One day in the first month of the twenty-third year of Hongde's reign, King Zhao Hongjiang of Yan stood on the gate tower of Shanyang City, looking at the snowy fields outside the city in the biting cold wind.

From time to time, he could see groups of Korean cavalry, their horses stepping on the snow, heading west as if there was no one around.

Whenever he saw those Korean cavalry, King Yan Zhao Hongjiang clenched his fists subconsciously, eager to lead his troops out of the city.

But reason told him that if he rushed out of the city to fight the Korean army at this time, there would be only death.

Does Wei still have a chance of winning this battle?

King Yan Zhao Hongjiang couldn't help but feel a little confused.

In fact, by the time this battle was fought, the Wei State was completely passive in northern Xinjiang: the Shanyang Army of Yan King Zhao Hongjiang retreated to "Shanyang", and the anti-rebellion army of Southern Liang King Zhao Yuanzuo was forced to have no choice but to withdraw westward and stationed in "Huai".

"Yi", part of them crossed the river to garrison "Yuanyang"; on the other hand, the Korean army was in full swing and divided its troops into three groups to attack "Hanoi", "Yuanyang" and Weiguo.

It is no exaggeration to say that under the fierce offensive of the Korean army, the Wei State was completely at a disadvantage.

Although King Yan Zhao Hongjiang is still guarding Shanyang County, he actually understands in his heart that Shanyang's threat to the Korean army is minimal. Look at those Korean cavalry riding wildly on the snowy fields outside Shanyang City. Those Korean cavalry

People did not take Shanyang County seriously at all, and went around Shanyang again and again to put pressure on "Yewang", "Qinyang" and other places.

During this period, these Korean cavalry occupied Wei villages one after another and captured a large number of Hanoi Wei people.

He had obviously made a promise to guard the northern border for the country, but now, he could only watch those compatriots being captured by the Korean army. Every time he thought of this, King Yan Zhao Hongjiang felt a heavy oppression in his chest.

Time gradually passed, and it was approaching dusk in a blink of an eye. King Yan Zhao Hongjiang, who had been standing on the city gate tower for several hours, sighed secretly - he still did not meet the person he was expecting.

Wrapping himself in his battle robe, Zhao Hongjiang turned around and walked down the city wall, taking two ordinary guards with him, and rode slowly towards the Prince Yan's Mansion in the city.

"His Royal Highness King Yan!"

"Your Highness, Your Highness!"

The Shanyang soldiers or local county residents whom I met along the way greeted Zhao Hongjiang eagerly.

Zhao Hongjiang nodded in response one by one, with a calm and calm smile on his face, not daring to reveal his inner hesitation.

When he returned to Prince Yan's Mansion, his wife, Prince Yan's concubine Sun, was working with two side rooms and the maids from the mansion, mending war robes, winter coats and armor for the soldiers of the Shanyang Army.

Beside, the eldest son, second son and eldest daughter of King Yan Zhao Hongjiang were sitting on the bench with their heads tilted and watching.

The lining of Wei people's armor was generally made of thick cowhide. In order to pass the delicate needle thread through the cowhide, the two side chambers of Sun and Zhao Hongjiang had to endure a lot of hardships.

Especially the Princess Sun of Yan, who was born into the "Waihuang Sun" family of a famous aristocrat in the Wei state. Her natal family used to occupy a mine and live on the ground, so she had no worries about food and clothing. She had never done such hard work as needlework.

Keeping one's fingers clean is a true reflection of the daily life of the daughter of such a famous noble family.

Suddenly, Princess Sun of Yan frowned. It turned out that she accidentally pricked her finger with the needle and thread. However, Princess Yan, who was born as an aristocratic girl, just put her finger in her mouth and sucked it for a moment. After the bleeding stopped, she continued to mend her hand.

Armor - as if she was used to it.

"..."

Seeing this scene, King Yan Zhao Hongjiang, who was standing outside the hall, felt very complicated. He was distressed, but also felt a bit proud.

"Daddy."

The chubby eldest daughter Tuantuan saw Zhao Hongjiang standing outside the hall and ran over happily.

Zhao Hongjiang laughed and picked up his daughter.

Seeing this, Princess Yan and other women in the house stopped their sewing and bowed respectfully to Zhao Hongjiang.

There are also Zhao Hongjiang’s two sons, Zhao Bowu and Zhao Zhongwu.

After the salute, Princess Sun of Yan came forward, took her daughter from her husband's hands, and signaled the two side chambers to lead the three children to the side hall.

It was a pity that the daughter kept clamoring for her father to hold her, so in the end, only Zhao Hongjiang's two sons followed the two aunts to the side hall.

After everyone left in a sensible manner, Princess Sun of Yan poured a cup of tea for her husband and watched with a smile as her husband teased his daughter.

Although her daughter Tuantuan was the daughter of a concubine, because the two concubines were originally cousins ​​that Sun had known since childhood, Sun had always treated her as her own child.

After a moment, she asked cautiously: "Husband, has my brother still not come?"

The brother she refers to is her biological brother and the brother-in-law of King Yan Zhao Hongjiang, Sun Hao.

Speaking of which, the relationship between the Sun family of Waihuang and King Zhao Hongjiang of Yan is quite deep. First of all, the biological mother of King Zhao Hongjiang, Sun Guiji, is the daughter of the Sun family of Waihuang. According to seniority, Princess Sun of Yan has to call Sun Guiji her cousin.

.

Therefore, Zhao Hongjiang adopted the Sun family, and he and the Waihuang Sun family were close to each other. It was precisely because of this that the Waihuang Sun family strongly supported Zhao Hongjiang in forming the Shanyang Army.

It is no exaggeration to say that the development of the Shanyang Army of Yan Wang Zhao Hongjiang to its current level is indispensable to the Waihuang Sun family.

Especially when the war between Wei and Han broke out again in the second half of last year, because Wei State was in urgent need of a large amount of weapons and equipment, and Daliang's Smelting Bureau and Weapon Casting Bureau were too late to build them, the imperial court authorized local nobles to privately forge weapons and armor and form private enterprises.

The army protects the country.

Under this special decree, the princes and nobles of Wei who seemed like worms to the country in the past took action one after another and invested heavily in forming private armies to build weapons. For example, Prince Zhao Shen of Chengling and Marquis of Anping Zhao Tan are currently stationed in the "Suan Zao" army.

It was these two princes of the Zhao family who raised their own funds to build it.

Another example is the Waihuang Sun Clan. In the past, they occupied the mines belonging to their country and refused to release them. But now that the Wei State is facing the threat of collapse, the Waihuang Sun Clan immediately spent huge sums of money to forge weapons and armor for the Shanyang Army and raise military rations for them.

It cannot be denied that the nobles of Wei, especially the big nobles, usually try their best to use their power for personal gain and take advantage of the court's loopholes. However, when the country is threatened, they will still contribute money and efforts without hesitation.

Come to think of it, there are still very few big nobles in the world who are as greedy and visionary as Xiong Li, the Juyang Lord of Chu State. The vast majority of nobles, even if they usually rely on their status as princes and nobles to dominate the country, when they

When the country faces the threat of collapse, they will still contribute their own strength. This is the so-called "if the skin is not left, the hair will be attached."

Sun Hao, the elder brother of Princess Yan's Sun family, has been responsible for transporting grain and grass to Shanyang in recent months. However, for some reason, it was three days later than the scheduled date, and Sun Hao's grain transport team still did not arrive at Shanyang.

This gave Zhao Hongjiang and his wife an unknown premonition—could they be robbed by the Korean cavalry?

This guess is very possible, because objectively speaking, the Wei army has lost control of at least 70% of the area in Hanoi. Facing the Korean cavalry that is said to be tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, the Wei army in northern Xinjiang now does not even have the counties where they are stationed.

If you dare to leave lightly, you can only watch the Korean cavalry galloping carelessly on the snowy fields, cutting off the connection between the cities in the northern Xinjiang and the Wei territory south of the river.

"Perhaps it was delayed due to wind and snow, so don't worry."

Zhao Hongjiang comforted his wife.

Although he himself didn't quite believe this.

In the evening of that day, Sun Hao took two or three servants and fled to Shanyang covered in blood.

Sure enough, Sun Hao's team transporting grain and grass was attacked by the Korean cavalry. Seeing that the situation was irreversible, Sun Hao hurriedly ordered his servants and civilians to burn the carts of grain and grass to prevent the grain and grass from being seized by the Korean army.

Afterwards, Sun Hao, relying on the desperate protection of more than 20 servants, finally escaped to Shanyang and reported the bad news to Zhao Hongjiang.

Seeing Sun Hao's ashamed and embarrassed look, King Yan Zhao Hongjiang shook his head and in turn comforted the former.

He did not mean to blame Sun Hao. After all, given the current situation in northern Xinjiang, Sun Hao led his team to transport grain and grass to Shanyang. This was originally an extremely dangerous matter, and he might be attacked by the Korean cavalry at any time.

But even though he knew this, Zhao Hongjiang couldn't help but feel disappointed because he was no longer rich in food in Shanyang County.

Although Shanyang has been frugal in the past two months, after all, there are nearly 18,000 Shanyang troops and more than 4,000 Nanyan troops stationed in this city. In addition, there are tens of thousands of local or nearby Mu in Shanyang.

According to a rough estimate of the Wei people who came here, the food in Shanyang City may only be enough to last for more than half a month.

And this is not the worst news. The worst news is that in recent days, the Korean cavalry has been operating more and more frequently in this area, and they have become more and more careful about attacking the food roads in Shanyang, Huaiyi and other cities.

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This led Zhao Hongjiang, King of Yan, to come to a conclusion: the Korean army was about to use troops against Shanyang, Huaiyi and other places!

The next day, Zhao Hongjiang summoned Cao Yan, Liu Xu and other Zongwei and Shanyang Army generals to the Prince of Yan's Mansion to discuss countermeasures with them.

Also present was Zhao Hongjiang's brother-in-law, Sun Hao.

During the discussion, everyone was worried.

To be fair, Shanyang County will not be captured by the Korean army in the short term. After all, King Yan Zhao Hongjiang has been operating in Shanyang County for four or five years. Both the city defense and the people's hearts and minds of the Wei people in the city are extremely reliable.

The problem lies in two points:

First of all, judging from the current war situation in northern Xinjiang, the strategic significance of Shanyang County is very small, because various signs indicate that after the spring begins, the Korean army will cross the river in large numbers to attack the territories of Wei and Wei south of the river, and will be responsible for the offensive at that time

The one in Hanoi County may just be a partial division of the Korean army in the direction of Handan.

Under this situation, although the pressure on Sanyang County was greatly reduced, it could no longer share the pressure of the Korean army, and it was unable to support its own country.

Secondly, due to the infiltration attack tactics of the Korean cavalry, Shanyang County, Huaiyi County and other places have been turned into isolated cities, and the Korean army has cut off contact with the country. In this situation, Shanyang can't escape in the end.

The fate of being captured by the Korean army.

Therefore, Zongwei Liu Xu made a suggestion to quickly withdraw to Huaiyi before the Korean army started to take action, join up with the anti-rebellion army in Huaiyi, try to cross the river, and rearrange defenses in Yuanyang - then Nanyan

It was the main battlefield in the battle between Wei and Han after the beginning of spring.

But Zongwei Cao Yan immediately raised objections: "In Shanyang County, in addition to our Shanyang Army and Nanyan Army, which total more than 20,000 people, there are tens of thousands of Wei civilians. How can it be possible for them all to evacuate quietly to the river?"

Nan? Do you think those Korean cavalry are all blind?"

After a pause, he continued: "What's more, if the Korean army takes Shanyang, what will happen to Tianmen Pass?"

Yes, at Tianmen Pass, there are also 5,000 garrison troops led by Lu Zhan, a 3,000-man merchant general. They guard the Tianmen Mine and the main road between Hanoi and Shangdang.

If Shanyang is captured by the Korean army, it will be difficult to defend Tianmen Pass for a long time. Once this pass is lost, the Korean army will be able to drive directly into Shangdang County. By then, most of the Shangdang County that King Su's army finally defeated will be

Give it back to South Korea.

"Well, this is not possible!" King Yan Zhao Hongjiang also shook his head and raised objections.
To be continued...