Chapter 435: Destroy Liao and Pacify Goryeo

Da Zhou's actions were quickly discovered by the Khitan, and this large-scale mobilization of resources could not be hidden at all. But Guo Rong never thought of hiding it.

He is now confident that even if the Khitans are on guard, Dazhou can defeat these Khitans. And in addition to frontal combat, he also prepared backup tactics.

The Art of War says: Use the right combination to win by surprise.

Now the regular soldiers are the 200,000 troops gathered in Youzhou, and the surprise soldiers are the 30,000 elite naval infantry and cavalry in Donglai, Dengzhou.

Among these 30,000 people, 10,000 were elite naval troops drawn from various ministries in the south, and the remaining 20,000 were government soldiers drawn from Luoyang, Henan, Hanoi, and Hedong.

As long as these 30,000 people land, they will immediately turn the hinterland of the Liao Kingdom upside down.

However, this 30,000-strong army is also very dangerous. If you are not careful, the entire army may be annihilated. Therefore, you must be bold and careful, have strong adaptability, and be good at seizing opportunities.

There were not many such general talents even in the Zhou Dynasty. Guo Rong thought about it and decided to send Zhao Kuangyin. This kid Zhao Kuangyin has been following him all the time. He is very organized in arranging his troops and has a thick face and a dark heart.

In the last battle in the northwest, this guy directly invited the leaders of bad tribes in the name of a banquet, and then took the opportunity to kill them all, making it easier for the court to eliminate party items.

Now is the time for him to lead his army.

After making preparations, Guo Rong once again led his army northward. At this time, the Liao Kingdom seemed to be facing a formidable enemy. The last battle in Youzhou resulted in the defeat of hundreds of thousands of Khitans, which directly interrupted the energy that the Liao Kingdom had gathered.

As a nomadic nation, the Liao Kingdom has been forcibly held together by its prestige since the Yelu Abaoji period. And there have always been problems with its throne succession system.

If the Liao Kingdom can continue to occupy Youzhou and defeat the Zhou Kingdom, the Liao Kingdom's national strength and cohesion will continue to increase, and it will successfully transform from a tribal alliance into a national model. However, it is a pity that the Khitan lost and this process was interrupted. The Khitan is still a tribal alliance.

The army of the Zhou State set out to conquer Liaodong and the northern expedition. The Liao State did not directly fight the Zhou State near Youzhou, but continued to retreat backwards.

Obviously the Khitans wanted to lengthen the supply line of the Northern Expeditionary Army. If the Northern Expeditionary Army rushed forward regardless, they would continue to retreat, and then use the mobility of the cavalry to detour to the rear to cut off the army's logistics.

In the Northern Expedition to Liaodong and fighting outside the border, once the retreat is cut off, the army of hundreds of thousands is likely to collapse and suffer a disastrous defeat.

As the commander-in-chief, Guo Rong would naturally not make such a mistake. At the same time, when the Zhou Kingdom and the Khitans were fighting in Liaodong, the Dengzhou Navy was already ready.

Navy troops drawn from all over the world have been training in Dengzhou for half a year and are already familiar with the climate here. Now the army is fighting in Liaodong, and the rear of Liao Kingdom is very empty at this time.

Attacking Liaodong and even Goguryeo by water is feasible in this era. You must know that in the pre-Tang Dynasty, when the Tang army conquered Goguryeo, the Tang army dispatched its navy.

The Khitan people are a horse race and do not understand the navy at all. Therefore, the Khitans couldn't defend themselves against the navy's use of sneak attacks.

Thirty thousand naval troops and thousands of warships set out from Dengzhou. These warships carried a large amount of food and baggage, as well as 3,000 war horses. In order to adapt these war horses to the environment on the ship, the Dengzhou Navy spent a lot of effort.

This naval expedition was completely beyond Liao's expectations. The Khitans had not yet realized that the enemy would attack from the water.

The Zhou State had many secret operations in the Liao State. Most of these secret operations came here through caravans, and then used various methods to win over many herdsmen and obtain information from these herdsmen.

Therefore, Zhou State now also knows that the capital of Liao State is now empty.

Seeing this situation, Guo Rong knew that the opportunity had come. Now the Khitan people are fighting against the Zhou Kingdom by relying on the muddy waters of Liao Ze, while on the other side, the navy is also quietly heading towards the Liao Kingdom.

The Liao Kingdom did not have one capital, but five capitals. However, Nanjing Youzhou and Xijing Datong were both taken back by the Zhou Kingdom, leaving only Shangjing, Zhongjing, and Tokyo.

Shangjing and Zhongjing are relatively far away from here, in the Mobei grassland, while Tokyo is in Liaoyang. During this war, the Khitans had moved their capital from Shangjing and Zhongjing to Tokyo.

The Zhou army was so sharp that it reached the grassland, and the defenses of Shangjing and Zhongjing were useless. Only Liaoyang, a large city built in the former Tang Dynasty, was the safest because it was blocked by Liaoze.

But the nobles of the Liao Kingdom never dreamed that the Zhou army would actually come from the sea.

At this time, there was a gorgeous mansion in Liaoyang Mansion, Tokyo. An ordinary-looking middle-aged man was reporting intelligence to another person.

"Have you found out everything about Liaoyang City's defenses?"

The ordinary-looking servant whispered: "I have found out clearly that the defense of Liaoyang City is very lax. The general guarding the city is the uncle of the Khitan Emperor. This man likes the scenery of the Zhou Dynasty. During this time, I specially asked someone to send some A rare thing from the Zhou Kingdom.”

"Now he holds banquets with the Liao nobles in his mansion every day, and the city defense doesn't even bother to take care of it."

Zhang Chong nodded. He was not surprised by this information. Although the Liao Kingdom was a nomadic people, the nobles of this country liked the scenery of the Central Plains very much. Silk, porcelain, tea, sugar, books and various gadgets from the Central Plains were very popular among the upper class of the Liao Kingdom.

There were even many Liao nobles who read the Four Books and Five Classics, wore Han clothes, and were proud of it.

Over the years, Zhou sold a large amount of fine silk, porcelain, fine wine, etc. to Liao, and even chefs from Tokyo Kaifeng were brought here to cook for the Khitans. Let the Khitans enjoy the life of Luoyang Kaifeng here.

In fact, all this was planned by Richard and Guo Rong. It is human nature to be greedy for pleasure, love leisure and hate work, and like delicious food and wine. There are not many people who can control their willpower.

And under the deliberate actions of Guo Rong and Richard, those grassland people who had not seen much of the world soon fell. The top leaders of every country are often the most likely to fall.

Khitan is no exception.

The nobles in Liaoyang City are even more so. There have been no large-scale sea crossing battles in these years, and no one thought that the enemy would come from the sea. Seeing that Liaoyang was so lax and careless, Zhang Chong was relieved, but he still arranged a large number of people in various places.

In order to make the plan successful, what he had to do in the next few days was to make the nobles in Liaoyang City more relaxed.

So in the following days, Zhang Chong began to flatter these nobles even more, taking out all kinds of supplies for these people to enjoy, and even many nobles forgot that the front line was still fighting.

The war in the front was tight, and the food in the back was tight at home. Not everyone has a sense of crisis, and the nobles are the least aware of this.

Just when the nobles in Shangjing City were immersed in drunkenness, on the other side, the Zhou army was quietly approaching.

On the seashore, dozens of strong men were constantly patrolling on horseback. These people were all sent by Zhang Chong to meet. At this time, some black spots suddenly appeared on the sea in the distance, and then there were more and more black spots.

The fishermen on the seashore saw these black spots and were a little curious. After a while, those black spots quickly grew larger, and huge sailboats approached quickly. Hundreds of ships were lined up on the sea, and the raised sails covered the sky.

Those fishermen who fished on the sea all year round were stunned by this scene.

Soon the warships approached quickly, and this remote seaport was filled with ships in a short time.

The army rushed down from the boat quickly, and Zhao Kuangyin, who was vomiting all over, finally stood on the ground. This voyage was unexpectedly smooth, and the army crossed the ocean without any setbacks.

"Surround this fishing village, and don't let anyone go!" Zhao Kuangyin gave the order immediately.

"General, there are people here to pick us up!" The deputy general next to him came with a man and said.

"Who asked you to come?" Zhao Kuangyin asked.

"It was Lord Zhang Chong!" the man said.

"What did he ask you to do?"

"Lord Zhang said that I should obey the general's arrangements!"

"Okay!" Zhao Kuangyin nodded, and then said: "Tell me about the situation."

Next, the man told the situation in Liaoyang, Zhao Kuangyin looked at the sky and said immediately: "The army will be reorganized, the cavalry will set off with me immediately, and rush to Liaoyang before dark, and the rest of the people will continue to disembark and then set off!"

After that, Zhao Kuangyin no longer hesitated, and directly led 3,000 cavalry and 5,000 infantry to Liaoyang, while the rest of the people were getting off the boat quickly.

Time passed quickly. The army marched all the way, marching quickly from the morning until the evening before arriving near Liaoyang. The army did not attack the city immediately when it arrived here, but hid in the woods to rest.

After all, Liaoyang was the capital. Although the defense was lax, there were still 20,000 old and weak defenders. It was easy to see the real situation during the day, so they had to wait until night to launch a sneak attack.

Fortunately, these soldiers were selected elites, and the supplies were well prepared. The sky soon darkened. When it was night, the city gates were closed, and there were not even a few soldiers guarding the city walls.

Seeing this situation, Zhao Kuangyin was overjoyed. The soldiers who had rested for two or three hours had now recovered their strength and were immediately ready to attack the city.

In Liaoyang City, the soldiers guarding the city gates had long been lazy and had no idea that countless people had secretly climbed up to the top of the city in the dark.

Zhang Chong prepared a large number of simple ladders in advance, and Zhao Kuangyin directly asked people to carry them over and use them.

Soon, shouts and screams rang out in the city. The battle went smoothly, and Zhao Kuangyin's army easily captured the city. Because it was night, the nobles in the city had no chance to escape, and were blocked by Zhao Kuangyin's army.

When it was daybreak, the entire Liaoyang City had been controlled by the Zhou army.

At this time, a steady stream of Zhou troops continued to arrive. All the Khitans were stunned to see so many troops. They had no idea how the Zhou army came. Many people even thought that the front line had been defeated.

Liaoyang Prefecture was captured, and the families of the front-line troops were all in the city. Zhao Kuangyin directly sent people to report the news to Guo Rong. At the same time, some fleeing soldiers also rushed to the front line.

Soon the news that Liaoyang City was breached spread, and the front-line camp was in an uproar. Originally, the Liao emperor wanted to conceal it, and even killed the soldiers who came to report the news directly in the name of Zhou spies, but still couldn't stop the rumors.

Guo Rong directly sent people to shoot the news of Liaoyang's capture with arrows. The Khitan emperor's strict blockade of the news was useless. In addition, the number of grain transport teams behind was decreasing, and the food supply on the front line was becoming increasingly tight.

Those soldiers soon guessed that the rumor might be true, so the army, which was already demoralized, was defeated across the board.

Guo Rong took the opportunity to send a large army to attack. With tens of thousands of troops, the Khitans had no intention of resisting. The soldiers dropped their weapons and ran away. The battlefield was full of Khitan soldiers fleeing.

The Zhou army was in high spirits, like a flood bursting through a dam, and it was out of control. The Khitans were defeated and helpless. Guo Rong even captured dozens of Khitan emperors, queen mothers and other clan members in one battle. The entire Khitan army of more than 100,000 suffered heavy casualties and was completely wiped out.

Only the detachment that had seen bad luck managed to escape to Shangjing, and Guo Rong also sent troops to pursue them. As a result, more than 10,000 people did not dare to fight and fled all the way to Mobei.

The Zhou army tried their best to catch up, but they could only catch those who did not have time to escape and returned.

Guo Rong destroyed the Khitan Kingdom in one battle, and was in high spirits. Next, Guo Rong did not lead his army to leave, but directly led Zhao Kuangyin as the vanguard and cooperated with 10,000 naval forces to attack Goryeo directly.

Goryeo had been suppressed by the Khitans in recent years, and its strength had weakened. At this time, it was no match for the Zhou Kingdom. Moreover, the Zhou Kingdom used the navy again this time, and the army landed from Incheon by boat. The 30,000-strong army attacked Pyongyang.

Although Pyongyang was the capital of Goryeo, it was not as large as a prefecture city in the Central Plains. The city walls were low, and it was a surprise attack by the army. There was no time to react, and it was broken by Zhao Kuangyin in one battle.

Tens of thousands of troops swept all the way, and Goryeo had no room to fight back. Later, the Zhou Kingdom army pushed all the way. It only took one month for the entire Goryeo to be occupied by the Zhou Kingdom.

The King of Goryeo wanted to surrender several times and was willing to become a vassal state of the Zhou Kingdom, but he couldn't even see Guo Rong. Guo Rong had no good feelings for Goryeo. This country took advantage of the withdrawal of the former Tang Dynasty and was unable to control the territory of Goguryeo to seize a large area of ​​land, and even changed the name of the country to Goryeo.

Wanting to use this name to inherit the legacy of Goguryeo is a wolfish ambition. In the end, the Tang Dynasty destroyed Goguryeo, but did not gain much benefit. Instead, Goguryeo made a lot of money.

Now that he had dealt with Goguryeo, he would naturally not keep them. Zhao Kuangyin knew that he would not allow others to sleep beside his bed, and Guo Rong naturally understood this truth. Next, Guo Rong began to divide Goguryeo and Liao Kingdom and redivided them into the four Han counties of the Han Dynasty.

The Andong Protectorate was established to govern here, and sixteen Zhechongfu were set up under the Andong Protectorate. Liaodong was vast and sparsely populated, so it was more appropriate to set up a government soldier.