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The first year of Guangming, May.

The four Northern Expeditionary Armies have been out of the customs for half a year, among which Zeng Yuanyu led 50,000 troops out of Andong Province, and finally entered the Beijing Xiande Mansion in Bohai State. Zhou Dewei led 50,000 troops, left Liaodong Province, and entered the Fuyu Mansion of Bohai State. The Bohai Imperial Court also withdrew into Zhongjing Prefecture, and mobilized troops and horses to be stationed in the two prefectures to cooperate with the Qin army and prepare for a decisive battle with the Khitan coalition army.

Among the soldiers and horses on the two routes, Zeng Yuanyu's army in Zhongjing Mansion bore the brunt of the attack and met the main force of the coalition army that went south after capturing Longquan Mansion in Shangjing. Zeng Yuanyu took Xianzhou as his base camp, divided his troops into Chongshan in Chongzhou at the junction of Shangjing and Zhongjing, and stationed his troops along the Kuhan River to guard the south bank of the Kuhan Sea.

The Zhou Dewei army was stationed in Buyeo Fu in the northwest of Bohai State, with its base camp in Fuyu City, Fuzhou, and its forward was stationed and fortified from northwest to southeast along the sluan water.

The Qin Army's two Northern Expeditionary Armies, one east and one west, were fortified along the rivers along the Shumoshui and Kuhan rivers, and formed a ya-shaped triangle with the logistics camp located in Xijingfu, the source of the Yalu water. In addition, the Qin army's naval commanders, Megan and Zhu Li, each led a combined fleet, and after the thaw in the Liaohai Sea, they set out from Pyongyang to resupply at the town of Jang Yingying Chinghae in the south of Silla, and then bypassed the Samhan Peninsula and arrived on the eastern coast of the Balhae Kingdom, landing in Nanjing and Tokyo Province in the Bohai Sea, and supporting the operation by sea.

For many feudal towns in the Central Plains, this was just a battle in the land outside the Guan.

But for Li Jing and the soldiers of the Qin Domain, this was a battle that was very important to the Qin Domain and had a great impact.

Strategically, this will be a big battle that will determine the hegemony of the Northeast and the pattern of the next 30 years. From the scale. The Khitan, Murowei, and Heishui jointly dispatched 200,000 Hu cavalry. And the Bohai State also mobilized all the remaining 200,000 horse infantrymen. Li Jing also mobilized a total of five armies to participate in the battle. Zeng Wuyu's army was 50,000, Zhou Dewei's army was 50,000, Guo Chongtao's army was 50,000, Lin Wei's army was 150,000, and Julie and Megan's combined fleet was 50,000. The Qin army's five-way army was 350,000, plus 200,000 in the Bohai Kingdom, and the total strength reached 550,000.

The combined forces of Bohai and Qin were 550,000, and the combined forces of Khitan, Murowei, and Heishui were 200,000 horsemen, a super battle that brought together nearly 800,000 horses. If it is regarded as a Khitan soldier and horse on the Huangshui grassland. The battle could be on the scale of a million.

This is also the battle in which the Qin army has invested the most at one time and has the widest combat area so far. With an army of 350,000, the regular army has reached 30 armies, a full 150,000 horses.

In this battle, the most pressure is Zeng Yuanyu.

This late bloomer, who has been in an idle position for half his life, and has not been reused, has been performing extraordinarily since he joined Li Jing. It can be said that Zeng Yuanyu's experience. It is somewhat similar to Li Jing, the god of war in the late Sui and early Tang dynasties. Although he has a lot of ideas in his chest, he has never had the opportunity to prove himself at the beginning.

Maxima also has to be Bole.

Li Jing is Zeng Yuanyu's Bole, and Li Jing has always been giving Zeng Yuanyu a chance. Zeng Yuanyu's performance did not disappoint Li Jing, and he led the way many times. But now, as the most critical point in the entire campaign, Zeng Yuanyu must use his 10,000 cavalry, 20,000 cavalry, plus 20,000 auxiliary troops, and 100,000 Bohai erosion soldiers to block the 100,000 main cavalry troops of the Khitan coalition army in Xiande Mansion.

In the strategic planning of the entire campaign, Zeng Yuanyu was the eye of the overall situation, and he was the only one who supported the offensive of the coalition forces, blocked the footsteps of the coalition forces, and dragged their main force to Zhongjing Mansion. Then the other legions have a chance. In particular, to create opportunities for Guo Chongtao's legion.

If Zeng Yuanyu can't hold on, then the entire strategic defense line of the dripping water, sweat, Yalu water, and east coast may be comprehensively broken through point to point, and then not only the Bohai State will fall, but also the rear of Liaodong, which the Qin Domain has spent countless efforts to manage, may also be completely destroyed.

Zeng Yuanyu, who entered Zhongjing, met with the King of Bohai for the first time, and forcefully forced the King of Bohai to hand over the command of the Bohai Navy in Zhongjing to him for unified command. Immediately afterwards, Zeng Yuanyu divided the 150,000 Qin army and the Bohai Allied Army in Zhongjing into three classes: war, auxiliary, and reserve, and most of the Bohai army was classified as an auxiliary army, and more were incorporated into the reserve army. Then a war army, with two auxiliary armies and three reserve armies, was remixed. Then, Zeng Yuanyu didn't plan to stay in Zhongjing City and passively wait for the coalition forces to attack.

Instead, it is active defense, strategic defense, and there will be counterattacks in defense.

Along the Khuhan River from Zhongjing to Shangjing, Zeng Yuanyu leaned on the mountains along the river, set up a village, and arranged a number of armies to defend in echelons.

Chongshan, Baishan, and Dongmu Mountain, each with heavy troops, his strategy is not to easily let the Khitan coalition army easily kill all the way to the city of Xianzhou. Instead, it is necessary to rely on the favorable geographical advantages of the mountains and rivers to block the attack, and use space and time to let Hu Qi bleed continuously, gather less into more, and finally effectively hit them. When the offensive and defensive battle of Zhongjing Mansion was launched later, the enemy army lost two to three percent of its soldiers and horses.

In addition, Zeng Yuanyu also formulated a plan for clearing the wilderness.

From the border between Kamikyo and Chukyo, all the people in the prefectures and counties along the way had to move to Chukyo and further west to the south. In addition, all grain and forage livestock must be taken away, and not a grain of grain or forage must be left for the Khitan coalition army. Even the houses had to be burned down and the wells had to be blocked.

Zeng Yuanyu even ordered very ruthlessly that the water from the mountain villages and rivers in the withdrawn prefectures, counties, mountains, villages and other places would be put into the rivers, and the sick and dead livestock would be put into the rivers, taking the initiative to create diseases and plagues, making it difficult for the Khitan coalition army.

It is best to have difficulties, there are no difficulties, and creating difficulties cannot make it easy for the Khitans.

At the same time, when he was actively defending, he did not forget to send dozens of special combat teams to go deep into Longquan Mansion in Shangjing, which had been occupied by the Khitan coalition army, and led Bin Mansion, Anbian Mansion, Anyuan Mansion, Huaiyuan Mansion, Dongping Mansion, Tieli Mansion and other enemy lines to sabotage behind enemy lines. Assassinate their generals, burn down their granaries, attack his logistics units, poison water sources, instigate rebellion, spread rumors, and so on. Even Zeng Yuanyu sent several missions to Silla, Dongying, Heishui, Murowei and other places to persuade Silla and Dongying to send troops to support the Qin army in battle, or to raise grain and grass for the Qin army, and most importantly, he also wanted to obtain permission to purchase grain and grass in the two countries. And for Heishui and Murowei, it is promised all kinds of benefits. Persuade them to withdraw from the army.

Zeng Yuanyu even sent an embassy to the Khitan commander. It was proposed that as long as the Khitan coalition army ceased to fight. Then the Qin army will also retreat immediately. Even the Qin soldiers were willing to persuade the Bohai royal family to accept the area under the actual control of the two sides as the new border, and the Qin army and Bohai were willing to no longer demand the return of the areas currently occupied by the Khitan coalition forces.

Originally, when Li Jing handed over the most important burden of the entire campaign to Zeng Yuanyu this time, there were still some objections within the Qin Domain. But when Zeng Yuanyu passed these arrangements back to Yanjing, no matter who they were, they were very satisfied with Zeng Yuanyu's plan.

This plan can be described as a drop of water!

Judging from this plan, Zeng Yuanyu definitely deserves Li Jing's trust.

"Zeng Shuai, this is a delaying tactic? Or is there a plan for arrogance? "More than 100,000 troops of the Qin Domain and the Bohai Sea Alliance are already actively preparing for war. The grain and grass in the rear were also continuously transported to the front through the Liaohai Sea and Yalu water, and the war was about to break out. At this time, Zeng Yuanyu sent an envoy to meet the Khitan commander and offered to be willing to stop the war, obviously deliberately showing weakness and delaying time, so that the Khitan commander would have the heart of underestimating the enemy, and at the same time win more time to prepare for the Qin Domain's Bohai Alliance.

After all, the side is defending, and the other side is attacking. The longer the time drags on, the more beneficial it will be to the Qin army's side.

"Definitely." Li Jing smiled.

Since ancient times. If the soldiers are strong, there will be no end. What to talk about fair trade. If the Qin army claimed at this time that the Khitan coalition army would have to step on the three divisions if they did not immediately surrender and retreat, it is estimated that Hu Man would still be a little worried. But now the Qin army is unusual, and softly proposes to suspend the army. Even the Qin army didn't even make the slightest move to counterattack the Bohai Sea, but just blindly appeared to strengthen the city defense with Fuyu and prepared to defend it to the death. In such a situation, the performance of the Qin army can only be seen by them as weakness, or the Qin army is unable or does not want to contribute too much to the affairs of the Bohai State.

It is not surprising that Hu Man has this kind of thinking, which is very much in line with the thinking of this era.

After all, although the Bohai State was an ally of the Qin Domain, it was only an ally after all. Although the destruction of the Bohai Sea is worried about the death of the lips and the cold teeth, if you can keep half of the Bohai Sea and do not need the Qin army to fight for it, then in most cases, you will choose to do so.

But this is different from Li Jing's thinking concept, because although Li Jing is an ally of Bohai and the son-in-law of the king of Bohai, as early as the invasion of Blackwater, he already planned to kill people with a knife and drive away tigers and wolves. Li Jing's battle plan was not to protect the Bohai Kingdom, but to annex the Bohai Kingdom. If it was just to protect the Bohai Kingdom, Li Jing would naturally not work so hard. But if Li Jing wants to use this to annex the Bohai Kingdom, this battle must be fought.

It is precisely because of this that the Khitan coalition army has not found Li Jing's true bottom line again and again, so they have made misjudgments one by one!

"If this battle can be won, we can take the opportunity to annex the Bohai Kingdom in one fell swoop." Li Jing said domineeringly, "After this battle, there is no need for the Bohai Kingdom to exist anymore, and after this battle, the Bohai Kingdom will inevitably be extremely weak, and we just let the army stationed in the Bohai Sea directly take over the states and counties of the Bohai Kingdom." However, for the sake of success, we can consider abdicating the King of Bohai for the time being, and then let the current Prince of Bohai succeed to the throne, which is controlled by us. In this way, when the time is ripe for a few more years, we can completely incorporate the Bohai Kingdom into our Qin Domain. ”

Although Li Jing is still Bohai's son-in-law, this is not the time to be emotional.

Jing Xiang, the envoy of the General Staff, said: "I am not too worried about the situation in the Northeast, let alone the follow-up situation in the Bohai Sea. I'm more worried about another thing, now that the situation in Huangchao has taken a sharp turn and the momentum of the imperial court has resurged, the Son of Heaven seems to be a little uneasy with the status quo. This time, he suddenly gave knighthoods to the civil and military generals of the Qin Domain, and they were all highly rewarded, which was not a good sign. I thought that this was not only the Son of Heaven who wanted to win the hearts of the soldiers of the Qin Domain, but he was Xiang Zhuang dancing the sword, which was intended for Pei Gong, and he was completely aimed at His Royal Highness. For this reason, what can His Highness do? ”

Although in the edict of the Son of Heaven this time, Jing Xiang, Li Jing's dog-headed military advisor, was directly awarded the title of Feng Yijun Wang, and the post of the left servant of the school was added. However, Jing Xiang knew very well who he was on the side with, and he didn't have the slightest affection for the emperor.

"He is the son of heaven of the Tang Dynasty, the guest of the king, not the king's minister. He wants to give a reward for his favor, and how can I object? Li Jing said, this is indeed a troublesome matter, but this can only be regarded as the Yang conspiracy of the Son of Heaven, and Li Jing can only stand and pick up, not hide.

Over the years, Li Jing has been very good to Li Yi.

At the beginning, Li Jing was in a low position and needed the protection and support of the Son of Heaven, so it can be said that he was wholeheartedly currying favor with him, offering countless money and food every year, and never disobeyed the will of the Son of Heaven's edict. Later, the momentum gradually strengthened, and Li Jing gradually had the ability to say no, and he did not completely turn his face with the Son of Heaven. It is Li Jing's habitual attitude that makes the Son of Heaven jealous of Li Jing, but he is not afraid much.

"In that case, it's better to think differently." Jing Xiang pondered for a long time.

"What do you mean?" Li Jing looked directly at him and asked knowingly.

"Set up another son of heaven, or the king will directly Yanjing ascend to the foundation of the country and claim the emperor!" Jing Xiang's tone was solemn, and he slowly spit out that sentence with a solemn expression! (To be continued......)