Tibet

Xi Wanli, who was in the woods ten miles away, could see clearly. He waved his hand and said, "The Third Army will attack!"

A cavalry of 5,000 men came out of the woods silently. They walked in the low-lying areas. The undulating terrain blocked them. They appeared several miles behind the Japanese army and cut off the Japanese army's retreat to Shangjing.

Ten thousand Japanese cavalry rushed into the formation of heavy armored infantry like dense locusts. The tall and strong heavy armored infantry began to strangle them. They waved their Mo Dao and split the short cavalrymen in two.

Xu Zongran was even more powerful. He roared and swung the sharp Mo Dao. More than a dozen heads were chopped off.

Blood splashed everywhere in the formation, and the air was quickly filled with a pungent smell of blood.

The heavily armored Mo Dao Army was the pinnacle of the cold weapon era. With extremely sharp weapons, extremely powerful individuals, and a well-coordinated formation, the Japanese army had never encountered such a powerful army. They were like entering a huge meat grinder. Five heavily armored infantrymen formed a blade head, and a thousand blade heads twisted at the same time. Ten thousand cavalrymen did not even scream. In just a quarter of an hour, they were twisted into a sea of ​​blood and corpses.

The heavily armored infantry formation moved forward. The open space after they left was full of broken limbs and piles of human organs, human heads and horse heads, human corpses and horse corpses mixed together, blood flowing like a river, brains overflowing, it was simply bloody and terrifying. .

The 20,000 warriors behind had already collapsed, but they could not escape. After more than 7,000 people were also killed, the remaining warriors were so scared that they turned around and ran away. The heavy armored infantry stopped advancing.

Fifteen thousand cavalrymen came from both sides and instantly killed into the enemy group. They ruthlessly hacked and killed. There was no confrontation at all. The Japanese warriors fought separately and could not get close to the Tang army at all. They were pierced by the Tang army's spears without mercy and died in wailing, but at least they could keep their bodies intact.

They killed and raped the people of Bohai State like a group of demons, but when they met the powerful Tang army, they became a group of weak chickens and had no way to fight. It was a completely one-sided slaughter.

At this time, Ren Tianling led 50,000 troops to kill into Shangjing City. Their opponents were only 3,000 Japanese troops. The two sides fought like crazy in the streets and alleys. In less than an hour, the 3,000 Japanese troops were also killed cleanly, but they resisted stubbornly and fought desperately with the Bohai Army. The Bohai Army also paid the price of 5,000 deaths.

The Tang cavalry had dozens of casualties and less than a hundred wounded, and the heavy-armored infantry had no casualties.

In just half a day, the Tang army killed 38,000 Japanese soldiers. This speed shocked even Guo Ziyi. However, after learning about the height, equipment and combat level of the Japanese soldiers in detail, Guo Ziyi understood how a thin soldier with a height of only five feet could defeat the Tang soldiers with an average height of six feet on the cruel battlefield?

In the second battle report to Emperor Li Ye, Guo Ziyi wrote: "This is an army without long weapons, composite bows, iron armor, strong horses, formations, and overall combat. It is useless.

But it is this army that can only be slaughtered unilaterally by the Tang army on the battlefield, but it destroyed the Bohai Kingdom, which is incredible, according to my investigation.

This army was treacherous, despicable and shameless. After pretending to gain the trust of the King of Bohai, they launched a sneak attack on Shangjing at night. All the soldiers in this army had a devil's heart. They were fierce and brutal, killing all the unarmed people.

Cunning, mean, brutal, sneak attack, coupled with the stupidity of the King of Bohai and the attack of the Khitan army on the periphery, this was the main reason for the demise of the Bohai Kingdom.

The next step for me is to attack Khitan with all my strength and destroy it. The detailed plan is as follows.

Guo Ziyi has received the Eagle Message sent by the Emperor, which requires him to disband the Bohai Army after destroying the Japanese army, and send the main generals of the Bohai Army to Chang'an Martial Arts Hall for further training and other appointments.

That night, Ren Tianling handed over the military power to Guo Ziyi, who immediately sent hundreds of troops to send Ren Tianling and his thirteen men to Chang'an.

On the third day after Ren Tianling left, Guo Ziyi ordered that part of the seized money and grain be distributed to more than 50,000 Bohai Army soldiers, and each person be given 100 acres of land, and officially disbanded them all and returned home. With the return of a large number of Bohai people who fled to other places, these soldiers will remarry and have children and become the subjects of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty.

In the Eagle Message, Li Ye changed the Bohai Kingdom to Bohai Prefecture and Binhai Prefecture at the same time, appointed Pang Huimin, the military Sima, as the first governor of Bohai Prefecture, and Gao Hongwei as the first governor of Binhai Prefecture, and Led by Zhang Hao, the Minister of State Affairs and the Imperial Court, and Pei Shiyan, the Left Minister of Personnel, and Gao Shi, the Minister of Revenue, as their left and right assistants, they led hundreds of officials to Liaodong to redefine the border and arrange officials.

Li Ye also ordered Guo Ziyi in the eagle letter to reward the property seized from the Japanese soldiers to the three armies to boost morale.

Most of the wealth accumulated by the Bohai Kingdom was sent back to the country by the Japanese army, but was intercepted by the Tang army on the way. In addition, at least 30% of the wealth was looted by the Japanese soldiers, mainly copper coins. Gold, silver and jewelry must be presented to the emperor. The Japanese soldiers only had copper coins and cloth in their hands, with 1.5 million copper coins and 600,000 cloth. Except for a small part used to accommodate the Bohai soldiers, Guo Ziyi rewarded the remaining more than 1 million copper coins and cloth to all soldiers participating in the Liaodong Campaign.

For a time, the morale of the three armies was high and cheers were thunderous.

Guo Ziyi also ordered the closure of various government vaults in Shangjing City and waited for Zhang Hao to come back to deal with them.

The first batch of goods shipped back to Japan was mainly gold, silver, jewelry, and silk. In fact, there were also second and third batches of supplies to be transported. These were things that Japanese soldiers could not get and had to be transported back to their country.

They mainly included precious medicinal materials and precious animal skins. There were hundreds of ginsengs over 100 years old, and even more than a dozen ginsengs over 1,000 years old. There were also hundreds of kilograms of precious ambergris. The precious animal skins were mainly tiger, leopard, and bear skins. In addition, there were a large number of sheepskins, pig iron, copper ingots, etc. in the warehouse.

Guo Ziyi ordered Li Chengshi to temporarily lead the navy to sit in Bohai Prefecture and Binhai Prefecture.

He also ordered a part of the navy to block the Yalu River and temporarily suppress Silla to the south of the Yalu River.

Guo Ziyi then divided his troops into three routes. Nan Jiyun led 50,000 troops to the east, Ma Lin led 50,000 troops to the west, and Guo Ziyi personally led 60,000 troops to the center. Each army was equipped with 30,000 camels for logistics and food supplies. The 160,000 troops crossed the Songmo area and marched towards the Xidi where the Khitans currently lived.

Xidi is the area around Ulanhot City in Inner Mongolia today. It has always been the activity area of ​​the Xi tribe. The Xi tribe is a branch of the Xiongnu and has lived here for more than a hundred years, but was eventually annexed by the Khitans.

At this time, Yelu Salad, the supreme commander of the Khitan army, had been paying attention. When he learned that the Tang army had annihilated more than 30,000 Japanese troops with a crushing momentum, and that the Xi tribe was also finished, he knew that the next target of the Tang army must be himself.

But they had no way out. The north was the territory of the Shiwei people and the Heishui Mohe people, and the west was the territory of the Bayegu tribe.

However, the relationship between Khitan and Shiwei tribe was good. If Khitan tribe really wanted to enter Shiwei territory for refuge, it was not impossible.

So Yelu Salad proposed to retreat temporarily. Unexpectedly, this idea immediately caused a big uproar. First of all, the Khitan tribes firmly opposed to continuing to retreat northward. Ningyuan and the Tang army fought to the death, and they would never retreat another step.

But what really made Yelu Salad desperate was the attitude of Shiwei tribe. First of all, Shiwei tribe rejected Khitan’s request to borrow troops, and said that once a Khitan entered Shiwei territory, he would be a Shiwei person.

The implication was that once the Khitan crossed the border, they could only join Shiwei tribe and become Shiwei people.

Helpless, Yelu Salad had to force himself to discuss with Su Khan how to deal with the Tang army.

"Khan, the Tang army is divided into three routes and heading north. Of course, there are pros and cons to this. The biggest disadvantage is that the troops are dispersed, which gives us an opportunity.

We currently have more than 90,000 troops gathered from various tribes. If we concentrate our forces to defeat the three routes of the Tang army one by one, then we will have hope of counterattacking. Not only can we recover Songmo Prefecture, but we can also seize the territory of Xidi and Bohai Kingdom."

Su Khan also agreed with Yelu Salad's plan to concentrate his forces to defeat each route. He pondered for a moment and said, "General, which route do you think we should actively attack?"

Yelu Salad said calmly, "The three Tang armies have similar forces, so we might as well concentrate our forces to defeat the Tang army in the middle route. This is the army where their commander is. As long as we defeat it, the other two Tang armies will be defeated!"