If the emperor's second son does not participate in this northern expedition, then the emperor's eldest son will be appointed to take over the throne. She and Duan Jin served as assistants to the Empress Dowager respectively. It can be said that Huang Qiong also made sufficient preparations before leaving Beijing to go north. At this time, because it involved the future of Da Qi and the lives of hundreds of thousands of troops in the Northern Expedition, Huang Qiong could be said to not believe anyone except Situ Huanshuang. It's not that Huang Qiong doesn't trust Duan Jin, He Yao and others. It was because of this Northern Expedition that Da Qi sent out all its elite troops.
If there is any instability in the rear, it will not only affect the life and death of hundreds of thousands of troops, but also the safety of the world. Although Duan Jin, He Yao, Lin Hanyan, etc. are reliable, their characters are also trustworthy. But after all, they are all mothers of the prince, and once a woman becomes a mother, no matter how selfless she is, she will be unable to control her selfishness. The matter of his successor was related to the future of Daqi, so he had to be cautious. Especially the eldest son of the emperor, when he was a bit cowardly, he had to make careful arrangements to ensure that certain things would not go wrong.
In fact, Huang Qiong originally wanted to keep Huang Ruifeng in Beijing to supervise the country. But considering several reasons, one is that Huang Ruifeng really wants to secure his position in the shortest time in the future, and must establish prestige in the military. Secondly, Huang Qiong didn't want his son to become the target of a group of attacks because he stood out too early. Once the prince takes charge of the country, he will not be able to truly take over the throne in the future. I am afraid that in the eyes of many people, he can already be regarded as a candidate for the crown prince. Once they are slightly unsteady, they will either be attacked by a group and eventually dismounted.
Either they come into contact with power too early, become blinded by something because they are superior, and do something irreversible. Huang Qiong, who did not want to be his default heir, finally fell in front of him. After much hesitation, he still followed his past practice, with the queen supervising the country and the emperor's eldest son assisting in government. This would not give anyone bad illusions, and He will not reveal his chosen heir prematurely. For the sake of his son, Huang Qiong took great pains not to repeat the mistake of deposing the crown prince.
Before leaving the capital, Huang Qiong returned Situ Huanshuang. He was left to listen closely to Xuexuan Xiaoxi. Moreover, for the few people who stayed to assist in the administration, it was made clear that during the period of their personal expedition, all imperial edicts would be deemed invalid if the queen did not affix this small seal. In order to ensure the smooth flow of government affairs during his absence from Beijing. Huang Qiong had good intentions in order to ensure that his successor would be able to successfully inherit the throne according to his planned order and ensure that the throne would not be in vain even if something unexpected happened to him.
Facing Da Qi's overwhelming force, everyone in Beiliao was somewhat surprised. Not only Da Qi, Huang Qiong was quite successful in concealing it before arriving at Yanshan Mansion. Although the Northern Liao Dynasty also dispatched a large number of detailed work to the border states. However, due to Daqi's strict seal, not much useful information was discovered. Even if the information is collected, it is difficult to pass it on. Especially this year, it is still the era of normal rotation of Daqi's border troops. What's more, since the founding of the country, although the dynasty has repeatedly fought against the Northern Liao Dynasty, it has mainly focused on defense.
It is true that there are no active attacks, but the number of times is very small, only a few times. Even when they penetrated into the hinterland of Beiliao several times, they were all passive counterattacks. This time Da Qi took the initiative to attack, which surprised everyone in Beiliao. Of course, Beiliao was not aware of Daqi's large-scale gathering of troops, which was absolutely impossible. However, according to past practice, the monarchs and ministers of the Northern Liao Dynasty still regarded the unprecedented gathering of troops by the Qi Dynasty as a precursor to the Qi Emperor's northern tour. Because in order to confuse the Northern Liao Dynasty, Huang Qiong issued an edict as early as the beginning of the year to patrol the northern border.
When Huang Qiong went north, he always did so with great fanfare. He was accompanied by hundreds of civil and military officials from the DPRK and China, as well as concubines, maids, and eunuchs. Although the queen did not accompany her, Duan Guifei in the palace led more than ten concubines and even some of the officials' family members to accompany her on the northward journey. Such actions also confused Beiliao to a certain extent. Nowadays, the Northern Liao Dynasty has become more sinicized, and everyone knows that the emperors of the Central Plains have always been obsessed with saving face. No matter how stupid a monarch is when he goes out to fight, he will never take his concubines with him, even if it is just for show.
When Emperor Qi visited the north, he brought with him so many concubines and princes over the age of sixteen that no one would think they were here to fight. There should be more people who come to cruise and have fun. The most critical thing is that since the First Emperor, no Han emperor has ever visited the battlefield in person. Although there are not a few emperors who lead the army on expeditions. But basically they all wander around the Central Plains, and no one goes deep into the desert grasslands. Even Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, who was a talented and strategist at that time, never personally led the army to fight since he ascended the throne.
What's more, the little emperor of the Southern Dynasties? Never mind that he personally led the army to quell the rebellion in Ningxia. But at this time and at that time, he was a prince back then. In order to fight for the throne, he had to bite the bullet even if he didn't want to. Now that he was an emperor, how could he risk his own power and lead a military expedition in person? As for things like conducting military expeditions in person, this has always been something a man in the desert would do. The cowardly Central Plains people will cherish their lives and feathers very much once they become emperor. Nor would he leave the comfort of the palace in the Central Plains.
It can be said that Huang Qiong's personal expedition was beyond the expectations of the entire Northern Liao Dynasty. In Huang Qiong's words to the generals when he went on an expedition, he, the emperor, even brought his wife and son and placed them in Yanshan Mansion this time. In this battle, the generals had no retreat, and he, the emperor, had no retreat. He will live and die together with the generals. He will not interfere with the specific command, but he will be a qualified slayer. If any of the generals retreated, he would kill that person and sacrifice the coward's head to the flag.
If he, the emperor, retreats, the generals can directly behead him, the emperor. Huang Qiong's words and actions put Duan Jin and his party in danger. Because behind the army is Yanshan Mansion where Duan Jin is located. If the front battle fails, Yanshan Mansion will be the first to bear the attack of Beiliao. But it was precisely this approach that made the morale of the entire army roar. Of course, Huang Qiong and Duan Jin had discussed this matter before. As a noble concubine, Duan Jin agreed to go to the front line to cooperate with Huang Qiong to confuse the Liao army.
But it also confused everyone in Bei Liao to a certain extent. Until the Qi armies broke through the Northern Liao defenses along the outer Great Wall. Huang Qiong's dragon flag appeared in the middle army, and the monarchs and ministers of Northern Liao woke up from a dream. However, the emperor of Northern Liao was not a good person. After the Qi army went out to the Great Wall in three groups, it also mobilized more than 100,000 cavalry and chariots to march in person. They marched at night and stationed in Zhongjing, preparing for a decisive battle with Qi in Zhongjing. In the middle, the Qi army captured Bei'an Prefecture and approached Dading Prefecture in Zhongjing. More than 100,000 troops from the Northern Liao Dynasty also completed their assembly in Zhongjing.
The Liao Emperor personally commanded the central army, flanked by King Yelu Longqing of Qin and Jin and Prince Consort Xiao Jixian, who commanded 20,000 cavalry. Compared with the Liao Emperor who personally commanded the army, Huang Qiong was also in charge of the main force of the middle route army. However, the commander-in-chief of the army was mainly composed of Cao Rui, commander of the Central Army. This time, Huang Qiong played more of a holding role. But the Liao Emperor, perhaps too confident in himself, personally commanded and mobilized the army to fight. On September 15th of the 16th year of Chongde, the two emperors of Qi and Liao personally took command, with a combined force of nearly 200,000 troops and horses.
In front of Mameng Mountain southwest of Zhongjing Prefecture, a battle that determined the rise and fall of the two great powers began. In order to prepare for this battle, Beiliao also mobilized their entire army. In addition to the 20,000 troops and horses left behind in Shangjing Road and the 30,000 troops and horses left behind in Tokyo Road to prepare for the Jurchens and Goryeo to take advantage of the situation, the country's elite Pishi Army and Gong Branch Army were all concentrated in Zhongjing Road. Because of the surplus of troops, there were a total of 50,000 troops and horses in front of the Qi army, of which only 20,000 were cavalry. They are all cavalry and have high mobility.
So when Emperor Liao came up, he commanded his elite troops to launch a fierce attack on the Qi army gathered at the foot of Mameng Mountain. And when he saw the yellow dragon flag rising high in the center of the Qi army in front of him, Emperor Qi was right in front of the center. Therefore, Liao Emperor Yelu Longxu wanted to completely defeat the opposing Qi army in one go, capture the opposing Qi emperor, and create the greatest achievement since the founding of the Northern Liao Dynasty. Without waiting for the follow-up troops and horses to arrive, the elite troops were sent out in three groups to attack the Qi army on the opposite side, launching extremely violent attacks in waves.
Trying to take advantage of the cavalry's advantage over the infantry to defeat the Qi infantry facing them in the shortest possible time. Facing the Liao army's uniform cavalry, they adopted a wave-shaped offensive posture and launched wave after wave of attacks. Cao Rui commanded 30,000 infantry troops, using cannons with different ranges and using camels to form a camel city as a fortification. With the cooperation of archers, he met the fierce attack of the Northern Liao cavalry with intensive artillery fire. The large number of Qi army's artillery was beyond Beiliao's expectation. His cavalrymen were hit by cannons, knocking them off their backs.
In this battle, although the Qi army was outnumbered and outnumbered. But because the Qi army not only used a large number of various artillery in this battle. Also used is the Fire Dragon Izuku, which is a rocket launcher. This is a lightweight firearm developed by Qi Jun when he was developing firearms. It is a lightweight car box containing thirty feather arrows tied with firearms. Once ignited, all thirty arrows can be fired in the shortest possible time. This war also became the first time in history that a large number of firearms were used in a field battle.
Moreover, the Qi army used a large number of five-pound cannons and twelve-pound cannons during the war, and the range of the artillery was different. To form an echelon of firepower coordination, solid bullets and shotguns are combined with each other. Coupled with a large number of fire dragons coming out of the water, a large number of rockets were launched in a short period of time, forming a firepower net on the Liao army's charge. Especially the twelve-pound cannon, Cao Rui concentrated more than forty on the front. Fire solid bullets from a distance, then fire shotguns when you get closer. The threat and lethality to the Liao army can be said to be quite huge.
After the Liao cavalry paid a huge price, they finally broke through the various artillery pieces and opened fire to intercept them as if they were desperate. They rushed in front of the Qi army's infantry, but were hit by shrapnel from the Qi army's five-pound cannon. Fallen down in pieces. In front of the cannon is a tree made of thick branches. There are also densely packed archers and spearmen who look like hedgehogs. Several of the cavalrymen who rushed over were either pricked into honeycombs by their spears or turned into hedgehogs by the rain of arrows. A defense that is simply impossible to break through.
What's more, during the puppet emperor's rebellion, the Pishi Army suffered heavy casualties when they went south. The newly added horses were not bombarded by artillery. Because of the huge sound of cannons, they were frightened and ran around, rushing in all directions. He threw the Liao cavalry on his back everywhere. Many Northern Liao cavalrymen were dragged to death because their horses were frightened and ran wildly. The Liao army themselves were light cavalry, wearing leather armor that was light but had relatively poor defensive capabilities. Facing the dense scattering shells coming at it, its defense power was almost nonexistent.
The Liao army's offensive lasted from morning to afternoon. The Qi army's front was full of frightened horses and Liao soldiers who died in the battle. The Liao army's three-pronged attack not only failed to make any progress, but also suffered heavy casualties. Even the rear team was almost thrown into chaos by the frightened horses in front of them. If the Liao general who oversaw the army had not immediately ordered the execution of the frightened horses, the Liao army's rear group might have been overrun by his own horses.
