guard armies of the Andong and Pingdong garrisons.

Of these, heavy-armored infantry and crossbowmen made up the great majority, and under his command were such commander-level talents as Xiang Xun, as well as fierce generals like Zhang Jianxiong and Wang Tingyi.

The Good Elder Son himself had nine thousand men of the Zhaoyi Guard, with silver saddles and white robes, led by his personal generals Chen Sirang and Li Hanqiong commanding the left and right wing divisions, and his clansman Murong Xinzhen commanding the inner wing division — three thousand men in each division.

In addition, six thousand light-armored lancers and unarmored horse archers, selected from the various Tuyuhun and Tangut Qiang tribes, were commanded by Yuan Yanchao and Helian Hai—

—long respectively.

The Good Elder Son himself held three thousand men of his personal guard.

Among them was a force of one thousand elite cavalry: two hundred fully armored cataphracts, five hundred heavy-armored shock cavalry, and three hundred light-armored lancers.

This had been rebuilt around a core of three hundred elite men from the Wind-Fire Raider Battalion of the Right Yulin Guard, which had originally been under his command.

The remaining two thousand were elite heavy-armored infantry of the Xiaoguo Guard, selected from Andong Han Chinese, Hengshan mountain runners, Khitan sharpshooters, Shiwei, and Jurchen jungle fighters.

Finally, there was a four-thousand-man Beggar's Life Brigade, a cannon-fodder army made up of bandit soldiers from the Wuning military province of Xuzhou, mountain bandits and river pirates rounded up from across the realm, desperate wandering swordsmen, and hardened criminals of many years.

Their equipment was ordinary, but they made up for it with rich experience and came with their own terror buff.

Murong Xinzhang mixed them with Gao Song's two thousand fierce Bohai soldiers, appointing Gao Song as Commander and Zhao Siwan as Deputy Commander.

These men could be considered Murong Xinzhang's own foundation — thirty-four thousand horse and foot in all, a force of considerable strength.

In addition, with Zhang Zhao's approval, his sworn brother Zhe Deyuan brought him twenty-one thousand highly elite unarmored steppe horse archers and two thousand elite heavy-armored soldiers made up of sturdy steppe men.

Zhao Kuangyin and Chen Hui could also bring at least twenty thousand naval troops and officers from the sea, plus twenty or thirty thousand sailors.

One should not assume that because they are called naval troops they are useless on land — in fact, the methods of naval warfare are also the methods of land warfare, and at the critical moment they can be used as an army on land as well.

Thus, although this looked like Murong Xinzhang attacking Goguryeo southward from Andong alone, in reality Zhang Zhao had equipped him with seventy-seven thousand soldiers and officers, all of them highly elite.

If one counted the tens of thousands of conscripted laborers from the various peoples, calling it a three-hundred-thousand-strong army would not be an exaggeration at all.

This also proved from another angle that Zhang Zhao's statement — that Murong Xinzhang's southern campaign against Goryeo must be centered on killing — was entirely clear-headed.

Without killing a hundred or two hundred thousand people, the mouths following Murong Xinzhang south on campaign would not be easy to feed.

With the muster of officers complete, Murong Xinzhang quickly made his dispositions before the map.

At this time, entering Goryeo from Liaodong, there were three routes one could take: one was the Da Ning River on the left, one was the Qingchuan River on the right, both originating in the Changbai Mountains and their ranges, and the remaining one was along the seacoast.

Of these, the Da Ning River and the Qingchuan River formed on the map a rough intersection shaped like the character for "govern," and the point of intersection was the first barrier north of the Wang clan's Goryeo capital of Pyongyang — Anbei Prefecture.

The Wang clan's Anbei Prefecture was roughly in the area of later Korea's Gaecheon.

And in fact, these two routes into Korea remained in use all the way into later ages.

During the War to Resist America and Aid Korea, among the American forces struck hard by our volunteer army in the Battle of the Qingchuan River, the U. S. Ninth Corps had advanced toward our border from the direction of the Da Ning River, while the South Korean Second Corps had moved up roughly along the Qingchuan River.

"My intention is this: I ask Lord Wang to lead the imperial guards of the Andong and Pingdong military provinces, and I will supplement you with five thousand Menggu Chazhala and a portion of the Wugu and Dielie two-tumen light cavalry to screen your flanks, advancing down from the Qingchuan River.

Fourth Brother will lead eight thousand light cavalry of the Zubu, Wugu, and Dielie tribes, plus three thousand Beggar's Life Brigade infantry, from Bao Prefecture (Sinuiju) straight along the coastline toward Guizhou and Xuanzhou.

After taking these two prefectures, gather supplies on the spot, repair the ports south of Xuanzhou, and wait for the arrival of Zhao Kuangyin and Chen Hui's naval forces.

I myself will lead the remaining main force down from the Da Ning River, and together with Lord Wang attack Anbei Prefecture from east and west.

Before the twelfth of the fourth month we will take this city, make a show of besieging the Western Capital of Goryeo (Pyongyang), lure the Goryeo main force north to break the siege, and fight a battle of besieging a point to strike the relief force!"

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