Han Shizu

Chapter 2170: Emperor Shizong Chapter 46: Conquering the Northern Desert
In the early autumn of the eleventh year of Jianlong's reign, when the results of the Xingguo War had not yet been reported to the capital, the emperor personally visited Yuehua Palace to visit his sick mother, Xiao Chuo. Empress Dowager Xiao had been cultivating herself and her character for many years, and had seldom been involved in worldly affairs, so she had always maintained a good health.

However, he could not resist the erosion of time. After all, he was over 70 years old and his health had not been good in the past few years. No matter how good the medicine was, it was of little use, which made Liu Wenzhi deeply worried.

Empress Dowager Xiao was not only Liu Wenji's mother, but also the greatest contributor to his ascension to the throne and the most important strategist behind him for decades. It can be said that Empress Dowager Xiao made Liu Wenji what he is today, and it is also conceivable how much Liu Wenji felt for Empress Dowager Xiao.

During the visit, Liu Wenji apologized to Empress Xiao for the "fall of the Khitan nation" that year, but he still underestimated his old mother. Empress Xiao did not say anything about the Khitan affairs, not because she expressed her dissatisfaction through silence, but because she was not convenient to speak.

Feeling Liu Wenji's inner complexities, Empress Xiao still maintained her attitude for decades, her body and mind had already entered China, and there was no Khitan anymore. Liu Wenji also consulted her about the affairs of Mobei. Empress Xiao, who was old and wise, still had a clear understanding and a clear opinion. The Naiman Jin Kingdom should be eliminated as soon as possible, and the grasslands and deserts should be divided and ruled.

Soon after a brief but profound conversation with his old mother, Liu Wenji made up his mind to march north to the desert and destroy the Jin Dynasty. Moreover, in the autumn of the eleventh year, when the weather was high and the horses were fat, and the Jin soldiers most often raided the south, the court sent troops, officially began to face and resolve the threat from the northern desert, and also kicked off the Han Empire's full-scale counterattack against the Naiman Jin Dynasty.

Of course, this was based on the premise that the Yunnan-Guizhou Rebellion was coming to an end and the overall situation in the southwest was stabilizing. Otherwise, given Liu Wenzhi's steadiness and caution in military affairs, he might not have been so anxious.

Throughout Liu Wenji's reign, although he had always faced various pressures from both inside and outside the government, he was always clear-headed about his actions. He was extremely eager to give his rule a sacred and gorgeous cloak, but this never included military adventures.

Whether it was the Yunnan-Guizhou rebellion or the trouble in the northern desert, the main purpose of resorting to military strikes was still the safety and rule of the empire. Even though he was patient and prudent, when he launched the northern expedition, some people could not help but find faults, gossip, and insinuate, accusing the court of war and aggression.

The idle talk in the Taihe Tower could be ignored, as the atmosphere of political discussion there was always open, and there was always support for opposition. What really upset Liu Wenji was the opinions of some officials in the court, or the civil officials he relied on.

For example, Liu Yun, the Grand Secretary of Jixian Hall and the Minister of Rites, wrote a letter to the emperor to dissuade him from marching north, saying that the southwest was not settled yet and it was not appropriate to march north. He also pointed out a series of unfavorable factors for the march and hoped that the emperor would stop fighting and cultivate culture to calm the people's hearts.
Liu Wenji was extremely angry about Liu Yun's suggestion. After receiving the memorial, he summoned Liu Yun to the emperor's presence, severely criticized and refuted it, and then demoted him to the southern desert as the academician, asking him to personally ask the soldiers and civilians in the border areas in the northern frontier where war was raging, whether the world was at peace and people's hearts were settled.
Liu Yun was a Jinshi in the Yongxi Dynasty. He was once called "Yang Liu" together with the Grand Secretary Yang Yi. Although he was not as talented as Yang Yi, he became a giant in the imperial literary world and a leader of the literati over the decades with his solid foundation, simple style, and standard morals.

Liu Jun had served as the Secretary of the Secretariat, the Imperial Edicts Director, and the Imperial Examinations Director. He also served as a professor at the University of Political Science and Law for many years. It was there that he formed a master-disciple relationship with Bao Zheng, who was also admitted to the university. He was Bao Zheng's life mentor and guide in his official career.

The fundamental reason why Liu Wenji was angry with Liu Yun or other officials who held similar views was that he was treated as a double standard, which was particularly annoying and tore his heart apart. You know, the reason why he held back in the ninth year of Jianlong was because he was concerned about the southwest.

Now, the overall situation in the southwest is under control, and they are about to make contributions to the north to pacify the people. Liu Yun and other officials use such remarks to dissuade or even criticize them, which makes Liu Wenji very suspicious of their intentions. It even makes Liu Wenji reflect that he is "too good" to these civil officials, otherwise he would not allow them to be so presumptuous.

When he was indignant, Liu Wenji wanted to cite the many major expeditions during the reign of Emperor Taizu as examples. In comparison, his Jianlong era was more than just restrained, but he still couldn't avoid generalizing and quoting out of context.

However, Liu Wenji deeply understood one thing in his heart: after all, he was not Emperor Taizu.
Strictly speaking, the northern expedition carried out by the Han Empire in the autumn of the eleventh year of Jianlong can only be called "the Han Army Going Out of the Frontier". Both in terms of goal and scale, it was just a prelude to the court's large-scale northern expedition to destroy the Jin Dynasty. But after the real mobilization, it headed for a decisive battle.

For the imperial army that has enjoyed peace for many years, even if the border troops have maintained good military equipment and training all year round, it still takes a process to shift from maintaining public order to a real war track.

Therefore, the scale of the Han army's troops in this autumn expedition was not large, and they only advanced in two routes. One route was led by Xiao Hui, the main general, who led more than 25,000 troops of the imperial guards and border cavalry from the south of the desert and attacked the north of the desert. Their target was directly the Diqu River basin in the heartland of the Jin Kingdom, where there were cities such as Talan and Hedong that were inherited from the Khitan. It was the core of the central part of the Mobei grassland and a key thoroughfare connecting the east and the west, maintaining the Jin Kingdom's unstable rule over the Mobei.

Xiao Hui, a great general of Khitan origin, finally unsheathed the sword that Liu Wenji had sharpened for twenty years and used it in the affairs of Mobei. At the same time, it was the first time in nearly sixty years that the Han cavalry crossed the desert again and went on an expedition to the remote area.

Of course, judging from the geographical environment and the background of the times alone, Mobei was no longer a remote area for the Han army, at least not as unfamiliar as it was in the past. At the same time, Xiao Hui's army was not only fully armed with cavalry and highly equipped with mules and horses, but also had a large number of grassland tribes as servants and guides.

In the years after the fall of the Khitan Kingdom, the imperial court did not do nothing and simply sit back and watch the expansion of the Jin Kingdom and the fighting with Rao Le. At least in the area south of the desert, the Shanyang Daosi made relatively proper resettlement and restraint of the former Khitan nationals who moved south, and reorganized the scattered Khitan soldiers in accordance with the military orders of the Privy Council. They had a more detailed understanding, organization, and familiarity with the geography and climate of south of the desert and the Jin Kingdom and soldiers. All of this was done for the purpose of mobilizing troops.

Xiao Hui's army that went south of the desert was still just a small army. The real big move of the court was in the front line of the "Han-Jin" confrontation, in the Raole and Yanbei areas. Dong Congyan, the commander of Yanbei, won Liu Wenji's trust and bold appointment for his performance in the Battle of Xingguo. He was directly appointed as the commander of the Mobei camp, commanding Yanbei, Raole, Andong and part of the Shanyang border troops, totaling 70,000 infantry and cavalry, to attack the Jin Kingdom in the north, with the goal of the Daze area (Hulun Lake).

Of course, Liu Wenji gave the title of commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition to Liu Xin, the Prince of Raole, as a consolation. However, the old prince had fallen ill after years of fighting with the Jin Kingdom and the siege of Xingguo. Therefore, Dong Congyan was the actual commander-in-chief of the Eastern Route Army.

The king's army was so powerful that the earth shook and the mountains trembled. The two armies of Mo Nan and Yan Bei added up to a hundred thousand troops. At this time, Liu Jin really felt what it was like to fight against a serious and powerful Central Empire. The victories over the past ten years had more or less brought him some illusions, even though he thought he was calm enough.
When the Han army marched north, Liu Jin was still stationed in Jing border town, leading his people to find food and recover in the swamp and surrounding grasslands. The defeat of Xingguo was a big setback for him, but it was not a serious blow. The serious casualties were among the vassal soldiers who had been conquered not long ago. He was the elite of Naiman's own tribe, so the casualties were not serious.

Therefore, while the Han Empire was mobilizing in the northern border, Liu Jin was also recuperating, gathering troops and generals, preparing to march south again in the autumn to regain his position. It happened that the Han army was marching north, which was exactly what Liu Jin wanted. The Han army was coming to him, so he could use the home advantage to annihilate it.

Faced with the surging imperial coalition forces, Liu Jin was not afraid. He used his usual tactics and sent out several cavalry units to the south in turn to harass and delay the Han army, intending to find an opportunity to fight among the "tired enemy."

Facts have proved that Dong Congyan's performance in the Battle of Xingguo was not a flash in the pan. He had already prepared for the Jin soldiers' tactics. He arranged the marching formations, the tasks of the troops, and emergency preparedness measures in an orderly manner. The Jin soldiers' tactic of tiring out the soldiers played a role, but not a big one.

Of course, the most crucial point lies in the full preparation of the Han army. The combination of infantry and cavalry is the traditional tactic of the Han army to deal with nomadic cavalry, and this tradition was once again used by Dong Congyan.

The Jin army had few soldiers, so they were coming to send them off; they had many soldiers, so they could resist them; if they came to attack, that was even more desirable. Therefore, by the end of September, after a hard journey, Dong Congyan's army finally succeeded in drinking water from the Great Lake and pointed to Jingbian City in the distance.

During this process, Liu Jin made many efforts, but he was unable to stop the Han army's advance, and it was difficult to find a truly favorable opportunity to fight. He could only watch the dark cloud of the Han army covering the Daze grassland step by step.

After entering the heart of the Daze, the Han army became much more active in their actions. They divided their troops into two groups. One group was led by Liu Shangyuan, the general of Andong State, who led 20,000 cavalrymen to patrol and hunt for the main force of the Jin army. Dong Congyan himself led the central army's infantry and cavalry and continued to advance towards Jingbian City.

In this situation, Liu Jin finally chose to withdraw from Jingbian City and handed it over. Liu Jin fought with Liu Shangyuan's army several times, but never achieved his goal. First, Liu Shangyuan was good at fighting and the Han cavalry was difficult to defeat. Second, he did not dare to invest all his strength for fear of being entangled by the Han cavalry and attracting the main force.

The two sides fought in a stalemate from autumn to winter. As winter came and the weather got colder, Liu Jin changed his tactics again. He abandoned the old and weak, abandoned the people in Daze, and let them escape from the disaster. He gathered 50,000 elite cavalry, prepared enough food and grass, hid himself, and cut off the Han army's food supply.

Liu Jin discovered that it was still very difficult to confront the Han army head-on. Even if he won, there would be heavy casualties. Therefore, he planned to borrow the power of "Changshengtian". He knew very well how terrible the cold winter in Mobei was. It would be extremely difficult for the 70,000 Han troops to survive.

Liu Jin's judgment was not wrong, because that winter, thousands of people froze to death or suffered frostbite in Jingbian City. However, before the Eastern Han Army set out, they carried sufficient military rations. Except for special auxiliary soldiers, each man and each horse carried three months of dry food. At the same time, in the early stages of the war, there was a steady supply of food and grass delivered to the front line from Yannan, Yanbei, and Raole. Although many of them were destroyed in the attack of the Jin soldiers, there were still a lot of supplies that successfully arrived at the front line.

From the moment the cold wave swept in, heavy snow fell, and the Jin soldiers avoided the attack, the various Han troops, under the command of Dong Congyan, carried out strict supply distribution, saved rations, and relied on Jingbian Town to survive the entire winter.

At the same time, the Han troops that went out on the expedition, whether in Saibei, Raole, or Andong, were not as bad at tolerant to the cold as Liu Jin had imagined, especially the troops in Yanbei, Raole, and Andong.

Even so, the Han army died in the thousands, and in the end, the army began to kill cattle, sheep and even horses. As the opponent, under the white snow, the Jin soldiers under the command of Liu Jin also suffered heavy casualties. The power of heaven and earth is fair to everyone, it just depends on who can endure longer.

Of course, the worst off in this confrontation were the local tribesmen, who were abandoned by Liu Jin. Before being abandoned, a large amount of food and livestock were confiscated. Their fate can be imagined. In order to fight, to defeat or even annihilate the Han army, Liu Jin took the most extreme and cruel strategy regardless of everything.
The people of Daze had no choice but to surrender to the Han army in Jingbian Town, hoping to get food and a chance to survive. However, the Han army could not even take care of themselves, so how could they care about the lives of these enemy troops?

Wars on the grasslands are always cruel, which is caused by the extremely harsh geographical and climatic conditions. In the spring of the twelfth year, when the temperature gradually warmed up and the ice and snow gradually melted, Liu Jin still did not wait for the opportunity he expected.

The Han army was well prepared, and although they suffered many casualties, they still persisted and actively and quickly sent troops to open up the food supply route. Under the escort of the Han cavalry, the logistics troops from the Han Empire continued to cross thousands of miles to transport food and fodder to Jingbian.

Faced with this situation, the main force of the Jin army led by Liu Jin was on the verge of collapse. In the end, the battle to resist the enemy turned into a battle for survival. After careful observation, they finally couldn't hold back and launched a surprise attack on a Han army logistics force of more than 5,000 people.

As expected, an accident happened. It was a bait set by Dong Congyan for Liu Jin. In a situation where the horses were thin and the hair was long, and the soldiers were exhausted and lacked food, the first major battle since the war broke out between Han and Jin, which was also a decisive battle.

However, the scale of the battle was much smaller than at the beginning of the war. The Han army was divided into the front and rear armies, with a total of more than 60,000 soldiers, while the Jin army was less than 40,000. As a result of the battle, the Han army won a complete victory, while the Jin army was defeated and almost wiped out.

In a state of near-desperate madness, many Jin soldiers were unwilling to flee, and either died in battle or surrendered. Perhaps the biggest surprise was that Liu Jin, the once-dominant hero, also fell, dying from a stray arrow shot by an unknown person or bow, neither heroic nor heroic.

As Liu Jin's head was sent to Luoyang by Pegasus, the trouble in Mobei also entered the final stage. This was a very unexpected result. Many imperial ministers could not understand why the Yunnan-Guizhou Rebellion lasted for three or four years, while the Naiman Jin Kingdom, which was obviously more powerful and difficult to deal with, was defeated by Dong Congyan in one battle.

Of course, the pacification of Mobei was not the result of the efforts of the Eastern Army alone. While the Han and Jin sides were fighting hard in the Daze area, Xiao Hui had already led the Han cavalry to sweep away the central and western parts of Mobei. If it were not for the weather, they would have advanced into the empty Naiman nest.

For the Han Empire, the biggest cost of this war was not the losses on the battlefield in Mobei, but the fact that the empire did not fully utilize its mobilization of the north, resulting in a large amount of non-war losses and waste.

At the same time, the defeat of the Jin army and the death of Liu Jin was only the beginning of the pacification of Mobei. The remaining chaos continued for more than three years, mainly because the descendants of Liu Jin and the remnants of the Naiman continued to cause trouble in Mobei.

However, in the 14th year of Jianlong, Xiao Hui led Zhong Shiheng, Di Qing and other generals to sweep across the western part of the desert, crush the Naiman tribes, and engrave the stone on the Jinshan Mountain. Only then did the vast area of ​​the northern part of the desert enter a long-term state of stability again.

Of course, the traces of the Naiman people in the northern desert were not completely eliminated. Some of them moved westward, some were annexed by the grassland ministers appointed by the imperial court, and some fled to the north and gradually merged with the Menggu Shiwei in the lower reaches of the Hanan River.

After the collapse of the Naiman Jin Dynasty, the Mobei region was devastated and in chaos. This time, the empire did not continue to allow any nomadic regime to run wild. Instead, it established a Mobei Protectorate that was directly under the jurisdiction of the court. It had three divisions under it: the military commander, the governor, and the tax department, which managed the local tribes in different regions.

The pacification of Mobei was one of the important signs that the Han Empire was reaching its peak under the rule of Liu Wenji. At the same time, this war, which affected almost the entire northern part of the empire, mainly made two people successful: Dong Congyan and Xiao Hui. Both of them entered the Privy Council for their special merits and became important figures in the imperial military arena in the middle and late period of Liu Wenji's rule.

　It was written in a hurry and completely deviated from the original idea.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)