(Thank you for your monthly ticket support and rewards every day, Lai Pu, Qi Zhen, Decadent Fog, Mengmengmeng, Mengmengmeng, Hongyan Thin Life Hero Tears, and Dreams in the World, thank you very much!) ）

On the fifth day of the first month of the fifth year of the Tang Dynasty, Lu Long stopped, the snow fell, and the cold wind was like a knife.

A large army marched quietly on the muddy road, the flying snowflakes and the cold rain fell, wrapped in the heavy footsteps of the soldiers, the hooves of horses, the sound of wheels, the sky was overcast as if dusk was falling, dull but solemn!

In one of the chariots in the army, Li Jing frowned tightly and said nothing, his face was gloomy and terrifying.

In this expedition to Liaoxi, Li Jing was firm in his determination, and it can be said that he fought in a city. An army of 100,000 people, who has been preparing for a long time, plus a lot of people's grain and grass, as well as almost all the elites of the military under his command. Strategists Li Zhen, Li Liang, Gai Yu, Jing Xiang, Li Meng, Li Chun, Li Rang, Cui Zhiyuan, Du Zhongwu, Guo Chengan, Xiao Dingbang, Han Anguo, etc. It also mobilized military generals Lin Wei, Lin Wu, Wang Chong, Li Juyi, Zhou Dewei, Guo Shunli and other generals of the Guo family in Yanzhou, Guo Zhenshan and Guo Zhenhai and other Guo brothers, Zhao Li and other Chen Zhou Guo generals. In addition, there are eleven generals among Li Jing's twelve disciples. In addition, there are Liu Shouqian, Zhang Chengshou, Pei You, etc.

plus more than a dozen eunuchs such as Zhang Chengye and Zhang Wanrong, who supervised the army.

The Zhenguo Army and the Lu Army, almost all the elite Li Jing were mobilized.

In last year's Battle of Liaodong, Li Jing defeated Goguryeo and the Balhae Kingdom. Forced Bohai to withdraw from the war in Liaodong with land reparations, Goguryeo also suffered heavy losses, and retreated to Liaodong, Xincheng, Gaizhou, Baiyan and other cities.

The Khitans were in turmoil, and the Khan of Hinde was fighting with the Yelu family of the Dierabu who held the military power of the Khitan.

At this time, it is the best time to recover Liaoxi. Otherwise. Wait until the Dirabu has cleaned up the Khan of Hind. Regain control of the 20th Army. Liaoxi and Liaodong will have long nights and dreams. Li Jing's decision was approved by the generals, before Wang Jingwu made a rebellion, Gao Yu provoked, and the Zhenguo army also fought back strongly. Even because of this, he controlled half of Ziqing Town in one fell swoop.

Although Gao Biao gave the Zhenguo army a lot of trouble, in the end, due to Li Jing's tough insistence, and after following the advice of Gai Yu's divided southeast generals, he first reached an agreement with Zhou Bao, the Zhenjun army, and finally broke up Gao Biao's alliance. forced Gao Biao to finally have to bow to Li Jing. Please ask the Lanling Xiao clan to come forward and ask for reconciliation.

In this confrontation, the Zhenguo Army completely gained the upper hand, slapped Gao Yu with a loud slap, and won a beautiful victory.

However, the victory with Gao Biao does not make Li Jing happy now.

Li Juyi led the crane cavalry out of Shanhaiguan and marched along the Xuanshui to western Liao. The operation did not go smoothly at the beginning, in the upper reaches of Xuanshui in the northeast of Shanhaiguan, 10,000 Khitan soldiers and horses were stationed here on the mountain, blocking the way of the crane control army. The two armies fought more than ten battles in the valley under the mountain. The extremely elite crane control army was actually blocked by the Khitan cavalry, which was only twice as large as them.

After receiving Li Juyi's report, Li Jing immediately sent Liu Xun to lead 5,000 Xuan Feng troops to reinforcements.

But three days later. Liu Xun sent someone to send back an urgent report, but after Liu Xun arrived, he failed to defeat the Khitans. At the same time that the Zhenguo army supported Liu Xun, the Khitan Diera Department contacted the Xi people and dispatched the Xi cavalry to reinforce the line from White Wolf Water to Xuanshui, completely blocking the road of the Zhenguo army into western Liaoning. The Xi people and the Khitan cavalry were fierce, and the land of western Liaoxi had long been occupied by the Khitan, and they had the advantage of local warfare. Between the mountains and the river valleys, the 5,000 crane cavalry and the 5,000 Xuanfeng army joined forces to fight, but it was difficult to advance before the 20,000 Khitan and Xi coalition forces.

Faced with the enemy's geographical advantage, Li Jing decided to give up the refueling tactic. Dushan guards the Xuanshui River Valley, the terrain is narrow, and the large army cannot be deployed at all, and the Zhenguo Army will send troops forward, and it will be difficult to gain the upper hand after losing the advantage of the first terrain.

Continue to advance towards Dushan according to the original plan, and the final result is just an offensive and defensive battle between the two sides around Dushan. For Li Jing, this is not an outcome he wants to see.

Since ancient times, there have been three famous passages from Youzhou.

Hiraoka Road, Lulong Road, and Wuji Road.

Among them, Pinggang Road starts from Huairou Miyun, goes out of Gubeikou Pass, goes to Luanping, crosses the Luanhe River to Pingde, then goes east to Pingquan, and goes north to Pinggang, the source of the Laoha River. Because this road has to enter the mountain pass from Gubeikou, and Gubeikou is not in Pingzhou, the Zhenguo army did not plan to take this road at the beginning.

Lulongdao and Wuzhongdao are both in Pingzhou, which is controlled by the Zhenguo Army.

Lulong Road, is from Lulongsai out of the pass, along the Lushui to the north through the Yanshan Mountains to reach Pingquan, to the north is Pinggang, in Pinggang to the north is the Laoha River, into the Khitan territory. To the east, it is to enter Lingyuan, which is the midpoint of the route without an end road. Here, to the south is Xuanshui, which can go down the valley south to the Shanhaiguan, and Dushan is in the middle. And to the northeast is the White Wolf Water, along the White Wolf Water to the northeast, is the White Wolf Mountain, two hundred miles away is the central Yingzhou Liucheng of western Liaoning.

The previous offensive route of the western camp was to go out of the Shanhaiguan, go east along the Xuanshui, cross the Du Mountain, and then enter the White Wolf River Valley, and take this most important passage into Liao since the Warring States period to Yingzhou Liucheng. However, now, the Khitans' control of Liaoxi exceeded Li Jing's expectations, and they did not retreat to defend Liucheng, but directly led their troops to meet Dushan not far from Shanhaiguan.

In history, when Wu Zetian was a Khitan anti-Tang dynasty, the Khitans defeated the Tang army in Dushan and annihilated the entire Tang cavalry army. Now, the Khitans clearly want to repeat the glorious victory of the past.

Now the passage into western Liaoning is blocked, and the soldiers and horses of the Zhenguo Army on the west road are blocked to the west of the White Wolf Water, which is an extremely bad situation. If the western army of the Zhenguo Army cannot enter western Liaoning according to the plan, then the soldiers and horses of the east road of Anshi in the east will have to face the Khitan soldiers and horses alone.

Now that the Liaohai Sea has been frozen, many generals proposed to temporarily stop using troops and let the eastern battalion return to Anshi and Jian'an. After the Zhenguo army took Dushan, it would send troops again.

However, Li Jing directly rejected this proposal, and in the current situation, even if the Zhenguo Army takes Dushan, there is a more dangerous White Wolf Mountain behind. The marching route of the Zhenguo army has been completely exposed, and then the army will be drawn according to the original plan. Undoubtedly, it is very disadvantageous. The exposure of the plan will lose its secrecy and suddenness. And the Khitan soldiers controlled the narrow terrain of the passage of the White Wolf Water Valley. It will also make it more difficult for the Zhenguo army to march.

An important reason why Li Jing was ready to give up the original plan was that the Khitans pulled the Xi people into the chariot. For a long time, although Xi is an independent large tribe, it is from the same source as the Khitan. For many years, it has been under the control of the Khitan, advancing and retreating with them. Whether it was the anti-Turkic people, or the anti-Goguryeo people, or even the anti-Tang Dynasty. The Khitan is all coerced by Xi Tong to advance and retreat. Now, the Diera Department tied Xi to the chariot and faced the Zhenguo army together.

This is by no means good news, so that the Khitans will have enough troops and horses to fight the Zhenguo army in addition to dealing with the Khan of Hind.

At this time, Li Jing proposed a new plan.

Sent troops out of Lulongsai, but did not take Lulong Road directly, but went north along Luanshui to the most difficult 500-mile river valley road. Then they arrived in Chengde, which was later in life. Here is also into the big rear of the taunting people. The Xi people have responded to the order of the Khitan Diera Department to participate in Liaoxi. There must be Xi people guarding the front line of Xuanshui, but if it is Hiraoka Road in the rear, they will definitely be empty in defense.

Take this dangerous path. Go around to the rear of the Xi people, after arriving at Pinggang, directly into the Laoha River, that is, the water of Tuo Chen, and go down the river, you will go directly to the Xi Wang's tooth tent in the location of Ningcheng in the later Shishi, and copy the nest of the Xi people.

It's a risky move, because it's a very difficult road. In particular, it is very difficult to travel along the road of 500 miles north of Luanhe River from Lulongsai. Especially at this time, it is a cold winter season, which is even more difficult. Only after crossing these 500 miles to Chengde, the road will be smoother when you get on the Pinggang Road.

Li Jing believes that although this new plan is a bit more difficult and dangerous, it is for this reason that he abandoned this route of sending troops in the first place. However, compared to the current situation, Li Jing believes that it is worth it. If you follow this path, you can avoid the precautions of the Xi and Khitans, enter the Xi King's tooth tent in one fell swoop, and even directly kill this ally of the Khitans. Then Kexin was directly inserted into the back of the Khitan people in the capital mountain and went straight to the White Wolf Mountain. After taking the White Wolf Mountain, he will be able to carry out a perfect counter-encirclement of the Khitans in Dushan.

Gather the main force of Jiandan in Dushan, and then directly seize Liucheng in Yingzhou and recover Liaoxi.

It's just that many people are worried about this proposal, because the 500 miles of the Luanhe River are too difficult and dangerous. Such a difficult road means that logistics and supplies are difficult. In that long strip, there may not even be people. After the army enters, once the food is cut off, the consequences are unpredictable. In particular, after Li Jing proposed that he would personally lead the troops, the generals were even more opposed.

Finally, Li Jing put forward a supplementary plan, that is, to send an elite army out of Luanshui, but not too many. 5,000 or 10,000 people at most, and they traveled north lightly to carry out this roundabout plan.

At the same time, Li Jing pointed out a new channel.

That is to send another large army out of Shanhaiguan and take the western Liaoning corridor.

Liaoxi Corridor, which is a road that was still submerged in the sea during the Warring States period.

Until the Tang and Song dynasties, this passage bordering Liaodong Bay in the east, Songling Mountain in the west, and southwest to northeast, about 400 miles long and 30 miles wide, was opened up.

From the Qin and Han dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties, the main route from the Central Plains to the Northeast was to go out of Yuguan and then follow the Daling River Valley through Jianchang and Chaoyang to the east, and cross the Yiwulu Mountain to Liaoyang, an important town in the northeast. The coastal Liaoxi Corridor has not been opened, why?

The coastal hills of western Liaoning are undulating, the rock mass is widely distributed, the population is sparse, although there are grass and hairy roads, it is still in a state of desert occlusion, there is neither an important town nor a fortress, and it is a place where ethnic minorities live, nomadic herding is the mainstay, the residents are scattered, there is no long-term local government, the local officials are just the national leaders who submit to the Central Plains court, and the court and the people do not have the requirements to open up the corridor in western Liaoning. The banks of the Daling River are densely populated, and Liucheng is an important town in Liaoxi County of the Western Han Dynasty.

Thus, although a more convenient road could have been built along the coast, there has never been a road yet.

Li Jing's meaning is that the western camp will build a road leading to the mouth of the Liao River directly from the coast of Shanhaiguan.

The main force of the Western Route Army repaired the Liaoxi Corridor, and then an elite division of the Zhenguo Army secretly went out of the Luanhe Valley, directly killed King Xi's tooth tent, and inserted it behind Dushan! (To be continued......)