Chapter 13: The Great Contradiction
Gaoyang Pass, to the northwest has the Taihang Mountains stretching for thousands of miles, and to the northeast is the residual mountain range of Yanshan. The two major mountain ranges intersect in the north of Gaoyang, forming a natural barrier. Once past Gaoyang, you enter the heartland of the Hebei Plain, with endless plains as far as the eye can see. Therefore, Gaoyang Pass is the gateway to Hebei, along with Bazhou Yitun Pass and Xiongzhou Waque Pass, collectively known as the Three Passes. Although the pass city is small, it is rare to be built entirely of brick and stone, extremely solid, and in order to facilitate long-term defense, there are garrison fields and pastures outside the pass city. Since the founding of this dynasty, outposts have also been added. Gaoyang is located next to the Gao River, and not far south of the Gao River is the location of the current Song Dynasty's Hebei campaign headquarters.
To the north of Gaoyang Pass, countless paddy fields had been opened up to prevent the Liao cavalry from roaming freely. The fields were filled with mulberry and willow trees, which were originally not allowed near the pass city. However, since the Song and Liao countries did not engage in battle, the trees grew naturally and continuously. The tenant farmers who cultivated the land enjoyed the benefits. At this moment, the soldiers on duty at Gaoyang Pass looked north and saw layers of tree shadows everywhere. Without thinking much, they cursed, "This damned weather is determined to freeze us to death!" After yawning, wiping their noses, and tightening the straps of their cotton robes outside their armor, they shrunk their necks and leaned against the bed crossbow next to the battlements, taking a short nap.
In the midst of those layered tree shadows, a faint glimmer flashed by, which was the reflection of the city's lanterns on the Thousand Mile Mirror. Northern Court Envoy Xiao Daluo put down the Thousand Mile Mirror, and this time, during the southern invasion, the Song people were indeed completely unaware, and the High Sun Gate City had no defenses at all. He lowered his head and asked: "Are the iron barrel cannons for attacking the city ready?" Han Military Commander Chai Yang replied: "Everything is ready, just waiting for your order to attack the city." Xiao Daluo followed Chai Yang's pointing right hand and looked ahead, only to see that on the open space in front of the forest, fifteen massive bronze giant cannons had been lined up. These were the best cannons cast by Liao State over the years, each weighing tens of thousands of catties, with a cannon body length of seventeen feet and a thickness of fifteen inches, specially designed for launching stone pellets for attacking cities. This giant cannon could throw a stone pellet weighing nearly a thousand catties to a distance of three miles away. Around these fifteen giant cannons were hundreds of iron barrel cannons of various sizes, all used for launching stone pellets for attacking the city. Some were old cannons that had been successfully cast in the past, while others were new cannons that had been enlarged and cast one after another for testing purposes. Once the attack on the city began, the Han army camp would push these medium-sized iron cannons forward towards the city pool. To serve these cumbersome giants, the Han army's firearms camp had reached 30,000 people during this southern invasion.
The giant cannons parked in the forest were all covered with cotton cannon clothes smeared with sheep and cattle oil, and thick branches were used to cover them up. The artillery was well hidden, and if it weren't for the crowded carts around the iron bucket cannons of the Han army's fire brigade, Xiao Da wouldn't have been able to recognize the position of each giant cannon. He nodded slightly. In order to plan this southern invasion, the Liao State court went to great lengths, not only sending a Khitan who was proficient in both Khitan and Chinese scripts, Ye Lu Da Shi, the military governor of Nanjing Liao Xing Army, to observe the situation along the way, but also sending the Kereit tribe from the grasslands to pretend to surrender to the Southern Dynasty. However, the most difficult part of the entire preparation process was transporting these fifteen giant cannons to the forest two miles north of Gaoyang Pass without being detected by the garrison. To this end, after the artillery commander, Chai Ye, surveyed the position of the cannons, the Liao State specially sent people disguised as a merchant group to clear roads and designated cannon positions from the forest, and chose the period after the New Year when the Song people were indulging in the festive atmosphere, and due to the cold weather, the number of patrols was reduced, making it less likely for the Liao army's movement to be discovered.
Since leading the 30,000 elite cavalry to secretly leave Youzhou and come here, Commander-in-Chief Xiao Da has been worried. The goal of this southern invasion is twofold: first, to capture Hejian, Zhending, and Zhongshan, which are the northern shield of the Yellow River, and take full control of the land, making it impossible for the Song people to advance northward; second, to plunder more people from the Central Plains and bring them back to the Northern Country. The Liao State has been using Han slaves as laborers in workshops since its establishment, and has gradually tasted the sweetness of this method, which is much stronger than the original system of setting up military prefectures and counties, where farmers were allowed to open up and cultivate land on their own. As the death rate of the labor slaves increased, the Khitan people began to feel that there were not enough slaves for the first time, just like a child who has tasted milk for the first time wants to suckle hard. The call for southern invasion from the upper echelons of the Liao State grew louder and louder in pursuit of slaves and wealth.
"The Great Liao and the Song Dynasty, in the end, only one can stand." Xiao Da also said with a sigh, he was not fighting for slaves, but for the future of the Khitan people. The Jurchen rebellion in the north was getting more and more intense, and the Song Dynasty court was clamoring for a northern expedition to Youyan every day. Now Youyan was land that Liao could not afford to lose, so it could only be thoroughly defeated through war, and then turn back to deal with the unopened Jurchen barbarians. It's said that the Song Dynasty was even secretly supporting the Jurchen rebellion, truly a southern dynasty that deserves to be destroyed.
Everything went smoothly until noon today, but the treacherous Khitan tribal leader Yelü Makeli was suddenly assassinated by the Song people. The original plan to take over Gaoyang Pass and even Hejian City through internal and external coordination could not be implemented, and the Khitan tribe had already launched a rebellion in the heart of the Song Dynasty ahead of schedule. The commander-in-chief of the southern invasion, Xiao Da, also had no choice but to launch the southern invasion ahead of schedule.
"The Song army in Hebei has a large force of 200,000 men, with 10,000 Iron Forest soldiers pressing on the riverbank. Isn't this somewhat reckless?" Xiao Da asked, turning his head to ask, his piercing gaze fixed on Ye Lu Dashi, the newly appointed Southern Court's Chief Envoy.
"If the Song people have not yet quelled the rebellion of the Khitan tribe, perhaps there is an opportunity to defeat the great camp of Hebei in one fell swoop." Yelü Dashi said slowly, he was still around thirty years old, and had more vigor than Xiao Da who was nearly fifty. "I will let the Iron Forest Army go around to the back of Hejian Prefecture, destroy all the post stations on the official road, burn all the villages along the way, and make the Song army think they are surrounded, so that they will flee in a state of panic." He gently patted the neck of his warhorse, calming it down as it was getting restless.
Yelü Dashi gazed at the giant cannons in the forest, the Han army's artillery camp people sat quietly around the cannons, their faces all somewhat anxious. It turned out that there were still a few roads that could be taken to bypass Gaoyang, Yizhen, and Wabridge, and directly enter the northern part of the Yellow River, but because they didn't have the tools to attack cities, they couldn't capture the Song Dynasty's cities. Now although they had obtained giant cannons, in order to transport them on official roads, they had no choice but to launch a strong attack on Gaoyang Pass. These cannons were also a double-edged sword for their own military advantage, and the Song Dynasty was vigorously promoting lighter firearms, probably because they saw the disadvantage of how difficult it was to transport the cannons.
Xiao Dabu also sighed, this time in the south, although Yelü Daishi was a subordinate, but he had the support of the Yelü aristocracy, Xiao Dabu also had to respect his opinion very much. Yelü Daishi was a rare top scholar of the Khitan people for hundreds of years and was also a member of the imperial family. The current emperor, Yelü Yanxi, was not particularly wise, and many young members of the Yelü aristocracy even believed that the future hope of Liao lay on Yelü Daishi's shoulders. Therefore, Xiao Dabu specially assigned 10,000 of the most elite Iron Forest Army to him to command. This Yelü Daishi, in order to make the cavalry act quickly, let the Iron Forest Army take off most of their heavy armor, leaving only one-tenth of the people to keep their full armor, and also distributed them among other people in the same small team.
"Fire!" he ordered in a low voice to Chai Rong, who nodded to the deputy general who had been tensely watching this side.
"Fire!" Deputy General Yelü Niegou of the Artillery Camp ordered.
"The order to 'open fire' was given, from the commanders of each battalion down to the squad leaders in charge of each cannon. The Han soldiers nervously removed the camouflage branches and gun covers one by one, throwing them aside. The deputy gunners made a final inspection of the barrels before beginning to load the powder bags and stone projectiles. The other Han soldiers behind them held various tools at the ready, tense with anticipation. Many of these soldiers had been selected from workshops, where their treatment was no better than that of pigs and dogs. However, if they were careless or made a mistake, the punishment would be severe, so they dared not slack off. Operating firearms was a difficult and precise task, which is why even the true Khitan people, who were accustomed to riding horses and galloping freely, did not want to do it. That's how these Han people ended up with the job. The cannon battalion alone would not be enough to cause chaos, as the Khitan cavalry could slaughter these Han soldiers, who didn't even know how to use swords, guns, bows, or arrows, just like slaughtering chickens or dogs."
The lanterns at the distant Gao Yang Pass were the best target, and the night was so quiet. "Boom!" A loud noise shook the ground, accompanied by flames, startling the soldiers at Gao Yang Pass to fall to the ground in an instant. Immediately after, "Boom! Boom!" The sound of explosions continued, and the war horses, dogs, and chickens inside the pass were frightened and barking wildly. The soldiers rushed to the battlements to see what had happened, only to see that with the flashing flames in the distance, a thousand-jin heavy stone bullet, carrying great inertia, crashed into the city gate tower with a loud noise, instantly smashing a large pit on the ground made of bricks, and vaguely visible were the bowmen guarding the lower battlements looking up in terror.
