Zhang Yanlang and others also suggested that Li Congke collect strategic materials from the common people. Therefore, Li Congke issued an edict: All horses in the world, whether government or private, would be confiscated and used as war horses. Every seventh household must send out a soldier, who must provide his own armor and weapons, and is called a "rebel army."
In total, more than 2,000 horses and more than 5,000 militiamen were forced. This power was simply negligible, but it brought huge losses to the people's production and labor, and the people complained a lot.
When Zhao Yanshou brought 20,000 soldiers and horses, he joined forces with his godfather Zhao Dejun, and then handed over the military power of 20,000 soldiers and horses to Zhao Dejun. Zhao Dejun became more emboldened and had to annex Fan Yanguang, so he stopped playing with the bandits and intensified his extortion against Li Congke.
Li Congke missed many comeback opportunities. In fact, he still had a comeback opportunity, but the initiative was not in his hands and he was powerless, so he cannot be blamed. This opportunity is on the battlefield of Hedong.
In the planning stage of the war, Li Congke lost the highest dimensions of "plotting" and "communication", and only focused on the lower-level strategies of "conquering troops" and "siege the city." This kind of flaw in the top-level design will also affect the underlying infrastructure. For example, Zhang Jingda and Yang Guangyuan, who have high hopes for Li Congke, have flaws in their own tactics, and these flaws are impacted by the upstream. For a time, the sand and mud are falling, and the defeat is unstoppable.
Shi Jingtang and his generals worked together to withstand the fierce attacks of Zhang Jingda and Yang Guangyuan one after another, dragging the war into a stalemate.
Although Zhang Jingda and Yang Guangyuan failed to capture Taiyuan and did not encircle Taiyuan due to heavy rains and other objective reasons, they still had a significant impact on Taiyuan, causing Taiyuan to have insufficient food and grass supply. If there is no external intervention, given time, Shi Jingtang will inevitably fail due to the lack of food and grass, or he will fight to break out. The situation is still relatively favorable for Zhang Jingda and Yang Guangyuan.
However, Shi Jingtang is not fighting alone.
Due to the strategic mistakes of the Li Congke Group, Shi Jingtang colluded with the Khitan. As long as Shi Jingtang can delay the war until late autumn and until the Khitan reinforcements move south, he can basically declare victory.
He did it.
In September of the third year of Qingtai (936), when the autumn wind was blowing and the withered yellow leaves were flying all over the sky, Yelu Deguang personally led an army of 50,000, known to the outside world as 300,000. The flags were fluttering, covering the sky and the sun. It stretches for fifty miles and goes south in a mighty way.
On the only way for the Khitan army to go south, Zhang Lang, the governor of Daizhou, and Ding Shenqi, the governor of Xinzhou, closed the city gates tightly. The soldiers were fully armed and guarded the city, ready for a fierce battle.
However, the Khitan army had no intention of attacking the city. Instead, they passed by the city as if nothing had happened and continued south. The defenders of Daizhou and Xinzhou were confused. They all crowded on the city wall and paid attention to the passing Khitan army.
Soon, Yelv Deguang arrived at Hubeikou on the north bank of Fenshui, north of Taiyuan.
Due to the heavy rain, Zhang Jingda did not complete the physical isolation of Taiyuan City, so messengers could still quietly take small roads to contact the outside world.
As soon as Yelu Deguang arrived at Hubeikou, he sent someone to inform Shi Jingtang in the city: "I plan to break the siege today, what do you think?"
Shi Jingtang was shocked and hurriedly sent people to stop them. He said that the besieging troops were strong and must not underestimate the enemy. Your army had come from afar and the veterans were tired. It would be best to rest first and wait until tomorrow to attack again.
Pay attention to the wording. It was said earlier that Yelv Deguang did not discuss with Shi Jingtang, but "notified".
Before Shi Jingtang's envoy rushed to Hubeikou, Yelu Deguang had already led his troops to confront the Later Tang cavalry generals Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing.
Shi Jingtang quickly sent Liu Zhiyuan to lead an army to attack, and cooperated with the Khitan army to attack Zhang Jingda.
Zhang Jingda, Yang Guangyuan, and An Shenqi led the infantry to form a formation along the mountain and were ready. However, they saw that the vanguard sent by the Khitan were three thousand light cavalry. They were all very thin and did not even have armor. They attacked the Hou Tang position rashly and recklessly.
The result can be imagined. The army of the Later Tang Dynasty fought back and the Khitan vanguard troops were defeated. The morale of the Later Tang Dynasty was greatly boosted, and they rushed to catch up. They caught up to Fenqu in one breath. Here, Fenshui had a bend. The Khitan light cavalry fled through the water, and were later pursued by Tang soldiers along the river bank.
Usually, canyons, river bends, dense forests, etc. are good places for ambush battles. For example, Fenqu is a "ji"-shaped curve, surrounded by the Fen River on three sides. As long as the infantry is brought in, it becomes the point in the word "fan", and then the lower mouth is sealed, and the heavy cavalry rushes in to kill a few people. If they go back and forth, the infantry will either fall into the river and drown, or be trampled to death by iron hoofs.
The army of the Later Tang Dynasty only focused on competing for credit, ignored this basic military law, and dived into the ambush of the Khitans. The Khitan cavalry rushed out decisively and cut off the Later Tang army. The infantry who entered the "Ji" river bend were almost wiped out by the Khitan. Only the cavalry behind them who did not enter the ambush circle managed to escape.
The cavalry troops who escaped with their lives retreated to Jin'an Village to rest and recuperate.
The Khitan did not give them a chance to breathe at all, and were not in a hurry to pick up the Fenqu spoils. Instead, they took advantage of the victory to pursue and kill the infantry troops of the Later Tang Dynasty.
Zhang Jingda gathered the remaining defeated generals and defended Jin'an Village. It was not cost-effective to continue the attack. At this time, the Khitan people stopped the attack and retreated to Hubeikou to rest. Shi Jingtang also won the victory and captured more than a thousand Central Army troops. He adopted Liu Zhiyuan's suggestion and massacred them all.
This is Zhang Jingda and Yang Guangyuan's "lure the enemy deep", let the Khitans in, and give themselves a hard beating.
After the Khitans arrived at the battlefield, they made first contact and helped Shi Jingtang lift the siege of Taiyuan, severely damaging the main force of the Central Army of the Later Tang Dynasty.
That night, Shi Jingtang personally went out of the north gate of Taiyuan and came to Hubeikou to meet Yelu Deguang.
Yelu Deguang held Shi Jingtang's hand tightly, expressing regret that it was too late to meet him.
Shi Jingtang looked at Yelv Deguang with great admiration and couldn't help but ask: "You came all the way, you were short of men and horses, and you launched a decisive battle with the army of the Later Tang Dynasty in a hurry, but you were able to defeat it in one fell swoop. What's the reason?"
Yelu Deguang said proudly: "To be honest, when I set out, I thought that the Central Army of the Later Tang Dynasty would definitely control all the checkpoints around Yanmen Pass and set up heavy ambushes in dangerous places. If that were the case, I wouldn't be so quick. Appeared here. Guess what? Hey - all the levels were not defended by any soldiers. We Khitans were just like at home, marching straight in without any hindrance. So I knew that the commander of Later Tang Dynasty was a Stupid. Moreover, our army is coming at a strong momentum, but the morale of the Tang army is declining, so we should seize the opportunity to launch an attack, and should not follow the dogma of 'relax and wait for work'."
The two held hands and laughed. Shi Jingtang admired Yelu Deguang even more.
