Chapter 42
The Khitan part is Dieshu, Yishi, Pinmen, Chute, Wuwei, Tuobu, Pinmen, Pinmen, etc. Eight departments, including Dieshu, Yishihu, etc. Eight departments, including Dieshu, Yishihu, etc. Eight departments, Eight departments, W√W.
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The CoM had the strongest power in the Diela tribe, and there were thirteen clans in the Diela tribe, among which the Yaonian clan and the Yelu clan had the strongest strength. The Yaonian clan had long held the throne of the Khitan Khan, while the Yelu clan members had long held the throne of the Khitan Yilijin (military leader). The Khitan tribes had only formed a loose tribal alliance and surrendered to the powerful neighbor Uighur Khanate. In recent years, the Yelu clan gradually flourished. The clan leader Yelu Salad was tyrannical and had a strategy. During his tenure as the Khitan Yilijin, he led his troops to fight in the east and west, and continued to annex the weak tribes around him, and his power was expanding rapidly.
Yang Hao was unsure of his new enemy. The grassland people and the Han people had a very different way of thinking. Their cultural personalities were different. If they wanted to deal with them well, they had to understand them in depth. Yang Hao handed over this task to Huang Yiliang. At the turn of autumn and winter of the first year of Kaicheng, Cheng Keling, Jiang Tao and Zhang Jinbiao's troops were ordered to chase the Li Shaoqing troops of Guiyi Army who fled eastward, and accidentally killed Yelu Shula, the eldest son of Yelijin Yelu Salad, 500 miles north of Youzhou. On that day, Huang Yiliang planned to frame Yelu Shula's death on the head of the sudden rushing unit who had a grudge against the Yelu family. This action led to a great chaos within the Khitan, killing and injuring thousands of people.
Huang Yiliang's Northwest Ethnic Research Institute has been paying attention to the trends of the Khitans over the years. During this period, he submitted several reports of the trends, but it has not attracted Yang Hao's attention to it. Yang Hao invited him to the inner study room for a long talk all night, and it can be seen that Huang Yiliang's attention to the Khitan is no less than that of the Uighurs. He compared the Khitans to wolves on the grassland, which are cruel, cunning, and ambitious. He boldly speculated that the threat to the Tang Dynasty in the near future will be no less than that of the seemingly extremely powerful Uighurs.
Yang Hao agreed with his point of view. In his memory, the Liao Kingdom, which was once prosperous in history, was established by the Khitans. Their founding emperor was the surname Yelu. The Liao Kingdom and the Song Dynasty coexisted, and in terms of time it should have appeared after the demise of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty had passed its heyday, and its control over the north was gradually weakening. In addition, the Uighur Khanate was also in decline, which gave emerging nations like the Khitan an opportunity.
Taking advantage of his wings, he suppressed him and gave the Tang Dynasty a chance to reform himself. Yang Hao thought that all he could do was this. He said to Huang Yiliang: "We have to be careful of the ambitions of the Khitan wolf. Only by knowing yourself and your enemy can you be defeated in a hundred battles. I give you full responsibility for collecting information about the Khitan. If you have any needs, you can directly ask me."
Huang Yiliang asked: "Are you going to use force to deal with the Khitans?"
Yang Hao did not say anything, and Huang Yiliang said worriedly: "The Khitan has 200,000 cavalry, and now it is on the way uphill. Even the Uighurs have to tolerate it everywhere. If they are enemies of the Khitans in front, it may not be a blessing in Fengzhou. Please think twice."
Yang Hao fell into deep thought. The Khitan had 200,000 cavalrymen, which were only slightly inferior to the Uighurs on the northern grasslands. The Khitans were walking uphill and full of vitality. Having such an opponent would be a nightmare for anyone.
Yang Hao asked Huang Yiliang: "What are some good ideas do you have? You can tell me."
Huang Yiliang pondered for a moment and said, "The reason why the Khitans took the risk of capturing the southeast of the Uighurs this time was mainly to open up a channel for trade with the Tang Dynasty. The three towns of Youzhou, Hedong and Zhenwu reached a secret agreement at the end of last year, and together closed the field of trade with the Khitans. The Khitans lacked food and clothing and had no way to go, so they took the risk of opening up the channel from the west to the Datang Pass. Why don't you win over trade with the Uighurs? The Uighurs don't take action this year and will definitely send troops to expel the Khitans next year. By then, the adults can attack the Uighurs, so wouldn't they have more chances of winning?"
Yang Hao also felt it was reasonable, so he told Huang Yiliang: "Try to test their true intentions. If it is really for trade, we can sit down and talk to them first." Speaking of this, Yang Hao added: "But we still have to be prepared to turn against each other. These barbarians have no faith at all, so we still have to be prepared for any trouble."
Various information about the Khitans was gathered in Feng'an through open or secret channels. Yang Hao was eager to find out the true intentions of the Khitans. Before the potential opponents were unclear, Yang Hao transferred the Hu Camp and Weiyuan Camp to the Tiande Army to garrison them, and at the same time clearly instructed the border troops, the Man Hei Division and the Wutu Division to restrain the soldiers and not do anything to fire.
In order to prevent the Khitans from using small groups of cavalry to harass and damage the rear of Fengzhou. The construction of the four major fortresses of Jiuniang Pass, Ice Rock Valley, Giant Stone Fort, and Jiulianshan has been stepping up, and the two projects of Jiuniang Pass and Ice Rock Valley have been completed and used one and a half months in advance. The constables and civilian troops of each county have strengthened public security patrols, while Neisifang has strengthened monitoring of key areas. The three cities of Fengzhou and Tiande Army are tight inside and loose outside, ready to fight against the Khitans at any time.
While everything was about to stop, Yelu Tiela, the special envoy of the Khitans, suddenly came to Zhongshoujiang City. Yelu Tiela was the second son of Yelu Salad, who was only twenty years old and spoke fluently in Chinese. Yang Hao was inspecting border affairs in Zhongshoujiang City at this time. Yelu Tiela's sudden arrival made Yang Hao both embarrassed and a little nervous: If Yelu Tiela's arrival was not a coincidence, it would mean that there were spies from the Khitans hiding beside him, otherwise how could he be so clear about his whereabouts?
Yelu Tila was on behalf of the Khitan Khan to invite Yang Hao to send troops to siege the Uighurs. Judging from the various information he received before, the Khitans showed no sign of large-scale Uighurs recently. Yang Hao concluded that this was a temptation to him. So he used the excuse that he was just a guard at the border and had no right to decide on the attack, and he had no right to call the army without the imperial edict or the Ministry of War.
Yelu Tiela smiled and said disapprovingly: "It is reported that General Yang has never paid a single tax to the treasury since he governed Fengzhou. What is the difference between Fengzhou and Heshuo towns? General Yang said that he could not decide on the conquest, but Tiela really did not agree. If I remember correctly, General Yang was still suppressing bandits in Hedong a month ago, and the soldiers from Fengzhou ran to Hedong to suppress bandits. Is this the imperial edict of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty?"
Yang Hao was secretly surprised. He didn't expect that Yelutela knew so clearly about Fengzhou. The Khitans' ambitions were really obvious. He pondered for a moment and replied: "Fengzhou is not Heshuo, Fengzhou is a border area. It has been wars allocated for many years, and people are in decline and the people are poor. The court allocates food and pays all the taxes earned in Fengzhou every year. All the taxes earned in Fengzhou are retained to the local area. The fact that the taxes in Fengzhou are not paid to the court does not mean that the military and civilians of Fengzhou do not need to obey the imperial court's orders. Moreover, I went to Hedong to suppress bandits. The guards in various places have the responsibility to eliminate horse bandits and appease the local area."
Yelu Tiela pretended to be shocked and said, "It is reported that there are 100,000 troops in Hedong Town of your country. What kind of horse bandits are so fierce that they can't even subdue them by a hundred thousand troops."
Yang Hao smiled and replied: "I don't know if there are 100,000 troops in Hedong, but the horse bandits flew from Fengzhou into Hedong. As the governor of Fengzhou, I can't sit idly by, right? I'm not hiding the second prince. My cross-border pursuit of horse bandits is actually not in line with the law of the Tang Dynasty. But if I can extinguish this group of horse bandits, the court will think of my credit and no longer pursue my faults, because the bandits were successfully eliminated, and my Hedong colleagues are willing to get rid of me quickly. On the contrary, if I don't go, the Hedong guards will definitely be participating in me, and then I will have to worry about my life. In order to protect this head of the neck, I can only take risks."
Yelu Tiela smiled embarrassedly and said, "It seems that only by asking the Emperor of Tang to issue an order can the general be willing to help me."
Yang Hao replied: "Please forgive me for the second prince. As a minister, don't dare to disobey?"
Seeing this, Yelu Tiela stopped forcing and instead discussed with Yang Hao about opening the border and setting up a yard. The Khitans needed a large amount of iron, salt, silk, satin and linen. The blockade of him by the three towns of Youzhou had seriously affected the lives of ordinary people. When this question was raised, Yang Hao refused: "The second prince asked Yang Hao to start a yard, but how did Yang Hao face his colleagues."
Yelu Tiela sneered when he heard this and said in a threatening tone: "As far as I know, the general is not familiar with them. You and Liu Zhishuai have been having trouble recently because of the Hedong incident. And you have never even met the other two Zhishuai. I don't know if the general is arguing with outsiders, will the three of them draw their swords to help?"
Yang Hao replied, "It depends on who is arguing with and why. If you are arguing with your own people, except for Liu Zhishuai, Liu and Zhang, will definitely stand by and watch, because we are not familiar with each other. Secondly, it depends on why we are fighting. If we just fight for loyalty, the three of them may not help me, but if it is related to national justice, I believe that the three of them will definitely help me."
Yelu Tiela suddenly arose and pointed at Yang Hao and said, "You will not have a good end if you offend the Khitans."
Yang Hao also said coldly: "Yang Hao is in Fengzhou, and he is always waiting for the visit."
The meeting ended badly. Zhang Bozhong only learned the news a day later. In the past few days, he was ordered to inspect defense and supervise combat preparations. Zhang Bozhong asked Yang Hao: "Are the general ready to go to war with the Khitans?" Yang Hao said: "Don't worry, sir, the Khitans dare not turn against each other. At most, he will instruct a few puppets to fight with us."
The puppet Yang Hao mentioned refers to the Shiwei tribe conquered by the Khitan. The tribe has a population of 2,000 and has more than 600 cavalrymen. On the night when Yelu Tiela left the city of surrender, 1,000 cavalrymen raided the Wutu tribe nomadic people in Datongchuan, killed twelve shepherds, and snatched 1,800 cattle and sheep. Jin Mili hurriedly asked Yang Hao for help.
Yang Hao soon found out that behind the scenes, he was Yelu Tira who was instructing the poisonous army to attack the Wutu tribe. He was revenge on Yang Hao. Yang Hao knew very well that he asked the black men to attack the Poison and Feng tribe on the grounds of rescuing his allies. The one who sent the troops was Guduoli's Weiyuan Camp. They put on their old clothes and rode the Wulong horse that was coming and going like the wind. The troops suddenly attacked the Poison and Feng tribe in three groups.
Chapter completed!