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Xiongzhou Xuanfu Department.

Tong Guan convened Cai You, Liu Yanqing and Guo Yaoshi to hold a meeting to discuss the march to Yanjing.

Guo Yaoshi first spoke: "The situation in Yanjing is more familiar with the situation. Xiaguan will briefly introduce the terrain of Yanjing to several adults... Yanjing City is divided into outer city, inner city and palace city, with eight gates in all directions, Yingchun in the east, Andong in the west, Xianxi in the west, Qingjin in the south, Danfeng in the south, Tongtian in the north, Gongchen in the north. The streets in the city are crisscrossed, and the main roads are east-west and north-south. The city is divided into twenty-six fangs, each of which has a gate and a wall."

Tong Guan asked: "Where is the palace city?"

Pharmacist Guo replied: "In the southwest, the scale is not too large, but the palace walls are very strong, easy to defend but difficult to attack."

Liu Yanqing asked: "How high is the city wall?"

Pharmacist Guo replied: "Three feet tall and one feet wide."

Cai You asked: "How many people are there in the city?"

Guo Yaoshi replied: "No less than 300,000, most of which are Han people, but the strongest ones are the Khitan and Xi tribes."

Liu Yanqing asked: "I heard that King Xi Xiao Gan is also called the King of the Four Army, and he is very good at using troops?"

Guo Yaoshi replied: "Yes, Xiao Gan is indeed very strategic and very cruel. Empress Dowager Xiao relies mainly on him. Now he leads his army to set up defenses on the north bank of the Lugou River. He is the main opponent of our army to go north. There is another person named Yelu Dashi. People call him Dashi Linya. This person is also very good at fighting. He is now defending the Liangshan Army in Juyongguan area, and some people defending the Jin army at Gubeikou and Yuguan. However, for some reason, the Jin army did not mean to go south."

Tong Guan said: "The Jin Kingdom is an ally of our Song Dynasty. The reason why they have been slow to attack Yanjing is because they have an appointment with us first."

Guo Yaoshi was shocked, "It turns out that the Song Dynasty has already united with the Jurchens. No wonder the Jurchens have never gone south!"

Tong Guan told him truthfully: "General Guo, we now have two plans for regaining Yanjing. One is to rely on our own strength to conquer Yanjing, which is the best. The other is, if we cannot take Yanjing, we will invite the Jin army to enter the pass, and the two armies will attack Yanjing from north to south. Therefore, we will take Yanjing this time and make sure to win ten things and be sure."

Liu Yanqing said: "The best plan to invite the Jin army to enter the pass and attack Yanjing from north to south. First, this can greatly reduce the casualties of our army. Second, to be honest, the morale in our army is not too high at present, and we are still a little afraid of the Liao cavalry. After all, we are mainly infantry, so although we have a large population, it is difficult to gain the upper hand whether it is field battles or sieges."

Cai You said angrily: "So what about the infantry? Li Yan did not defeat the Liao Kingdom, Xixia, Mongolian cavalry, and Liu Du's command with the same number of infantry. We have hundreds of thousands of troops, and the Liao army has only tens of thousands, which is more than ten times theirs. If we cannot win, we must be laughed at by the people of the world."

Out of favor with Cai You, Guo Yaoshi followed Cai You and said: "The Liao army was not that powerful. They were defeated by the Jurchens first and then by Li Yan, which was enough to show that they were not a strong army in the world. Moreover, they had few troops and divided their troops to defend. However, our Song Dynasty was the opposite. There were many soldiers and a wide general, and they concentrated on attacking. Therefore, as long as we work together, we are sure to win."

Tong Guan said: "General Guo is right. The whole army will go north tomorrow, meet in Xiongzhou, and then act according to the opportunity."

The next day, Liu Yanqing led the Eastern Army to march northward, and Guo Yaoshi also followed the army northward.

Soon, Guo Yaoshi discovered that the Song army was messy and uneven, the soldiers were listless, and they had a serious lack of fighting spirit. There was also a strange team... Let's call it the army. From top to bottom, it seemed that they were all here to travel around. Not only were there hundreds of sedan chairs and thousands of carriages, but there were actually hundreds of women in the team blatantly raising them!

Guo Yaoshi, who saw the true face of the Song army, regretted his hastyness. If he had known that the Song army was a group of such people, he would rather go far to join Li Yan.

Guo Yaoshi held it over and over again, but in the end he couldn't help but say to Liu Yanqing: "Master General, if we don't strictly enforce military discipline, our team may not be able to fight."

Liu Yanqing smiled bitterly and said, "Those young masters of Yanei who came to gilt. They were not here to defeat them, but to make contributions. Let them go, and they will not be able to avoid these 40,000 to 50,000 troops."

Guo Yaoshi said: "The morale and discipline of other troops are not good either."

Liu Yanqing said: "That's why I advocated attacking Yanjing with the Jin army. We don't have the conditions to fight at all now."

Pharmacist Guo suggested: "Why not enforce military law?"

Liu Yanqing shook his head and said, "How to enforce military law? The so-called law does not blame the masses. Once a military change is caused, the consequences will be even more unimaginable, so it can only be maintained in this way."

Yaoshi Guo really couldn't figure out how Liu Yanqing became the commander?

The first thing to do when being a commander is to reorganize the army. There is no army that can be unified in order, and there is still the face to say that he is the commander?

The fact is true. Liu Yanqing is in charge of more than 500,000 troops. If he carefully selects 100,000 and promotes the commander who dares to fight, he may be famous in history.

Guo Yaoshi was even more disappointed with the Song army and regretted surrendering to Song.

At the same time, the Western Route Army, led by Liu Guangshi, was also advancing towards Zhuozhou.

Liu Guangshi was now in his prime, because he sent troops to successfully occupy Yizhou at night, and Zhao Ji personally promoted him to Chengxuan Envoy of the Powerful Army.

Feng Xuanqing (Yang Keshi's confidant general) who led his troops to Yizhou did not get any contribution.

Yang Keshi was resentful about this.

Tong Guan knew that Liu Guangshi and Yang Keshi had conflicts, so he specifically emphasized in his letter to Liu Guangshi that no matter who it was, he should not harm the public privately.

Yang Keshi and Liu Guangshi each led their troops to set off. According to Tong Guan's order, the two armies would meet in Gushan Town and then head north together.

But when the two armies met in Gushan Town, a fight broke out between the soldiers because of the battle for the camp.

The soldiers blamed each other, and the situation continued to expand. Yang Keshi and Liu Guangshi also scolded each other, which eventually led to the delay of the Western Route Army in Gushan Town for a whole day.

Tong Guan was furious when he heard the news and immediately sent his marching officer Yuwen Xuzhong to Gushan overnight to deal with the matter.

Yuwen Xuzhong learned that the incident was caused by a conflict between soldiers, and it was not a direct conflict between the two generals, so he tried his best to persuade Yuwen Xuzhong not to offend him, and he could not afford to offend him. The only thing he could do was mediation, that is, to persuade both sides.

Later, Yuwen Xuzhong saw that Liu Guangshi and Yang Keshi were really unable to work together, so he had no hope of persuading peace, so he asked Liu Guangshi and Yang Keshi to station in separate camps and ordered them to march towards Zhuozhou.

Soon, the Song army met in Zhuozhou.

Zhen Wuchen organized tens of thousands of military, civilian monks and Taoist priests in Zhuozhou to welcome him out of the city.

People beat drums and drums, were cheerful and cheerful, and welcomed the King's Army.

Liu Yanqing entered the city to pacify the officials and the people, checked the treasury, and ordered Yang Keshi and Zhen Wuchen to change defenses and guard Zhuozhou.

Yang Keshi had only two thousand men and horses not enough to guard Zhuozhou, so he asked Liu Yanqing to increase his troops.

Considering that Yang Keshi is Tong Guan’s confidant and beloved general, Liu Yanqing appointed Yang Weizhong as his deputy and added 20,000 troops to Yang Keshi.

At this time, the total number of troops commanded by Liu Yanqing was no less than 500,000, including Changsheng Army and Zhao Xu and Zhang Guanyu's hometown brave troops.

Every day, from morning to night, outside Zhuozhou City, the sound of drums and turtles shook the sky and the earth. Since ancient times, there has been no such thing as the prosperity of the army.

Former general Zheng Jianxiong led his army to the south bank of Lugou River, and several cold arrows suddenly shot from the north bank.

Zheng Jianxiong immediately sent someone back to Zhuozhou to report to Liu Yanqing, saying that the front army had fought with the enemy along the Lugou River, but it was unknown that the opposite bank was in fact and asked whether to cross the river to fight?

The Lugou River is only thirty miles away from Yanjing, but Liu Yanqing did not order the Song army to cross the river. He was worried that Xiao Gan would set up an ambush on the other side of the river.

Liu Yanqing ordered the front army to stop advancing, build fortifications along the river, and set up defenses on the spot.

Guo Yaoshi suggested that Liu Yanqing lead his army to control Liangxiang in Shuliangxiang, which is an important town, 30 miles south of Lugou, which is a must-pass place for entering and leaving Yanjing from the southwest direction and an important defensive stronghold of the Liao army.

Liu Yanqing adopted it and personally led the generals and 100,000 elite troops to leave Zhuozhou and go north to Liangxiang.

Liangxiang is only sixty miles away from Zhuozhou, and it is a flat horse. But just such a short journey, Liu Yanqing actually led his army for two days and asked to travel thirty miles a day to set up camps, build food, and build ditch fortresses.

In short, Liu Yanqing's ideological principle is to take every step and take steady steps.

After the army arrived in Liangxiang, Liu Yanqing and others discovered that Liangxiang had become an empty city.

Liu Yanqing was puzzled by this and then asked Guo Yaoshi: "General Guo, Xiao Gan abandoned the city and left, what is the purpose? Could it be that he is luring the enemy into the depth?"

Guo Yaoshi replied: "This is not surprising. Xiao Gan's troops were insufficient. He retreated from Liangxiang, probably because he was shrinking his defense line. I guess he might have concentrated his troops along the Lugou River and wanted to use the river to block... In my opinion, our army could completely cross the river directly, fight him in a decisive battle, and then face the city and take down Yanjing in one go."

Liu Yanqing shook his head and said, "Xiao Gan set up a formation in the river, obviously tempting me to cross the river and attempt to attack halfway. I can't be fooled, so it's better to be more stable."

Liu Yanqing led the generals to the Liangxiang city wall.

This city wall is very distinctive, it is completely piled up with soil, two zhang high and three zhang thick.

Liu Yanqing saw a small hill in the northeast outside the city, with a sudden rise of flat ground, and a tall tower on the hill was very eye-catching.

Liu Yanqing asked: "What kind of tower is that?"

Guo Yaoshi replied: "That hill is called Liaoshigang. The tower on the hill is a hollow pagoda, which can also be used to observe military information. Standing on it, you can look north at Yanjing and south at Zhuolu. There are dozens of miles of military information around you, and you can hold it in front of you."

Liu Yanqing pointed to the pagoda and said, "It is a military important place, and military guards should be sent."

Liu Guangshi, who was standing beside him, replied: "There have been arrangements, please rest assured by the commander."

Liu Yanqing then led his generals to the Lugou River to inspect the military situation.

At this time, it was the setting sun, the golden light on the surface of the Lugou River was shining with waves, and a row of weeping willows on the shore were reflected in the river water like an ink painting.

Liu Yanqing pointed at the river with a horse whip and said, "What a great view, it is a great place for fishing."

Liu Guangshi said: "Yes, fishing in Lugou is full of scenery, but I don't know if there are any fish in this river?"

The other generals were silent.

Guo Yaoshi thought to himself: "As the commander-in-chief and deputy commander, he did not plan how to fight with the generals, but he talked about fishing in Lugou here. Besides, the battle is imminent, and it is incredible that the two of them can still have such leisure and elegance in their hearts."

Liu Yanqing asked again: "Is the river deep?"

Zheng Jianxiong replied: "There are deep and shallow, but the depth is not the top, and the shallowness is only at the waist."

Liu Yanqing looked around the generals very seriously and ordered: "The enemy situation is unknown now, so we cannot fight in a hurry. We must dig more trenches, dig more trenches, and strengthen walls and camps, and wait for the opportunity."

In the evening, two scouts ran back and reported to Zheng Jianxiong that there was a large forest on the north bank of the river, which stretched dozens of miles east and west. The main force of the Liao army was hiding in the forest, waiting for it.

Zheng Jianxiong asked: "How many soldiers do they have?"

The scout replied: "I can't see clearly, but there is a large horse farm in the east, which has thousands of war horses. According to the horses, they should not be less than five thousand."

Zheng Jianxiong decided to go to Liangxiang in person and report the situation to Liu Yanqing.

So Zheng Jianxiong took more than a dozen personal soldiers and rode his horse to Liangxiang.

Zheng Jianxiong was originally a literati, but later abandoned his pen and became a general, and then went from northwest to southeast. He followed Liu Yanqing to fight south and north for a long time, and his military achievements were outstanding.

When Zheng Jianxiong walked to the northeast of Liang Township, he suddenly found a large group of cavalrymen who quietly bypassed Liaoshegang and headed straight to Liang Township.

Zheng Jianxiong judged that this must be the Liao army that came to attack.

Zheng Jianxiong guessed it correctly. This was a Liao cavalry led by Xiao Gan himself. They tried to go to the south of Liangxiang to sneak attack the Song army's granary.
To be continued...