After talking about the Western Xia, let’s talk about the Liao Civil War. At this time, the Liao Civil War had been fighting for more than a year. Except for the initial Huanghe Battle, there was no large-scale battle in the past year. For more than a year, Yelu Hongji’s Northern Liao was hiding in Yong'an Mountain and licking his wounds, while Yelu Chongyuan’s Southern Liao was consolidating and consuming his territory.

Although Yelu Chongyuan failed in tactical ways in the Battle of Huanghe, he achieved strategic victory, completely destroying Linhuang Prefecture, where Yelu Hongji was located, forcing Northern Liao to hide in Yong'an Mountain and silently lick his wounds. Over the past year, Yelu Chongyuan was able to easily integrate his strength, making Southern Liao united, and gradually gained recognition from the people and became the orthodox of the Liao Kingdom.

After a year of integration, the Southern Liao army's strength reached 400,000, although it was 200,000 less than a year ago, but these 400,000 troops were absolutely loyal to Yelu Chongyuan. Unlike the Jingzhou soldiers a year ago, which were basically a group of mobs, Yelu Chongyuan's purpose of preparing military military forces was to unify the Liao Kingdom. If he wanted to completely eliminate the Northern Liao Dynasty, he needed to pull out a nail behind him first. This nail was Yelu Renxian, who lived in Datong, Xijing.

Yelu Chongyuan once, when Yelu Hongji was attacking Linhuang Mansion, Yelu Renxian sent troops to sneak attack Xijin Mansion. At that time, Yelu Nelugu was stationed in Xijin Mansion. A small-scale war broke out between the two sides. In the end, both sides had their own victory or defeat. Although Yelu Renxian failed to attack, he also waited for an opportunity to occupy Yingzhou and Weizhou, resolved the threat in the southern part of Datong, and obtained an advantageous position for effective defense and offense centered on Datong Mansion.

The entire Liao Kingdom had nine prefectures, but now they were divided into three parts, and were occupied by three major forces. Among them, the four western prefectures belong to the Western Xia, and the four southern prefectures are under the control of Yelu Renxian, and only Fengsheng Prefecture, located in the northeast, is under the control of Southern Liao; the four southern prefectures controlled by Yelu Renxian are close to Nanjing Road, and Yelu Chongyuan will never allow such a fatal threat to exist.

Besides, the Song Dynasty's attitude towards the Liao civil war was vague during the Song Dynasty's period. It was basically nothing to worry about the Liao civil war. As long as the war did not affect the territory of the Song Dynasty, it would be easy to say. But now it is different. Song Yingzong passed away and Song Shenzong succeeded to the throne. This young emperor had an ambition. He hoped that China could once again complete unification and achieve his great achievements for thousands of years; this was fully reflected in future reforms.

Song Shenzong's succession to the throne was no longer indifferent to the civil war of the Liao Kingdom. Unlike the Western Xia support of the relatively weak Northern Liao, Song Shenzong was more inclined to Southern Liao. First of all, the Southern Liao was powerful and directly bordered the Song Dynasty. Although the Northern Liao controlled the four southern prefectures of Xijing Road, in the eyes of Song Shenzong, this enclave would sooner or later be annexed by Southern Liao. In addition, what is more important is that Southern Liao can tigong some war horses for the Song Dynasty. Although there are few hundred horses, it is just a huge one for the Song Dynasty, which lacks war horses.

The reason why Yelu Chongyuan wanted to obtain the support of the Song Dynasty was actually very simple. First, it was to maintain the trade with the Song Dynasty and cut off the trade routes between the Song Dynasty and Datong, and secondly, it was to prevent the Song Dynasty from stabbing in the back; because of these two points, Yelu Chongyuan spared no effort to gain the support of the Song Dynasty; in Yelu Chongyuan's view, as long as the trade between Yelu Renxian and the Song Dynasty and their materials were cut off, the nail could be easily pulled out.

In the Southern Liao Xijin Palace, the Southern Liao Emperor Yelu Chongyuan, the Crown Prince Yelu Nielugu and the Prime Minister Zheng Hun were discussing a combat plan to attack Datong. In this battle, Yelu Chongyuan invested 300,000 troops to occupy the four states controlled by Yelu Renxian in one fell swoop, and completely pulled out the nail behind him. However, Yelu Chongyuan also had concerns that it was the defense line in the north. Since most of the troops were drawn to attack Datong, the defense line in the north would appear, and Yelu Hongji would definitely seize this opportunity to launch a large-scale counterattack.

Yelu Chongyuan sat next to the map and pointed and said to the two: "Once I commanded the army to attack Xijing, Yelu Hongji will definitely send troops from the north to echo the Datong defenders. At that time, our army will be trapped in a two-sided battle. Is there any good way for you two?"

Zheng Hun first said to Yelu Chongyuan: "Your Majesty, I think this battle should be decided quickly, and it is not advisable to delay the situation too long. As for the defense in the north, I think it should be handed over to His Highness the Crown Prince, who will lead 70,000 troops to guard the Dading Prefecture of Zhongjing. Your Majesty will lead the main force of 150,000 troops to Datong Prefecture from Fengshengzhou, and His Highness the King of Yan led 50,000 troops to Weizhou to restrain the Northern Liao army of Weizhou."

The strategic concept proposed by Zheng Hun almost imagined everything. According to Zheng Hun's ideas, such a deployment can both attack and defense. There is no need to say more about the offense. It is a joint attack by the north and the south on Datong, and the main thing is that the hidden person defends during the attack.

We can first make an assumption that when the Southern Liao army launched a large-scale attack on Datong, Yelu Hongji led the main force of the Northern Liao army to suddenly go south and cross the Huanghe River to attack Zhongjing Dading Prefecture. Yelu Nelugu lost in the battle with Yelu Hongji, and the Northern Liao army could only defend Dading Prefecture to the death. Under such circumstances, the main force of the Southern Liao army in the northeast of Datong could quickly give up the plan to attack Datong to reinforce Dading Prefecture.

If the Song army took advantage of the emptiness of the Xijin Mansion and wanted to attack, there would be no need to worry. Although Yelu Chongyuan only left 20,000 troops in the Xijin Mansion, the 50,000 troops commanded by Yan King Yelu Mu could quickly return to the rescue; in this way, no matter where the north and south sides were threatened, the Southern Liao army could enter the defense as quickly as possible.

Yelu Chongyuan agreed with Zheng Hun's strategic plan very much and agreed with Zheng Hun's offensive plan on the spot. The Southern Liao army began to deploy according to Zheng Hun's plan. In fact, it was very simple in ancient wars, without any very detailed combat deployment, and on the battlefield it relies more on the generals' adaptability; what to do before the war was to choose the target and then prepare a large amount of food and grass.

After everything was ready, Yelu Chongyuan issued an edict to the world that announced the purpose of attacking Yelu Renxian, and then the three armies swore to go on the expedition. Before Yelu Chongyuan went on the expedition, he was actually the king of Yan Yelu Mu.

King Yelu Mu of Yan was the second son of Yelu Chongyuan. Yelu Mu was a brave and militant. Although Yelu Mu liked war, he was not good at strategy. In other words, he was just a brave man. Therefore, Yelu Chongyuan was very worried about letting Yelu Mu lead the 50,000 army. In Yelu Chongyuan's view, this great defeat was a trivial matter. It would be bad if Yelu Mu lost his life by then.

For this reason, Yelu Chongyuan was given a insurance policy by his son, and sent his most trusted military advisor, Zheng Hun, the Prime Minister of the Southern Liao Kingdom, to Yelu Mu, and asked Zheng Hun to help him watch. Before going to the expedition, Yelu Chongyuan called Zheng Hun to his side and said, "The King of Yan has the courage to be inappropriate, but he has no ability to make plans. The Prime Minister is the person I trust the most. I hope the Prime Minister will mention me to favor my second son and protect his life."

Hearing Yelu Chongyuan's words, Zheng Hun could only say helplessly: "I am trying my best to fulfill Your Majesty's order."
Chapter completed!