In June of the seventh year of Tianfu (the fifth year of the Khitan Society, 942), Shi Jingjiao died of illness, and the guards and pro-army commanded Jing Yanguang and the prime minister Feng Daoli Qi Wang Shi Chonggui as the emperor, which was the emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty.
Exploring the cause of the Khitan southern invasion, it turned out that in the sixth year of Tianfu (941), the Chengde army made An Chongrong launch a rebellion, prompting Shi Jingjiao to die of illness.
An Chongrong, although arrogant and brutal, ambitious to seize the throne, still has a deep love for the country and the nation. He often insulted the Khitan envoys with an arrogant attitude, and also united with the Tuhun and other ethnic groups in the Khitan, causing the Tuhun tribe to move inward.
However, his actions aroused the dissatisfaction of the Khitan Emperor Yelu Deguang, who successively sent envoys to condemn Shi Jingjiao. Shi Jingjiao was very anxious, went to Yedu in person, and issued ten edicts in a row to advise An Chongrong, but to no avail.
Winter came, and An Chongrong was defeated because his ministry would be bribed. In the end, An Chongrong was killed by the Jin general Du Chongwei, and Shi Jingjiao painted his head and gave it to the Khitan in a box.
Shi Jingjiao thought that offering An Chongrong's head would be forgiven by Yelu Deguang, but he still sent messengers several times to condemn him, which made him very worried, and finally died of illness.
After Shi Chonggui succeeded to the throne, Jing Yanguang refused to be a vassal to the Khitan. He told Qiao Rong, the Khitan envoy who was about to return to China: "You can tell your monarch that the first emperor was made emperor by the Khitan in the north, so we are vassals to the Khitan."
Now that I am the monarch of China, we are neighbors, it is enough to call each other grandsons, there is no need to call the Khitan any more vassals. Jing Yanguang also threatened that if Yelu Deguang dared to provoke a war, his 100,000 soldiers would be able to deal with it and would definitely be able to defeat the Khitan.
The ambitions of the Khitan ruling group were instigated by the rhetoric, prompting them to invade the south on a large scale, and the Later Jin Pinglu Jiedu made Yang Guangyuan and the general Zhao Yanshou even more angry, in an attempt to become the second Shi Jingjiao.
Yelu Deguang thought that the time had come, so he sent a large army south to conquer the Later Jin. In this battle, the Khitan army was divided into three routes, and the Western Route Army was led by An Duan and attacked Xinzhou, Daizhou, and Bingzhou; The Middle Route Army, led by Yelu Deguang himself, set out from Youzhou and approached Liyang through Weizhou; The Eastern Route Army, commanded by Mada, crossed the Yellow River from Dezhou and Bozhou to join Yang Guangyuan's army.
Yelu Deguang and Zhao Yanshou led 50,000 soldiers and horses as the forward team. In the Battle of Beizhou, the Khitans took advantage of their cavalry's rapid mobility to advance to the north bank of the Yellow River, attempting to force the Yellow River through the Yellow River crossings such as Liyang and Desheng to enter Bianzhou.
At the same time, they also sent a part of their army to cross the river from the Bozhou area, join the army of Yang Guangyuan in Qingzhou, and then attack Bianzhou through Yunzhou. The Khitan's strategic intent was to advance in a long way, to continue advancing if victorious, and to retreat quickly if defeated, in order to preserve strength and wait for the opportunity to attack again.
After learning of the Khitan invasion, the Later Jin court made some military arrangements, sending generals such as Guo Jin and Cai Xingyu to garrison Yunzhou to prevent the Khitan army from joining Yang Guangyuan's army.
At the same time, some feudal army troops were also requisitioned and stationed in the military cities of Nanle and Deqing in the south of Weizhou to prevent the Khitan army from occupying the Yellow River crossings such as Liyang and Desheng. However, the vast area from south of Youzhou to north of Weizhou was not heavily defended by the Later Jin.
Chengde Jiedu made Du Chongwei sit on the city wall of Hengzhou (i.e., Zhenzhou, now Zhengding, Hebei), close the city to defend himself, and he did not make any resistance to the Khitan army passing under his city.
Therefore, the Khitan army quickly approached Beizhou.
As a hub of water and land transportation, Beizhou began to become a storage place for military grain in the Tang Dynasty, and in the Later Jin Dynasty, hundreds of thousands of stone of military grain were stored, which was an important granary for the Hebei Army.
When Beizhou Jiedu made Wang Lingwen Fengzhao enter the court, the imperial court urgently dispatched Wu Luan, who had made meritorious contributions to the Yunzhou anti-Khitan army, to serve as the governor of the Beizhou military state, responsible for commanding the soldiers and horses of the province against the Khitan army.
As soon as Wu Luan arrived in Beizhou, he found that the soldiers were freezing in the bitter cold, so he managed to put them in winter clothes, and was warmly welcomed by the soldiers. In the first month of the ninth year of Tianfu (the seventh year of the Khitan meeting, 944), the Khitan army besieged Beizhou.
The Khitan Emperor Yelu Deguang personally led the Xi, Bohai and other armies to attack from all sides, and the soldiers in the city threw grass and set it on fire, successfully burning the siege equipment of the Khitan army. However, the Khitan army surrounded again, and all Ding Zhuang in the city went to the city to defend.
At this time, Shao Ke, a spy hidden in the city, opened the south gate of Beizhou City to introduce the Khitan army. In an instant, there was chaos in the city, and Wu Luan saw that the general trend had gone, so he committed suicide by throwing himself into a well. The Khitan occupied Beizhou, killed 10,000 soldiers and civilians defending the city of the Later Jin Dynasty, and seized a large amount of grain, and continued to invade south.
The Khitan general Ma Da eagerly crossed the Yellow River from Majiakou and captured the northern part of Yunzhou in an attempt to join forces with Yang Guangyuan's army in Qingzhou. If successful, the Khitan army and Yang Guangyuan's army would directly threaten the defense-empty Bianzhou, and the Later Jin court could repeat the mistakes of the Later Liang.
Yelude Guangtong led the Khitan army and occupied the vast area of Hebei, and seemed to have no worries. However, in the Battle of Guanzhou, he learned the lessons of defeat and adopted a cautious strategy.
He pretended to evacuate Yuancheng and ambushed the elite soldiers in Gudun Qiu City to lure the Jin army into battle. Although the Jin army repeatedly reported that the Khitan army had fled, it was unable to pursue due to heavy rain. In the end, Yelu Deguang adopted Zhao Yanshou's suggestion and personally led his troops to attack Lanzhou, but the Jin army resisted stubbornly, and the Khitan army was never able to seize the Yellow River pontoon bridge.
The battle continued into the night, with heavy casualties on both sides. In the end, the Khitan army fled in two ways, preparing to attack the south again. However, the Later Jin military and civilians were not discouraged by this.
They took advantage of the victory to regain lost territory, and the Khitan army moved south and where it retreated, leaving behind a ruin. During the capture of Beizhou and Bozhou, although the Khitan army pretended to comfort the local people and gave officials and subdued the later Jin officials, these failed to cover up their plundering and brutality against the people of the Central Plains.
When the Khitan army invaded Qicheng and Majiakou, their true colors were exposed, and they went around wantonly, arousing strong resistance from the Han army and people. They picked up the ** one after another, recaptured the lost territory, and expelled the Khitan army.
On March 19 of the first year of Kaiyun, Jin Yiwu Jiedu made Ma Quanjie capture Taizhou (now north of Qingyuan County, Hebei). In April, Liang Jin, the Jin patrol along the river, led the township soldiers to drive out the Khitan army and recover Dezhou.
On May 7, the Later Jin Dynasty's guard Ma Bujun Du Yu Hou Li Shouzhen led 20,000 men to attack Yang Guangyuan in Qingzhou. On June 21, the Jin army conquered Zizhou (present-day Zibonan, Shandong) and killed Liu Han, the assassin.
Qingzhou was besieged for more than half a year, and the Khitan reinforcements were repulsed, the food in the city was exhausted, and the soldiers and civilians starved to death. Yang Guangyuan's son Chengxun was forced to surrender and opened the city gate to welcome the official army, and Yang Guangyuan was executed.
On 16 May, Ye Du stayed behind to guard Zhang Congen's table, and although Zhao Yanzhao occupied Beizhou, his subordinates were eager to return home because they had been away from home for a long time, so they should send troops to fight as soon as possible.
Later Jin court ordered Zhang Congen to deploy the camp for Beizhou, and on the 20th, Zhao Yanzhao set fire to the city of Beizhou, looted it, and then abandoned the city and fled, and the Jin army occupied Beizhou again.
In June, the Later Jin Dynasty ordered Fuzhou to attack the Khitan from afar and uproot more than a dozen Khitan strongholds. Due to the heroic struggle of the Later Jin army and people, the Beizhou, Dezhou and Taizhou occupied by the Khitan during the first southern invasion were recovered by the Jin army in nearly half a year, and Yang Guangyuan, who had seized Qingzhou, was completely eradicated.
The Later Jin Dynasty dismissed Jing Yanguang's guards and pro-army Ma Bujun from the post of commander, and was succeeded by Gao Xingzhou, the envoy of Guide Jiedu, and reappointed Sang Weihan as the privy envoy, and ordered Liu Zhiyuan to be the commander of the northern camp of Hedong Jiedu, Du Chongwei to be the envoy of Shunguo Jiedu, and the governor of 13 Jiedu to make troops to guard against the Khitan.
The Later Jin court frequently dispatched troops to prepare for another Khitan attack.
When Yelu Deguang's army arrived at Yuanshi, the Jin court was afraid that the Jin army in the Xingzhou area would be annihilated, so it ordered Zhang Congen and others to retreat, causing the Jin army to retreat in a hurry, discarding the ** equipment and making a mess.
Emperor Jin also ordered Zhao Zaili to retreat to Tunzhou, Ma Quanjie to return to the army Yedu, Zhang Yanze to Tun Liyang, and Jing Yanguang to send troops to defend Huliangdu. After Zhang Congen reported that the main Khitan force was approaching Xingzhou, the Jin court was afraid that Xingzhou would be lost, and once again instructed Ma Quanjie and Huangfu to march towards Xingzhou.
However, the Later Jin army repeatedly ran for their lives and was unable to resist, and the Khitan army took the opportunity to advance south, plundered the three prefectures of Xing, Luo, and Ci, and entered the territory of Yedu. This time, the Khitan army moved south from Youzhou and occupied Xingzhou and other states, and almost did not encounter resistance from the Jin army, mainly due to the mistakes of the military command of the Jin court.
When defending against the second southern invasion of the Khitan army, the Jin court did not have a clear guiding ideology and deployment for the placement of the center of gravity of defense, and began to plan to use Xingzhou as the first line of defense, sending Zhang Quanen and others to stop the Khitan army from advancing, but fearing the strength of the Khitan army, he commanded Zhang Quanen to retreat, trying to hold on to Lanzhou and Liyang, relying on the Yellow River as a natural barrier against the Khitan army.
However, the Later Jin court did not want Xingzhou to fall, and ordered the Jin army to march towards Xingzhou. This chaotic command led to the confusion of the commanders, and the soldiers were exhausted, unable to resist the powerful attack of the Khitan army, and finally retreated one after another.
In the Battle of Yulindian, Zhang Congen, Ma Quanjie, and An Xianqi led tens of thousands of battalions to set up a formation south of Anyang River in Xiangzhou. When they will cross Zhangshui, they meet with the Khitan army, retreat while fighting, and when they arrive at Yulindian, the Khitan army arrives, Huangfu Yu and Murong Yanchao discuss, if they retreat further, the enemy cavalry rushes up, and thousands of Jin troops will be annihilated, so they line up to fight, and the Khitan army fights from noon to afternoon, there are many on both sides, and Huangfu Yu has never been able to get out of the siege.
Someone reported to Zhang Congen in Anyang that Huangfu was besieged by tens of thousands of Khitan troops, but Zhang Congen refused to send troops. The Khitan army saw the dust rising suddenly, mistakenly thought that the Jin army had arrived, so they quickly fled, Yelu Deguang fled from Handan to Gucheng, and Huangfu Yu and others returned to Xiangzhou.
Zhang Congen discussed countermeasures with the generals, and the Khitan went south, with few soldiers and food, and weak city defenses, worried that someone would respond internally, and advocated retreating to Liyang. The generals of the Later Jin Dynasty did not have a unified battle plan, so Zhang Congen led the army to retreat, and the others also fled, and the situation was chaotic.
Zhang Congen left 500 infantry to defend Anyang Bridge, and Fu Yanlun saw that there were not enough people, so he transferred 500 soldiers into the city. In the early morning of the 16th, Zhao Yanshou led tens of thousands of Khitan cavalry to line up in the north of Anyang Hebei, and soon crossed the Anyang River and marched south through the outside of Xiangzhou.
When Zhao Yanshou arrived in Tangyin, he learned that Zhang Yanze was marching from Liyang to Xiangzhou, and he was worried that he would be attacked by the garrison in Xiangzhou City and Zhang Yanze's army, so he retreated on the 17th.
Zhang Congen and Ma Quanjie, who were in Liyang in the Later Jin Dynasty, did not send troops to pursue.
Du Chongwei and other generals fought fiercely with the Khitan army in Yangcheng. Although the Later Jin army failed to continue with the grain shipment, they still resolutely resisted. However, because the Later Jin generals were very afraid of the Khitan, they began to retreat without seeing the Khitan army.
In the process of retreating, the Khitan army closely pursued, and the Later Jin army could only retreat while fighting, only traveling more than ten miles a day, and the soldiers were hungry and thirsty, and they were very tired. In the end, the Later Jin army was surrounded by the Khitan army and fell into a desperate situation.
However, at the critical moment, Yao Yuanfu, the deputy platoon of the right wing of the Ma army, put forward a proposal to surprise and quickly attack the Khitan army. Although Du Chongwei was afraid of the enemy and unwilling to fight, the soldiers and generals resolutely demanded to fight.
In the end, the Jin generals Yao Yuanfu, Zhang Yanze, Fu Yanqing, Huangfuyu and others did not wait for Du Chongwei's orders, and suddenly attacked the Khitan army with more than 10,000 horsemen, successfully defeated the Khitan army, and saved the crisis of the Later Jin army.
Li Shouzhen led the Jin army to pursue more than 20 miles north, and found many abandoned horses and ** by the Khitan army on the way. Yelu Deguang fled to Youzhou, gathered stragglers, and severely punished the Khitan chieftains who failed in the battle of Baituanwei Village, except for pardoning Zhao Yanshou, the Han general who worked hardest for the Khitan invasion in the south.
In April, Emperor Jin saw that the Khitan army had been repulsed and returned to Daliang from Lanzhou. The Jin troops who participated in the operation returned to their original positions.