After Ma Quanyi happily resigned, he went to Chai Rong with the emperor's edict and golden order to discuss the arrangements for the march to the east and the mobilization of troops and horses. Liu Chengyou, on the other hand, continued to stand in front of the huge map of the Han Dynasty, staring straight at it in trance.
Liu Chengyou had the habit of looking at maps, and he would be entranced once he stood. He could not take his eyes away for a long time. Although his expression was calm, intense thinking activities were going on in his brain. Although a map cannot attract the emperor's attention, the country, the country, the territory, the city, and the great achievements can.
Liu Chengyou's gaze started from Lingzhou in the west, passed through Yundai in the middle, and reached Youyan and Liaodong in the east. Since the launch of the Northern Expedition last year, the all-out struggle between Han and Liao had already reached a critical moment in half a year.
Of course, although the previous commotion was loud, the real fierce confrontation was still in the northeast of the territory, in the Youyan area. As for other places, Dahan's partial masters and affiliates are basically just soy sauce.
On the Lingzhou side, Zheng Guogong Shi Hongzhao led the Lingzhou and Dingbian troops and recruited some people from Hexi Province, gathered 10,000 troops, and attacked north. Of course, because the Khitan people were very weak in the Hexi area, Shi Hongzhao couldn't find any target even if he wanted to defeat the Liao army.
In the end, it became a military parade, traveling four hundred miles north along the Yellow River to the edge of the desert and the foothills of the Helan Mountains. Although they failed to defeat the Liao army, they forced a large number of tribes living in Hetao to subdue along the way, and set up a garrison at the local Yellow River port, named Hue Fort. If Shi Hongzhao had a thicker skin, there would be no problem in reporting his achievements in expanding the territory of two hundred miles and subduing dozens of tribes.
Later, because he could not find the target of the war, Shi Hongzhao fell ill, and because he was worried about the emptiness of Lingzhou due to the mobilization of troops, and because the Hexi Corridor was unstable, Shi Hongzhao chose to withdraw his troops back to Lingzhou and report the situation to the court.
Furthermore, the Dingnan Army and Yanzhou were ordered by the imperial court to send troops to attack the Liao Dynasty. The two parties joined forces and marched out from the north of Xiazhou. Both sides also gathered tens of thousands of people, of course, the majority were from Dangxiang. As for their army, if they want to attack the Liao Kingdom, they need to cross the desert in the north. This is obviously not something they can do and are willing to do. Sending troops is just a show of force, and both parties have their own plans.
Li Yiyin wanted to continue sending troops this time and rely on the name of the imperial court to continue to strengthen the status and prestige of his Li family among the Dangxiang clans. As for Gao Shaoji, who was extended, he had the idea of sending troops to get some benefits.
Sure enough, north of the Great Wall, Gao Shaoji broke away from the distress army and connived with his subordinates to plunder the party tribe. As the spokesperson of the Dangxiang tribe, Xiazhou Jiedu Li Yiyin could not tolerate Gao Shaoji's unscrupulous behavior. He immediately led troops to search and suppress those "Yanzhou bandit soldiers" to avenge the Dangxiang subordinates.
Faced with Li Yiyin's attack, Gao Shaoji also had a tough temper and immediately gathered his troops to fight. The two armies set up their positions for a battle at Mingtangchuan, north of Yinzhou. Because they had gained a lot from the previous plunder, the morale of the Yanzhou army was particularly high. In the first battle, under the leadership of Gao Shaoji, they actually defeated the Dingnan Army, which was twice the size of their own.
After the battle in Mingtangchuan, Li Yiyin was extremely angry. He immediately mobilized troops from Xia Yin and drafted warriors from the Hequ tribe, hoping to fight Gao Shaoji again and regain the lost face.
Seeing that he had completely angered the party members and that he was on his own territory, Gao Shaoji gave up decisively in the face of Li Yiyin's big move. He quickly led his men eastward, crossed the Yellow River, and entered Jinning Mansion on Hedong Road. He was about to make a circle and return to Yanzhou, but there was no other way. Xia Yin's way back south was cut off.
Gao Shaoji's move into Hedong was considered to have brought fire to the imperial court. Li Yiyin, who was so angry that he was not willing to give up, simply led his army and crossed the river to pursue him to Jinning Mansion. In this way, the matter was completely messed up.
However, the two foreign armies under the jurisdiction of Hedong Road did not dare to be too rampant. They did not fight, let alone plunder and invade the people. They only faced each other on the right side of Shicheng. Fu Yanqing, the king of Wei who was still commanding in Daizhou, heard about this and sent Li Wanchao of the Ninghua Army to lead the army to mediate. The two armies of Xia and Yan were subordinate to Fu Yanqing in the Northern Expedition and mainly cooperated with Yunshuo's direction. Combat.
At that time, although there was no major war in Yanbei, the border generals in Hedong were gearing up and preparing to fight and make meritorious deeds. To say that the victory of Yanmen had the best motivating effect on those Han troops, of course it had to be the surrounding border troops.
With a little resentment, Li Wanchao, the leader, felt Li Shi and invited two Jiedu to ask about the situation. The two people had different opinions and kept arguing. Li Yiyin said that Gao Shaoji was a young man who indulged his subordinates and robbed the tribe, while Gao Shaoji scolded Li Yiyin as an old man who was disrespectful and led the army in sneak attacks.
The two people quarreled fiercely, but Li Wanchao figured the matter out and made a decision directly, asking Gao Shaoji to return all the looted property and livestock to Li Yiyin, and then withdraw their troops from Hedong and return to their bases.
Gao Shaoji was immediately dissatisfied with this kind of arbitration. He had put in so much hard work, and his subordinates suffered hundreds of casualties while fighting the Dingnan Army. Without these goods, how could he stop the losses and appease the soldiers.
Similarly, Li Yiyin was not happy. He felt that this was too lenient and he favored Gao Shaoji. The losses of his troops and horses were greater than those of Yanzhou soldiers. In addition, the tribes who were attacked needed an explanation.
However, Li Wanchao was a general with a strong personality and a tough temper. He was thinking about the war against Liao, so he had no patience to listen to their nonsense.
In anger, he took out a dagger from his waist and slapped it on the case. The veteran general said sternly: I came to mediate on the military order of King Wei. If you insist on arguing and cause me to miss the military order, I will only treat him as a slave. for the enemy. Now, I have proposed a mediation strategy and a solution! I ask again, do you agree? If not, I will attack it first.
Li Wanchao's words were full of momentum, confidence and toughness. Seeing the veteran's strong style, Li Yiyin and Gao Shaoji were shocked. To be honest, in terms of superiority and inferiority, Li and Gao, the two remaining military governors of the Han Dynasty, are both higher than Li Wancao. However, at this time, facing the veteran, they did not dare to say anything too harsh.
Finally, he pinched his nose and agreed. Later, under Li Wanchao's supervision, Gao Shaoji returned all the stolen property. Of course, it was only on the surface, and Li Wanchao didn't care about the hidden details.
Then, they each withdrew their troops and crossed the river. Li Yiyin returned to Xiazhou to the west, and Gao Shaoji returned to Yanzhou to the southwest. Before leaving, Li Wanchao also warned the two of them to explain to the court for leading troops into Hedong without authorization.
Originally, when the imperial court mobilized the two Cheyenne armies, they had no hope that they would accomplish anything. They just wanted to find something for them to do, and they also provided some money and food for this purpose.
As a result, it developed into such a farce and ended on bad terms. Of course, the matter did not end so easily. The grudge between Xiazhou and Yanzhou had been building up since Gao Yunquan's time. This time it was just a small outbreak.
After returning to their respective bases, Li Yiyin and Gao Shaoji each went to court to accuse each other. This has been almost the political norm between the two forces for many years. But this time, it was obviously more serious than before. After all, the swordsmen met. As for Li Wanchao's results, both forces were dissatisfied, and the conflicts in the northwest region tended to intensify.
When the news reached Youzhou, Liu Chengyou seemed very calm. He only replied to Tokyo and asked the ministers to send envoys to mediate in the name of the imperial court and provide certain preferential treatment in the trade of salt, grain, tea and cloth to facilitate the resolution of the dispute. Its resentment.
In fact, due to the continuous confrontation between the two Cheyenne forces over the years, but no major conflict broke out, Liu Chengyou had doubts about whether the two families were pretending to be at odds to dispel the court's wariness. However, after this conflict, Liu Chengyou basically believed that the Li and Gao families were still hostile, and Gao Shaoji, the chess piece, could still play a containment role.
As for the turmoil and conflicts in the Hexi area that resulted from this, Liu Chengyou looked at it calmly. If there were no conflicts and everything was peaceful, where would the imperial court have an excuse to solve the problems in the northwest and Hexi in the future?
In addition to the armies of Lingzhou and Xiayan, and several other troops, King Wang Zhao of Goryeo agreed to the Han court's request to send troops to the Liao Kingdom, and also sent an army. This was actually quite unexpected.
After all, Wang Zhao was carrying out reforms on the peninsula, attacking powerful heroes and strengthening the royal power. Of course, what happened next is understandable. The troops he sent to fight against the Liao State rebelled collectively before leaving the country, and their commander and a group of generals appointed by Wang Zhao were killed. At the moment, Wang Zhao was busy putting down the rebellion, and even sent people across the sea to Youzhou to explain the situation to Liu Chengyou, hoping that he could support him with some money, food, ordnance. Liu Chengyou agreed.
After careful planning and detailed preparations, Guo Tingwei, the commander of the Jingjiang military capital who set out from Laizhou Bay, also successfully crossed the Bohai Sea, landed in Suzhou (Lvda area) in Liaodong, occupied the land, and successfully advanced northward. To Chenzhou (Gai County).
However, the complexity of the Liaodong region completely exceeded expectations. Chenzhou was very close to Tokyo of the Liao Kingdom. The Han army crossed the sea to attack. When they marched to Chenzhou, they attracted great attention and troops were quickly mobilized nearby to suppress it.
Moreover, most of the local people, except for the Han remnants, are Bohai people. These were the people Yelv Deguang moved out in large quantities in order to attack the Dongdan Kingdom and weaken the power of his brother Yelv Bei. Placed in the Liaodong area, Chenzhou was built accordingly.
Therefore, the arrival of the Han army was basically an invasion for the local people, and there was no common people base. Guo Tingwei persisted in the southern Liaoning area until December. After all, he could no longer bear to fight in winter. In addition, due to the lack of troops and supplies, he gradually retreated to Suzhou. Because the battle was not going well, he even took the initiative to apologize to Liu Chengyou.
Therefore, the cross-sea attack on Liao did not make much progress, but it provided valuable experience and a deeper understanding of the local situation and Liao defense.
