Unlike the Central Plains army, the Khitan army did not have any late-stage support team, nor did they specifically escort food and grass. All the food and grass were prepared by the soldiers themselves. Generally speaking, every time they went to the expedition, the Khitan soldiers were only allowed to carry a very small amount of food and grass, and the others were solved wherever they went, or looted, or grazed.

Therefore, the sudden arrival of bad weather brought great difficulties to the Khitan army, resulting in the inability to continue food and grass.

What's even more tragic is that Li Cunxu, who was leading troops to attack Zhenzhou, heard that the Khitan troops went south to attack Dingzhou, and immediately brought five thousand troops to Dingzhou in person.

A Baoji did not dare to neglect and immediately divided his troops to block the attack. However, Li Cunxu was killed off guard and returned home. A Baoji was defeated again and panicked, and quickly ordered his retreat to Wangdu. Because the retreat was too panicked, he followed the army to Dingzhou's youngest son Yeluyali and was captured by the Jin army.

Of course, Li Cunxu refused to give up and led his troops to chase Wangdu. At this time, A Baoji had just arrived in Wangdu. Before he could settle down, he saw Li Cunxu bringing his troops to fight with great momentum. He was so angry that he led his troops out of the city to fight.

In this battle, Li Cunxu only led 5,000 people, but A Baoji had a population of 100,000, which far exceeded Li Cunxu in number. Therefore, after A Baoji analyzed the pros and cons, he immediately adjusted his formation and surrounded Li Cunxu's troops and prepared to catch a turtle in a jar.

Li Cunxu sat on the high horse, glanced at the black Khitan army, with no fear on his face, calmly commanding the troops to fight to the death, no less than the Khitan army. For a moment, the two sides were trapped in a melee.

However, the forces of the two sides were too disparity. A Baoji used the tactic of the sea of ​​people and fell down. The ones behind him then followed him up, and the soldiers continued to continue. Soon, Li Cunxu could not hold on and gradually became at a disadvantage.

Li Cunxu knew the current situation very well and knew that it would be no longer a matter of life or death if he continued to fight, and he would inevitably be wiped out. So he immediately ordered the soldiers to wait for an opportunity to break through. However, the encirclement formed by the 100,000 Khitan army was too large. He tried again and again, but he could never find the opportunity to break through.

Li Cunxu gradually became a little desperate. Could it be that God is going to destroy me?

Just then, a deafening shout came from afar. Li Cunxu looked closely and found that it was his subordinate Li Sizhao who arrived with reinforcements. He couldn't help but be overjoyed and cheered up again.

The arrival of reinforcements greatly boosted the morale of the Jin army, but the Khitan troops were suddenly disorganized and defeated one after another. Seeing this, Li Cunxu immediately rushed forward and attacked the Khitan army.

Seeing that the situation was over, Abaoji hurriedly ordered a quick retreat to the north.

Lu Wenjin wanted to persuade A Baoji to continue fighting, but A Baoji looked up at the vast sky full of snow and said, "It's God that I won't let me come here." As he said that, he ordered people to tie up Wang Yu and lead the army to retreat north.

"The house leaked and rained all night long." The Khitan army retreated northward, but the more we walked northward, the snow fell heavier and heavier, and the snow on the flat ground reached several feet deep.

The snow was too thick, the weather was cold and the food was difficult to save food and grass, which brought huge losses to the Khitan soldiers and horses. People and horses continued to fall down due to hunger and cold, and countless corpses of soldiers and horses were left on the endless snow, which was terrible. By the time they retreated to Gubeikou, there were only less than 20,000 troops left.

This is the first and only battle in Yelu Abaoji's life that he lost such a tragic battle, and is called the "Wangdu Battle".

In the third year after the Battle of Wangdu, Abaoji led his troops south to attack Youji area for the last time in his lifetime. However, this time, he did not take action personally, but instead let his second son, the new Khitan Army Marshal Yelu Deguang be the vanguard. Yelu Deguang conquered the cities and lands, and soon captured Pingzhou, Youzhou, and Quyang, and Beiping in Zhenzhou.

At this time, Li Cunxu established the Tang Dynasty in Weizhou and proclaimed himself emperor. After Abaoji learned about it, he knew that the situation in the Central Plains was changing and it was difficult to make profits. Li Cunxu's thorn in his side was too difficult, so he left Lu Wenjin and Zhao Siwen to station in Pingzhou and led his army back to the Khitan.

After Yelu Abaoji returned from Pingzhou, he wanted to rest further, but when he saw Li Cunxu destroy Zhu Liang and proclaim himself emperor, he could not sit still no matter how patient he was.

A Baoji knew very well that once the situation of the Central Plains regime stabilized, Li Cunxu would first deal with the Khitan.

Back then, when Li Keyong was dying, he handed his son Li Cunxu three arrows, asking him to fulfill his three wishes, namely, to attack Liu Rengong, eliminate Zhu Liang, and attack the Khitan in the north. Now, Liu Rengong has been destroyed, and Zhu Liang has also died. If it weren't for Li Cunxu being busy completing the great cause of Central Plains unification and not being able to spare time and energy to deal with the Khitan, the Khitan would have been attacked dozens or even hundreds of times long ago.

By the time Li Cunxu completed the great cause of unification and faced with the millions of heroic troops of the Central Plains dynasty, it was extremely difficult for the Khitan to enter the Central Plains again, not to mention that he wanted to manage his own affairs well, but to unify the northern border.

The more A Baoji thought about it, the more certain he had to take advantage of the opportunity of Li Cunxu's defeat of Zhu Liang and busy pacifying the Central Plains vassal states, and quickly unify the northern border. So A Baoji decided to lead his army to the west and unify the tribes of the grassland.

However, it was less than three years since the last time he went south to the Central Plains and returned from a crushing defeat, and the Khitan energy had not yet recovered. At this time, it was obviously not a wise move to use troops on a large scale. A Baoji knew that there would definitely be many people oppose it, so just in case, he made sufficient preparations in advance, and then summoned the leaders of the tribes and civil and military ministers to decide to learn the strategies of the people of the Central Plains - to move people with emotion and convince people with reason.

He also said that now that the Khitan political system is perfect, he can be content with his descendants with ten thousand hearts, but his life is a long time. Three years later, early autumn will be the day when he will pass by. However, the revolution has not succeeded yet, how can he die with peace of mind? Therefore, while there is still some time, he must take action and make his last contribution to the Khitan.

A Baoji spoke sincerely, and every sentence came from the heart. Everyone present was stunned and frightened. They didn't understand why the god-like man they worshiped said such words. When they came to their senses and understood the profound meaning, A Baoji was ready to take the Khitan army to advance westward.

The army of the Western Expedition first conquered Wugu, the enemy tribes, and then followed the Luqu River to the west to cross Langjuxu Mountain and reach the ancient Uighur City.

The ancient Uighur City was mainly inhabited by three major tribes, namely the Tubu tribes (that is, the Tatars), the Xiagas tribes and the Yuniang tribes. These three tribes have their own characteristics, and they are all very powerful and very difficult.

Abaoji did not rush to attack, but sent people to investigate and understand the actual situation of each tribe. It turned out that the parts of the thirty surname Tatars and the nine tribes were the strongest and most difficult to conquer. Relatively speaking, it was much easier to deal with the tribes of the Xiagas tribe and the Yaniang changing tribes.

So, Abaoji "teached according to his aptitude" and focused on sending troops to attack and block the Bu tribes. At the same time, he sent people to the Xiagas tribes and the Yaniangji tribes to be lobbyists. This trick really worked. Soon, the thirty Tatars were conquered, and then the nine Tatars were forced to surrender. At the same time, the Xiagas tribes and the Yaniangji tribes, who had already been scared by the Khitan army, also surrendered unconditionally.

Abaoji Longyan was very happy and immediately sent someone to drill stones in the Orkun River Basin to collect water, and used a car to send it back to Muye Mountain and Huangshui to convey this good news to their ancestors, so that they could know that the Khitan was really vast now. Then, he erected a monument to record the great achievements of this Western Expedition, and killed deer and sacrificed to the sky with the newly surrendered tribe leaders.

He told everyone that the Holy Lord and the wise monarch only had one in the years, and Yelu Abaoji was lucky to be chosen by God and became this wise monarch who inherited the destiny to rule all living beings. Therefore, he would do his best, work hard and devote himself to the efforts to strengthen the Khitan.

However, Abaoji was not satisfied with this. He looked at the end of the grassland and remembered that the Khitan had been swaying between Turks, Rourans, Uighurs and the Central Plains dynasty, and his heart was ups and downs and could not calm down for a long time. Now the past grassland empires have all declined one after another, and replaced by his Khitan empire. Therefore, since he has come here, he really feels sorry if he doesn't greet the "old master".

At this time, it was already the middle of winter, and the biting cold wind and heavy sandstorms came to us. The more we went west, the more difficult it was to move forward. But Abaoji had made up his mind, so he led the Khitan army to rise up without hesitation and headed westward.

Soon, the Khitan army arrived at the foot of Jinshan (which is today's Altai Mountain). This is the place where the Turkic people emerged, and now they live in tribes such as Turks, Uighurs, Shatu, Tuyuhun, and Zubu.

Among these many tribes, the Uighurs are the most difficult to deal with. After the fall of the Uighur Khanate, most of the Uighurs moved westward to the Hexi Corridor and established their capital in Ganzhou (that is, today's Zhangye, Gansu), so they were called Ganzhou Huihe; the other part moved to Gaochang (that is, today's Turpan City, Xinjiang), and were called Xizhou Huihe.

The Uighurs in Xizhou were used to stable life and did not like fighting and killing. Therefore, after being a talented and wise grassland rookie Abaoji served as the Khitan Khan, the Uighurs in Xizhou, who smelled the breath of crisis, immediately sent people to the Khitan to express their willingness to pay tribute. Since then, they have always been very obedient and obedient.

This time, I heard that A Baoji personally led the army to the west, and they did not believe it at first. It was not until the Khitan army was pressing from the horizon to the border that they woke up like a dream and immediately sent someone to contact A Baoji and expressed their infinite loyalty to the Khitan Empire. A Baoji was very happy about this.

But the brother tribe of the Uighurs in Xizhou, Ganzhou, was not so obedient. I heard that the Khitan army was approaching. Not only did it not contact A Baoji, but it also quickly rested the army and prepared to fight at any time, which gave A Baoji a headache.

After careful consideration, Abaoji decided to use the strategy of "first troops and then etiquette" to deal with the Uighurs in Ganzhou. He first sent a large army to slaughter them completely, and then surrendered them. Faced with the vast Khitan army, the Uighurs in Ganzhou was simply vulnerable and was defeated. Even the governor Biliye was captured by the Khitan army.

Now A Baoji's mood turned darker. He personally met Biliye and tried his best to do ideological work for him, explaining him with righteousness and sincere feelings. Finally, he successfully convinced Biliye and asked him to go back and mobilize the leader of the Uighur leader of Ganzhou, Khan, to surrender quickly.

Bili E thought that it would be in the hands of the enemy and not to be dismantled, and he would definitely be unable to save his life. Unexpectedly, not only did he not have any worries about life, but he was also served with delicious food and drinks, so he was full of affection for the Khitan. As soon as he returned to the Uighurs in Ganzhou, he immediately found the Khan of the Umother Lord, and told Abaoji that he gave him more sensational remarks: "I know it is not easy for you to leave your hometown. I miss your hometown very much. As long as you surrender obediently, I will help you restore your country immediately. However, if you firmly refuse to go back, then I really have no choice but to manage that piece of land on your behalf."

The mother-master Khan of Ukraine knew very well that Abaoji was coercion and temptation, but he was neither intimidated nor blinded by the huge temptation in front of him. Of course, he knew that even if he surrendered to the Khitan at this time, it would be difficult to ensure peace from now on. But that was the future. At this time, the army was in front of him, and he had to make a choice.

After some thought, Khan, the mother-master of Ukrain, finally chose to surrender, but he did not accept Abaoji's kindness to return to his hometown to restore the country. Instead, he said that everyone had lived in Ganzhou for a long time and had adapted to the life here. He did not want to travel long distances, but chose to stay in Ganzhou.

A Baoji was very happy about this happy ending. Long Yan was very happy and captured Futu City, captured the Dangxiang tribes, and completely captured the entire Western border town. Then he happily returned to the court.

From then on, the territory of the Khitan Empire advanced westward to Jinshan, to the Selenge River Basin in the north, and to the Great Wall line in the south. At the same time, a grassland "Silk Road" was opened. Merchants from Western Regions came to the Khitan Xilouhuangdu to do business along the road opened by Abaoji, which promoted economic and cultural exchanges between the Khitan and the Western Regions.

(The Khitan countries are all western buildings. The "building" here is not what we call high-rise buildings now, but a general term for the nomadic regime leaders stationed in pasture land. In nomadic peoples, the grassland of the leader is the political and economic center of the entire Khanate, so it is relatively prosperous and has more buildings. There are often some fixed buildings with more than two floors, so this area is called "building".

After Yelu Abaoji became the Khitan Khan, he did not want to continue working in the Dahe clan and Yaonian clan's patriarchal land, so he moved the political and economic center of the Khanate west to the patriarchal land of the Yelu clan. In order to distinguish it from the original political rule center, the original patriarchal land was called "East Tower" and the new patriarchal land was called "Western Tower".)
Chapter completed!