At the end of the Tang Dynasty, a warlord in the north was anxious to relieve internal and external pressure, and did not hesitate to cede the sixteen states of Youyun to the Liao State. The warlord called himself Emperor Er, and with the help of the Liao State, he reached the pinnacle of his life.

The Han people in the north are boiling, they can put up with a ridiculous and tyrannical king, but they can't accept a butt seller standing on their heads. In just three years, the emperor was overthrown by the envoys of various festivals, but the sixteen states of Youyun will always become the big granary of the Khitan.

Youyun 16 states, of which You, Ji, Ying, Mo, Zhuo, Tan, Shun seven states are located in the southeast of the north branch of Taihang Mountain, and the rest of the Yun, Confucian, Fu, Wu, Xin, Wei, Ying, Huan, Shuo Kyushu are in the northwest of Taihang Mountain.

The sixteen states of Youyun are connected to grasslands and plains from east to west, Saibei and North China from north to south, Taihang Mountains to the west, and Yanshan Mountains to the north. As long as a few mountain passes in the west and north are guarded, the land of Hedong and Yanzhao will be as stable as Mount Tai.

If you look at the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun as a giant lock, Yanjing City is the key to this giant lock.

Yanjing City is the southern capital of Liao, and it is the most important trade center of Liao. The Khitan, Xi, Murowei, Jurchen and Goryeo, Great Zhou, and Western Xia merchants of the Liao Kingdom bought and sold here, and the green salt of the Western Xia, the silk tea and porcelain of the Great Zhou, the cattle and sheep of the Khitan, the furs of the Jurchens, and the people of Goryeo participated in several exchanges here, and then were taken to the next place by the caravan.

The city wall of Yanjing City is 10 meters high, and the wall can accommodate two horse-drawn carriages in parallel. There are six city gates, two water gates, and each gate has an arrow tower and an urn city. There are corner towers at the four corners of the city wall, and each city wall has dozens of horse faces, and the wall dishes are not counted. Combined with the moats and moats outside the city, this giant city is impregnable.

However, Xiao Zhen, the newly rising legendary general of the Khitan, was not satisfied with this, "It's not enough! He commented on Yanjing City like this, and his subordinates were stunned. As a famous general, Xiao Zhen knew very well that the defense of the city ultimately depended on the quality of the army, and the situation of the Liao army was obviously very bad.

The battle of Zhongdu was regarded as taking half of the life of the Khitan, and in just a few months, the Liao State lost most of the northern part of the Saibei, and Yanjing City was already in a state of semi-encirclement. Once the Jin State completed the suppression of the western capital Datong, the defense of the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun would begin.

Of course, Ye Luming and Xiao Zhen wanted to suppress the Jin State outside the Guan, but the Great Wall in the northwest of Yanjing had long been decayed, and they had too many troops just to send food to the Jin State, and if they only defended one or two roads, they would not achieve their goal. In desperation, the two decided to disperse the cannon fodder troops to various passes, and concentrate the combatable troops to defend Yanjing City and Changping City in the northwest.

Xiao Zhen sneaked into the Aguda camp and was injured and left with the root of the disease. But the current situation did not allow him to rest, and Yelu Ming did not let him go out to find death, so he had to take charge of the logistics of the army in the conservatory.

Ye Luming was originally a very tough man in his prime, but now his brows are wrinkled into the word "three". "Yanjing Dakuli can run a carriage, where will the money and food come from for us to defend the city, and we will no longer raise taxes on the Han people?"

Xiao Zhen stared at the map for a while, his fingers on Bianjing in the Great Zhou, and then at Datong, and then across the entire Mobei. "The Han people and other small tribes only have one breath left, and the Han official surnamed Han, who is proficient in arithmetic, reported that the food in the hands of the Youyun Han people is only enough for them not to starve to death, and if they are forced to do so, they will be reversed."

Ye Luming was somewhat disapproving, "How can the words of the Han officials be believed, those people voted for my Liao State yesterday, voted for the Jin State today, and maybe they will vote for Da Zhou tomorrow." ”

Xiao Zhen listened to this little complaint, and was about to make a few fun words, but his heart was shocked. Invest in the big week, invest in the big week...... Xiao Zhen's eyes were a little out of focus, and he repeatedly said a few nouns in his mouth, faintly grasping something.

The guard general of Nancheng wanted to remind Xiao Zhen of being rude, but Ye Luming hurriedly stopped it. He asked everyone else to go out, helped Xiao Zhen to the bed by himself, and then waited patiently. He understood the muttering man on the bed, Xiao Zhen must have some big idea.

After a while, Xiao Zhen coughed violently. Then he closed his eyes, his chest rose and fell, and his face was purple. Yeluming hurriedly stroked his back and asked someone to bring medicinal soup.

Xiao Zhen took a few deep breaths, and his face looked a little better, "I have thought of a way to save the Khitan from being exterminated, although there is only a thirty percent chance of winning." ”

Yelu Ming was overjoyed, and his hand holding the medicine was trembling, "Say it slowly, don't worry." ”

Xiao Zhen spoke for half an hour, Ye Luming's expression kept changing, and finally he couldn't help asking, "Are you so sure that the Great Zhou will be fooled?" Isn't it too early to start preparing to cross the grassland to Mobei now? ”

Xiao Zhen gasped again, "It's not early, I don't think I have enough time." The repeated defeats in the previous battles are largely due to the fact that my Liao State is tired of soldiers, and everything is slow Jurchen line. There is no need to worry about the Great Zhou, their Emperor Taizu once said that the one who snatched the clouds was crowned the king with a different surname, as long as he asked about the fishy smell, he would definitely go north, and then it would be the time for my Liao Kingdom to get out. ”

Xiao Zhen leaned on the pillow and spoke slowly, "The key issue is to make Jin Guo and Da Zhou face each other, not too early or too late, and we must also make the Jurchens feel that the Great Zhou army is vulnerable." It's hard to grasp the heat, and the more prepared you are, the better. The Han people in Youyun need to be appeased, and the money and food needed for this war can be found from those fat rats. ”

Ye Luming hesitated, "It's not good, how can you say it, it's also a relative of the emperor......

Xiao Zhen sat up suddenly and threw the tea bowl to the ground, startling Yeluming. "Yeluming, wake up, your uncle has been a powerful man in Yanjing City for more than ten years, and he can't walk after eating. You, me, and the young soldiers who followed you and me are the only hope for the Khitan tribe! ”

"Grandpa Kishige died in battle, many people died in battle, and you are still here with the kindness of a woman?! Is the reputation of a benevolent monarch so important? I only have the strength to survive in my Liao country, and the best outcome can only be to cross the desert and go west. At that time, these fat rats in Yanjing City will be a drag, they will either die early, or hundreds of people will die with them, don't you understand?! ”

Xiao Zhen's eyes suddenly protruded, he fell into the pillow and gasped violently, sweating like rain, Yeluming shouted and called the doctor over. Xiao Zhen grabbed Yeluming's arm, "Yeluming, hurry up." Give the food of these rats to the faithful soldiers, and give them the possessions of the rats to the soldiers who fight bravely. You may spare them a lifetime, but you must take away their weapons and drive them to the Western Capital. When the time comes, whether they can survive or not depends on their ability. ”

Yeluming agreed with tears in his eyes, then wiped his eyes a few times, clenched his fists a few times, and slammed the door open. "Gather all the armies and guard the gates, hurry!"

At the beginning of June of the second year of the Great Zhou Shengxi, four months after the battle of Jin-Liaozhongdu, the rested Jin army forced to Zhangjiakou along the road. Most of the towns along the way surrendered to the wind, and the Liao army adopted the strategy of gecko tail breaking, constantly using miscellaneous soldiers and tribal soldiers to consume the Jurchen spirit.

Datong in the southwest of Zhangjiakou and Yanjing in the southeast correspond to the towering Taihang and are the last line of defense of the Liao State, and Zhangjiakou is an important hub connecting the two places. Once Zhangjiakou is captured by the Jin State, Youyun and Hedong will fall into a situation where they will fight for themselves. However, Zhangjiakou has been used as a commercial distribution center for hundreds of years, in the heart of the Liao State, and the city's ordnance has been in disrepair for a long time and cannot be maintained for a long time.

"Yeluming, you actually took my family property, do you want to rebel?!" A fat, barely eye-catching, bejeweled guy jumped to his feet and scolded in front of Yeluming, saliva spraying everywhere, and the smell of sweat was suffocating in the hot weather.

Yeluming looked at the elder of the royal family in disgust, let him go, and the soldiers around him pulled the fat man away. "The Khitan clan has reached the point of life and death, and you guys are just drunk and dreaming of death, and they actually hoard food! Don't you understand what the situation of Khitan is now, if you continue to hoard Juqi, Yanjing will be in chaos. ”

Taking a deep breath, he suppressed the anger in his heart, "The soldiers are hungry, and the Han people who are loyal to the Liao State are also hungry. If the army has no heart to fight like this, how can Yanjing City be defended? ! ”

"If you can't fight, you will run, and if you can't run, you will die, what does it have to do with Lao Tzu. Before ascending the throne, you will take your own people, Yeluming, what kind of thing are you, hurry up and send Lao Tzu's grain back! The fat man scolded in a hurry, and the eyes of the soldiers around him began to redden.

Ye Luming's throat was a little dry, "It turns out that what Xiao Zhen said is right, in the hearts of you people, you only have your own one-third of an acre, and the survival of Da Liao and Khitan is not in your heart at all." In that case, don't blame Amin! ”

Beginning in mid-June, Yanjing City was suddenly under martial law. After Yeluming ousted his imperial uncle and seized military power three months ago, he began a raid operation, mainly Khitan nobles and bureaucrats, but also many Han officials.

A large number of bureaucrats from the Khitan, Xi, and Murwei nationalities were imprisoned, and a large number of charges of forming parties for personal gain, embezzlement and bribery, and smuggling of arms and weapons were brought out under torture. Ye Luming was heartbroken, and together with Xiao Zhen, he began to invest a lot of resources to implement the "Golden Cicada Shelling" plan.

In just ten days, Yeluming confiscated 1 million stone of grain, 800,000 yuan of money, 30,000 catties of gold, and 70,000 catties of silver. Fur, jewelry, calligraphy and paintings, etc., are countless.

The weather turned cool in the evening, and Xiao Zhen could finally come out for an activity. Looking at the mountains of knives, guns, bows and crossbows and other ordnance in the compound, his hands on crutches trembled slightly.

Ye Luming didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "This is what the magnates of our Liao Kingdom do, let them hand over their private soldiers and cry one by one." As a result, a check found that there were so many ordnance, enough to ration 10,000 elites. I don't know what they are doing with so many weapons, whether they want to fight the Jurchens or ......"

"Equip the best ordnance and armor to the troops of your cronies, and take out a part of the gold, silver and copper coins to make up for the arrears. Jewelry, calligraphy and paintings were sold to Da Zhou in batches, and more grain, salt, cloth and tea were exchanged. Datong and Ulan need to step up contact, we don't have much time. Xiao Zhen quickly turned around, out of sight.

The territory of the Liao State in Guannei was officially divided into two parts, and Yeluming de facto divided the land of clouds, and the two sides were bounded by the Taihang Mountains. Yeluming confiscated a large number of officials and nobles, but did not kill much, and a large number of powerful people dragged their children and daughters to Datong every day.

A strange scene appeared, and the Han bureaucrats and gentry, who had always been guarded against by the upper echelons of the Liao State, were not greatly impacted. A large number of official vacancies need to be filled by Han officials, and the treatment of Han army troops has also been greatly improved.

The Han elite discussed privately and agreed that the Liao State was in a critical moment, and Yeluming needed the support of the Han people, so he had these preferential treatments. After all, Yeluming and Xiao Zhen have already offended the Khitan nobles, so what should they do if they don't entrap the Han people? As a result, the Han official group successively took refuge in Yeluming, and the status of the Han people in the Youyun region soon rose to the same height as the Khitans, at least on the surface.

Under the instruction of Ye Luming, the Han officials who actually controlled the government began the "rectification movement". Those who embezzle and accept bribes will be arrested, those who communicate with foreign countries will be arrested, those who smuggle and evade taxes will be arrested, and those who manufacture weapons illegally will be arrested. No matter what the low, no matter the clan. The Han people, who account for seventy percent of the population of Youyun, breathed a sigh of relief, and many squires wept bitterly, and their identification with the Liao State reached a new height.