To sum up, the Northeastern issue is still an ethnic issue, involving the large and small tribes scattered among the white mountains, black waters, and forest plateaus. To put it simply, as long as those tribal forces, large and small, are conquered, the vast Northeast will become a king.
From the perspective of short-term goals, there is only one target that the court has to deal with, Shi Wei. Among the many tribes in the Northeast, the Shiwei people are second to none in terms of vast territory and strong military strength. Of course, more importantly, from the beginning to the end, the Shiwei people have never expressed their intention to surrender to the court, and they have not even offered tribute. , if you don’t target it, who should you target?
Therefore, after Qin King Liu Xu went north with his mission, the focus of his work was how to dismantle and conquer the rebellious Shiwei people.
Liu Xu even listed a plan and timetable for the Northeast invasion to the court. The Shiwei people were undoubtedly ranked first, while the Jurchen, Yueliji, Penuli and other tribes in other areas were placed behind. From the perspective of Northeastern Civil and Military Affairs, other scattered and independent tribal forces are much easier to solve than the organized and political Shiwei people.
Under this tone, life for Shiwei people soon became difficult. Previously, although the imperial court was dissatisfied with the Shiwei people's disobedience, they did not take any substantive measures. Even supporting Wanyan Jurchen was just a casual thing and was not too serious.
However, when the huge empire standing in the east showed its fangs again, even if the people of Shiwei were barren in the distance and relied on barren mountains and rivers, they would still be unable to escape the blow.
After Qin King Liu Xu arrived in Liaoyang in the Mid-Autumn Festival of the 11th year of Kaibao, he quickly devoted himself to work. He came with a mission, and he did have the idea of making a contribution.
However, Liu Xu was not eager for quick success and expected to achieve success overnight. In the remaining months of the eleventh year of Kaibao, he spent all his time investigating and understanding the geographical environment, tribal forces and garrison conditions in the Northeast.
On this basis, the tribal chiefs who nominally submitted to the Han were recruited and promoted to promote the "kingdom" of the imperial court. It would be twelve years after entering Kaibao that we would really start planning to conquer the Northeast.
Even so, Liu Xu still did not rashly suggest that the Han army should end the battle personally and take the initiative to attack. The chess piece of Wanyan Jurchen has once again become the target of exploitation.
From the eleventh year to the thirteenth year of Kaibao, in less than three years, three conflicts broke out between the Shiwei people and the Wanyan Jurchens. Needless to mention the first time, Wanyan Bahai mobilized his tribe to go northward, pulled out the tiger's teeth, and successfully seized the Tieli area from the Shiwei people.
The second time was in the spring of the twelfth year of Kaibao. Unwilling to suffer a loss, the Shiwei people once again gathered nearly 20,000 people to march eastward and attack Tieli City again. This time, the Shiwei people were fully prepared. The resistance of the Wanyan Jurchens was very difficult. The battle lasted for more than a month and ended with the retreat of the Shiwei people.
This time, although the Shiwei people failed to advance eastward, the blow to Wanyan Jurchen was huge. In the fierce battle, not only the soldiers suffered heavy casualties, but also the Tieli area that Wanyan Bahai worked so hard to capture was devastated. Clean, almost white.
The Tieli people recruited and subdued by Wanyan Bahai were all plundered by the Shiwei people and moved westward, leaving Wanyan's tribe with an empty territory.
Without people, without livestock, just land and rivers are of no value. After this second battle, the Wanyan tribe was left with only a lonely Tieli city in the Tieli area, and there were less than six people left. Thousands of people.
By this point, Wanyan Jurchen's people were already in turmoil. Under the heavy losses, many people had woken up from the excitement of occupying the Tieli area.
Including the old chief Wanyan Bahai, their hearts began to be filled with regret. The reason was that they underestimated the difficulty of the Shiwei people and overestimated their own strength.
On the chessboard in the entire Northeast, Wanyan Jurchen is just a chess piece at most. With her strength, she has inherent flaws in trying to complete the transformation from a chess piece to a chess player.
At the same time, the Wanyan Jurchens were also dissatisfied with the Han court, because they went north with the support of the court, but the support from the court was too half-hearted.
Of course, it was not that Wanyan Bahai, a shrewd old chief, could not see the idea of the imperial court taking advantage of them. He was just willing to take a gamble for the development and growth of the tribe, but the result was very disappointing.
If it is the territory, it has indeed more than doubled, but its strength has also been weakened by more than twice. From the beginning of the Han-Liao War, Wanyan Jurchen participated in it, intending to find opportunities to grow the tribe in the chaos and share the fruits of the collapse of Khitan rule in the Northeast.
In the process, he indeed grew a lot, raised the banner of his Wanyan tribe, and annexed many tribes. Even though he encountered setbacks during the attack on the Liao army in Huanglong Prefecture and had to return to his old nest, he still There are still quite a few gains.
The most correct choice among them is to join the Han Dynasty court at the earliest and use the name and power of the court to develop the tribe. However, judging from the development of Wanyan Jurchen in the next few years, it only proves the fact that cooperating with a big man is seeking skin from a tiger, and the result is even more disappointing if it is done secretly.
The originally promised Huanglong Mansion was unceremoniously occupied by the Han army. Instead, they were given the Tieli Mansion, and they had to occupy it themselves. They gritted their teeth and pinched their noses to admit it, and led the troops to attack, but ended up with nothing but chicken feathers on the ground.
After two battles with the Shiwei people, Wanyan's department suffered heavy losses and was damaged to the core. Therefore, after the second battle, Wanyan Bahai felt regret in his heart that even the water of the poor duck river would not be able to clear away.
However, the more this situation happened, the more Wanyan Bahai did not dare to betray the imperial court. He did not even dare to complain at all, and took the initiative to suppress internal discordant voices against the imperial court.
After all, they had already become mortal enemies with the Shiwei people. If they offended the Han Dynasty again, not to mention the hopelessly huge and powerful empire, the Han army stationed in Liaodong alone would not be able to compete with any ethnic force in the northeast.
However, Wanyan Bahai couldn't help but express his attitude to the court, and personally went south to Liaoyang to meet with the King of Qin Liu Xu, where he told him his grievances and difficulties, and asked for assistance, weapons, food, tools, and various tools. Plant supplies.
At the same time, it was directly shown that the Wanyan tribe was unable to support itself in Tieli City and had the idea of abandoning the city and crossing south to return to the Wanyan tribe. Regarding this, Liu Xu naturally expressed his sympathy in gentle words, and in order to comfort him, he still gave a lot of discounted assistance, which stabilized Wanyan's department, which was about to explode.
The third battle between Shiwei and Wanyan Jurchen took place in the autumn of the twelfth year of Kaibao. After half a year, Shiwei once again gathered his troops. This time, it was not just the Turübu, Niranagu and other Shiwei tribes in the south. Even the Royal Palace of Shiwei, located in the upper reaches of the river, sent troops south to assist in the battle.
The Shiwei tribe's coalition forces once again exceeded 30,000 people, most of whom were strong and strong. Compared with the first time, their momentum was greater. They almost came out in full force, determined to kill all the Jurchens entrenched in the Tieli area.
This time, facing the menacing Shiwei people, Wanyan Bahai was completely defeated. Even if he tried to hold on to such a situation, he couldn't hold on anymore.
While deploying and preparing for war, he also made plans to retreat to preserve his strength. At the same time, he sent people to report the news to the Han army. The meaning was obvious that he was quitting and the court should find a way on its own...
Regarding this situation, although Liu Xu was annoyed that Wanyan was disobedient and even threatened the court, he also knew in his heart that facing the Shiwei people who were going south with all their strength, Wanyan could not be a nail in the coffin.
Therefore, after discussing with Ma Renyu, it was decided that the big man could no longer sit back and watch the success or failure. Therefore, Liu Xu sent someone to inform Wanyan Bahai and gave him a stern instruction, telling him to hold on and saying that the imperial court would send reinforcements.
Liu Xu was not making perfunctory remarks this time. He really prepared reinforcements for Wanyan Department, but he still had a bottom line and did not directly use the Liaodong garrison. Instead, he personally came forward to recruit warriors from the surrounding tribes.
After nearly a year of liaison and appeasement, the name of the King of Qin and the court was still useful. Within half a month, tens of thousands of tribesmen from various tribes were recruited and simply armed. They were commanded by the Huanglong Mansion Military and Horse Command. Hou Renju led the troops to cross the Yahe River north to support Wanyan Jurchen and relieve her emergency first, lest Wanyan Ba Haizhen give up and flee south.
At the same time, Liu Xu began to mobilize combat supplies in Huanglong Mansion and continued to recruit soldiers, preparing to continue fighting against the Shiwei people. This time, it can be regarded as the first time that the imperial court was deeply involved in the war with the Shiwei people.
The nominal three battles between Shiwei and Jurchen were actually carried out under the control of the imperial court, but they still used cheap tribal troops.
The two sides combined for a war involving nearly 60,000 people. This was already a huge scale in the Northeast after the Han-Liao War. The war did not last long, and the coalition of soldiers formed by the Han Dynasty did not have the will and foundation to fight for a long time.
The battle also revolved around Tieli City, with one battle determining the outcome. The real confrontation took less than two hours and ended with the victory of the Shiwei people.
The coalition forces formed by the Han Dynasty were very fragile under the impact of the Shiwei people, collapsed completely, and suffered heavy casualties. As the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, Hou Renju was inevitably injured. If it were not for the protection of the five hundred Han cavalry accompanying the expedition, he might have been trapped in the formation.
Of course, the most tragic thing was that of Wanyan Jurchen. As her army was defeated, she fled back to the south bank of Yahe River in embarrassment. This means that Wanyan Bahai had made sufficient preparations for the retreat.
But even so, of the tens of thousands of tribesmen who crossed north, only about 2,000 people returned south alive, and they basically lost their money.
After this third Tieli Battle, the Shiwei people finally succeeded in reoccupying the Tieli area and achieved the basic goal of dividing the river with the Han army to rule.
In fact, the people of Shiwei are not brainless. Facing the powerful men, they have no intention of truly fighting to the end. Judging from the direction of front and rear expansion and the course of the battle, the people of Shiwei have never made any move to cross the river south, just because they are afraid of it. It touched the big man's bottom line.
As for the attack on Wanyan Jurchen, a loser who was ordered by the imperial court, he also had the idea of promoting peace through fighting. After the Third Tieli Battle, King Shiwei indeed sent an envoy south to contact the King of Qin Liu Xu, hoping to reach a reconciliation with the Han Dynasty and make a guarantee not to expand southward and to communicate with Qin King Liu Xu in the future. The imperial court drew a duck river to govern.
As for the proposal of the Shiwei people, the imperial court can only describe it as whimsical. In fact, after the third Tieli Battle, it was not far away from the Han army sending troops northward.
