The next day, Shi Jingtang joined forces with the Khitan and surrounded Jin'an Village together. They set up a warning area of more than 100 miles from east to west and more than 50 miles from north to south in the south of Jin'an Village. They set up layers of roadblocks and wire fences. , bells were hung on the barbed wire fence, and patrol soldiers led military dogs on patrol... Jin'an Village was completely surrounded.
At this time, Zhang Jingda and others still had more than 50,000 troops and more than 10,000 horses in Jin'an Village.
At the last moment when the siege was completed, Zhang Jingda sent someone to sneak out secretly, reported to the central government the defeat of Taiyuan City and the urgent military situation of being surrounded by counterattacks in Jin'an Village, and requested the central government to quickly send troops for support. This was Zhang Jingda's last contact with the central government. After that, Jin'an Village lost all contact with the outside world until Zhang Jingda died heroically for his country.
After receiving this important information, Li Congke mobilized his troops and sent multiple reinforcements, including Fan Yanguang and Zhao Dejun. As mentioned above, in terms of military affairs, Li Congke's tactical thinking is still very clear. While supporting Jin'an Village, he will block the Khitan's retreat.
After seeing Li Congke's actions, Yelu Deguang also made corresponding adjustments and moved his headquarters southward to prepare for the battle. And when the Khitan army passed through Shihuiguan (an important pass south of Taiyuan), they still couldn't see a single soldier of the Later Tang Dynasty.
Because according to Li Congke's dispatch, the reinforcements of the Later Tang Dynasty were mainly divided into three groups:
Pan Huan, the defense envoy of Yaozhou, was responsible for gathering various armies in the west to support Jin'an Village from west to east from today's northern Shaanxi;
Wei Bo Jiedu envoy Fan Yanguang set out from Weizhou, crossed the Taihang Mountains from east to west, and supported Jin'an Village from the east;
Youzhou Jiedushi Zhao Dejun was responsible for cutting off the Khitan army's retreat from Youzhou to the west.
Fu Yanrao was also sent to lead the imperial army to Heyang to build Luoyang's first line of defense on the Yellow River. He was then sent to Luzhou as a mobile force to support Jin'an Village, with his confidant Liu Yanlang as the supervisor.
However, this forbidden army relied on Feng Xiang's support and was arrogant and uncontrollable. It did not listen to Fu Yanrao's orders at all. Fu Yanrao was also afraid of provoking a mutiny and did not dare to act according to military law. He always made concessions. One can imagine the fighting will and combat effectiveness of this army.
Zhao Dejun not only did not cut off the Khitan's retreat, but instead went south to annex the friendly forces, so that Fan Yanguang did not dare to leave the station without authorization. It can be said that Zhao Dejun single-handedly helped the Khitan hold back two-thirds of the reinforcements of the Later Tang Dynasty.
What about the remaining third?
Liu Jingyan, a native of Yanzhou (now Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province), once served as the governor of Fangzhou (now Huangling County, Shaanxi Province). He had certain social connections and wealth. He had a bold personality and liked to make friends with heroes from all walks of life. In short, he was a black and white man. The big brother who takes the lead in Daotongchi, you are Brother Yan in society.
At that time, Yang Hanzhang, the governor of Yanzhou Zhangwu Army, was ordered to recruit horses and "rebels" to support the war in Hedong. Liu Jingyan took the opportunity to incite people's dissatisfaction, launched a mutiny while Yang Hanzhang was inspecting the troops, and killed him. Later, he supported Liu Jingyan as a post of Zhangwu Army and went to the court. Li Congke could only agree.
Liu Jingyan's Yanzhou Mutiny was very representative, so Pan Huan, who was in charge of the reinforcements on the west route, did not put the troops into the battlefield on time and in sufficient quantities.
This is why the Khitans could not see reinforcements from the Later Tang Dynasty outside Shihuiguan.
In fact, it was only at this moment that the Hedong War truly entered the stalemate stage. This stalemate is reflected in the "big trap and small circle":
The small circle is Jin'an Village. Zhang Jingda and Yang Guangyuan are surrounded by Jin'an Village. They are weak in attacking but more than capable of defending. With 50,000 people and 10,000 horses, their combat effectiveness cannot be underestimated;
The large circle covers the entire Hedong area. The Khitan and Shi Jingtang coalition forces were deployed on the Hedong battlefield with Taiyuan as the center. Zhao Dejun and Fan Yanguang led the army to watch from the periphery.
In fact, while Zhao Dejun was watching, the Khitan people were also watching. Even though they had provided strong military assistance to Shi Jingtang, the Khitan people were still ready for the "Saigon Iron Fist".
Although Yelu Deguang advanced the forward position to the south of Taiyuan, his baggage and the elderly and the weak were all left at Hubeikou, north of Taiyuan, and he repeated one thing every day, that is, whenever the sun turned westward, the entire army was in an emergency Packing their bags and packages, they immediately set up camp and retreated without hesitation once reinforcements from the Later Tang Dynasty attacked.
More than just "preparation." When Pan Huan appeared in Xizhou to the west with reinforcements from the west route, the Khitan army there immediately chose to retreat; and after seeing Zhao Dejun's army passing through the Taihang Mountains, the Khitan army's defense line also shrank back.
Even Shi Jingtang himself admitted that he and the Khitan "had no good relationship at all" and their previous relationship had always been cold. Why should the Khitans sacrifice their lives for Shi Jingtang?
Interestingly, it was Youzhou Zhao Dejun who really maintained a long-term friendly relationship with the Khitan people. In the records of "History of Liao", Zhao Dejun paid tribute to Khitan with seasonal fruits many times, and Yelv Deguang also recorded that "the imperial edict was given to Zhao Dejun".
This echoes the previous point. Envoys from Shi Jingtang and Zhao Dejun both arrived in Khitan and requested assistance from Khitan.
Based on the analysis of various historical materials and logical reasoning, Shi Jingtang finally proposed the "Three Major Articles of Treason" to make the Khitan canonize him as the Lord of the Central Plains. This was not finalized at the beginning by Zhao Ying and Sang Weihan, but through It was finally finalized after relatively lengthy diplomatic negotiations and a period of mutual testing (or even tripartite testing) of bargaining. During this negotiation period, there was a strange stalemate.
The Khitans did not completely reject Zhao Dejun, nor did they treat Shi Jingtang sincerely. The Khitans were still hesitating between the Hedong project and the Youzhou project.
Zhao Dejun led the main force and was stationed only a hundred miles away from Jin'an Village. The Khitans were also ready to abandon Shi Jingtang at any time and withdraw their troops back north. However, Zhao Dejun refused to launch an attack.
This was Li Congke's opportunity on the battlefield in Hedong, but the initiative was in Zhao Dejun's hands.
We can make a bold assumption: Zhao Dejun advanced to the north, the Khitans returned north, Zhang Jingda and Zhao Dejun of Jin'an Village joined forces inside and outside, Shi Jingtang could not sing alone... Shi Jingtang was defeated and died, Zhao Dejun annexed Hedong, so far, all the land north of the Yellow River has been The control is in the hands of Zhao Dejun. The next step is for Zhao Dejun to either negotiate with Li Congke and divide the Yellow River to rule it, or negotiate with the Khitans, cross the Yellow River with the support of the Khitans, unify both sides of the Yellow River in one fell swoop, destroy Li Congke, overthrow the Later Tang Dynasty, and Zhao Dejun ascends the throne. Emperor, changed the country's name to "Zhao" or "Yan"...
This is why Zhao Dejun takes a wait-and-see attitude. It's just that he is more conservative and prudent than the above plan. His idea is not to fight with Shi Jingtang, but to preserve his strength and retain Shi Jingtang, allowing Shi Jingtang to continue to be the governor of Hedong. We will not interfere with the river, so that we can preserve With the strength of Youzhou, he was able to gain the support of Shi Jingtang, and then he crossed the river and went south, killed Li Congke, and then ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor. Moreover, before killing Li Congke, they must try their best to blackmail and squeeze out the last drop of Li Congke's oil.
It has to be said that Zhao Dejun was too gentle and conservative towards Shi Jingtang and the Khitan, but too rough and too radical towards Li Congke. He was really smart, and in the end he died because of his "smartness".
